WIP Wednesday

I had all this stuff for hand-quilting laying around.

It needed a little home of its own. This tutorial looked not-too-intimidating, except the interfacing. Let the truth be known: until last Saturday, I was a fusible web virgin! I know, I know! In this day and age! So it was off to the dreaded neighborhood fabric store.

My conversation there went something like this:

"Do you have fusible interfacing?"
"Um, I think we probably should." [Shows me two things that I really hope are interfacing since I've never used it before.]
"Is it iron-on?"
"Oh yeah definitely probably iron-on. I think it definitely should be." [Asks co-worker, who also doesn't know.]

Needless to say, my confidence was at minimum, but at 99¢ per yard, I took a chance and happily it worked out pretty well. It was kind of cool to iron it on and watch the magic happen. (I'll admit to looking around for more fusing projects...many more boxes may be appearing around our house. That tutorial was fun and built up my confidence!)

The interfacing wasn't too stiff, so my box doesn't have the crisp shape of The Sometimes Crafter's, but I really like it all the same. And it's so girl-y in pink and purple :o)

Happy little notions!

The fabrics are Leaning Trees from Woodland Wonderland (Jay McCarroll for Freespirit Fabrics) and Illuminate from 1001 Peeps (by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics). Just in case you were wondering :o)



So that's it for finishes. The day I finish an actual quilt, look out your window because there will be a parade.

Progress!
After getting all my HSTs done for Mumu, I came across this post by "pure happenstance," aka my obsession with Flickr (for the record, I think this quilt is gorgeous and I actually like the unique shape). Which led to a little research on AMH voiles and their 3/4" shrinkage in the wash. Gulp. I basically never pre-wash fabrics because a) it's expensive (coin-operated machine in my apartment building); b) I'm lazy; and c) I'm really just lazy, there's no good reason.

Now, I do love crinkly, but since I'm mixing the voile with regular cotton, I thought it best to take precautions. So I threw the whole kit n' caboodle in the wash and crossed my fingers.

Looks kind of like a muppet mouth...Mumu Monster?

Luckily the voile didn't fray much, but it did shrink by about 1/2". I'm squaring up the HSTs to 7", which will make 25" criss-crosses. Still plenty large. Whew.

(Sidebar: I store my WIPs in baskets. This one was my latest thrift store find. So pretty!)

Meanwhile, Paisley Sunrise is ambling along. I have the hand-quilting in the center panel totally done, wahoo! Just two more to go. And the borders. And the binding. So, it's not even close, basically. 

Still Marinating
Brother Quilt
Spring Sampler

Check out some more projects-in-process at Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced!