Weekend WrapUp

This was a full week, filled with here and there adventures but overall still very enjoyable without being feeling overwhelmed. 

On Monday me and my Hubby celebrated our 1 year anniversary.  We were together for 7 years and had two beautiful babies before we got married so I would say we knew what we were getting into.  We had our wedding cake remade for the special occasion since we didn't get a chance to freeze our original one. 

 

On Wednesday we stopped by the library, new to us, for me to make some copies of templates but then realized that there was going to be a magic show.  What better than a free surprise kid friendly entertainment.

 

It was really cool and next week they're going to have a bug petting session at the same time.  We will definitely be attending that. 

With everything going on including a full weekend at the pool and oil changes for all three car I managed to sneak in some sewing time.  Mostly a block here and there:

Block 19,20,and 21 of the City Sampler:

 

 

I got caught up with the Virtual Quilting Bee Blocks

 

 

 

Here's Whitney July blocks for We Bee New.  She asked for orange and blue stars following this tutorial. I hope these are blue enough.

 

Finally my bib for the Patchwork Please! SAL. 

 

I know its not exactly a bib more like a purse that age appropriate for my youngest one.  I did start off making the bib thinking there are plenty of people having babies I could gift it to but then I showed my hubby and said I thought you were making a pouch.  A pouch?  How does this look like a pouch?  A little light bulb went off and after a few trys, lots of time with the seam ripper and I had to practically make a second bib for the back I got myself a little purse perfect for the little princess.  I had to use 2" strips for the binding to make it sturdier.

 

I added magnetic snaps on the inside to keep it close, that's her favorite part.  Thanks for checking out my stuff. Have a great Monday tomorrow!!!

 

 

 

 



 



It's FRIDAY!

Okay this week definitely went by way too fast.  Actually summer seems to be whizzing by this year.  I am working on a couple of things this week.  One being the Patchwork Please!  SAL, instead of working on the apple bib due this week I decided to get a head start on the first quilt in the book since every time I look through the book I get overwhelmed by how many projects there are and some of them kind of big.  I managed to make all 16 blocks. 

If you have everything prepared these blocks come together really fast.  I had picked out the fabric for each block about a month ago and had to wait to get to a copying machine to copy the template.  I would say between cutting the fabric, sewing and pressing 2 days is sufficient to make all the blocks.  I would sew 1 or 2 blocks on and off, here and there. 

Here are some of my favorites:

This last one is my most favorite and it was a last minute decision because I had other fabric picked out for it but decided I needed some more green.  I think the top will be completed by the end of the weekend and I am still going to do the apple bib before Sunday.  If I'm good I'll get the dino hat done as well, we'll just have to see.

Onto another finish.  I finished this last weekend but didn't have time to share.  I had originally made a baby quilt for my boss's newborn but then realized they were doing an owl theme.  I was going to go ahead and give them the one I made but came across somebody (I tried to look for it but no luck, but thanks for the inspiration) making the owl quilt from Dare to Be Squared and knew it would be perfect.  I had to try to get it done in time.  I started quilting it and the next day she was in the hospital, two weeks early.  Needless to say I finished it on Sunday and gifted it on Tuesday. 

Like most of my projects my hubby starts off not really feeling it, he's very particular, but ends up falling in love with the finished project.  Let's just say that if it hadn't been for the embroidered name this one might of stayed with us.  I finished half the blocks, pieced the whole back, quilted and binded on my new machine. 

Here are some closer look to see the quilting.  I did my first FMQ on this quilt with some wood grain texture type of stitches.  Lets just say this is a very forgiving way to quilt.  I mean when you're working on it you're like freaking out on how the stitches are looking kind of awful but when you sit back and look at the whole thing it looks amazing.  The pictures are kind of wonky because this is what I had to work with on Sunday at 8PM.

Overall everything worked out great.  I would definitely make this quilt again. 

I got to do some embroidery with my new machine for the name and the green ribbon I got from Joann on clearance.  Have a great weekend everybody and I'm linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF! 

Weekend Wrapped Up with a Bow

Hi everyone another quick post here!  I finished my City Sampler Blocks for the week.

