The Best Laid Plans

My intention was to have photos of a finished quilt for you today.  I have had this past week off work and it has been wonderful.  I have been sleeping in and doing lots of sewing.  It has really been glorious.

Back to this quilt.  I put together this lovely stack of fabrics.  It is mostly Michelle Engel Benscko's Shade Garden with a few other patterns mixed in.

I opted for a baby sized quilt using a zig zag pattern and some loopy quilting.  The quilting was going quick, but about the quarter of the way through my thread ran out.  I discovered the end of thread was knotted around the spool (why???) and that ultimately lead to a broken needle.  Unfortunately, before I could realize what happened the blunt end of the needle had done its damage- there was a small hole in the top of my quilt.  :(

So now, as I'm off to go spend several hours with my seam ripper, I'll leave you with this.

On a more exciting note, check back soon as my next post is my 100th and that calls for a celebratory giveaway!  :)

Lesson Learned: Sexy Hexy Insanity

I was recently commissioned to make a quilt for my niece's bed.  I was given free reign in fabric and pattern with the only constraint that the colors were to be the colors of a peacock.  Purple, green, teals, etc.  I immediately thought Amy Buter's Love in the soul palate fit the bill. 

Well, here is my first and final hexagon.

It looks cute, but boy was it a pain to put together!  There's pattern pieces, lots of cutting, freezer paper, GLUE STICK, sewing a hexagon ring, and then finally psuedo-appliqueing the center hexagon on.  It ends up being quite a large hexagon- about 25" across (29" at the points).  If you really wanted to tough it out, at least you wouldn't have to make too many of them.  However, I think I will be abandoning this pattern.  This will probably end up as a pillow.  Back to the drawing board for the quilt pattern though!

On a positive note, I did get to learn how to use my edge stitching foot that came with my sewing machine.  It's pretty nice!