May Goals.

Holy goodness! It's almost May.

In ramping up for the half marathon, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked sewing, and I wish I had gotten a bit further along on a couple of projects.

Thank you so much to the peeps who wrote and wished me luck in the race! I didn't break anything or wind up passing out mid-course. I finished under the time I had hoped to, and I enjoyed myself! There is something to be said for having large droves of people cheering you on and spending lots of walking time with a good friend.

• Sissy Love Quilt--baste, quilt, bind
• Morgan's Nursery Quilt--quilt top is done
• Finish the Massive Clean/Organize/Purge Effort--didn't touch our office
• Make It Modern Bee Blocks (2)
• Lucky Stars BOM Block (1)--nope!
• Sisters' 10 BOM Blocks (2)
• QBB quilt--quilt is basted; just need to quilt and bind
• Jamie's quilt?--need to look at time constraints/fabric on hand and see if this is even possible
• Birthday gifts
• Banzo's 3 shirt

For May:

• Morgan's Nursery Quilt
• QBB Quilt
• Make It Modern Bee Block (1)
• Lucky Stars BOM Blocks (2)
• Sisters' 10 BOM Blocks (2)
• Dress for the wedding

My sister-in-law is getting married over Memorial Day weekend, so our family is going to be very busy preparing for the event and visiting family before and after. I'm hoping this list is manageable--I guess we'll see! What does your May look like?

I'll be linking up with Fresh Sewing Day! I'm pretty sure you should too!

WIP: Owls! Edition.

Log cabins! Blocks are made--it's time to figure out borders!

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means!

SS: LQS Fun!

Yesterday, a friend and I drove twenty-five minutes to an out-of-town LQS. The town was very sweet, and the downtown was about a block long, which was where the quilting shop was situated.

Due to the drive, it's not a place I'm going to visit regularly, but I will go back again. (Maybe for the quilt shop hop in July?) They sell a variety of Moda pre-cuts, and they carried some more modern-y fabrics that my in-town LQS doesn't carry. All in all, it was a very lovely and restful afternoon, and I behaved myself and didn't purchase too much fabric, woo!

Yummy black and white and red. I've seen these scissors everywhere, but I finally picked them up with a project in mind.

And a charm pack of Noteworthy. I immediately thought of my niece when I saw this fabric, so I couldn't resist picking some up, even if I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it!

I'm linking up this week with Sunday Stash hosted by Kate Quilts! (You totally should too!)

FF: Patchwork Baby Quilt Edition.

The quilt that almost broke me had a baby.

Kinda apropos since it's for a baby. (Har har har! I slay myself with the humor over here.)

Using almost all of the scraps from the aforementioned quilt that was determined to kill me, I pieced this puppy together quick. It'll be headed to a first time mommy.

I cut all of the large scraps into 5" squares and wound up with--get this--80 exactly. It's like I planned it, right?! The top has a mix of linen, quilting cotton, and flannel, so texturally, it's really wild, but I like it. I used the remaining scraps for the binding, and the back is a chocolate and white large scale polka dot of which I have tons. It's not the best match, but since I had big plans to package it up and get it out immediately, I used what I had on hand.

 

Quilting is straight lines on the diagonal through one set of corners. I always tell myself that I'm going to do the other set--I love seeing it on quilts--but then I step back and always love the one set of diagonals and panic that I won't like it as much if I try something else. And I gave machine binding another go. It turned out a little cleaner this time, but I'm still not in love. I'm going to try another similar method (still zigzag, woo!) next time. I used lime green thread on the binding, which is maybe my favorite part of the whole quilt. 

I'm linking up with TGIFF at Sew at Home Mummy and Finish It Up Fridays at Crazy Mom Quilts. You know you wanna!

This was a part of my Q2 Finish-A-Long list, woo!

Thursday Check-In

Hi Friends! Things have been a little intense around here lately. Not in a bad way, per se, just in a very crazy, very busy life way. I'm participating in a half marathon on April 27th, and my training is ramping up to see me through it. (Think happy thoughts my way on April 27th, okay? I'm not exactly the most exercise-happy person, and walking this will be a good stretch for me. I'm glad I'll have my dear quilting sensei K to make sure I don't die.)

As for this lovely bit of awesomeness:

I'm going to do it.

Am I crazy? Yes. But I have been known to do crazy things for my Tula love before, like drop everything I'm doing to put together a last minute HST quilt for the Tula Sew Along.

