Friday, April 26, 2013

Finish Friday

I hope to get a lot more sewing done today because I really can't come up with a reason not too (other then the fact that there is still no TV in the basement).  I have however come up with a couple of finishes to share this week.  I am done with two lovely pin cushions from Liberty Love.



I got two blocks done for Quilt for Boston and sent off.  I might be able to make more but  I didn't want to take the chance of letting my procrastination get in the way of me following through with this.

I finished some embroidery as well.

This one for my niece, Abigail's, birthday bag.

This is to be used as a center panel for a quilt as Aneely did in her book Sweet Stitches.

I got to sew the pieces for my Bloom Bloom POW top together. 
What do you think of the color?  I like everyone individually but together it takes some getting use to.  I don't know but its a little to late I guess.  I am however enjoying the process of making it and learning new things and ways of putting things together, thanks to our fantastic guide Lee from Freshly Pieced.  All that's left is to make sure I like this lay out and sew the half hexis together into rows and the rows together.


There are a few things I will be working on over the weekend as well as some stuff I would love to day dream about starting.

Already started:
English Paper Piecing Tickety Tock
Abigail's bag
Virtual Bee Blocks
April's Sisters Ten Block (I've really been holding off on this one, best for last right?)

Thanks for joining me, I'm linked up over at TGIFF w/ What a Hoot and Crazy Mom Quilts


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Quilts for Boston

Quilts for Boston

I learned about Quilt For Boston just yesteday and decided that this is the least I can do. I haven't been able to follow through on a lot of good for the world deeds but this one is definitely going to be a quick finish and no procrastination involved. 


I pulled some fabric from my stash of scraps (not really I was using these on other projects, they just happen to be big enough fo this).

And then I decided my first set of blocks would be Gift boxes by Brioni Greenberg from Shape Workshop for Quilters.


They're all cut ready to sewn.
If you would like to partipate all the info is in the link above and there is also a flickr for this.

Before this I was working on a couple of other projects.  I'm making a couple of scrappy log cabin pincushion from Liberty Love by Alexia Marcell Abegg.  I need to go get some ric rac today and it should be a quick finish.  I can tell this will be a repeated project with lots of my scrap fabric.


I started this Tickety Tock mini clock quilt as well.  At first I was quit taken back by not only the need to make templates but to double the size.  How is a girl suppose to do that. Then my math background (not really) kicked in and I grabbed my protractor (whick I knew I would need one day) and just went for it.  I drew a master copy and then traced it only freezer/quilter paper.  I'm quit please with myself and it was really therapeutic.
This is also from Shape Workshop for Quilters.

We also got to work on my 2 and half quilt this past weekend.  My husband decided he would press it, 1 because he believes is a master presser and 2 because I wasn't going to do it.  So he agreed to press if I sewed them together and may I say it looks marvelous as a table cloth on our dining room table.

 
 
It just needs to be sandwiched and quilted, drew up some ideas at work for the quilitng, his favorite is the flower on the corners but I can't do that on my industrial JUKI so lets cross our finger I get my way (most likely not) and get a new machine soon :) 
 
 
 
I've also decided to make a couple more tote bags soon, one for my daughter and one for my neice whose 7th birthday is in May.  I decided to do an embroidered front pocket, again another first, and this is what I've got so far.
 
 
This pattern is from Stitched for Fun by Fiona Goble.  While at Joanns today I have to pick up a few more colors to finish is up.  This was also a lot easier to catch on then I thought it would be.  I also picked up Aneela Hoey's book Little Stitches from the library earlier this week so lots more little cute pictures to embroider.  I'm also watching the first and second season of Downton Abbey.  Extra exciting things happening and its just Wednesday.  Join me and all the other WIP over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.



Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sunday Stash and Weekend Wrap Up

I came across this lovely panel from JoAnn and decided to make lots of baby quilts out of it. I've got a few ideas running through my head but here is my first one, pieced, quilted and binded.  It's reversible!!!  I'm hoping it will be the first item I sell.


