Easy Street

I've been busy today working on decluttering and organizing my sewing room.  I have a LOT of stuff.  I have more stuff than I have time to sew actually, but I'll sure try to sew it all .... some day!

And you know because I have so much I thought what the heck .... let's do one more quilt.  So I've decided I'm going to do Bonnie Hunter's next Mystery Quilt called "Easy Street".

Here's what I've pulled together to use:

Easy Street Fabrics

I can't wait to get started after Thanksgiving!!

While I was shopping, I found this adorable little print:

This will become a valance for my bathroom.  It will be cute for fall!

Finished Tops

I've finished a couple full size quilts here lately and have been remiss about keeping up here.  I think I'm making progress though this week getting caught up with posts about my projects.  First I finished the Spiced Apple Quilt and it is off being quilted at Quilts by Phyllis.

Spiced Apples

This was a really fun quilt to make and I think it turned out fairly well.  I loved the reds in this quilt!

The next one I finished was the Carpenter's Star quilt that I started in class.  This was a super easy quilt to make and it turned out really nice. It's also at Phyllis' being quilted. 

Carpenter's Star

And last but not least one of my Simply Charming Quilts.  This one is Julianna's Jewels.  And guess what?  It's off being quilted as well.  I'm thinking that's going to be one heck of quilting bill when I go to pick it up because if my memory serves me right, there's one more little quilt there too: my Blessing Baskets small quilt. I failed to take a picture of it, so we'll have to wait for it to come back from the quilter.

Julianna's Jewels

Because I Just Can't Have Too Many BOM

Like the title to this post implies .... I'm a sucker for a Block of the Month program.  And feeding that addiction is this cute BOM entitled "Cottage Sampler".  It's done mostly with Moda's Etchings line.  So far, I've completed the blocks for Months One and Two which are actually Blocks 2 and 9.  I'm not sure why on earth they decided to make it that confusing.  Month One should be Block One.  But anyway .... here's my first two:

Month 1 Block #2 - Star in the Cabin

Month 2 Block #9 - All Heart

These blocks are all different sizes.  I think it's pretty darn cute. 

Simply Charming Small Quilts

I've been trying to get caught up on my Simply Charming small quilt of the month.  Last weekend I finished one called Columbia's Vintage Charm:

Columbia's Vintage Charm

I love making these little quilts, but I have to say the little pieces prove to be a challenge sometimes.  The seams get thick and become hard to manage and just plain bulky.  So this morning I was starting on one called Worn Old Clothes and I read a tip by the author Tara Lynn Darr.  She suggested ironing the seams open when using these little pieces in order to reduce the bulk.  I was a little reluctant, because I like the way you can lock seams together to match up rows if they are pressed in opposite directions, but I gave it a shot.  

Here's the results so far:

Back of Worn Old Clothes - Seams Open

It works!!  And it wasn't all that bad matching things up.  I just used a few more pins than usual. And I think it looks so much neater than the other way:

Back of Columbia's Vintage Charm - Seams to the Side

 

 

So I've acquired a new technique today for piecing these little quilts.  I'm excited to try it on some more.  I've got 4 more rows to sew on Worn Old Clothes, but here's a little sneak peak of what I've got so far:

Worn Old Clothes in Progress

Today in My Sewing Room

I was a busy, busy little bee today.  I started off working on Month 2 of Amish with a Twist.  But wait ... what about Month 1?  Never fear .... I did it Monday .... LOL

Month One of Amish with a Twist

I really like these solid colors.  I've never made a quilt like this before and so far it's been pretty fun.

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Month Two of Amish with a Twist

Next I dug out a container of blocks I made quite a long time ago.  I'm not even exactly sure how long ... Anyway, I started putting those together.  It's turning out OK.  Some of the blocks aren't quite square, so it's a little bit of a challenge to get together.  This pattern is called "All Paths Lead Home" and it was a kit from Connecting Threads.

The last thing I did today was dig out some Farmer's Wife blocks I had cut out and put those together.  For some reason my machine decided to start eating my fabric.  I've never had that problem before so I'm not sure what's going on with it.  I re-threaded it, turned it off and back on, and anything else I could think of but it kept doing it.  I finally got 5 more put together ....

Block #81 Snowball & Block #9 Box

Block #23 Country Farm & Block #69 Practical Orchard

Block #41 Friendship Star

And ... I decided that was enough for today until I can figure out what's going on with my machine. 

It's Finally Done!

Some time ago I showed you the results of my first sitting for my Featherweight tattoo:

First Sitting

The second sitting was pretty painful and I ended up with a slight skin infection but it turned out great!

Second Sitting

 So last night I had my third and FINAL sitting for this tattoo and it turned out just awesome!

Third and FINAL sitting

I've already got an idea for my next tattoo!!

Blessing Baskets

In honor of their 5th anniversary, the Temecula Quilt Co. offered a free quilt along on their blog.  And of course you know I decided to quilt along because I just can't have too many projects going at one time. I went ahead and bought a kit of fabric from them, but the pattern was free on their blog.  I really like this store and wish I could visit it in person, but it's in California.  They used fabric from the Old Savannah fabric line by Paula Barnes.

I really enjoyed this little project.  They posted a block a week for a total of 5 weeks for a total of 5 different little baskets blocks.  They were a lot of fun to make, and it was the first time I set anything diagonally.  That part only turned out so-so, but you've gotta do it to learn it.  

 

I failed to take a picture of the fifth block before I sent it off to be quilted.  I'm slipping.  I'm going to try to make a post a day or so for the next few days to try to get caught up on all my projects.