WIP Wednesday Week 25 6.20.12

This week has been so productive! I had lots of samples with deadlines to get done and I think I've met them all. Late last week a storm rolled through the area and I couldn't plug my machine in to sew, so I did some more cleaning and reorganizing. I cleaned out my ruler rack and got it down to under 30 rulers! Woohoo for me! This is a miracle since I had over 100+ on there and they are all in sale pile. I picked up some totes from Emilee and already have quite a few of them full. I got through a few more drawers and my pattern boxes. I took two full boxes down to a half of one box. I need to work on the books and shelf next. I'm hoping Paul will help me get in the crawl space this weekend and get more out. It's really starting to add up, but I feel great about what I have left.


I made this Classmate case by Atkinson Design. It had to be done by last weekend.
This is the inside of the case. It has a lot of vinyl, but even more pockets. It was really easy to put together, yet there was a lot of steps to it.
Then I quickly made this little Baguette from Atkinson Designs. It turned out super cute with mesh on the front and is made to hold a rotary cutter.


This is the Easy Hex Table Topper by GE Designs. It's out of a recent table topper book and I'll be teaching a class on it this summer. I love how it turned out and I think I'll make a smaller version of it with the leftover scraps. It's really a fun and easy one to make. I probably could have made it in an hour, minus the cutting, if I hadn't had any interruptions. I used mostly scraps with a purchase for backing and border. It uses the quilt as you go method and I finished up the hand work on the binding yesterday during lunch.

This is another of GE Designs quilt as you go patterns I'll be teaching. It's called Lickety Split baby quilt. The last one I made was personalized for Wyatt, but considering he just turned 3, it's been a while. I love how this one turned out and I can't wait to personalize it for a friends baby. It's one of the 5 I need to make this fall. I have the top of one done and this one just needs the binding done, so I'm well on my way.
 
This week I hope to get more packing of my sewing room done and maybe do a quilt or two on the frame. Quarter break is going by way too quickly!

Finished this week:
Classmate case
Baguette
Easy Hex Table Topper
Lickety Split baby quilt

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
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
Sign Language Baby Quilt 2
No progress:
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- Together, needs 3 borders

Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing
This week's stats:
Completed projects -4
New projects -0
Currently in progress -3
Finished this year - 39 , 11 Samples

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

WIP Wednesday Week 24 6.13.12

This has been a busy week! We went to Pierre to the Speedway and spent the weekend fishing on the Missouri River. It was lots of fun and very relaxing, but boy I didn't feel like I had a weekend. I finished my final 2500 word paper for my Spring class on Sunday night when we got home and I got an A! Woohoo! So glad this class is over. Hopefully the summer class will be more interesting since it's on Curriculum Design.

Thursday night I taught a class on Merry Go Round. The girls in it were busy sewing, so I did some handwork and also cut out some quilt blocks. I hate just sitting and watching them sew, I like to be productive and not bother them.

Friday afternoon I took off from work and went to the quilt show. I found some inspiration, but something more amazing happened... I left without buying a single thing! I know it's a shocker for those who know me, but I just didn't see anything I had to have. So I headed to Hill City and looked over the last of the discounted fabric at Quilt Corral. They closed Monday, so I picked up 10+yards of a lavender batik to use as backing for my Winding Ways quilt. At such a deep discount I could afford to get more than I need, so I know I'll have enough.I hope to make this a queen plus size quilt.

I made it back to Rapid in time to go to Club Sew. My friends Emilee and Gaila were there and we had a great time sewing, laughing, and planning my sewing garage sale. I'm sew excited to have friends who will help me get organized! Gaila took a picture of me with the quilt top I was making. It's a 5 yard quilt made out of sign language fabric. I made all the blocks and put on the first set of borders.

I just had the outer left and right borders to finish up, so last night I put those on. I had to wait until later in the evening to sew since we had a bad storm pass through and I don't like to have my machines plugged in when it is lightening. So I did a bunch of cleaning. I thoroughly cleaned out my ruler rack and only kept the ones I know I'll use. I went from 75+ to less than 30. I did take a few to work to leave there, so I don't cart them back and forth, but I got rid of all the duplicates.


After finishing up the borders on this quilt, I had to work on a sample I need done by this weekend. I got two of the pockets done before calling it a night. It's a Classmate case from Atkinson Designs and I'm really excited to see how it turns out, since I think it will be really cute. I also pulled some fabric from my stash to make a sample for my next set of classes. I have 2 samples I need to make before next weekend, so I'm hoping to get some good sewing time in this weekend.

Finished this week:
Sign Language baby quilt 2 top
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
Classmate case
Baguette
Easy Hex Table Topper
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
Sign Language Baby Quilt 2
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!

