Good Fortune

I have another finish to report for 2013!  Woohoo!

I finished up my Layers of Good Fortune quilt yesterday.  Started quilting around 9 am yesterday, and gave the finished (and washed and dried quilt) to a good friend yesterday around 5 pm!  Unfortunately...I didn't take any pics, didn't really think about them, until AFTER I gave the quilt to my friend.  So she fortunately was my quilt holder while a caught a quick pic with my cell phone.  Here it is:

Yes, terrible pic.  Oh well!  I'll try and catch another photo at another time!

Had a much easier time binding this one than with SnB2 last weekend.  All it took was me paying a little more attention to what I was doing and using the right tools for the job!

I enjoyed putting this one together, and will probably use the pattern again sometime!

Details:
Fabric: Good Fortune by Kate Spain; Kona for back and binding
Pattern: Easy as Pie Layer Cake Quilt by Sherri from A Quilting Life
Batting: Warm and White
Thread: Piecing - Gutterman; Quilting - Aurifil

Just keep rolling...

So far so good, I'm really making progress and getting some things cleaned up on my stitchy Saturday!

As I'm still (mostly) avoiding cutting fabric today, I pulled my HST BOM rows out and the sashing strips I had previously made for them, and got them all put together!

Now, this HST BOM was a 2012 BOM...and its' still not anywhere near complete...but now I sorta have a quilt top!  The original pattern calls for adding a border, and I think that would be a good idea, now I just have to figure out fabric  (and for the backing and the binding...but border first).  I may have enough of one of the FMF prints to use as the border...but that would require me to pull it out, measure for the borders, measure the fabric...and right now, that's right up there with cutting in my mind!  I'll spend time on it another day.

Once I got that done...and took a break to go running with Guy and eat dinner and stuff...I actually cut some fabric.  But not any serious cutting mind you...I put together the quilt back for my Layers of Good Fortune quilt (last seen over here).  So I technically, I cut some fabric.  But it was one slice...and done!

I spray baste my quilts, it's just much easier for me, saves me time, and it works.  However, once I get them basted, I have to let them "air out" for a little while, so I don't have fresh fumes up in my face as I start quilting.  So now my love seat is bedecked with a quilt sandwich:

And I may start quilting it tonight.

Scrappy Tripping on a Rainy Afternoon

My stitch-a-thon just keeps rolling!  (Minus a break to run to the grocery store and to work out).  Up next...adding to my stack of Scrappy Trip Along blocks!

Last time I touched these was the end of January, so actually not that long ago.  Today, I stitched up 7 more blocks:

Which brings me to a grand total of 25 blocks, and this is how they all look:

Loving this one!  It is going to be such a bright and cheerful quilt, perfect for rainy days, like today!

Originally my goal was 30 blocks.  When I first laid them out today, I thought perhaps 25 would be the right amount.  Then I looked...and then I stood on a chair and looked (and took pictures)...and then Girl looked (from 2-3 different sides) and declared "You need another row."  And...I agree with her.  I think one more row will finish it off quite nicely.  Unfortunately...I don't have 5 more blocks worth of fabric cut and ready to go.  So I may have to move on to something else for right now, as I really don't feel like cutting fabric at this moment.  (Also the reason I'm not working on the other two Starburst blocks...that would require lots o'trimming of HSTs...and just not feeling it!)

So off I go to work on something else!

Catching up on the Starburst QAL

I'm way behind on the Starburst QAL.  So as part of my "Saturday Stitch-a-thon" I pulled out my Starburst fabric and finished up the 2nd of 4 blocks!

I'm hoping to get the other two knocked out this weekend, but we'll see.  In order to participate in the Starburst Parade, I will have to have this quilt completely finished by March 4th.  Minimum entry for the grand prize is a completed quilt top, but I'm really hoping to have it all done.  We'll see though...taking it all one step at a time!

Saturday stitch-a-thon

Yeah, that's my plan for today...to sew and sew and sew.  I might even cook something...in the crockpot...wouldn't want to interrupt my sewing!

There are lots of things I want to catch up on.

