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. 

It's been a Crazy Week

So apparently I forgot to post my finishes last week ---- OOPS. It was a crazy one at work along with my destash going on through instagram. So lots to update on today. 

First off the destash went pretty well -- enough to make a dent in that huge medical bill but I still have a huge pile of fabric remaining that I hope to get re-listed today. I'm thinking about going with the fabric destash group on Facebook this time and perhaps bundling at least my fat qtrs this time. A big thank you goes out to everyone for your support. 

I do have 4 finishes for the last 2 weeks 

this one is now whisking its way to it's new home and I hope it arrives quickly so I can put up the whole post about it. (3 yard of fabric used) 

The link up for the Triangle Quilt along is happening this week and i knew there was no way that I would be able to complete the quilting on the larger version -- mostly because the backing hadn't been made yet. So I whipped up a mini one from the leftover triangles, it's a baby size. (2 yards of stash)

Quilting on Scout is completed and I attached the binding to the front last night -- hope to get it turned soon. I have no idea what happened to the full frontal picture. (10 yards of stash in this project)

Quilting on Sound Garden is completed and now I need to finish the binding -- are we noting a trend in the "finishes" department. 

I couldn't stay focused last weekend so I also spent a great deal of time working on my string blocks. 

• first I tried the everything in a bin method -- that didn't work so well for my assistant 
• so I sorted everything out and tried working in color piles 
• 30 blocks later I was feeling pretty good about my string blocks again 

This weekend I have been working on getting backings made for 2 completed tops. The day at the Beach Jelly Roll Race 2 quit and my triangles galore quilt. I hope to be able to get these basted at some point this week unless I take the plunge and decide to learn to long arm quilt -- both would be excellent projects for learning a new skill but I'm still hesitant about long arming. 

I also made some franken batting out of my scraps that I hope to be able to easily use for charity or small projects that are coming up. I had various types of batting and lots of long skinnies so I didn't end up with as large of pieces as I had initially thought I would but making several at once did help clear out some that needed to go to the trash. I'm wondering if there is a size limit to franken batting from relatively small squares before it would become to choppy to use in larger items.

Being that I have been fighting the insurance company for the last month -- my fabric purchases have been kept fully in check. When I announced my destash posting last week I also committed myself to trying the purge for the rest of the year and I am still feeling pretty good about that choice. I will make a few exceptions -- like when there are quilt shows and also for Quilt Carolina in the Fall. 

Hope this post finds you all well and there is lots of happy quilting going on. 

March Wrap up -- for the link ups

So this month I had a grand total of 4 finishes

How Mack Unwinds

Sunday in the Park

PGB scrappy 

Star Light Star Bright QAL 

I also made 20 blocks for Kevin the Quilter's Valor block drive, meaning that I used a total of 15 yards of fabrics from the stash this month -- this brings my yearly total to 55+ yards. 

On the fabric non buying front I am not doing great and have bought small bits throughout the month mostly for projects but a few items were because I wanted them. I did use my gift certificate earlier this month on some splurge fabric but I already have a plan and many friends to go with it so I am hoping to move this into the WIP pile soon.

Now here's some other things I've been working on for the variety of other link ups that I am doing.

Gypsy Wife QAL
I have made amazing strides in making blocks and have a few more extra blocks to go and then assembly. I will probably remake my Perishing block using the paper piecing method because I'm not super happy with it. Here are the blocs sorted by section

and here are the blocks for this month.

Library Challenge
scout quilt -- needs quilting and binding 

Sound Garden -- needs quilting and binding


New Stuff
Clam shell Mini -- This one is for a very special person.

Triangle QAL -- a triangle quilt has been on the list for a while now so I decided why not?

Day at the Beach -- scrap Bin quilt

So what are the goals for April?
- finish scout
- finish sound garden
- finish Clam Shell mini
- make progress on triangles quilt
- baste and complete Day at the beach
- assemble the Gypsy Wife (or at least part of it)
- make some string blocks or purge the strings
- start working on rock N romance Swoon
- purge more fabric from my stash

NO more Ice please

March brought in another round of the wintry weather -- this time it was ICE. There were wide spread power outages -- luckily at my house this only happened over night and I was able to spend most of my Friday quilting. I couldn't keep focus on any one project so I have lots of little progress

star along block corners

star along block -- all the components are ready to be sewn 

put border on sound garden and made backing

Quilted Sunday in the Park

quilting on sunday in the park

made valor blocks

worked on the Gypsy Wife

I've also decided to put the block of the week project to the side right now -- I have lost momentum for it so rather than rush it and not have heart in it . I know this isn't a great practice to have but for now this is where I am with this one -- at 14 blocks to go (4 new and 10 to remake).

