Weekend Check In

So here we are, 10 pm on Sunday night.

Seriously, where did my time go??

 

Because of working 12 hour shifts, I actually had a four day weekend.

So during nap time, I rocked out in my sewing room.

 

I finished my February Globetrotting Block of the month, "Venice":

Love the 'Me and My Sister' black and white print in the center:

 

I also put in quite a bit of work on my honey's Civil war Quilt:

I actually put in some serious work on this bad boy.

I finished attaching my square in a square blocks.

Made the 2 inch square borders and added the 1 inch borders.

 

Only four more borders to go...

 

But between the 8 star blocks and the 48 flying geese, I have ALOT of piecing left to do.

So it will remain my work in progress.

 

The sun was shining so brightly here in South East Michigan this weekend, so I took the lighting opportunity and grabbed a few shots of some quilts you have not seen yet.

 

-These were my finishes late last summer-

 

First off, my cop-out Riley Blake block of the month quilt:

(I copped out after the April block)

 

But I totally adore the monochromatic-ness of it.

And, you can barely see it in the pics, but the fabric has sparkles as well... LOVE.

 

And my orphan block quilt:

 

This quilt actually contains orphan blocks from myself, my mom and my aunt.

 

I always think of a farm when I look at this quilt.

You have the split rail fence, the houses, barns, geese, pond, stream, silo, windmill, furrows...

 

You see all that, right??

 

Everyone enjoy your evening!

Olive Progress

I finally had some time tonight to sit down and sew.

 

Between potty training with the toddler and a virus with the baby, this mama has been waaaay too exhausted to sew.

 

I finished cutting out my Mod Olives pieces:

 

 Cutting out these bad boys wasn't hard at all.

 

But...

I guess I should have made some sort of practice piece with my Quick Curves ruler before I jumped right in sewing the Mod Olives pattern.

This being my first time using the ruler, I don't know if this pattern is totally geared for a beginner.

 

But I ripped a few stitches and used ALOT of steam from my iron and got my first six blocks done:

 

And this means I'm ahead of the 4 block a week schedule- Sweet!!

 

It wasn't until after I was pressing my finished blocks that I started to see these little puckers in my solid fabric. 

 

I have to figure out how to get rid of those...

or I'm REALLY hoping that some free motion quilting will forgive those little puckers.

Another little project that is ongoing is my husband's civil war quilt:

I've been working on this quilt since earlier this summer. I get really bored with these little 4 inch squares, so I do a little at a time.

The top five rows are all sewn together, The bottom five are a work in progress.

Once these blocks are all together, then I can start adding pieced borders.

 

I do feel like I was making economy block before they were cool. ;)

 

These little blocks have been rearranged more than once on the design wall.

 

She just wants to help with daddy's quilt.

 

This kid loves her fabric. 

 

Can't imagine where she gets that from!

 

Have a great night everyone!

A little finish: My March BOM

I was able to *finally* finish my Riley Blake block of the month for March.

Cute, right?

 

Three down, six to go.

I am still loving the solids.

I can't wait till this is finished.

I have a very special recipient in mind.

She has had a hard year, and has finally been blessed for all of her hard work.

 

I can't get too specific, because I believe she reads this blog from time to time-

So more to come later this year!

 

I also have a new WIP to start.

I have been given the opportunity to make a store sample for my little LQS.

They needed something to showcase their line of "Good Morning" from Me and My Sister designs for Moda.

I thought this would be nice for a summer display.

I opted for this pattern that they have in stock:

I felt that it would showcase the large print flowers.

 

...Maybe someday they will have MY patterns in stock...

 

I hope you all have a nice evening!

 

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday.

 

WIP Wednesday: Excuses. Excuses.

I have a million excuses as to why I have been so quiet over here.

Working full time and children make up most of my excuses.

 

I was able to sneak away on Saturday to join in on drop-in sewing at my favorite LQS.

I spent most of my time jibber-jabbering, but was able to finish paper piecing half of my star:

I found this free template at Six White Horses. She has some awesome paper piecing templates.

This template has been slightly tricky-

My biggest problem has been cutting the right size pieces of fabric for my template.

It should be easier on the second half.

