Have you been waiting for this Sewing Room Challenge reveal like I have? – I’m really excited to share this with you! Let’s spill all the goods and all the pictures on the 3 latest projects that I’ve been working on!
Give this page just a second to load because I promised I would be sharing pictures like it was another child of mine and you’re about to see the new triplets now 🙂 Lots and lots of beautiful photos!
Two months ago, I was a little lost in all the projects I had going on… there were so many ideas and so many possibilities. Oh to be blessed/cursed with so many ideas but not enough hours in the day! (yes, I know… this is life. what a trivial thing to complain about.)
There were two big quilts in particular that I felt constantly looming over my shoulder waiting with all the hours and hours ahead that it was going to take to finish each of them. Do you have those daunting projects that you started with such vigor, but now they just taunt you in a corner waiting to be finished?
I decided to create a Sewing Room Challenge for myself (which a few of you decided to join me on! yay for you!)
You can read the full Sewing Room Challenge post for yourself.
In a nutshell, the rules were simple because that is how I like things…
The Sewing Room Challenge Rules
- 60 days
- Take on no new projects, don’t even think about it
- Work work work work work
June 30 was the final day and I am so excited to finally share the full pictures of what I’ve been working on.
The First Project
Have you seen this pattern from Violet Craft? It was love at first sight for me. (duh, of course, I love the stars) I had been crushing on it for several weeks before I finally dove in and purchased the pattern (without a full plan in mind yet). The Atomic StarBurst Quilt Pattern. You can purchase it from her website if you like it too.
I plan on doing a full post review of this pattern, but until then, you’ll get the condensed version here.
It was an absolute love/hate relationship from the very beginning. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw my struggles… (PS, I share more details and behind the scenes pics on Instagram. Its totally my favorite place to hang)
The larger pieces were easy. The starbursts were… repetitive and took a bit to get the hang of it as well as where the paper piecing lines fell and getting the fabric just so. I MIGHT have wined a little bit about it while working on it for hours and hours one night… but I have to be honest here. Somewhere around star number 12, my thinking shifted and I caught myself planning another quilt with this pattern! Excuse me, who am I? I thought I hated this pattern?… well… come to think of it, gold and white would make a really beautiful star design… ooh! I could pair it with a baby pink and a rose gold fabric!…
So who knows what the future holds. As for right now, I am happy to have this quilt top completed. I plan on spending some time on a friend’s long arm machine to get it quilted sometime this summer!
The material I chose was mostly from Art Gallery I love their organic cotton fabric almost as much as I love their fresh modern designs. You can read more about why organic cotton is so important in this recent post of mine.
I promise I’ll update this post with pictures of it completed as soon as I get the backing and the quilting completed!
UPDATE: You can read my full review of this pattern here! I also included a video to help you with foundation paper piecing!
The Second Project
OK, I’m super proud of this one. This one is mine mine mine. I made it larger in size so that my husband and I can share it while we’re sitting on the couch together. There is plenty of quilt to go around.
I also made the decision early on that THIS was the lovely one that would be my first adventure with hand quilting. (ambitious? yep.)
The stitching is not perfect. I would be laughed off the face of the earth if I ever took this to a quilt show. I know I am not an expert and I guarantee I can point out all the flaws before you can! I learned a lot with hand quilting and experimented with different stitch lengths. I finally settled on a chunkier thread for more of an artistic look to the quilting instead of it just holding everything together.
*Hint* If you look closely in the photo above you can see that I still have the fabric marker on the quilt that I used as a guide for my droplets pattern. oops.
I carried this box and that giant quilt with me every time I went to my mom’s house. It kind of became a part of me for a while and I have a weird finger muscle sprain in my index finger to prove it. (It’s really embarrassing to explain to someone that your finger is sprained because you couldn’t quit hand sewing every single evening so as to finish a deadline that you set for yourself… especially when you have an awesome sewing machine just a few feet away.)
It is finished but I can’t show you the whole quilt just yet. This is a quilt pattern that I have been playing with for a while and I finally completed it! I am in love with the results! It’s so beautiful… and I know you are going to LOVE it!
This lovely quilt is called Waterfalls. And I will be releasing the full pattern towards the end of this summer. Join my e-mail list and I’ll send you a free quilt pattern (plus some other fun freebies!) of mine and keep you up to date with any other goodies I release in the future!
One small detail that I just fell in love with in my Waterfalls quilt is the binding I chose! Look how fun this is!
The Third Project
This last quilt one is another pattern of my own design. I’ll be releasing this pattern soon too. (Fingers crossed it is all tested out and ready for August 1!) UPDATE: It’s all good to go! You can get your FREE copy of this game-changing pattern by filling out the form below. 🙂 My gift to you!
This pattern is one of my favorites because it looks so impressive and detailed! It is always such a lovely gift to give/receive a handmade quilt, right? It’ll look like you spent a long time on it but honestly… it’s so simple. I’ll share with you a few tricks and tips to make you look so fancy in the sewing room!
The Busy Momma, Busy Baby Play Mat quilt top comes together within a few hours start to finish. It’s the perfect pattern for busy girls because it doesn’t have to take too much out of your busy schedule to make a wonderful handmade quilt. I promise! This one is one of my favorites for gifts!
This one is still a slight work in progress… I didn’t finish EVERYTHING on it by the time June was over. I would have liked to have the backing and quilting completed, but I had to order the fabric for the backing. I promise you’ll see lots of pictures on my Instagram as soon as it is all finished!
That’s a wrap!
Whew! Did you get all of that?
It has been a really busy 60 days. I think the hardest part of this challenge was taking on two large projects at once. It required so much of my attention and my time. I also had to fight and resist the urge to continue to plan new projects while working on these. I didn’t go fabric shopping except for once… unheard of if you know me well. I had to stay away and know my limits! Let me tell you, I had quilt shop withdrawals several times.
Did I get every project completed and quilted? no… but in my eyes, that was a bonus task that I set from the beginning if time allowed.
I’m so pleased with how these quilts turned out that I can’t wait to finish them and spend a few nights on the couch all curled up with my new quilts to break them in!
If you joined me in this challenge, send me your pictures! I want to see how your challenge ended and the beautiful projects you checked off your list!
Thanks for making it all the way down here! If you ever have any questions about quilting or sewing, please feel free to contact me. I’m happy to help.
Happy Sewing,
–Christen
Beautiful pics! I love the fabric you chose.