Sojourner and Sparkle

I finished two quilt tops this week!

Remember a few weeks ago,

when I shared my new project sketch?

It was paper pieced,

darn it,

but it was perfect for the quilt I had in mind.

Meet Sparkle

I got off to a super rocky start,

which isn't all that surprising,

seeing as how it's me.

But it's such a simple pattern,

I sort of expected I could handle it,

since I've had a good bit of practice...

The first day of paper piecing was absolutely awful

and if I hadn't already cut up all of my fabric,

I would have gone back to my original

(much easier, much less 'wow')

plan

of 4 patches on point.

The second day was a smidge better,

and the last 2 dozen units

were made without any mistakes!

(I still don't like paper piecing, though ;-)

I'm going to try a minky backing with this one,

which will be a first for me,

so if you've got any tips, I'd love to hear them!

My second finish, 

Sojourner,

 has been in the works for quite a bit longer.

I am really pleased with how it turned out!!

I had several 'I'm not sure about this' moments along the way,

but I am soo happy with it now.

I accidentally gave myself a ton of partial seams in this quilt,

so it took a lot longer to sew together

than I'd anticipated

once the blocks were all sewn up.

Fortunately everything fit together really well,

so it wasn't hard

as much as it was overwhelming.

It was inspired by Kathleen Riggins version

of the Gypsy Wife quilt

(although I have already reminded my client 

that my quilting 

will be nowhere near as spectacular as Kathleen's.

Mercy, that girl has skills!)

My sewing machine needs to go in the shop
before I attempt to quilt either of these, though;
my machine won't allow me to move the quilt in all directions : /

I hate to make a trip to Fayetteville just for that,
but I also don't want to have to wait too long to get started....

linking up with pincushion queen Amanda Jean