 

I would love to sit down to my sewing machine sometime this week.

It might have to wait until Friday night.

 

I HAVE to get my squares cut for my Amy Butler Charm Swap.

I am the queen of meeting deadlines.

I hope to get them sent out to Rachel on Friday during my lunch hour. 

 

Another WIP continues to be my Lilly Pilly quilt.

She is waiting patiently to be sandwiched, basted, quilted, and bound.

We'll get there...

 

Have a wonderful evening, everyone.

I'll be linking up with Lee.

 

 

Turnin' a Trick

Slow, slow progress on this poor valentine quilt binding.

So, in light of that, I don't have to much else to blog about.

But I had an epiphany yesterday at work...

 

Office Binder Clips to hold your binding as you stitch!

 I'm notorious at losing pins, and I have a curious little boy that is in to everything, so this is a great alternative to pinning it down.

So I am sharing my trick with you all today, and linking up with Sew at Home Mummy's "Tips and Tricks" Tuesday.

And, do you ever find that as soon as you put your quilt on the ground, it attracts pets and kids like a magnet?

Don't have any tips on that one ;)

Now, off to get this binding done and watch (listen to) the Bachelor...

Garbage TV is my guilty pleasure.

Have a great evening, everyone!

 

 

Out of Focus

I simply cannot focus on one project at a time right now.

 

I have started quilting my Scrappy Stash QAL quilt:

I got through one bobbin of my quilting, and had to give in to the stomach flu.

 (I was trying to ignore it.)

 I knew it was coming...

My son brought it home and gave it to my husband and then he gave it to me.

(Even though I had emptied half a can of Lysol around the house and washed my hands incessantly.) Thankfully the baby didn't catch it!

But anyway... That's where my SSQAL quilt has stayed... one bobbin in.

Then, I had the opportunity to use my mom's Long arm last weekend. Because my SSQAL was sitting on my machine, I pulled a top out of my WIP pile and took the kids up to Grandma's.

 Long arm quilting at my mom's is wonderful. I get to quilt [mostly] uninterrupted and grandma gets time with the babies. 

I made this stack and whack top back in the winter of 2011. I quilted each of the strips within the block alternating between bubbles and hills.

If I can get this bound, it might make it up on the wall for Valentine's Day.

 

And of course, spending time in blog land is a HUGE distraction to my current sewing To-do list.

Do you ever get caught in the chain reaction of posts and tutorials and pictures and such?

It all started with falling in love with Tessa's ruffly skirt.

So I started to look for a ruffly skirt tutorial.

(I found one)

But... then I found the sweetest handmade baby shoes!

So I went in search for a tutorial for that.

(I found one)

I loosely followed the pattern and came up with these:

These are slightly small for my little one (who is already 2 mos old... can you believe it?).

These are more or less a prototype... I didn't like the way the pattern had me assemble the shoes.

The next pair will be much better.

Sewing these tiny shoes make me think of wanting to make Barbie clothes when I was about 7.

I begged my grandma to let me make 'real' Barbie clothes from a pattern

 (My homemade barbie clothes consisted of scraps held together with safety pins).

She told me I wouldn't like the tiny seams...

You were right, Grandma, tiny seams aren't much fun.

 

My sister is expecting a baby girl- and is due on the 30th of this month (so any time, now).

I'm thinking a pair of shoes and a ruffly skirt and maybe even a flowery headband are in order for my sweet new niece.

 

Maybe even matching outfits for our little girls?

 

See... there I go again, losing focus!

 

So on the list for the weekend:

 

Binding

Quilting

Outfits.

 

(and maybe a visit to see the new baby)

 

I hope everyone has a very wonderful and productive weekend!!

 

(They are just getting so big!)

 

 

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday... And a finish!



Maternity leave is slowly ticking away. I only opted to take 6 weeks (not counting the 2 weeks for bed rest), so on Friday, I will officially be half way done. Bummer. I am really enjoying being home all day with my little ones, and this is causing me to rethink how much I really like my 9-5 (No weekends, No holidays) desk job, and if I really want to go back to 12-hour shifts at the hospital.

First off, the baby needed a stocking. In the frenzy of bed rest and the new baby, my sewing space became a disaster area/catch-all.

