10/10 in July

One of the most Cre8tive and talent quilters I know suggested in our Hexie group to do a July sewing challenge. The challenge is to sew at least a little, every single day in July.  So far I am 10/10 and have done both hand and machine sewing. The 1st and 2nd I trimmed up the Easy 4 quilt and the Hugs and Kisses quilts and put the binding on by machine. I also sewed hexies at break. On the 3rd I sewed hexies at both breaks. On the 4th I hexied at our camp site in the morning and sewed the binding on by hand in the afternoon evening on the Easy 4 quilt.
On the 5th and 6th I worked on the binding on the Hugs and Kisses quilt. I got about one side done each day. I again worked on it during breaks on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, and officially finished it today!

My hubby and I had a rare date night to see the World of Outlaws race on Monday night. I took my mini hexies and worked on them

I cleaned house and put up my summery wine glass shades.

I picked up a little sale fabric from Jennifer at Knotted Thread. Hexie's and chevrons with a piece of solid white. What can I say? That's where my interest is right now.
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I finished 3 rows of my hexi table runner. I have started piecing the other parts in rows of 7 & 8, so I can keep them in the box longer and play with it a bit more when I am ready to assemble. I'm really happy with how it is turning out so far.

Productive Sewing Week

This week has been extremely productive. I've finished so many projects and it feels great to be getting stuff marked off my to do list.
Saturday night the kids went down early after a busy day, so I got lots of time to sew. I made this beach bag for our camping/swimming trip we are taking in July. It's a free pattern from our Club Sew group.

I lined it with vinyl, but since it is clear with the flip flops, I put a dotted lining with it. This worked out really well and using the walking foot, I didn't even baste. It went together so fast!

I had this lefover vinyl, so a bag for swim suits with a zipper. It's about 10"x14"
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Then I had black thread on the machine, so I put on the borders of my star quilt. I had it appliqued to the background already.

I started these little mini sewing bags since the black was on the machine and got them almost done Sat. night. I just had to zig zag and cut the corners on Sunday and they were done! They turned out super cute and with no pattern, just leftover fabric scraps, they turned out pretty good. I plan to put my sewing stuff in mine since my other one is over flowing.

Sunday night I went in the crawl space (where my not used real often quilting supplies are) and found the 1 piece of black batting I own. I knew it was craft size and would work great for this quilt. I spray basted it and quilted around the star Sunday night. I needed some inspiration on how to quilt it, so I left it until Monday night after the kids went to bed. I used the Bernina 730 with a walking foot and quilted around the star background with 1/2" marks. The dark star points are echo quilted at 1/4". and the dark point is a circle around.

A close up of the background and star quilting.

The center star quilting is echoed.

The border is quilted at 1" I'm thinking I may go and add in 1/2" increments to it. What would you do? The quilt is about 22"x24". The border is 3". I have the binding and hanging sleeve sewn on and am working on the hand sewing. I plan to have this done on Sat. to show at "The Party" aka our shop preview party.

Since I'm almost done with the star quilt, I really need another paper piecing project to work on, since I only have 4 others to work on right now. Note the sarcasm.... I went and bought fabric to do an EPP quilt along. It uses a background and three different colors families. I chose the background and blue, green, & purple to go with it. I can't wait to start this quilt along with my friends. Time to finish up a few other projects so I can start on it.

Winding Ways Schlep Bag ~ Quilt Retreat Info

The Winding Ways schlep bag is completed and I can't believe it took me so long to do, seeings as I had it cut out and just had to sew it! It's been lingering since oh, maybe before Christmas some time. I have just a bit of the Jennifer Chiaverini Winding Ways fabric left for a special project, but I wanted to get this made before I made the other project. This literally took me less then 3 hours start to finish, not including cutting time. I didn't use a pattern, just went from memory, so the handles are minus batting, but they still seem to hold up well. I used scraps of 80/20 and I really like the puffiness, without the bulk of this batting.


The inside of the bag coordinates with the winding ways fabric on the outside.

