Accountability

So I saw a meme on Facebook or Instagram at the beginning of the year that said something along the lines of, "2018, the year to finish the projects you started in 2016." I liked that, so I've decided to make 2018 the year that I finish some projects and catch up on obligations. Here is what I've got in progress:

Quilting:
1) Two commission quilts using African fabrics - both are quilted and trimmed. I have made binding for one, need to make binding for the other, and then machine bind both, create an invoice, ship them off along with any leftover fabric (estimated time left: 2.5 hours).

2) Baby Jane quilt in orange and blue - already basted, need to quilt, trim, bind, send off (estimated time left: 5 hours).

3) Baby quilt for my niece born in March - pattern chosen, cut fabric, make front, make back, baste, quilt, trim, bind (estimated time left: TBD).

4) Baby quilts for twins (science themed) born in October - pattern chosen for one, find pattern for the other, cut fabric, make fronts, make backs, baste, quilt, trim, bind, and send off (estimated time left: TBD x2).

5) Baby quilt for my niece born in December - nothing done, need to figure out colors/pattern, cut fabric, make front, make back, baste, quilt, trim, bind (estimated time left: TBD).

6) Plus wedding quilt - front is done, need to make the back, baste, quilt, trim, and bind (estimated time left: 11 hours).

7) Hexie wedding quilt - fabric is cut, need to finish piecing the front, back, baste, quilt, trim, and bind (estimated time left: 15 hours).

8) Scrappy Swoon wedding quilt - fabric is cut, need to finish piecing the existing front, figure out how to make it into a king sized quilt from the queen it is now, back, baste, quilt, trim, and bind (estimated time left: 15+ hours).

9) King-sized batik quilt - nothing except fabric picked, finalize design, make front, back, baste, quilt, trim, bind (estimated time left: TBD).

That's the extent of the time sensitive ones (by which I mean they are all long overdue). There's plenty more that I've started and would like to finish before starting something new that's not on this list, including a quilt for each of my kiddos.

Cross Stitch:
1) Fish - one fish done, the second is mostly finished, need to finish the second fish and then do the third, frame.

2) Carmagua Horses - started one horse, need to finish the whole thing (hard to break into sections), frame.

3) Alpine Flowers - Three flowers done, one started, finish the fourth, start on the other 11 (I think), frame.

4) Phoenix - almost done, finish up the last couple colors, wash, frame.

5) Forest - finished stitching in 2016, need to wash and frame or make into a pillow case.

6) Fairy Tales - Border is finished, finished several colors. Finish the remaining colors or do one square at a time. Frame.

7) Story Time - Finished January and February, started March - May. Need to swap out existing ones I don't like for new ones, finish, frame.

8) Happily Ever After - finished the title and started on the border, complete border, stitch Jan-Dec.

9) Travel - finished the title, working by color. Finish and frame.

10) National Parks - almost done with Yellowstone, finish and frame.

I'm Alive!

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in two months. I promise, I'm still alive. Just super busy. I started back to work last Wednesday and before that I was trying to cram as much sewing and baby time as possible into every minute. So I've got lots of stuff to share and don't even know where to start. Well, baby pictures are always good.

Let's see, the Hexie quilt has been set aside. I've sewn together about 12 out of 25 rows, but wasn't even close to finishing it in time for the wedding. So, since I have a ton of other things I need to get done with upcoming deadlines, I figured I'd set that aside and work on other stuff. I have 3 of these panels stitched together.

Then I decided that I should join the DCMQG Bee. Lynne had the first month and I'm queen bee for the second. Here are the blocks I made for her:

She wanted aqua and purple wonky stars with low volume backgrounds. I think I did alright, although aqua is one of those colors that completely frustrates me.

And here is the block I chose for my month. I made two test blocks and they were way more fun than I thought they would be since I don't usually do scrappy improv:

They will become a baby quilt for my nephew Jackson, who is due in August. That's the great thing about having two siblings who are 15 months and 3 years younger, we all end up with babies at roughly the same time (the same year). In this case, three boys who have already been dubbed the Three Musketeers.

