2016 Finish Along -- Quarter 1

So I kept going. #wonkystars

A photo posted by Cassandra McKee (@pilarandolivia) on Jan 9, 2016 at 5:22pm PST

My sister surprised me with a Go! Fabric Cutter by Accuquilt for Christmas. This thing is incredible! My boys love to crank it and together we have cut hundreds of squares. The Go! came with a die for two different sized squares and one half-square triangle, but I ordered the 3.5" square die with my Christmas sparkle punch quilt in mind. Truthfully, it's a little inefficient (I cut my strips an extra 1/4" to make sure I fully cover the die), but I can see how it will save me a lot of time -- especially cutting scraps. Plus, it's so fun.

I started sewing the wonky stars for the Christmas quilt last week, but that quilt was put on hold today while I started a new project: a wonky star mini for Jean (shown above). A colleague of mine loves the color teal, which happens to be one of my favorite colors, too. She's planning a job change, so I'm going to surprise her with a little wall hanging. It's looking great so far, and I'm excited to gift it to her. Oh, I love the lazy days of winter. It was so good to spend the day sewing.

Once again I'm participating in the Finish Along to help keep me on track with my goal to finish all of my projects.

Here's my list of finishes for the First Quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. I am keeping it real and not including the stacks of fabric I have for imaginary projects.

1. Wonky star mini for Jean. This mini is inspired by our mutual love of the color teal. I'm loving how it is coming along. I pulled fabric from my AMH stash, hit my pile of 3.5" scrap squares, and added a few 5" charms. I cut into some yardage, but not a lot. It will be so nice to have a finish this week! Yes, this week. I can do it.

2. Baby boy quilt for Jen. No idea what it'll look like, but I love the fabric pull so that's a good start.

3. Christmas sparkle punch quilt (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman/Oh Fransson!). Most of the squares are cut! Realistically, this won't get done until the second quarter at the earliest. I'm thinking I'll take it to the Mid-Atlantic Mod retreat in April.

May not look like much, but that's over 600 squares!

4. scrap vortex quilt, (following the tutorial by Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts). I've got hundreds of quads sewn. That's something, right? As with the Christmas quilt, this one is unlikely to be finished this month. But never say never...

Linking up with Debbie at A Quilter's Table for the 2016 Finish Along!

2015 Wrap Up -- Determination

WHEW! Happy New Year, friends! What a difference a year makes. Last January I was reeling from my breast cancer diagnosis ("Cruella") in December, learned that I carry the BRCA2 mutation, and was preparing for the first of four (!) surgeries. That time feels both far away and not so long ago.

I've been writing and re-writing my thoughts about 2015, and I haven't quite found the words to express what I'm feeling. I thought I'd be rushing to the new year, but as happy as I am to be closing the cancer chapter of my life, my feelings about the year are overall pretty positive. Seems strange, but it's true. I'm grateful to have learned so much about myself, and to have experienced the support and friendship of so many. SO many. I feel grateful and lucky.

Last year I chose "determination" as my word and I was certainly determined. I planned to make six quilts and finished 14. All while working a full-time job, parenting two small kids, and undergoing cancer treatment. (I made 12 in 2014 and didn't expect to beat that, but turns out sewing is excellent therapy.)

I planned to recap my 2015 goals and sewing to do list, but that seems boring so instead I'll tell you about some of my favorite finishes.

1. Greatest Hits: an improv scrap quilt of Anna Maria Horner prints, with a few Tula Pink prints thrown in. I struggled with this quilt -- couldn't figure out how to make it work. Usually I would force it to get to the finish, but this time I let it sit until I could see how it was meant to be. Finished in December 2015 and gifted to Caroline. One of three projects for the Q4 Finish Along.

2. Husband of the Year: a quilt for the Husband. My best work to date. Blogged. Also one of my goals for Q4 of the Finish Along.

3. Plus Quilt 4: a baby quilt for Maude. I loved the ease of pulling fabrics in the same color. This was no-pressure sewing at its best! See also my Cotton + Steel plus quilt and a quilt for T.

4. Unicorn Quilt for Jane: This was my first finish of the year, and it's one of my favorites. I'm so proud of how it came together. Blogged.

How about you? What was your word for 2015? Did it ring true? Here's to your health and happiness in a new year!


Linking up with the 2015 Finish Along hosted by Adrienne at On the Windy Side.

Finished: a quilt for the Husband of the Year!

Oh, yeah: I finished this back in October. My first finish in Q4 of the 2015 Finish Along!

No big news here, this was a rough year. Through it all I had a true champion and partner at my side.