I am headed to Charlotte Saturday to a quilt show and found lots of goodies that will sparked my interest. I know this could meant bad things for my fabric diet but I had my limits set -- only purchase for projects on hand and up to 5 yards additional. (I've decided to allow myself to get one half yard for stashing for every project I have completed.) 

Now most of this was payment for something I picked up for a friend (back row except foxes and the granny prints in the front row) and the right half of the front row are for the Gypsy Wife so really I only bought the foxes and the brown texty print for stashing so 1 yard bought this month so far. -- don't you love my math? 

Sunday I finished up binding on the Sunday in the Park project making it my 2nd finish in March and I worked on a few more of the Gypsy Wife blocks. 

14/23 for the 3 inch blocks -- 9 to go YAY!!

half done with the larger square in square blocks 

This week I want to get out in the 70 degree temps and take photos of some of the projects I am working on and document the 2 march finishes. I also want to finish up these square in square blocks and make a few of the larger Gypsy Wife blocks. 2 quilts need to be basted and i have a project to make for the guild speaker coming later this month -- Lots to do for sure. 

Happy Quilting everyone -- also a big thank you to those that stopped by my blog over the weekend and left love for the memorial post to my mother, I pushed through and spent some time with good friends and that helped so much. 

Lazy Sunday Link UP - Final

I have been joining in with Sew Lux and taking part in the Lazy Sunday QAL. I love this pattern -- this was my 3rd time making a version of this quilt but the first time that I actually followed the instructions and completed the project like the instructions said. 

Thus "Forever Love" was created. 

we had some snow recently so I used this opportunity to take a few beauty shots of this one.

The fabrics are from my stash -- Bazar Style from Art Gallery, along with some Kate Spain Verna, Nicey Jane, Kona solid and Moda grunge. 

This is my favorite shot -- I wish there had been more light hitting it but when your fighting the wind you take what you get. I haven't decided what to do with this quilt yet but I know it would make an excellent addition to my craft booth or Etsy site, if I can manage part with it. 

Snowed in -- finishes abound (photo heavy)

On Wednesday last week we were facing the arrival of a large snow storm coming in off the Gulf with a Canadian blast so here in NC that is the perfect formula for large amounts of snow. Well it started about mid day and came down hard and fast -- it took me nearly 3 hours to make it home, for my usual 1 hour commute. 

We ended up with over a foot of snow and then the sleet and icing started -- followed by another 6 inches of snow and more freezing rain. In this case, what's a girl to do when the weather has you home bound --- Quilt, DUH!!! 

There is no secret that I hate binding -- hubs jokes and says I'm afraid of finishing projects so that is why I dislike binding. But with so many of my projects in the final stages this meant that it was time to bind. You know unless I was going to totally neglect the UFO's and start something new. So I hunkered down and made what seemed like miles of binding. 

Once I got started it wasn't as bad as I always make it out to be and the results are these 6 new finishes to add to the totals for 2014. 

#4 - Opal -- 4 yards used

#5 - Table runner -- 1.5 yards used

#6 - Food Fight -- 3 yards used 

 #7 - Simple Beauty -- 1.5 yards

#8 - Lazy Sunday -- 6 yards used (full post soon)

# 9 New project --- Passing Love Notes -- 1 Yard used

#10 - Skinny Pinnie Swap item and bonus goodies -- 1 Yard

total of used fabrics ---  18 yards
Yearly total used -- 40 yards (wow that's a lot of fabric) 

I am currently working on finishing up my Bible Blocks from last year. So far 59 have came out the right size, I have 4 more to make and I need to figure out what to do with the 10 that are not the right size (some are to large and others are to small). 

Sunday brought Scout class #2 and it was a blast -- I did buy some solid for sashing, but that's within the rules so I am still doing good at 17 days in on the restart of my fabric fast. 

So much more to do to meet all the goals this month, Happy Quilting Everyone!!