Friday Night Finish

Our Beejeebers queen selected this beautiful half square triangle block for the month of May.  I procrastinated until the last possible days and got the block finished a few minutes ago.

And then, as I was writing this post, I noticed the bowties in the top rows are backwards, so I just unpicked and restitched {again} and it’s fixed now.

It was fun picking through my scraps to find bright colors and prints I like.  My cat Oreo also had fun rolling in the scraps…

Overall, it took a long time to put together, kind of like a puzzle, but the end result is very pretty.

Thanks, Ursula, for picking such a beauty!  I hope you liked the colors and fabrics I picked.

Up next month?  Semi trucks.  I already have a few ideas spinning around!

Scrap Attack

Eeeeek!  A big orangish spider scurried out of my scrap basket when I was sorting through it to find scraps to make this mini.

I literally used all scraps (except the border and binding) for this project.  Even the back was technically a scrap—an old yellow linen shirt of mine from back when I worked that I hadn’t worn in years.

It was fun picking out scraps for this project.  I tried to find mostly 30’s repro fabric, but a few are solids or more contemporary (like the orange pot). 

I had a lot of problems making this mini.  I am going to hang it in my sewing room, but in a corner and I hope no one ever inspects it up close.  

The inspiration came from this magazine cover and I just kind of winged it.  I am linking this mini up to the Festival of Scrappiness at Stitched in Color.  Good luck to everyone who entered!!!

Over the weekend

I worked on a couple projects and got two items ticked off my list.  First up is my Stash Bee block for Cindy who is making a Quilt of Valor to donate.  The block is paper pieced, so I picked up a pack of Carol Doak’s foundation paper right away and then procrastinated until the last moment to do it.  Boy, it was tough, but once I got the hang of it, I got a teensy bit better at it although I still made a mistake roughly 1 out of 2 times…lol!  It took a lot of fabric to make this star.

Last week I also finished up a quick table runner for my daughter’s previous preschool’s silent auction.  I’ve donated one every year for the past 3 years with different themes, so this year I decided to go with red, white, and blue.

It turned out nicely and my little tag looks good on the backing.

Finally, I have all the rows sewn together for my Aneela Hooey Medley quilt and some joined together at this point.  The quilt is looking uber cute, but then Esther decided she wants a different quilt with wild animals on it (I think the line is Moda’s In the Woods), so we have already made over half the blocks for that one now, too.   I wonder if Ronnie will get her first big girl quilt, or will Esther try to finagle a way to get two quilts???  We’ll see…

It was a great weekend for quilting here in southern Maryland…hope you did, too!

Trying New Things Thursday

This week I made my first pouch and inserted my first zipper.

It was so easy, that I thought I’d better practice putting in that zipper one more time to make sure I could really do it…and I could!  Introducing Pouch #2…

I think I like this one even more.  I only had one zipper long enough to make another, and it was red, so I used a pretty red DS Quilts fabric as the lining this time. 

So, two times is a charm…I can sew a zipper!!!! Yay!

Linking this up to Trying New Things Thursday where Melissa also has a new MBS tutorial.  She is so talented!!!

My First Pouch {and Zipper}

My sister-in-law is an avid knitter, so whenever I see cute sheep fabric, I can’t resist buying it.  Her birthday was earlier this month and I made this pouch that measures 5.5” x 4.5” and tucked a gift card inside.  I love this fabric!  It is Monaluna Bah Bah Black Sheep. 

I lined it with a pink wavy grid fabric that I picked up from Fabric.com on sale.  And I used some fusible interfacing to give it a little shape.

I had a real duh! moment when making this.  Last time Joanns had a big “Coupon Commotion” sale, I bought a bunch of zippers with the idea that I’d make pencil cases for my daughter and her friends at Christmas.  Well, that didn’t happen (maybe it will by Easter…) and when I pulled out the 6 or 7 zippers I bought, they were all only 4 inches long!!!  I guess I was more concerned picking the color than reading the label.  It said 10 centimeters, not 10 inches.  Ugggghhhh!  What I am going to do with those tiny tiny zippers?

Putting in the zipper wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be, thanks to a great tutorial I found at So Sew Something.  Making this pouch was so easy, so maybe I will tackle those pencil cases before Easter after all.

FNSI Results

I finished most of the blocks for my Twirling Around quilt using Little Apples, Sherbet Pips, and A Walk in the Woods. 

Most of my blocks finished a little bigger than the 8.5” called for so I could trim everything down (yay!), but 5 were too small, so I need remake those five before I can put the top together.

I am using the white with light pink square-circles instead of white.  Unfortunately, at night it is a little bit difficult for me to tell what is the right and wrong side.  So while chain piecing I sewed to the wrong side *twice* and had to spend some time with the seam ripper today.

