Up from here - another finish

I joined the Sew, Mama, Sew! block of the month and made the Up From Here block tonight. I love the fabric. I didn't have enough so I made the block smaller. It finishes at about 14.5" instead of 24", but I love it anyway.

Up From Here BOM - I love when I can see my feet in the photo. :)

I don't know what to make of this block - I suppose I could make more of them, but I don't know if I want a whole quilt like this.

Penelope is threatening to wake up. I really hope she doesn't because she would find all her Easter presents in front of her door if she does.

I need to get to sleep - It's 2:45 AM - don't you just love insomnia?

Sleep on!

WIP Wednesday

It's still Wednesday for about 40 minutes so I can get my pics in just under the wire. I worked on my granny square table runner for a bit and I also started working on my April Showers Mug Rug for the blog hop next month.

I sketched out the mug rug and everything - I even put measurements on it. It is my first foray into flying geese units. I did cut off the points (sewed off the points) on two, but they look okay otherwise. I used the flippy corners method and I saved the triangles that I cut off and added to my bag of little triangular scraps. I saw on Fons and Porter that Maryanne Fons sews those together and trims them up to use as borders, etc... all I can say is that I've been saving them - I sure hope I use them someday. Anyway - I need to go to sleep soon.

granny squares

Piper fat quarters cut to a 5" strip

Piper and Kona solid flying geese cuts

flying geese with hand stitched umbrella handles.

I've really been enjoying doing the hand stitching. Embroidery floss is a lot of fun.

Sew on!

Granny squares and broken tiaras

I finished my three, flirt granny squares for a table runner last night. I just need to sash them, sew them together and baste, quilt and bind and I will have a beautiful table runner or mini quilt to hang at my office - my new office is nice and big, but so gray. It really needs some color so I think project will help to liven it up a bit.

Penelope already broke the princess tiara/headband thingy that we got at Michael's yesterday afternoon. It is taped together and, while it still works as a princess tiara/headband thingy, she looks a little bit like the shabby, cheap princess from the wrong side of the tracks.

I will say goodbye to my hexie pillow and the fabulous fifty quilt today - it is nice to get to look at things a while after you've made them. This time I knew that I was not keeping these things, so I didn't get very attached to them. I really want to make another exploded star quilt because I like how it turned out, I just think I need to plan out the colors a little bit better so I have more control over where they land. That seems to be what I need to do next for my design process, really concentrate more over what colors to use and where to place them for the effect that I want to achieve. Usually, I choose the colors, but I don't pay much attention to them after they have been put together.

Things to think about...

a pretty, pretty princess...

Fabric. Fabric. Fabric.

Like most quilters, I have a little bit of a fabric addiction. My order from Fat Quarter Shop arrived two days ago and I'm in love. I can't bear to take the stuff out of it's packaging - I just want to look it - all lovely and arranged... it truly is a site to behold:

beautiful fabric ---- oooooooh!

I did start laying out some granny squares from my Flirt mini charm pack:

aqua/gray/neutral

neutral/red

red/neutral/aqua

I like how they are turning out so far. I don't have too many more mini charms, so I can't make anymore of these, but I will get more, and three blocks would make a lovely table runner. I'm going to start sewing that tonight.

I'm also thinking about what to do with the squares I've received so far from the Simply Modern Bee:

five, March Simply Modern Bee blocks

 I was thinking about doing a big, granny square layout. I would just have to make two more blocks (since you need 13 for a granny square). I think that would look awesome. I can't wait for my other blocks to show up. Do people often flake out on the bees? This is my first one. I already made all my blocks and sent them off because I was worried about being a slacker. Oh well! I can only hope I don't have to make a ton more of these to finish my quilt.

I also signed up for a fat quarter swap. You may want to sign up, too. Find the info in my sidebar.

Sew on!

More fabric on it's way to my house

I just ordered some more great fabric from fat quarter shop. I got:

a fat quarter bundle with 15 patterns

a charm pack of this - my favorite thing right now

this lovely fat quarter bundle for extras and for the simply solids bee

I love buying fabric - and I love that my husband is okay with me buying fabric. He is very supportive of my hobby. I think he just wants me to get good enough to sell my creations at a craft fair or etsy or something. That would be just fine with me.

I also continue to enter all the fabric giveaways I can find and just hope that I will win something, someday.

I'm working on my April Showers mug rug for the blog hop coming up. My day will be Tuesday, April 9th. I'm working in a giveaway so... stay tuned for that. I'll post some pictures later and then link up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sew Fantastic!

No sleep - may as well quilt

My daughter did not sleep last night and, therefore, I didn't sleep last night. I had to stay home from work today because I just didn't think I would make it on two hours of sleep.
Oh bother. I guess I will just have to play with the girl and work on her broken dishes quilt when she goes down for her nap. I probably can watch a few episodes of Gilmore Girls while I'm sewing. What a lovely day.

It's International Quilt Day

Yay!!! I can't believe it's here - International Quilt Day. It actually doesn't mean much for me since I am otherwise engaged today, but I hope to find time, later, to work on my QAYG blocks. I'm going to take the blocks from the Simply Modern Bee that I'm participating in (my month is March) and quilting them before putting them together. I'm kinda excited about this process as it is not something I've done before. My other ideas for the blocks are to deconstruct them in some way, like cutting them into four and reconstructing the blocks as I go - or cut some in quarters and some quarters on the diagonal. I don't know. I just want to spice up this block a little more. It could be that I'm just tired of looking at the garden fence blocks since I made 12 of them. I tend to get a little bit bored with an idea and want to hurry up and move onto the next, more exciting (NEW, shiny thing) project. I love all of the blocks that I've received so far, but I just feel like I want something different. I think I'll just stick with the quilt as you go concept as I'm just not feeling that ambitious.

Last night I finished my Fabulous Fifty quilt for my uncle's 50th birthday party this afternoon. Whooops! I just called and apparently the party is next Saturday. Well, I'm ahead of the game, then and I can enjoy looking at this beautiful quilt for a week longer. It is small: 52" square, but it's an okay size to put over yourself while sitting on the sofa. The green batik on the back is lovely - and I used monofilament thread on the front and a nice blendable, blue, cotton on the back. It was my first time using monofilament successfully. I tried before but it just kept breaking on me - my machine is set differently now and the top tension is pretty low, so the thread stayed together.

Now that I'm free this afternoon, I'll have more time to explore the blogosphere and read some posts for IQD. I'm also linking up to SewCalGal's linky party.

Here are the photos of my Fabulous Fifty quilt:

Fabulous Fifty quilt - front

Fabulous Fifty quilt-front closer

Fabulous Fifty quilt - back (Oh! how I love that little red/beige square)

Happy Quilting in 2013!

Two starts/finishes for March already

So... I've already started and finished two projects this month. I'm super excited. I'm finally getting the hang of managing my home and my work and my hobby. Well, I say that today, because I've been quite productive - that could all go to hell next month, or tomorrow even. Anyway, here are photos of my recent accomplishments:

Hexie pillow top with hand quilting

putting together exploded star w/cat butt

finished exploded star top

The hexie pillow is actually completed, I just don't have a photo of the finished pillow yet and the exploded star quilt is sandwiched and I will begin the quilting tonight - I'm planning to give this to my uncle for his 50th birthday on Saturday - I hope I can finish this in time so that I will actually give it to him.

Now go and make stuff!
Green