Sew Together Bag for K

Just in case you haven't had enough Sew Together Bag goodness, here is another one for your viewing pleasure! I made this bag for my quilting sensei K, and I'm kinda in love with it. It is a sign of how much I value our friendship that I sent it along.

I tried to go more demure, but the Audrey in me kept coming out. Even though it's not pink, there is probably no mistaking who made this bag.

I made this one assembly-line style along with the one I made for my friend L, and let me tell you, I got to be a machine when it came to the zippers. This is some of my best zipper work, y'all. Just sayin'.

And the two bags side-by-side. I love both of them! And I'm glad to have two more under my belt. This is finish #3 from my Q1 FAL list, woo!

Sew Together Bag for L

BAM! Finish #2 from my Q1 FAL list. If you take into consideration that this is a super late Christmas gift, it's not as impressive of an accomplishment, but I'm going to take the optimistic angle of looking at it and go with super awesome!

This is my third Sew Together Bag, and I'm getting better. I've pretty much figured out how I like to do things at this point, and I went with it. The outside is a scrappy blue QAYG panel. It was fun to use some of my favorite prints in this panel, including my most favorite batik ever. Yes, I used the "b" word, but sometimes batiks are yum!

And the inside is some woodland prints! I had a lot of fun making this, and I hope my friend L can put it to good use.

In a few days, I'll be showing your my fourth Sew Together Bag, woo!

FF: Star Pillow

A few moons ago, I made a quilt for my dad with the aid of the lovely ladies of Stash Bee hive 8 from 2015. I wound up with one extra quilt block, and as I knew my dad intended to hang the quilt I made for him on the wall, I didn't want to put it on the back where it would never see the light of day. The solution? A pillow cover!

This block, by the way is the Glorious Autumn Star block from Fresh Lemons Quilts.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I slowly added two borders to the original 12" block. I'm not gonna lie, this is a LOT of white for me. (I find this really amusing because I know a lot of people would be totally comfortable with this amount of white, but to me, it's intense. Terrifying, even. What kind of quilting dare I use? Can I handle the white? Most important: can I keep it away from my children??

I decided pretty early I was going to FMQ this bad boy, but it wasn't until I sat down and started sewing that I figured out what kind of designs I wanted to use. The pebbles in the center star seemed smart, but I have had a messy time with pebbles in the past, and did I really want to go through that again? I decided to give it a go--aren't pillow covers meant to be a good testing place for FMQ?--and I'm happy to report that it went well. Then came some infinity loops, and I finished off the outer white border with straight line quilting. I briefly considered doing feathers there, but the border is only 2", and I wanted a bit more space to do them justice.

Here's the weird thing: the more time I spend on actually quilting my stuff, the more I LIKE it. I used to DESPISE the quilting bit. Straight lines, echo quilting, get it done, baddaboom. And when I first started FMQ, I was so depressed. It looked horrible! I'm not saying it looks genius now, but it looks a whole lot better than my first attempts, and I guess I have to 'fess up that when peeps say it will get better with practice, they're telling the truth.

(And can I just say that the texture of this cushion is amazing? It just feels so cool!)

I backed this pillow cover with a simple envelope closure using a leftover striped sheet of my dad's. I'll be sending it off to him as a super late Christmas gift. Also, this is finish #1 from my Q1 FAL list, and I'm excited to report that I have not one, but TWO more finishes to share with you. Woo!

HPQ Sewing Nook

Seven months after moving into this house, I finally have my sewing nook kind of settled, and I thought I'd share it with you. This space also serves as homeschooling command central, but as you can see, the fabric and notions and fabulousness of sewing is waging a good war against the school books and supplies.

This is my favorite spot, as it has my mini quilts and thread and my sewing tool organizer that has definitely stood the test of time.

With four kidlets--or as my BFF calls them, my clients--I am having to squeeze sewing time in where I can. Sometimes, I only have enough time to cut a few pieces, or iron a cut of fabric or hunt hunt hunt for that elusive pattern piece that I still cannot find. I could see myself getting frustrated with the lack of sewing time, but my clients are a good bunch, and I do genuinely enjoy the SAHM/homeschooling gig. (Most of the time.)

This wall of lovely is the creation of my husband. Well, only the wall itself--all of the fabric goodness is mine with the exception of that stunning lonestar made by Alison for the Coast to Coast Traveling Quilt Bee. My most awesome husband put this together for my Christmas gift, and I can say I am thoroughly enjoying my first design wall. My nook is just off the kitchen, and the mess of color cheers me up when I'm cooking.

Here is the progress I made a couple of days ago. Some cut fabric on the right, and additional fabric on the left that I pulled for this project. I am hoping for some good nap time today to get a bit more done on this project, but we'll see. The baby still sleeps a ton, but the two-year-old has been battling a cold, and nap time hasn't been as long or awesome in the last few days. I've still got to find that pattern piece too!

Q1 2017 FAL List

Lots of rollover from Q4 as last quarter, my biggest finish was having a baby! I'm still not getting in too much sewing time, but it's fun to imagine what I might accomplish this quarter.

1. Negroni shirt for husband 
I've actually made progress on this! I made a second muslin, and it was too small. 
So, back to the drawing board.

2. Midnight Mystery Quilt

Top needs to be sent to the long armer.

3. Dress for E
Geranium Dress pattern - pulled fabric; I'm going to be attempting a knit version.

4. Dress for Vanilla
Geranium Dress pattern - pulled fabric

  5 & 6. Costumes for Banzo and Lito

 Pulled fabric--I'm planning to modify a pair of maxaloones and make a knit shirt

7. Reyna Shawl for my Mama

DONE!

8-10. Secret Sewing for Holiday Gifts

 pulled fabric, have pattern and plan of attack

L's DONE
K's DONE

11. Quilt for Baby P
I'll be using a pattern from Tula's new book.

12. Quilt for Baby S
DONE
Here goes another Northern Lights pattern featuring solids!

13. Star Pillow
Old Stash Bee block I've been meaning to turn into a pillow cover for ages.
DONE 

And I'm linking up! Join me?