Next up we have a whale baby quilt, using the Preppy the Whale pattern from Elizabeth Hartman. I bought the pattern and it made the quilty math so much easier because I had actual measurements for each piece to base it off of, not just eyeballing a design. First I blew up the whale times two, then I chopped the pattern into 4" (finished) sections. There was much scribbling on scrap paper before I was satisfied and I'm happy to say that it worked out.

I also pieced a back, basted, quilted and started making binding for it. But ended up stuck because I didn't have enough red solid to make the binding and the red and white striped binding I had leftover from another quilt also isn't enough. Unfortunately, since we're on a super tight budget until I get paid again, I have been unable to buy more. Hopefully it will get done soon though and I can write a post just about that quilt, because I think it's turning out fabulously! It's for the son of our friends, Kevin and Jess.

I also basted the braille alphabet quilt for the son of a coworker.

I'm extremely happy to say that I received the Pixel Michigan quilt back from the longarmer and didn't waste any time making scrappy binding for it and finishing it off. It's been hanging out on our bed since I presented it to my husband for his long overdue birthday, Christmas, birthday present. Here is a sneak peek, as I'll be making an entire post for that finish as well. It more than deserves it.

I am once again working on the wedding quilt for my brother-in-law and his fiancée. I'm making a Scrappy Swoon quilt, just a bit bigger than the original, so it fits a queen sized bed. Here's where I am with that, I just have to sew this layer together and onto the center and then have one more layer to go:

Although I think the greenish blues really stand out, the purple and the black blend together a little more than I would have liked. You can barely see that the center is supposed to be a star and not an X. But I like it anyway.

I've also done some work on the Layer Cake Sampler QAL and have paired one Sunnyside print with one white solid and drawn the lines on the back. I've even sewn up several of the pairs, cut some apart, and even managed to finish my first block:

I quite like how this first one turned out, we'll see what happens with the rest.

I've also put in some work on my cross-stitch pieces, but mainly on the piece I started most recently. Forest by Satsuma Street. It is coming together much faster than I thought possible, although I haven't had a chance recently to work on it.

I'm making it to go along with the baby quilt for my nephew. My sister-in-law said that she had a pillow that needed a cover, so that's the plan. Not sure how I'm going to "frame" it, but I'm thinking maybe a scrappy border to match the quilt for the front and then an envelope back that doesn't require a zipper.

Phew, that was a longer post than anticipated, but I really have been quite busy. And that's not including the guild meetings and the Denyse Schmidt lecture I attended. Maybe I'll post something about those some other time.

WIP Wednesday: Sports Fish

I've spent so much time in bed cross-stitching because I was sick all weekend that the first fish is almost done. I started this as a surprise for my hubby's 30th birthday, but that came and went and I didn't actually start this until a few days before and there's still two fish to go. So I got him a few other gifts and told him about this one. He was actually pretty excited about it when I told him what it was going to be and that we would hang it underneath his "A fisherman lives here with the best catch of his life" sign once it's done. This one is a Striped Bass. It's still missing most of the face, a dorsal fin and a lure. Then there's going to be a Rainbow Trout underneath and a Coho Salmon above, with a tackle box and fishing rod respectively.

I ironed the borders for the Braille Alphabet Quilt but have not attached them yet. And I actually pulled some fabric for my long overdue November Stash Bee blocks and started cutting. I have fussy cut the three center sections and cut out the churn dash portion for one.

In baby news, I'm now two weeks away from my official due date. Our to-go bag is packed except for my music, the stroller and car seat are sitting by the door (and Sir has discovered that there is the perfect amount of space for him to sit in the stroller underneath the car seat after initially being very leery about this new contraption).

I'm having more and more trouble getting good sleep. This morning I woke up around 5am to go to the bathroom and my right hip and back on that side hurt so bad I thought I was going to throw up. Not fun. Luckily that was gone by the time I had to get up for work. No amount of pillows between my legs or pads under my stomach seem to help me get comfortable for the night. Part of the problem is that once I'm asleep I really don't move, no matter how uncomfortable my body may be getting. But it lets me know in no uncertain terms once I wake up just what a bad idea it was to sleep with my head on my arm or curled up a certain way. I know I won't be getting a whole lot of sleep once this baby makes an appearance, but I cannot wait to be able to sleep comfortably on my back again.