Black Hills Shop Hop

On Saturday Jenn and I went on the northern hills part of the Black Hills Shop hop. We had a great time and got to visit 5 of the 12 shops on the hop. I visited 3 others on Friday, so only have the 4 Southern Hills shops to hit next Friday.   Jenn and I were visiting about our lack of sewing due in large part to having messy sewing rooms and not wanting to clean up so we can sew. So last night when I was going to clean it up, I took a couple pictures of my mess!
My ironing board, cutting table, and quilt frame are all covered. All of it is sewing stuff, but just needed to be organized and put away.


I have a quilt to quilt for Heather and I couldn't even see the frame, so I started there. It's all clean now, but it was getting late, so I didn't take pictures, but I'll be able to quilt tomorrow night!

We found lots of goodies on the shop hop. My goal was to pick up a fat quarter of black/white fabric at each shop, but unfortunately several did not have b/w fabrics, so I got several at some stores and none at others.

In Belle Fourche I got 3 fat quarters, a 1/2 yard cut of black/whites. The pink and yellow peeps were too cute to pass up. I think they'll be napkins for Easter this week.

The owner alerted me to this cool window decal I just had to have, since Ed got me the Runs with Scissors shirt.

I found a couple white with blacks at Quilt Connection in Rapid City.

A couple more b/w 1/4 yards at Fabric Junction in Sturgis.

In Spearfish at Dakota Quilt Company there is a new owner and there were definitely a few things I wanted to take home, especially with an extra 20% off everything including sale stuff. I found 4 fq's to add to my winding ways collection.

I also found this 9.5" square with a broke corner, some Sewline erasers for my pencils, and some new needles to try. The ruler I krazy glued and it's good as new, plus for Creative Grids it was super cheap! It was only about $5 with all the discounts. I've needed to find a new needle since the Richard and Hemming & Sons ones I buy I can't find any more, so I got these Bohin ones to try. They are milliners size 9 and I typically use a milliners size 11.

I also went to Thimble Cottage, but didn't find anything that made me buy it. We went to Sewing Center and Fabric City too, but I buy a lot normally, so nothing new this weekend for me.
Preview party was this weekend and it went well. I finished my sample at 9AM and the party was at 10! I got up early to finish the top, as I was having lots of trouble with it. Now it's on to fun gifts for friends and other "fun" sewing and quilting.

Sewing for Fun!

I've been doing a lot of just fun sewing, just because I want to this week! On Tues. of last week, my co-worker/friend Pat was admiring the sunflower wall hanging/table runner that I made for Jody and Adam's wedding. She's taken classes from me before and enjoys my quilty projects. She was saying something about how she'd never get one of my quilts since she's never getting married, having kids, graduating or the likes of the reasons I might give a co-worker a quilt gift. She's such a kind hearted woman and I knew she'd appreciate a quilt, so I went to the store after work Wed. looking for something that would speak to me. I found this Maxine fabric panel and knew it was perfect! I showed it to her office mate Shannon and she thought it was perfect too!
Sun. night I put the borders on, quilted it, added a sleeve and attached the binding. It took me about an hour and a half. I sewed the binding on by hand Monday morning. She about fell over, she was so excited! She moved the pictures on her wall in her office so I could hang it up right above her desk. I called it, Just Because We're Friends! I love to give quilts to totally unexpecting people when I know they will truly appreciate it.

Before I started this on Sun. night, I ended up cleaning up my ruler rack. I have a lot of rulers and just had to get a handle on it. I wrote down all the sizes I had, by brand, so I would have a list to reference. I've been replacing some with Creative Grids, so I do have quite a few.

Anyone want to take a guess as to how many rulers I have? I will say I have 6 at work, so they aren't all on this holder. This is a holder my little bro got me for Christmas one year and I love it! Yes, the clock is right i was doing this around 9 Sun. night and then did the wall hanging afterward. My quilting time now is from about 9-midnight if I last that long! I'll send out a few fun fat quarters to the person who guesses closest to the correct number.

I used the other side of the panel and quilted it on Sun. after I got done. I cut it up into 9 squares for mug rugs. I used insulbrite as the batting, so it will keep cold things cold/hot things hot or not get it on the desk. I made this one for myself. I sewed the binding on by machine and oh my gosh, I'm in LOVE with the new Wonder Clips by Clover, I think it is. Nancy's Notions if I remember correctly. They have a lip that clips onto the binding, but a flat clear back that lies flat, so no pinning, yet they hold well and secure. I can't believe how much I love them, since I am not one to use clips when I do my hand binding.

Here's the look from the back. My corners turned out perfect without having to go back and redo them!

I made this one for my co-worker friend Shannon.

This one is for Pat, the same one I made the wall hanging for. They both loved them!

Yesterday I found out about a friends baby shower on Sat. I decided I could whip out a quilt, so I pulled out this kit I had made up of a charm pack and yardage. It's similar to a coin quilt, only not all the charms are cut in half. I cut it up and sewed the blocks last night in under 45 min. I have them in the rows ready to sew tonight and should be able to get it on the frame yet tonight. See... this friend is having a baby, but her sister, who is also a good friend just had a little girl, so I feel like I should make 2 quilts. I may just make another one for the other friend. I love this pattern! It's from Moda Bake Shop and goes together so quickly without a lot of fabric. We'll see how much I can get done in the next few days. This is Dilly Dally by Me and My Sisters for Moda.


