Travel Pillow Reveal

So this weekend I did get in a little sewing, I caught up again on my block of the week blocks -- 17 more to be released and then it will be time to sew them all together. 

I also managed to finish up the travel pillow swap item for Kim (sorry Kelly and Teri -- I know you were looking awfully hard at it as well). She loves birds, aqua and grey but her sewing studio is mostly black, white and lime green so I put together this little addition for her. 

Then I worked some quilting magic on it. 

I stitched her last name on the side as an added touch but think I should have used a different color thread to get it to show up more. 

I wish I had taken more pictures of the others that were swapped because they were all awesome and in the excitement I even forgot to take a picture of my pillow I received (coming later this week). 

Quilt Carolina in Review

This weekend was awesome and very fabric filled though not much sewing happened, because I was shop hopping with Quilt Carolina. It all started on Thursday evening when I went and dropped off the large commission quilt --- which was a huge hit and then headed over to Greensboro for the first stop of 15 with Studio Stitch -- where I found this beautiful bundle of Parisville by Tula Pink. 

We wanted to get back over to the Winston shops but ran out of time and needed some rest because Friday was all about the Raleigh shops and taking the bus with my buddies Roxanne and Teri. 

Early morning Friday we boarded the bus and were Raleigh bound for a fun filled day of 10 shops most of which I had never been to but now know I will be returning to in the future. Our first shop (and one of my new favs) was Thimble Pleasures. Here I found some more great finds. Aren't those snails adorable? Some Kissing Booth and Birds and Bees as well. 

Then we were off to Wish Upon a Quilt. A few weeks back through Facebook I won a Fabric tulip from them -- I had no idea what this was at the time but now I know I love them. For those of you that are confused by the term it's a bundle of 6 FQ folded up to look like a tulip (very cute), the best part was I got to pick which one I wanted from the entire store. 

See cute right -- and some low volume / neutral fill ins. 

Stop 3 was Quilts Like Crazy and I nearly fell over when I came across Hushabye in yardage none the less -- it was like encountering a unicorn (something you hope happens but doubt it ever will). Teri threw on the sprinkles of having some of the other prints she will graciously share with me (insert happy dance here). 

Up next were Carolina sew n vac and Bernina World of Sewing both lovely shops and had great things but I somehow escaped without making purchases. I do remember lots of great things but these shops were smaller and would have been better enjoyed in a smaller group. The shopping mojo kicked back in when we went to My Sewing Shoppe. 

Another fabric tulip and those cute bicycles along with this great panel that is the inspiration for a new project I will hopefully get to design and work on soon. 

The Cary Quilting Company  also had many great treasures and is another place that would be better enjoyed in a smaller group. I did manage to find these adorable foxes and scooped them up. 

Lone Star Mercantile was a neat store for people that are into making things with wool, so instead I decided this was time for some food. because it was already getting close to 7 pm and there wasn't a dinner break scheduled because we were supposed to be back home by 9 pm and there was another stop to go. 

So all the tired ladies boarded the bus for one final stop before home and it was totally worth it -- Loving Stitches is in Fayetville, NC and they have some amazing selection and staff that all eagerly greeted us as we rolled in at 8 pm just as though we had been the first customers of the day. There was a bigger purchase made here as well to go with my new Steampunk Panel but no individual picture because we left there at 9 pm for the long 3 hour trip back home -- meaning we got back to the drop off just after midnight. 

Saturday Teri calls me and we made plans with Roxanne to hit up the local shops Knit One Smock Too, Little General, Sew Original and Sewingly Yours. There were more purchases made and more fabric goodness. 

All in all Quilt Carolina was a blast and I will defiantly do it again.  

Here's a preview of the fabrics I have collected so far for the Steampunk Quilt -- I'm super excited to start this one. 

Try-angled

Recently I was asked to try out a pattern for Nancy that blogs over at Owen's Olivia. I knew it was going to be something great because her work is amazing and she asked for people that knew how to paper piece. Nancy sends out the patterns asking we try them out and have fun with it -- it was tiny and medium wonky triangles so I decided I would create a scrappy mug rug for my desk at work.

I struggled with it a little at first because of the small size for the little triangles but changed up the process a little by not starting on the edge of the row but a few triangles in and really like the outcome.

