What's Up Wednesday: Blocks

Two more great granny squares are finished!
Almost all of the fabrics are Kate Spain Serenade, but every once in a while I throw in some scraps.

Block 2

This purplish block for instance has some leftover Olivia by Rosemarie Levin used in binding the Circle of Comfort quilt made last year.  

Block 3

 This orangey block is all from the Serenade charm pack purchased at Gruber's last summer.

First three blocks

I don't know how smart it was to take a picture of these white bordered blocks outside, but I like how they photograph against the bark.
 

Remember last week I said my mom is taking a beginner's quilting class?  Well, she was kind enough to send me a picture of her first block and said I could share on my blog.  Bravo Mom!!!!  Can't wait to see what block you learn today.

I won't be doing much sewing today as I have a ton of errands to run.  Maybe I'll spot some fun stuff for tomorrow's really random post.

What are you up to this Wednesday?

Unwrapping Happiness

I can finally show you the wonderful swap goodies I received from my good friend Stephanie a week or so ago.

Pretty packaging

At the end of our Gruber's retreat, the eight of us drew names for swapping happies.  I was super excited because I knew that no matter who drew my name, I would score some sweet stuff because all my retreat friends are super talented.  The flip side of this was MAKING a happy for one of these talented ladies, but that's a story for Friday another day ;-)

"Sixting" - sisters texting ;-)

When the box arrived I squealed in delight seeing the return address and realizing I was the lucky recipient of Stephanie's sewing genius.  Before opening the package,  I took a picture with my phone of the box and the shipping label and sent it to my sister.

First reveal

I then took my sweet time unwrapping the goodies, savoring (and photographing with my real camera) each step along the way ignoring the impatient texts coming from my sister.   Unfolding the first section of colorful tissue paper revealed this super cute Itty Bitty Duffle and unique box of chocolate. 

By the way, this "What the fudge" Zzang chocolate really does take "candy bars back to full flavor".....YUMMO!

Check out the zipper pull

At the retreat, we all marveled over a similar scrappy Lucy's Crab Shack little duffle Stephanie had with her, so much so that I ordered the pattern.  I haven't made one yet (shocking, I know), but I read through it enough to appreciate the effort and thought Stephanie expended to make this one for me.  What makes Stephanie's version so special (besides the fact that she made it) is the use of scraps of Lucy's Crab Shack fabric and the most adorable coordinating zipper pull.

Treasures hidden inside

Inside my duffel, Stephanie tucked several rolls of washi tape and the tiniest pincushion I have ever seen.  Love, love, love!

Colorful paper products

Unwrapping the tissue further, I found more goodies.  Stephanie also gave me this Pantone inspired notebook screen printed by a friend and a fun coffee-themed note card.  I love all things paper and can't get enough notebooks or note cards!!!

Love me some stationery 

It is obvious that Stephanie put much thought, time and creativity into my gift, and I am so appreciative!  Thank you again Stephanie for my happies!!!!!  

Mini Monday: Color Bars

This colorful mini quilt top is another creation using leftover QuiltCon fabric scraps.  Apparently I ordered way more fabric than I needed for that challenge.  No worries as I love the colors.

Future Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt

This will be sent to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative once it is quilted and registered.  This will make two already for October!

Color Bars

I love making quilts for the AAQI, and it also gives me a fun excuse to play with my scraps.  The center sections of these bars are tiny pieces of scraps that some may consider too small to save, but I have a sickness that will not allow me to throw any fabric away not me ;-)

Using linen

I also made a {practice} pencil case.  The first one turned out not so gift-giving worthy so I am keeping it for myself and will make another one for giving.  The pattern is from the book Zakka Style and is another great scrap busting project.  It additionally provided a reason to use the linen I recently received from Pink Chalk.  

These two mini projects provided a fun distraction from the great granny square blocks I am currently making.  There are several other small projects I have my eye on.....

Happy Monday!

Friday Finish: Liberated Amish

Yes!!!!  I FINALLY finished my Liberated Amish Challenge wall quilt.  It's about time!!!

Quilting without a walking foot

The quilt top has been staring at me from my blog header for over two years now, mocking me.  If you  want the history on this quilt, you can read the first post here,  see more progress made in this post, and here is where i decided to rip out all the quilting.

Center quilted

I am really pleased with the design and piecing of the quilt top but have never liked the various methods I attempted for the quilting.  Several months ago I pulled the rebasted quilt out of the closet and quilted a square spiral in the center with black thread using my walking foot.  I also quilted organic lines in the black strips radiating out from the center.

Juki Junior

Once again I put the quilt away to work on another project, but yesterday I was determined to finish this quilt once and for all.  The problem was I couldn't remember the brilliant plan I came up with for quilting the borders and letters, and wouldn't you know my machine decided to experience technical difficulties and jammed.

