From A - Tacking, Nautically Speaking

After spending last weekend visiting family, playing with horses, and snuggling tiny little barn cats it was time to get back to work and back to life this week.

A few months ago I was pinning quilts made of half-square triangles (HSTs) almost exclusively.

I thought I worked this obsession with HSTs out I my system when I finished my Swoon quilt top. Turns out that although I made about a million quite a few of these little suckers during that project it only took the right stack of fabric and the ever looming pressure of finding another baby gift project to push me over the edge once again.

I've been eyeing up Cluck Cluck Sew's Ziggy Baby Quilt pattern since I really started getting back into quilting. I bought the pattern the first chance I got but it has taken me months to find just the right combination of fabrics before the ball got rolling.

I started with this bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics and swapped a few of the fabrics to add some nautical prints by Dear Stella and a few scraps from the stash.

I keep reading people's rave reviews of Aurifil thread around the blogosphere and decided to see what all of the fuss was about. I found a sampler box of the Cotton Mako 50wt at a trade show and figured the colours would be good for top stitching and quilting.

I matched the a spool of thread to each zig zag section and used my walking foot as a guide to quilt around the edge of each stripe.

I liked the Aurifil thread. It wasn't life changing but it was certainly smooth and shiny and made a nice finish of the quilting. At 1300 metres a spool, I have more than enough to play around with.

I used a simple sail boat print for the backing and since the quilt was narrower than the fabric, I didn't bother piecing a back together.

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I'm really happy with how this quilt turned out. With the nautical flavour of these fabrics, I decided to name the quilt "Tacking" which is the sailing version of charting a zig zag course to sail against the wind. I thought it was appropriate given the difficult journey the intended recipient has had in trying to get pregnant.

The label was made using the instructions I found here and I like the effect. It is visually interesting without being a focal point on the back of the quilt.

I was lucky to find the striped fabric I used for the binding as it has almost all of the colours found in the quilt top and really ties everything together.

It feels great to get another project finished and another baby gift off the queue. Only 3 more projects to go until I there is a bit of a break in the baby arrival department. Now I only have to decide what to work on next!

From A - Back in the Saddle

Or at least back at the sewing machine. We made it home from our trip yesterday and I spent most of the time I should have been sleeping (I hate jetlag) sewing.

I managed to finish making all of my blocks for the Zig Zag Baby quilt, press them, and trim them to size.

Although I probably should have attempted sleeping at this juncture, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to stay up and piece a couple of rows together to make the first zig zag section.

I think this quilt will fly along now that I've got the blocks made and finally have some time at home with my machine. My vacation was amazing but it feels great to be back!

From A - Making lists

Since finishing the baby quilt and getting my Swoon quilt basted, I have found myself a little direction-less on the crafting side of things.

In the last week I've picked up and put down old projects, started new projects and have dreamed up about a hundred more. Despite this meandering, I can't seem to buckle down and make any meaningful progress.

Inspired by Kelsey's crafty To Do list, I decided to put together one of my own. In addition to the hand quilted baby quilt mentioned here, I'm hoping my summer will look a little like this:

1) Get some knitting done. I really like to knit. I went through a few years where I knit almost exclusively. I haven't really touched the needles since finishing a baby gift for a friend back in February. Last April, I bought a shawl kit and decided that it was just the right thing to spur me on.

2) Make a Wiksten Tank or Two. I ordered both the Wiksten Tank and Tova patterns from Jenny back in early February. Both patterns have been sitting untouched in my sewing room ever since. I recently bought some gorgeous Martha Negley feather fabric and some Liberty Tana Lawn thinking I would use the feathers to make a wearable muslin and use the tana lawn to get over my fear of cutting into a prized piece of Liberty goodness.(Finished #1 and #2)

3) Make a Baby Quilt. With most of my friends having their first child this year, it really has been another month, another baby. In an attempt to keep up, I'm hoping to slap together a simple and sweet quilt for a baby boy to be. Like most things that are sitting stash-side, I bought the pattern some time ago and have been trying to find the right mix of fabrics to make it with. I found a fat quarter bundle that I loved over at Pink Castle Fabrics. I thought the colours screamed little boy. I can honestly say that I would have never thought to pair these colours together. Another reason to love bundles. I think it will be perfect. After I receiving the bundle, I added some fabrics and swapped out almost all of the oranges provided in favour of something a little more vivid. (Finished!)

4) Work on some quilting. I've always had a few follow through issues with crafts. With knitting, it is the finishing stage, blocking things and weaving in all the ends. When it comes to making quilts, I seem to always get tripped up, sometimes for months, when it's quilting time. I have two large quilts basted at this point. The first is my Swoon quilt and the second is a cute little number I basted just before starting this blog. I'm really hoping to get some of the quilting done on these so I can get the binding on them and start enjoying them.

5) Next up is a receiving blanket using this tutorial from Anna Maria Horner's blog. I bought enough flannel and voile to make about 6 of these sometime last winter in a period of baby gift desperation. Here's hoping I get at least one of them finished up this summer. (Finished!)

So how am I doing with the list? So far so good. I started working on some knitting and the zig zag baby quilt fabrics are in the wash.

Stay tuned.