It is already the third quarter of the year, is anyone else depressed that the year is half way over.  *Huge Sigh*  Oh well, time to move on! I don't want to say that the second quarter was a bust, but it kinda was in terms of finishing things.  I believe I had high aspirations of 11 or 13 projects or something ridiculous like that, which obviously I didn't finish.  But....I did finish two.  I didn't link them up with the second quarter finish-a-long, simply because I haven't photographed them yet.  I finished two sets of pajamas for my boys and my Cosmic Burst Quilt.  I will post about them another time when the weather is right and the boys are behaving, so hopefully in the next three months! HA!  I was happy to at least cross two things off the list.

This quarter I am taking things a bit differently, instead of a long list, I am aiming for a smaller do-able one.  I actually finished up quite a few quilt tops last quarter and have all the backings put together too!  So here are my goals for quarter three:

Project One: Boom Boom Pow Quilt - This top is finished, the backing is finished.  I just have to baste, quilt and bind it.  This is a throw quilt that I plan to keep for myself!

Project Two: Dancing Stars Table Runner - The table runner top is finished and I have the backing ready to go.  The letters print will be the binding.  I need to baste it, quilt it and bind it.  This is to gift, but I don't have an intended recipient yet, I will just know when it is done, I'm sure.

Project Three:  Latticework Strings Quilt - This quilt top is finished and so is the backing.  I need to baste it, quilt it and bind it.  This is a throw quilt that also has no intended recipient, yet.

Project Four:  Emerald Cut Quilt - This odd sized wall hanging is all basted and ready to quilt.  This quilt will hang in my house when it is finished and will cover up a window that will be removed.  No rush, the window has not been removed, well not yet anyway!

Obviously, I will be doing a lot of quilting this quarter, but I have all of the supplies, so nothing should hold me up.  Linking up with Leanne at She Can Quilt and Never too hot to stitch! 2013 the Year of the Finished Project.

Rachel over at Stitched in Color is hosting a mosaic contest called Clashy Bright.  The basic point is to head over to Marmalade Fabrics, pick a collection of 12 that you define as "clashy bright."  This is my collection, I think I wanted to enter because I kinda define myself as clashy bright, and if you asked my husband, I'm sure he would agree.  Instead of just picking a bunch of random fabrics that would "clash" I chose fabrics that I think clash within themselves, especially the two ends on the very first row.  Those two are like, "Wow, these are some CRAZY colors mashed together in one print!"  I then choreographed the rest of the collection to match those two and stuck with a very defined palette that in the end I think is the definition of Clashy Bright!  Do you agree?

Last month, Threadbias announced they would be holding another quilt design contest featuring the fabric Wallflowers by Allison Harris.  I just knew I would participate.  I loved it last time so here was another chance to play around with the quilt design tool and some lovely digital fabric swatches.

I immediately knew that I wanted to try out some other ideas based on a recent quilt top that I finished up, a design that featured strings and a latticework design, which can be seen HERE.  Knowing that was my basis for the design, I wanted to see what a deliberate patchwork background would look like and if the block was even possible.  Well it was!  Once I had drawn up the block, the rest was easy, until I had to decide how I wanted the latticework to look.  Hmm....

My three ideas for the latticework can be see here.  My very first version started out with just random placement of the five larger scale prints from the collection.  That then transformed into a more deliberate placement of the fabrics, one that ended up with a predominant cross design, with a weaving of the other prints around it.  My second version featured the latticework all in one print, very traditional.  Lastly, I decided to lay out the five prints in a chevron like layout.  I liked this version a lot, but wasn't sold.  In the end I left the vote up to my mom and she decided that she liked the very first version, the one that featured the cross.  Be it that Mother knows best, that is the design that I entered into the contest.

Once again, this contest was really fun, and I loved playing with the Quilt Design Tool by Threadbias.  I used all of the prints from the collection and one of the solids that we were given the option to use.  Voting is open now in this contest, and if you have a free Threadbias account you can vote.  Please take a moment to hop on over and vote, I would love it if you would vote for mine, but honestly there are a ton of great entries, so vote for the one that you love the best!  Click on the image below to take you to the contest and there you will find the View Entries button!  Thank you to all the sponsors of this contest, I appreciate the chance to enter the contest and use the Quilt Design Tool.

Here we are at Week Five in the Zakka 2.0 Sew Along!  This week, the Diamond Patchwork Placemat, from the book Patchwork, Please! by Ayumi Takahashi.  I knew all along that I would be making four placemats and not just one, and boy am I glad that I did, they turned out so cute and really didn't take that long to make all four.

I used fabric from my stash with the exception of the 100% linen, which I bought from JoAnn's Fabrics.  I pre-washed the linen because I know that it tends to shrink a lot in the wash, but washed nothing else.  Hopefully that doesn't come back to haunt me one day.  The backing and binding is a Darlene Zimmerman 30's reproduction print that I have been holding on to for quite some time, I felt the scale and coloring was perfect for these placemats, especially since the backing wraps around to the front to create the binding.  I like that method, so quick and easy!

For some strange reason I have an insanely huge stash of kitchen and food prints.  I started pulling them for this project and after digging just a short time pulled out 25 prints.  I know I have more than that, that is just what I pulled out from light digging!  In the end I narrowed it down to just fruit, vegetable and Kawaii prints like the picnic and sushi themed ones.  I even used two of my HOARDED Spoonflower sample prints and cut them up!  It was the right decision, I just love them mixed in!

I didn't change much from the printed directions, just three little things.  First, I did not paper piece the diamond patchwork panels on either side, but rather just pieced them normally.  I can see why she recommended paper piecing, especially with the shiftiness of linen, but otherwise it worked out just fine.  Second, I used a pretty little lace on the side of my panels instead of the ric rac the author called for.  I wanted to use from my stash and this was the only suitable thing I had enough yardage of.  I rather like the look of lace, linen and a bunch of silly Kawaii prints.  Lastly, I did not spray baste as she suggested.  I didn't have any, so I just pinned, pinned, pinned!  You can obviously see that the front and back are not glued together simply by noticing the MILLION wrinkles all over.  Honestly the pictures make it look worse than it is, but they are there.

I quilted exactly as she suggested and I really like it, I used the binding directions that was suggested also.  I mentioned earlier, this is such a great method for this project.  In the detail shots below you can see a better example of my mitered corners, good and bad, which I machine stitched instead of stitching by hand.  They aren't perfect, but heck, they won't be perfect once food and drink gets spilled on them either!

Closing with a few detail shots of my favorite fussy cut blocks.  Love these little vegetable and fruit people, especially broccoli guy!  These are going to look so nice on my dining room table.

Details of the Sew Along:
Book:  Patchwork, Please! by Ayumi Takahashi
Sew Along: Hosted by LRstitched and A Quilter's Table
Project: Polka Dot Cafe Apron
Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/patchworkplease/