Braille Alphabet Quilt and More Cross-Stitch

So the center of the braille alphabet quilt is done. I have also sewn together more grey squares than I care to remember and now have four rows of grey squares waiting to be ironed and attached to the top. It might actually get this quilt done at some point in the near future.

There are two other projects hiding in this picture (well, three)... The sashing for my blue, black, and white quilt can be seen below the quilt top. Unfortunately the next block I ran through my machine came out just a bit too small, despite double-checking the measurements, so now I have to rip it out, cut new sashing, and try again. :(

I also still have some of the Charming Kate Spain squares up, although most have now fallen on the floor and been picked up and stacked haphazardly somewhere in my craft room. And finally, that big box is the crib... which is still in a box... and should go in that corner, where everything else is currently stacked. Sigh. But at least our "to go" bag is packed and our letter from the pediatrician is signed saying they are ok with us giving birth at a birth center instead of at a hospital and that they'll see our child within the first 48 hours after birth. Baby steps, as it were.

I also finished the frame for February on my Story Time Sampler and started stitching the door. The door proceeded to screw with my OCD to the point where I ended up ripping out three rows of stitching to make it symmetrical. I set it aside for a bit and then came back to it last night and have gotten the door past the door knob. February is The Secret Garden, which was one of my favorites when I was a kid. So I'm really excited.

My goal for this week is to actually put together the backing for my Michigan quilt and contact the long-armer I started talking to almost a year ago.

More Cross-Stitching

I found my missing two projects! And then I wanted to smack myself, because I actually remember seeing them fall off the back of my cutting table and thinking, "I'll pick them up later." Well, later never happened and then I ended up crawling around on my hands and knees at eight months pregnant trying to retrieve them. Sigh, why do I do this stuff to myself?

But I have gotten to work on the Carmagua Horses over the past couple nights. It looks more of less like a brown flame, but I love the subtle shading that's going on. It's actually the chest and neck of the central horse. Also, you can't really tell, but the background fabric is an ice blue. Which I had to order specifically for this project, because Joann's refuses to carry anything but white Evenweave, but have Aida in almost every color of the rainbow (ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly several commonly used background colors like beige, black, light blue, etc.).

I'm really excited to get the next clue for the Story Time Sampler on Sunday. Still hoping to stay caught up on that one while working on my other projects once I'm done with that one. My other goal is to get that braille alphabet quilt done before my coworker's baby arrives. But walking into my craft room has me feeling overwhelmed these days because it reminds me of all the things I still want to do in there before the baby arrives. :(

Cross-Stitch Madness

So I've been crafting quite a bit lately, just not necessarily sewing. I did get a little farther on the braille alphabet quilt at our last DCMQG Meeting, and continued to work on it more when I got home that night, but for the most part I've been more interested in something more portable. Something I can do sitting in bed, which for me is currently the most comfortable place to sit, or downstairs in our "new" glider (new to us). Or in front of my computer while I'm waiting for something to happen in World of Warcraft. So I'm back to cross-stitching. I've tried a variety of hand quilting things, including EPP and hand-binding quilts, but none of that has held any appeal to me.

So here's what I've been working on lately:

This is the 2015 Story Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I actually ordered and then waited for the background fabric to come in before starting this one. I also have all of the floss I need and I'm very dedicated to keeping up with this one this year, partially because besides one banner across the top, each month has its own frame and I can do the frame along with the inside of each frame without my OCD nagging at me. I made a few minor adjustments to the pattern, but otherwise this is January's Alice in Wonderland.

I've also been making some progress on the 2014 Once Upon a Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. This one my OCD would not let me progress to the insides of the boxes until the entire border was done, which didn't happen until earlier this month. I've been filling in the bigger areas of color and will then go back in to do the smaller areas. I still don't know what to do about the white on white, since I just couldn't wait for the background fabric I had ordered to get here before starting.

