Sew together #4

The Sew together bag seems to go together easier each time that I make one -- except that pesky outer zipper, I am pretty confident in making them and this time I didn't even break a needle. 

Since everyone enjoyed the last sew together bag that I made I thought I would share my latest one that I put together (in a rather hurry) for Blossom Hear Quilts. 

Alyce is one of those people that I feel if I knew her in person we would just hit things off. She mentioned that she really wanted a sew together bag for Quilt Con but didn't have time to make one before her transatlantic journey. Well I'm not going to Quilt Con but I know a few people that are so I asked my friend -- May Chappell if she would be willing to do the hand off for me.

I whipped up this lovely bag -- that I nearly kept and Lee wanted to steal. 

front -- Tula Pink, Cotton and Steele, Grunge and Tim Holtz.

Back 

The very brightly colored inside -- where Bonnie and Camille came to the party. 

Well I know that she was really excited about the bag from the feedback I got on instagram -- and it's a good thing cause I know at least 4 other people that would have been more than happy to give this little bag a good home. I hope that she really loves it once it arrives in Austin later this week. 

Valentines Weekend, a Migraine and a snow day

This past weekend was filled with lots of celebrations, challenges and sewing. 

Saturday was Valentines Day and that included a special trip to The Little General  to pick up some very special lovelies. Gina loves Anna Maria Horner so I knew that she would have Folk Song but what I didn't expect to find was that lovely large piece of Tula Pink Acacia. (about 10 yards added to the stash) 

Saturday we also spent some time just hanging out together and it was nice. Since the change in his job we don't get much time to just hang out. 

Sunday was a sew in with some of my sewing buddies -- this was a blast. I got quite a few things accomplished as far as swaps go and i got my bee blocks for this month finished which was nice but I also managed to complete my Dissapearing Hourglass blocks and started on a layout. It's a good thing I took a picture because the cats started acting crazy and knocked them down. 

I'm still working on the modern building blocks -- I really like how this one came out but now it's back to more cutting so that I will be able to hopefully whip up at least 10 more blocks this month. 

Monday was a migraine day -- where you wake up at 4 with a migraine and hope that the meds kick in before you have to go to work in a few hours. With the cold front coming in on top of the migraine it didn't happen so I took a sick day. I got to feeling mostly normal by lunch so the afternoon was spent pricing some items for the yard sale and thinking about upcoming swaps. 

The Hubs and I also started to disassemble the spare Featherweight that I got from a friend about 6 months ago, after she found it in a junk pile outside in preparation for repainting. 

The snow rolled in mid afternoon and turned quickly to turned to sleet. which meant no work on Tuesday -- time to wrap up some projects or write several blog postings. Now it's a matter of waiting to be able to share them with all of you. The week's half done and it's back to work for me but that means I've got merely 2 and a half work days till the lock in on Friday night at my LQS. 

Bee Blocks For Feb

This month I only had to make Bee blocks for 2 hives

For We Bee With it, Anita wanted Starflower Rainbow blocks  and these were super fun to put together. 

For Stash Bee, Sara wanted raspberry, lime, black and white Sawtooth Stars. 

For Wee Bee Learnin, it was my month to be the Queen so I set forth having the ladies make my initial Kaleidoscope blocks that I droned on about here. This meant that I had to actually start on these lovely blocks that that the ladies would have an example. After playing around with colors for a bit my initial block started to come together. I still have to make the other half of my block but I wanted to wait and see what all colors that my bees sent me to help balance things out. 

I will be sure to share with you guys once my blocks start coming in later this month. 

project quilting -- challenge 3 -- Orphan Blocks

Orphan blocks -- we all have them, mine live in a plastic tote that I pull out from time to time and thumb through them for inspiration or  they might become a charity quilt or a quick pouch. Many of my scrap blocks come from my friend's scraps so when I make things from them they remind me of them. So for the challenge  I wanted to work with some great cutoffs from a friend's bag that she had made.

These scraps were screaming to become a sew together bag to me so I set off to "whip one up" -- If you've ever made one you know that it isn't really a quick project -- so I took several pictures along the way to keep me motivated.

Saturday morning hubs and I headed to Salisbury, to get my Featherweights serviced by Featherweight Poppy. I had seen him at several shows and really wanted to get a good service for both my babies before going to Stash Bash in April -- in case I decide not to take the big machine for the retreat. He does great work and got the junk machine that my friend found outside about 6 months ago in full working order.