So a small finish this weekend and something practical and colorful to use at work. Be sure to stop in over at Nancy's blog and look at some of her amazing work and I heard a rumor there may be a giveaway over there.

The sound of silence

I had a rare opportunity this weekend -- time alone where the house was silent and progress was being made. The only sounds were the sewing machine and kitty purring and it was glorious. With my newly found serenity I was able to make a great deal of progress on projects I had been putting to the side...

Block of the Month is complete 

Block of the week backlog is caught up

16 blocks and a project to reveal later -- pretty good for 6 hours of sewing time and I started thinking about the layout for the bible blocks again and have come up with 2 possibilities. The tricky part is there are 73 blocks in this quilt. 

Option A is a take on one of the Tula Pink designs for the 100 modern blocks and I would call it "The Kingdom" (9 by 12)

Option B is a more standardized setting and would make a square quilt (9 by 9) and could be turned either way -- it kind of looks like a book or butterfly/moth. 

What do you guys think? Or is there something maybe I haven't considered? 

I am still behind in some projects and have much to do in the next few days -- my pillow swap for the upcoming guild meeting has not been started aside from the design component. I must finish it by 9/24 in time to reveal it to my partner. 

I also wanted to get the star wars quilt finished by my hubs birthday on 9/23 but this may not happen especially with the other deadline and an upcoming trip to Greenville this weekend. 

In non project news -- 

I'm very excited about Quilt Carolina is happening later this week and I am all set to visit the local shops on Thursday and take the bus on Friday to hit the Raleigh shops. 

My next vendor even is the Asheboro Fall Festival on October 5 -- there is still so much I want to get accomplished before then but don't know what all will be possible. 

I got accepted into the Arts for Art's Sake group here in Winston Salem, with the possibility to set up Sundays in October. 

I also got my entry tickets for the Dixie Classic Fair to have my quilts be on display. 

A busy couple of weeks ahead for this gal -- Happy Quilting Everyone. 

"small" projects

At my recent guild meeting I showed off these current projects I was striving to complete within in the next few weeks. someone mentioned I needed to try making larger projects and stop messing around with these small finishes (such a jokester) and today I reveal them to you all. 

In this corner we have "Jim's Quilt" a commission project at a mere 85 inches by 92 inches. Now that main fabric is not nearly that pink but I am pleased with how it turned out and know that they are going to love it. 

The back shows the quilting better (solid navy no weird sun spot).

I think I have finally found a way to bind a quilt that I don't completely hate and it could be that I've been just doing it backwards all this time. 

I'm not a hand binder (I know -- GASP, I have broken some form of quilting law) but I had been machine binding where I sew to the front and flip to the back and then attach from the front, meaning I have no idea where my edge was so sometimes I missed the edge all together or there was a lot of binding hanging loose. This time I decided to sew to the back and flip to the front this time and it worked out much better for me. I figure I have all those decorative stitches I paid for I might as well use them (this was a real light bulb moment for me folks).

And in the opposing corner we (finally) have "City Scape" measuring a whopping 100 inches by 110 inches. This was the project I made in my paper piecing class I started in January  and I simply love the way it turned out. There are of course things I would add to this quilt if I appliqued like leaves on the tree or a kitty resting on the sidewalk -- maybe one day. 

Here's the improve pieced back -- I think it looks like a flower garden if you were looking through old windows, glass block or even curtains because nothing has definition like on the front. 

So yeah those are my "small" finishes this this week. I think I'll work on some of those other UFOs that may not take me months to complete next. Happy Quilting everyone. 

It's been 8 months already?

Eight months ago I set up some quilting goals for this year and I am feeling really good about the progress that I continue to make with them and share here for all of you. In the initial goals were 10 things I wanted to accomplish and then 50 days later I added in another 3 goals. I am pleased to tell you all I am well on my way to accomplishing all 13 of my goals within the next month 

• 9/16 is my first embroidery class (Not sure what I'm going to be taking in the 4th qtr yet) 
• I wanted to do 5 craft events this year and so far I have done 4 and am signed up for another 3 before December
• I am signed up to display at the Dixie Classic Fair 

Some of my goals were more long term and are still being managed but for now they are all going great. 

This weekend I worked on Quilting my commission quilt and it's ready for binding. (the quilting shows better on the back -- don't mind all the strings, that's from flipping it out on the floor for photos) 

The binding should have been done on Sunday but I am fighting with allergies and medicated so there was no machine operation on Sunday - don't drink and drive people.