Finally, I've been making some progress on my Phoenix. I started this ages ago when we still lived in Florida and I've been working on closing out some of the colors in this. I'm completely done with the reds, working on the blues right now, and will continue from there. The most tedious part is the three different tans in the background, so I'll probably leave those until last.

I also started an Excel spreadsheet with all of the DMC floss numbers I have in my possession, although I cannot for the life of me find two of my WIPs. This is bugging me to no end, because our house really isn't that big and you would think I'd be able to find two gallon bags of floss and cross-stitching instructions. Everything else I've sorted through and logged, realizing that I have a lot of duplicate skeins. That list is now accessible to me on my phone and computer, so next time I go to Joann's I can pick up a few floss colors I'm missing in my stash.

In other news, I'm officially an aunt. My sister delivered her baby boy, Henry Erich, on January 20th and I couldn't be crazier about the little man. I think the only thing that will trump having a cute little nephew is giving birth to my own kid in about four weeks (hopefully). My sister ended up being 10 days late, so I'm hoping not to follow suit with that. Here is the cutie:

Once Upon a Time

So I've been sick this week and I have this thing about working on baby quilts when I'm sick. I know that the likelihood of germs (or in this case likely a virus) sticking to the fabric is slim and then it surviving the wash I put it through before gifting is even slimmer, but something about it just skeeves me out. So I just don't bother. Instead I've been flexing my creative muscles by continuing to work on my cross-stitch Once Upon a Time Sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It is their 2014 sampler and every month I would get a new box to fill in with a fairy tale. The sampler is adorable and I've loved seeing what they've come up with every month, but the end of 2014 came and I didn't even have the border done. So after some serious work, I did manage to complete that. And then also finished stitching all the month names in the boxes. Next up, starting to fill in the other colors. I'm thinking of just skipping around for a bit to fill in the larger areas of color and then going back in for the smaller areas.

I've done a lot of the stitching while sitting in bed on the weekends, when I'm too lazy to get up. Or sitting in the glider that will eventually go in the nursery but is still sitting in our living room in the evenings when I'm ready to stop playing World of Warcraft but not yet ready to go to bed.

Here's how I keep my thread organized. Every time I start a new color that I haven't cut apart yet, I cut the skein into lengths of about four rotations (one rotation = one length of the skein from fold to fold). This either leaves you with one length of six rotations, or I usually cut the last several rotations in half, so it ends up just a bit longer than the other strands. Then I thread it onto a small ring with the number and keep it all on one large project ring in order by number. Once the project is done, I just open the large ring and dump all the little rings with thread into a bin that I can then dig through for the next project. I need to find a better way to store these. I had a great idea for an over-the-door organizer, but the reality of having to sew several hundred hooks onto two layers of duck cloth has kept me from completing this project. Maybe eventually this will turn into some sort of toy organizer for the seedling as the base is already hanging over the back of the nursery/craft room door.

WIP: Finding Inspiration

So the only thing I'm currently working on is some cross-stitch. Both the Once Upon a Time Sampler (March was the 3 Little Pigs, but I'm still working on the border) and the Alpine Flower Sampler.

Working on the Alpine Roses currently, finished the dark green, and have started layering in the rust brown. Not sure what color I'll use for the background yet, but I'll wait until I have the whole thing stitched up per the pattern before auditioning colors (the pattern calls for a blank background, but after finishing the middle Alpine Cabin square, it just didn't seem right that it was completely filled in and the other squares weren't).

I have all of these projects that I should be working on for quilting, but I have had zero motivation in the past few days to do so. Instead I end up playing Guild Wars 2 or watching shows on Netflix. So my true WIP is to find new inspiration and motivation to keep my projects moving along.

Update: I have made some modifications to my WIPs page. I was able to remove one completely that I had as "Stuck" but also added a ton of new projects. No wonder I'm feeling overwhelmed.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social. 

