Hand-Pieced Quilt Along... Finally Finished

Way back in January 2012 (yikes), I started Erin's Hand-Pieced Quilt Along. I loved it! It gave me something to look forward to each Friday when she posted the next block. Well, I had the top pieced together last summer, and this summer, I finally decided to get it quilted and bound. This WIP is finally finished.

Here it is!

 It will hang in my sewing/craft room someday, and I hope Peanut asks about it. Then I can talk to her about...

• loving what you do
• doing what you love
• not everything will come out perfect
• even if it's not perfect, you can still be proud of it

You see, there is no way I'm ever going to wash this wall quilt. I'm pretty sure it would fall apart. I'm not kidding. Sorry there are no close-ups... it's wavy, some triangle points are completely cut off, and the stitches are totally uneven.

 BUT, I still love it and I will be proud to hang it up. I started something and I finished it. And I'm OK with it being perfectly unperfect :)

PS: The scrappy binding is definitely my favorite. It took awhile to hand-sew the scraps together, but I managed to use scraps of each of the fabrics I used in the blocks to create the binding. I love it!

Linking up with Connie's Linky Tuesday and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday and a new one that I've found called Link a Finish Friday over at Richard and Tanya Quilts... Links are on my sidebar!

September Goal

It's about that time to make my September goal! 

It's another small one due to our upcoming move, but I want to take these fabrics (JoAnns) and make this with it...

A Bright Corner's Holly Jolly Tree Skirt pattern 

... it will be a wedding present for a lovely friend! I'll only be able to get the top pieced and the binding cut, but I hope to have that done by the end of the month. I'll quilt it and finish it up after our move sometime!


Thanks again to Melissa and Shanna for hosting such a wonderful series... "A Lovely Year of Finishes."

 

August Goal Reached

My August Goal (of piecing the blocks together into this quilt top) is finished and photographed! 

I have been working on piecing this top all summer, and I think I will add a border or two to it once my fabric stash and I are reunited this fall after our big move.

In my head, the neutral diagonals were going to pop more. However, I wanted to use all the colorful and neutral scraps that my mother-in-law gave me, so some of the softer pinks blend in a bit with the neutrals. Overall, though, I think it's a scrappy success!

I've always loved the idea of using nine-patches to create diagonal lines, so I made up this quilt to do just that. The blocks are 6.5" so the nine-patches are made from 2.5" squares.

A big thanks out to Grizz for entertaining Peanut while I took the pictures... afterwards we went on a short family run and then got 50¢ ice cream cones :)

Linking up...

August Goals

I cut and pieced these blocks in June (I think... or was it May?!). Anyways, they now need to be sewn into rows and finally into a twin-sized quilt top for Peanut!

The blocks are 6 1/2" square.

The mini squares were cut at 2 1/2" to make the nine-patch blocks.

All of the fabric came from Grizz's mother who is trying to decrease her fabric stash (I'll never turn down fabric!)

I'm linking up with "A Lovely Year of Finishes" with Melissa and Shanna. 

...and with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday...

 However, I can't just sew during nap time and Daddy time... I also *get* to pack. Grizz's parents took a lot of our stuff home when they visited a few weekends ago, so now I am packing up the things that didn't fit. The pictures above show the 2nd bedroom which has now been converted back into a sewing room - it's also the packing and storing room!

We're moving in September!!!

Peanut's things are now in the "dining room," our couches were sent home, so we're sitting on the lone lazy boy and a mattress :) The big TV has been replaced with it's miniature little brother and Grizz gets to study for his Professional Engineering exam on a desk made of boxes, milk crates and the filing cabinet. 

Grizz's parents kept saying that we're "camping" in our apartment until we move back... all I can say is that we now have a lot more room :)

Hand-Pieced Block Pillow

Once upon a time...

 ...I participated in a hand-pieced quilt-along hosted by Erin @ Why Not Sew? (quilt-along info here)...

...and I had an "oopsie" block that came out too big...

