Sewing fun!

The last two days, I've been lucky enough to have a lot of sewing fun!

Monday morning I got a phone call from my new LQS. I won a $50 gift certificate at their open house last week! This will be perfect to pick up supplies for the embroidery class I'm taking in a couple of weeks.

Last night, I also got a lot of sewing time in after the boys were in bed. I got the binding on one quilt, the quilting done on a very mini, mini quilt, and removed and fixed and finished the binding on a small table runner. Yay!

I wish I had pictures, but the weather has been crap, and my three year old has been uncooperative in the quilt holding department.

I didn't get as much sewing done today, but I did pick up the new copy of Quilts & More, and take a few minutes to peruse it. I'm hoping to use the pattern by Julie and Jaybird Quilts to make a home birth themed quilt for a friend or two.

Our older son's birthday is at the end of the month, and today he told me he wants a Halloween themed birthday party. He really enjoyed Halloween this year, and somehow managed to dress up three times, twice with make up.

I didn't get his Halloween quilt completed, as hard as I tried, but this may be my second chance. I seriously almost have the whole top pieced, so tonight I sewed together all the pieces I had already pinned. I have a little unsewing and re-sewing to do tomorrow, but if bedtime goes well, I think I'll get the top put together!

Last, but definitely not least, tonight I participated in my first Talkin' Tuesday (#talknt) on Twitter. It was hilarious and sweet and warm, which was all very delightful. I'm looking forward to participating again in the future!

And because I don't have any quilt pics, here's a favorite from Halloween

Have a great day friends!

WiP Wednesday

If anyone knows where September and October went, please let me know.

I'm still having trouble sticking to one project, the evidence being that I didn't manage to complete a single Halloween quilt, despite having at least four in progress.

Oh but we will be warm and snuggly for next Halloween. I promised myself.

(Speaking of next Halloween, did you check out Tula Pink's Halloween reveal of her new line, Nightshade? It is gorgeous!)

Here's what I'm focusing on now. I'm hoping to get some sewing time in today!

Planning

Binding

More binding

A bit of stitching

Putting the pieces together

Today I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

What have you been up to? Any big sewing plans for today?

Sew Spasms

I feel like I'm sewing in spasms these days. And unfortunately, I'm having trouble making myself stick to the projects I really should be working on.

Fortunately, progress in general has been moving a little quicker these days. I've been working quite consistently on a 5 1/2" HST project.

I'm using Kona Orange in combination with the black, purple, and orange fabrics from the Trick or Treat line by Doodlebug Design for Riley Blake.

Our three year old has switched his color allegiance to orange lately, and I really want to get a Halloween/Autumn quilt made for every bed in the house, so this one will be his.

I was getting close to having all the squares sewn, cut, ironed, and trimmed (my husband even helped one night while we watched tv!). But I realized one night (while awake nursing the baby - does anyone else wake up to their brain cranking through quilt math?!) that I had miscalculated and needed to make almost as many more HSTs as I had already made.

Sigh.

So, I'm pushing myself even harder to finish up the squares I have. I want to do a rough lay out to help decide what additional fabric (if any) I will need to purchase.

I also want to make a matching pillowcase, and I had been trying to convince myself that a solid case with scraps decorating the side would be great. But if I'm going to have to order more fabric anyway...an extra yard of the black with the large print on it may end up in my online cart. :)

Baby Boy's Crib Quilt Part 2

Back in March I started a crib-sized quilt for the baby. I really thought it was going to be a quick and easy project, but somehow, that's not how it turned out.

In July, the boys and I spent time at our family's cabin on Lake Superior, and I took my sewing machine and some projects with me. All I had left with this quilt was to finish the binding. And I was able to complete it! Hooray!

But since I was already so close to the baby's birthday, I saved it a couple of weeks and gave it to him on his birthday. The boy's room is always stuffy and overly warm, despite two air conditioners running upstairs, so the quilt spends most of its time jammed in the end of the crib. Soon enough, it will be getting plenty of use!

