Thank goodness for chain-piecing!

I was feeling the need for a repetitive project that I could just do in stages and see my progress as I go along. I've been hoarding this charm pack of Lila Tueller's Soiree for a long time now and was waiting for the perfect project. Well, I have lots of fabric that I'm "saving for the perfect project" so I figured, eh, just get sewing!! It felt good to work on all these half-square triangles in stages. I haven't done a half-square triangle quilt before, so hopefully I still enjoy the process later on in the project. At this point I'm just trimming the squares down, which I think will be the worst part, but I am watching Julie and Julia on loan from the Boston Public Library, I'm home alone and it's a beautiful day. Things are going well! :) I actually don't know what the final product will look like, but I feel okay with that. I just want to finish these HST's and think about the layout and the size of the quilt later.

Thanks for looking!
Siobhan, was this less excruciating??

2 days in a row!

So I'm really trying to be better about posting more, so this is my best effort - 2 days in a row! I have been kind of agonizing over this doll quilt swap that the New England Modern Quilt Guild is doing because I have never made something for another quilter! Usually when I make something it's for myself - I'm picky, but not too picky, or a friend/family member - definitely not picky, but making something for someone who knows all that went into making it and could pick up on little mistakes (not that they're going to be looking for them or anything) feels very exposing. It's also with sadness that I work on this project because I will only be able to attend 2 more meetings before I leave Boston and move away to Seattle. I've met some great friends through the guild and I know we'll stay in touch through blogland and talking excessively about modern quilting. :) So, this is a little peak at the project I'm working on. It's almost done, just need to hand stitch the binding... I'll show the whole thing after my partner receives it!

(not a great skyline shot, but view of Boston harbor at sunset)

My first adventure in spray basting...

I looove piecing a quilt top. I don't even mind binding my quilts (I know, that's weird), but the basting process is so stressful to me for some reason and it's so time consuming! When I read people's blogs who seem to be finishing projects quickly and they spray baste, I figured, what the heck. I'll give it a try. So, in the spirit of "process" I wrote this post as I was spray basting (like 2 weeks ago).

I'm finding that my seams are getting a little wonky, but not in a good way. I'm trying to flatten the top out, but it's sort of distorting things. Now I've realized that half of the top is "glued" to the batting, which is "glued" to the backing and it's completely off.

If I reposition the whole top, I run the risk of stretching the fabric and making it permanently "off." I used some pins anyway, per the suggestion of some posts I saw about this. So far I'm not convinced this is a big life changer. I also have a LOT of seams in this quilt, so there's more room to stretch and get a little crooked. More to come on this process. Maybe since I just basted the whole thing including some pins, while watching glee, in under an hour (amazing!), I'll just have to settle for now and get a bit more practice in the future. I'm sure that my boyfriend will appreciate the "taped to the kitchen floor" stage has drastically decreased in time. I'm interested to see how this goes stippling, especially since that's brand new to me too.

Okay, okay, I'm rocking the stippling, the layers are staying together well with the spray baste and a few pins. No puckers so far, and then...

Okay, back to real time now: This keeps happening, so I ended up taking my machine to get repaired/tuned up for the first time ever (which is so bad of me!) and I was without it for 9 days. aaahh!! I played with a lot of fabric, kind of went crazy during the last week or so, and finally got to work on something new yesterday. I'll show that later I guess. I'd love to hear if anyone out there...(echo, echo...) has any thoughts on spray basting...
Thanks for looking!
Meaghan
p.s. for those of you friends/family of mine who read this just to be nice to me, sorry this was a boring quilty blog post. I'll have prettier pictures to show soon! :)