Our guild is doing the million pillowcase challenge and I spent some of Sunday making up kits to speed along the assembly for the other ladies. So far I have 25 ready and parts for another 15 - 20. Who wants to get together and make this happen? 

No meetings or classes this week so I plan on making head way on the continual UFO list. 

• Group 1 (by 9/15) is that pesky binding, Photographing my city scape quilt (as well as Jim's quilt), Working on the backlog of block of the week blocks -- they are cut and just need assembly, sketch newest commission project, finalizing my plans for Quilt Carolina (2 weeks away). 

• Group 2 (By 9/22) -- finish making pillow case kits, Complete pillow swap item for guild meeting, find art inspiration piece, quilt t-shirt quilt. 

• Group 3 (Various) -- Block of month (9/1), make 10 pouches (10/5), Update signage for craft fair (10/5), Quilt 2 pending charity quilts (10/22), Finish Little Fish Quilt, Hville Commission (12/1), String Blocks, Crumb Blocks

Hope everyone had a quilty weekend and has a great week. 

Secret Sisters reveal

Recently I participated in the it's a Sister thing swap hosted by Michelle over at quilts from my crayon box. So a big thanks goes out to Michelle and I hope that she will host another swap like this in the future because it was a lot of fun learning about another blogger.

My package arrived earlier this week from Kim at geek stitching and I was truly surprised at the lovely items that she stitched up for me, I need to find a place to hang them in my crafting space. 

If it was a mystery to anyone I LOVE Alice in Wonderland and that Cheshire Cat is adorable. I am always impressed with hand work because it is something that I have never tried before but it is something that I would consider trying. She even picked up on my how much I enjoy a good pun and has added to my Alice collection. Great job Kim. 

Now my package went off to California and I anxiously watched as it bounced around the California postal service waiting for delivery -- eventually arriving 3 days later than expected. I had the Amazing Stephanie from Quarter Incher whom I had become accustom to through another swap from flickr. She does such great work and loves color as much as I do so there was a bit of anxiety about sending my package to her and hoping she would like it. 

Her reveal post is here and I think it was a success. 

Again a big thanks to Michelle, Kim and Stephanie for making this a great experience. I'm starting to look for a few more swaps to take part in in the next few months and as always I like input from others. 

Happy Quilting Everyone. I'm hoping for another weekend of quilting because I have a commission quilt to finish and a guild swap item to work on but we may be heading to Greenville for a family medical thing.

Spectacular Spectacular!

September kicked off with a 3 day weekend and boy was it a great one. I know many people are sad because Labor day means the end of summer and to approaching Fall but for me I prefer the cooler weather and changing of the seasons when things seem to go at least a little slower, you know at least until the holidays. 

Friday evening I finished up the bonus block of the month block and worked on a few string blocks. I'm ready for the block of the month meeting tonight. 

Saturday morning I headed out to Yadkinville to set up as a vendor at a new little shop Whispers and Wings and met up with a quilting buddy Teri to go plunder the antique shops. (I found these bowls but didn't get them).

The rest of the weekend was devoted to laboring, but only doing the labor of love -- quilting. I have a few projects that are in the works and a few finishes. 

8 string blocks (now up to 33)

This was me (and Angie) attempting to show it off at the guild meeting last week (prebinding). Note I am standing on a chair and still not able to touch the top (such a shortie). 

Binding on City Scape is complete. I will be taking it out later this week and getting some better pictures. 

I was commissioned by a guy at work to make 2 baby quilts for twin grand kids that are being born in a few short months. I have a deadline of Friday to finish the binding on these cuties. 

It's a good thing that little girl quilt was embroidered or I may be tempted to keep it for myself. I am super happy that my new machine is exceeding my expectations she quilts amazingly and I can't wait to try out more embroidery work.

There are a few other things I need to work on this month and get ready in time for the Asheboro Fall Festival so I am hoping to keep up this momentum throughout the month. 

My Monthly Goals Include

Complete Jim's Quilt 

Catch up on Block of the week (12 behind) 

Quilt T shirt quilt (by 9/23)

Guild Pillow Swap Item (due 9/24)

Make items for Asheboro festival

Complete crochet critters 

Happy Quilting Everyone and may national sewing month be prosperous for you.