He's the love of my life. He makes me laugh and sing. He makes coffee in the morning, and dinner at night. He loves our boys and is the center of their world. He encourages me in all things. He takes "in sickness and in health" seriously.

This quilt is my interpretation of the Framed Coins pattern in the book Skip the Borders by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. I love how it turned out. In fact, I think this is the best quilt I've ever made, so it's fitting that it now belongs to the person representing the best decision of my life. 

It came to life at the summer retreat I attended with my guild, DC Modern Quilt Guild. The Doe fabric line by Carolyn Friedlander confounded me for some time, but once I paired it with a few solids I saw its potential. I edited out a few prints, including the orange print which I added back at the last minute. It really pops against the marine solid, doesn't it? 

I managed to cut the entire quilt and piece all of the sections during the retreat. When I returned home I finished the top and matched it with Tula Pink's Free Fall in gray. I LOVE this line of wide quilt backs; it is a super soft sateen. 



It felt risky at the time, but I started on very dense quilting and am so glad I did. The texture is incredible. That said, the dense quilting is no joke: hours and hours and hours. It took a lot of perseverance to finish this baby.

Here's to the Husband of the Year!

Quilt! Landscaping! 

Q4 Finish Along

It's the last quarter of 2015! Hallelujah. I cannot wait to kick this year to the curb.

Last year I finished 12 quilts and I'm on track to at least match that this year.

Here's my Finish Along list for Q4:

1. AMH Greatest Hits: I am finally going to get this done! After lots of heartburn I finished a top and just need to get it quilted and bound. Woot!

2. Husband of the Year (Doe): this one is quilted and ready to be bound!

3. Wanderer Placemats: first and possibly only holiday gift I'll make this year.

That's it. I got so much done in Q3 that I have only these projects in the works right now. In fact, not only did I get three finishes from my official list done, I managed to whip up two additional baby quilts. Go me!

I do have quite a few fabric piles by my machine, but I haven't landed on a design for any of them yet.

A. Lizzy House Natural History -- to be a quilt for M! He wants to add in robots. I can't decide if I'll stick to the blues and greens or use all of the colors in this line. Hmm...

B. Christmas quilt! I've got some of Tinsel by Cotton + Steel, as well as a few Anna Maria Horner prints that are destined to be a holiday quilt.

C. The Anna Maria Horner king quilt. I'll probably end up going with big squares for this one. I've been hoarding prints from a variety of her lines to make a giant quilt for our bed.

I'm looking for patterns appropriate for large-scale designs/big blocks.  Any ideas?

Linking up to the 2015 Finish Along hosted by On the Windy Side.

Sewing and other things

It's been a while! Time for an update. I've managed to sew a fair amount over the past month, but I've not taken any good photos. Do bad photos hold you back? I have serious angst about my poor photography, but I'm too lazy to do anything about it. I know, right now I can cut myself some slack (hello, chemotherapy, people!), but eventually I have got to do something about the bad photos. But I digress.

BABIES are coming!

Storytime Squares Baby Quilt

I've sewn three quilt tops for babies in less than a month. I finally finished quilting the first one (above), and I am really proud of it. I densely quilted straight-ish (cough, cough) lines and while it took FOREVER, it gave the quilt such an amazing texture. And it got even better after I washed it. I paired some adorable animal prints by Creative Thursday (Za Za Zoo line) with some Anna Maria Horner florals (a few from Pretty Potent and one Honor Roll print). I love them together! The recipient has done some work in Africa and I noticed both elephants and giraffes on her registry, so I think this will be a hit.

This was my first time sewing the Storytime Squares quilt by Made by Rae and I liked it well enough to make it again. It was more time consuming than my standbys, but when I'm not in a rush to meet a deadline that's okay. Would I do the dense quilting again? As much as I love the result, the time commitment is really daunting. So probably not any time soon.

Aren't these zebras adorable?

Do you have go-to baby quilt patterns? I love the charms baby quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman who blogs at Oh, Fransson! Her blog is currently under construction but you can see other quilts using the pattern here. I have made close to a dozen baby quilts using this pattern. It's quick, easy, and looks great. For the next baby quilt I pulled out the Za Za Zoo prints in blues and yellows and added in my favorite Michael Miller dot and a Lizzy House pearl bracelet. This quilt is for my cousin who is expecting her first baby, a boy.

Eek, this top needs a pressing!

I used some of the leftovers to make two bibs and backed them with flannel from my first son's receiving blankets. (A friend recently told me the bibs I made are "the best bibs" they have. I'm not sure what makes them great, but if you're looking for a simple pattern try this one by Rachel Measham-Pywell for Sew Mama Sew.)

