Mar 13, 2012

Strings finished

I finally got it finished. It's only been a few years in the making. I had purchased this honey bun a while ago and decided to make a string quilt with it. 

It is rather on the smallish size where the color is and it has a lot of negative space. I was contemplating cutting it right down the middle and sewing it back together so a bit of color would be on each side. I still don't know if I do it. For now I'm going to fold it up and put it in the stack to be quilted.

It's starting to feel like spring around here and my grass is starting to green up but it's not very thick. It's kinda patchy. Does anyone recommend anything to get a more luscious lawn?

Mar 11, 2012

For the love of solids

I'm still around and kicking. I have been adjusting to my new job at work and let me tell it some days it has been completely overwhelming. Some days I just come home make dinner for my family and head right up to bed.

This has made my quilting take a backseat for the past three weeks, but I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I had signed up a while back for The Love of Solids swap and this is my large item I made my partner.  I hope she loves it. I really like that pop of red in the middle. I think it goes well with the water colors. What I was going for was the blues and greens being water and the color in the middle being like an umbrella. Anyway it's going out this week. Although probably on the last day to ship.

I mentioned I was a bit behind and I'm hand quilting this with pearle cotton thread. Which I love but since I have been going to bed at 8pm it's not getting done as fast as I wanted. Luckily I only have 4 more blocks to quilt.
In other fun news I have a MacBook Pro to play with. It's a perk from my job and I think I'm going to have to actually buy one. For the first couple days I felt like I was never going to figure it out but slowly I'm finding I love it more than my HP. Oh my Apple here I come.

Feb 26, 2012

My March block

I have ask my bee group to make me wonky stars. I'm positive there are other tutorials for this but after a week of scouring the internet and read multiple prints at work I don't feel up to the task.
So here it is.


I started off with 5in white solid squares-8 of them
A 5in square in either aqua, yellow or gray-1
pieces of aqua, gray or yellow fabric



At first we only need 4 of the white squares and the aqua, yellow or gray pieces.


Start with one square and place a colored square in the corner and just sew from one side to the other at a diagonal. No need to be perfect.


Trim to excess off 



Iron this flap open and then repeat on the other side so the next color overlapps the first corner...as shown in the next picture


Trim the excess off again and press back open


Trim block to 5 or 4.5 in...repeat this process 3 more times


This is what your final block looks like and sew it all together

Feb 19, 2012

I'm still here

I haven't posted in a while but I have some fun stuff to share over the next couple of days. Today i have been sewing but I'm of for some mother daughter time and then tonight I'm going to a the Pacers game with my MIL. Have I mentioned that I HEART basketball. As a matter of fact I may not sew anything other than my obligations next month...so I can watch all the march madness!!!

Feb 7, 2012

Strings

Progress on my Strips.  I had wanted to work on something else and made myself sit down with this box. What was really holding me back was a lack of space to lay them all out. Instead i though them all it a box and staggered them as I sewed them together. I them sewed the strips into groups of 8 and laid them across the bannister



Nice machine shot and the ends of the strips all staggered.


This is my favorite part. The ends of all the staggered strips. I only have 10 more to do. I had hoped i would get to it sooner but I haven't been feeling so hot. I love being sick...NOT! I don't even want to get up and wonder my house cause I can just guess what's waiting for me when I feel better.

Oh yay, I only have 10 more strips to go.
I do need your advice. 
I only have 40 strips and it was a honeybun these came from so they are 1in finished so this portion is only 40 in. So my question is should I place the cream color on both sides of the strips so they are in the middle? Or would t look better as the cream color all on the top and the strips being on the bottom?


Feb 5, 2012

Swooning

Here is my practice swoon. I was hand quilting it with the chunky stitches. so far I have the purple done and aim to have the green done by the time the Superbowl is over. I also went to the Superbowl sale at my LQS. UMMMM 75% off the clearance room. plus prizes and discounts on regular stuff. 

I also decided to make my swoon quilt with Prince Charming from Tula Pink. I'm going to use Kona Ash for the background fabric. Pictures to come of my loot and my swoon fabrics once I acquire my background fabric

Feb 3, 2012

My Friday Finish

My hourglass quilt top is finished! I may or may not add a border before quilting this but for now the top is finished and it's off to the pile of things to quilt.

The close up of it. This was made with The Caroler fabric I got somewhere. I can't really remember. I wasn't so sure I like it and I know I don't really like the fabrics up close but when I look at them as a grouping and don't focus on any of them I kinda like the top. 


