Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Not A Lot of Wiping

There hasn't been a lot of sewing around here because we got to clean our house for family coming into town and a big birthday party.  That means a lot of projects on hold to be finished. 

First up is my Zakka SAL pieces.  I actually thought I was getting ahead by doing two projects this week but it turns out we were suppose to do two pieces anyhow. 

For the tea kettle cover I made a placemat for my kettle instead.  I have it sandwiched and basted ready for some quilting.

For the tea bag holder, I'm making two, they make great gifts.  I have the pockets sewn on and need to look for a string to sew the front and back together. 

Next up is my "Squared" quilt back that I just purchased the fabric for the back and hope to get that pieced, sandwiched, and basted soon. 

Finally I do have a finishes to share.  One of the Virtual Bee Blocks.  Now one more to catch up. I still have a few blocks from other QAL to finish. 

And luckily I was ahead in the Tula Pink City Sampler.  To be honest I did quite a few but got into a slump and put them away but when I pulled this week's three out I fell in love with them again.





June's Sisters' Ten QAL:  Cut  need to sew
Modern Block QAL: Spool Block : Need to start
Virtual Bee QAL: Need to start

The funny thing about these QALs is I will look at everybody else's blocks on flickr and since all of our fabric choices are so different I sometimes get confuse which block is which and most of time don't even recognize them, so I start freaking out thinking I'm missing a whole bunch of them when really I already made mine.  Have a great Wednesday y'all and linking up at Freshly Pieced, have you seen her new pattern, definitely getting it while its on sale. 

One last thing I made this for my Father in law for father's day:
Just as pretty as any sewing. 



Friday, June 14, 2013

Finish Friday

I am so happy that its Friday and boy did this Friday go by quick its already bedtime around here. I'm linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF.  So a quick round up!

A finished quilt top:


 
I forgot to mention that all the fabric was pulled from my stash. My hubby was really impressed. I love the color combination.  Actually I really love the quilt and really want to make another one.  I can see these color in pillows, table runners, and placemats. 
 
 

 
I also got my linen towels done:
 


I've been stocking everybody's elses towels and one of the big thing was the thread color of the zigzag.  Everybody that used matching thread were really glad they did and the ones that used one color on all of it would've prefered matching thread.  So I went with matching thread but let me tell you while I was doing it I was wishing I didn't have so many different colors.  I also did machine binding for the first time.  I'm not a big fan but since they're just towels they were okay.  I feel that hand stitched binding is like giving it that one last final touch of love. 

It's a big weekend coming up around here, my older one is turning the big 7 tomorrow and Father's Day Sunday.  Have a great weekend.  

 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Just one WIP!

Okay the title was a little bit of a fib but I am really just concentrating real hard on this new one.  I'm making it for a high school classmate that I recently found out has breast cancer.  I didn't really know her in high school just enough to know that she's a great person and is strong enough to beat this.


If it looks familiar its because I got it from Kitchen Table Quilting  It's her new pattern for moda using V and Co new fabric Simply Style.  I'm still crushing on the older Simply Color.  

It's funny since my challenge with curves I seem to be going for the straight line sewing lately.  With this one and my owl quilt its all straight lines and I plan to quilt both with straight lines but honestly I'm not too discourage from the curves since I plan to be doing the Medallion QAL over at Sew Kind of Wonderful, where the curve ruler is also on sale.

I plan to finish the above quilt top by Friday and with some luck have it completely done by next Friday.  I also plan to work on my linen towels from the Zakka SAL.  It's hard to do much sewing when you got season pass to the pool.

Happy Wednesday, I'm linking up over at Freshly Pieced

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

What a Challenge!

***Warning Very Wordy Post!***
I decided to enter in the Modern Mini Challenge over at Ellison Lane.  I mean after looking at everybody's entry last year I was definitely inspired.  All the guest bloggers this week also did an amazing job sharing their recent minis. 