Next up on the project list is a wavy table runner for our last Groovy Girls session. I just love this fabric and can't wait to get it made. I'll be adding a some scallops using the new ruler that is like the prairie points one. Wish me luck, it could get interesting.  This is a group that has met for the last two years, so since the program is ending, we're doing our own thing. It will be a Club Sew format and include lots of tips and techniques around a project idea, starting in March.

I also quilted up a growth chart for Mikaela, but it went together so fast I forgot to take pictures of it. This week has been rather busy, since I taught the Happy Hour class last night. I had 7 great ladies in the class and we had a really good time.
I know my blogging has been sporadic at best, but there just seems to be a lot going on and just not enough time to be on the computer at home. I'm really trying to do WIP Wednesday posts every week so at least I have a chance to catch everyone up on all that is going on in my world. I'm also going to be cutting out the weekly dump of photos of Mikaela. I'll try to do a monthly post of her cutest pictures. She's moving a lot now, so it's hard to get pictures of her.  Thanks to the 80 followers I have and thanks for following along with my crazy life! I hope you enjoy and find inspiration in my various projects, however random they may be. Thanks for all your comments. They inspire me to continue reading blogs and commenting as well. I always enjoy connecting with my readers. I read all my blogs in Google Reader, so if I'm not "following" you, doesn't mean I don't read your blog, it just means I have it in Google reader.

The BIG news right now in my life is a QUILT RETREAT!!! I'm planning a quilting/crafting retreat the first weekend in March at a beautiful hunting lodge near my hometown. I'm super excited and think it will be a great event. I was a little leary at first, hoping friends and readers would want to attend, but so far I have enough to meet the minimum and I'm super stoked! It's going to be an awesome weekend full of fun prizes and lots of different activities, in addition to Sewing On Your Own projects. If anyone is interested in joining a fun bunch of ladies for this awesome quilt retreat, let me know. It's super cheap - the cost is just for the rooms for 2 nights, so I'm hoping the reasonable cost will attract a few more people. I'd love to fill both cabins as well as the lodge rooms. I have an email with all the 411 if you're interested in learning more, let me know.

Okay, that's 2 posts in 1 week... watch out, this could become a habit!
Have an AWESOME day!

Sewing Room Makeover

I just love holidays when they fall on weekends... I get an extra day off an hubby usually has to work and doesn't miss a day of pay for the holiday. Plus I get tons done! Last week I was on a role, seriously I got so much done and I was ready when Paul came home. He hung up my quilt rack I got in August! I bought it at a garage sale for $2! I couldn't believe I could get such a steal. I hung it in my sewing studio.


I also got him to hang up my curtain rods which I've had for at least that long, only I could only find one of the curtains. I'm hoping if I look further I'll find it. I'm really worried that it got put in the bags of mom's fabric to go to the Wall Quilt guild, since it was in her fabric stash. I didn't know it was curtains until I went to use it for something else. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Monday was the big clearance sale at Fabric City/The Sewing Center. I went and did some damage! I got what was left on each of these bolts, which was about 3 yards. Two Pink batiks for the batik quilt I intend to make this year.

A super soft minkee, probably for a blanket for Mikaela.

Two snowflake batiks to go with the rest of my huge stash of this line. Seriously I don't know why I love it and the only thing I've made is Jen's gift, but I LOVE this line. I have good intentions of doing something more with it.

A big piece of Dilly Dally for a backing for a baby quilt. Or it might turn into a diaper bag. We'll see what my friends baby is. If it's a girl, I'm going with this fabric line. I still have lots of it left, even after 3 quilts made out of it!

This was my pure guilty quilty pleasure. It's a sign and it was 50% off. I didn't want to pay full price, even with my discount, but at that price I splurged on it. I just LOVE it!

I also picked up this kit and I'll be making the sample next week. I think it's cute and I love Valentine's Day, so I'll get it made up for the store really soon.

I spent the rest of Monday re-organizing my sewing room/sewing all day and evening. I was in pure heaven! I can't wait to work on some fun stuff for me, but the samples pay for my addiction, so I enjoy them as well.

UFO SEW DOWN 2011 Comes to a Close!