Here's a pic of my big boy trying to help out by holding the quilt up (he took the job very seriously):

And he had to stand on the couch and stretch way up high for most of the quilt to be visible. Such a great little helper!

And just for fun, a pic of the baby (I suppose I should start calling him something else, now that he's one!) enjoying his birthday cake:

Baby Boy's Crib Quilt Part 1

First, a post I wrote back at the beginning of March, but somehow failed to actually post:

I love the idea of pre-cuts, and I love buying them, but I feel like I don't always use them as well as I could.

I finally purchased my first layer cake about a month ago, Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda. I haven't been able to find any of the fabric in nearby quilt shops (no LQS here), but I love the way it looks in the projects I see popping up online.

I was hoping to make a quick and easy, but cute and fun, baby quilt with it.  But what was in my head didn't jive with the fabric once it arrived.

Cue late-night pondering. I don't remember when this one came to me, but I decided to use some of it to make a crib quilt for my baby boy.

He's eight months old now, and has grown at a ridiculous rate. I made several small quilts for him before he was born, but nothing crib sized. Since he takes his naps in his crib, I think he deserves a special "made just for him" quilt. He's also starting to sleep in his crib for the first bit of the night. One night he slept in his crib for a whole night. I woke up to the boys giggling and laughing at each other. They were so excited to wake up in the same room together!

I didn't put a lot of thought in to this quilt ahead of time. I flew by the seat of my pants and had a lot of fun. Looking back, I think I was heavily influenced by some quilts Rita at Red Pepper Quilts was working on at the time.

Here are the fabrics I started out with:

(I eventually added two or three more)

I cut each 10 inch square in to 2-10 x 2.5 in strips, 5 x 2.5 in strips, and 1-5 x 5 square. I combined them with four Kona solids: bahama blue, school bus, white, and a very pale grey (not sure of the proper name, maybe ash?), one solid and one print in each square.

When it came time to lay out the quilt, three squares by five squares looked oddly narrow. I ordered a Central Park charm pack and added another eight blocks.

I really like how all the squares look, but I'm having some trouble getting a layout I like. I really want to get this done for my baby boy soon. Hopefully I will get some time to arrange and rearrange in the next few days.

WiP Wednesday

I have many different projects that could be considered works in progress. These include projects that I have already started to sew, have cut fabric for, or have purchased fabric for. Then there's a whole list of projects in my head that I'd like to do relatively soon. And of course the "someday" list, something like a quilting/sewing bucket list.

Right now I have three or four "main" wips.

Although I haven't blogged about it yet, the desire to make this quilt for my mother in law is what caused me to take my first/only quilt class, which led to me falling in love with sewing, making quilts, and collecting fabric.

The creation of this quilt left behind A LOT of scraps, to the point that I would probably refer to it more as "a surplus of remaining fabric." So quite a while ago I chopped most of the scraps in to 3 1/2" squares and planned to make a square that featured 3 1/2" squares around two sides of a 6 1/2" square.

My mother in law really likes lighthouses, and my inlaws have a cabin on Lake Superior, so I decided to make the 6 1/2" square a consistent lighthouse fabric. I did find and buy one fabric at Hancock Fabrics, but ultimately it looked so cheap that I couldn't force myself to include it in a quilt I'm going to put a lot of work in to.

For months I kept my eye out for lighthouse fabric, mostly online as there's no LQS here. I haven't found anything I could say I even like. Mostly just prints I don't hate. Hardly an endorsement.

Several weeks ago I started seeing more patriotic fabrics online and in a couple stores I was able to visit. Then while at The Fabric Patch in Ironwood, MI I was able to see some of the Red Rooster Quilts of Valor fabrics in person. Everything clicked! My surplus of scraps quilt shall not be lighthouses, but patriotic.

I got several prints there, and picked up a couple more yesterday at My Favorite Quilt Shop, including the Marcus Bros Quilts of Valor multi-colored stars fabric I've been lusting over online.

