Busy Week!

This week has been busy, but also extremely productive! October has been my most productive month and I still have a full week left. After meeting all my goals for October last week, I re-evaluated and set some additional goals. I took my list from the Sewing Center of my UFO's and decided to tackle the ones that were true UFO's - already started and just needing to be finished up. I came up with 5 more projects I can complete. I'll see how much I get done since I also bought fabric to make 2 more quilts. I did cut both tops out and they are panels with borders, so they shouldn't take long. I hope to do some more quilting this weekend.
Friday night we had club sew at the shop. This quilt is an I Spy I did as a 9 patch/snowball blocks quilt along with the Prolific Online Quilters. The nearest we can come is that we did it around 4 years ago. All the blocks were made, laid out and pinned in the rows. I just had to sew it into a top. It even had the backing with it.

I also completed my last October goal - my last Swoon block. I am now ready to assemble it. I'm so excited to be able to lay these out and see how they look together. My block roll up is full with all 9 blocks in it.

Friday night was the only time we've all been able to get together for our scrap swap exchange. I didn't get many pictures, but here's one of the quilt Emilee made for Heather. I just love this and would like to make one myself.

Nicole H. made this box for Nicole B. It's so stinking cute and will look great in her new sewing room.

Gaila took my Mocha Meringue scraps and made this great wall hanging. She's in love with the Wonky Cross blocks, so she made a bunch of those. I love how the dark sets off the blocks.

On the back she used up my Wonder blocks in the center. The quilting is amazing as well. She does so awesome with her free motion quilting. She quilted around a bunch of the circles. I LOVE IT!

Sunday night after a marathon Fall cleaning session in my bedroom/closet, I set to work quilting Star Surround. It turned out so pretty.

I also put the 9 Patch/Snowball quilt on the frame and quilted it. Sunday night very late, Star Surround got the binding put on, so I was ready to do the hand work.

Tuesday night after looking at my UFO list, I decided I could finish up this little table topper of moms. It was supposed to have a pastel one on the back to make it reversible, but that is what was holding me up from finishing it - how to quilt it and how to bind it. So I looked in the bag with it, found the leftover scraps and made a second one.

This one is the exact opposite of the top one. I put them together with the batting and sewed around, burped it and when I get a chance I will do a bit of quilting with black and call it good. I am so happy I changed the project to make it work for me. I also made a second pastel one and will put it together with the other top. I just need to get the batting out to finish it up.

All week I have been working on the binding on the Star Surround and last night I finished it up. I don't have a clue where this one will go, but I love the pattern, it used up scraps, and it turned out so pretty.

Last night I only had 1 in class for quilting as the others were busy and couldn't make it. So I spent some time hand sewing the binding on the 9 patch quilt. I also cut out a quilt for my nephew's birthday and a Dr. Suess quilt for Mathew for Christmas. I think I have decided to do quilts for both kids, with Minkee on the back of both for their Christmas presents.
Saturday Mathew was dressed for the Notre Dame game. My godparents are huge fans as both of their daughters went to ND. The daughters were my best friends growing up and we still keep in contact. My friend Amy is moving back to SD and I am thrilled!!  He's all full of smiles.

He's also wearing his new Wranglers from Great Uncle Tom and Great Aunt Helen! He's our little cowboy and has his boots on from Grandpa Hugh and Grandma Ann. He's got such a tiny waist I'm going to have to get him a little belt.

He's just so stinking cute!

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday.

What's happening this week??

So this should be my weekly WIP post, but really there isn't much to show compared to what I have already shown this week. I have finished the hand sewn binding on both Mom's Pink Ribbon Quilt as well as the Heart Twister quilt. I'm working on the Zoo Parade quilt and Confetti is in the queue. I'll get them finished yet this week, but have had to take a break from EPP to get them done. This week I have been shot from doing so much on the weekend. I finished my paper and turned it in on Monday night. Last night we had to go to town, so I didn't get much done, other than packing for class tonight.
I did get a great squishy package in the mail this week. Last week I won a drawing on Happy Quilting for a $25 gift certificate to Shop Cotton Bliss. I chose to spend it on a pack of Aurifil thread. I was good and didn't buy the large pack, which I really wanted. I got the smaller pack which will work great for adding some additional colors to my stash. I'm rapidly adding Aurifil thread and now I have trouble finding colors I do not already have.



The other reason I haven't gotten much sewing done is this little guy. He's wanting to stay up later and get up earlier. Last night he was refusing to go to bed. It's hard to be mad with this cute little smile. He's getting the top 4 teeth in all at the same time, so he's been cranky this week.

He was playing in our bed, looking in the mirror on our headboard, when he should have been sleeping.

He's so fun to play with and he just loves to giggle. He's so funny to tickle.

