Design Wall

This week has been especially successful in the sewing studio. I cleaned up, re-organized, and don't have any pressing deadlines, so I have been able to finish up a few odds and ends.
I made three project bags. I ran out when I was going to retreat a few weeks ago and I was mad I didn't have any made up. I had intended to give these away... two years ago, but that didn't happen, so I can use them now.

I'm really trying to finish up the sweetpea pods I have cut out from when I made bendy bags last fall. I finished 5 more this week. I think the 7-10 I still have left can all be done with navy thread, so I need to get that on and finish those up. These will probably end up as gifts.

My friend Kim asked for a new coaster, so I made this purple one for her. We have the same love for purple. Super simple and quick, but well loved.

I made this giant starburst top from scraps. It's almost identical to the last one I made, but with different yellows. I made too many yellows this time, so I'll have to figure out a plan for them.

Today we have an accreditation visit for our full program we have that I assist with. I planned the lunch/reception and cleaned up the office. I also made my SDSU mouse pad from a leftover block. I had originally made it for a demo, except it was partially together (think 1 corner missing) and it got lost. I sewed up the corner and finished up the block, quilted and did the binding last night.

It looks super cute next to the table topper it was meant to be in. I made the one in the upper left-hand corner to replace the missing block. Oh well, no harm in having an extra block.

Last night I started on the Peek-a-Boo table runner I am doing for a class in January. I always struggle when starting quilt as you go, but once I get going, it's easy. I made all the pieces and this morning I was up early with my little early riser, so I worked on this for 1/2 hour. Got the center started and I'll be ready to work on it when I get home tonight.

Girls Sewing Night

Friday night I got together with some good girl friends to sew. We sewed up a storm and I feel like I was really productive. I started with this Chevron quilt made with a Max and Whiskers layer cake. It's for a class I am teaching in August. I was going to baste it and then hope to quilt it. I didn't have quite enough backing fabric, so I went and got more. Then I layered it with an 80/20 batting and basted it. I quilted it with a medium gray Aurifil on top and a light gray Aurifil on the bottom. I used mom's Bernina 730 to quilt it, as that is the machine I had that night. It worked really well and I was able to get it completely quilted. It's so weird to quilt a large quilt on a home machine after using my frame for so long. I needed the sample done by June 29th, so I just had to make myself do it. I'm happy it's quilted and hope to get the binding on yet this week.

After I finished quilting, I didn't have the binding fabric with me, so I finished up this block for a friendship block exchange I am doing with my sewing friends and the girls from the hospital. Since Tammy was giving me such grief about how hard my block is, I made a challenging one for her as well. I had all but about 4 seams done and just had to finish them up. I turne out well for a block with that many seams.

I also made her this memory block. She gave us 3 fat 1/4's each and these are the 2 - 12" blocks I came up with using the fabric.


It was lots of fun sewing together and I really enjoyed getting so much done. I felt so extremely productive and now I feel like I can get the Chevron quilt finished before the preview party.

Quilters are Crazy 2013 Retreat

This weekend was simply amazing! I went with six of the best friends a girl could ever ask for to Outlaw Ranch for quilt retreat. I knew it would be challenging to be away from my family, but I also knew how much I needed the friendship and support of my friends.
In preparing for quilt retreat, I made a bunch of kits up with blocks prepped and prepared to create tops. I find I don't like to make tops at home, so it was fun to get them ready to put together. I felt so productive actually having finished tops to take home.
I started Friday afternoon with these Dilly Dally 5" blocks and made this Easy as 4 pattern by Me & My Sister. I also have backing all prepped and a piece ready for binding. The backing is to the right. This one was for a friend, but she had a different theme, so I changed gears and now it is ready for the next baby girl I need a gift for. I finished this before supper on Friday.

This chevron is from a Max and Whiskers layer cake. I had other plans, but I ended up making this for a sample for a class I plan to teach next quarter. I love how it turned out and can't wait to quilt it. I need to get a backing for this one. I finished this late evening Friday.

This is the Unity quilt top I had mostly completed. I added the borders and got the backing ready. This was finished Sat. night.

Emilee worked on these plus blocks.

Nicole finished her 2nd quilt top, a plus quilt she designed herself.

Nicole, Cindy, Jenn, Emilee, Tammy, Gaila, and I Saturday night

Gaila made this table topper from Atkinson designs.

She also made this little wall hanging from a Moda candy pack. She sent it with me on Sat. and I found the border so she could finish it.

Friday night I laid out this Thangles BOM and started sewing it together while I pumped. Around 2AM I found my way to bed, but I was awake at 6 AM, so I sat and sewed it all together while I pumped. I had it into this top by breakfast at 8 AM. I have a border to put on, but had left it at home.

