WIPs...and a new toy :)

I'm working my way through my WIP pile. Lately I've been working on these blocks for my Blueberry Ice Quilt.

I have 9 out of 16 complete. I'm piecing 10 and 11 at the moment. And I'm also in the process of making a baby girl quilt. It's a quick HST quilt. The squares were not perfect 5" squares as advertised....so I figured the best thing to do is make them into HST units then trim them down. And it worked perfectly.

This is layout #1

and 

Layout #2 :)

I decided to go with Layout #2.

I also added a border to make this quilt a little bit bigger. I barely have any batiks in my stash so I added a print as the border. It goes well with the pink batiks.

I started quilting this baby quilt on my new machine....

Yup! I took the plunge! My fabric/sewing savings account took a hit but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. This Platinum 16 is used (only way I could justify buying it!) and works like a dream. The original owner showed me a rundown of the machine. She was only trading this machine in since she purchased a longarm machine. Lucky me!

I only got to really play with it when I finished that quilt top on Friday. I had been away for work all week and purchased it last weekend. I am so in love! Here's the quilting I've done so far on the little baby quilt.

And some close-ups.

Flowers in the smaller diamonds.

Loop de loop quilting for the background. Back and forth lines for the large pink diamonds.

A peek at the backing.

 

A close-up of the middle.

 

I am still trying to get use to the tension. I think that will take some time to figure it out perfectly but I am happy with the first attempt. The only part I have left to quilt is the border. I can't decide what I want to do so I left it on the machine and started doing more Blueberry Ice blocks. This is also located in my large guest room...my sewing space is expending to other parts of the house ;)

What's been happening in your sewing space lately? I would love to hear about it!