Productive October Sewing

This month has been extremely productive, even though we were in a major blizzard and without power last Friday and Saturday. Sunday night and Monday I was able to work on this quilt called the Maze. The pattern was really fun to make, but the directions were a bit confusing. I had to really follow along and pay close attention to my cutting to make sure it worked out the way it was supposed to. I love this top and it's going to be kitted at the shop.

The first week of October I made this travel high chair. It's made out of PUL and it is awesome. I think I need to make one for Mathew, as this is a sample for the store.

Sunday night I needed something quick and easy to make, so I pulled out these little bags and worked on them. I just used up some leftover scraps, so they are random sized, but they will be given away. I did keep the purple one for a small travel bag as the one I made is a bit to big, so I put too much in it and it won't fit in my purse. This way I can limit how much I take. One or two Ahhhh's will fit in it.

Monday night I put together this quilt top that was a UFO of my mom's. It's my goal for the Lovely Year of Finishes as well as the challenge in the Hexie BC group. I wasn't sure about borders, but without I can finish it on the frame now, so I left them off.

Tuesday night I went to town and finished the last block of the Star Surround Quilt Top. All the pieces were made, so it went together faster than I expected.

I also pieced the backing for the pink ribbon UFO. It's actually more of a white background, but it will work. The fabric is all from the same line an d uses up most of what mom had bought for the quilt. I still have some scraps/stash from it, but it will be done soon.

Last night I was supposed to have my graduate class, but due to a family emergency she postponed it to tonight and I had some extra time on my hands. I finished putting together the Star Surround top. It turned out really cool and will make a great baby quilt or wall hanging. I'm not sure which, so I guess I'll wait until it is finished.

I picked up a couple flimsy samples at the shop that need quilted so I can get them off my UFO list. I set to work last night and made backs, cut batting, and pulled the king tut/bottomline thread so I am ready to have a quilting marathon. Here's my stack, with my thread on top. The quilts ready for quilting include:
Heart Twister
Paul's Wolf
Confetti
Pink Ribbon

If I can get a back pieced the Star Surround will be going in the pile as well. I'd love to have a quilting marathon on Saturday afternoon/evening/night since there is a race on and I know Paul will stay home to watch it.
I've also decided to do a giveaway for Breast Cancer awareness month. My mom was a survivor for 7 years until she lost the battle to brain cancer. She had a tremendous amount of pink ribbon fabric/stuff and I'm slowly getting rid of it. If you'd like to win this book leave a comment and I'll draw a winner sometime this month.

Here are a few pictures from the blizzard. It severely affected our family and the loss of animals is in the tens of thousands. My dad's wife lost all but a couple horses, so probably close to 20 horses. Mikaela is on our sidewalk after we dug that far. My car is behind her where the shovel on the right is. I walked completely over my car as there was a drift over it. To the left side of the picture is my MIL's car and my husbands pickup which was parked directly behind me.

The pickup had a drift level with the box all the way back across the street. We were lucky a front end loader came and dug out the street on Sunday. We were out most of Sunday morning and Paul was out all day getting us dug out. Once he got his 4-wheeler out, I think he was more playing in the snow than anything, but he helped out the neighbors get their driveway cleared too.

Hope everyone is having a productive October!

WIP Wednesday Week 7 2/15/12

This has been a slow week for me. As in excruciating for me. I hate not getting to my studio to sew. The only time I've been there is to write 2 1500 word papers and spend 2 hours online for class. Paul got home Thurs. night from being out of town working, so we spent the evening together. Friday we went to Famous Dave's for supper for my birthday and enjoyed some shopping together. Saturday we went to the Sport's Show and had a family day of looking. Saturday night Grandma Leslie watched Mikaela and we went out to supper for Valentine's Day.

We even dressed up a bit.

I got flowers from one of my campuses, my daughter, my best friend, and the roses from hubby. My office is very fragrant. Jenn remembered me with the daisies in memory of my mom's passing anniversary on Sat. She is so awesome and gave me a necklace as well.

I have my EPP'd Valentine's tablerunner out at my office as it reminds me so much of my mom and the hours I spend on it and the great friendship Jen provided in my time of need.


I have the Pink/Green Jungle Quilt still up on my design wall as my WIP for this week. I had really wanted to get the backing done this week, but it just wasn't meant to be. I'm hoping to get it quilted soon, to have ready for a baby gift or maybe Mikaela will want it, but I'm also seriously considering a stitch regulator for my machine and want to wait until I get that to do a lot of quilting. Does anyone have a stitch regulator that they really prefer it over just the speed control. I have the speed control and cutter button for my Janome 1600P, but I'm really considering the stitch regulator. I'd love to hear any feedback, either positive or negative. I'm going to put a green binding on this one and then I'll have just a few scraps left to make a little pillow or something.


