Stash Bee - February Blocks

Look what the ladies of Stash Bee - Hive 8 made! I am still waiting on a few of these to arrive, but I cannot wait to see them all together. With 16 plus my original practice block, I have a great start to my mom's quilt. How lucky am I!

1. Daisy 1, 2. Heather 1, 3. Heather 2, 4. Jamie, 5. Daisy 2, 6. Leonie, 7. Tami, 8. Sarah, 9. Kat, 10. Melissa 1, 11. Melissa 2, 12. Christina 1, 13. Christina 2, 14. Christina 3, 15. Helen 1, 16. Helen 2, 17. Mine

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. 

March Goals

My goal for March is to get started on this commission quilt:

It's a queen sized Plus quilt in solids (Kona Snow, Black, and Robin's Egg). My goal is to at least start cutting out the fabric, maybe even finish the cutting. But I really just want to make a dent in it. It needs to be done by June.

My stretch goals are as follow:

• Write the letter to go with the Community Quilt and send it off.
• Figure out a design for a coworker's baby quilt.
• Finish piecing the top of the plus quilt for my brother and get a picture of it to send to my future SIL. Fabric for the back is going to be used as a guest book and then incorporated into the design. I already have an idea or two.
• Work on some "selfish sewing" (I entertained the idea of joining the 30/30 challenge), if I do, my goal for that is to get some work in on one or both of the quilt I'm making for myself (Japanese X and Plus quilt or the Giant Churn Dash blocks)

Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes.

February Finishes

Well, let's see how I did with my February goals.

My goal for February was to finish the community quilt.

I made it! I put the finishing touches on the binding tonight. :) Now all that's left is to write a letter explaining why we made the quilt and then send it all off. A longer explanatory post to come when I'm relatively certain the package has reached the intended recipient.

Stretch goals:

Choose quilt blocks for my January pink solids for the Nearly Insane and the Farmer's Wife quilt.

Done for the Farmer's Wife quilt, since I've decided to focus on that one. I still haven't made much of a dent in the brown blocks for the Nearly Insane quilt. You can see the numbers here.

Print out several of the December Farmer's Wife paper piecing templates and complete a block or three.

Done. Made brown block 30 and pink block 9.

Keep working on the Nearly Insane block that I have fabric cut for.

Not so much. Although the block I'm working on is currently living in my purse, I either grab my Nook for some reading or bring my cross-stitch and work on that instead. EPP seemed like a great alternative to cross-stitch, but since I've gotten back into that, I'd rather do that.

Keep working on the Michigan quilt for my hubby.

All the blocks for this one are done! Read about the quilt and see the blocks here. Next step, make sure they are square and then sew the top together. I've already spoken to a long-armer about getting it professionally quilted, because that's just not happening on my tiny machine.

Finish the border for the Once Upon a Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery (yes, I caved).

Not quite, but I did make a dent in it.

Keep track of the blocks as they roll in for the Stash Bee.

Yup. I've received some beauties. Just waiting on three more people to send me theirs, and one person has already contacted me to say hers would be late. I'm fine with that. It's a quilt for my mom, with no specific deadline.

I am linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

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.

Michigan Quilt - Blocks done

I finished all of the blocks for the Michigan quilt. Cutting happened Friday and Saturday, sewing of the remaining blocks on Saturday and Sunday. I don't have enough floor space to lay them all out together, so I just laid out the Lower Peninsula. Here are the separate photos.

 Upper Peninsula

Lower Peninsula

There you go. I didn't repeat a single fabric, and only bought the background solid. Everything else is from my existing stash. Just in case anyone is wondering, my husband and I grew up in Kent county, which is that long green county (second column, second and third blocks from the bottom, the one with the topography squiggles - bottom and the compasses - top).

If you're from Michigan, can you figure out which one is your county?

Linking up with Anything Goes Monday on Stitch by Stitch.