Next up are my Virtual Bee BOM, as you can see I got a little overzeaulous and accidetally cut off a corner I wasn't suppose to.  At least the 2nd one is completely done.  I'm starting to think I might not ever catch up.
 




I did however get completely caught up on my Bloom Bloom POW and had lots of pretty left over scraps.


 
 
Now for all of my goodies.  I got three packages in the mail this week as well as trips to JoAnn to share.

My JoAnne trip



My package from Hawthorne Threads
 
 
My package from Rasberry Creek Fabric
I know I need to do better with listing fabric names and I thought I would try this week but I have lost my receipts, maybe next week.
 
Finally I would like to share my new and improved organized stash:
 
BEFORE





TA DA .... AFTER
Thanks for joining me with this crazy week's wrapup.  I'm linking up over at  Kate Quilts for Sunday stash.  I almost feel like my "stash" is used in the slang kind of way ;)  Have a great Sunday people. 
Almost forgot but this was my third package:
 
 
I won this from Linda over at Little Bits and Pieces.
 
 


 
 
 

 







Wednesday, April 17, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I got a list for you this week.  I finally got my lazy procrastinating butt motivated to work on my QAL and BOMs.  The Bloom Bloom POW is about 95% there and the 3 Virtual bees blocks are 50% of the way there.  The whole process stop once I had to go press them in between sewing, that's what happens when your sewing machine is in the basement but everything else is upstairs.

I also decided to start this with a panel and some fabric I got at JoAnns, who is having a great SALE. I started it today and got it basted ready for some sort of quilting.  Let me tell you i never how complicated it is to make something up without a pattern to follow.  A lot of math!!! I think this is going to be the first item I'm going to try to sell.  I figured if nobody wants it there's plenty of people we know having babies but I really want to try this out.



This doesn't have anything to do with sewing but look what I saw yesterday.




Join me over at WIP Wednesday hosted by Freshly Pieced.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bucket list of Quilts

One of my favorite parts of quilting is getting super excited about an idea.  I love looking at everybody's quilts and wanting to make one some day.  I realize that my problem with that is I always lose the idea or forget about it (which probably does my wallet some good).  So I've decided to keep a list of Want to DO Projects and hopefully have links or books connected to them. Here it is in no particular order.


Farmers wife sampler quilt 
Farmers wife barn QAL
Marcelle's Medallion
Geta's Hexi Sphere
String Heart Block
Maple Leaf Rag Quilt from Material Obsession 2 and here
Puzzled Triangle
Divided Basket by Noodlehead
Three ring Circus from Material Obsession
Shams
Tohoku Tote


Books:
Anna Marie's Needleworks

Dream Fabrics:

Children at Play by Sarah Jane available at Hawthorne ThreadAnna Marie's Needleworks

Monday, April 15, 2013

Making A Plan Success

So I used the last post as an outlet over the weekend and it worked.  It got my butt back to work and so far I've cleaned my room, finished the top for my 2 and half quilt, and pieced together the fabric for Bloom Bloom POW (about 90% done at least).  Now just a few more things and I'll reach my goal. 

 
This is the top inspired by Kaffe Fassett's "Red Frames".
 
The strips on the side are for the back, all pressed and ready to by sewn together, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to do at least ten more rows. 
 
 
I've also got some new motivation to help my hubby with his table.  Here's a sneak peek at what we might end up doing:

 
Hope you're having as nice of a time with your WIPs!!!
 


Making a Plan

***WARNING  all words no pictures just me venting my mind***
When I first started this whole quilting thing , I was able to finish my first quilt in a couple of week.  Now I find myself with lots of WIPs and new beginning to projects and not so many Finishes.  It happens in everything I do, there's this very fine line of not quite enough and becoming overwhelmed.  I always like a challenge and want to do a trillion things at once cause god forbid I ever get bored or run into nothing to do.  I think I'm at the point where I'm falling off the wall into overwhelming land.  I need to really catch up on everything before starting anything new and in order to that I need a plan and priority.

