Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Tuesday Evening Quilt-Cam

Last night I treated myself to a little "Bonnie Time".  I picked up my tablet and headed to my sewing room with my Kitties and Hubby to watch Quilt-Cam and work on cutting Lazy Sunday.  Seemed like a good way to kick back and relax to me!  Hubby played a game on his phone but he was listening because I caught him laughing a couple of times at stuff Bonnie was saying.  He's a good sport and I'm lucky to have him!

I tried out the new ruler in the picture.  I'm still in search of that perfect cut.  The jury is still out on wether or not it worked better than my June Tailor strip rulers.  I guess I'll know for sure once I start sewing.  Here I'm cutting 3.5" strips to use to make Unit 1 for Lazy Sunday.  Bonnie is sewing away in the background.

I managed to get quite a few cut.  I probably won't get to sew any though until Thursday night.  That's my plan anyway to sew during Quilt-Cam Thursday.

And since the iron was nice and hot and steamy .... I decided I'd fuse my wool to this little project I started:

Old Glory Gatherings Sheep Quilt
Now I just need to do the hand stitching and decide how to quilt it.  I think it's pretty cute myself!


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

What a weekend!!

Earlier last week, I got an invitation in the mail for a friend of ours daughter's baby shower.  This was TOTALLY unexpected as they are adopting and it happened much faster than anyone anticipated.  The shower is next weekend and the baby comes home in mid February!  

I just happened to have some baby fabric in my stash that was going to be for another baby, but I never got around to making it.  That baby got a crocheted blanket instead.  So I quickly started cutting up fat quarters using my Yellow Brick Road pattern.  I love that pattern!  It's quick, easy and gets the job done in no time flat!  The baby blanket size called for 6 FQs but I had 9 so I decided I would just make them all.  

Assembly Area for Yellow Brick Road

Chaining Away
Once I got the blocks done and laid out on the floor, I figured I had enough for two blankets.  One crib size and one smaller.  Now I'll have a back up blanket should I get caught like this again.  I also decided that I needed a small inside border to separate the body of the quilt from the main border.  I didn't have any fabric that I wanted to use (of course) but already had a big trip planned to Quilts by Phyllis for her open house the next day.  I would look then for the right inner border.

Since I still had some time left before my Hubby got home from work, I decided I'd do two more Modern Half Square Triangle blocks.  I believe these are Blocks 13 & 14.

Block 13 Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long


Block 14 Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long
Saturday was my trip to Quilts by Phyllis for her semi-annual Open House. I had a great time meeting up with my friends, Mary, Debbie & Susan.  Of course I bought too much!!

I signed up for a class next month.  We will be doing the pattern Shadowbox.  Here is the fabric I chose for that:

Shadowbox Fabric

It's the Flirt line by Sandy Gervais for Moda fabrics.  When I first saw this pattern, I wasn't overly excited about it until I saw the class sample made out of these fabrics.  Just gorgeous! I can't wait to get mine put together.

I also got my fabric for my main class as Jackson's Mill in March.  I will be taking Lucky Stars.  I'm also taking an Iron Tote Mini class.  I failed to take a picture of that fabric, but it's Old Glory Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings.  I think it will be nice.

Lastly, I bought my fabric for Lazy Sunday!!!!  Take a look:

Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday Backgrounds
I can't wait to get started!!!  It probably won't be until next weekend now though.

Today I finished the baby blankets .... I found an inner border at Phyllis' yesterday.

Yellow Brick Road Baby Blankets


I think they turned out pretty nice!

Now I just need to get my borders on Easy Street and "Git 'er Done"!!!




Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Lazy Sunday

Woo Hoo!!  Just got my digital download of the March/April Quiltmaker Magazine with Bonnie's new mystery!  Can't wait to get fabric this weekend and get started!

Who's going to play along???

Monday, January 21, 2013

Just a Quick Update

I got the first two borders ready for Easy Street today.  I think I had just enough green left if I calculated right!  

Here are my red strips and my 4-patch strips ready to go:


I decided to wait until my Hubby got home to help me wrangle the quilt through the machine.  We went up after dinner and I sewed the first two red strips on.  Then I almost cut my finger off with a pair of scissors, so I decided it was time to call it a night.  I failed to get another picture this evening, but hopefully tomorrow night we'll have time to get the other two red borders on and then I'll take a picture.  Baby steps!!  And it really helps having a second pair of hands to maneuver that quilt with so I need to try to get the borders on this week.  I want to be able to take it with me to the Open House at Quilts by Phyllis on Saturday to pick out that final border!!

Who's ready for Bonnie's next mystery in Quiltmaker Magazine??  It's called Lazy Sunday and I'm anxiously waiting to get started!!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Busy Weekend So Far

Friday I managed to finish Susan & Greg's Memory quilt and my Therapy in Session wall hanging. I took both to Quilts by Phyllis on Saturday to be quilted.  While I was there I picked up a dark purplish red to put on my Easy Street for a first border.  Hopefully I can get it sewn on tomorrow.  My second border I believe is going to be green and teal 4-patches.  My third border I'd like to be a purple with maybe a bit of teal in it.  I'll have to see what I can find.

Here's the Therapy in Session Wall Hanging all sewn together:




I think it's really cute and can't wait to get it up on the wall in my sewing room!



 I'm not going to post any more pictures of Susan & Greg's Memory Quilt until I give it to them.  I think it turned out really nice though and can't wait to share it and lessons learned making it.

Today I cut more 2" strips of green and teal in order to get ready to make those 4-patches for my Easy Street border.  I'm not sure I'm going to have enough green actually.  It will be close!

I also whipped up two more blocks for the Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long:

Block 11

Block 12

I've got one more day of sewing tomorrow before I go back to work again.  These long weekends are spoiling me!!  We'll see what I can get in to tomorrow in the sewing room!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Feline Friday

It's Feline Friday!!!

Here's a couple shots of two of my feline babies that my husband shot this week while I was relaxing after work.





 This is Khaleesi .... a.k.a. The Kheeser.  She's a 1.5 year old Bengal and is just now learning how to be lovey.  She's doing a good job too!




 And this is Khaleesi and Nala.  They aren't the best of friends but they do seem to be able to tolerate each other when it comes to snuggling with Mommy.

I'm going to link up with the other Feline Friday folks HERE!!  Join us!!


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Home Front Hexies

Here's a little update on my Home Front Hexies.  This is my first attempt at working with paper piecing but I thought I'd participate in HELP for Hexie-aholics and link up my blog with everyone else because hey .... we all like to share our addictions!!  I love being able to take these with me where ever I go.  I can usually even get a little stitching in at work on breaks and lunch.  It's a great stress release for me.  I find this really relaxing.

Here's where I'm at:


I've also noticed that I seem to do this different than everyone else.  I learned to sew through the paper pieces and it doesn't seem that anyone else does that.  Maybe I need to refine my technique, but it seems to be working for me so far.  I remove the basting stitches and paper once a piece has a hexie or two around it. 



You can see where I've taken the basting out of the red rosette.


No real plan for this other than to make rosettes until I run out of that fabric and then use the black to fill in to make whatever size I end up with.  Wall hanging?  Lap quilt?  I'm not sure yet.