quilt update

Oooof... Feels like a long time since I updated! Partly because it's been awhile since I worked on my quilt, but I'm here with a but of a progress report:

I cut and prepped the center square and finished two more triangles. Seeing this photos helped me decided to be sure and include some pinks, yellows, and orange in the final triangle. I like the fun randomness, but can see a lot of blue and green in the top and right triangle. Hoping to bring a bit of balance with the last one.

Early last week I finished hand stitching the center block. It was so fun and really quite manageable. This gives me hope for the next set of hand stitching - all the squares that make up an inner border. I purchased some grey fat quarters in different shapes and patterns to use for the background. It's also been lovely to have a sewing buddy who has a fantastic stash of scraps to choose from! My supplies are currently housed at Juliann's house since she has a dedicated sewing space. My home is a music studio during the week with students/families coming and going so this allows me to have a bit of freedom in my sewing schedule without having to pack up each evening.

Speaking of quilts, I started quilting my tree quilt! It was a Christmas gift last year so my goal is to have it up on the wall by this December! I hemmed an hawed over the many possibilities for quilting and finally decided to go with hand quilting some wonky stars. I'm doing them in the grey background between branches and they are each a little different.

I'm using grey thread on top and white on the bottom so that the stitches are pretty subtle. I like how the stars pop up without distracting from the fun color blocked tree.

I used chalk to draw the stars free-hand and then mostly followed the shapes on the machine, though in some places I went outside the lines. It's been a fun process and is faster than I'd expected! 

So there are my quilt updates. I'm glad to have a few sewing projects to work on and while it's fun to have a goal, I like that the Jen Kingswell quilt is going to be a longer process. Sewing is a hard hobby for me to fit in weekly, probably due to the lack of space. It is great to have some hand stitching to keep by the couch for evenings. I will admit though, it's about time for a new glasses prescription so my hand stitching has to happen in the morning when the light is good :)