Also, I am taking part in two charm swaps this month.  The first is called Over the Rainbow Charm Swap and my color is yellow.  The two fabrics are Half Moon Modern by Moda.  The other swap is called Charm-tastic Color Swap and my color is orange.  I had a yard of the AMH Innocent Crush in my stash, and the other orange is a blender print from the LQS called something like Bear Essentials by P & B Textiles.  It was $11 a yard!  And, I bought another orange print but when I looked it in the car, I nearly fainted because the circles had glitter on them.  There was no way I could use that for the swap, and it was $11 for the yard, too!!!!!The lighting was pretty dim in the store, but I think it was a wake-up call that I need new glasses.

FNSI

I have been sewing the past hour and will stay up a little later to get more of my Aneela Hoey fabrics made into quilt blocks.

I will also have an hour in the morning to myself when my lovely hubby will take all three girls to gymnastics…woohoo!

Linking up here at Handmade by Heidi.  Can’t wait to see what everyone gets accomplished!

Overindulgence of the best kind

No, I’m not talking about Jamaican Me Crazy at Bruster’s Ice Cream.   The mail lady just dropped off three parcels for me!

The yellow in the upper left is for a Rainbow Charm swap I joined, and I just joined another one but haven’t gotten my color assignment yet.  The fabrics are Half Moon Modern and I already used a charm pack of them to make something, but I can’t remember what!!!

The fanned out fabric is a fat quarter pack of “Hello Pilgrim” by Lizzy House.  And the yellow in the upper right corner is a cute coffee cup print (although I only drink tea so I like to think of it as teacups) and I think the other is called Metro circles.  I was on a yellow kick after searching for yellow fabric for the charm swap.  And I got a yard of Kona melon pink.  It coordinates really well with Ruby.

The Walk in the Woods fat quarters are to round out the fabrics for a quilt I am in the process of making.

The pattern is called Twirling Around and it’s designed by Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs.  Double the purchase price is being donated to a charity that helps mothers in Haiti.  When I saw that, I had to buy the pattern!  I am using a Little Apples charm pack, a Walk in the Woods charm pack, and some scraps I bought on Etsy of Sherbet Pips.  I just love the colors!

This quilt top is going together amazingly fast.  I got myself organized and have chain pieced everything, which I have never done before.  I’m not sure why I waited this long.  Wow does it work!!!  So that is my new thing I have tried this week. 

And then this arrived today too.

I’m not exactly sure why I bought them, if just to have a piece of quilting history.  When I first started reading blogs regularly, I saw the “Flea Market Fancy” quilt on Crazy Mom Quilts and really thought the fabrics came from flea markets.  I had no idea there were “lines” of fabric out there!!! 

So, would it be heresy to mix these fabrics with my all time favorite fabrics, Alexander Henry’s “Farmdale?”

Don’t they look good together?????!!!!!  What kills me is that my Joanns sold all the Farmdale floral prints for a long time and I never bought any.  Instead I paid about twice as much for them months later.

Finally I picked up this pattern for a new pincushion. 

My green tomato pincushion has never turned up.  I did, however, find a tap shoe filled with pins in the drawer of the bedside table in our guest bedroom.  How did that happen?  Esther is my best guess.

I can’t wait to make this turtle!  If it turns out nicely I plan to make this as part of my “Pay It Forward” debt (lol).

My sewing room is almost completely reorganized and painted.  It will probably be another month until it is ship-shape and I’ve painted the ceiling.  All the walls save for a little alcove are painted, my desks are put back,  my stash is in its place, and my machines are plugged in, so I am ready to go for the Friday Night Sew In.

Bea has been home sick for the past 3 days, so I haven’t been able to get out and buy any white thread to quilt my Flora charm quilt.  Now that we skipped completely over spring and it’s summer in full swing here in southern Maryland, I won’t be needing that quilt anytime soon anyway.  My plan is to finish up all the blocks for my Aneela Hoey fabrics quilt and do my two bee blocks.  I’ve been talking up “movie night with dad” all day to get the kids excited about spending tomorrow night out of my hair.  How about you?

I’m linking this post up to Trying New Things Thursday.  Melissa has a great tutorial on making lazy HSTs, which came just in the nick of time because one of my bee blocks requires an awful lot of them, and I love to be lazy!!!

The Winter Blahs

I think yesterday was the last cold day for southern Maryland.   Every day next week will be in the 60’s and 70’s.  Hurray!  I am tired of winter.  Even this squirrel that hangs out in my plastic chair every morning enjoying the sunshine is ready for spring!  When I see him, I bang on the window, but he doesn’t even bat a squirrel eyelash!

