Getting back to sewing

We’ve been sick around here, and we’re not quite over it yet.  I did get a few precious moments tonight to get my bee blocks for April finished so I can mail them all out tomorrow.

We were asked to make 2 modern Gothic window blocks using gray/black/yellow background fabric.  I didn’t have anything that fit the bill, so I bought 3 fat quarters on Etsy right away, but then I ended up procrastinating until the very last minute to get these done.

These two blocks are slightly more rectangular than square.  One side is a 1/4 inch shorter, but if the queen bee is using sashing, these should be usable.

And once I get the hang of it and am ready to move on to doing my last two (hopefully perfect) blocks to send on to the queen bee, I make a move like this:

I wish I could say that mistakes like this are far and few between, but it’s more like every.time.I.sew.anything.  For real.

 

This block is my favorite.  It uses Washi for the background, and the yellow centers are a special-to-me yellow 3o’s repro that I’ve had for years.  Since this block only needed three 2 1/2 inch squares, I thought it would be acceptable if I cut into the fat quarter.

I also spent a little time cutting out fabric for my next quilt.  Everything is ready to chain sew.  I also got my Aneela Hooey quilt basted and ready to quilt. 

Hope you all had a restful and sewful weekend!

Winner of I Love Patchwork Book

My daughter Bea picked the winning name from a bowl this morning after church, but the camera battery needed to be recharged, so we took this photo after bath.

Congratulations, Kat!  I have emailed you and the book will be on its way to Australia on Tuesday.

We did a little mom/daughter sewing tonight after the other two went to bed.

Today I went to a quilt show at the local senior center.  I think this show was a little unusual as the general public voted each category and even picked the best quilt overall.

I had kids with me, so we didn’t stay to see the awards, but my favorite was this quilt.

I don’t particularly like the Wizard of Oz, but for some reason I really liked how the two sides looks like film from a reel.  I just thought it was cool.  So I voted for this one, and I let my kids vote for their favorites, too.  We didn’t vote in every category because there were a lot, but we voted for our favorites overall and in the kids’ category.  I wish I could have seen how the public voted because obviously this isn’t the most technical or complicated quilt pattern as some of the others were, but it was stunning.

This week’s finishes

I have two finishes for this week.  I finally put the binding on this quilt and blogged about it here.

And then I made a special little fishy mat for my daughters’ room.  They have an ant farm (which has lasted much, much longer than the 5-6 weeks as stipulated in the directions—more like 4 months now).  The deal was they could get a betta for their room after all the ants died.  It looks like that is never going to happen, so we went ahead with our fish plans.  (ps.  If you ever get an ant farm and the ants happen to be harvester ants which can bite/sting, tell your babysitter NOT to let the kids go to their room without supervision.)

I used just various fabrics from my stash.  The solids are quilter’s linen (not really linen) by Robert Kaufman.  I got a rainbow of colors from Fabric.com a few weeks ago and have been trying them out.   I didn’t measure it, but the finished dimensions are about a foot square.

I fmqed all over (because I still have not bought a new walking foot) and binded and backed it with el cheapo fabric from Joanns that I bought when I was first starting out sewing.  The quilting is done in light pink thread, but it pretty much just looks white against the top fabrics.  My oldest daughter wanted to know what all those squiggles are supposed to be.  She thinks they look kind of like coral, so I told her that’s what I was aiming for…lol!

We got a new fish on Wednesday, dubbed him “Feather Fin,” and he is doing well, enjoying his much more spacious home.

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts today.

Trying New Things Thursday

So far this week, I’ve tried three new things.

The first is Robert Kaufman’s Quilter’s Linen (not real linen, just cotton look-alike).  I ordered several colors just to give them a try.

And then I started making some granny square blocks.  I actually have 12 done at this point.  I am aiming to make 20 for a small quilt and Bea has already claimed this one.

I also bought some Presencia hand quilting thread that was shipped today.  I might either try using the size I bought in my machine as the top thread (not in the bobbin) or possibly doing some hand quilting which I have never tried for outline quilting in this granny square quilt.

I have another new non-quilty thing I tried this week…I got my super-long hair cut.  I donated a 12-inch braid to Locks of Love.   This new haircut feels light, breezy, and very liberating.  I love it!

I’m linking up to Trying New Things Thursday.  Thanks for checking in.  Have a great day!

Flora Charm Quilt

Last week I finally put the binding on this quilt made with Lauren and Jessi Jung’s Flora.  I used two charm packs I bought at the LQS and supplemented what I needed with solids from my stash and the border fabric purchased at Hancock’s of Paducah during an online sale.   The finished size is 61 x 77 and the pattern came from the book Simply Charming by Moose on the Porch Quilts.  It is one of the first books I bought and think it’s so great for a beginner.  I’ve made 3 of the patterns in the book since I first started quilting.

I had a little trouble deciding on the binding.  The fabric I purchased online looked more greenish than yellow, and I wasn’t happy with the look.  So, I put the quilt in a pile in my sewing room for a week or two while I decided what to do.  I almost purchased the green lattice print from this collection since I have a thing for striped binding and the lattice is the closest thing to stripes in Flora (there are no polka dots either).  But my practical side won out and I ended up binding it with leftover fabric from the border.  I like!!!  And it was free!  The backing is a striped sheet from Target. 