I hung this in my ceiling to take this picture with pins. 
Oops. Don't tell Cody.

As you can see I have some crazy roof angles to avoid in the morning as I head to the bathroom. I may or may not have smacked my head right into that wall portion the quilt is hanging on.
Linking this up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Feb 2, 2012

January block

In my Bee Creative bee group Miss Januray asked for a Union Jack. She said use whatever you wanted to use. I used Kona white, that red that reminds me of coral and a steel gray blue.


This is the block I finally mailed off to her Monday. I had started to make myself a practice block and thought cause I conquered a quarter of it that I was good. It was my first time paper piecing and it really through me for a loop. So I made the block and got it all ready for shipping and I just couldn't mail it. Something seemed off. So I remade it and it turns out on my first one I didn't add on a quarter inch to the finished section so when I sewed it together is was kinda scrunched. Well with my stress level through he roof it didn't hit me right away that it was BAD!!! The block was bad but my subconsciousness knew. 

Thank you Jimmeny Cricket for saving the day and my pride. I would have been so embarrassed had I ignored the feeling and mailed it off. 

Feb 1, 2012

WIP Wednesday

Here we are and it's Wednesday again.  
I missed last week but no problem cause I didn't get anything done. This weekend I got my hourglass blocks all sewn together. This is a great baby blanket size but I think I'll a border to it and make it a little bigger and give it to a cousin for Christmas. The just bought their first house and I think a bright quilt might be nice.


Also this week I worked on my string strips. Not quite a finish but I did get some progress. We have Hailie's  dance team performance tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to get the rest pieced together after that. Depending on how I feel also. I was watching the news yesterday and realized last year we had a pretty bad ice storm and I got the flu and I think I'm coming down with it again. Fun, fun fun, But it seems to be going around. I love it when people come to work and share their flu germs. OK enough of my bitching complaining.


I got a few more of these orange peel blocks done. If I try and do a couple everyday hopefully this won't take so long.

Not a bit done in this scraptastic box, although I did find the pattern for it so we'll see what happens.

My Chevrons also received some loving. I have all my hst's cut out and now I have the super fun of trimming them all down. I wish I had a cutter for that like those scrapbook cutters. Just set them in, push it down and BOOM!!!!! all cut to the perfect size. Wishful thinking? Or a business opportunity?


Bliss tumblers. Nothing

Hometown quilt. Thought about it but made myself work on the other things mentioned above

Dresdens. I used one for a pillow awhile back and pieced it onto ash. Well my idea is what if I made them all pillows and placed one on Kona medium, one on charcoal and one on white? Just a thought, am i crazy?

Modern Workshop. Nope

So all and all a pretty productive week. I even got caught up on my sew happy quilt-a-long blocks and remade a bee block to get out in the mail. 
So this week I just need to work on the projects above and get my LQS blocks of the months done for January.

Linking up with......



Fresh Poppy Design
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Jan 31, 2012

WINNING!

I, the most unluckiest person finally one something. 
Three charm packs of Silent film.
I won from Tammie and Fat Quarter Shop
I was participating in the Shades of grey swap so now I have plenty to make a lovely quilt with grey and some pop of color. If only  could decide on my pop of color. 

THANK YOU 
Tammie and Fat Quarter Shop

Jan 30, 2012

Caught up monday...

Well In the Sew Happy Quilt Along I'm am caught back up, until tomorrow :) 
I was crazy busy at work week 3 for the template star. Then over the weekend I was having a difficult time with my printer. Turns out somehow when I plugged the printer into the USB and the computer decided to reload the software for the printer it made it a different model number. Hubby came home from his service emergency and fixed it. Then Sunday a different project started calling my name so the block didn't get made until today. It's suppose to be 12.5in but it's way smaller. I'm not sure what happened but I'll either add a border to it or remake it.

I also made week 4's block which is firefly block, and it was designed by Melissa. This block went together pretty easy. I only had to get the seam ripper out once. This block kinda reminds me of the jewelry box block I made for this quilt.


Both blocks together. I waited to long to go outside and get the pictures. It was a beautiful sunny day In Indiana today. It felt like March or April. I can't believe it's going to snow showers this weekend for the Superbowl. Well maybe everyone will come early and at least get a bit of nice crisp days.

Finally I wanted to show you all my blocks together. 
I kinda can't wait to see how this one pans out.