Block 16

Block 17

Block 18

I made a zipper pouch instead of the placemat for the Patchwork Please Zakka 2.0 SAL.  Instead of the ric rac I tried some embroidery from my new machine.  I love how it turned out.  I'm using this pouch to hold my embroidery thread. 

And here's a sneak peak of one of my bigger finishes.  I'll share more on it later but its all wrapped up ready for a baby who arrived yesterday.

Something New

 
I've been seeing this around all year but hadn't got a chance to really look into it.  Well I looked into it and guess what?  It's awesome, a really cool way to keep on track with a schedule and finish some stuff.  Its July so I and everyone else who hasn't done it yet still have a chance to get started and be eligible for the prize. 

Here's a rehash of my goals for July:
Finish Owl Quilt
Squared Quilt- sandwiched needs to be quilted and binded
Sisters Ten BOM July Block
Zakka SAL: Stay caught up as well as start paper piecing for flower quilt
We Bee New Blocks
City Sample SAL- Finish up to Block 27
Curve Medallion QAL- 8 Blocks done
1and Half Quilt (Still a UFO): Squared and sandwiched

As you can see a couple of big finishes on the list.  I am currently quilting the owl quilt and hope to be done soon.  I think that it is some how connected to the baby already.  I started quilting it last night and the next thing you know the baby is coming, two weeks early.  The mama is in the hospital as we speak. 

A Quick Friday Finish

Not a quick project but a quick post. Hope everybody had great 4th!  I got to do some sewing on my new machine and found my 1/4 inch yay.  With my industrial the 1/4 inch mark was very accurate so I never needed to use a slant 1/4 but this machine is different and took a little bit of getting use to.  I finished my owl quilt top and decided to do a pieced back. So now its all basted and being quilted so not much time to blog here's a couple of pictures to hold you over.

 

 

If this post was too short go check out this one to get an ear full.  Hopefully more time to share what I got done so far this week tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by, linking up at CrazyMomQuilts.

 

A full week kind of post

I took a little break from blogging last week because we had a big birthday party on Monday and family in town the rest of the week, family being my niece and nephew, and brother making it 5 kids in the house instead of my usual 2.  Lets just say you never know how easy you've got it until you got something harder.  They were so fun to hang out with but there was absolutely no time for sewing, picture taking, and no blog writing.  That left me with lots of time to catch up on reading everybody else's blog (lots of sewing inspiration) but also a laundry list of stuff I need to blog about so bare with me this is a combination of a June recap, July plans, WIPs and stash report.  I'll be linking this up at WIP Wednesday and Fresh Sewing Day.

Starting with June here's what I managed to get done:

Block 6 2.City Sampler Block 5 3.Divided Basket for Katelinhs's teacher

4.Divided Basket for Baby 5.Animal Baby Quilt 1. City Sampler 6.Fancy Folded Star Block

7.City Sampler Block 4 8.Bell Pepper Coaster 9.Scalloped Pillow for Mini Challenge

 

1. Squared Quilt Top 2. BLD Kitchen Towels 3. Virtual Bee Blocks

4. City Sampler Block 7,8,9 5.Tea Holder &Placemat 6.City Sampler Block 10

7. City Sampler Block 11 8. City Sampler Block 12 9. Zakka Apron

 

 

1. Rainbow Charm Swap  2. Modern QAL Spool Block 3. 2 zipper pouches for TRAC

4. City Sampler Block 14 5.City Sampler Block 13 6.City Sampler Block 15

7. &8. Virtual Bee Blocks 9. Katelinh's Birthday Present

 

Not too shabby if I shall say so myself.  The only finish I really want to talk about is Katelinh's Birthday present.  Its a bag I started back who knows how long and a matching 3zipper pouch.  I had to get the embroidery done for the front pocket and one of the zipper on the pouch had to be retweaked to work. I literally finished it the morning of the party.  She loves it and has her birthday money in the pouch and pinata candy in the bag. Here's some more picture!



