Grrrr!

I absolutely hate this but there is no way around it...

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Back to Normal

I've finally gotten my energy back.  No more going home from work and laying on the couch waiting for the nausea to pass.  And Squeak has decided that he doesn't mind sitting in his playpen for a few minutes every now and then.  And it shows in the increase in production this last week.  Not only am I almost caught up on several BOMs but my bedroom has been cleaned and all of the dishes and laundry are done and put up (I'll just pretend like I don't' see that basket of Squeak's clothes over there).  Here's where I stand on most of my WIPs:

• And Sew On- Finished April's block on the 30th, May's pattern is printed and fabrics have been chosen

• Sugar Club- Finished April's block on the 30th, ready to start May's block

• OKC Modern Quilt Guild BOM-  Finished February's block yesterday, need to do March, April & May blocks.

• Woodland Sampler- Finished April's Block last night and already started on May's

• Riley Blake Mystery BOM-  Need to do March & April blocks
• Lucky Stars-  May's pattern is printed and fabrics have been chosen
• Springtime Sampler- Desperately far behind, will be put on hold until road trip time 
• Monsterz Triangle Quilt for Squeak- Pieces are cut, need to decide on a layout
• Riley Blake Halloween Quilt- just need to finish piecing the back then I can baste and quilt.
• Dancing Stars Quilt-  This one has been on hold for awhile.
• Scrappy Swoon-  I worked on this quite a bit the last week and managed to find all of the fabrics that I ran out of and only have 3 small blocks to finish before I can finishe piecing it all together.  
• Wedding Quilt-  Still haven't found the fabric I ran out of.
• Custom Quilt- This weekend will be dedicated to finishing up the piecing (and maybe even quilting).
• Custom Comforter- On the hunt for the perfect blender fabric to tie the other two together.
• Mystery Round Robin- Awaiting May's block
• Modern She Made Swap-  Main item and secondary item are ready; deciding what little extras to include.
• Winter Wonderland Sampler-  On hold until the road trip.  I've also decided to start replacing all of my DMC floss with Cosmo.  I've been told DMC can bleed and we can't have that!
• Brotherly Love items- the Kirby cushion is complete and Megaman has been started.  I've also started cutting the squares for the first block of the Mario Quilt.  No progress on picking fabrics for the Dr. Who quilt.
• Threadbias Sew Along-  I completely missed March and April but I've got a good start on this month with a little drawstring bag made out of a Glamping mini charm pack.
• Forest QAL-  All patterns are printed.  Need to go shopping :)

Let's see if I can make a dent in any of this before the end of the month!

Weekend Work

My todo list at the start of the weekend looked like:

• Mystery Round Robin borders
• Modern She Made Swap items
• Custom Quilt Layout
• Mario Quilt cutting
• Wedding Quilt
• Lucky Stars April block

 I must say that I'm pretty happy with everything I accomplished.

My Mystery Round Robin borders are done and I will be putting the block in the mail this afternoon.  Since it is a mystery I can only give you a sneak peek.  It was my first time attempting wonky stars.  They were fun, but time consuming!

Next up were the items for my Modern She Made Swap partner.  I decided to go with a covered journal for her main item.

And an Open Wide Zippered Pouch for her second.  She's a chemist so I thought she might appreciate the cross stitch.

I actually completed the layout for the large squares on the custom quilt on Thursday night (sorry to those of you who are seeing it for a second time).  I signed up the Sit and Sew at the LQS on Wednesday and this will be my main project while I'm there.

There was no progress on the actual Mario Quilt but I did manage to cut, piece, quilt and finish the first cushion.  Kirby was the first one, and Megaman is not far behind.  He is about 1/4 of the way pieced.  When I sent my brother the photo of the cushion he informed me that he was on his way over :) so I was lucky enough to get a photo of him with his new prize. 

There was no progress on the Wedding Quilt since I never made it to our LQS to pick up more fabric.  It's on the agenda for my lunch break today.