I started off this journey knowing that I really wanted to do something that was super duper amazing and really wanted to find something just perfect.  I found it and it was the Fancy Folded Star.  I've never seen anything else like it and haven't seen anyone else make one recently.  I fell in love with it and couldn't wait to start.  I posted little hints here and there of different stages.  I was super excited and the finish product did not disappoint. 

Then I had to go and show my hubby, who is very picky but plain at times, and he was blown away.  What else could I ask for?  Apparently it was too amazing and more of it needed to be made and my mini turned into the start of a full blown quilt.  Which is something I look forward to do but now I was left with nothing for the Challenge.  I had already looked through all the blogs I followed for tutorial so I headed over to my Pinterest board for something new.  I found this, my new inspiration!!!  But it didn't lead to a tutorial so I googled "drunkard path" and looked at a few tutorials and started on a new path, a drunkard path. 

I can't say that this went as smoothly as my first project and to be honest at times I got really grumpy.  I only started quilting back in March and the first thing I learned is there is a method to all this madness.  There's math involved and that's why I love using patterns where all the bells and whistles have been tweeked to make it all work.  For this I thought I could just wing it, no real math was used and I honestly think that is the root of all my problems because when you wing the cutting, you wing the sewing (more than 1/4" seam but less than 1/2" seam) to make everything fit sort of right.  Then when you're all done and you try to square it, you realize its just a big mess.  But through all of that this is my end product.  I don't love it quite yet but it has grown on me and I have learned a lot (maybe a lot more than I was ready for) while making it. 



 
 
This project involved a lot of first:
1) My first patchwork pillow
2) My first time sewing curves for patchwork
3) My first hand quilting.  That was my favorite part of the whole project.
 
Overall I'm more than glad I did this and wanted to say thanks to everyone in the quilt/sewing community/blog world for sharing amazing projects that inspire me to start new things just about every other day.
 
Thanks for checking out my project and head on over to Ellison Lane to check out everybody else's.  


Sunday, June 9, 2013

Weekend Wrap UP!

I finished a couple of things this weekend.  I did my last pepper for the  Zakka SAL.



And I finished this pillow for the Modern Mini Challenge.  It was honestly one of the most miserable project for me but it was full of a lot of first and it is done.  I'll have to do a whole post of what went wrong but for now I'm just going to stop thinking about it.

 

It wouldn't be a great weekend without a little something to add to my stash.

 
33 yards of beauty.  Most of it is V and Co.'s Simply Color and there's some Andover's Pearl Bracelet as well as some from Constellation.  Super excited to do more fancy folded stars with this stuff.  Thanks for checking in and hope yall have a great weekend.  Next week I really got to get on my BOMs.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Friday Finished

I knew I saved this finish to share for a reason.  I honestly thought I would have so much to share this Friday but you know how that goes.  So this is it for now.



 
The finished baby quilt for my boss.  Like I said before this was the fastest quilt I have done thus far and I love how it turned out.  But it also goes to show there's something to learn with every quilt you make . 
 
Now this is a sneak peak of what's got me stuck with no more finishes:
 
It's the new thing that I'm "challenging" myself with for the Modern Mini Challenge.  I am becoming such a grump over this project that I had to stop and walk away.  Hopefully I'll get it done this weekend and never have to mess with it again. 
 
I did however started two new projects ,what its so not like me to start something new without finishing my other projects ;),  I'm making dresses for the girls for our upcoming birthday party and I started cutting an owl quilt and if I get it done in time I'll give it to my boss instead of the one above because I guess they have an owl theme going on. 
 
Thanks for listening to me mope, I'm linking up at  Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF.
 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

WIP Wednesday What! What!

So this week I've added the Zakka Along 2.0: Patchwork Please! to my long (very long) list of things to do.  The first project started this week and its bell pepper coasters that really are fun and easy to do.  In fact it came together faster then the time it's going to take me to write this post.  I've got two down and plan to do a third by the end of the week.  This week's project is hosted by Penny | Sew Take a Hike who made hers into hot pads which I love and will definitely do later on.  At first I was all in it and I started to lok through the book to see what lovely we woud be making but then got instantly overwhelmed.  I had to take a deep breath and just remind myself one at a time but the quilts do need to be started ahead of time.  Enough said here are some pics.



