WIP: 1 DOWN AND 7 TO GO! WHAT???

Wow, it took me an hour and a half to just sew this little pencil case.  Everything was cut already. Talk about issues.

Vinyl is clearly my new enemy. Ugh. I'm using the tutorial from Make it Love it to assemble these pouches for Christmas gifts. I thought her tip of using tape on the feet of my machine would get the vinyl to slip right through. WRONG! So then I tried freezer paper, that worked but pulling the paper off was a pain. I decided to try tape, well that worked but it was still hard to peel off the tape. I think the tape is the lesser of two evils, but it's still going to take me forever to make these pouches. Ugh.

I did learn a great tip on how to machine sew buttons and that worked great. All you do is drop the feed dogs and manually adjust your zig zag stitch to fit in the button holes and voila! Buttons in seconds. No hand sewing, super sweet.

Will look pretty cute with pencils stuffed in it's mouth!!

Now I need a break, back to working on my socks.

Linking up!

WIP: 3 DOWN, 3 TO GO

I finished 3 of these pouches this week and have 3 to go. I am very happy with how they have turned out so far. I'm giving them as gifts tomorrow and although that seems like pressure, I'm not sweating it all. I think I'll get at least two of them done today and will only have one left tomorrow afternoon. Cookies are baked and white elephant present wrapped, I'm totally under control.

I also started another pair of socks. It's my first time knitting with Koigu yarn and now I can see why it's so popular. It's ridiculously soft and I love the colors!! I'm going to try an easy lace pattern, not ready for those crazy lace charts yet. But I do love knitting socks on 8" circular needles and I really needed a project to work on when I'm too tired to pull out the sewing machine but not too tired to watch tv. Ha!

I'm thinking hard about what to make for the Modern Quilt Guild's Madrona Road Challenge. I think I'm going to make a sampler of some sorts. Not sure about using the Farmers Wife blocks, but some type of blocks are in order. I saw a sneak peak of a GORGEOUS sampler quilt made with Madrona Road and haven't been able to get that out of my head. Any ideas out there?

I'm linking up!

WIP: EVER WONDER

why we can't just ignore life and sew all day?  I'm really having one of those weeks where I'd rather just pretend things aren't blowing up all around me. It'll get better soon, I hope.

In the mean time, I am feeling extremely lucky that the placemats I was coveting on Flickr in the Modern She Made 2 Swap are MINE!!! They came from England yesterday!! Along with these awesome coasters and basket full of chocolate. I'm going to tear into these chocolates real soon. My partner was Jennie who blogs over at JenniesThreads. I'm still a little in shock that I actually got what I was secretly hoping for. YAY! Twice now, I've had really great partners, I'm definitely doing this swap again. I can only hope my partner likes her mini quilt and pin cushion too.

Now on to what I'm working on this week. I've been making these embroidered zip pouches for gifts. I had to try to patterns before I figured out which would work best. No surprise, I'm going with an Elizabeth Harman pattern. She's really great and her patterns make so much sense to me. 2 pouches down and 4 to go!

 

Coming up is an iPad case, I bought a pattern at a Black Friday sale that I couldn't resist. I'm also going to make some monster pencil cases for Christmas gifts.

Linking up!

WIP AND FINISH

Well I can check 2 of the quilts off my list now! I finished this baseball quilt and already gave it to the intended recipient. I got a squeal over it and my SIL even took it over to my FIL to show him too, she liked it so much. They are big baseball fans. I also got an email from my MIL who said my quilt was a real hit. Phew! For whatever reason I get kinda nervous when I design my own quilt with the recipient in mind. You just never know if they're going to like it and when you put that much effort in....I worry. Thankfully I was worried for nothing.

I am working on this mini quilt for the Modern She Made Swap 2. The them is "triangle" and I thought the compass needed more triangles so I made flying geese for the borders. I am hoping to get those sewn on along with corner pieces and then baste it today. I saw that my partner collects pin cushions, so as an extra, I'm going to try and whip one up for her. I have to mail it between the 15-19 and I'm thinking the 19th is probably going to be the date since I'm adding that pin cushion.

