December Sewing and Stashing

It's been 3 weeks -- sorry folks not much to report over her on the finishes and sewing front but I am slowly healing from by break and working with a physical therapist to hopefully get me back in the sewing room soon -- through motivation and hopefully having more energy to do more than rest when I get home. 

Yearly total going into December was 146 yards used -- I'm hoping to hit at least 150 yards by the end of the year so let's see how the year turned out.

December started out with some time off intended for sewing and celebrating my birthday -- well the sewing part is minimal but hubs did gift me with a trip to visit some sewing shops in Raleigh as a part of my birthday gift -- I got these lovely fabrics (+5 yards).

The Wee Bee With it hive was coming to an end this month and Anita picked Christmas star blocks that are part of the Blossom Heart Quilt Bee Hive blocks. These are going to make a great Christmas quilt. (-1 yd)

For those of you that are on Instagram there was a really fun hashtag going around called #getyourquiltywishesgranted where you could wish for something and if someone had it and wanted to share they could choose to grant your wish. I granted 6 wishes and sent out parcels to various parts of the US -- it felt so good and lightened my fabric room about 10 yards worth. 

My quilty wish was for charm packs of Kate Spain's Christmas fabric lines so that I could make another epic Kate Quilt. People really came through for me and I now have 5 of the charm packs, working toward getting all 6 Christmas lines. (+3 yards) -- still missing the Joy line but it's on it's way.

                     

I finished up my Accuquilt mini #2 and mailed it off to the lovely people at Accuquilt for something fun they have planned. Moat of the fabric was sent to me by them but I pulled another yard to make up for a miss cut that I made. 

My totals in December were 8 yards added, 12 yards removed, total for the month 4 yards used. That brings the yearly total to 150 yards lighter since the beginning of the year. I am pretty proud of this and hope 2016 brings another year of sewing my stash.

Once this foot heals I will be able to fully access my sewing room again and start making backings and new projects that have been on hold during these last 2 months. I'm still in multiple bees next year and it looks like we will be making some really fun blocks and at least that little bit of sewing keeps me going. 

Winds of Oz #1

So back in 2014 I designed a block for Accuquilt for a contest -- I think I placed in the top 100. Now while I didn't win a big trip and prize pack I decided that it was time to take this sketch and turn it into an actual mini quilt.

I started on it at the stash bash back in April and got most of the top put together but it needed a little tweaking (esp since my math was not great in the group setting).

I got it to a point that I was happy with and quilted the dickens out of it -- as my friend Kelly would say. I'm pleased with the quilting and how this will make an excellent addition to my quilt room wall.

This year Accuquilt did the contest again but this time the parameters were that the block had to be able to be made using the Accuquilt dies. I reentered my block and placed in the top 20 of the viewers votes -- which for me was awesome. The official winner was chosen by a jury with consideration of votes so again no big trip or prize pack but something great did come from it -- but you're going to have to wait on the details.

Rebecca's project

Rebecca @ one wee bird sent me a wonderful package (that you can read about here) in a time of great heartache and I felt compelled to do a little something for her in return.

I did my research and discovered that Rebecca's likes

• brights -- turquoise, mango, Daffodil & lime
• dots and stripes
• bold and eye catching designs
• Favorite fabrics -- Kaffe Paperweight, Heath in Black, Michael Miller dumb dot, Allison Glass Sunprint. 
• Favorite Designers -- Sarah Fielke and Jen Kingwell 
• Dislikes -- brown and most other colors of green

Inspiration photos


After telling some of my quilty friends about the minis and the story behind them, they felt compelled to do something for her as well. My friend Teri and Rebecca have such similar taste in things that she brought me a stack of fabrics to make this project. 

I've narrowed the project down to the clam shells because it captured the fabrics the best and I had been anticipating using my clam shell die for some time. 

Planning Phase

Assembly Complete 

Quilted up 

Bound 

Ready to go 

I am hoping that she will like this one as much as I love the minis that she sent my way. 

another beauty shot -- I wish that the sun had been out more to really capture the colors. 

I do love this function of my iPhone -- seeing the project in many different ways. 

the back reads -- from one fabric floozy to another .. much love. 

So I finally got word back that it arrived safely to the other side of the world and she loves it -- I love surprising someone so deserving. 

BIG News

So last week was the deadline for the Accuquilt Block contest and I decided to throw my name in the ring -- my buddy Lee came in 2nd last year and encouraged me to give it a go this year. 

The entry had to be an original design and that was my only draw back, in my mind I'm not a quilt designer -- I'm a person that finds inspiration from others and then either by creative accident or not following directions that ends up taking the project in a different direction. 

As I was continuing to contemplate entering, I realized that I had designed something on my own (again out of creative necessity). 

This was the mini that I made for Jen for the DQ 14 swap 

So I took my initial "design" and vamped it up to create my official entry for the 2014 Accuquilt Block Design Challange 

"Winds of OZ" 

I am looking forward to making this block into a quilt top in the near future. I am thinking I might like to get the metallic pearl bracelets for the rainbow geese -- I still have a credit @ westwood acres fabric to use but I may hold out and use solids instead -- oh the tough choices, we quilters make.

In the mean time, I do hope that I can count on all of you to help me out by voting and even sharing my entry. Voting lasts the entire month of May, thanks in advance Everyone for your support -- we all know quilters are the best. 

I'm linking up various places this week to spread the word.

Here