Tula Pink City Sampler -- The completion

Last month I had all my blocks completed and the sashing ready for assembly and I took this project with me to Stash Bash, where I completed the top

and then I had a great win fall and won quilting services from my amazing friend Kira and was then gifted batting by another of my awesome friends.

This quilt has been a lot of work and I will admit that I was anxious to have it so far away being quilted but I knew that Kira would do something awesome with this opportunity because she's an awesome lady. 

She sent me a few sneak peaks and posted a few teasers on instagram. 

Then it was time to wait for my quilt to come back home to me so that I could get an idea of how great it really was, I even made binding in preparation (and you all know that is not my favorite part of quilting). 

The quilt arrived on Thursday and it was late by the time I got home so good pictures would have to wait till the weekend when I had extra hands to help me and plenty of daylight. 

The cats have already laid claim to this one. 

Here she is out in the sun. 

Here's a better picture of the quilting -- I can't wait till I was h it and get to see all the crinkles. (Haven't washed it yet because of the ongoing problem I have been hearing about the freefall backing fadeing -- better safe than sorry right) 

And one more of the little prince in his quilt fortress 

This is my 11th finish of the 2nd quarter

April City Sampler Check in

Last month I managed to complete the blocks for my city sampler and realized that I had an extra one to boot. I laid them all out on my office floor one afternoon and marveled at the colors. 

I am happy that they are all done and slightly anxious because now it's time for sashing and I really hope that the Acacia flag print isn't going to be to much of a distraction. 

I laid out some of the blocks on the print to build up my courage and really like the results, so now it's time to cut.

and cut, and cut.

I was able to get all the cutting finished by mid month and hope to work on assembling rows over the rest of the month -- Maybe next month we'll have a completed top. 

March City Sampler check in

For the February linky I kinda cheated a little and whipped up 13 blocks in one evening -- after the link up went live but before the end of the week. I had the blocks precut and ready but other things were taking away my focus. My goal heading into the next month was to complete the 9 remaining blocks and start to assemble the rows. I was thinking that a completed quilt top might be aiming a little high with the other goals and things in the works. So, how did it all work out? 

block 62 -- # 84

block 63 -- # 89

block 64 -- # 92

block 65 -- # 8

block 66 -- # 15

block 67 -- # 45

block 68 -- # 51

block 69 -- # 64

block 70 -- # 54

So my goal of all 70 was obtained as a part of #quiltnon16 a super fun online group of people not going to quilt con. That left me with another 3.5 weeks to see what I could manage as far as rows.

I finally pulled all the blocks out of my book and all the sticky tabs so that I could renumber the block layout and discovered that I actually made 71 blocks some how so I guess that's better than being short. 

I decided to try laying them out in book order and think I generally like the color balance and flow but I haven't yet decided if I will be moving any of them around or really what I am going to do about the extra block. 

(sorry for this poor photo I laid them out on the floor of my office one afternoon at lunch time). 

I have my background fabric ready and want to start making rows very soon. 

Can't wait to see what all you other creative ladies have accomplished this month, who knows maybe next month I will have rows or a quilt top but I think that this one may be heading out to the longarmer. 

February stash report

Sorry in advance for the font sizing -- I couldn't get it to stay all the same size when it posted 

At the start of the month I was -14 yards so far for 2014 and feeling pretty good that I would be able to destash at least 50 yards within the first 100 days and maintain this momentum throughout 2016. 

Per usual the month started with bee blocks, since I am the queen in one of my hives I only had one person to make for this month and it is my delightful friend @OneWeeBird -- who requested these lovely color blocked 3/4 log cabin blocks. (-1 yard). These were so fun that I made her several. 

I also decided that I would hive crash and make an extra block for Jacqueline in Stash Bee Hive 5 (-.5 yard)

As for my own sewing, the month started off with a marathon of basting -- 7 quilts needed basting and that meant that my 3 scrappy trip along tops needed backings (-6 yards). I put these 3 tops together at random on about an hour and a half at the end of January from blocks that had been laying around for some time. 
I also got my real partner for the Skinny Mini Swap and put together a lovely mini and fabric goodies for her (-2 yards) -- I've written a blog post about this swap and will post it up once my parcel comes in early March.  

The same weekend I managed to make the mini I did a destash on instagram and my initial sales were 25 yards of fabric purged -- I still have plenty over there to sale and some great deals. One lovely lady bought a big bulk of that 25 yards with over 4 lbs of fabric bought -- WOW. 

As a part of not going to Quilt con there was a fun challenge going on over at Instagram and I managed to finish up the rest of my tula blocks for my sampler quilt -- now it's time to lay them out and start making rows and the top. Stay tuned for that progress when I link up Mid march with Michelle. 

My OMG goal this month was to assemble the top of my scrappy crossroads quilt and that meant that I needed to complete the extra 4 blocks to make the quilt large enough (-.5 yd)

Here she is all put together

I pulled out some stashed Flea Market Fancy for the backing and added this one to the pile that needs to be basted and quilted soon. (-4.5 yards) 

I nearly made it through the month without a purchase but then I got the colors for next month's bee block and needed some dark teal and white on cream, and ended up buying a few things to finish up some other projects. (+3.5 yards but most of this will be used soon)

I also started to get in some of my Wanta Fanta Bee blocks from my hive and they are looking very lovely. 

Second month into 2016, and I added 3.5 yards to my stash, used 14.5 yards, started several projects and destashed 25 yards. These totals put me at being 50 yards lighter so far for the year -- Meaning that if I don't over spend next month I will have met one of my 100 day challenge goals. With all the quilts needing basting and quilting I am also getting closer to having multiple older UFo's finished. Now the only thing I really need to work on is blogging more -- which would also come with the finishing of projects.  

City Sampler January report

Linking up with Michelle over at Crayon Box Quilts to show my progress with the Tula Pink City Sampler. 

In the last 5 months I have been able to complete -- blocks (which you can see here, here and here). I wanted to get all 70 blocks completed before Stash Bash but as you all know that did not happen and now this break in my foot has limited me in sewing and I had barely touched this project for the last 2 months. My goal for this month if I am being realistic is probably having 50 blocks completed but I'd love to be able to finish all 70 so that I can start on layout and assembly next month. 

In October at the check in the book looked like this ... 

and now it looks like this.... 

See all those little blue tabs -- those are the blocks left to make to get to 70 blocks. You see, I'm also in the process of reevaluating my layout options and I may be choosing to make only 56 blocks (7 x 8 layout) or maybe 63 (7 x 9 layout) depending on how I like the blocks that I have made and how many more in the book that I actually want to make. 

So on to the blocks that I was able to complete.

#33: block 19

#34: block 16

#35: block 49

#36: block 61

#37: block 67

#38: block 88

#39: block 17

#40: block 34

#41: block 94

#42: block 76

#43: block 70

#44: block 65

#45: block 14

#46: block 41

#47: block 44

#48: block 53

Holy Cow that's a lot of blocks, but there are at least 8 more to be made and probably more like 22. I am still loving this project and I even resorted my fabrics this weekend to make sure that I am not leaving out fabrics that I really wanted to include because they got buried in the pile. 

I'm hoping that this winter weather threat that we have for this weekend means sewing time because I've got the itch to put these guys together, soon. 

I have resumed sewing in my sewing room rather than the living room make shift area so that makes me a happy gal and also pleases several of the kitties. 

Happy Quilting everyone -- can't wait to see your progress. 

Linking up with