Ghetto-neck

Can you imagine this car...

without these horns?

Of course not.

Yes, this is my car. Yes, I am totally a redneck. But sort of a ghetto kind of redneck.
Ghetto-neck.

I have wanted a huge old convertible ever since I got my driver's license. We got this car about three years ago, but it was lacking something- it wasn't quite tacky enough. So one of Paul's friends gave me this set of steer horns for it. In a fit of gratitude I promised him a quilt. I have been working on it for well over a year now and it's finally done!

I robbed the fish skeleton shape for this from our friend's tattoo. He has this on his upper arm. I had to simplify it a little, but it's definitely recognizable as his tattoo.
This is the quilt I started for Project Improv. I really wanted to piece the fish skeleton rather than applique it, but I tried and tried and finally gave up. I guess I just don't have the wonky gene.

I did use batiks in the quilt and really "guyish" colors so it was WAY out of my comfort zone and it was hard to make myself work on it. I do like how it turned out. It's funny- I often choose clothes in these colors but I had a hard time sewing with them.

The back was inspired by this quilt. It was a little tricky to match up with the front. I would not have been able to do it if I hadn't had my mom's help. She has a set of wooden rails that we use to either tie quilts or pin-baste them. It was much easier to match up that way than if I had been trying to tape it to my floor which is what I usually do.


I like this quilt, but I don't love it. It isn't one that's hard to give up. I am so glad to have it off the WIP pile! I have been working hard this summer to whittle down my stack and have made a lot of progress on it. It will feel really good to be able to start new projects guilt free.

Another semi-finished quilt

I hereby declare January 2010 "The Month of the Finished Quilt"! I would declare 2010 "The YEAR of the Finished Quilt", but I really don't think I could handle the pressure for an entire year.

So here is a finished quilt top:

And back:

This back is totally inspired by a quilt I saw on Flickr. It's such a simple, but effective, layout. And it makes this quilt reversible! Now we will find out if I can keep the back and the front even while I quilt it. I made the border on the back a couple inches larger than it has to be all the way around, so I did leave myself a little wiggle room. After I trim it, theoretically, it will have 6" strips of white all the way around to match the inner ones.

A gratuitous shot of my oh-so-cute helper (for once, not one of the cats):

I had to show a closeup of this fabric because it matches the fish skeleton appliques SO well. I got it during a sale at a quilt store near my hometown- Jeri's Quilt Patch. They have a huge sale every year where the fat quarters are a DOLLAR! So these were an awesome deal, but some of the other fabric was NOT so that made up for it.

I actually had this quilt laying out on the (washed) (well, wiped down) floor to baste, when I realized my batting wasn't big enough. So I can't quilt it until I get some batting. But I almost finished a quilt. I intended to!

I didn't want to waste a clean floor so I did baste a baby quilt and I will hopefully have an actual finish for the end of the week. But maybe not. No pressure.

Whazzup??

What's up on my design wall, that is:

I am working on my quilt for Project Improv. I think I can use this for the B & W plus One Challenge, too, actually. It's black, white and dark green. I have it this far and now will leave it up there for a few days and switch things around- sort of mull it over. I somehow have a glitch somewhere because I only used 90 of the 100 squares I made. Anyone see the problem? I don't, but I bet if I leave it up there a while I will figure it out.

One picture shows the fish swimming clockwise and one shows them going counter-clockwise. They will be cut down smaller and have a border put around each one.

I am leaning toward counter-clockwise at this point.
So if anyone has any suggestions or input, I am wide open over here!

Edited to add: I figured out where I went wrong and it's 10 x 10 now, but I am not sure it's improved. I don't like how two of the white strips end up on the outside.