Here’s where my recently left behind Denyse Schmidt project comes in. It’s my second project from her Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, called Hop, Skip, and Jump. I fell in love with the simplicity of the pattern, but the complex way the somewhat curved pieces fit together. I chose to make the quilt in brown patterns and muslin. The fabrics were a blast to choose, and I spent well over an hour at the fabric store.

I’m only about 1/2 way machine quilting it. I chose to outline each brown patch. I didn’t think it would be so difficult to quilt, but it’s become very frustrating. I just don’t have enough experience. That was part of my reasoning for starting the disappearing nine-patch quilt. The pattern was fun, the quilt was much smaller, and I could get some practice machine quilting. Now that the diversion-quilt is finished, I suppose I should try tackling the brown quilt.

But I started this quilt over winter break, about the beginning of January. I chose these warm brown tones. Now that it’s almost March and I’m ready for spring, I’m not so into these browns. I guess I’m just having a hard time picking up where I left off.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed the process. I’ve learned so much with this smaller scale project. Instead of making my own binding, I used two packages of double-folded quilt binding and sewed it on with machine. (I know, it’s a total time-saver, maybe I’ll hand sew bindings someday…) I like the color choice, a deep raspberry-burgundy, but the binding is very, very wide. It’s about 7/8″ wide, which I hadn’t put much thought into while I was purchasing it. I’ve spent a lot of time looking through flickr and other crafty blogs, and seen many doll quilts with a very thin binding. It looks nice and understated. That’s the plan for my next quilt. Maybe 1/4″ or less, we’ll see.

I think it’s easier to see the quilting when taking a look at the back.

I used a forest green solid, and made a colorful strip with the scraps from the back. I tried very diligently to make the strip perfectly straight! Better luck next time, I suppose. For the machine quilting, I taped the quilt into four sections, and made concentric rectangles all the way to the edge using masking tape. I’m happy with the way it turned out. It’s a little bit funky, but still understated.

I haven’t completely decided what to do with this quilt, maybe I will actually keep this one! I also haven’t decided on my next quilting project. I saw some fun Robert Kaufman fabric at the store recently, and I think it would look nice for an Out of the Box quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop. But I’ve also wanted to tackle a wonky log cabin. Decisions, decisions!

Sometimes I will go to the store with a challange. For example, a few weeks ago I only allowed myself to purchase bold, vibrant colors. Absolutely no pastels. Absolutely no pink. Needless to say, it was difficult. But the results were positive: I came home with an interesting brown fabric with bright green, yellow and orange dots and swirls. Very mod.

So today, I’m trying to coordinate with that fabric and challenge myself into putting together pleasing color combinations. I’ve been wanted to try a wonky log cabin, so I might put together a few blocks today in those bold, vibrant colors. I love a good challenge!

 I always somewhat dread this step. Since my apartment is tiny, I need to rearrange some furniture so there’s enough room to lay my quilt flat. And I just can’t seem to get the layers to lay nice and flat so I can pin them together. I guess I need more practice.

Enter my new favorite notion: masking tape! I was reading one of my new quilting books, Quilt as Desired, and the author has tons and tons of suggestions for basting the layers together. I took a trip to the hardware store, stocked up on masking tape, and in doing so, found my new favorite notion.

I taped the backing to the floor, then the batting on top of that, then the quilt top. I was amazed at how tight and flat the quilt stayed while I pinned. Wonderful!

The fabrics were purchased from hancock fabrics, and they came together as a bundle of fat quarters. I had enough fabric to make 20 nine-patch blocks. After they were all finished, I started slicing and dicing! I think the quilt has come together nicely. I’m using a forest green fabric for the backing, with a strip of the patterned fabrics I used on the front. The quilt top turned out quite small, only about 36″ by 44″. All that slicing and resewing really shrunk the blocks!

Yesterday, I picked up a package from Amazon at the post office. It was two books on machine quilting: Quilt as Desired, and Machine Quilting Made Easy. I was so excited (after waiting through Sunday and President’s Day with no mail..) that I sat in the parking lot for a good 15 minutes looking through those new books!

I recently finished my Disappearing Nine-Patch quilt top, so these books came just in time! I’m hoping for some quilting time this weekend.