So in order to make the stocking, I had to organize first:

We have built-in cutouts surrounding our basement, making it a perfect place to store my stash. Half of this fabric was sitting in a laundry basket from when we had juggled bedrooms in prep for the baby. I love that it's sitting out now! When I was folding and organizing it, I was so inspired for a ton of new projects! So many ideas... so little time.

Organizing opened up plenty of space for my little guy to help me out:

This kid loves to play in my scraps!

I made the baby's stocking to follow suite of her brother's stocking that I made for his first Christmas last year. I have a Simplicity pattern (#4842) that I use for the base of the stocking, then I kind of just improvise from there. 

I used the fabric line Bella! by Amanda Murphy for Blend for the outer stocking and cuff. The applique is Nancy's Holiday favorites by Nancy Halvorsen for Bernatex. The lining was something I pulled out of my stash... most likely from JoAnn's.

I quilted the stocking with feathers... my favorite. It felt so good to do a little machine quilting. That is one of my favorite parts of putting a quilt together. Makes me itch to finish my Scrappy Stash QAL quilt!

I was able to get it finished today...

...because someone decided to sleep so sweetly:

 

So I've hung the stockings, but need to find another command strip for the dog's stocking...

...or I could try one of the idea's I've seen on Pinterest! I have become so addicted to that site. I downloaded the app on my phone while I was on bed rest, and have been hooked since!

Usually, things are much more festive around my house this time of year. I love decorating for Christmas. With the baby, I'm happy that the tree is up, and that she has a stocking!

 

Now for my WIP's:

In the spirit of using what I have around the house and saving money, (Maternity leave over X-mas is no fun financially) I am making my own Christmas cards.

I have my prototype made:

I feel like it needs a little something else... some kind of embellishment, like glitter or ribbon (luckily, I have plenty of both in my crafty cabinets).

And my Scrappy Stash QAL quilt still hangs on my design wall. I sit and look at it longingly, waiting for a chance to work on it...

And for the fist time in a while...

I'm linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday! 



 

Have a great afternoon everyone!

WIP Wednesday: I've returned!

After my little week and a half break, I've finally returned!

A crazy work week, a cold, and this whole 8 months pregnant thing can really put a damper on my blogging!

My WIP continues to be my Scrappy Quilt Along. All of my blocks are assembled, and I have sketched out a layout. I am determined to use my stash for this whole quilt. I wanted to stick with a modern theme- so I picked a gray mottled piece that I had buried in there.

The fabric makes me think of granite, with black and gold flecks. I'm not quite sold on it - so I flipped the fabric over and got a mostly solid gray with light black flecks.

I WELCOME your thoughts and opinions on this!! 

 My mom and her 'quilting cronies' - a more traditional quilting bunch- prefer the front of the fabric.

 I just can't decide...

Then I tried my hand at machine paper piecing. I have an idea for the outer border of this quilt - so I played around with some wax paper and scraps:

 It was really easy, but I have a hard time keeping the grain right.

Are any of you experienced with machine paper piecing? Is grain something I should worry about when doing this?

My little guy automatically adopted the above piece as his own. He had an absolute meltdown when mommy took her flying geese back. (Life is hard when you are 14 months old.)

So, because this piece was practice, I Made a pillow for him:

 Of course, now that I made him a pillow, he hasn't looked twice at it...

 

I also got a package of 7" zippers... will be great for Christmas goodies!

 Check out Zipit for some awesome prices and selections on zippers. They were awesome to work with!

My sisters, mom, and I had our craft show this weekend:

 I made a stack of burp cloths and took my schnibbles and created pom-pons out of them.

 Unfortunately, the shoppers were not in the market for burp cloths on Saturday...

Everything I made was from my stash - so I did not count out of pocket expenses.

The table split 4 ways was $5 per person.

My grand total profit was -$3.

There will always be other craft shows :)

 

Anyway, we had a fun little Halloween. No trick-or-treating this year...

Next year, when mommy is not 8 mos. pregnant, we will all have fun trick-or-treating!

I'm linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday: 



 

And with Sachiko's Link Party:

  And I made it through Blogtoberfest!  

 

Have a great Halloween Night my friends!