WIP Wednesday with actual progress!

I was able to take some time this last week to open up the box of block of the month fabric and complete 2 more blocks. The first one drove me nuts! I actually started it in January, I think, at a UFO gathering, but became incredibly frustrated because the points kept vanishing! Every gosh darned one! So I stuffed it back in the baggie and put it away until this last Sunday, when  I got up the guts to pull it back out and rip it back down to HSTs. It still has some points that are not pointy :), but it will do. I will not be making this block again any time soon.



This one was much easier, although the tulips that make up the center could have been executed a little more accurately. One of the white triangles has a pointless point. :) I like this block a lot in spite of the errors.




 Just one block to go!

I also made some progress on my Supernova quilt! I got the center block finished. Hooray! I do have one problem, in that when I cut my background fabric I came up short. I bought what was left at the shop (all fat quarters) today, came home and discovered it is different fabric. Tomorrow I will take a scrap with me! (I totally forgot, and left it sitting on my table this morning.)









And I forgot to post this little cutie, the special burp cloth for the new dad. (It sort of coordinates with the quilt and diapering set.) The dad is into shooting, so when I saw the fabric with the little pistols on it, I knew what I had to do.



Now y'all head on over to Lee's for some fabulous projects in the works!

WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday!

For me, nothing terribly exciting happened this last week as far as progress goes. I did try my hand designing the "Hot Wheels" quilt, and came up with a fun sketch, but since my printer is out of ink and I was out of graph paper, it didn't make it very far in the process. But I will show you what fabrics I have so far. I need to find more of the flames. I only have 2 fats which probably isn't going to cut it. :)
There is yellow in the car fabric somewhere. You just can't see it in this scan. I still need to find some more fabric. Not sure what yet.




(Do you see diamonds or dots? Just curious!)




I had the UFO gathering this week which I took 3 projects to.
First was the little tote bag I made for my 18 month old. She is obsessed with bags and carrying them around and taking things in and out of them. She had taken to trying to drag around my Green bag lady bag, which is way too big for her to manage. So I made her her very own little tote bag. I named it the Tiny Tot Tote.



I had spent most of one day on it making and writing a tute and just needed to zigzag the inside seams. (I will be changing that step however because I realized that they could be turned.)
She (the tot) has since thrown it over for a large Ziploc bag. So much for that! :)

When that was done I worked on the December block for My block of the month,which I believe is a Flying Dutchman. I had a tough time with it. I took it apart too many times for mismatched seams and cut off points. I ended up only getting about 1/3 of the way through it before I had had enough. I moved on to the other pillowcase for my daughter.



I whipped that out and then had a brownie hot fudge sundae provided by our host. (We all know how chocolate can be vital in the crafting process.)

I got the pattern for the next quilt- along block, but I can't print the directions and didn't fancy going back and forth between computer and table so I put it on the back burner.

I will be joining the Sliced Coins Quilt Along over at Don't Call Me Betsy. Here are my fabrics plus a Bella solid in Ivory for the background fabric.



I had these all in my stash and they have been waiting for just the right project. I sure hope they look okay together!
I look forward to starting it.

And that is my little gathering of current and completed WIPs.
Go to Freshly Pieced to see some much more fabulous ongoing adventures!

Mail call! and more.

I got my last fat quarter(plus) for the Ho-Ho Holiday swap in the mail last week, but had some family stuff that took all my mental energy so I didn't post about them. But here they are! These are from Tammy.

I just love the teal in this! If you can't see they both have some shimmery gold detail in them. So it made me add another ornament idea to my list. I may be decorating my partner's entire tree by the time I'm done. Okay, not really. But there may be more than one making an appearance in her mailbox.

This week I am working on:

• Ornaments
• Stockings
• Part 2 of tree skirt
• Hand quilting In-Spur-Ation (machine quilting was not going well at all)

I finished up October's block of the month last week as well. (I really hope I didn't post this already, but I am too lazy to go check.)

And last but not least don't forget to enter the giveaway! You can enter twice! Once for telling me if you follow me(or if you don't) and once for sharing a favorite holiday tradition.
GO HERE to comment and enter! Contest ends this Wednesday the 10th at noon central time.

