Sunday Stash

Thought I would have a little fun this week and join up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash Link up.

I don't often have new purchases to post, as I typically buy when I am starting a new project. A few weeks ago my MIL asked me to make a baby quilt for a friend of hers, that is due in January. After going through my stash, I just needed a contrasting fabric. So, I bought a yard of these cute little guys at my LQS.

They are perfect for this quilt. 

To the owls, I am adding some cute Zoo fabric and some dragonflies. I had bought the dragonflies for another project, but being a destash I got 3 yards, when I only needed 1, so I have plenty.

My lazy sunday project is organizing my fabric into Quiltology.

To give you an idea what I am working with. I have managed to pick up quite a bit of fabric and am inputting it into Quiltology. Quiltology is a quilt creation app for the iPad. So each piece is entered with a photo, a size, name, manufacturer, and colors. Later I can create quilts and blocks and insert the photos to see what the finished item will look like. While I am enjoying the app, I see a large time investment inputting my stash to get started properly. If anyone has an easier/faster way, let me know. =)

2 Months Later!

Updates.
I finished my SIL's quilt.

This is the front, with the binding ready to go on. I use Clover Clips, I like how useful they are. I keep finding new uses for them.

The back side, so you can see the binding.

This is finished, shipped off and received. I couldn't find my camera at this point and have discovered that the iPad camera is not a very good substitute.

I also started a new project. I won a pack of heat resistant silicone hexagon templates awhile back from Jane, (who blogs @ Jane's Fabrics) and decided to try them out. I had been a bit intimidated by them, they look difficult. With the templates, though, they are not that bad. I decided to make a small item, to see how I like them. Many of the prints are leftovers from another quilt.

Since this project requires 150 hexagons, I have decided larger projects are not for me. I like bigger pieces. The doll quilt, that these will make, ends up about the size of a fat quarter. I have seen larger quilts, such as Grandmother's Flower Garden, that run into the thousands of hexagons. I found this fat quarter in my stash, which I think will work perfectly for the back.

The modified Sweet Pea quilt has made some progress, although progress is having issues. I really need a thimble, since my fingers are getting holes poked in them, but I have issues using them. I am then forced to take break to let me fingers heal before I can sew again. The interesting thing about the hexagon project is that it does not put holes in my fingers and I can work on that instead.

I am not sure how much you can see in these pictures. The first is a finished block, with the stained glass flower in the center. The outer pieces are just edged in a complimentary thread. My stitches need practice, so I prefer to hide them right now. =)

This is a close up of the center of the same block. There were several options here, but most I did not like. I ended up deciding to edge to flowers and quilt the leaf stems to create puff. It made a nice texture, that I like and the flowers are accented.

These are also finished, with complimentary thread edging each piece. The sashing in the center has a variegated green leaf motif. If you click on the picture, it should become large enough to see some of the detail.

My last update is for school. I have graduated with distinction. My Bachelor degree is in Business Administration and a Minor in Accounting. I am job hunting (ofc) and will, hopefully, be updating a bit more often.

Spring Break...

... is approaching. In January, there was a Grow Your Blog event and I found a few new blogs to follow and entered my name for a few giveaways. I won the Bead Soup prize over at AmyBeads! They arrived this morning and are so pretty. Such a beautiful blue color.

I borrowed the image from Amy, so you can see how pretty they are. Not sure what I will use them on. I like to accent quilt elements with them, but I have 3 quilts in progress. I would love to start another, but I hate having too many projects in progress.

It is incredibly cold here lately, with another storm approaching. YAY more snow... uh, no. I want warm! *sigh* My school closes for a snow day very rarely, but we have had 3 snow days this year. (They only close for ice and dangerous roads. They do not care if it is -5)

Pssst.. Mother Nature... I think we have enough snow.

Progress is slow. I finished the stocking, but one of my neighbors bought it before I had a chance to take a picture (I also misplaced my camera). I have another kit, so, my SIL will still get one for Christmas. I couldn't say no to a little extra cash ($60). Probably less than it's worth with the amount of time I devote to near perfection, but a nice profit on the $12 I paid for the kit. Hers says Rudie, but they look the same.

The doll quilt has some quilting finished and will likely be done before the semester is over. The larger quilts are close to shelved. I am so busy with school and I need to finish my SIL's items before working on my own.

When it rains...

Well, we all know the saying. At my house it is definitely pouring. My plans of finishing this before classes started for fall semester have proven extremely optimistic.

(Excuse the blur in the corner, ipad cover was off a bit)

So instead of having a lovely finished quilt, I am halfway through 1 block.

It is currently draped over the couch, the only surface large enough(other than the bed)to quilt this on. It is actually upside down, the owls are intended to direct the flow of the quilt.

So the last 2 weeks we have had to take my husbands Gma to the emergency room, where they discovered that she broke her T12 vertebrae and they sent her to a larger hospital. That hospital fitted her for a brace and moved her on to rehab. Fortunately, we have had very good doctors. In about 2 weeks, after some healing and adjusting to the brace, along with working on her mobility while wearing it, she will be coming home.

At the same time I am in my senior year of college and will have an internship along with full time classes. I am Orientation Leader and secretary of our honor society. So, I will most likely disappear soon, hopefully to return around christmas. Perhaps a few short posts in between. 

