Stitchin' Mission - Completion and Send off

This has taken me a bit to post, but I thought since I was on vacation from work I'd take a vacation from blogging too....Or at least that's my excuse ;-)

Here it is in total, I think I did a pretty decent job at getting the squares to line up accurately. I used a scrappy binding made from the scraps from the center. 

Yay cacti! I machine quilted around the 'stair steps,' and accented the middle black strips by filling it in with more quilting. I don't know if I'm describing that right, but hopefully you'll understand what I mean in the next couple of pictures.

Here's the backside, I got all of that for $2 on sale at Hancock Fabrics! It doesn't have a good hand, but it's shiny and matches the patterns on the front really well I think. While I wasn't able to make a perfect quilt sandwich this time either, there was definite improvement. It's not as wrinkly as it looks in this picture; the shiny fabric just makes it look that way around the stitches. 

Here's a close up of that middle strip from the backside, see what I mean? It looks really cool in person but it was hard to photograph well.

You can see pictures of all of the quilts together at the Stichin' Mission blog here. You can see my 'lovely' self on the right side of the group photo. 

Stitchin' Mission - Progress Update

Just wanted to post a few pictures of what I've completed for my mission quilt thus far.

Here's my backing, laid out on my kitchen floor (It was the best place I could find!):

I tried to take pictures of the next part of the process..

But as you can see...

It's really hard to take pictures of yourself from above!

I don't think this is the proper technique, but essentially I basted the middle and had to lay on top of the quilt to reach either end. There's two ways into my kitchen but I wouldn't be able to get around it without climbing on my counter so....improvisation. I hope it doesn't mess it up too badly...

Here's my quilt sandwich, all basted together:

The cactus fabric is weird, yes...I'll just claim to have been going for a 'bold' look :)

I've already started machine quilting, but I don't have pictures of that yet. It's slow going! I think I may simplify the design a little; let's see how I do before the deadline next week.

Do you have any strange techniques to 'get the job done'? Let me know in the comments!

Stitchin' Mission

Have you heard of Stitchin' Mission? 

Image Source: stitchinmission.org

It's a really cool concept started by local Iowan Linda  who wanted a way to give back to the community. Essentially, Linda offers a series of quilting lessons for FREE along with needed materials, provided that each student donate their first quilt to a charity that really needs it. 

There have been 24 missions so far, and quilts have been sent all over the world!

I'm really excited to be a part of Stitchin' Mission #25! Our quilts will be going to a local women and children's center in Des Moines. I have made two quilts on my own so far, but as I'm a completely self-taught crafter I thought it wouldn't hurt to get some expert advice.

If you click to Linda's blog post here, you can just make me out in the first group photo. Not that I enjoy being photographed (who does?!), but there I am! 

Tonight will be the next class and I'm really excited! Here is all of my fabric, pressed and ready to go:

This seems an odd combination to me, but I couldn't resist the cactus fabric. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes together! 

I'll be blogging about this for the next few Thursdays, so check back with me to see my progress :) 

Ciao!