A Scrappy finish

Woohoo!  Attached the binding, and now I can officially call my Scrappy Trips quilt finished!

Front

Back

First began: January 7, 2013

Details:
Pattern/Tutorial - Scrappy Trip Around the World by Bonnie Hunter  
Fabric - from my stash; backing - batik purchased from Hancock Fabrics
Thread - piecing: Mettler and Gutterman; quilting: Aurifil
Batting - Pellon
QAL - Scrappy Trip Along #scrappytripalong

Scrappy trippin...

On Saturday I finally (and I mean finally...this quilt top has been finished since March!), got my Scrappy Trips quilt backing pieced together and basted and started quilting it! (all pics via instagram, you can find me on IG @lesleyworth)

(big shout out to my Guy for helping me out!)

and on sunday I was up bright and early and got the quilting finished!  (Well...after a bit of coffee and internet surfing). 

and then tried to decide what to use to bind it...and pulled out some binding remnants...and it looks like it's plenty to bind this quilt with!  So that's my project for this week...hopefully I'll finish it early in the week and get another quilt top ready for quilting!

Or perhaps...since it's 4th of July week...I'll finally get my Starburst QAL (done in red/white and blue) blocks finished!

Or I'll find some other project to distract myself with (pretty sure of this one!!).

Ta-ta for now!

My addiction...

At one point I would have said I was addicted to cigarettes, food, and Diet Coke.

In October of 2012 I kicked my cigarette habit.

In January of 2013 I kicked my Diet Coke habit.

I'm still working on the food one...but food is so good!

With each of these things, I have swapped the bad for something better.  I dropped the smoking and the junk food and sodas for exercise and water (I still allow myself coffee...because life would not be good in my house if I didn't have a little coffee each day).

These are just my plain ole life addictions.  Now let's talk about the more serious one...

My addiction to BOMs and QALs. 

I love them all.  I've tried very hard since I first learned what they were to only sign up or participate in a few.  And usually only one at a time.  But not any longer.  2013 will be known as the year I went bonkers for QALs in particular.  And often, not a full on formal QAL...but these lovely informal ones that keep popping up on instagram and the WWW.  (I'm lesleyworth on instagram by the way).  My current list of unfinished QALs includes: Swoon-a-long (finished top, but that's it), Scrappy Trip Along (finished top, but that's a different post), Starburst QAL (only half the blocks are done)...and soon to be added, the Marcelle Medallion from the book Liberty Love by Alexia Marcelle Abegg (another "informal"  (check the tags #marcellemedallion on instagram)).  It's just a gorgeous quilt.  And I want one.  And I'm going to use this fabric (and a few extras).  And it's going to be fabulous...when it ever gets finished...which means I have to start it.  So that's my plan for this weekend (my fabric won't be here until then)...to start (yet another) QAL. 

Maybe eventually I'll actually develop an addiction to finishing these quilts...

Scrappy Stash QAL - FINISHED!

Finished!!!  The quilt that didn't want to be finished...is FINISHED!  (and just under the wire to share over at Ellison Lane Quilts!)

So love this quilt, even though it really wanted to be the death of me!  (or my machine!).  I finished the top on November 4th.  And because I tend to procrastinate and am easily distracted...it sat there for a bit (well, I did go out of town for a few days too...) until this weekend when I told myself I HAD to get it finished!  So then began the journey of attempting to quilt this puppy (after I got enough backing fabric...but that story is so minor compared to the quilting journey!).  So I picked up some lovely variegated thread (Guterman) to quilt this one with...the backing is black, so I wanted a color that would "fade" in a bit on the front, but really pop on the back...and I thought I found it.  Well, if you've seen this post...it didn't work out...at all.  I was attempting a free motion swirly/loopy/thingy pattern...and my top thread was breaking every few minutes...so as I went, I tweaked here or there, convinced I had done something to cause the breakage...yeah...nothing was working.  So I pulled out my machine booklet and did a bit of troubleshooting...tweaked the tension, rethreaded, cleaned, rethreaded...everything.  Still kept breaking.  Last shot...figured it had to be the thread.  So I picked out (well Girl did a bunch too) all that I had managed to get done, ran to the store on Sunday, grabbed some go-to Mettler Metrosene in a nice blue shade...and back to work.  Did fine at first...and then guess what...top thread snapping all over the place!  So pulled out the manual again...and read a line I hadn't noticed before...change the needle...and I did...and it worked!  (Let's just say there was quite a bit of colorful language shared at this moment...and I'll keep it off of here to be safe!).  And it was off to the races.  So I finally got the quilting done on Tuesday (pic of back):

(the little rat's nesty spot is intentional...and a different part of the story entirely...just consider it "creative license") Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to work on the binding the same day...so I figured I'd finish on Wednesday (still plenty of time before the deadline!)...yeah...didn't get home until after 8 pm (and no way I could do binding and still get up on time this morning!)...so I figured...I can leave work early on Thursday (cause I worked late on Wednesday), and I'll have plenty of time to get the binding done...yeah...didn't get home til 4:30 (deadline to enter in the QAL finish was 6 pm)...and so...the race was on and here comes pride in the back stretch...(pic by Girl):

(at the time she took the pic, she told me I was looking "kinda intense").

