May Accomplishments

May is often one of my slowest months for sewing, but this seemed to be a pretty busy month. I finished Mrs. Ivey's quilt before teacher appreciation week, so we gave it to her then.

I was even able to get an embroidery label done. The next thing I tried to embroider locked up the machine, so it's in being serviced now.

I finished the sample Everyday Wallet I made for the class I'm teaching in August.

This is the inside.

I made boo boo bags for my MIL to give to her workers.

The Amethyst Project bag probably took me the longest to complete. It was a bit of a challenge, but I'm excited to make another one and teach the class in the fall.



More boo boo bags, this time to sell to my MIL's worker.

I finally made these two trinket cases.

I gave one to my co-worker Tammy and kept one for myself.

Mathew got a new cars fleece blanket with a red back from Grandma Delia's fabric stash.

Mikaela picked out the Frozen and got a purple fleece backing also from Grandma Delia's fabric stash.

I finished up a few more Ahhh's

Hoping to get the rest of the blocks done this month.


While we were camping I finished up these 4 Sweet pea pods. I have a bunch more that I started to work on as well. They are great for doing in the camper as I don't have to be precise and they are quick and easy.

With NO deadlines looming, I took out mom's Fall friendship braid and started working on it. I trimmed it up, only to realize some of the WOW were wrong, so now I am fixing those.




I went with Mikaela to her school field trip and I just LOVE this picture of her.

She graduated from Kindergarten last Friday. She just loves school so it will be a long summer. It's a transition for me to only do one drop off and start work 1/2 hour earlier.

We enjoyed Hart Ranch last weekend and the kids got to go on a train ride before we left. We simply love spending time there and are excited to be going back a couple weeks in July.


Yards In this Month: .75
Yards Out this Month: 25.5
Yards In this Year: 48.75
Yards Out this Year: 149.25
For a total of 100.5 yards used!

WIP Wednesday Week 38 9.19.12

This past week has been crazy busy! I am so ready for October, so I can slow down.
Oh wait, no sure it will happen then either. I had a couple finishes from last week I wanted to share pictures of since the shower is over. My co-worker Jody's shower was on Sat. and I gave her this little diaper clutch. It's made with the leftover backing fabric from her baby quilt.

I finally finished my dad and Ann's wedding quilt. It will be given to them on Friday. I think it's my favorite quilt so far this year. Maybe in the last 2 years. I simply love how stunning it turned out.
 
I did the label on the embroidery machine. It turned out awesome! So glad I can still make that thing work like I want it to, when I want it to.

This is the baby quilt I made for Jody. It's a panel, but her baby room is farmyard, so  I knew it was perfect!

She loved the baby quilt and I'm so happy I went with this one instead of the one I started for her. She's due Nov. 1, so we'll be overlapping maternity leaves by about 4 weeks.


Saturday night I needed some me time, so after Mikaela went to bed I loaded my blush quilt. It's the one I tried to quilt with the Aurifil thread on Tues. night and cussed it so much that I took it out and started over with my old standby KingTut/Bottomline combo. I was mad too since I had bought both pink and turquoise Aurifil to quilt it with and neither worked. Oh well, live and learn. It was one of those nights where I would say I'll finish this bobbin, then I'll finish the row, then oh I don't have much left to do, so I might as well finish since it is going so well. I love how it turned out!

Here's a close up of the quilting.

Sunday night I had Jen's quilt on the frame and ready to quilt. I quilted and tore and quilted and tore several times before I got it where I like the quilting on it. When it was done I loaded this baby quilt on it. I was just going to load, then just check thread, and pretty soon it was completely quilted! Good thing I did as I found out the baby shower is Sunday night. Last night after I worked late I put the binding on. I'm hoping to finish the handwork during class tonight, but we'll see how it goes.

My dad drives a grader, so that is the picture I took of the quilting. It's for his grandson. So with 4 yards of bamboo batting I was able to complete three quilts, the blush, Jen's, and the Cat quilt. I think they will all be great snugly quilts, well except for Jen's, but it will hang well. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!

Saturday night we took Mikaela to get her first hair cut. She was so not interested in sitting still, so I had to hold her and try to keep her still. She now has bangs and looks like a little girl. The hairdresser Cathy was so good with her!

It's been a VERY productive week! I don't think this next week will be since we are going to my dad's tomorrow for the wedding on Friday. I'm hoping I can have the baby quilt done by Sunday's shower. Anything else is a plus this week!

Finished this week:
Dump Truck Quilt
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts - DONE!
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks -DONE!