Goals for Friday:
Owl Quilt Top- finish top, sandwich and baste.
Modern QAL July Block cut and sewed.
Zakka SAL- cut fabric for placemat.
Virtual Quilting Bee BOM- Cut fabric.
We Bee New Block- Cut fabric.
City Sampler SAL- cut fabric, sew, press, and picture block 18 (Block 16 and 17 FINISHED!)
Curve Medallion QAL- Cut fabric

Goals for July:
Finish Owl Quilt
Squared Quilt- sandwiched needs to be quilted and binded
Sisters Ten BOM July Block
Zakka SAL: Stay caught up as well as start paper piecing for flower quilt
We Bee New Blocks
City Sample SAL- Finish up to Block 27
Curve Medallion QAL- 8 Blocks done
1and Half Quilt (Still a UFO): Squared and sandwiched how might I quilt this bad boy you might ask.  If you read here, its unfinished due to my machine only being able to piece and not really quilt so this big quilt had been left all alone for a couple of months.  I got a big surprise on Monday!!!!!!

There's probably more that I haven't thought about yet but too bad right?  We still got about 25 days left in July. 

I was also thinking about entering this!  I know its kind of insane and intriguing at the same time.  I would probably suck but it sounds so challenging.  I  just talked myself into it.  I'm entering it and you should too.  Only 10 people get to actually do it but its worth a shot. 

As you can see from I have some new things that started this month, one being the Curve Medallion QAL and the other I joined a beginner Bee that runs for 6 months.  My month is going to be October.  I'm super excited!!!  I think there's a Prism QAL starting soon too but I need to figure that out, I got the pattern just in case.  There's SWOON 2013 starting as well.  Oh so many things so little time.  I can't just pick and choose one or the other because I'll look at everyone else's pictures later and wished I would've done it.  AHHHHHHH!  We'll see what I can get to.  If I can't get to it I can't get to it and have to let it go for the time being (like the Marcelle Medallion). 

Okay if you've read to this point then you get to know my surprise.  My hubby told me there would be something coming in the mail on Monday but both him and I were going to be at work.  I told him I would try to come home at lunch and see the mailman came yet.  I went home and the mail was already there with a note saying we would have to go to the post office to pick it up since they missed us.  I wasn't going to give up there, I drove around my whole neighborhood looking for the mail truck and found it going down the last street and stopped it in its tracks (not really it was already stopped).  I ask if he still had my package and he said he did but it was too big to just put in a car, he didn't see my huge pilot parked behind him.  He sighed and got out anyways and then he saw the monster SUV and said it would fit but it was really heavy.  What is this thing????  I mean our anniversary is coming up so I'm thinking diamonds (in my dreams) or something like that.  He opens the back of his truck, which I have never seen before, and sitting there taking up his whole trunk is a big beautiful JANOME box.   I couldn't believe it, a Janome Horizon 12000 to be exact.  WHAT!!!!!!  I didn't even know what the machine looks like.  I knew it was amazing but how amazing?  Let me tell you when I wanted a machine I was looking at the ones that were in the 3 digit range and this one was way above my budget.  My hubby is the type to research something for months before he makes a big purchase so of course he did the same with this and he got himself (or me) the best machine out there.  He tells me not to tell everybody about it because it would be boasting but who else am I suppose to share this amazing news to.  Nobody else around me would understand how great this machine is.  But you guys know and you guys can celebrate with me.  YAY!!!!  I'm jumping up and down inside and out  I can help but to smile all day about it. 

Here's some pictures of the box while we were opening it.  I was so excited I didn't care how messy the living room was and still is:

 

More about this in another post with lots of pictures.

Thanks for listening to me rant and rave about everything under the moon.  I feel like half of it is out and I'll wait until Friday to do the rest.  Actually for listening/ reading the whole time and celebrating with me I want to give you something.  Lets do a giveaway (spontaneous).  I'll send the lucky winner 3 fat quarters from my stash, just let me know what colors you want in the comment box for a chance to win and I'll find you something good!!!  I'll pick a winner on Sunday July 7th at Noon!  You like how its kind of hiding for those of you who actually read my nonsense and not for those who just scroll (nothing wrong with that, I do that a lot) I'm thinking Fridays post will be huge too so I might have a giveaway for those that read that too. 

Thanks again everyone !!!!

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.