And because I'm expecting three rounds of Tula fabric from the Tula 10" swap, I should hopefully have a good stash of fabric to get me started. Because shouldn't I use my beloved Tula fabric for a beloved Tula quilt? Is anyone else thinking of starting this QAL? We could be QAL buddies.....

 

I finished up my first April bee block. One of the ladies from the Make It Modern Bee is planning a modified bento box quilt in tangerines and aquas (can we say awesome fun?) and this is my contribution.

And this is as far as I've gotten on my feathers for my second block for MIM. When I made my cousin's quilt, I only needed to make the feather portion, and I appear to have lost the background portions of the template, so a reprint of the PDF is necessary. I stayed up way too late last night piecing these and had to snap a quick night shot.

I've been sewing a lot of little girls skirts recently. A friend of mine has a baby girl, and when she discovered the little one's gender, I promised to keep the baby in tutus. Also, they're really fun to sew! I used this tutorial from Diary of a Flutter.Kat, which was super awesome.

I've finished all of my cutting for my Sisters' 10 BOM blocks. (I don't wanna talk about my Lucky Stars block for April--I can't even decide on fabrics!) I hope to have these done in the next couple of days, but there are a lot of HSTs to cut and trim.

And it wouldn't be a proper check-in without letting y'all know about my latest and greatest evil plan. Friends, my sister-in-law is getting married next month, and I need a dress for her wedding. After consulting a few of the local stores in town, I've decided to try my hand at making one. We've already covered my craziness in this entry, so I won't go into the soundness of this idea, but I think I've chosen a pattern I can tackle, and I've ordered my fabric. I hope to have it done (for good or for evil) with enough time to find another dress if it's a massive failure.

I'll be back tomorrow with a baby quilt finish, and then I may drop off the radar for a bit as I finish out my last week of marathon training. I hope all of you lovelies are doing well!

FF: The Quilt that Almost Broke Me.

It's done. The Sissy Love Quilt, aka, the Quilt that Almost Broke Me.

I haven't been quilting too terribly long, but still. This quilt should NOT have been this painful. And yet, every step of the process seemed to bring misery and horror and shame. Yes, Friends. Even shame.

(Okay, so maybe not shame, per se, but definitely misery and horror!)

This is as close to a full shot of the QTABM that I could wrangle. The quilt top is rectangles, peeps. Rectangles. Not even on-point rectangles. (This quilt should not have caused so much pain!)

I miscut fabric. I did my quilty math incorrectly, causing me to panic and think I had severely under-purchased fabric. Since the store I purchased the fabric at was over three hours away, it's not like I could just hop in the car and hope it was still there. When I did finally start piecing it, the top came together easily, but I had worked myself into such distress that it took me a few days to get up the nerve to even look at it.

The easy piecing lulled me into a false sense of security. So much so, that I thought the quilting--double lines 6" apart on the diagonal--would be a breeze. It was not. It was horrible. I used painter's tape to mark my lines, which was a bad idea because the tape shifted when I was sewing. Then, when I was about 3/4 of the way through, Agatha started having fits, and she would quilt an inch, and then the thread would shred and snap. Then, when I finally finished the quilting, I found puckering in the flannel backing.

It. Was. Awful.

I decided to machine sew the binding because I needed to be done with this quilt, and pronto. The binding isn't perfect, but it is done, meaning I am a happy girl.

So, here it is. The Sissy Love Quilt. Finished. Done. Finito.

I'm linking up with TGIFF at Quilt Matters with M-R and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. You should link up too!

This was a part of my Q2 Finish-A-Long list, woo!

WIP: April Showers Edition.

This past week has seen less work than usual, primarily because spring has finally arrived, and the lovely sunshine has prompted me to spend a lot of time outside with my kidlets. Alas, it's raining today, and the light has been splotchy all day, which means lousy pictures, but some good work done on projects. 

My oldest kidlet is finally tall enough to start holding up baby quilts. (Woo!) Unfortunately, he's not very steady with his hands, and he kept dropping the sides, so I snapped this quickly and moved on. This quilt is for Jamie, or more specifically, for her incoming baby. I've got to figure out a backing option, but it's coming along.

I started piecing my QBB quilt blocks together. Yes, those are fat kitties. If you like kitties, they are great. If you don't like kitties....

