Sabado

Tonight is the opera. Today I'm having lunch with a HS friend. I just don't see much sewing getting done today. I can/will take my sock with me to knit on at lunch and the car ride up to Santa Fe for the opera. I should stop in at Michael's and pick up the #2, long circulars to knit two at a time toe up socks.

my messy workspace

working on the patchwork outer

quilting started

outer, inner and zipper

I started my quilted tablet case/pouch last night. The front is all Simply Color patchwork and the lining is some very cheap, Wal-Mart fat quarter. I can't decide whether to use a velcro-tab closure or put in a zipper. Decisions, decisions. I'm gonna look for some fabric to make my messenger bag - I usually buy fat quarters, but the bag needs some larger pieces. I'm gonna get a couple of half yards for it.

I hope ya'll get some sewing/project time in this weekend between all of your fun  plans.

Sew on!

WIPs (under the wire) Wednesday

I can just get in my WIPs today under the wire -

It's 11:33 PM here in Albuquerque and I'm watching YouTube videos on putting in zippers and sewing bags. I found a great bag here and hope that I can follow the tutorial and have it be my first bag.

I'm not actively working on sewing anything, although I have tons of things in my head that I want to make. I'd really like to make a little quilted/zippered pouch for my MILs Samsung Galaxy 2 Tablet. I did make her a knitted button pouch for it

it will look much better once it's blocked.

I'm also learning a new way to knit socks. I recently came into five skeins of really nice sock yarn. It was given to me by a friend who is going to be a traveling nurse for the next two years. She sold her house and gave away/sold most of her things, since she won't have a home for a while. She gave me lots of acrylic yarn that she had around, but when she opened the box with the wool sock yarn and other hand-dyed, Peruvian yarn offerings the caveat was that I could have the yarn if I made her one pair of socks. I told her that I would make her a pair of socks from each sock yarn. I knitted a pair that didn't quite match up, but they were okay - then my goat of a puppy decided to snack on them in the night. I'm now working on a pair of orange/cream stripey toe-up socks. I have never made toe-up socks, but I like that I don't have to worry about running out of yarn for the important bits.

I'm not always a fan of the self-striping yarn, but this is cute.

 I really want to get over to Michael's to pick up some super-long, #2 circulars so that I can work my toe-up socks two at a time with a magic loop. Now, if you are not a knitter that just sounds like a lot of gobbledy-gook, but two at a time, toe up socks using the magic loop are awesome because you don't have to suffer from second sock syndrome (which I am inflicted). I get so excited as I'm making the first sock. Then I finish and it's like... what? I have to make another one?!? UGH! I don't wanna. I wanna do something else!!!  I figure if I make them at the same time, I will save myself a relapse of my sickness.

Tomorrow I'm going to take photos of my quilt pattern and post to Moda for the bakeshop. I really hope my pattern gets chosen. It's a major goal of mine to be published this year. I still have some months left, but the sooner the better.

I'm also working on a paper-pieced block for my bee(ful) of paper. For some reason, it was really hard and I've had to take it apart to resew the pieces together. I was going to make two blocks from the fabric Queenie sent, but I just couldn't do it. I almost didn't make one - this month has been a chore for some reason. I'm going to write a post about when paper-piecing goes horribly wrong.

the pieces

so sew frustrating when it doesn't work out right.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

And the winners are...

I had two giveaways end recently and I have emailed both winners. Here are the winners of the Four Architextures fat quarters:

#103 Sarah and #42 Deborah.

Thank you to all who entered. I'm planning a new giveaway in the next few weeks, so keep checking back.

Have a great weekend!

Green

Finish it up

Today, I will be working on finishing up a few things before the weekend. I have a few knitting projects that I plan to finish this weekend, and I don't know that I want to be doing any sewing, so I'm going to try and finish up my sewing projects today. Here's what I have in the works:

Need to make two of these blocks for the Bee(ful) of Paper

Need to add on three rows to this baby (boy) quilt

I will be ready to back, sandwich, quilt and bind the two baby quilts next week (yay!!!)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Get to it and sew something today!

July's finishing goal

Greetings! This will be a short and sweet post.

This month I will finish my HST baby (girl) quilt. The top looks like this: 

I'm not sure if it's going to get a boarder or what kind of quilting it will have - it's all a mystery right now, but I have a few days to decide and then I will get working on it.

I also plan to finish up my HST baby (boy) quilt. That one is a pile of pinned squares on my table right now. I'm going to work on getting the HSTs made today and then I'll finish up the top this week. Both of these quilts will be ready for quilting next week. Yay! I'm feeling more and more productive lately. Can't wait to get back into the finishing mode.

Have you planned your July finishing goal yet? You have the rest of the week to link up to the Lovely Year of Finishes.

Finally Finished!!!

YES! IT'S FINALLY FINISHED!!!

I'm going to ride the wave of excitement over the completion of my broken dishes quilt for a while. I'm soooooooooo happy that this quilt is finished and is in use right now.

front

front close-up

back

back close-up

 I still wish that I had chosen to do some straight line quilting on this one, but I guess I'm not as disappointed with the fmq as I was when I first started it. This is only the second quilt that I've made for my house, so I'm excited to see it get used and washed, etc...

I hope I have inspired you to finish one of your long term WIPs. I know I feel better having accomplished what seemed like a herculean task - and my kid is happy with it.  Happy Sunday!

Working day

It's almost afternoon and I'm just getting ready to work. My husband took my kid to the zoo. The dog just went outside, after stealing several toys from my daughter's room - she couldn't get me to play with her so she just gave up. I've got to finish the quilt today. I completed the top for a quilt for my kiddo in October and I just haven't been able to finish it. I don't know why. I love it. It's really a great piece of work. And I know she will love it since she wants to keep everything I make. The only quilt that we have that I made is the first one. It's not bad, it's just a first quilt - it needs a little repair, right now, too. Anyway, I really, really want to finish the quilt for Penn, so I will work on it right now.

here it is...

and the back

so close to being finished - what am I waiting for?

Please don't forget to enter the two giveaways of Architextures fabrics that I have going on right now. The Stamp blog entry and the Let's Get Acquainted blog entry include the rafflecopter widgets. Each comment earns you one chance to win four fat quarters of Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander. These are wonderful, low-volume prints. I got my hands on some of it and knew that I wanted to share with y'all (I was born in Texas, I can totally say y'all).

Good luck on the drawing - may the odds ever be in your favor - and all of that.

I think I'm going to put on some Buffy the Vampire Slayer and finish Penn's quilt. Enjoy your Saturday...