Wouldn't this zebra print make some awesome baby pants?

Did I mention that I won the Creative Thursday fabric I used for those two quilts? A little over a year ago Marisa hosted a giveaway on her blog and my number came up on the random generator! Hooray! In addition to this adorable fat quarter bundle, she sent me an original painting, two books and a few other cute things. What an awesome prize. It took me a long time to figure out how to use the fabric, but once I divided the prints by color I was able to formulate a plan.

The third baby quilt is a simple strip quilt for a friend who loves yellow and doesn't know the gender of her baby. I don't have a lot of yellow, so I bought a Cotton + Steel basic to pair with the cute moon bunnies print in the Mochi line by Rashida Coleman Hale. I added in some white and another Cotton + Steel print. It's not a "wow" quilt, but I think she'll like the simplicity -- and the yellow. Plus, I put together a Divided Basket by Anna @Noodlehead with more yellow and more bunnies and some Essex linen in denim. I love the result! Have you sewn this pattern yet? Because it is one of the best patterns out there. Don't take my word for it; give it a try!

Bunny Divided Basket (you can see the strip quilt in the background)

All of the baby gifts are due in April, so I've really got to get quilting. The finished Storytime Squares quilt will be gifted tomorrow at a surprise baby shower for my coworker. I won't be there (chemo #3 -- see this post) but I'm really excited to hear how it is received. Making a quilt for a coworker I don't know well feels a little presumptuous and perhaps too generous? But I love making baby quilts and I know she'll appreciate the gesture.

And I'm just realizing that I am missing all three of the showers because chemo. Oh well. There will be many other opportunities to celebrate these babies!

And that's it. That's the sum total of my sewing lately. This first quarter of 2015 I completed just two out of five projects on my Finish-A-Long list. I missed the deadline to link them up, but I'll go ahead and claim them here anyway!

Q1 Finishes:

1. Scrappy, wonky star pillow

2. The Unicorn Quilt

Q1 Unfinishes: 

1. Anna Maria Horner Greatest Hits scrappy coin quilt.

2. Priory Square Quilt for someone dear.

3. Echino bird mini quilt. 

I got a little off track at the beginning of the quarter and started a Cotton + Steel plus quilt, but I'm glad I followed my inspiration because it is a project I really love. And while I really should have anticipated the baby quilts (I'd have had a third finish!), I've now gotten a jump on two entries for Quarter Two. Go me!

Q2 Finish-A-Long List:

1. ZaZa Zoo charm square baby quilt for baby boy.

2. Cotton + Steel strip quilt for a friend's baby.
3. Anna Maria Horner greatest hits scrappy coin quilt -- I need to square it up and add the top and bottom borders, and then quilt this baby.
4. Cotton + Steel plus quilt -- Finishing this is a stretch, as I've got only one quarter done, and most likely I'll only get another quarter done by the end of June.
5. Priory Square quilt -- the fabric is collecting dust while I waffle over what design to use. So this is a BIG stretch.
6. Echino bird mini quilt. I made some progress in Q1 and just need to decide on how to finish it. So maybe?

Slow Down, a Finish, and the Bleach Out Story

Well, friends, I have to slow back down. Doctor's orders. All of my maniacal cleaning, sewing and LIVING is keeping my second and final drain in overdrive. And we want it OUT.

So since I am not doing much of anything this weekend except perhaps a movie/tv marathon, here's a look at a January finish (on my Finish A-Long list, hooray!) and the dreaded Bleach Out Story.

First, the finished pillow sham:

Isn't it cute? (Forgive the cell phone photography; remember, I'm not supposed to be doing all the things!) It took some convincing by the Husband that this block was worth saving, but as soon as I put my favorite Loulouthi print on the back it was love. And, I learned a new skill while making this. I succeeded at my first French seams. This sham is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside. You'' have to trust me on that. Also, this pillow measures 18 inches which I have decided is the magic size for pillows. Goodbye, 16 inch pillow forms.

I made this block shortly after the Bleach Out episode. It all started with three wonky star blocks with fussy-cut raccoons from Tula Pink's Acacia line. The three blocks quickly turned into a bigger effort -- a Pure Joy project. A quilt I worked on for months, here and there, mixing my favorite fabrics and adding borders, making it up as I went along, just for fun. I had a charm pack of Pretty Potent by Anna Maria Horner and one of Acacia by Tula Pink. I loved them together. Oh, the color! Looking at it on my wall inspired me to finish up my other projects. This is the only photo I have of it showing all nine star blocks in their full color glory:

And then one day the quilt was finished. Here is a look at some of the quilting in process:

 The backing was a clearance super find at JoAnn's: a navy floral with mint and gold and orange and yellow and purple! I bound it off with bright pink. And I threw it in the wash. 