My little sewing "helper" only had patience to sew the blocks. She was ready to go to bed, so I quit for the night too! So this is the FUN sewing I've been doing this week... totally not doing any of the goals I set for the month.

Sewing in June

I've been doing lots of sewing in June, but I haven't gotten most of it posted yet. I finished up the Friendship quilt for Regina and while I was working on it, I was also finishing a few other projects. I made this Christmas wall hanging sample for the store out of Nancy Halvorson's Christmas line.

I finished up this UFO for my niece Molly's birthday that is next weekend. It's one my mom started and I wanted to finish it for Molly.

I also played around with the new Quarter Square triangle ruler and made a few samples for Tammy. I just love how these blocks turned out, but i think they'd be even better in some solid colors. I did a few different ways to show what they could look like.

Then I played with the 60* ruler too. I've been wanting to make a project out of my Blush Jelly Roll using this ruler, so I figured I could test it out with some scraps. It worked awesome and I'm already on my way to having a hexi quilt!


This weekend I made a vestment for my parents priest. It's another UFO of my mom's and needs to be finished and delivered before the first part of July. I still have the binding to do around the collar, but I think my lining is too big and I need some advice before I finish it up. Talk about a major project that scares the living daylights out of me!
I also finished up a wall hanging last night for a friends baby. It'll be gifted on Friday and then I can share photos of it. I can't believe how stinkin cute it turned out!

East River Quilt Shop Hop

Mom and I know how to have fun when we travel... we go shop hopping. My parents and I went to a wedding in Sioux Falls this weekend, but along the way we had to make a few stops at quilt shops. We traveled on Friday, so the shops were all fairly quiet and we could take our time looking. My dad needs a new overnight bag, so I wanted some fabric that he would like. I found this pheasant fabric in Chamberlain at The Quilt Shop. I'm going to use the Lazy Girl Summer Tote pattern with a few adjustments to make it workable for the type of bag I want.  We stopped next in Mitchell and had to do a little manuevering to get to the shop since the carnival was on main street. I'm just glad we were able to get there. The pheasants in the lower right hand corner I picked up at the Pin Cushion in Mitchell. I love how realistic they are. I figure I should have enough and can play around to figure out how I will use them all.

Then it was on to Dell Rapids to Always Your Design. It has moved across the street into two store fronts and WOW! It is huge. We really enjoy going to this shop as they have awesome taste and we always find lots of things to take home. My mom taught one of the owners in high school, so she always enjoys catching up with her.
I brought home a couple yards of this Lamour fabric by Sandy Gervais for Moda. Mom is going to make me a new top out of it.

I also found the one thing I was looking for on this shop hop... Milliner needles size 11 by Richard Hemming and Son. I learned to hand sew binding down with these needles two years ago and I'm down to one left of two packages I've had, so I picked up a few more packages!
Saturday morning we had some time in Sioux Falls before the wedding. My cousins were at the Hobby Lobby, so we went to Dutch Rose Quilt Shop. I found this cute little ArtBin container. At Joann's I found the little cutter I've been searching for, for the past 1.5 years. Mom got a few of them too! They work perfectly for taking sweatshirts apart for sweatshirt jackets.

We went to Heirloom Creations and I picked up thread and a new Creative Grids 4.5x8.5" ruler. I've been slowly adding new Creative Grids rulers to my collection and I love this new one. I'm sure it will get a lot of use. I knew exactly what thread color I was getting low on, so I was prepared. I love Aurifil thread and wish I could find it closer, but at least I can get it on my shop hops and not have to send away for it.

At Dutch Rose Quilt Shop I found this pattern for a baked potato/tortilla warmer. It's different than the ones I have, so I'm looking forward to trying it. We warm up a lot of tortillas.

At The Pin Cushion in Mitchell I picked up the Atkinson Designs Happy Holidays Table Topper pattern. I've wanted this pattern for a long time and finally found it. I love the Halloween look. I'm also thinking it would make a really cool tree skirt, so I may just have to make one of those too.

Last night I stopped at the shop and picked up candy corn fabric and three coordinates to go with it. I'm going to make up a couple table toppers. At Hobby Lobby in SF when we met up with our cousins, we found these really cute candy corn shaped dishes. I think they will be perfect for the center of these table toppers.


Mom and I had tons of fun shop hopping. My dad is a great sport and he patiently waits for us at each shop. We were able to get to 6 shops in 2 days. I always enjoy going to the shops East River and I never know what we might find. We have the same taste, so we skip the shops which are not our style. Now I just have to find the time to make all these projects up before the baby makes it's arrival!

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.