Quilts quilts quilts

About a month ago, I decided to start working on a patchwork quilt for my bed.  I was really nervous going into it, thinking it would be impossible to do on my little machine, but I just kept going.  It’s only my second quilt ever, and it’s far from perfect, but I can totally see how much I’ve improved upon the first little quilt I made.  My machine is still kind of…touch & go.  But the whole process is chugging along much faster than I thought it would — that first picture was taken on July 7th, and the last one on July 27th.  I spent Friday night making my quilt sandwich, and as of this afternoon I’ve completed 18 quilting lines (out of 108).  My goal is to finish the quilting by Labor Day, so I can work on the binding while my husband is out of town for a tech conference.

I’m so inspired to make more quilts, to fill my whole house with them — and maybe my mom’s house, too!  I’ve ordered some paper hexagons to start working on an English paper pieced hexie quilt.  It’s going to take years, I think — for a queen-size quilt, I need to make over 6,300 hexagons!  All hand-stitched.  Trying to recreate the quilt I grew up with, I guess. 😉  I’ve also been dreaming up a winter quilt for our bed — heavily inspired by this one from Alicia Paulson — scrappy log cabins, cream-colored sashing, filled with wool batting, backed with cozy plaid or gingham flannel, and hand-tied.  Cozy cozy.

Our new library opened about ten days ago.  It’s beautiful, and I love sitting in the stacks and looking through all of the quilting books.  They’re all really old and not so much my style, but I’m learning a lot about piecing and just how much you can do with squares and triangles.  So eager to try flying geese and sawtooth stars!