My Lucky Star April block is finally finished.  After many mistakes on my part.  First I ran out of the black fabric.  Then after finding more of it, I mispieced my final section and had to completely redo it.  But I must say I love the way it turned out (especially the chevron) and that it was totally worth it!

A few additional finished this weekend...

My hatboxes are now recovered.  From shabby chic to fun and bold.  The lids are a little bit of a tight fit now so they will unfortunately be for decoration only.  I had hoped to store items in them to and from the show but I'll figure out something else.  I have also gotten a promise from the hubby that he will spray paint the items I need for upcoming shows tonight.  Spray paint is another item on my lunch break list!

I am attempting to get licensed to sell our local collegiate items so I had to whip up a few earbud pouches to send in for their review.

And a chomper necklace.  I originally made one at the request of a friend last year and have wanted to add them to my craft show inventory ever since.  This is the first step...

Btw, for more in progress pictures you can follow me on Instagram under the user name SewingWithSqueak. ;)

 Linking up with Let's Get Acquainted, BOMs Away Monday, Creative Mondays, Craftastic Mondays, Make It Wear It, and Pink Hippo Party.

Weekend Plans

I received a large box from The Fat Quarter Shop yesterday which  means I can get started on the Mario Quilt this weekend!  My brother and I sat down and planned which blocks he wants and how to set it up so I have a good idea of what to do.  He is also getting Kirby and Megaman cushion covers.  And there's most likely a Dr. Who Quilt in his future as well.  Must be nice to be a mid-twenty's bachelor with a big new house complete with a media room, huh?  Any single girls out there?  He's a great catch ;)!

I also decided on the layout for the custom quilt so I can start sewing everything together.

There is still a lot more to do with this quilt.  All of these squares will be framed in white then separated by 3.5" pieced strips and finally a 3.5" border all the way around.  Everything is cut except for the border.  It seems like my 1/4" mark on my Juki is a little off.  My blocks are not quite 7.5" finished so I'm having to trim them all down to 7.25" as I go.  Not the end of the world but a little frustrating as it takes more time.  Next time I'll know to scoot over a notch.  Speaking of taking more time...when I quoted the price for making this quilt to the lady she was wanting the squares above to be one piece of fabric instead of 4 pieced together.  Since this greatly increased the cutting and sewing time, design effort, and thread used, how do I bring up the fact that I think I deserve a lot more than what I originally quoted (which was already extremely low)?  Or do I just bite the bullet and not say anything?  Would love to hear your thoughts on how to handle it. 

A couple more project on the list this weekend...a custom comforter (yes, a comforter, not a quilt...I'm a little nervous), and Lucky Stars April block--only one section left.  If this seems a little ambitious for a weekend, don't worry, I took a vacation day next Wednesday so I could go to a sit and sew at our LQS.  I'm also sad to say that my favorite lady there is moving out of state this week :(. 

A Crafty Weekend

This weekend was dedicated to all things craft show.  Friday night I managed to whip up a few last minute items to take.  All of these items were made from abandoned blocks. 

I embroidered this little pattern last year after seeing something similar on Pinterest and couldn't figure out a use for it.  I almost just put it in a little wooden hoop to use as a wall hanging but at the last minute decided the thermoses made it perfect for a mug rug.

 And five new covered journals:

This the first block I sewed for my Herringbone Quilt (still in the works) but I cut it at the wrong angle and couldn't use it.

Playing with a mini charm pack :)

Nothing too fancy.

 A paper pieced fox.  I'm thinking this little girl need some button eyes and a button nose...

 And a tuplip.

The rest of this week will most likely be dedicated to making over my booth.  The decorative/organizational items I have are cute but the shabby chic-ness of them is not really my style.  They will be getting painted, mod podged or who knows what else.  And I will definitely be adding more display options.  I've already picked up two more clothing racks, 3 stackable crates, and a jewelry display.  There will be new tableclothsand many more things to come.

