How Far Will You Go?

All the way apparently! It's finally finished.

 

I had a little bit of trouble finishing up the binding.  I'm sure you can see why...

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that she likes the quilt :)

 

 

It was hard to get a good photo of this especially since it was night and our house has TERRIBLE lighting even in the day.  I had to stand on a chair try and get the whole quilt in the picture.  Next time my MIL is over I might have her help me get some better ones.

 

 

The back.

 

 

And the next Evil Knievil :)

 

Linking up to The Elven Garden.

What a Weekend!

I got some unexpected mail on Saturday...Francine is back home! And she brought presents!

 

April at Sew to Speak sent a few goodies back with my little fox softie that I entered into her competition.  Francine didn't win but I still got come cute fabric, a neat pattern and even some ribbon that I can put to use!

And I FINALLY got started on my Sea of Stars Quilt.  I'm not sure where the Quilt Along is at but I do know that I'm way behind.  This quilt is supposed to be a present and needs to be finished pretty quick!  And why did I not realize how much difference pressing seams open can make?!?!  My blocks look so much better now.  You can tell that the one "light" block that I've done (top, right corner) does not have the seams pressed open and all of the others do.  I also plan on using the quilt as you go method since I haven't gotten my vintage singer yet.

 

I had another chance to test a paper pieced pattern for Kristy at Quiet Play.  As usual, the pattern is great (although I did goof it up a little.  I swapped the two middle leg pieces, whoops!)  Not sure what I'm going to make with it yet but I'll come up with something :)

 

And a few Triple Zip Pouches.  For some reason I had a really hard time with the directions on this pattern.  I'm pretty sure it was me and not the actual pattern...either way they turned out really cute!  I'm still trying to figure out the correct sizes to cut the main exterior piece if it is a directional fabric.  I tried on the little crab pouch and the seam is about 1/2 an inch toward the back.  I have plans to make many, many more of these, especially since there is a Triple Zip Along starting soon!

 

I'm planning on attending my first meeting at the Oklahoma City Modern Quilt Guild tonight.  Let's just hope my anxiety doesn't get the best of me.  If almost feels like kindergarten again...will they like me?, will they think my sewing skills are sub par?, etc.  Does anyone else suffer from terrible social anxiety?  If so, how do you calm yourself?

 

I'm linking up at BOMs Away Monday and Let's Get Acquainted.

Happy Dance!

I'm not usually the kind of person that gets overly excited about things but I think I may have actually done a little dance yesterday when I saw that my package from Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.  So many beautiful fabrics!

 

I cannot wait to find the perfect project and dig into them!

 

And while we're on the subject of Don't Call Me Betsy, I thought it would be a good time to show you the progress I've made on my first block for the Sea of Stars QAL. 

 

 

 I have fallen desperately behind and now the deadline for my quilt is coming up.  It is going to be a gift this spring so it really needs some attention.  It doesn't help that I am making it extremely complicated by using 2 pinks, 3 blues, and 4 browns to make the stars.  And of course I do not want any two stars to be the same so I had to sit and figure out the combos and layout that I wanted and now I have to cut each block as I go so that I don't confuse myself too bad...but I think the finished quilt will be worth the it.  And I happen to know that the person it is going to LOVES homemade items and can really appreciate the love and effort put into them.

 

And I couldn't resist sharing this photo :)

 

Better Late Than Never

I forgot to take a photo of my completed Rooster Project so here is a shot from Christmas.

 

And a close up.

 

I think she liked it :)

Linking up to Really Random Thursday Friday.

WIPs: UFO Priorities

I don't know if I've ever mentioned before that I am VERY new to quilting.  I only started quilting after I started my blog and started following a lot of other wonderful ladies (and a couple of guys) and saw their amazing creations.  My focus had always been on purses and accessories with a few kids things and random things thrown in. 

 

Once I discovered the wonders of quilting everything else got put on the back burner.  BUT since I am in the process of signing up for the craft shows that I want to participate in this year, its time to get back to the business end of things :(.  I will still be working on my quilts, but they will not be my priority.

 

I had previously cut a LOT of earbud pouches and keyring clutches with the intention of getting them ready and listing them in my Etsy shop.  Somehow they got put into the closet and forgotten about.  With everyone posting about UFOs the last couple of weeks I decided to dig them out.

 

BTW, is anyone else having problems uploading photos?!

 

This is my stack of precut projects earbud pouches and keyring clutches.  The first step is to order zippers...yay shopping!  (Yes, I even get excited about shopping for zippers.)  There are several other purse that I have already cut but those will have to wait...

 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

January BOMs

 I'm happy to report that I am caught up on my January BOMs. There are a couple more that I'm contemplating signing up for but I haven't made up my mind just yet.

First is the And Sew On BOM:

 

Such a cute block!  I will admit that I took the easy way out and drew the lines on my ruler with a fabric marker instead of embroidering them on...what can I say, I was in a hurry to get to the next block :)

 

Super Penguin QAL: 

 

 

This block is actually from last year but it is from the latest set that has been released.  I WOULD be caught up on this QAL now if it wasn't for the fact that I have decided that although I like my blocks individually, I HATE them together.  Therefore, I will be starting over using a white background on all blocks to make it have at least a somewhat unified look. 

