February Finish It!!!

I'm going to be participating in "A Lovely Year of Finishes." I missed January, but I'll start now and can, at least, finish 11 projects this year.
Here's how it works:
Each month pick one project, anything you like (it can even be an entirely new project, so long as you can finish it in the current month) and tell yourself, "I will finish it." Then write a blog post about the project and link it up to our Goal Setting linky party. Spend the rest of the month working on your finish. We will have a mid-month check, and though you are not required to link up to that post, it would be fun to see your progress! Finally, after you have finished your project, write a second (or third) post showing us your Lovely Finish and link it up to our "Finishes Party."
Goal setting - required link up (link starts 1st of the month and is open for seven days)
Mid-Month check in - optional (link starts on the 15th and is open for seven days)
Finishes Party - required link-up (link is open seven days before the last day of the month)

This month I will be working on:

• Valentine's Day runners/wall hangings
• a felt crown for a friend
• Penelope's broken dishes quilt (sandwich and fmq)
• starting a new pieced top
• asterisk bee block for February Simply Solids Bee

I know I'll finish more than one of these things, but let's concentrate on the Valentine's Day thingys. I really need to get these started and finished in a timely manner so they are relevant. That means this weekend, I think.

Be kind!
Green

You like me...

Ramona at ThreadTime has nominated me for the Liebster Award! I love awards. In daily life, when you're an adult, there is rarely a time when you receive any acknowledgement for anything you do. So, this award. This silly little thing is super important to me. Thanks, Ramona. I feel honored today.
 
To participate:
1. Thank and link back up to the one that nominated you (Me).
2. Answer 11 questions asked to you by me.
3. Tell us 11 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 of your favorite blogs that have less than 200 followers
5. Ask them 11 questions.

Here are Ramona's  11 questions to me:
1.  What’s your favorite book? or movie? My favorite book is The Great Gatsby. I have an English degree and I've read it about 20 times for school. I love it! I love everything about it. It is so American and so beautiful. If you've never read it - please do. It's short and wonderful.
2.  Cake or pie? Cake
3.  What sewing project was your all time favorite? I recently purchased some felt and I love sewing with felt. It's like butter in my machine and doesn't fray and the colors are gorgeous and rich and saturated - there's nothing that I don't love about sewing with felt.
4.  Do you have a favorite fabric manufacturer?  (Moda, Free Spirit, etc) I really like Moda, but I'm not that saavy about fabric manufacturers. I tend to pick fabrics for the color and print and don't always look at the manufacturer.
5.  Who is your favorite fabric designer? I didn't really care about this until recently. I like Jay McCarroll, Michael Miller, Riley Blake and Kaffe Fassett.
6.  Name a song that you never get sick of hearing. Distant Sun by Crowded House
7.  Where is your favorite vacation spot? here
8.  What brings you peace? Knowledge
9.  What makes you laugh? Everything
10.  Have you tried hand quilting, paper piecing, or embroidery? No. No. No.
11.  How many bees, guilds, or other sewing groups do you belong? I'm involved in two bees and I am a member of the Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild in spite of only attending one meeting.

Eleven random things about me:

1. I love magic. I juggle. I want to make a superhero mask to wear to work.
2. I love Tori Spelling. I know we would be the best of friends.
3. I would love to have crafting be my job. How can I do this? If you know, please tell me.
4. I had my daughter at age 36. 
5. I want to have another baby.
6. I only started sewing two and a half years ago. I had taken Home Ec in seventh and eighth grades, but didn't continue until I  thought I wanted to quilt. I'm self taught. I just went out and bought a sewing machine and some fabric and "made it work."
7. I love Tim Gunn from Project Runway fame. I want to keep a little, tiny Tim Gunn in my pocket to ask questions of and to give me encouragement during my stressful days.
8.  I started a business where I ran a baby fair. I would love to have another baby fair.
9. I have insomnia and get five hours of sleep a night on average. Despite the lack of sleep, I am only tired in the morning.
10. I love to cook but I do not like to make salad-even when it only involves washing, drying and tearing lettuce. It is the most tedious task imaginable to me.
11. When I taught myself to knit I learned from a book. I learned the knit stitch and kept knitting rows and rows of a scarf and kept wondering why it didn't look like knitting. Why didn't it make the little "v"s? I finally figured it out - when I  TURNED THE PAGE. I needed to learn to purl to make the little "v"s. UGH!

