Just Waking Up

Instead of just settling in for a long winter's nap I appear to be just waking up from a Thanksgiving coma...yikes!  Every year the company that I work for closes for the week of Thanksgiving/deer hunting season...yes that's a real thing here in my part of the world.  It's a week for spending time with family and of course quilting, quilting and quilting.  I had huge plans for the week, that came to a screeching halt when I had to admit defeat to a sinus infection and rest.

That's okay, I still got a few things finished.  Like Jenny's birthday Christmas(?) unicorn quilt.  I love the addition of the fractured borders and so does she!  All that is left to do is work it into the quilting rotation so that hopefully it doesn't become her birthday Christmas New Years Valentines Day quilt.

I also caught up on Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt.  I don't think there are too many more to go, before this one can work its way to becoming a finished quilt top.

I also spent some time making the last two blocks for The Children's Library QAL and piecing the top together.  I had two rows finished, complete with sashing and I can admit, I wasn't in love.  I just wasn't sold on my very busy sashing fabric.  I pulled David in for a bit of advice on fabrics for the two blocks.  All of the blocks have been made from fabrics in my stash (yay for using fabrics) but I was afraid they didn't really go together.  He pointed out that most of the colors in the blocks where found in the center Alice In Wonderland Block...completely a coincidence.  He helped me pull a few more colors in from that block and thus, Peter Rabbit

and The Mouse and the Motorcycle were born.

The time and date stamp fabric gave this quilt some crazy movement across the quilt.  I felt like my eyes were crossing if I looked at it too long.

I think the addition of the small yellow border helped tame some of the craziness and help the eyes find a place to land before the really cool book border fabric.  Sadly, this top is headed to join the 2015 and 2016 BOM's in UFO land (2014 is actually a finished quilt), until I get my act together.

I do have a small quilt finish in the form of puppies, but we will save that for it's own little post.  So I am back and feeling so much better.  I still have quite a few items on my list to finish, but all in good time.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and was able to sneak in a bit of quilting time.

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social and a very special edition of Midweek Makers...the 100th edition!!!!

Back to QAL Work We Go

Time for a bit of a project update and what I've been up to.  I have a ton going on at work, leading a system conversion from a very archaic computer system to a much better Window based platform, so when I get home in the evenings and weekends, I'm ready to unwind and not think about work.

Above is a look at my cut pieces for the Magnolia Mystery Quilt going on now over at Meadow Mist Designs.  If you have not participated in one of Cheryl's mystery quilt alongs before, I HIGHLY encourage you to hop over there and check it out.

It's been a week or two since I have caught up on the QAL's I'm participating in, so this past week was spent mainly catching up on those.

Oh, deer, just look at that moose under the mistletoe!  The moose and deer blocks caught me up on Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Have A Jolly Little Christmas Quilt.  I just realized as I'm typing this, the last block will be given to us this weekend.  Could we have a quilt finish before Christmas 2017???  I think we just might.

Next up, was the The Double Star Block in Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt BOM.  I am really loving me some purple and green with this quilt.

Goodnight Moon is the next block in Pat Sloan's The Children's Library BOM.  Only two more to go and this extremely fun QAL will be coming to an end as well.  I had hoped to finish up the Aurifil BOM and show you as well, but we are not currently on speaking terms at the moment.  It is packed full of applique and at the moment, my head just isn't in that game.

Taking a break from the piecing scene, David and I borrowed my mom's garage for a basting quilt session.

We were able to baste four smaller quilts, all currently waiting for me to pick them up and quilt them.

Here is a picture of David and his Poodle Quilt.  While scrolling through Instagram, he ran across Sue at Seven Oak Street Quilt's Poodle block she made for hive queen Karen at Tu-Na Quilts.  Loving all things of the 50's; 57 Chevys, girls in poodle skirts, you get my drift.  He decided to super size the block, change the piecing up a bit and create his own throw back to the 50's with some recent fabric purchases.  I'm thinking that negative space is screaming for some fun flow quilting.  What do you think?

Even after all that was finished last weekend, I snuck in some cutting time, to cut out a quilt for my daughter's 17th birthday.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but just incase she does, I won't let the cat out of the bag quite yet on what it is, but it is another one of Lorna's wonderful creations.  Do I have a Sew Fresh Quilts pattern obsession?  Hmmm?

I think I have confessed before, I'm a cluttered mess.  I'm an OCD person's nightmare...ask David.  However, there comes a point about every 3-6 months I can't take it anymore; the stash starts stacking up (from growth or laziness), the sewing space becomes cluttered...I have to clean it up.

So in keeping it real here on the blog (because I keep telling myself I'm not the only one who is like this), I pulled out my fabric totes to "file" the fabrics in there correct bins.

It became clear pretty quick like, that the fabric wasn't going to fit in their respective bins.  AHHHHH.

But Caroline tried to convince me everything was okay, because she fit in this newly almost empty bin...sigh.