In the middle of September is the Pin It! blog hop, hosted by Mdm Samm @ Sew We Quilt and Kristen @ Meadowbrook. This runs from the 10th - 17th. 

My day is the 12th, so I will need to find some time for that. Otherwise my days are going to be very full. Not sure how other people find the time to sew, but I'm fairly sure I'm not going to have the time.

Friday Night Sew In

Sugarlane Quilts is hosting a Friday Night Sew In. Since I am constantly working on one project or another, I thought "Why not? Sounds like fun". After all, when does getting together with a bunch of quilters to sew not fun?

Well... That depends. I spent the night on a task that some do not find fun and had my first venture into basting. We will see if I managed to maintain flatness. My sewing machine does not do machine quilting, so this is another hand quilting project. The Sweet Pea quilt is temp shelved as I seem to have forgotten to buy backing and that is now on it's way. Connecting Threads thankfully is currently running a backing sale. What perfect timing!

This picture is from the quilt roughly half basted. Ended up taking 3-4 hours total. Currently working on motifs for the hand quilting. Looking at stars and deciding on connections between them. Grateful to have this task out of the way. =)

This quilt is a memorial to my mother who passed away several years ago. She taught me to sew and love fabric when I was 10. She always wanted to ride in a Hot Air Balloon and see the land from the air. She would have loved this quilt. Some elements blend in, for example there is a purple blanket stitch used on the applique kite tail bows and a silver lining on the clouds(also blanket stitched). The rays of the sun are golden glass beads and the basket ropes are brown yarn.

Lovely Quilts

Summer weather is a pain. We are riding the Hot/Cold roller coaster and it is no fun. I'd love mother nature to figure it out and settle for 60-75 degrees (oh, yeh, i'm in fantasy land).
I have gotten some progress on a few things and another distraction.
My SIL is having her first baby in a few weeks and I got a request to make her a baby quilt. So, of course, all my current projects got shelved.

 I had some cute fabric I was saving and I love the simple stars.
Did a little auditioning for the sashing. The toys fabric ended up vetoed (hubby gets veto power, he knows her better than I do). I had some jelly rolls of 3 Blind Mice, which ended up looking great as sashing. The toys have ended up as binding.

Got a few things done on the Sweet Pea quilt now that this one is at hand quilting stage. [I am using a decorative quilting thread (aka embroidery thread) and this is tough on the fingers, esp. since I do not use a thimble (i just can't get used to them). So, on breaks I work on other things.]

Since I am incorporating a few Shasta Daisies for the center of 3 blocks, I took pictures to keep track of where each petal goes on the flower. (My computer desk is part workbench and is well used)

The pattern I am using is over at Jinny Beyers.

New Project

So here I am planning a new quilt. I love the quilt 'Sweet Peas' that was printed up in the Feb. 2005 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

I love the stars and the lovely sashing, but the finished size is only 38" and I want a close to bed size quilt. Now what I'm wondering is: can you 'double the recipe' like you do with cooking? I have 12" squares planned and I plan to grow the sashing from 2" to 4". Any one know if this will work?
To be clear, the original has 6" blocks, 2" sashing, 2 91/4" squares cut in an X, and 2 51/8" squares cut in an X.
I'm 'doubling' to: 12" blocks with 4" sashing. I'm not sure how to double the triangles.

You can see placement here for a better idea of how things go together. The 51/8" squares become the corner triangles and the 91/4" squares become the triangles on the sides.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Alice @ The Pin and Thimble. I won this beautiful fabric in her first ever giveaway! 

She even sent a little postcard with it to congratulate me!

Another huge THANK YOU goes to Gretchen @ 120 Blocks. I won her scrappy giveaway!

I got 1 magazine and a bunch of scraps. Not sure why she calls some of them scraps. Some are almost a quarter yard! =)

These pictures I 'borrowed' off her website. I was enjoying playing with them and organized them and put them away before I remembered to take pictures =(

The last package that arrived was from Kristen @ Meadowbrook. I won her giveaway of an Olfa circle cutter!

I'm 'borrowing' this picture from her giveaway. So hard to not get glare on this picture. Must be a trick to it =) Can't wait to find a project to use it on! THANK YOU KRISTEN!

Lack of progress

I would love to say I have made some progress finishing this:

But the truth is, other then removing the lake this has not progressed any farther.  I have 6 classes this semester, so time is at a premium and finding time to do other things is difficult.

Quiltiness

Obviously I don't update often. This is not because nothing is going on. The opposite is true. Things get done a little at a time and I post here when I feel ready.

This lovely is my applique quilt and my current large project.

Comes with a hot air balloon (me mums fav, she always wanted to go for a ride)

 and a kite. If you can get the pictures a bit bigger (they shrank when I loaded them) the hot air balloon has stitched basket weaving and the kits has pearl cross strings.

The argument I'm having with a couple friends is that no one likes my cloud. They think it looks like a lake when I was trying for a sky scene. So if anyone wants to give an opinion I'd appreciate it. It's almost done, but I don't want to be hearing about my sky lake forever. Esp once it's quilted and I can't fix it.