February Goals

A short month, and a lot of projects that I want to work on, with, hopefully, a few finishes.

I still need to finish up my lazy girl quilt - since it's for me, I'm not in a hurry, but it would be nice to have it completed. I did add some scrappy flying geese to two sides and I'm trying to decide what to use as a border for the whole quilt - I wasn't intending to add a border, but it kinda needs it.

I started some x&+ blocks today, and I'm quite pleased with how they are turning out.

 

The only thing that I'm not liking is that I wish I had cut some different fabrics. I have enough for nine blocks, but it has occurred to me that I may need to exchange some fabrics for others and I probably want to have about 35 of these blocks for a quilt. Not sure yet, though. 

I'm really enjoying making flying geese and I also want to make some more bags. I just need to purchase some lobster clips. I haven't been able to get them from any of the fabric shops that I frequent or Wal-Mart. What's up with that? Oh well.

I have to finish up some bee blocks that I'm behind on and I'm not going to commit to any bees this year. I did sign up for a swap, since I've only done a couple of fabric swaps - this is a pin cushion swap, so I'm kinda excited to see what I get and what I make. I am totally up to making things for swaps and hope to do some more this year.

That's all for today. Gotta get the girl outta the bath and the pizza outta the oven. YUM!

Make something, today.

Green

Decisions, decisions

While reading some blogs the other day, I discovered a QAL that I thought I might like to participate in: The Star Surround QAL hosted by Melissa Corry at Happy Quilting. I would be getting a little bit of a late start, but if I chose to make the 40" blocks and make four of them, there's not too much cutting or piecing and at the end I'm eligible for lots of sweet prizes and I have a really decent sized quilt to keep or sell or whatever. Now, I'm having a dilemma of what fabrics to use. I would love if I had some yardage hanging around of some of my favorites, but I usually don't buy yards at a time. Lately I have been rethinking my fabric buying strategy. I've been thinking about moving to buying half yard cuts instead of just fat quarters.  But I can see now that it would benefit me to buy whole yards of some of my favorites. I wish I had some Madrona Road hanging around - that morning glory print KILLS me (in a good way). So... I have to decide what colors/fabrics to use. I think I've decided on a color palette - I was madly posting design seeds palettes to my pinterest yesterday. I also want to use a color for the background instead of white. I think it would be fun to use some of the Michael Miller Couture Cottons as background in some really saturated  color, like orange or lime. I need seven yards of fabric total for the top.

I'm really thinking about doing it. I like the pattern and I was checking out Melissa's tutorial on making no-waste flying geese units. It is truly inspired. If I only learn that method by doing this QAL, it would be so worth it.

So, try something new today. Commit yourself to doing something you've wanted to try for a while.

It's raining, it's pouring... no, actually it's not.

I'm excited today to talk about two things that I've never done before. Today, I'm participating in my very first blog hop and I'm hosting my first ever give away of some of my favorite fabric. 

Firstly, my April Showers Mug Rug:

Undercover mug rug

pretty and functional

This mug rug was made with Piper by Dear Stella. It's a gorgeous fabric line with great color. So modern and chic, it's just screaming for me to make it into a full-size quilt.

This was my first foray into flying geese blocks. I liked making them a lot, I'm just bummed that I clipped off the points with the rest of my sewing. The "flippy corners" method that I learned on Fons and Porter seemed to not leave enough fabric at the top. I will have to try again - I'm sure it's user error and not anything that Marianne Fons did. I did some hand embroidery of the umbrella handles - I've been enjoying doing the hand stitching embellishments since I made my hexie pillow.

I used mono filament thread for the quilting on the front. I think it shines enough to make the straight line quilting look like raindrops. I'm very happy with this mug rug and I plan to use it at work.

And now on to the giveaway...

Please leave me a comment at the end of this blog post to win a charm pack of Comma. Just leave any old comment, or you could tell me what you would like to make with this lovely pack of 5" squares.

 Also, don't forget to check out all of the other bloggers on the hop today to see what they are up to.

Wednesday, April 17
Jen @ Quilter in the Closet
Marjorie @ Marjorie's Busy Corner
Elita @ A Pieceful Perspective
Green @ So Sew Green
Mara @ Greco Mara
Wendy @ Why Knot Kwilt?
Gmama Jane @ GrandMama's Stories
Debby @ Debby Kratovil Quilts
Britt-Inger @ Hill Valley Quilter
Connie @ Freemotion by the River
Beth @ Words and Stitches
Kathy @ iHeartSquishy

Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to visit anytime.


I actually forgot to say that I will be choosing the winner of the charm pack on Monday, April 22 @ 3:00 PM so you have until then to leave me a contest to enter to win the lovely Comma charm squares. Good Luck!