Busy sewing day

I have 3 projects on my to-do list today, one of which I just finished up.
Today was the first day of the Moose on the Porch Quilts Layer Cake Quilt Along. (Click the side bar button for general information)
I finished the block and I really like it. It still needs the circle added but I am going to wait until the end to add it to see what fabrics I have left. There are a couple of flowers that might be nice to fussy-cut for it. I used the Minick & Simpson for Moda Clermont Farms Layer Cake. I have been eyeing it for a while and I splurged today and got it. I was going to just use fats I had in my stash but I was 5 or 6 short in every single combination I tried. (You need 12) I need to be very, very good and not buy any more fabric for a very long time.

Also on my to-do list today I have a pattern that I am testing for a friend of mine and that is next up. Then I have my B.o.t.M. block for October to make. I doubt I will get that far since naptime is about over.



p.s. Tune in tomorrow for a surprise!

Block 7 done

I finished my September block today. It went really fast since I had used fabric from previous blocks and pre-made my half square triangles. :) I probably won't get a picture posted today because I am using my ancient laptop MIJ (as in Molasses in January, as in slow as.) and MIJ does not have any photo editing software. I can't use my "real" computer because the graphics card keeps causing it to crash every stinkin' 2 minutes or so. I pick slow over millions of interruptions a day. I also need to crawl under the desk to switch the cable back to the PC and plug in the media card. And that is not easy, no siree. I dread it and avoid it until it is absolutely necessary.
And since including a picture right at this moment is not necessary, that leaves us photo-less, for now. Sorry.
When we get our Mac in a month or two I will be a happy camper!

Block 6 done!

This one went fairly well, aside from one of my rows being a tad longer than the rest so I ended up with some puckering. :P Live and learn. :)

Block #5 done

I tried really hard to think of another, cooler way to say "done" for the post title. But I got nothin'.
So here is the next block done and I will be off later today (since it's after midnight) to get my next one. Yippee ki-yay and a yeehaw, too!

Phew! Block 4 done!

Only 2 ripped out seams and most of the points match up. I should have had this one done ages ago, since it was June's block. Now I only have a few days to get my July block purchased and completed. Being gone for 2 weeks killed a lot of my free time. Thankfully a friend of mine had a sewing get-together last night to make skirts for our little girls. My girl is not "little" enough for the pattern so I took the opportunity to make my block.

I also started another block that I bought from the shop in Farmington that was one of their leftovers from a block of the month. It is a pretty cool block and I am learning how to do triangles without Thangles. :)

June Block...

I picked up my June block kit yesterday, and boy, it looks a little tougher. Wish me luck...

Block of the Month: Buck a Block #3

I finished my block for May today and even though I had to rip out seams again I LOVE IT! The seam ripping was due to my sewing four squares wrong side up, and one seam was sewn crooked. I also started in on my sashing. I had cut all my strips a week or 2 ago, and had yet to make another cut, so I pinned up two blocks with paper to be sewn and cut. (We are using Thangles, remember and for the sashing blocks they are the 2" ones. The monthly blocks are 2.25")

Here is my finished block.

I may use this block pattern for the blocks around a t-shirt quilt block. Saturday we helped out at the Angleman Syndrome Foundation Walk and I wanted to make a memory quilt for my friend who was in charge of it(It was her first time organizing the walk). They had one extra large t-shirt leftover and she said I could have it so I am making her a little quilt. Eventually. I already have about 5 quilts in various stages. :)

I am still looking for just the right quilt layout for my daughter's Cherry quilt. And I think I still need to find the right pink fabric for it. I have 3 reds, 3 Greens, 3 pinks (one reads more as a red though) and 3 whites. I am not sure what to do with them. If anyone has an idea, let me know.

Block of the Month: Buck a Block - #2

This block was much harder for me. I had even more trouble lining up seams and since the contrast in fabrics is so high, the mismatches are even more obvious. Ugh. I was ready to quit after this block. I ripped out so many seams I thought the fabric was going to be trashed. After 6 or so times with the seam ripper, I decided it was just going to have to be mismatched. Here it is in all it's glory.

Block of the Month: Buck a Block - #1

I will be making my second quilt by doing a Block of the Month Buck a Block through a local quilt shop(see my sidebar). I took my supplies with me to Utah to get some more training from more experienced quilters, my mom and sisters. My local tutor, my wonderful Mother-in-Law usually helps me, but it was getting down to the wire so I decided to take my block to Utah with me in case we had some free time. Anyway, I had lessons in seam setting and seam kissing and figured out with some of my mom's scraps how to use my Thangles to make my block. I left with my block pinned to Thangles and partially cut. I finished my first block. It's not too bad for my first solo block. A lot of the seams don't match up and some of the points are missing, so don't look too hard. It is a good learning process for me. All in all, I am pretty happy with it.