And at 5:48 pm...DONE!  Binding complete!!!!  So then we had the mad rush to take pics, upload, post a quick post (to be edited after to add this story) so that I could link up in time!  (and I didn't even mention the fact that one contact lens was begging to be taken out...my left eye was twitching and itching like crazy...and apparently I've rubbed it all day so now it looks swollen...oh wait...just did mention it!).

Had a BLAST with this QAL...loved every minute of it...until it was time to quilt...and well...at least I know how fast I can actually cut and sew binding strips together, press them, and get them on a quilt when I'm really pushed for time!

15 minute challenge...week 14!

played with lots of fabric this week!

Tuesday:  none

Wednesday: quilted a few on the T-shirt quilt, prepped for the scrappy stash quilt along

Thursday: scrappy stash QAL

Friday: scrappy stash QAL

Saturday: scrappy stash QAL

Sunday: scrappy stash QAL

Monday: none

and made it 5 out of 7 days!  woohooo!  Linking up at Life in Pieces!  I have to admit one minor disappointment this week... I really really wanted to get the T-shirt quilt finished...but I'm just not in love with it right now...so it's backburnered and partially quilted...maybe next week!

a rainbow of goodness!

I am IN LOVE!  Seriously...in LOVE!  I can't even tell you how excited I am to see all of my Scrappy Stash QAL blocks all together!!!  (yep...got 36 of 36 completed!!!).  So much so that I'm contemplating putting together another 36 for an additional quilt!  (I'm really thinking Christmas gifts here for two of my nieces that I have yet to sew for!!!)...I'm like a kid in the candy store and I'm in LOVE!!!  and now...to catch you all up to where I'm at!

Last time I posted I had completed the Red, Blue, Gray, Green and Pink blocks.  Well here we go with the rest (in order of completion):

Yellow:

Orange:

Purple:

Brown:

(shockingly enough...I'm totally digging the brown...and I was sure the might be a mistake!).

One serious bonus to finishing these blocks...I discovered some fabric that I had completely dismissed as "never going to use" in my stash...and now I have plans for it!!!

and now...serious drum roll here...all the blocks together...and the point in time where I jumped around like an insane goofball!

First...the 9 color groups:

and Last...all 36 blocks:

oHeMGeeee!  I am now trying to figure out the final layout for the top...I had started with one idea...and have completely thrown it out the window...I think I know what I want to do...just going to have to lay it all out and see!

Closing out Friday!

with just a few more blocks for the Scrappy Stash QAL!  I'm telling you...these blocks...I'm in serious love here!  The piecing is so easy...but looks so complicated (at least to me!!)...they go together quickly...are great for chain piecing...I'm putting together 4 blocks a go...and it's fantabulous!!  So without further ado...

Green:

Pink (this pic does not do these blocks any kind of justice...they are my ab fav so far!):

finished all of these before 11:59 pm on Friday...so that closes out my week...now what to do for the weekend????  A few more colors and I'll have all my blocks...(FYI...I figured out that I'm DEFINITELY going to need to purchase more yellow and orange...I could maybe get 2 blocks out of each color with what I have...and I need 4 of each)...but I have a pretty important football game tomorrow...so maybe a few minutes just before the game...or just after...or not at all...we'll see!
anywho...take a look at the new pile of scraps (most of which is probably in the toss category) I created over the past two days making these blocks!

20 of 36 blocks completed!  So excited!!!!

#Notgoingtosewingsummit

and since I'm not...I'm dedicating myself to some quality time with my machine...and linking up at AmyLouWho!  and the Scrappy Stash Quilt Along!  and let me tell you...I am LOVING the blocks!  I have finished 10 since I got home today!  I'm probably going to be going for a total of 36 blocks...(managed to scrape up a tad bit more orange and yellow fabric from my stash...but still may need a little more).  I have to say I'm really surprised by how much of my scraps I have used up!  Anyways...here we go:

Blue:

Red:

Gray:

I am so excited to see how it all comes together in the end!!!!  12 of 36 completed!

Scrappy Stash blocks!

So...I should have been more productive at work today...but as hard as I tried...I just couldn't muster up the desire...I did get some important stuff done (that I'd been putting off for a few weeks...some admin work...bleh), but not much beyond that.  I had seen a few posts out in blogville the past few days about everyone getting ready for Sewing Summit.  I'm jealous...a little bit...I'm not much of a "crowd" type of gal (other than sporting events)...but it looks like so much fun!  Oh well...no summit for me this year...maybe another time!  Instead I'm going to link up and follow along with some other folks #notgoingtosewingsummit over at AmyLouWho!

Since I'm "stuck" at home...I'm going to dig in on my Scrappy Stash Quilt Along blocks!  I was able to get my scraps sorted out the other day and discovered that I'm woefully short on a few colors!

I'm going to ponder what I really want to do with orange and yellow (who am I kidding...I want to buy more fabric!  in orange AND yellow!!) for a little bit (long enough to convince my husband that I really do need some random yellow and orange fabric!) so I started working on my blue blocks!

So that's 2 down...28 to go!

like a hole in my head...

yeah...just what i need...another project...but I'm uberly duberly excited about this one!!!  After seeing the lovely blocks the lovely hostess has made...I'm totally all in on the Scrappy Stash Quilt-Along over at Ellison Lane Quilts!  So now...time to get my scraps organized...figure out what colors I might need more of (my plan is to cut some pieces from some of my stashed/untouched/getting dusty fabrics and throw em in)...and get to piecing!  30 blocks in a month...and finish a quilt...we'll see!  (this might be a great Christmas present for someone...)