... and so it has become a pillow :) 

It matches the quilt with a little bit of a black border with the larger black-spotted space (some of the blocks in my quilt needed a black border just to make them the 6 1/2" they were supposed to be! My hand-stitching wasn't always the most accurate!).

I quilted it with gold thread to match my left-over binding from another project. It has an easy envelope backing. Next time, I'll make the pillow covering a tad bit bigger as this one came out quite plump once I added the pillow form!

I'm still working on finishing this thing. It needs to be basted, quilted and bound... but then it will be ready to hang in my sewing room!

If you're bored and interested in seeing my progress on the quilt-along click here!

(Just a quick glance at my planning for this pillow... I love Grizz's engineering paper!)

------------------------------------------

I'm Almost Done! (July Goals)

Yup, that's right! I have a week until my friend's big day and all I have to do is finish the binding on all four table runners/toppers. I can do it!!

I finished the quilting quicker than I expected - it went much faster once I found the right combination of needle to fabric :) I still need to work on getting my stitches to look as nice on the back as on the front, but that did improve once I got rid of the hoop - but once I did that, the table runner got a little poofier. More practice needed I guess! I did like that I could quickly pick it up during Peanut's cat naps without taking the risk of waking her up by turning on the sewing machine.

Now to hand stitch the binding to the back - maybe I can finish a side before Peanut wakes up again!

*Edit from phone: Sure enough, after just finishing one side, I heard some one wake up! She's lucky she's cute :)

To see the entire story on my July goals, see this post...

WIPs: The Last Week or Sew :)

So, here you go folks. I'm just loving all my free time during this summer. As you'll see, I'm in the middle of quite a few projects, but thankfully, I've had a few finishes along the way! We leave to visit family in a week and a half, so I need to keep chugging along on my "to-sew-list" since I won't be bringing any sewing projects with (except for maybe some hexies for the car ride!).

I finished binding this quilt last Saturday - I couldn't wait to finally finish it, so it even came along on two short camping trips with us :) You can see a full view of this top here, but I'm waiting to get a fun quilt-in-nature picture to show you the whole entire completed thing!

This basket of joy is done and ready for a certain baby to arrive. You'll get to see all of it once the gift is given!

I finished two skirts for Simple Simon & Co's Skirting the Issue Project (more info here!)...

... but I've pulled enough fabric for three more! They are so quick and easy to sew up and  I just love the finished product!

 I've also pulled fabric for Hopeful Thread's July Project - Little Boys Shorts Sewing - I've promised her 3 - 3T shorts, so obviously I won't use all of these fabrics... which ones do you think I should use? (The top one has airplanes on it, and the 2nd-to-the-top is actually a blue plaid, but all you can see is the wrong side - oops!)

I'm over half way done with the binding on my Giant Vintage Star quilt - soon and very soon, I'll have another quilt finish!

I told you that I had cut these vintage sheet remnants into squares... well, here is the quilt top! Baby patchwork quilts are such a quick finish!! That blue stuff on the left is what I'm planning for the backing. Now, I just need to quilt and bind!

 I've had these Christmas squares cut for awhile, and it was time to sew them up. I can't tell you anything more! (Secrets secrets!)

Same thing here!

 And finally, for some non-sewing news... I had fun on Sunday playing with some vintage sheet music, mod podge and canvas. This is only one example of the five that I worked on. There's still a few more steps I want to take before I have some fun, Christmas wall hangings for myself or to use as gifts... once they're all prettied up, I'll show you the final product! Sometimes it's fun to get all crafty on something that doesn't involve the sewing machine :)

But now, I must go clean (and sew!). Grizz has some relatives coming tomorrow!

Linking up here:

 

Works in Progress

I don't think I can count finishing a quilt top as a true finish, 

but I'm pumped anyways! 

This past week, I finally finished this quilt top. I can't say that much about it, just in case the recipient is reading this :)

I can say that most of the fabric is from my stash - except for the cute farmer cotton! The other fabrics include corduroy, shirting fabric, seersucker, etc. I ordered the binding yesterday, but I need to quilt it first!