This weekend my LQG has it's monthly sew day. We decided to make a charity quilt for QuiltCon using extra blocks from their challenge. We are going to dedicate Saturday to working on that. I'll be sure to post about that soon!

I'm linking up!

WIP, FEELING BETTER ABOUT THOSE DEADLINES

2 sides binded, 2 sides to go. I'm no longer panicking about this baseball quilt. In fact, I think it's looking pretty good.

Machine appliqueing those logos was pretty easy, aside from running out of thread during naptime, argh. The red twill tape was a bit more of a struggle. For the cross seams, I sewed the ends together to prevent fraying and then I laid them under the curved "seams" to get them positioned. That meant I had to move the curved seam to the side to tack down the cross seams. Getting the curved seam over the cross seams wasn't to bad, it was just hard to keep the stitching in the middle of the twill tape. Overall I'm happy with the results.

I used Aurifil 20# white thread for the quilting and surprisingly, there was nary a pucker even though the stitching was close and I was moving the quilt all over the place. The back is just a RK novelty baseball print. Should be finished and washed in time for Saturday.

I also started a Mariner's Compass block, "Which Way North," for the Modern She Made Swap 2. It took a bit of calculating to get the rainbows right but it's all cut out and ready to go. I'm going to make some sort of border too. I'm leaning towards another HST border. Again, I won't have any problem meeting my 11/15 deadline. Then it's on to Christmas presents. Yay.

I'm linking up!

WIP, DEADLINES LOOMING

This week I'm hard at work on a baseball quilt for my SIL. They are having a boy and are using baseball as the theme for his room. She is a Yankees fan and he is a Brewers fan. So I'm incorporating the team logos on a white quilt. Hopefully I haven't lost all my applique skills. Then I'm going to use red twill tape to make the stitching of a baseball on the quilt. Wish me luck! The shower is next week, I really gotta get cracking! Did I mention my baby is turning 2 on Sunday? Never a dull moment.

I finished this bee block this week. I love the fabric choices and how the flying geese make a pinwheel in the center! Super cute.

Next up is a mini quilt for the Modern She Made Swap 2. Again....gotta get cracking!!!

TTFN, linking up!

BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL 2012

As predicted, I finished my Mod in Milwaukee quilt this week so I decided to enter it into the Bloggers Quilt Festival 2012.

It was really great working with these beautiful fabrics designed by Allison Beilke for the Mod in Milwaukee Challenge.

I decided long ago that I wanted to spell out Milwaukee, so I purchased Elizabeth Hartman's Refrigerator Magnets Pattern. I was pretty scared to try this new technique, but as usual, my fears were unwarranted, the pattern was easy! I had to blow up the letters to get them to a decent size for a lap-sized quilt. Then I had to futz with the spacing to get the letters reasonably centered.

Inspired by a quilt that Rita of Red Pepper quilts made, I chose to make an HST border.  I like how it gives the quilt a little more color and uses more of the Milwaukee-inspired fabric.

Wavy line quilting highlights the "great city on a great lake" catch phrase referring to Milwaukee and over the letters/HST's I quilted the letter M.

 

 

I am thrilled with the finished results (44" x 64") and hope it's your favorite for the Throw Size Quilt category.

WIP, LOTS OF PROGRESS

It's been a busy week and I've got good progress to show.

My Milwaukee quilt is almost finished. I have two more corners to bind and then it's ready to enter it into the Mod in Milwaukee contest. Sometimes I can't believe how fast I can crank out a quilt, I think this took me about two and a half weeks. I'm feeling pretty good about my other deadlines.

I made this block for a fellow guilder. It's from the 99 Modern Blocks book. I've got a couple more bee blocks to make by then end of the week, then I'll be caught up. One more month for all my bees, it's been a fun year for bees.

Up next is a mini quilt for the Modern She Made Swap Round 2. So far no one likes the purple fabric. Not sure I do either, but I'm trying to sneak out a rainbow and I have no purple in my stash. Maybe I'll just leave purple out.

That's all for now, I'm linking up!

WIP AND A FINISH

I didn't have much progress last week so it wasn't worth posting. But I'm back!

I finished one of my Star Wars Quilts.

 

 

And it's already been put to good use. Here's the happy recipient.