  My daughters says they look more like apples and butterflies then peppers. 
 
Next up I wanted to shared with you my secret project I was making for the Modern Mini Challenge.
 



Its a Fancy Folded Star.  The problem is I showed my hubby and he really wants me to make more and make a full size quilt. I hesitated at first because I had my heart set on this for the challenge but then with more thinking I decided to just hold on to it for a bigger quilt.  The plus side to it is when my hubby likes something he's willing to spend some money on it (more fabric yea!!!)  I got to order a whole bunch of Simply Color by V and Co.  over at I don't do dishes. I also got to throw in a couple of extras for future projects.  I'll share more dets on my stash this Sunday.  The down side is now I got to come up with something else for the challenge.  I think I've got something and hopefully be finished in time. 

I got lots more blocks done for the City Sampler QAL, here's block 4-6.
Like I said before these things are addicting but I find myself always cutting something a little wrong or losing a piece here and there because the pieces are so tiny.  But I love them any how. Next step is to sash as I go like this smart lady because that might become a pain at the end. 
 
 


The final thing I am working on is this:
A baby quilt for my boss' soon to be born baby boy.  I reallly like it a lot and it came together rather quickly.  I would say this is actually the quickest one I've make yet.  Its approximately 36" x 36".  I have it quilted to binded to share on Friday but in the middle of quilting it this happen.  It's from this pattern I found on pinterest.
Lets just say that when it comes to the machine or your fingers, the machine always win.  I was being stubborn because we all know you're suppose to strat from the center of the quilt to work your way out and use a walking foot for straight lines.  Well my machine is an industrial that doesn't do walking foot so I did the lines one way okay and then when I went to do the lines going the other way it started puckering and I was busy pulling on the fabric as hard as I could to stop the puckering I didn't realize I was getting to close.  The worse of it all is I ended up ripping all of it out to start over and do it the right way luckily it was a small quilt.  The good news is I figured out a different way to quilt it and I love the way it turned out. 

So with all that going on I've decided to join a Bee that starts in July, I'm a lunatic!!!!

Busy Busy Busy plus the kids are out of school and I got to get them into a summer routine of not being bored all the time.  Hope you guys are having/had a great Wednesday.  Join me over at Freshly Pieced for more WIPs. 






 
 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Basket Shoot

I wanted to start of my Sunday Stash with this beauty that I received yesterday in the mail.  Its all way from Pensacola, FL, our favorite vacation spot. 

 
It's from my Fabric Basket Swap partner, Chelsie (Chelsie Creates). I love the baby one.  Honestly I think my husband likes it more than the basket I made.  He loves everything about it from the handles to the square patchwork to the tan bottom.  I've already filled it with my patterns before he takes it for himself. 
 
 
 
Here's what I'm sending out tomorrow.  I made a mini quilt too after I saw what Stephanie from Quarter Incher was sending out with hers.


 
I made one for my boss and fiance who are expecting a baby boy in July and filled it with some bath goodies.
 
And one last one for Katelinh's first grade teacher.  This one I made after I received mine and my husband gushing over how fabric handles are better then the one that I've been using and he also had some say as to where they should go.  Overall I like them all. 
 
Now for the goodies:
 Black and White Master Stash Builder (29 Fat Quarters)
 A panel of each color From Sarah Jane's Out To Sea Nautical Map
 Half Yard Bundle of Center City Maps by Jay McCarroll for Free Spirit
Ride Fat Quarter bundle by Julia Rothman for Windhar Fabrics
 
All this from Westwood Acres with their Memorial Day sale last weekend.  Super exciting stuff!!! 
I also acquired a couple of books from upcoming Sew Alongs:
 
 
 Today I've been itching to sew but there's not a project that goes with that feeling so I think I'm going to do some finishing things I've been holding off on or I could always start something brand new.  Thanks for checking out my stash!