I'm linking up with Manic Monday and Sew Modern Monday.
Hey can anyone tell me how to post the buttons in my post. I'm kinda not tech savvy.

Jan 28, 2012

Why can't stuff just work?

I am having a day from crap!!!
 I started to try and print off a template and I can't get the printer to print. All my tricks have been exhausted. Since I use a laptop It's not always hooked to the printer and It decided to be a mule. 
So I figured I'd go and just sew some stuff that I don't need a template for. First my sewing machine that just came back from the repair shop decides today that it wants to get the thread wrapped all around the bobbin stuff. OK fine, I don't know what to do since I'm frustrated so I get out my back up machine. 
This one all of a sudden decides to start breaking thread. I open it up to start to clean it and rethread it and replace the needle now the top thread doesn't want to get the bobbin thread.
 No way am I going to pull out Hailie's machine cause we hate each other. If it was acceptable to drink wine at 11am I would so be opening a bottle. Yeah I am that annoyed right now. 
To bad I have a house full of pre-teens. 
FML!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I'm going to go clean my house and wait for my husband to get home so he can at least fix the printer. 

Jan 27, 2012

It's Friday, Friday...

It's Friday and I've finished something. A while back I was in a mug rug swap. I liked one of them so much that I was going to make myself, my mom, and my grandma one. Well my friends that never happened. The extras got sweep to the wayside. So this past week I have been organizing my sewing nook and found them. I decided to make one into a mug rug for a co-worker. She's from a much warmer climate and I thought she could use a reminder than eventually we will have heat again up north.

This was made with Sunkissed by Sweetwater I have a fussy cut square with the words sunshine, renew and life for the main portion of the mg rug. I hope she likes it. I'm handing it off with a real coke(not Diet and some homemade chex mix I made up today for my hubby. This is also my first time doing a machine binding. It was pretty quick. I'm not sure if I want to take away from my couch time binding though.

Jan 20, 2012

This is what crazy looks like

Set the scene: 
10pm on a Thursday night. Lady in polar bear jammie pants and a cardigan, fresh from watching Grey's Anatomy, eyes probably a little puffy from the tears.
Outside taking pictures of a quilt top cause she was to lazy to do it when she got home from work. 
Even more fun bonus to this crazy. The lady across the street who happens to work at my top secret 007 job, was getting home from work. Awesome. Hopefully she'll keep this one to herself.
I'm pretty sure no one would get taking pictures of a "blanket"
 So here it is folks. The tumbler quilt I was talking about the other day with the modifications. After seeing it hanging on the clothes line I decided it just wasn't a very cuddle worthy size. See my Hubs is very tall and broad and since I wanted to use this on the couch it's not fair to make a quilt only H and I could use. I went upstairs and started looking around for something suitable. Then it hit me I had 4 half yards that I picked up for eight dollars. I cut them 2.5in wide and sewed them to the sides. 

 I never thought to add borders to just a side and had hoped with both fingers crossed it would add the width I needed with out looking weird and I think it did just that. As a matter of fact I'm really loving the framed off sides and the top and bottom are left open. 

 As for the finished size it winds up at 60 by 75. 
Where as before it was like 44 by 75. 
I'm not sure what I was doing when I laid this out to make it such and interesting size. 
And as I look at this quilt it's making me think of the couple cobblestone streets we have in town. 
I think I'm going to refer to this one as cobblestone from now on.

Happy Friday!
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts


P.S. I know this is technically a finish but it is a finished top which is what I'm trying to accomplish in the first six month of this year. I'm going to outline quilt this around the tumblers and straight line quilt down the sides.

Jan 18, 2012

WIP Wednesday

So here we are again, it's Wednesday and I have made some progress :) 
Make Life Tumblers is finished. I'm not showing the complete finished top because I need to get pictures. I finished this up yesterday and it seemed ok as I was sewing it up, but as I hung it on the clothes line I realized it's really long and not very wide. It's not a very cuddly size.  Check back Friday for the complete top.

So a reminder of what I still have left to do.
 Chasing Chevrons

 Scrappy something

 Applique wall hanging. 
I need to take this downstairs so I will work on it while hanging out with the fam.

 Christmas hourglass

 Strippy quilt

 Modern Workshop

 Bliss Tumblers

 Hometown.

Amy Butler Dresdens.

WIP from last week: 10
WIP finished: 1
WIP left: 9

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced and Quilt Story