Saturday was spent on Scrappy Swoon. I spent all day on it and I'm just not loving it. I went to bed at 2 AM with the top done and left it on the design wall. When I got up at 7AM, I just kept looking at it and really not liking it. Well I have a couple squares out of place and I need to do some ripping. I just didn't want to spend any more time on it.

Here's a more true color picture of it. I used purple/green/black batiks. The colors were all the same value, so it just didn't set the star off enough. I'll still finish it and I think put a big bright purple border on it to make it big enough for our bed.

Gaila made these wall hangings for her mother and mother in law from a panel she got from me last summer.

We had a small forest of Aurifil trees which we finished. Mine was the pine beetle infested one!

Throughout the weekend I worked on this one. It's a scrappy chevron using 5" squares. I marked while I pumped, sewed while I pumped, cut while I pumped, and pressed while I pumped. As Nicol said, Keep calm and pump on. This will be another sample for my chevron class.


The weekend was truly amazing and I can't believe how much fun we had. I was so thankful to have such understanding friends and be away from home. Paul and his mom had a great weekend with the kids as well. I can't wait for the next one.

WIP Wednesday - Week 23 - 6.6.12

This has been one of the most productive weeks in the last two months for me! I've gotten a lot accomplished and feel great about where I'm headed. Saturday I quilted two quilts for my friend Emilee. They both turned out great and I really enjoyed quilting them. I absolutely love the carpenter star. The colors are fabulous and the piecing amazing. It's 34" square.

This one is her Happy Hour. It was 83"x100"


On Sunday I spent quite a bit of time putting wall hanging sleeves and binding on 5 small wall hanging/table toppers. I've had these quilted for a month or more, even had the binding cut and they were squared up, I just had to sew it on. I'm so glad to have some hand work to do again, but now it's so nice I hardly spend any breaks inside sewing.


I made this one to be a little table topper.


This one is probably my favorite. I used it to try a bunch of different quilting patterns on. It's a bit small for doing so much, but it was fun playing with the designs from the Pajama Quilter.


I did get a sample to make for Club Sew on Friday night. I worked on it both Mon. and Tues. night. It's a little mesh bag from the Zip It pattern. It was really quite easy, but had to pick up bias binding to finish it.

When I stopped at the shop on Tues. night, Tammy had a few more samples for me to make, so last night after Mikaela went to bed, I cut out this little Baguette. It's from Atkinson Designs and the front is vinyl. It turned out so cute and I can't wait to make another one with the mesh.

On Sunday I also made these three little stuffed dolls for Mikaela. They were from  a panel my mom had cut out. I just had to sew them together and stuff. They were easy and she loves playing with them. I also finished a bag for my MIL and fixed Paul's jeans, so I had a very productive week!


Finished this week:
Emilee's two quilts
3 stuffed dolls
Mom's Jim Shore Angel Quilt
2 Yard Bag for Leslie
Zip It bag
Baguette
Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them) 
Swoon - 2 Blocks done
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts -Handwork on binding
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks -Binding
Sign Language Baby Quilt
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen
Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt 
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt
Confetti Top
Friendship Block Swap Top
Twisted Heart
Merry Go Round
No progress:
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- Together, needs 3 borders

Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing
This week's stats:
Completed projects -9
New projects -1
Currently in progress -9
Finished this year - 37 , 9 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Festival of Half Square Triangles

The Festival of Half Square Triangle is this week over at Canoe Ridge Creations and I'm always so inspired so I decided to join in on the fun. This wall hanging was made for one of my best quilting friends Jenn. She came into my life when I needed a local quilting friend and we've become very close in the past few years. She also introduced me to Gaila, Emilee, and Shonna who also received these wall hangings. They were Christmas presents for the girls. I love quilting with great friends.
 I made them using leftover Buggy Barn fabrics from a quilt I made several years ago. I machine embroidered the centers with the saying "Good friends are like quilts, They age with you, yet never loose their warmth."  I have been calling this my year of HST's use, since I rarely used them in anything before the past year and I've made 10 projects with HST's so far this year.
Come see what all the fun is about in the Festival of Hal Square Triangles. 
 
 

WIP Wednesday Week 6 2/8/12

This week was very productive for me! I spent a lot of time preparing for quilt retreat, cutting 2.5" strips, cutting out confetti pieces, and pulling out projects I want to take. I started making lists and figuring out what needs to be done before I leave. It just doesn't really look like I did much in pictures.
However, that big game on Sunday caused Paul to do all the cooking and all I had to do was eat. Plus the excitement of watching the game was enjoyed by Mikaela, so I had about 7 hours of sewing time on Sunday.
I quilted this wall hanging with red metallic thread, echoing the seams of the zigzag. I also put the binding and hanging sleeve on, so I have some handwork for work breaks this week.

I pulled out this Patchabilities kit of moms and finished it up, so I have her UFO for the month done. I'm working on the handwork and only have the hanging sleeve left.