My fmq is getting a lot better, and I completely machine-bound this quilt using Kaelin’s machine binding tutorial.  I have done it a couple of times, but this is the first time it’s turned out nearly perfect.  It literally took about an hour to make and attach all the binding.  How cool is that???

I really love Lauren and Jessi’s style and color choices.  I have a massive cache of “Hideaway” and I can’t wait until their new line “Birds and Berries” comes out.  Here is a preview courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop.

I love how the colors are similar to the other collections, but I really am excited about the purple added to the mix.

I am linking up to Quilt Story today. 

A New Chair, and Something to Share

Have you seen this chair before?  I saw one just like it in Nancy’s Notions catalog a few months ago and was smitten.  Here is the link.  I double-dog-dare you to click on it.  The chair legs are brown instead of red, but I think it’s the same exact chair and it costs $220!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Did I use enough exclamation points???  I think a $220 chair deserves that many.

Guess what I paid…

Yes, only fifty bucks.  It was my lucky day at Joanns.  I usually pay cash for everything I buy, but I wrote a check that day since I didn’t have enough cash with me because I was only there to buy a $1 wooden birdhouse for my daughter to paint.  I remembered that the chair I saw in the catalog was over a hundred bucks, but I didn’t remember it was that expensive until I got home and looked it up.  This chair really livens up my sewing room and is very comfortable—the perfect height for a shorty.  Maybe your Joanns has one?  You might want to check it out for a deal like this!

And on to the share part.  I am giving away a copy of a book called I Love Patchwork.  If you haven’t seen the book before, you can check out the reviews here on Amazon.

To enter, simply tell me if your favorite new(-ish) line of fabric.  The author of the book, Rashida Coleman-Hale, has her first line of fabric called Washi.  I just purchased some and can’t wait to use it.  If you are a follower, you can have an extra entry!  The giveaway ends on Sunday, April 22nd and I will post the winner that night.  Open to international entries.

WIP Wednesday

I don’t normally link up to this since I am never organized to have a blog post on a Wednesday, but I just finished up my Colorblock quilt last night and wanted to share a few pics.  The finished size for me was 40.5” x 55” exactly, which is the perfect size for Veronica.

I am going to use this quilt as my entry for the My Precious Quilt A long.  If you haven’t seen this on another blog, you should check it out.  You don’t have to make a quilt for an entry (pretty much anything sewn is fine), and the fabric doesn’t necessarily have to be HTF, just special to you.

This quilt is made from DS Quilts fabrics that I have been collecting and some Hello Pilgrim prints.  I bought a Hello Pilgrim fat quarter bundle recently, and after using up most of the butterfly prints for this quilt, I ordered a half yard of the dark blue and aqua butterflies to replace the ones I used.  Not the best practice if you’re trying to use up your stash, but I love them so much I don’t ever want to be without!

The back is one of my first sewing fabric purchases ever.  It felt good to finally use it (most of it).   I fmq’ed squiggles all over with light aqua thread on the front and back.  Currently my walking foot is out of commission and I need to buy a new one, but the $50 pricetag is holding me back.  Why is it that I *must* buy new fabric, but I can just fmq until I finally get around to purchasing a walking foot???

I can’t wait to look at all the WIPs on Freshly Pieced when the kiddos go to bed tonight.

Overwhelmed!

In a good way…by fabric!  My cousin is learning to quilt, and we’ve volunteered to test a pattern called Colorblock by Holly at Bijoux Lovely.  My cousin has already picked out her fabric, but I thought I’d make one for Veronica and I am completely overwhelmed by my fabric choices, although I have narrowed it down considerably.

Never in my short-quilting-life have I ever had so many choices!!!  And this is the first time I have enjoyed trying to put different fabric collections together.  The pattern only uses 7 fabrics for the top (not including sashing), but I have accumulated so much great fabric that it’s so tough to eliminate some of the prints.  I have definitely decided to use that leafy print on the bottom left for the backing.  It is one of my first fabric purchases ever—and from Joanns.  It feels thinner than the designer fabric, but I distinctly remember getting it on a half-off red tag clearance sale, so I didn’t pay more than $1.50 a yard for it.  It is high time I used it and it really coordinates well with the other fabrics.

I am overwhelmed in other, not so wonderful, ways.  My husband has been on business travel this entire week, so I haven’t done any sewing. at. all.  My oldest is home on spring break this week, which has mostly been really helpful,  but it also has been crazy…a lot.  Last weekend I finished quilting my Flora quilt, and I cut strips for the binding one night after the kids went to bed.  But when I held it up to the quilt, I hated it.

The quilt has a yellow lattice print border, and the binding against it looks green.  I am really disappointed at how it looks together, so I am just going to use the rest of the border fabric I had left over to make matching binding and leave it at that.  

So, I don’t think I’ve ever shared that I am into my SIXTH year of breastfeeding. Yes, you read that correctly. I am only 34, so I have been breastfeeding 17% of my life.  I know breastfeeding is a beautiful thing, etc etc, but I am ready to have my body back. 

Overwhelmed is definitely the way I have been feeling lately!  I’m hoping to get some sewing done this weekend and have a quilt top and a finish to share next week.  I hope you all have a happy Easter!!!