The ONLY sewing/quilting I did was to pull out my mom's Loralie quilt and backing and see where they were in the UFO stage. They both look too good to be the back and I can't tell what she was doing, so I put them away until I had more time to look at them. I did continue cutting out Confetti pieces and I just have background to cut out now. It's going faster than I expected now.
Only 2 weeks until quilt retreat!! I've started packing. We'll be going to my dad's this weekend to get a few things and do some embroidery. Paul's going to go shooting with my family. He got a new gun this week.... I'm a very LOVED wife this week for saying yes, even though he's out of town.
Mikaela and I celebrated my Valentine Birthday with a heart shaped pizza from Boston's and a shopping trip to Best Buy. I think I've finally decided to get the Nook tablet thanks to Jen's recommendation. I just have to check to make sure it will work with my school books and stuff.

New Projects this Week:
Loralie Quilt(s)

Finished this week:
Zilch!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 - Cut out more pieces
Merry Go Round -  Cut out and sewed about 30 stratas - Nada.

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!

Friday Finishes!

This week was really productive for me. I finished the hand sewn binding on this quilt at lunch and we had the baby shower last night for our co-worker Kristen and her daughter Emmaline.

This is really busy, but I just love these fabrics. It makes up so quickly. I had it cut out and pieced in less then 3 hours.

Isn't this the cutest baby cake. I just love the little bloomers and feet!

At the shower, showing the new mom the quilt. She love it, since she has nothing pink. She has a little boy.


Monday I stayed home with a sick little Mikaela, so while she slept I worked on this little wall hanging growth chart for her. I've had it for a while, but just hadn't done anything with it. I love how it turned out.

Last night after putting Mikaela to bed, I set to work to make a couple of these cute blocks. I just love how they turned out and I think I would like them more if they were even scrappier. Ohhh that's a big thing for me to say. I just don't do scrappy, but I do love this block. I had enough to make 2 like this. What should I do with them. I think they are to small for wall hangings, but does 2 look wrong for a tablerunner? They are 16" squares.

After finishing those I set to work to put together another friendship square. I made the one on the right last night and had the other one done. I'm kind of torn which I like better. I have enough fabric/HST's pulled to make one more. Then I'm to the end of my Pink/Brown Buggy Barn fabric. I just love trying these modern blocks and have been really inspired by the HST's. I cut out a Valentine HST table topper last night and hope to work on it this weekend.

I have another paper due for my graduate class this week, so if I get it mostly written, the main part for sure, I'm going to my friend Jenn's to sew on Sunday. Sewing with friends is really better motivation then a midnight deadline, so you know what I'll be doing Sat. night! Hope everyone had a good week. I'd love to know what you think of the HST blocks.

WIP Wednesday Week 3 1/18/12

January is flying by very quickly! I've had a lot to get done and I feel good about what I've accomplished so far. I've put in 55 hours so far this month, most of which was on quilts for samples for the store. This week I worked on the Sweet Treats sample. I finished up all the pink blocks on Wed. night of last week.

Thurs. night I got a slow start on the red blocks and finished them up on Sat. night.

Thanks to a football game on TV, hubby, MIL, and friend watched Mikaela and I got to sew. I finished putting the top together just as the game was over.

Never fear though... in an attempt to put off going to bed and waking up Sun. I spent half the night putting borders on. I stumbled to bed around 2AM, but it was finished!!

I actually finished it a bit earlier than that, but I wasn't tired, thanks to a nap, so I pulled out my pink/brown scraps and made another Friendship block. I hope to have enough left to do one or maybe even two more of these. They'll be a bit different than the first 4, but the friends they are going to are definitely worth the work! I want to have them ready to take to dad's the next time we go, which will probably be in Feb.

Sunday was spent writing about the colonial history of American higher education, real thrilling as you can tell. I put the paper off forever and did not know what to write about. I finally got it done though and turned it in early, about 3 hours before it was due!
Monday night was our live session, in which we have to listen on our computers while the instructor lectures. I moved my laptop to the sewing studio and cut out two quilts while I listened! I had her last quarter so the first hour of rules/regs. for the course was the same as last quarter.
I cut out this cute baby quilt from the scraps of Dilly Dally and with the 3 yards I bought on clearance on 1/2/12, I had enough for borders and backing. I'll even have enough for binding. I made this one about 41"x46", so a nice baby size. I have a co-worker who just had a baby girl and she wanted pink, so I think this will go to her if I can get it quilted before next weeks baby shower. It's really more pink than it reads in the picture. I loosely use a pattern I've used before with charms and half charms, but I just used 5" scraps and cut them up as I went and mixed and matched. I made it bigger then the other one as it was more like 36"x40". I sewed this top in about 3-4 hours last night.