English Paper Piecing Progress

Last week I ran across Splish Splash Stash and she is having an EPP linking party. I thought it might be a good time to pull out my EPP and show my progress in the last couple of months. At the beginning of October my goal was to finish the center of my Rubic Star. I not only finished the center, but I also got the background pieces added.

Earlier this week I finished putting on the corners of the background. I wasn't sure if I was going to put the diamond border on, so I hadn't cut them out, but decided it needs it. Today at lunch I cut out and prepped all the diamonds for the border, so back to basting I go.

At the end of September I worked quite a bit on this table topper, but put it aside as I was running out of cream background and the only pieces I had were all the same. I raided my stash from Jenn and found some more creams that match, so today at lunch I prepped more cream pieces. I don't know where this will go, beyond another 3 pink flowers, but so far I like it.

This is the UFO I worked on gung ho at the beginning of the year, but kind of lost interest when putting it together. It is made of desert strips of sewing motif fabrics. I have 3 rows completed, plus a couple sections.

This one stays in my art bin box at work for when I have nothing else to do... which isn't often, thus very little to no progress.

I worked hard on making ahhhh's over the last month and while I enjoy them, I have taken a bit of a break in Oct. simply because I finished this one at the end of Sept. and it was the last one I had prepped. Last week I brought my box to work and spent a couple days prepping ahhhh's into kits. I now have 15 more ready to go.

I did go a bit overboard and ordered 600 triangles to use between these when I am done. I plan to do them all in black. I am not sure how big it will eventually turn out.

This summer I worked on this hexie project with the scraps from my WIP winding ways quilt.

I also made this star in May and June. These projects kept me very busy.

So my EPP has been going strong, although I am taking a break this week to work on hand sewing bindings down on the 4 quilts I quilted over the weekend. I hope to get back to my EPP next week.
Thanks for stopping by!

Productive Weekend of Quilting

This weekend was so productive it isn't even funny. Let me preface my quilting progress, with the fact that I had a marathon cleaning session at my home Sat. morning and afternoon, including completely pulling everything out, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, organizing, and putting all the toys away. I didn't start quilting until after supper Sat. night.
Friday night while Paul was up watching some gold show I pulled together this baby quilt top. It's not great, but it's done and will make some baby happy. I also pulled backing and batting and it was ready to quilt.

Sat. night I started with this one and got it quilted. I used a pink/brown King tut.

I did loops for the quilting. My goal for the month was just to make the top, so having it finished is a big bonus!

Then I quilted this one with a meander. I was able to trim both quilts up and get the binding on the top of both of them Saturday night. Woohoo! I finished the binding at work today during breaks.

Sunday after I went to mass and took the kids to town for pictures, I came home and quilted this one. It's an older quilt top I had done as a sample.

Mikaela insisted on helping with the photography and playing on this one. She's claimed it as her favorite.

Then I really quickly quilted up this one with a really tight meander to see if I could do it. It turned out well. I loaded the wolf wall hanging and started quilting it. It's slow going because I am doing more of a thread painting on it and with all the layers its breaking thread a lot. I quit for the night, just before the power went out.

My favorite part of the weekend was realizing my cutting table is amazing! I was able to pull it up and put my big mat on to trim up these quilts. I usually use just the top, because it takes up so much room, but wow, I'm in love with the big surface, at the right height.


The kids had a great weekend. We went to Wal-mart and daddy let Mikaela ride on a couple rides.

She loved them! It's a special treat, so she was super excited. Plus she got funfetti cupcake mix, pure heaven in her eyes.

Mathew just hung out with his book. He's getting the top 4 teeth in, so just a bit crabby, compared to his normal happy self.

Mikaela was photo bombing my quilts while I was trying to take pictures.

Mathew just practiced his posing.

But then Mikaela decided to help him. He's so happy. He just turned 10 months last weekend.

Friday Finishes

This week was incredibly productive! I feel almost giddy with how much I got done on my to do list. I also did a lot of prep work for quilting and that makes me excited. If I can get the 4 quilts quilted that I have in the que I will be very excited next week. Last night after messing with the Star Surround top for way too long I worked on this table topper. It had the center and 2 pieces on, so not very far along. I finished it up! I whipped it out in an evening, including putting the binding on, simply because I wanted to use the pink ribbon bag it was taking up space in. Not a great reason, but at least it is done.

I love this fabric, but it's done. I am completely over it and I only kept the big scraps of it. The 1 1/2" pieces went in the trash. I can only keep so much before I go crazy and I am not buying any more to finish up what I have!

I also made these 3 bags this week. I am simply in love with them and can't wait to share with others. The purple one is my new travel EPP bag and I love it. The size is perfect. These are all from scraps.

So with any luck I will have a quilting marathon on Sat. evening and get at least one or 2 tops quilted up. That's my plan and we'll see what my family has planned instead. We've gotten a couple inches of rain today already and the snow is very quickly melting away.