I was over the quilting part when I got to this one, so it only got quilting on the tops of the peaks of the zigzags of each color. It actually looks better I think. I got the hanging sleeve and binding on it as well.

Saturday night I was hit with inspiration and threw these leftover HST's up on the design wall. I let them sit in this pattern for a while and by Sunday night I decided I loved them. I started sewing and had them in 5 column's before going to bed for the night. I think it will make a cute baby quilt and use up the fabric mom had left from a baby quilt she made for Mikaela.

Tuesday night I finished up sewing it together and put the borders on it. It turned out pretty cute and I have enough fabric left for backing and binding. I'm so excited to finally have this one into a top and ready to quilt.


New Projects this Week:
Pink/Green zigzag quilt

Finished this week:
Two Valentine Wall Hangings with Zigzags
Patchabilities Valentine Wall Hanging
Pink/Green Top
Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Jim Shore Quilt - Quilted and binding machine sewn on -  1 1/2 sides done - none.
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - 2/3 of the way done, on the last set of blocks- none
Little's Confetti - 2 of 80 blocks made, cut out 40+ of the little pieces from scraps
Merry Go Round -  Cut out and sewed about 30 stratas

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt 
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt

No progress:
Pokey Little Puppy Book
Prayers Book
3 Mug Rugs - Binding
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks
This week's stats:
Completed projects -3
New projects -1
Currently in progress -5
Finished this year - 8 , 6 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday Week 5 2/1/12

This was a productive week!!! First for a couple pictures from last week though. The Dippity Daisy Baby quilt for my co-worker Kristen and her daughter Emmaline. It's so cute and I love how fast I can piece it. It was about 2 hours for the top.

This is the growth chart I made for Mikaela. I'm still working on binding it, since school work is consuming my lunch times. It's amazing how much I've learned about the history of higher education. Though some of it makes me go...seriously??? why do we do the things we do in our country?

I made up two blocks in this pattern. I'd seen mini wall hangings with this block and fell in love. I can see a full quilt made from gasp.... scraps in my future. I love how quick and easy this block is to make. Since I only had enough for 2 blocks, I'm thinking a little table topper to use as a siggy quilt at the retreat.

Two more friendship blocks, each a bit different, but still similar.

The 3rd and final of 7 friendship blocks. I now have to do the embroidery on them, quilt and gift to a few more friends, but really no deadline for them now. I just love having the fabric used! I finished it when we had a sewing Sunday afternoon at Jenn's with a few friends. It was so fun getting together and sewing. I also got 12 more Crown royal blocks sewn. I just have to put the rows together on them, but it's looking like I'll have the blocks done in time for retreat! I love to make quilt tops at retreat and I can do that if I have blocks made.

Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations had this cute tutorial on her blog last week and I knew I had some valentine's fabric of mom's left, so I whipped up this Valentine's Wall Hanging the other night. I loved it so much, that I used the rest of the scraps to make one more, which I finished on Sunday. I allowed for backing and binding out of the same fabric, so now it's on to quilting in the next few days. I'm so excited to have these done. I just love them! They are about 16" square.

Here's a picture of the Friendship quilt I made for Jenn. Shonna, Gaila, and Emilee each got one as well.  A few more unsuspecting friends will receive the other 3 when I get them done.

Saturday night I made this Waffle Time table runner by Atkinson designs up. It's a Groovy Girls sample for this week. I love it and it went together fairly quickly.

The other sample I made on Monday was the Wave Table Runner. It uses a scallop ruler and I used the scallop ruler similar to the prairie points rulers to make the extra scallop in there. I love how it turned out and while this isn't a good picture, you can see just how cute it is. I used the gradations fabric for the inserted scallop and boy is that a fun fabric to work with. I have to finish the binding before Fri. night. I used the Easy Cut Bias ruler to cut the binding. Good thing I could Google it because there were no directions on how to use it!


This week I pulled all my scraps out to make a quilt from the new Scrappy Quilts book. It's called Merry Go Round and I'm super excited to use the 45 degree strip cut ruler. I picked up background and should be able to get it cut out tomorrow night so I can sew my strips on Friday night.
I also found a bunch of small pieces of Super fabric, so I'm going to make the Little Confetti pattern. Again super cute and very fast and easy.

Finished this week:
Three friendship blocks
Two Valentine Blocks
Waffle Time Table Runner
Wave Table Runner

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Jim Shore Quilt - Quilted and binding machine sewn on -  1 1/2 sides done - none.
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - 2/3 of the way done, on the last set of blocks - sewed on 12 more!
Little's Confetti - 2 of 80 blocks made
Merry Go Round - Fabric collected

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

Blush Quilt 
Valentine Wall Hangings
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks
No progress:
Pokey Little Puppy Book
Prayers Book
3 Mug Rugs - Binding
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks

This week's stats:
Completed projects -10
New projects -1
Currently in progress -13
Finished this year - 5 , 6 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!