My sewing room makeover is almost finished.  In between waiting for the last coats of paint to dry I am working on this blog post.  I haven’t painted the ceiling yet, but that will be another weekend.  I have seen a lot of beautiful sewing rooms with white desks, shelves, and cabinets and I really love that look.  BUT…

My sewing room is dark.  The tables are dark, the shelves are dark, even my kids’ craft table is dark wood.  The only thing light colored are the walls.  I painted the them a really light grayish white called “Toasted Coconut.”   Here’s a really sad confession:  Our home is about 30 years old.  The walls in this room and our bedroom have never, ever been painted.  They are the white matte color that builders spray on the drywall. 

Anyway, I live with a man who would not appreciate me painting any of the shelves or furniture white.  So we are living with dark wood.

Here is one of the newest acquisitions in my sewing room, a glass front storage hutch from Ikea.  I picked it up at Salvation Army for $20 a few months ago and it’s been sitting in the garage until last week.

I had to have it when I saw the cool skeleton key in the front lock.  It works.  But I don’t keep the key in it because one of the kids runs off with it every time I leave it in the keyhole.

I spray painted the glass to look frosted.  I don’t recommend it.  But I read some reviews for the stick on kind and one person said it looked like she’d gotten drunk and glued saran wrap to her window.  So, I think this is pretty good considering.  It hides the clutter behind the doors.  My husband added new magnetic closures and braces since the kids keep leaning on the doors when they are open. 

I have some other treasure store finds to share once my room is put back together!

WIP Wednesday—the lazy edition

I finished sewing the borders onto my Flora 9 Patch Charm Quilt last night, so the top is finished.

I love how it turned out, but somehow I don’t have enough Flora yardage for a pieced backing, and I really don’t have enough of anything to put with it except a white with peach polka dots.  I was feeling quite lazy about hunting around my stash and needed to get a couple items at Target.  $115 later, I came home with some groceries and a few things that aren’t necessities (a couple packs of Easter pencils, a new lamp for Esther’s bedroom) and I picked this up:

The yellows are a pretty good match, and for only $14.99 I couldn’t pass it up.  The Flora fabrics don’t have a stripe or a polka dot, so I think it will coordinate nicely and not look mis-matched.  This won’t be my first time using a sheet for a backing and it certainly makes the process a lot faster. 

I will be quilting this with fmq squiggles.  My walking foot stopped working about a month ago.  It will move forward a few stitches, but then the stitches get shorter and shorter until it stops advancing and just sews on top of itself which is a huge hassle for using the seam ripper.  It kept happening when I was quilting my Tangerine Tango cathedral windows by machine.  I was worried it was my machine, but all the other feet work fine.  I’ve looked into purchasing a new one, but it’s $50.  Not a big deal when I was working, but kind of an expense I’m going to put off for a little while.  So it’s FMQ only for the next few quilts.

I’m linking this post up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Flora Charm Packs

Our local quilt shop is relatively new—it’s only been in business about 2 years.  I shop there pretty regularly, but since it’s on the other side of town, I only go about once a month.  The stock is uber-traditional…think Thimbleberries or Minick and Simpson.  But every once in a while I get a happy surprise:

This past week there was a 25% off everything sale, and I saw some Flora charm packs and picked up two.  When I got them home and decided what to make, two charm packs wasn’t quite enough, so I cut up a few solid charms from my stash of solids from Connecting Threads.  I love them!  The orange was nearly a dead-on match.  It’s called “Carrot.”  The green, yellow, and turquoise were exact matches.  How thrilled I was!   The pattern is from a book called “Simply Charming Fun Fast Charm Pack Quilts.”  It has a handful of patterns and I’ve made several of them and it’s true—they are fun and fast!

I also picked up a pack of Carol Doak’s foundation paper.  The block for Stash Bee this month is a star for a quilt that will be donated to Quilts of Valor.  Last month’s Beejeeber’s theme was “Family Game Night.”  I called Chutes and Ladders but procrastinated until the very last minute.  Luckily there was an extra day in February and it went out in the mail on time!

The block was tedious to make and took a lot of time (some of it sewing with a kid on my lap because it really took a lot of time), but I am pretty pleased with the result.  There are 100 (some fussy cut) 1.5” blocks to make up the board, and then I raw edge appliqued the ladders and slides. 

This block was for Lindsay, who said she likes bright colors.  I aim to please!  When I was at the LQS, I picked up a few fat quarters of some modern-ish floral Maywood fabric, too, to send along with my bee blocks.  Who doesn’t like a little extra surprise?

In personal news, it was a scary week for baby Veronica.  Her bellybutton has never healed right and she is 15 months old.  It continues to get infected and the pediatrician referred us to a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital who saw us the next day.  The good news is that her umbilical cord is not connected to her bladder or intestine, which happens sometimes, but the bad news is the doctor has no idea why it keeps happening.  Apparently this is a very rare occurrence that he has only seen two other times.  So, she may have to have surgery in the future, but at least not right away.  The good news is, while it is troublesome, it’s not cause for serious alarm. 

The sun has finally come out, and the kids are itching to get outside!