My 11 Awardees:

1. http://craftyturtle1.blogspot.com 
2. http://SquawkThat.com  
3. lizmakesstuff.blogspot.com
4. fairlymerry.blogspot.com/ 
5. http://www.wafflekisses.blogspot.ca/
6. http://www.citricsugar.blogspot.com/ 
7.  http://wipgirl.wordpress.com/
8.  http://www.l3designs.blogspot.com/
9. http://lixiemakesit.blogspot.com/ 
10. http://www.lethargiclass.blogspot.com/ 
11. http://www.rachelboothhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/

 My 11 questions to you:

1. Chocolate or Vanilla (or other?)
2. Do you work outside the home doing something you like?
3. Okay, seriously, how much fabric do you have on hand?
4. Do you belong to any bees or guilds?
5. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
6. What is your favorite movie?
7. What is your favorite color?
8. Can you define Leibster and use it in a sentence?
9. Precuts or yardage?
10.  What is your favorite food?
11. Do you like to cook?

Be kind to each other and explore the blogosphere.

Green

Sew much to do...

I joined the Simply Solids Bee for 2013 and I just purchased  quarter cuts of nine colors of Kona. I love the beautiful solid colors, but I'm so used to using prints in my quilts and using solids sparingly to punch up the prints and have them read better, bolder. Working in exclusively solids is a challenge in itself and the first block is a bit of a challenging pattern for a beginner like me. But... I joined this bee so that I could  beef up my sewing skills and get some new techniques under my belt so... I will carry on with the duck creek puzzle block of which that is a great example.

In other sewing news, I'm participating in a pay it forward event this year where I have promised to make items for five friends. I tried this before and only made two things. There are so many more skills that I have this year so I know I can make five things. One of my friends wants a felt crown like the one I made for my daughter's birthday (see above). I don't think she wants me to put her age on the front, but I can put her initial or name.
Another friend studies the brain and I'm thinking about making an anatomical brain chart into a felted pillow.
There is also a sixth friend that is going to swap with me because we are both quite crafty and it's super fun to make something for her.

This weekend should be filled with sewing and creating and designing. I'm really excited to get started.

Sew on!
Green

So sew sick

Hi all! I'm so sew sick today. I would love to be working on my Go Boldly quilt or some of the fabulous dolls from this tutorial: http://sewnstudio.com/archives/1984, but I can't. I have to heal. I have to rest. Oooh, just a little bit of fabric shopping from bed? No. I mustn't. I must rest. Must sleep. I do need to post some photos of all the things that I made for the holidays and Penn's birthday. I will do it later. I will spend the morning sleeping in my nice cozy bed and hopefully I'll feel better later today.

Be kind. And well.

Green

Bees and stockings and sewing fun

I just signed up for another quilting bee. This one will last all year. I can't wait for it to start next month. I just need to pick a block to have folks make for me.

I have been wanting to make some stockings for my family. We have had a lovely fireplace mantle for the five years that we've lived in our house and I never hang up stockings. I found some really great tutorials and I'm going to give them a try this weekend.

I can't wait for the weekend to start. I want to have a nice, leisurely time sewing and enjoying the warmth of my home while the wind and weather is outside. It will be nice to look outside and see it, I just would rather stay inside and hunker down and sew and knit and have a lovely fire going... Ahhhh! just imagining it is great.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend - be kind to each other.

Green

Giveaway day!

Since I am rather new to the quilting blog community I didn't realize that Sew, Mama, Sew had a FABULOUS giveaway day/week starting today. Go here: Sew, Mama, Sew! and enter to win. It takes some time, but enter as many of the giveaways as you want.

Enjoy and Win, Win, Win!

Green

Monday, Monday

Hi there. I hope someone is reading this.

I got a little bit of sewing finished this weekend and I decided that I need to make another nine blocks for my Go Boldly Star Trek quilt. I also decided that since I need to make nine blocks I need to change up the design of my blocks so that I can get the darn thing finished by Christmas. Right now, since I am just winging it with the log cabin blocks, it can take an hour per block because I only cut one layer of blocks at a time. My new plan is to create about three more log cabin blocks and make the other six blocks strip blocks and then make sure each block has a border around it, so that they all look a little bit log cabin-y. That way I don't have to sash between the blocks, either. I think it will be good and the quilt should be around 65 x 45 and then I might add a little bit of fabric to the width so that it measures more like 52 inches.

Then I have to work on the back, so I'm really hoping to finish the top this week so I can plan and execute the back this weekend.

Stay calm and sew on!

Green