September Goals

My September Goals are as follow:

1) Make the September Color Bee Shocked Block - Kris sent some lovely fabrics, so I'm excited

2) Finish piecing the top for the first Low Volume Baby Quilt. Right now it's 8x6, and I would like it to be at least 10x8.

3) Make at least one or two house blocks for the "Quilt for a Friend" project.

Stretch Goals:
1) Surprise wedding quilt - I really should be working on this exclusively, but I cannot seem to get myself motivated to do so.
2) Work on the Christmas quilt which has been sadly neglected with all these other projects
3) Keep cutting fabrics for the second Low Volume Baby Quilt and start piecing some of the HSTs

That will be more than enough for this month, but I doubt I'll stick to those specific projects as I always have new ideas and plenty of fabric.

HST Baby Quilt

So I am not entirely sure how this happened, but I apparently never blogged about this quilt finish.

I'm especially surprised since it was my very first commissioned quilt. Since it was for family (my husband's aunt to be exact), I just charged for materials and contributed the labor free of charge as my portion of the present. The quilt was for my husband's cousin who was expecting a baby. My only real challenge was to keep things cost effective. So I ended up using a single charm pack, about a yard of Kona Snow, 2 yards of one of the fabrics from the charm pack line (Ticklish! by Me & My Sister for Moda) for the backing and binding, and a cut from my roll of batting.

First I turned all the floral prints and circles into HST's, then added in everything else, because I quickly realized that when you start with 5" squares, they get cut down to 4.5" after sewing, and then finished they only end up at 4". That's a loss of a full inch. So I needed the full charm pack to have a decent sized baby quilt, and then it still ended up on the small side.

I didn't do anything fancy with the backing, because I'd used up every last charm square on the front of the quilt.

Total size was an 8 by 10 layout, or 32" by 40". Definitely far smaller than I usually make my baby quilts. Total time to make it was just over a month. I quilted in the ditch along the diamond patterns. After I washed it, it ended up a lot more wrinkled than I wanted it to be, which taught me a lesson in subject pre-shrinking of the batting.

I leave you with this adorable picture of baby Sadie wrapped in my quilt.

August Finish - Toucan Quilt

My goal for August was to finish the Toucan Crib Quilt. I am horrible at coming up with interesting names for my quilts, so they end up being called something simple based on the main attraction.

I did actually finish the Toucan Quilt.

I cut 33 5.5" squares each of yellow, green, and tan/brown. Putting those together into the quilt top was by far the quickest part of the process.

Next I found, blew up, and mirrored a picture of a toucan to use as the basis for my applique. I used rough edge applique with a straight stitch around the edges to anchor the fabric.

I ended up having to take a row off the top and the side because it wouldn't fit on the pre-cut batting I wanted to use. Instead I used one row on the back in between some striped green flannel.

Quilting was relatively easy as well, until I got to the toucan. I did stitch in the ditch along the edges of the squares, and then outlined every part of the toucan and leaves. That part took forever.

Binding is a Denyse Schmidt fabric I picked up at Joann's.

Finally I embroidered my initials and the year in the bottom right corner. It's kind of hard to see, since it's green on green. Now I just need to wash and send it.



Give Away - Winner (cont.)

Since Tina hasn't gotten back to me, I will pick another person to win the stack of text fabrics.

And the winner is...

AJ! You have a week to respond before I pick someone else.

Give Away - Winner!

And the winner is...

Number 11... Tina. I have sent you an email and commented on your blog, so please reply with your address. If I don't hear from you by next Saturday, I will choose another winner.

Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing!

Reminder - Give Away Closes Tonight

Just a reminder that my text fabric give-away closes tonight. You can find the full post here.

August Goals

My giveaway is still open until August 16th. Please check it out and comment on the give-away post to enter.

My goal for August is to finish the Toucan baby quilt. Need to finish the quilting, bind it, embroider my signature on it, and wash it.

How cute is that?!

 



My stretch goals are the following:
1) Finish adding the second border to my wedding quilt blocks
2) Continue working on my Christmas quilt
3) Continue cutting fabric for the Plus Quilt
4) Continue working on my X and Plus blocks

I doubt I'll get through all of that, but I really need to get working on that wedding quilt. My deadline is nearing steadily.

200th Post - First Fabric Give-Away!

It's been a long time in coming, but I have finally reached that elusive milestone. 200 Posts! Hard to believe it's taken me this long since I started this blog three and a half years ago. I just don't post as often as I'd like to.

With that milestone comes another one. My very first fabric give-away.

As some people, especially those in my Guild know, I love text prints. In the spirit of sharing and celebrating, I will be giving away eight fat quarters of light text prints from my stash.

 

Here they are, in all their glory.

 

In order to win, you can do any or all of the following:

1) Leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite type of novelty fabric is. 

2) Follow my blog and tell me in another comment how you follow me.

3) Repost this give-away and tell me how you reposted in a separate comment (your own blog, Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You may repost on several different social media sites, please leave a separate comment for each type and add a link to the post or tell me your user ID and which site you posted on.

 

This is open to all, international entries welcome. If you are a no-reply blogger, please post your email address so I can contact you.

 

Deadline to enter is Friday, August 16, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. Good luck!

July Finishes

So I completed my goals for the month!

My goals for the month were to do the following:

1) Make bee blocks for the 3x6 Bee - 12 due by July 15

2) Make bee blocks for the Scrappy Trip Around the World Bee - 5 due by July 30

I completed both goals before July 15. See July Progress post for Pictures.

My flex goals were to do the following:

1) Put the next border on my wedding quilt blocks, I'll leave the corners for next month.
I didn't complete this, but I did managed to get a start on adding the border.

2) Keep adding red corners to my X and Plus blocks and maybe put another one or two together.
I did put several more blocks together, but did not add red corners to my X fabrics.

 

I'm pretty proud of both of them. Many more to come.

3) Start cutting my In From the Cold Layer Cake for my Christmas/Holiday quilt?
Completed. I cut all of the fabrics in the layer cake as well as some Kona Snow. I even started putting some of the blocks together.

 

  They are very simple but I love them.

July Progress

I did it! I got through all of the bee blocks and have half a month to go.

Here are my blocks for the Scrappy Trip Around the World Bee. They were due by July 31, finished the last three blocks yesterday.

 

My 3x6 2013 Q2 Hive F - Sampler blocks. Due today, finished Saturday.

 

The 3x6 2013 Q2 Hive B - Stars blocks. Due today, finished last weekend.

 

Color Bee Shocked is on ice, because our July person has disappeared from the face of the earth. So besides Color Bee Shocked, I am free from all bee obligations now. That's a beautiful feeling! Not that I didn't enjoy my time in the bees I've participated in, but they've started getting really overwhelming. Let's see if I can get at least one of these stretch goals accomplished.