I also cut out a bag, but need to find some batting scraps so I can make it. I reorganized my thread last night and put a lot away that had been floating around. It's really accumulated! I looked and have as many as 4 regular spools and one cone of at least 4 different Masterpiece threads, several in unopened or brand new spools! I have at least 2 of every Aurifil thread I use for piecing and several unopened quilting colored threads. I have a hard time keeping my Aurifil bobbins separate, so I'm really hoping for the pink Janome bobbins in the case for my birthday, that way I can use those only for Aurifil thread. A girl can only hope that hubby listens to my hints! Otherwise I'll get them as a little gift to myself. I'd been looking at the pink ones since they came into the store just before Christmas and I was telling Paul about them, but I just couldn't justify spending the money when I have a lot of bobbins. Then I realized they were the answer to my constant issue with keeping the Aurifil bobbins separate. I have about 15-20 spools of Aurifil thread and keeping them on pink bobbins would make it easy to distinguish between the "GOOD" thread and the other piecing threads I use.  Right now they are in a small pink ribbon case and the spools are in a bigger pink ribbon case.
We don't even want to count the King Tut or Bottomline threads as I think I have pretty close to all of them! The serger thread is mostly put away, since I so rarely use it and the cones are huge. Let's say I LOVE thread and what it can do for a quilt. Anyone else love thread as much as I do? I'm thinking I need to take pictures of my thread containers, just so I know what I have.

Finished this week:
Sweet Treats- Sample
Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Winding Ways Schlep Bag - Cut Out
Jim Shore Quilt - Quilted and binding machine sewn on -  1 1/2 sides done - No Progress
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts - 1 top made, 2 more in progress
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks- laid out and ready for sewing
Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt 
Charmed Dilly Dally Baby Quilt
No progress:
Pokey Little Puppy Book
Prayers Book
3 Mug Rugs
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - 2/3 of the way done, on the last set of blocks
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks

This week's stats:
Completed projects -8
New projects -1
Currently in progress -13
Finished this year - 5 , 4 Samples

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

WIP Wednesday

This has felt like a productive week, even if I haven't spent much time sewing. During my personal time at work I was able to finish the hand sewing on the binding on this 5 Yard quilt for our daycare lady for Christmas. I just have to add a label and it will be ready to gift.

I finished up the notebook cover for my MIL's co-worker. I had the embroidery machine at my house for the week, so I added her name.

I quilted the BQ2 quilt with the Jim Shore angels and have started the hand sewn binding. I'll add the label and have it ready to donate in Dec.

I finished up the Tiny Taylor fabric book for Mikaela.

I embroidered it on the machine as well.

At Groovy Girls I made these HST blocks and have one more of 4 to finish. I'm planning to make some table toppers/wall hangings for friends. Does anyone have  a favorite saying they would embroider on the center relating to friends/quilts? I plan to embroider with the machine the same thing on all four and give them to friends for Christmas.

When I was home last weekend my little Bro Ed wanted his sweatshirt embroidered, so I put his name and company on it.

This week I made the last block for my friendship swap. I got behind and this is an Oct. block. So happy to finally be finished with it.


 I also finished the 36 HST blocks for Jen V. I had a hard time with picking fabric, so finally had friends pick it. I hope they are okay.

Tonight I worked on the final 24" HST block. Now to get them embroidered.



Finished this week:
Linda S. Friendship Block
Jen V. Friendship Block
Cressa's Cowgirl Quilt - DONE!
Numbers Sewing Book - DONE!
Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Wall Hanging - 2 - Finished 4 of the 4 Blocks - Need to figure out what to embroider on them.
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks - No progress
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - 2/3 of the way done on the last set of blocks - No progress
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks - still sitting
Jim Shore Quilt - Quilted and binding machine sewn on -  working on hand sewing.
Linda's T-shirt Quilt - started cutting and interfacing 47 t-shirts for King size quilt
Paul's Wolf - 2nd eye, nose and face done - No progress this week.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt
No progress:
Pokey Little Puppy Book
Mom's Pink Ribbon Quilt
3 Mug Rugs
This week's stats:
Completed projects -4
New projects -0
Currently in progress - 13
Finished this year - 118 projects + 12 Receiving Blankets & 20 Burp Clothes


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