So after several go rounds in my head I opted to purchase three more fabric bins and do the fabric shuffle.  My whites, blues and reds are in the biggest of the totes (how patriotic of me) and everything else fell in line.  So the stash is back under control and arranged in the back room.  The cats, bless their hearts, love fabric shuffle time, because the living room is transformed into a kitten playground.

I am feeling more grounded now and believe I can create once again.  I've come to the realization that with two serious quilters in the house, something must be done.  Quilting has taken over the house.  If that sounds like a daydream, trust me it's not.  There is talk about converting our porch into a sunroom/quilting room.  I do love my porch, however, we don't use it.  Why?  Because I'm inside quilting!  This would allow us to have a dedicated room for quilting and let the dinning room be a dinning room (since I'm now cooking again, thank you Instant Pot), the spare bedroom be a bedroom and the breakfast nook be...well something other than home to my Sweet Sixteen.  But, we shall see.  A girl can always dream

What's Up Wednesday

Wednesday just always seems like a nice day to reflect.  Look back at what you've accomplished over the weekend and a look forward to what you need to do.  So I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on what's been going on in my sewing room house space.

I have had a few local quilt shops express interest in selling Star Blossom in their stores.  One store is right in my home town.  Helen, owner of Helen's Hen House, gave me the above fabrics this past weekend to create a shop sample of the quilt for her store.  Win, Win!  I get to play with pretty fabric, she gets a quilted shop sample, and I might sale some patterns.  So this weekend, I spent a few hours in between a line of thunder storms stitching up a baby quilt version of Star Blossom.

I cannot wait to get this one basted up and quilted this week  I'm starting to think I can make this quilt with my eyes closed, it's so fast and easy.   If you would like to pick up a copy of Star Blossom you can find it in my Craftsy Store.

Next on my list was to finish the sashing blocks called Charlotte's Web for the Pat Sloan The Children's Library Quilt.  After all of them were complete, I started stitching together the first and second row of blocks (there are still 3 blocks to be released).  Since there is a giant poodle living on the shared design wall (not my poodle), I took my rows outside and pinned them to the out building wall for a closer look.

I'll be honest I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this one.  I love the sashing fabric with the little date stamps, but not sure how it's working in this quilt.  To be fair, there are three more blocks to go and borders to be added, so I'm not going to be too quick to judge it yet.  Just keep sewing, you don't know what you've got till it's done.

Since the previous weekend I made time to make to blocks for the dog quilt, I decided to sneak in two blocks for the Sugar Skull quilt.  One in red and one in white(ish).

After all this piecing, I realized it was time to quilt, even for just a teeny tiny bit.  I need to start exercising the quilting machines more.  I need to quilt up my recent small quilt finishes and I have a customer quilt to quilt...and by customer I mean David...oh I'll make him pay, wink wink.

I posted this picture to Instagram with the caption, "So many possibilities from just this squiggly line.  What will it become?"  So what did it become?

David and I have briefly discussed how he would like his quilt quilted and it looks like he's leaning toward a woodgrain look and swirls in different sections of the quilt.  So what better way to kick start my quilty fingers than by practicing both of these designs.  So the above squiggle became a maze of wood grain.

I do love swirls and I think I've improved over the years stitching them.  Still room to grow, but I'm happy with how these turned out.  I know they will look even better on the quilt because I will be using thread that matches the fabric so they will be a bit more camouflaged.  As for the woodgrain, this was my first time stitching it and the verdict?  Super easy.  Although, it does require a bit of thinking about where to travel next and should I add an "knot hole" yet?  But a quick pause at each point allows me to think about it before I travel to the next spot.

Since I didn't fill the whole fat quarter up with these designs, I moved on to trying Angela Walter's Paisley Feather and a swirl flower design.

Paisley Feather turned out much better than I thought it would.  Still have some filling up the middle of the curve issues to work out, but I'm turning cartwheels that it turned out that great.  You can watch Angela's video for this motif here.  The swirl feather is a design I want to quilt on something so badly.  These were not the best ones I've done in practice.  I started getting frustrated and you can see my little scribble of frustration in the middle of the three flowers.  That's when I knew, it was time to walk away and do something else.  Always know when to say when.

So moving on with my week, I know I have a few QAL blocks I should work on, and small quilts to start quilting.  Hopefully, I will be able to answer an age old question on Friday...

Did Momma Duck, indeed get her ducks in a row???

Tune in later this week to find out if Momma Duck is sitting pretty with her babies or has she pulled all her feathers tail feathers out.  

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.

Caught Up With Time To Spare

With the end of June approaching in just a few days, I am happy to report I am currently caught up on all of the QAL's I'm participating in.  I'll be honest, I figured I would be so far behind right now, I wouldn't be able to recover, so not being behind is quite the pleasant surprise. 

Above are all the 2017 Aurifil Designer BOM's as of today.  Each designer is helping us work our way around the color wheel. We started with the top left block in blue and this month's block color way was red orange.

The block is called Star Shine and it was designed by Sarah Maxwell.  You can read Pat Sloan's interview with Sarah here. 

Next up, was Pat Sloan's The Children's Library block for June, The Princess and the Pea.