Finish TOP and Back of Quilt 2 and a half
Sew together Virtual Bee Blocks (2 of each = 6 blocks)
Recut Sisters' Ten April BOM
Make and Finish 3ZP (one new and one WIP)
Piece Together Bloom Bloom POW

Finish All Laundry (at least so I can see the floor again)
Clean my ROOM!

Deadline for all of this April 30th

When all of this is done then I can start something new.  I'm seeing Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt in my near future.

Thanks for listening to what has been flying in the mind lately and making me such grumpy butt.  Hopefully this will make is better.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Sunday Stash

This week I got the last two packages in the mail I was expecting for a while.  The first was my bundle of zippers from Zipit:



It came with this "Miracle Fish" that was suppose to read your inner most emotions depending on its movements, guess what my fish did!  Nothing! It was motionless so it was a "dead one".  Of course!  It was cute though and I love looking at all the colors.  I told my daughter she could pick three and I would make her the 3ZP.

Next up is this beautiful package, its definitely a present for me from me:



I got this green polka dot fabric and some embroidery thread samples for my bag.




Last up is this very cute Easter collection from JoAnn, nothing beats 60% off and I feel that you don't have to use these just for Easter stuff, they're really cute.



And this from the clearance section, yes that's a measurement tape holder on the side (and it came with one too!)



Speaking of sales, Sew, Mama, Sew! are clearing out their shop in order to concentrate on their blog and social media part of the business.  Check them out for great deals!  I'm going to try really hard to not but nothing for a while because I want a new quilting machine, but my hubby wants me to do embroidery too so its a compromise because as we know those cost a lot more so that means it will take a lot longer to save up for one.  I think the only thing I really want to get in the mean time is this quick curve ruler, their QAL is so cute.  But then again I don't really need anymore projects right now and I was thinking if I finish the top and back to our 2 and a half quilt then he'll be more up to getting a new machine since I don't think I can quilt it on my big a** JUKI .

Check out all the other stashes over at FindingFifth 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Finish Friday

I got some sewing done yesterday and I finally got a real finish in a while.  Started and finished a bag for the neighbor's 8 turning 9 year old.  Here's the fabric I choose for this project:


This is the finished bag.  It's the same pattern I've been using for my own without the embroidery from Clover and Violet.

I also finished cutting all my fabric for the Bloom Bloom POW.  And now the piecing  instructions are out so now some more sewing.  Next up on my list to finish was my April block for the Sisters' Ten BOM since evertything was already cut and look what happens:

I accidentally cut my HSTs for the littler block instead of my 12" block.  That's what I get for watching Duck Dynasty while I was doing my cutting. SMH back to the cutting mat and now it'll probably be until next week because I hate doing something twice.

I'm linking up to TGIFF and Crazy Mom Quilts.  Have a great start to the weekend people.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WIP Wednesday and a Winner

I want to start off this post with an announcement.  This blog so far has been about a lot of my firsts in the quilt/blog community and I'm so excited to announce my first ever Giveaway win.  I won the book "The Giving Quilt" from Linda over at Little Bits and Pieces.  Super Geeked!!!

Wow how fast another week has flown by and I still have the same set of WIP and then some.


First up are three blocks from the Virtual Bee QAL.  I have everything cut for two blocks each (since I couldn't find how many of each we're suppose to do) they just need to be sewn.


Then I have my April block for the Sisters' Ten modern BOM cut out, again need to sew.


I'm also working on cutting up my fabric for Bloom Bloom POW, I've got 10 blocks worth cut out but kind of at a stand still, one because I'm reconsidering some of fabric choice and two I need to decide which color I want to repeat and which color I want to use for the half blocks.  I guess I could cut the white fabric in the mean time.


Today I'm going to really concentrate on finishing my large tote and maybe trying to bang one out for the neighbor's birthday party this Saturday, it might end up being a belated birthday gift.  I can't wait for zipper order to come so I can do some more zipper pouches.

Hope your day is going as well as mine and check out all the other WIP over at Freshly Pieced.