There are a few "almost quilt tops" piled about that really should just be sewn together.

There are a few QALs/BOMs that should be visited.

It's raining...and supposed to rain ALL DAY.

Most importantly...I'm up this early in the morning, and I can't go back to sleep because I keep thinking about how much sewing I want to do.  So it's time.

Gotta give Sylvia a quick dust off and cleanup after her hard work quilting SnB2, and then it's on.  Like Donkey Kong (couldn't resist!!).

Shake n' Bake 2...finished!

Here it is:

please excuse the socks scattered about.  apparently the living room floor is where Girl thinks they belong.

I started Shake n' Bake 2 back in my holiday marathon sewing leading up to this past Christmas.  It was originally started as a "spare" gift, just in case I was leaving someone off the list.  Well, it ended up I was not leaving anyone out, so SnB2 quickly was reassigned to Guy.  I originally finished the quilt top the first week of January and picked up the backing fabric.  However, Guy asked for borders to be put on the quilt (he wants a big quilt to cover him, he's much taller than me, and most stuff I make is "my size".  So back into the pile it went.  And then I had my machine problems.  So it sat, borderless, for quite awhile.

When I first brought Sylvia home, one of the first things that was sewn on her was the borders for this quilt.  But then it went back in the pile.

And then last weekend came along.  Which happened to fall just before Guy's birthday.  So Girl asked...Mom, can you finish Dad's quilt before Monday?  and we were off!  I did some very simple quilting, a horrid binding job, and got it washed and dried, all in time for the birthday!  Guy is happy with it!  Woohoo!

Details:
Fabric:  Kona Steel (backing, binding); charms - a little of EVERYTHING!
Pattern:  My standard, cut a bunch of 5" charms, throw 'em in a bag, pull 'em out, sew 'em together
Thread: Piecing - Gutterman/Mettler; Quilting - Aurifil, 50 wt (LOVELOVELOVELOVE!)
Batting: Warm and White

15 minute challenge...week 32!

And once again I'm posting my 15 minute challenge results very late in the week, and I'll make it quick...I accomplished 15 minutes of sewing 3 times this week.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  I did finish a quilt though!  Shake n' Bake 2 was finished on Monday!  I really enjoyed quilting it with Sylvia, she's a dream quilter...however...worst binding job EVAH!  I think it's because I was used to Goldie and where my 3/8" seam lined up...and it was a little off when compared to Sylvia...so not my best work.  However, hubby loves the quilt...so all is good.  I'll post an official "finish" post later today...or tomorrow...LOL!

Other than that...I have made zero progress on moving my sewing area, and I'm ok with that.  The past few weeks of night shift have really run me ragged.  Thankfully, I am now, officially no longer on night shift (for a few months at least!).  And to reward myself, I'm taking an extra day for my weekend!  So I hope to really let the stitches fly!

Catch you later!!!

15 minute challenge...week 31!

Time for check in with the 15 minute challenge, and I'm posting a little late this week.  Oh well.  My current work schedule really caught up to me the past week and I'm running a little in the slow lane!

Tuesday: none

Wednesday: none

Thursday: none

Friday: J's shake n' bake (new one, no pics until it is delivered)

Saturday: Starburst

Sunday: Starburst, J's shake n' bake

Monday: J's shake n' bake

4 of 7 isn't too bad.  I've struggled the past few weeks trying to get those 15 minutes in a day, but thankfully 2 more weeks and I'll be off this current schedule (for a little while at least).

Now, let's talk about February's challenge...our sewing spaces.  I need to take pics of my space in the living room, took some quite a while back for a post, you can read about it and see them here.  I've rapidly overtaken close to 50% of the living room with just my sewing stuff.  Part of the reason why I've been aiming to move my sewing space to the upstairs office that used to be my stamping/scrapbooking space.  This would require me to really get rid of a ton of stuff (already gotten rid of quite a bit, but lot's more to go!) and I've been kind of lazy about not doing that.  So I'll work on it some this week/weekend, and we'll see how much progress has been made.

That's all I've got for now, catch you later!

15 minute challenge...week 30!