You know what happens next, right? I couldn't find my trusty terry cloth color catcher so I threw in the Rit color REMOVER without reading the package. And when the wash was done, I had this:

All of the color gone. The ivory turned mint. The pink turned taupe. A nice color scheme for a baby quilt, but this was MY quilt. Besides, the color splotches in a few places made in unsuitable for a gift.

There is a happy ending. Pilar, my number one girly, loves this quilt. It is now her special quilt, and she curls up on it while I work. Aww. Photo of that forthcoming.

And now, back to the boob tube. (Get it? Ha!)

First Finish of 2015, Secret Blogs

My first finish of the year! I am SO in love with this quilt. I picked up a few prints from the new run of Far, Far Away by Heather Ross and jumped in. As I got started, I added a few Anna Maria Horner prints. I made blocks a bit at random, and the layout confounded me for weeks. But with help from the Artist, we got it just right.

The back is another Heather Ross print (Nanny Bees) with some Kona. I really don't love the Kona color (is it bubblegum?), but I made do with what I had. This is for a purple loving gal who just turned 6 so I'm not too worried. 

When I started this blog I intended to chronicle my sewing adventures. I called it Exactly Approximate to embrace the imperfect. To give myself space to accept that where I am in my sewing journey--aka not an expert--is okay. Things don't have to be perfect to be pretty. I wanted to create space for myself to learn and enjoy the process, including the mistakes, the puckers, the thread tension issues! (I hadn't imagined that I'd also end up chronicling a cancer diagnosis and treatment. But I wanted to record it somewhere, so here it is.)

Of course, this is a relatively Secret Blog. I'm slowing working up the confidence in my writing.

Another thing that has held me back is my lack of photography skills. You can't really have a sewing blog if you don't post photos, and my photography skills are so poor I've been reluctant to take many pictures of my work. I should embrace my photos as "exactly approximate," right?

Lucky me, the Artist was more than enthusiastic about taking some good photos today. He set up his tripod, tacked up the quilt to our garage (see the binder clips holding it?), and took photos until we had something we liked. 

In about an hour this beauty will be out of the wash and I'll run it down the block to the birthday girl. 

Works in Progress

My mantra at work is "Just get it done." It has helped me push through projects, bad work environments, yucky politics, you name it. It carries over into my personal life, too. (Case in point, these days I am all about making the doctor appointments, scheduling surgery, lining up the village, taking care of business!)

I like the finish. I try to enjoy the process of things, but I really like reaching the end. The sense of accomplishment, bringing things to completion. That's definitely true of my sewing. I don't tend to ditch projects partway through. On the downside, I sometimes rush. I'm a little too comfortable with approximate. Still, every finish is better than the last.

Anyway, sometimes it is nice to start a new project, and sometimes I do need a break from one until the mood or creativity strikes again. So while I ultimately aim to finish everything, it can be nice to work on a few things at once. I currently have five works in progress (WIPs) waiting to be finished. I entered my first ever Finish Along, which is maybe a little optimistic given that I'm about to have major surgery. But whatever. I'm determined to make time for sewing, and I have got to finish this unicorn quilt SOON!

Left Column:

1. Priory Square fabric. This is a big stretch, but I plan to make a quilt for someone very dear and generous. All I have done is pull the fabric. Which is all from the one collection. Lazy? Practical? Pretty.

2. A scrappy, wonky star I made and let sit because I wasn't wowed by the colors. The Artist (aka Husband) claims to like it. So I'm just going to Get it Done and turn it into a pillow.

3. A fussy cut bird from Echino. This is my latest distraction, just for fun, when I can't be working on something else. I'm going to make myself a mini quilt to hang on the wall. It's a 6.5 inch square, perfect for trying a new quilt block... So far all I've decided is that this bird looks great with the Anna Maria Horner true colors print Haystack Bouquet in "country" (red) or "moss" (blue).

Right Column:

1. Greatest Hits. This is the start of a scrappy quilt full of beloved Anna Maria Horner scraps (and 1-2 Tula Pink favorites). I did have to cut into some fabric to add a few strips, but the vast majority were leftovers sitting in my box of strip scraps! 

2. The Unicorn Quilt. The top and back are done, I just need to make the time and space to baste and quilt this baby. I am so excited about this one, and can't wait to show some photos of it in its full glory! This little photo doesn't do it justice. It is gorgeous. I will be sad to give it away, but it is for one of my favorite littles who is turning 6 in less than 2 weeks. Yikes, that is soon.