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Saturday, January 2, 2016

First Finish of the New Year: Orange Peel Quilt Top!

Happy Friday Saturday, y'all! I've got my first finish of the New Year to share! The Orange Peels are now a top/flimsy and off the design wall! Yipee! I wanted it to be bigger but I'm happy with the cozy lap size that I've ended up with.

 I've learned a lot after piecing this, but the biggest thing I want to remember is to make my background squares bigger next time and trim them down once the applique is done. You can see on quite a few blocks that points were chopped off (or dangerously close to it!) and as I was piecing, I realized my error. Despite that, I'm still loving it. :)
I still need to iron this one before I do anything else. It was just too late to bother with that by the time I finished! Lol
I'm just proud of myself for hand sewing all those orange peels, I never thought I would hand sew much of anything when I first started sewing! I machine pieced the squares together though because my sanity could not take that much hand sewing. Lol. I have plans to machine quilt it, it's just a matter of getting some backing material, which may take some time. In the mean time, I'm most likely going to be working on City Blocks! I've been mulling over quilting ideas and while I baste,
I'm sure the right one will snuggle with my brain. :)
Low Volume + Scrappy makes my heart smile
Also, I know I link up to her a lot, but the ever-fabulous Jenn @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge has deemed her year, The Year of the Stash. Many have followed up with her (here for example), making their own rules and guidelines for the coming year to keep our fabric stashes from expanding further. Although I feel my stash is pretty small, I'm joining in for the practical aspect that Jenn highlights in her manifesto. New fabric can be purchased, but it needs to be purchased with purpose, not just on a whim. I don't typically buy fabric willy-nilly anymore due to the money aspect, but I want to join along to put it in writing that my fabric purchases this year must have a plan/job in mind before they come into my home.

I hope everybody had a safe New Year! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by! :)

18 comments:

  1. This is absolutely gorgeous! I love your combination of colors.

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    1. Thanks Alison! This color scheme just sort of happened. Lol. I started with blue and purple, but it was too blah for my taste. So into my little stash I dug and I found bright orange to round thing out. :)

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  2. Awesome finish. You did a great job. Good luck with joining along with Jenn.

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    1. Thanks Anja! I'm sure I'll need luck sometimes, especially if a good sale hits and I have some money saved up! :)

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  3. Wow! That flimsy looks amazeballs! Kudos to you for all that hand applique...you are a Rockstar!
    I wish you good luck as you soldier your way through the Stashpocalypse...take no prisoners!

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    1. Thanks Val! I actually enjoyed the hand sewing at times, but it's safe to say I like my machine more. Lol. Good luck to you too, we've got lots of stash sewing ahead of us! :)

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  4. You did a fantastic job on your orange peels and I love your fabrics. The colors compliment each other perfectly. I'm looking forward to seeing how you decide to quilt this when the time comes. It will be fun working away at our stashes this year. Happy stash busting!!

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    1. Thanks Jennifer! I love how this one turned out too, especially because it wasn't really planned. It just sort of happened! :) I'm interested to see all of the stash sewing everybody does this year, so many cool fabrics are going to be shown off!

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  5. Wow the quilt is amazing!!!! I admire you for all the hand work, I hate to sew anything by hand.

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    1. Thanks Shauna! I used to be all machine sewing, but I saw a quilt on Crazy Mom Quilts and couldn't help but try out some hand sewing. It's so slow (especially for me!), but I love it all the more for it I feel like! :)

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  6. I am incredibly impressed that all those orange peels are hand sewn and hell-yes to machine sewing the blocks together! Thank you for the spreading the word about The Year of the Stash. I'm happy to have you on board!

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    1. Thanks Jenn! Machine sewing always comes in to save the day in the end. Lol. Thanks for putting the challenge out there for the Year of the Stash. I never would have thought to put that goal in writing until you did!

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  7. I am also incredibly impressed that you hand pieced all of these orange peels. Mindful buying. I wish I had done more of that in the past, but come to think of it...I think I did have a plan in mind for a lot of my weird fabric at the time.

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    1. Thanks Lisa! I feel like I'm typically a mindful buyer, but in the past I was known to pick up some random fabrics for the sole reason that I liked them and I had the money. Lol. I'm going to try and keep it to a minimum this year though!

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  8. Love your orange peel, and I'm very impressed that all your applique was hand sewn. That's a lot of time and patience. And I didn't notice any lost corners. Good luck with your purposeful buying, sounds a good plan, but then if you see something gorgeous and unmissable but sensible too I hope you'll let yourself indulge!

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    1. Thanks! This quilt was all about patience (most of it was sewn in waiting rooms at the doctor, waiting at my in-laws, etc.). And even with purposeful buying, there's always room for a little indulgence. Hahaha! I plan to stay sensible, but I'm allowed to cut myself some slack every once and a while!

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  9. Wow, Jennifer, I was trying to figure out these orange peels. All handsewn? very nice!

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    1. Thanks Dominique! These were one of those hairbrained ideas that seem like a good idea until your elbow deep in and you wonder how you were so crazy to start it! Lol. But I'm glad to have started and finally finished this quilt top. :)

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