I picked up a few neat items at the craft show but didn't have time to take photos so more on those later. 

And in other exciting news, my brother has asked for not one, but THREE quilty items (I'm just excited that he found something he likes enough to have me make!)  So I will be ordering fabrics today (yay, shopping!).

Linking up with Let's Get Acquainted Monday.

Bragging Rights!

There have been several purchases in our house lately.  The first being a brand new to us, used SUV to help accomodate our growing family.  My little two door car has been pretty dependable for the last 8 years but with my expanding belly there's no way I was going to be able to get Squeak into his carseat in another month or two!

Our second large purchase came as a result of last Friday night's sewing.  I got home from work excited to get started on my new bag (which I posted about yesterday).  I sat down at my modern Singer and while quilting my bag exterior I looked down to realize that every once in awhile the stitches would go all wonky and become about an inch long before going back to normal.  After trying to fix it for about 30 minutes and out of ideas, I got out the vintage Singer.  I spend 30 minutes trying to get the bobbin to fit into its slot and then the thing still wouldn't thread properly.  After a much needed two hour break I decided to try again.  And it worked!  Kind of...the bobbin kept popping up while I was sewing and jamming (which I have found out is not uncommon) meaning I had to rip out the quilting and start over again hoping not to jam.  After this happened SEVERAL times I had given up.  By that time the hubby was home and seeing my frustration he told me to call and see if the local store had the machine I wanted in stock.  They did, but would be closing before I could get there so first thing Saturday morning I picked up this beauty.  The Juki 2010Q and as an added bonus I now get all the free classes I want from The Stitching Post!  Too bad my machine is too heavy to carry while pregnant :(

 On to fabricy goodness...a few weeks ago Material Girl Quilts was having a sale so I decided to stock up.  A layer cake of Mod Tod, 3 yards of Power Pop Dream All Day in Coffee (reserved for my first Washi dress), and charm packs of In From the Cold, Mind Your Ps & Qs, Monster Bash and Bo Bunny.  She has lots of great precuts and yardage so be sure and check it out!

 And my monthly package from Pink Chalk arrived.  This month I received 2wenty-Thr3e and some great coordinating solids! 

There have been a few other small purchases, but they have already been incorporated into projects so you'll have to wait to see them :)

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Finally Some Finishes!

Granted, none of these are WIPs so that list is as long as ever, but it still felt good to finish something.

Without further ado I present you with my new bag.  The Aeroplane Bag by Sara at Sew Sweetness...

For this bag I decided to go with the regular size.  Originally I had very different plans for the fabric.  I wanted to use a different Echino print for the main exterior (black with multi-colored animals in frames), the pink deer as the bottom part and the same fabrics for the interior lining and straps.

When I got home from picking up the interior (Washi) and strap (?) fabrics I realized I only had a half yard of the black and a whole yard of the pink (instead of the other way around like I thought).  So after trying to figure out if I could alter the pattern a bit to make it work, I decided to dig in my stash to see if I could come up with something else.  On a whim I bought the black text fabric online awhile back and hadn't found a use for it yet and it was perfect!  I already had the 24" gray zipper left over from another project that never was and the small black zipper was one of hundreds I keep around :).

I felt kind of bad about it, but I fussy cut one of the deer portraits from the black fabric to use as a cell phone pocket. I did change the pockets from the ones in the pattern.  I kept one of the zippered pockets but made it smaller and off to the side, added a cell phone pocket and made a large divided pocket on the opposite side. 

All in all I'm thrilled with my new bag, and I'm thinking I should make a patchwork version of the larger bag using fussy cuts from the black Echino and some other scraps.  And a matching wallet is definitely a must!

Another small finish is my March block for the Sugar Club BOM.  I've printed the template for the April block and hope to be caught up in it this weekend.

I've had quite a bit of fun shopping lately so I'll be sharing those purchases with you tomorrow ;)

Even though there's nothing that random about my post, I'm joining the fun over at Really Random Thursday and TGIFF!