I also needed more background fabric for my Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt, so we headed on down to Concord Mills and visited We're So Creative. Hubbs was looking around at the shop and found a pack of pinmoors -- a tool I have been wanting to try for a while. (it's pretty cool that he remembered me mentioning them before.)

I will be sure to let you all know how much I like them once I get my next mini put together.

So now that I had treated myself, it was time to get back to making the pouch and I am really happy with the outcome.

I've got 2 more of these to make this month -- doing them in pairs might make things easier actually.

Linking up @

Am I Sewing or Stashing -- JAN

In 2015 I will be trying to buy less fabric and using the things that I have on hand for projects. This is not like the fast I tried (and failed miserably at) last year. This time there are challenges along the way and if we buy fabric it isn't a huge failure (all be it self imposed). I find that this plan should work better for me and I Am going to make it my goal to keep track of things I buy and things I use through out the year to see how I do in the end. 

January Purchases (+35 yards) -- OMG right!!

• most of this was from a store that will be closing soon. (about 30 yards worth) Most of this was OOP Tula Pink bought with the intention of stashing some and the rest for sale / trade. 

• I bought some fabric that was specifically for the Moda Modern Building Blocks to fill in for colors that I was lacking (3.5 yards)

• went to a quilt show that I attend annually. I set a budget and took a list of things I was looking for to keep me on track. I ended up buying a solids charm pack and half a yard of fabric -- which both have actual projects that they will be used for (and those adorable owl scissors). (1.5 yards) 

January Use / pulled for projects (-28 yards) 

• Januaray Bee Blocks (about 1 yard)

• I made my #bitchesgetstitches swap all from fabric on hand (about 2 yards)

• I pulled fabric for an upcoming project. It's a fun pattern I found in my stash that is made using 21 fat qtrs, but some of my pieces are half yards (about 6 yards)

• I decided to join in with my friend Melanie's Block of the Month where we will me making the Moda Modern Building Blocks Quilt (about 14 yards pulled from stash)

• Got started a few other swap projects (about 3 yards). 

• I started making a Disapearing Hourglass Quilt from 3 charm packs I had on hand (about 2 yards)

January Purges (-15 yards) 

• I sold some of the Tula on instagram and I made a donation to our guild's charity fabric pile (about 10 yards) 

• I had my 200th blog post and sent several yards worth to one of my lucky readers (about 3 yards) 

• I also included a couple of yards worth to a very helpful quiltin mama as a part of a swap (about 2 yards) 

That puts my overall total for January and 2015 at a purge of 8 yards (+35-28-15 = -8) 

I'm hoping I keep this momentum up in February. I know that I am needing to get more background fabric for my MMBB quilt and Tula Pink's Elizabeth is coming out this month. If I purge out at least double digits that would be great and hopefully I would have some extra finishes to show off. 

The biggest help to this is going to be our guilds yard sale at the end of the month, for fabric and craft supplies. I've already started pulling out fabric for this one as well.  (There is about 50 yards worth here -- wow what a dent this would be.)

Schnitzel and Boo round 3 and an update on my Bitches get Stitches

I love meeting other quilters but to me there is something special about finding a new quilter (or in this case quilters) that lives near you. Usually in swaps it seems that I am sending my items to the other side of the country -- I already have a list of people that I would love to meet if I ever make it out to Utah, Nevada and California. This time for the Schnitzel and Boo Swap I got paired up with another Carolina Girl -- and she goes to school where my in-laws live, and doesn't live that far from where my featherweight came from. I was paired with Kayleigh Jewell (@kayleighanne84) -- the bonus is that I already had loved her mother (karie jewell) for some time so in a way it was like making for family. So I made Kayleigh a friendship star circle with her favorite bright colors and this owl fabric that I had been holding onto for some time. 

Of course I threw in a bunch of extras (but I get so excited about the packaging that I forgot to take pictures). I also had to put together a care package for mama Jewell, since without her Kayleigh wouldn't have signed up for the swap -- and I wouldn't have gotten all the help I needed in putting this together.

I packed this little box very full. 

Well here's the outcome. 

So, what did I get in return? ...

MY return package came from @sewKatieJean. She sent me a mini using some great Alison Glass fabrics and a few great goodies. 

I haven't found a home for this one yet, since I was at the guild meeting last night but I'm sure I will this weekend. 

I also wanted to send out a huge thanks to @joaniessweetstitches for my Bitches Get Stitches swap package. 

My Awesome mini hangs right inside my sewing room door. 

Some great extras. I mean seriously look at that adorable orange kitty pillow -- too cute.