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Sign Language Diaper Clutch
Batik Scrappy Quilt - Sewed all the 2.5" squares to the corners, now to trim and press
Hugs & Kisses Batik quilt
Hugs & Kisses Scrappy Quilt

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding Blush Quilt  - quilted!
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen - Quilted

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt - Need to make backing
Confetti Top - At the shop
Twisted Heart - At the shop
Merry Go Round - Needs backing made.
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- borders on - backing made
Autumn Star Quilt - needs backing

New Projects:

No progress:
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing - Need to get a move on, he's getting married
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt
Swoon - 2 Blocks done

This week's stats:
Completed projects -3
New projects -
Currently in progress - 4
Finished this year - 51, 12 Samples

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

60* Tablerunners

I absolutely fell in love with my 4.5" double strip 60* ruler when I made the French Braid tablerunner for a class I'm teaching in October. I needed to make two wedding gifts for weddings I'm going to next weekend and I couldn't help but pull out my purple wedding scraps and make tablerunners using the 60* ruler. I cut out 8 WOF strips by 4.5" and then cut the 60* triangles. I had way too many cut out! I used a cream rock candy for the background and made these 8 rows instead of 12. I could have mixed up my colors a bit more, but in the interest of time I decided to follow a pattern. Saturday night I was able to finish up the first one I had started.

I made a second one too. I mixed up the order of pieces a little different for this one.

I put them together to see which one I like better and I think I like the second one better.

Sunday afternoon it was 100+ outside, the first time in 3 years!  I stayed downstairs with the AC and started quilting the tablerunners. I did a loopy loop pattern on one for my co-worker. I also put the binding on and got it handsewn down during Big Brother last night.

I added labels to both, using leftover triangles. I love how they turned out.

The other one I did I meandered on it. I used a dark purple King Tut and Bottomline. I got the binding put on it too, but still have a bit of handsewing to do. This one is for a 2nd cousins wedding that I'm going to next weekend. I'm not sure how I lucked out that both weddings were purple and I still have a ton of scraps left over! Some day I will use all the purple scraps, but for now I am just loving that I could totally make both of these from my stash without buying anything. I have enough 60* triangles cut out to do another one, but I think I'll move on and work on some other projects first.

Friday Night Sewing

We spent the evening at home tonight, so I had time to catch up on a few random projects. I put a label on the pink snowball quilt, put the appliques on the vinyl bags, and sewed up one of the fabric bowls that was cut out. I'll have to do the hand work on the label, but it should be ready to mail on Monday. I need to pick up zippers for the bags before I can finish them. Mom had 3 cut out fabric bowls that just needed to be sewn up. This is the first one I made. It takes so long to satin stitch, that I get bored, so I figured getting one done was better than nothing.

This is the bottom side of the bowl so it's reversible.

I could have worked on the Wolf applique, but it needs a lot of detailed cutting. I just wasn't feeling like concentrating that hard tonight, so I cut out the 5 yard quilt kit I bought back in Sept. I got it completely cut out and I got the first step of block 1 done. I have all 18 done this far, so hopefully this weekend I can get the rest of the blocks done. I feel like I got a lot done for a Friday night.

Mom's Pink Quilt - Christmas 2009

This year I made each of our mothers a quilt for Christmas. I posted my MIL's One Block Wonder when it was done as she doesn't read my blog real often. She thought I had quit on it and put it away until after Christmas, so she was surprised when she unwrapped it. She loves it, so that makes me happy. As much as I don't enjoy Asians, she loves them, so it's not bad using them when they are for her and I know she'll like them.
My mom though, does read my blog, so I didn't want to reveal too much about it. She had seen it when I was putting it together for the book, but she hadn't seen it quilted. The background is white and the pinks are from my stash, which was really a challenge, since I don't have much stash. The finished quilt is a twin size, so a good snuggly quilt for her. The white has a ribbon print on it, so I quilted loops on it and the pink represents the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness and my mom's favorite color.

I experimented with quilting my name into one of the bottom blocks. You have to know it's there to really notice it.


I embroidered the label at my mom's one weekend. I love doing embroidered labels since they are so personalized and contain the information nicely.

The quilt is a pattern in the new GE Designs book Strip On. I did the pattern testing for the pattern before it went to print, so I received a copy of the new book signed by her and I love it.

5 & Dime Finished!

Today I officially finished the 5& Dime quilt I started Friday. I finished the binding last night and put the label on, so today at lunch I finished the hand sewing on the label. Since these are not my colors whatsoever... everyone who see's it can't believe I love how it turned out. I was racing Tammy at TSC to get it done and I won! She offered me her kids... said she'd get more done if I had kids and she didn't.

The label was fussy cut from the center fabric and fused on.

A little closer up of the quilting. I did a rather large meander which worked really well and turned out super nice. I did the olive green on top and teal in the bobbin. It's really hard for me to even believe that I'm digging the green in this quilt. I've come out of my purple box... It's been a long time since I've done anything that is purple.