Krista who?

Did you forget about me? I don't blame you! I got married and fell off the face of the planet. It happens. I've been busy with work and quilting and wifing and whatnot. I thought I'd pop in and share what quilty things I've been up to since the last time I shared. There's quite a bit, actually. But first, here's the obligatory wedding photo.

after the ceremony

After the honeymoon, I managed to clean up and organize my sewing room. It's now the most usable space it's ever been! There's still a lot that could be done, so I don't want to show it off just yet. But let's just say Jon spends a lot of time in here with me now that there's room for him, which is why I've been so productive lately!

I finished our wedding quilt a few weeks ago. Well, the top, anyways. I'm not sure how to go about basting this 90"x105" beast, let alone quilting it. It's a St. Louis 16 patch in Charleston Farmhouse by Felicity Miller. I threw in a few coordinating prints from my stash to make it stretch a bit further and add some dimension. Jon really loves this quilt, which makes me super happy.

16 patch wedding quilt

I also made ~30 more scrappy trip along blocks, giving me a total of 64 for a 96" square quilt. This is comprised of 2 parts Chicopee fabric by Denyse Schmidt and 2 parts coordinating prints from my stash. I spent a minute and a half deciding on the layout, about as much time as it took to scatter them all haphazardly on the floor. Good enough for me!

chicopee scrappy trip along

I've made some more progress on this hand piecing project. This might be the first time it's appeared on the blog! I don't have a real plan for it but so far there are 25 batik four patches put on point in Kona coal. It's a bit silly to do 90 degree angles using the English paper piecing method, but it's just what happened one day when I needed something to do in the car.

spread out on grandma's plush carpet

My flowerburst hexies have come out of hiding. Kris coined the name a year and a half ago when I first started working on them. I'm not exactly sure how many I have now, and they don't resurface that often, but purple and teal one pictured was my project over the past weekend when we were out of town visiting my grandmother.

hand piecing in the car

Last up is the voile strip quilt I finished yesterday after work. It's a variation on the 1600 jellyroll quilt (aka jellyroll race!). I used 70 4"x50" strips, which yielded a generous king size quilt top. I was calling it my 3500 quilt since it started as a 3500" long strip rather than the 1600" of a standard jellyroll. The colors and values aren't dispersed perfectly, but that's part of the excitement of starting with one long strip and having no idea where you'll end up. It was so fast and easy and brainless!

voile 3500 quilt

Surely that's enough to make up for a two month absence! I think I owe someone a pile of Liberty HSTs from the Give Me Liberty sew-along. I'll go with Cathi, of Gertrude Made, who whipped up a lovely pair of patchwork pillows using her treasured Liberty stash. Thanks to everyone who played along with us, that was a great last minute escape from all those pre-wedding jitters! 

Until next time...

lozenges + ear infections = random

I finished up that lozenge pillow cover last week and shipped it off just in time for my sister in Phoenix to get it for her birthday. I didn't have time to take decent photos so apologies in advance...

I used Lynne's lozenge EPP templates (found here) and omitted the squares. Instead I made a background panel from two layers of Moda quilting muslin with some batting in between, quilted with not-so-straight lines using a walking foot. (I did the same for the two back panels). I then hand appliquéd the patchwork to the panel.

I was kind of on a roll so I went ahead and hand quilted in the lozenges too, just to give it that extra something (and some additional stability in case my appliqué skills don't hold up). Hand quilting this small project was fun, but it gave my fingers a workout!

I didn't get to launder it (so it would get all crinkled) and have a lengthy photo shoot like I would have wanted... I  finished it on my lunch break and ran off to the post office after snapping a few crappy shots on the front porch swing.

On another note, I've been struggling with respiratory infections on and off (but mostly on) since the end of October. But I draw the line at ear infections and finally hit up the doctor yesterday. He prescribed antibiotics as expected, but he also insisted I start using a neti pot.

Mind = blown. Have you ever tried one of these?! I'd heard of it before because my old roommate had one, but never saw him use it and he never described the process. If you have no idea what I'm talking about go hit up google. It'll blow your mind too! I've used it a couple times now and I'm in love.

And since that last little tid bit is just tad on the random side, I think I'll link this post up with Cindy's Really Random Thursday over at Live a Colorful Life. (I can't get over the fabric covered car from last week. Mind = blown!)