WIP It!

I began quilting in 1991, inspired by a trip to a quilt show on Long Island with my dear friend Lorraine. I went to the show, expecting to just see a bunch of quilts and nothing more, but walked out of the show with at least $100 worth of quilting supplies and a burning desire to make a quilt of my own. The next week I bought a sewing machine, and the rest is history. My love affair with quilting is long, and while I have had long periods of time where my sewjo was challenged or I just had no time to quilt (working mom with three kids!), it has been a constant in my life, even if I was just refolding my fabric or paging through a quilt book.

One thing that I've noticed about myself over this 25 years of quilting is that I (like many quilters) have the tendency to start a project, but not finish it. I have countless quilt blocks that are sitting in boxes in my sewing room, tops that are collecting dust, projects that were started for babies when they were in utero who are now toddlers or grade schoolers.

My first quilt! Finished, well-worn, and well-loved. This dog also chewed a hole in it, so mending it is on my to-do list!

I also have ridiculous amounts of fabric, thanks to owning an online fabric shop for years. Both of these factors have led me to try to hold myself accountable on my blog for finishing projects, using fabric, and keeping up with a more consistent artistic practice.

With this in mind, I am starting something on my blog called WIP It! I will post pictures and discuss some of my works in progress (some of which may have been in progress since the 1990s, LOL), and talk about what I'm doing to make some dents in the piles that have accumulated in my sewing room.

I'll start off with a project that has been hanging over my head for a while!

This one is a X plus + quilt that I began... well, I began it a while ago! It just needs to be bound.

X plus + quilt

I used the pattern that Amy from Badskirt created (pattern available here.) It uses lots of my favorite fabrics that I've accumulated over the years, some that are now very hard to find.

Tula Pink's Prince Charming frog!

Another frog! This one is surfing!

Alexander Henry pin-up girls

Michael Miller's Dysfunctional Family fabric

I've been going back and forth on how to bind this one. I've considered a simple pinstripe, and I've also considered going scrappy. I think I like the idea of something more controlled for the binding since there's so much going on in the blocks.