 

I also finished this postage stamp block for my local guild bee and then proceeded to lose it. I know it's hiding somewhere in one of my piles but sheesh, I'm kinda embarrassed. I don't usually lose things. I thought the block was pretty easy though and I learned a new technique. We used Elizabeth Hartman's fusible interfacing method. It was a breeze! Gosh I love her.

 

On to my WIP. I'm in the midst of this Milwaukee quilt for the Mod in Milwaukee Challenge. I'm very excited with how it's looking so far. I need to even up these rows and put spacers in between. Then I am adding the lakefront and a HST-type border. We've got guild sew day this weekend so I'm hoping to get a lot done.

 

The weather has been extremely nice, so today I spent some time pulling out dead plants and trimming back other plants. Hopefully I won't fall asleep in choir practice today from all the fresh air!

I'm linking up!

WIP - STILL BINDING

I'm sure it's no surprise that I'm still binding those Star Wars quilts. I've had another busy week processing tomatoes and picking apples.

I do have this nice stack of hexies coming along. I am really getting excited to keep this project moving along.

However, I have two quilts coming down the pipeline. A baby quilt is in my near future and I need to get going on my Mod in Milwaukee challenge quilt. EEK!

Now to make some squash soup! I'm linking up!

WIP, I'M BACK

I've finally got some time to give my blog a little attention! With the start of school and crazy potty training, Wednesday's have been hectic and I've forgotten or just didn't have time to post. Ugh.

I've still had some sewing time thankfully! I've finished several bee blocks. Free piecing the "girlie" block was really fun despite being way out of my comfort zone.

 

I have also mailed out packages for my own month in one of my bees. Here is my test block. Can't for them to start arriving in the mail.

I also finished quilting both of my Star Wars quilts, they are ready for hand binding. I'm hoping to have posts about their finish in the near future. I did however, finish these pillowcases. Yay!

That's it for now! I'm linking up!

I'M NOT DEAD

Hi there! I'm sorry for neglecting my blog! I've been super busy (stressed out) and for whatever reason I haven't gotten my act together to post anything. I've gotten bee blocks done, my Star Wars quilts are basted and have a productive weekend ahead. I promise I'll post again very soon.

WIP PLANNING EDITION

Well I'm feeling rather unproductive in terms of sewing projects. But alas, I have a list of excuses, stay-cation, redecorating, start of school, waiting for fabric and knitting. They all have gotten in the way of quilting.

I am however about to cut into this Star Wars fabric to go into the newly decorated boys room.

Here are my plans for their quilts. I want it to have a comic strip feel instead of doing chunky blocks. The plan is to stagger the top four fabrics in 24" x 36" pieces and 24" x 18" pieces with 1.5" strips in between. (Three rows of 24" x 54", makes about a 54" x 75" quilt) I feel like it's a lot of black though. Do you think I should use black as the strips or Kona Lagoon? I was thinking of using black for the strips and Lagoon as the binding but naturally, I'm second guessing myself.

I'm using the yellow/black Star Wars fabric and the solid yellow for the back. Or then again the yellow might look good as the strips in between the big prints....decisions....decisions...

Would love some input.

This Friday I'm going the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison. Hopefully I'll find some good fabric. In any case, the company will be good!

Linking up!

WIP AND A FINISH

Yay, I finished this quilt over the weekend. I am so happy with it, it's washed and ready for cold weather. Of course it's going to be in the 90's for the next few days. Ha!

 

This weekend we had our kick-off for the Mod in Milwaukee challenge. We had a great crowd for Allison's talk about fabric design. It was so interesting and inspiring. I talked about the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild and our first challenge using her My Fair Milwaukee Fabric Collection. Here is a pick of me with Allison and Julie, the owner of my LQS, Patched Works. 

We are in the middle of a stay-cation so I've been furiously finishing bee blocks amongst trips to Chicago museums, redecorating the boys room and deciding on what to register for at QuiltCon!! 

Here are two of three paper pieced blocks I finished, I have one more to go. Since we have themed the boys' room Star Wars, I have two Star Wars quilts on deck. I've got some ideas swirling in my head on how to modernize these large novelty prints.

 

Hope you are all having a good week. I'm linking up!