 

Sugar Club BOM:

 

I'm digging into my Denise Schmidt stash for this one (gulp!)  I'm extremely happy with the way it came out and cannot wait for next month's pattern!

 

Lucky Stars BOM:

 

I have decided on this BOM I will be using black and gray as my background fabrics- alternating every other block.  When using black as the background I will use gray and one other color and when using gray as the background I will use black and one other color in the design (hopefully that makes sense).  Again, I'm really happy with this block!

 

Threadbias Pretty in Patchwork Holidays Sew Along: 

 

January's project is the cute little paper pieced polar bear.  I did make a smaller version of him along with is little penguin friends as a wall hanging to give to my dad for Christmas but this one is for my family.  The first Christmas item I have been able to make for our family-better late than never :)  I did change up the back and made it an envelope back instead of one with a zip closure.  The back is red with light green polka dots--LOVE IT!

 

 

OKC Modern Quilt Guild BOM:

 

 

These are the fabrics that I chose to use.  I did finish this block but the lighting was bad so the picture will have to wait.

 

Frosted Pumpkin Woodland Sampler:

 

 

Almost done!  Soooo cute!

 

Frosted Pumpkin Winter Wonderland Sampler:

 

 

Not much progress on this.  I'm kind of working on it in my spare time since there's nearly 11 months before it needs to be done.

 

And I finally got my fabrics from The Connecting Thread.  I went a little crazy with their end of year clearance.  The bottom left shows all of the fabrics together and the other pictures have them broken down into categories/collections - clockwise from top left:

 

Manly fabrics (brother approved) :P, Parlor Pets, Bookish, Soaked, nautical fabrics, and the whole order.

 

 

And I am extremely proud that I went to JoAnn's and came out with exactly what I needed, no more, no less.  I now have the white for the background of the new Super Penguin blocks, the black fabric for the backing of the Pervalong Wall Hanging (yes, I have finally decided !!!), the binding for the How Far Will You Go Quilt, the binding for the Pervalong, and some super cute fabric for a pair of pj pants for Squeak :)

 

 

Linking up to Let's Get Acquainted and BOMs Away Monday.

 

Back to Work

I haven't worked much these last two weeks but that changes today.  It's going to be a little hard to get back into the swing of things but I'll manage :).  Our internet has been out so I have quite a few things to report today.

We finally finished all of our Christmases.  Squeak had a blast and was perfectly behaved as usual.  He got a bunch more stuff for us to find room for ;).

I haven't had as much time to sew as I would have liked considering that I've had so much time off, but I did manage to put together and quilt my How Far Will You Go Quilt.  I have to admit that I kind of gave up on this one about halfway through the quilting process.  For some reason I cannot sew a straight line with my walking foot.  I'm not sure what my problem is but I'm thinking that in the future I may just use my regular one and see what happens.  So not only is the quilting terrible, but the back has some puckering.  Nothing major, but definitely noticeable if your really looking.  What do you do with a quilt when it has flaws?  It's not done in colors that will match my house but I cannot bear to give it away after spending so much time on it (and I do love the top).  Is it okay to sell a not so perfect quilt?  Does it add character or just make it look like bad quality?  I also did a pretty good job of confusing myself on it.  I cut the inner border in advance and set it aside to make sure I'd have enough of that fabric but when I got to that part (about a month later) I thought I had cut the binding so I skipped the inner border.  Not a big deal, I'm happy with the way it looks, BUT when I went to do my binding I had a bunch of 1.5" strips instead of 2.5".  I'm pretty sure that JoAnn's doesn't have any more of that fabric and I can't find it online so I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point.  I can't do a scrappy binding because I used nearly every little scrap that I had trying to piece together a back big enough.  That was a fail.  I ended up wasting a lot of time and had to go to the store for more, which they thankfully had, anyway.

On to happier things--

I made another pair of Huggs for Baby T.  Her mother is being induced early Thursday morning so they are being sent with her sister.  Hope she likes them!

 

Since I was without the internet I wasn't able to print off the patterns for the projects I wanted to work on and wasn't able to get to the new Frosted Pumpkin pattern that I had saved to on it I decided it was a good time to FINALLY redo my sewing room the way that I really want.  I have rearranged the furniture in the past but not much else.  Since Dad is helping me to make some counters to line the wall with bookcases as the base for extra storage I figured I should probably paint BEFORE he installs them.

 

This is after moving everything away from the walls--SOOOOO much stuff!  Sad to say I actually purged two large boxes from it already.  And in an effort to clear out room in the overflowing closet (see below) I have put most of my large purses on sale in my Etsy shop.

 

 

This room has trim and molding.  It took me about 6 hours to tape everything off after applying a fresh coat of white to the trim.  I read on Pinterest that if you paint over the painters tape with the color that it is covering, it will keep the other colors from bleeding under the tape and you will end up with a straight line.  Made sense to me so I figured I would give it a try.  We live in a rent house so I don't usually invest so much time into the painting but I want this room to be as close to perfect as possible.

 

One hint that the Pinterest site does not give is that you need to make sure your iron is off before you start moving furniture around (yes, you would think this was common sense but yet I still did it) or you may end up with something like this on your upper arm. 

 

 

 

Just another shot of the before color of the wall.  I'm headed home after work to finish it up.  Can't wait to see how it looks when I'm done!!!

P.S.  Anyone know if it's okay to spray paint mini blinds?