WIP Wednesday

I found paper piecing templates for the Farmer's Wife quilt, and omg does that ever make me happy.

I printed the January ones yesterday and put one together. It was a breeze! And it's perfectly 6.5" without losing corners and stuff. I can't even begin to explain how happy that makes me.

Block 30

Brown

16 pieces

It's a little puckered in the center where I had a lot of seams intersect, but that was likely to happen regardless. Despite that little flaw, I love it. I'm also planning on making all of my farmer's wife blocks first, since I'll be paper piecing, before starting on my Nearly Insane blocks in that colorway. Just to make sure I have enough fabric for the project I'm likely to finish first.

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

February Goals

My goal for February is to finish the community quilt and send it off.

I showed the completed top to you in my last post, so I won't bore you with it again until I actually finish it. To finish it I need to piece the backing (already have plenty of fabric), quilt it (still trying to figure out how to quilt around the houses), and bind it (binding fabric to be determined). No problem, right?! .... Hey, no laughing. Despite my indecisive nature and the fact that I haven't done hardly any sewing the last few weeks, I think I can, I think I can.

Stretch goals:

• Choose quilt blocks for my January pink solids for the Nearly Insane and the Farmer's Wife quilt.
• Print out several of the December Farmer's Wife paper piecing templates and complete a block or three.
• Keep working on the Nearly Insane block that I have fabric cut for.
• Keep working on the Michigan quilt for my hubby.
• Finish the border for the Once Upon a Time Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery (yes, I caved).

• Keep track of the blocks as they roll in for the Stash Bee. February is my month! In case you're wondering, here is the questionnaire and tutorial I posted.

January Finishes

I have been pretty sick this month. First a regular chest cold, with lingering cough. And last week something else fun and exciting involving dizziness and extreme skin sensitivity. And it's super cold outside, so I hope I don't get sick again.

Anyway, let's look at my January goals:

1) Make the January block for Stash Bee and finalize my plans for February, make a block, and write a tutorial.

 

Completed! I made three blocks for the Stash Bee in January, two for my hive mama (Hive 8), and one for another hive (Hive 6), because I liked her pattern. I also decided on my block for February, and wrote up a tutorial that will go live on the Stash Bee blog on February 1.

 

Hive 6 Block

 Hive 8 Blocks

 My Block for February

2) Finish putting together the Community Quilt top; I've given up on waiting for other people to make additional house blocks. 

 

Completed! I actually got it put together, finally. The hardest part was squaring up all of the house and signature blocks. Layout and putting the rows together was good fun.

 

 

2)  Keep cutting half hexies.

 

Completed! I didn't cut many, but I did cut a few. So I'm going to call that a win.

Michigan Quilt

Having a three day (and thanks to the snow day, four day) weekend was good, since I've been pretty busy with things outside of the house. I did finally get some sewing in yesterday evening and managed to finish up the UP for the Michigan quilt (for all you non-Michiganders, that's the Upper Peninsula). I haven't quite written out the colors and amounts needed for the Lower Peninsula, but I have started, so maybe I can put a dent in that today.

So far it's nothing serious, but they say that we might get 4-6 inches today and then another 1-3 overnight. Oh right, and here's my picture of the Michigan quilt.

Background is Kona Pacific and the rest is from my stash. I am trying to match the base tones of the fabrics, and so far I feel like I've been relatively successful. After all, you can more or less see where the counties are. As this will be for my husband, there are some very appropriate chef-y prints in there, including an artichoke and a panel with chefs cooking pasta and seafood. Also things appropriate for the UP, like birch trees, pine trees, and snowflakes. I love having I Spy moments in my quilts. My biggest worry is going to be basting (will there be enough room in my living room) and quilting (how to get this thing through my machine and how to quilt it). These two issues make me think that I might actually try and rent a long-armer (would need to do a class first though) or send it out to someone. Either way, I don't think it's going to be done in time for his birthday on Feb. 6.