Since my QBB quilt has to be bound by machine, so I thought I would practice on my Sissy Love quilt, aka, The Quilt that Almost Broke Me. I'll talk more about *that* adventure on Friday because I should have a finished Sissy Love quilt by then. Unless it does, in fact, break me, and then you can find me slamming my head onto my sewing table and muttering gibberish.

I used this tutorial from Rachel of Stitched in Color, and I really like the look of the zigzag stitch on the front. I think it adds a bit more texture, and on this minimalistic quilt, that's welcome, at least by me!

So far, my back is sloppy in places, but mostly straight and steady. Because I'm in a hurry to get this quilt done and out of my life, I'm not working as slowly as I should, and if I'd take my time with it, I know it would look cleaner. But whatevsies. I'm getting 'er done!

(And no, I didn't abandon Agatha for a newer model. Agatha doesn't rock a zigzag stitch, so I've borrowed a friend's Janome for a couple of days.)

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced! You should too! 

Q2 2013 Finish-A-Long

Yes, another list. I lurve them so much!

This time, I'm participating in the second quarter of the 2013 Finish-A-Long hosted this year by She Can Quilt. Awesomesauce fun, right? Right!

QBB Quilt--All blocks are made, need to piece the blocks, baste, quilt, bind.

Sissy Love Quilt--I finished the quilting this weekend. Need to bind.

Morgan's Nursery Quilt--Fabric is cut! Nothing else is done.

Triangle Mini Quilt--Need to baste, quilt, bind. First, I've got to settle on backing fabric....

Quilt for Jamie's Baby--Fabric is cut. Piecing has commenced. Need to baste, quilt, bind.

Five projects. I can do that, right? I think I'm most concerned about that triangle quilt. It's been haunting me for months now, and I can hear it laughing at me now. You think you can figure out backing fabric and how to quilt me? HA! Or should I be more concerned that my quilts are talking to me?

WIP: Trippin' Edition.

I might have started a Trip Around the World quilt.

I don't want to say that I drank the kool-aid. And besides, at this late in the game, having seen 4+ other cool quilt movements come, doesn't this make my TATW quilt retro?

I cut my strips at 3" to make the most of my fabric stack of FQs, and each block finishes at 15". I've finished nine blocks, which will yield a 45" square quilt. I'll be adding some sort of border to two sides to get to the 48"+ mark.

A few weeks ago, I read about Quilts Beyond Borders call for finished quilts due mid-July. I couldn't help myself, and I found myself emailing them about sending one. And once I finish this retro TATW, it'll be headed out, eventually to go to a Romanian orphanage. Woo! I told myself I had to use fabrics I had on hand, and if I can squeak another quilt out, I'd like to send two.

I know we quilters are busy peeps, but if you think you might have a bit of time to finish a quick kid's quilt--the specific request details are here, and they can be really simple quilts--please consider sending one.

Today, I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, this week hosted by Greenleaf Goods.

April Goals

My March turned out pretty well. How 'bout yours?

• Make It Modern Bee Blocks--March (2)
• Lucky Stars BOM Blocks--February and March (2)
• Sisters' 10 BOM Block--March (2)
• Le Mille Quilt
• Banzo's Cape
• Marie Quilt--finish piecing top
• Tula Swap
• Continue the Massive Clean/Organize/Purge Effort--this is ongoing
• Sissy Love Quilt
• Another quilt for Morgan?
• Start sketching out designs for three new quilts

Okay, I should've gotten my Sissy Love quilt finished. The top took about two seconds to piece, and the backing wasn't that complicated either, and the quilting? A breeze. I even have the binding prepared. But instead, I put off purchasing batting until yesterday. As for Morgan's second quilt, life got busy, and I couldn't get in touch with his mama to coordinate fabrics and design until yesterday.

On the upside, I finished a bunch of stuff that wasn't on my list. Woo!

For April:

• Sissy Love Quilt--baste, quilt, bind
• Morgan's Nursery Quilt--start to finish, if possible
• Finish the Massive Clean/Organize/Purge Effort--time for the office!
• Make It Modern Bee Blocks (2)
• Lucky Stars BOM Block (1)
• Sisters' 10 BOM Blocks (2)
• QBB quilt--need to be done and shipped by July--finish piecing?
• Jamie's quilt?--need to look at time constraints/fabric on hand and see if this is even possible
• Birthday gifts
• Banzo's 3 shirt

Yay for lists! I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day, and you should too!