February Update

February has flown by, I can't believe it's almost over! Here are some of the things I've been working on this month:

I chose the 10 blocks for the Farmer's Wife quilt for my January solids (Pink).
January blocks: 9, 29, 41, 43, 56, 58, 64, 70, 95, 98

"Selfish" sewing for my birthday:
1) Farmer's Wife Block:

Block 9

Pink

11 pieces

Paper Pieced

 

2) Japanese X and Plus Block

thematically appropriate since my birthday is on Valentine's Day

I've also done some work on two of my cross-stitch projects, the Once Upon a Time Sampler and the Alpine Flower Sampler.

I also finally bought, and I'm super excited about this, EQ7! I have already created a New York Beauty block for the following mini quilt project (input appreciated):

Option 1 (Red on Black), Option 2 (Black on Red)

 

I am trying to figure out if the red on black or the black on red is better. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what I was inspired by.

 

I also finally worked up the pattern for the plus quilt I envisioned for a commission from a family member.

 

 

I've sent it to the person who commissioned it, and am waiting for feedback. I'm also thinking of adding one more row of white and black rectangles to the left side, so it's not quite so unbalanced.

 

I also found a home for the Riley Blake Challenge Quilt, and embroidered my initials and the year I completed it ('13) into the bottom right corner before gifting it.

 

Last but not least, I made the backing for the Community Quilt and got it basted.

 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post about a finish by the end of the month, or at least the quilting done, as I got an offer from one of the other contributors to do the binding. We'll see if I take her up on the offer.

Cross-Stitch Barn Owl

I think I promised people a blog post about the Barn Owl I cross-stitched for my mother's graduation.
So here it is.

I started stitching this with what I thought would be plenty of time before the graduation. Turns out I was wrong, especially since I was also going to make a cross-stitch sampler of Alpine Flowers for my father (which I at least started) and horses for my sister (which I didn't).

I did take it to Michigan with me for the graduation at which point the owl itself was done, I just needed to add the foliage, the mouse (detail above), and the mushrooms. I almost finished it too. I literally had some grass left to sew the night before we left to drive back to Maryland. I had even bought a frame and matting while I was there. So instead, I dragged the almost finished piece back home with me along with the frame and matting.

I finished it a few days after we got back and then it sat in my craft room closet for ages. I finally framed it at around midnight the day before my sister-in-law and her husband were due to drive back to Michigan after they came to visit us. It was several months late (as a graduation present), but at least it's no longer a UFO sitting in my craft room.

First Cross-Stitch

My first ever counted cross-stitch piece. I believe it utilizes all of seven colors and took me several years to complete. And by that I mean, I started it one year, set it down for several years, and picked it up again and finished it. This project was followed by a Santa from the same pattern sheet, before I got the Paw Prints commission. I then completed a few small projects for friends in Florida as good-bye presents and moved onto my current work, the Phoenix from a few posts ago. It's not too bad for a first attempt... although I prefer evenweave fabric to the Aida fabric I used for this project.

First Commission

Crafting is such a big part of my life, that some part of it is bound to end up in a scrapbook. In this case, I received a commission for a cross-stitch piece for a friend's after-school soccer program. I took pictures of the process, as well as several close-ups of different elements.

The page may seem a bit cluttered, but that's just the way I operate. I liked the idea of being able to see the progression from start to finish without having to continue on the next page. You can see, the big block of text on the left is the story about the commission and finishing the piece. I'll blog about journaling in your scrapbook in the next entry.

I think the hardest part about the commission was finding a good way to do the soccer ball, so I used the closeup of that on the page as well. All in all, I'm really satisfied with the way it turned out.

Cross-Stitch Phoenix

I have been working on this Phoenix for almost three years now. I'll discard it for some time, then come back to it and do a little more. Every time I pick it up it grows a bit, but I can never just sit down and finish it. It's counted cross-stitch on evenweave fabric, so there is a lot of paying attention involved. Sometimes I dispair of ever finishing it, but then I remember how far I've come already, and it gives me a renewed sense of hope.

Tools: Sewing Needle, scissors

Crafting Mats: Evenweave Fabric (ivory), embroidery floss, Magical Cross Stitch Book, lots of patience