The original plan was to make four squares a day, and I did really well for the first three days, but I haven't made any since then. I'm hoping to get more things organized and really crack down on these next week. Maybe I'll even get some time in on Sunday.

The other project that has been taking me away from the fireworks quilt is this spooky Halloween tree, my interpretation of a pattern in Boo Davis' book, Dare to be Square.

I am using Boo to You by Riley Blake scraps that I have left over from making the boys' 13 Days of Halloween hanging pockets (also a blog post for another day). I really love how this is turning out. With a white tree and Laura Gunn Painters Canvas in Gray for a background, I think this one will look a bit spooky. This will be a great quilt for our spare bedroom, and it is also a test to see how well I can enlarge the pattern for another quilt I will be making this fall. I feel like progress has been really slow on this, but I have been consistently plugging along. Part of that feeling is probably my impatience to see this one done. I'm really excited!

My other wip is the The Farmer's Wife Quilt Along, hosted by Amanda and Angela. I thought I had several Anna Maria Horner Chocolate Drop fat quarters that I had picked up at a clearance/reduction sale at Herrschner's about a year ago. This fabric has been burning a hole in my brain, as I tried to figure what the heck to use it for. When I started seeing posts about the FWQAL, I saw that many people intended to use modern fabrics, mostly scraps. I haven't been quilting/sewing very long, and I don't have a deep enough scrap bin. But I do have a lot of fabric!

I dug out the Chocolate Lollipop fabric, and it turns out I have half yards. This is great! Considering the estimated 8-10 yards needed for this quilt, I should have plenty, especially since I plan to add solids in too (mostly white, a fabric I rarely use, but I think will calm down the wildness of some of these prints). An added bonus - the Herrschner's sale didn't have much left this year by the time I got to go - but they did have some Chocolate Lollipop fabric for $1/yd! I bought a bunch and now I have a great chunk of backing for this quilt.

I haven't sewed anything for the QAL yet, which puts me about four weeks behind. With two squares a week, that "only" puts me 8 behind, so I'm hoping that, if I haven't caught up by early July, that will be the time to do so. Someone, please inform my boys and get them to understand this.

I do have eight hsts that I made on the spur of a moment one night when I was learning to use Thangles. I'm planning to use those in one of my first squares for the QAL.

Well, that's my first post for WiP Wednesday.

Phew! I've been wanting to do that for awhile. I hope you enjoyed and stuck with my through all those words and pictures. I'll get better at writing more efficiently the more I do this (hopefully)!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced

(Okay, I want to...still trying to get the button to work...)

Road Trip "Out East"

This morning the boys and I jumped in our car and spent the day on the Eastern side of the state. We visited two of our favorite families, ate lots of good food, spent time outside on a beautiful day, and made it home safe (and only about three hours later than I had originally planned).

I even worked in a quick stop at a new (to me) quilt shop. My Favorite Quilt Shop is a cute little place tucked in a building with a few other shops.

The shop has a lot of great fabric, but I didn't have a lot of browsing time, or capability (I had the baby in my arms). Luckily, the fabric I wanted (patriotic) was right by the door. And while I was waiting for my turn to get my fabric cut, I found some more Origins fabric by Basic Grey for Moda. I have several yards already, and a specific pattern to make with that yardage.  The fabric was purchased for our spare room (and to be the winter quilt), so I want to make a quilt for the pack and play out of the same fabric, and maybe a little table runner/place mat or two for the dresser or credenza. But that may get to look a bit crazy.

As exciting as finally getting the rest of the patriotic fabric I need (fingers crossed, I may get this quilt done in time to use for our yearly excursion to the fireworks!), I found out that My Favorite Quilt Shop rents their long-arm, and for only $25/hour!

A few weeks ago I whipped together a simple quilt top out of my favorite purple fabrics (accidentally named "Put a Purple Bird on It" by a friend) in the hope that I would soon find a long-arm to rent. I'm planning to keep the quilt for myself , so it will be a good quilt to use for the first go at long-arm quilting.

Now I just have to find time in my schedule to get back there!