I'm a big music nerd.  Always have been.  I grew up in a dinner theater, thanks to my mother who ran the box office, and was exposed to lots of different music pretty early on.  I also played the clarinet for many years, and seriously considered a career in music for a while.  Instead, I've become a quilter who is seriously dependent on music.  I make playlists for free-motion quilting, playlists for pressing, playlists for piecing, playlists for hand binding, playlists for machine binding...I think you get the drift.  My iPod is filled to the brim these days!

For me, music is the key to smooth FMQ.  It not only helps me focus, but it helps me keep my stitches even.  I've spent the last couple of days FMQ'ing and hand binding two quilts, and made a new playlist I thought I'd share with you all, after Colleen asked what was on my playlist.

1. Eric Hutchinson "Watching You Watch Him"



2. Needtobreathe "The Outsiders"



3. 2 Cellos "Viva La Vida"



4. Walk Off the Earth "Somebody That I Used To Know"



5. Gavin DeGraw "Radiation"



6. Florence + the Machine "Shake It Off"



7. 30 Seconds to Mars "Hurricane (unplugged)"



8. The Black Keys "Tighten Up"



9. Young the Giant "Cough Syrup"



10. Kassidy "Waking Up Sideways"



11. The Daylights "I Hope This Gets To You"



12. TFDI "Pretty Things"



13. Gavin DeGraw "Not Over You"



14. Matt Nathanson "Run"



15. Kassidy "Oh My God"



Do you listen to music when you sew/quilt?  I'd love to hear what your favorite tune is these days, I always love finding new music.  Hope you're having a great weekend!

Try, try, try again, right?  Maybe after some foot stomping?

My mettle was tested yesterday as I worked on quilting...and then unquilting...and then re-quilting my Star Crossed Stitch quilt.  I thought with the sharp angles in the piecing that perhaps some pointy stippling would be interesting and I wanted to do something different.  Never tried it before, but that's never stopped me in the past, so I went for it.  I enjoyed it, but after about 10 minutes, I took a harder look at how it looked with the quilt, and it just wasn't working.  Please excuse my horrible phone camera pictures...



Then, I sat on it.  Walked away for a while, had a cookie, and came back.  And looked again.  And I still hated it.  It wasn't that I hated the quilting itself, it was that the quilting just didn't feel like it went with the quilt.  And for the very first time, I unquilted.  It was painful.  It made me painfully crabby.  I kept wondering if I was being too much of a perfectionist and that perhaps I ought to have kept going.  But then, as I was unquilting, I had a crazy, completely hair-brained thought.  What about baptist fans?

Um...no.  Baptist fans are quilted by hand, or by a long armer, I told myself.  But somehow, the idea kind of took me over.  I started trying to freehand draw my own, and they were...well...hideous.  Then, I trucked over to Jo-Ann's to look for a circle ruler, figuring if I could make a template of sorts, perhaps I could manage to pull this off, and I lucked out.


I found a Circle Cut ruler, which is has a bunch of nesting half-circles, much like the traditional baptist fan, and I busted out my water soluble pen and went to work.  After I traced my first row of fans, I went ahead and stitched them.  It took a few curves before I started to get the hang of it, but I really enjoyed it.  So I marked up the rest of the quilt and kept on stitching.




I'm about halfway done quilting now, and I'm super happy that I unquilted and trusted my crazy self.  When I finish this and show you guys the front, I think it's going to be really cool!!!

It was a good week :)  We celebrated the munchkin's birthday with family (yes, for the third and final time this year) and I even managed to get a quilt top done!  Definitely a good week!  Well, that is, aside from my pathetic attempts for some decent outdoor photography.  It's been incredibly windy and breezy this week, and yesterday was no exception, so at least 80% of my shots turned out like this...


Finished:
Amy's Carpenter's Star - Amy is working on a Carpenter's Star quilt this month with her local bee and happened to make an extra package of fabric, so I told her to send it my way.  She sent a gorgeous blue print from Khristian A. Howell's Morroccan Mirage collection (still in stock at Hawthorne Threads!) as well as a gorgeous salmon from Art Gallery's Pure Elements collection and some background Kona.  I love this Carpenter's Star block, so glad Cherie wrote a simple tute for it!

Still going:
Star Crossed Stitch Quilt - Almost done!  Thanks for all of the feedback on how to sash and border this one; in the end, I went with my gut, which said to finish the top simply, to let the blocks shine.  The top's all done, though it was super difficult to photograph yesterday, thanks to lots of gale force gusts of wind.  Now if only I could decide how to quilt it... ;)


Getting started on:
Cosmic Burst project - Mark Cesarik was kind enough to send some of his gorgeous upcoming Cosmic Burst (coming to a fabric store near you in April!) collection my way and I'm trying to decide how to best use it.  I've got a bunch of ideas, just need to decide on one!  I really love the bright jewel toned colors in this collection, especially the bright blue.


Oakshott Shot Cottons project  - I received a gorgeous package of Oakshott shot cotton fabrics from Mr. Oakshott himself this week and I'm totally in awe of how amazing they are.  Super smooth and soft and lovely dimensions, too!  I think I might do some paper piecing with these beauties.  Perhaps some NY Beauty blocks?


What are you stitching up this week?  Write it up and share it over at Lee's for WiP Wednesday!