After all the crazy triangle action in the Aurifil block, these simple squares where a pleasure to work with.  I do believe instead of a block, next month she will be releasing the block setting instructions.

Moving right along, I had one block to make this month for Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt.  My head was spinning (but in a good way) making half square triangles for the Pinwheel Block.

Here she is with all of her friends.

I am loving me some purple and green in this quilt.

Then I moved on to the last quilt along Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Jolly Christmas Quilt, which had three blocks I needed to catch up on.

Christmas Wreath

Holly and Berries

and Christmas Ornaments

Ever since the second block of this quilt along, one particular block has been eating away at me.  Possibly the most simple block in the quilt...The Mitten Block.  As the other blocks come together it bothers me more and more.  The fabrics in the mitten are too close to the background fabric and it just looks dull.  So I sucked it up and made a second mitten block.

The bright blues of the block on the right makes me HAPPY!!!  Bring on the snow!!  Oh, wait it's like almost July and hot outside.  Got a bit carried away there.  But now, I can let this block rest until it is ready to be pieced into the quilt and I promise I will stop glaring at it and only smile when I see it.

Have you ever redone a block because it just drove you nuts??  I can't be the only one.  Does it technically count as a "squirrel" since it has been eating at me for months now, driving me crazy?

So what will I do with myself for the next four days, since I'm all caught up??  Probably going to quilt a baby quilt I just finished piecing and maybe start on a second one I have been commissioned to make.  That sounds about right.  Hope everyone has a wonderful quilty week where ever you are.

Today I'm linking up with Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and Midweek Makers.

QAL's-Haulk Mode

I'm still plugging away over here, working on QAL's and getting that pattern ready to release.  After my crazy productive week the week before, last week I kind of hit a brick wall.  I didn't really do anything-at-all.  It happens.

David has been gone since last Friday for work again, and I knew I needed to buckle down and be productive over my quiet weekend (well as quiet as it gets with a teenage daughter in the house).  On Friday it was like my batteries recharged.  I hit the coin box and found that flashy star on Super Mario Brothers that warped me into moving at super quick speeds.  I turned on quilting Haulk Mode (no I didn't turn green).

Saturday, I popped into a local quilt store, Helen's Hen House, to pick up a few FQ's to add to my Solstice challenge quilt.  That's where I picked up those yummy pieces above...I think I'm going to need more.  What was suppose to be a quick trip ended up being a 1 1/2 hour event.  The place was hopping and I ran into quilting friends and made a new quilting friend.  But the quilt store magic had to end...I had things to do!  So back home I went.

I was able to quickly finish the straight line quilting on my pattern quilt, which leaves me with one more to quilt.

I was able to get that quilt basted and cut binding strips for four quilts.

Next up, was the Freefall 1/2 blocks.  Sandra at mmm!quilts had emailed me the instructions for the next set of blocks so that I could test them before she released them on Monday.  Making that a major priority, I knocked those out pretty quickly.

Here are all the blocks playing on my design wall.

I needed a carrot chocolate bar on a stick, dangling in front of me as a reward.  I decided to do a fabric pull for the three blocks I need to make to finish section A of Pat Sloan's 182 Solstice Challenge.  I will only allow myself to work on this project once everything is completed.

Now on to the blocks I completed.  I had three blocks to catch up on;  Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts had released the Santa block for the Jolly Christmas Quilt and he had yet to visit my design wall, April's Aurifil block needed to be completed, and Pat Sloan released The Children's Library May block two days early.  I cut the pieces for all three blocks and slowly (and carefully) worked on them all together.

Santa finished up first.  Isn't he just the jolliest? 

I even pieced one of the five rows together.

The Children's Library Block for May was Green Eggs and Ham.  I dug into my stash of green and went to work.  This block goes together log cabin style and for some reason, I always end up with a wonky block.  My 1.5" piece blocks got a little bit off, but I didn't sweat it and improvised.  As long as I ended up with a 12.5" block that looked dag gone close, I was happy.  I think Dr. Seuss would agree, whimsical is better than perfect?

And here they are all together.

Last but definitely not least, was the Aurifil BOM by Sue Marsh New Direction.  I put this block off for half of a month because the templates and triangles scared the crap out of me.  Something I've never really worked with.  I cut very carefully and took my time sewing.

I have to say the block turned out much better than I expected.  Once put together, I did lose a few points on the arrow, but hey some times in life, the arrows that point us aren't quite as sharp as they should be.  This is just one of those times. (It's not done losing points either...shhhh)

And here are the start of my rainbow blocks, ranging from blue to red purple.

So this is what my list looked like at the end of Sunday.

Not bad if I do say so myself.  I also finished making a pressing board to use for bigger pieces of fabric, but I think I'll save that for another post.  This one is about eye candy.  

So for now, my Haulk muscles have retracted and I've returned to little ol' Tish N Wonderland.  I still need to keep the forward momentum going, but for now I think I deserve a nap.

Today I'm linking up with Freefall Linky, Wednesday Wait Loss, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Main Crush Monday and Linky Tuesday.