October just seemed to fly by and I really felt like I didn't get anything done. I was starting to feel funky and crabby and I knew I had to clean up my sewing room and start over. Sat. I pulled out the backing I had started making a couple weeks before and finished it up for the BQ2 quilt. I got food poisoning 2 weeks ago, just after starting and had just thrown it in a pile. I got the backing finished and had the batting out, so I loaded it on the frame. Shonna was having a 31 Gifts party, so I went to that Sat. night. Do you know how hard it is to buy bags when you have a gazillion? When I got home I put the thread on the machine and started quilting. Mikaela was sleeping and I got it quilted in just about 3 hours before she woke up. I figured with the extra hour, I should use it at night.

I'm not a green person, but this one looks good. My mom had started this and I hope to donate it to the Terra Sancta project.

I did an all over meander with lime green Isacord on top and dark purple Bottomline in the bobbin.

I cut the binding on the bias so the stripes would go around the quilt.

This is the backing. The blue goes down the back. My mom didn't have many yardage pieces but I was able to make these work.

Sunday after I got my homework done I worked on the Wolf for a while. I got the eyes, nose, and part of the face done. I already have the ears done, so it's slowly but surely going together.
Sunday and Monday nights I worked on this notebook holder for my MIL's co-worker. I embroidered her name on it since I have the embroidery machine at home this weekend.

I used up scraps from mom's stash for this project and I think it turned out pretty good. She wanted blues.

I did slight corners instead of one big round front.

Last night after I got home from class I made this fabric book for Mikaela. It turned out so cute and is all sewing related, but each page counts. I bought this back in April on the shop hop. I made one just like it for Molly, but wanted one for Mikaela. This will be her church book.

I embroidered on the back of it so she'd know when I made it for her.  I have two others I'd like to get done by Christmas, but I'm doing a bunch of commission work this year, so we'll see. She'll never know if she gets them for her birthday instead!

I also received Trish's block for the friendship swap, so I have all my blocks and can figure out if I need to make more now. I think it turned out cool.

Last night I taught my Schlep bag class, but while I was at the store I pulled these 8 fat quarters to make a baby quilt. I'm going back to my favorite Happy Hour quilt. I've made several of this 9" block pattern and just love it. Anyone want to take a guess at my favorite pattern from the Happy Hour book by Atkinson designs? I'll draw a name from all those who are right and send a little gift.

 The UFO challenge has come to an end and even though it was just Jacque and I, I feel like we were both productive. I finished 3 UFO's and worked on 2 others that I really wanted to work on, so I feel like I did better than if I hadn't had the challenge. Jacque finished at least 2, so when I know a final number I'll be sending her a little something for each of those. Thanks for joining me Jacque!

Mini Shop Hop

This year the Western SD shop hop was the first three weeks/weekends in April. We were busy the first two weekends, so Paul said he'd go with me last weekend. So we had breakfast with a friend early in the morning and then headed to Belle Fourche to the Tri State Bakery. It's in an old bakery building and she has a lot of contemporary fabrics. My best find was this panel that makes into a fabric book. I bought one a couple years ago for my niece and made it for her. After I found out I was having a girl I was so sad I had given it to her. But alas I found this one and now can have one for my little girl, who is much more likely to be a little seamstress.


I also found two pieces of Blush by Basic Grey. I've wanted some to go with the jelly roll I won last year and this was the only shop I'd ever seen it at in the area. I got a couple yards of each, figuring I can make something work out of them.

In Sturgis, I found several prints from the Wanna Be a Cowboy 2 line. I picked up 1/2 yard cuts of each, since I think we're getting it in. I plan to make something for Mikaela out of them.

In Spearfish I found this kit to make a ribbon blankie. The sample was really cute and I wanted the pattern for some minkee squares I have.

I hit the jackpot in Spearfish, finding this pattern for little cowboy boots. I'm so excited to make these for Mikaela. I'm making myself finish the sample I'm working on before I do any fun sewing, so these will be made soon hopefully!

I also found these Thimble It's for hand sewing. My finger has been sore, so I think these will really help!

It was a fun day with my family, but I sure missed my shop hop partner in crime. It just wasn't the same.