Wow...it's been one crazy week!  I did get some stitching done, brought home my machine (and a new one!), and just enjoyed playing with fabric and thread!  So here is how I ended up with the 15 minute challenge this past week:

Tuesday: none

Wednesday: none

Thursday: none

Friday: Scrappy Trip, Shake n' Bake 2

Saturday: Shake n' Bake 2, Starburst

Sunday: Starburst

Monday: Starburst, House block

I'll take 4 of 7! It's not what I would prefer...but I'll take it!  So that pretty much closes out January and we move into February, where Kate has us looking at a dedicated sewing space.  I'm very lucky to have a dedicated space to call my own.  However, this space has been in transition for a while.  I've been hoping to move into the upstairs office (used to be my scrap room (when I did papercrafts)), and while progress has been made in getting that room cleared out and reorganized for sewing purposes, it's not something I've spent a lot of time on the past few weeks.  So perhaps this month I need to refocus my efforts in that area.

Have a great rest of your Tuesday!

catching up

Wow, have I fallen a bit behind on some of my BOMs and the Starburst QAL.  So I spent a little time this weekend trying to catch up on the Starburst QAL (might work on the BOMs today...might not).  So here is where I'm at on the Starburst QAL:

Flying Geese (3 of 8 sets complete)

HSTs (need cutting, pressing and trimming)

GCs (16 of 16 complete!!)

We are supposed to start putting blocks together this week...so we'll see if I can catch back up by next Monday!

I also took a little bit of time this morning to put together my House block for the Sew South Retreat charity quilt (read more about that here).  I followed this tutorial, (and wow, just realized I followed the same color scheme to a "T"...oh well) and then just trimmed the block down to the size I needed.  It was a pretty quick and easy block to put together!

Well, that's about it from me for now, going to try and do a little more sewing before I need to head to bed so that I can roll in to work tonight!

Ah-Mah-Zing!

That's about the only way for me to describe my Friday.  It was mind blowing ahmahzing!

I got off work yesterday morning about 8 am, and headed straight away to meet my Guy for breakfast (delicious!).  After breakfast we jumped in my car and headed down to pick up Goldie!  She was all done and ready to come home.  Lovely thing, I received a gift certificate for Christmas for the store, so as Guy waited for them to bring Goldie out, I did a little bit of shopping...I picked up a Supreme Slider (all part of my goal to improve my FMQing), some fabric (they had the cutest chevron's in!), a set of quilter gloves (had to try), and 6 spool of Aurifil thread (HAD TO TRY!!  I've read so many wonderful things about Aurifil, so I had to try!  I'll let you know how it works for me!).  So we were all loaded up, ready to go...and then they asked me if I wanted a brochure on any of the machines I had peeked at while I was in the store...and before I could stop the words from coming out of my mouth...I said yes...and 30 minutes later...I was loading this up in my car:

Meet Sylvia!!  And let me tell you...she stitches like a DREAM!!  And that's 11.25" of space to the right of the needle!!!  I'm in love!!!  (more on Sylvia later...)

After we left the sewing center...I had a hair appontment, so got that done (my hair had gotten out of control!!), and feeling lovely...it was time to head back to the house (we ran a few more errands and had lunch...but that's all kinda boring :) )

We roll up to the house...and there is a nice size package hanging out of the mailbox...and here is what was in the package:

WOW!  I had participated in the Cameo Sew-a-long back in November/December, and one of my photographs was randomly selected for a prize!  I'm very excited to play with those patterns and that lovely fabric!!

and then...Girl came home...and I hadn't seen her for a few days...so I was very happy to hang out with her for a bit!

and then...I played with Sylvia for a bit...and then crashed hard!  I got a great night sleep...and now it's Saturday...I've already been up and stitching for a bit...and soon Girl and I are heading out with some friends for a girls day at the museum!  I plan on continuing my ah-mah-zing Friday into the whole weekend!  So I'll leave you with one final pic...of Sylvia, Bitty and Goldie all meeting for the first time!  (Guy seriously rolled his eyes when he saw me taking this pic...and said something slightly unflattering...but I still love him anyways!).

Later!