~*~*~*~*~

After this weekend's garage sale finds (I found vintage sheets for a quarter!), I finally decided to cut into my stash and sew something with them :)

I followed Jeni's tutorial here: Giant Vintage Star Quilt at In Color Order

I'm still trying to improve matching up seems and making sharp triangle points, so I'm very, very happy with how the center of this star came out... don't look too closely at the other seems though! Some came out well, and some I just stopped trying to fix...

I'm still deciding if I should keep this one or if I should gift it to someone... but first, I need to quilt and bind...

~*~*~*~*~

 And, did you think I had stopped my hand-piecing quilt-a-long with Erin at Why Not Sew?.. ? Nope! I stuck with it :) Here is my little sampler quilt, all sashed and bordered!

All twelve blocks, hand-pieced and hand-sewn together. Now to hand-quilt it... wish me luck with this upcoming new experience! 

(So the very bottom right block is supposed to have appliqued "bees" on it... I skipped it... I just couldn't get myself excited to applique on such a little block PLUS I didn't want to make it more special than the other ones... so it's just a Honey Bee block without the appliques.)

The binding will be scrappy, using the fabrics from the blocks. I'm quite excited to see that come together. I just have to decide if I want to stick with the hand-sewn-thing to create the binding. I could cheat and sew the binding together with the machine and then attach it by hand... or I could just do it all by hand. Decisions. Decisions.

~*~*~*~*~

 So, there you have it. Three quilt tops done. Three quilts that just have to be quilted and bound. At least most of my family-celebration sewing is done for a while, so I do have more time to quilt. There still is one more family birthday coming up that I want to sew something for, and then Father's Day: to sew, or to buy... now that is a question :)

Linking up here: WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Works in Progress

I'm amazed, and completely thankful, for not being called to sub today. It doesn't not happen often, so when it does, I know that I need to make the most of it! (This means that I need to clean the apartment to keep Grizz appeased, but it also means I get to catch up on blogging and sewing and maybe even some shopping...)

Anyways, here's what I've been working on lately, but they are definitely not finished; thus, they are works in progress (WIPs)!

 Neighbor and I have decided to make table runners for each holiday with fabric bought at after-holiday sales. This explains why I have St. Patricks day fabric in my "to-use-soon-pile." Here are my Easter ones...

 They both have binding sewn on...

... but that binding still needs to be turned and hand-sewn on the back. I figure they will be great car projects for future summer trips! 

 The last few nights I have cut fabric. I can't tell you what they are for (gifts!), but you'll be seeing more of these stacks in the somewhat-near-distant future.

 I can tell you they will be simple patchwork, so they will be easy to sew now that I have the squares cut!

These you will see much sooner... I need to buy some zippers first though! (JoAnn's trip today! Yay for days off!)

My Disappearing-9-Patch piecing is done...

 ... but I still need to buy the border and the binding! I'm really glad I went with an X-design instead of my normal diagonals :) You can see a previous post about this quilt here.

 Then there are the hand-pieced blocks. (QAL at Why Not Sew?)

 I still need to add some appliques to this one, the last block, but then it's on to the sashing and bordering and quilting and binding and ... oh my...

 Here's my current at-school-project. Hexies! It's definitely a scrappy one, and I don't know yet what I'll make with them... I'll see how many I can get done before I get tired of them...

Here's my to-buy-at-JoAnn's and my to-sew-soon list. (Blurred because most of them are gifts...) 

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all my projects and my lists, I'm thoroughly enjoying the time I have to create. Last year, while I was teaching, there was no way I could have done all this - I was happy just to get a few hooded-baby-towels sewn for friends/coworkers. I'm so appreciative that Grizz has let me take over the 2nd bedroom as my creating room and that he doesn't complain too much about the stray threads on the floor...  I'm one lucky Dove.

Linking up here...