Liberated Amish

In no mood to deal with the problem, I pulled out Junior and quilted wavy organic lines with my favorite variegated thread using the zig zag foot (it was either that or the buttonhole foot).  This decision turned out to be a big pain in the @*$ with less than perfect results, but I.AM.DONE.WITH.THIS.QUILT and do not want anything else to do with it am ready to ship it off to Montana.  I used the facing method again rather than binding, and all that is left is to hand stitch it to the back.

Yuck

This morning I found time to check out June, my big Juki.  Hmmm.....you think maybe it needs a good cleaning?!  I recently changed the needled, oiled the machine and clean dust out of the bobbin area...guess I forgot to look under the hood ;-)

What did you finish this week?  Enjoy your weekend!

Really Random Thursday: Pink October!

It's October, so you know what that means.  No, I'm not talking about cool autumn weather and the beautiful colors of fall.  There isn't any of that here at the moment where I live.  For me, October is all about the color pink.

Pink Ribbon bagel

It's only the fourth day of October, and I have already consumed two pink ribbon bagels.  Hey, don't judge; they are only available during the month of October!  I don't expect to continue consuming bagels at this rate, but I will order one on October 12th when my local Panera will donate 100% of the proceeds to MD Anderson Orlando.

Good deal

Interweave has a promotion going on until tomorrow (October 5th) where they are donating 30% of their sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  Of course I took advantage of this promotion to pick up a few magazines.

Pink pedicure

I got my toe nails painted hot pink yesterday.  My feet are happy now.

Pink ribbon sandals

My flip flops match my nail polish.  It wasn't very easy to get a picture of the side of my shoes.  Can you see the pink ribbon there?

Pink ribbon wine

Saw some good friends I haven't seen in a while this evening which was wonderful.  As my daughter likes to say "good times!"!  I had to snap a quick picture of this very cool and appropriate wine bottle label.

Who knew?

Aren't these napkins cute too?  I had a blast hanging out with the girls and talking clothes and fashion.  Anyone ever been to a Cabi party?  This is the first one I have been to in a while.

Tank tops - one in every color

I needed to see and hear about the latest fashions.  This is what I usually wear layered with a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, flip flops and my hair up in a clip.  But hey, I almost have a Kona card type selection of Target tank tops to choose from, so at least there is variety in my wardrobe ;-)

Moo cards

I ordered new Moo cards with updated quilt pictures, and they arrived in this fancy box.  Love their packaging.   I'm still playing around with different types of cards.  I like that Moo gives you the option of having a different picture on each card, but I'm not sure the color quality is the best.  Anyone have a recommendation of where to order cards?

Cutie Pie

Here's a recent Leo picture.  I sure do miss this little guy.

Baby in the house

Max isn't quite as cute, but he does keep me company ;-)

So how random is your Thursday?  See more random posts over at Cindy's blog.

What's Up Wednesday: BOMs, embroidery and dresses

Here's my October Block of the Month for OrlandoMQG.  Michele is in charge and selected a designer's choice with a Halloween theme.  Those of you who know me know that Halloween is my least favorite "holiday" (sorry Doris).  But I can be a good sport (sometimes) so I played along.

Wonky spider web block

 This wonky spider web block was made with the few Halloween prints I have in my stash and other color coordinated fabrics.  The inspiration came from this gorgeous Quilt Con block by Quilting Cyclist.  I attempted to design a paper piecing pattern that would look wonky and random.  It wasn't easy as our blocks are 12.5" square.  Never mind the fact that I don't know a thing about paper piecing. Can't wait for my class with Penny at Quilt Con!  Anyway, I feel sorry for whoever wins these blocks today....mine is a mess.  I tried though...that should count for something, right.

Free form embroidery stitching

 Do any of you remember Amy's embroidery color wheel stitch along?  I was shocked to realize when grabbing the link that this was way back in 2009!  Anyway, at that time I made a small color wheel (that is still one of my favorite finishes) and started a much larger one.  Well, the much larger one has not seen any activity in probably three years quite some time.

Probably my oldest WIP

During last weekend's football game watching time, I pulled out the large color wheel and did some stitching. The three spokes of the wheel shown finished above were about 75% complete when I put this project away. I had to refresh my memory on some stitches and realized I need to learn some new stitches as I am getting bored with these.  I also had to start from scratch in determining thread color as I misplaced all my Cosmo threads originally selected for this project and was left with my stash of DMC floss.

 

Now on to the pinks

Even though I have plenty of quilting projects that need my attention, I find myself being drawn to embroidery.  It's a great portable project.  I think one reason why I put this project aside originally was the large size of the hoop.  This one is 18" where the other color wheel was only 7".  While stitching at home isn't a problem with this big hoop, I find it cumbersome in the passenger seat during road trips.  Luckily for me I saw on Stephanie's blog this gorgeous stitch along going on over at Shelly's blog.  I have already downloaded the patterns for blocks 1 and 2.  

Hemmed in Prayer dresses

My Mom sent me this fun picture of dresses she made with her Hemmed in Prayer sewing group.  I had sent her some fabric yardage and she and her sewing friends sent me scraps from all their dress making.  Aren't these dresses so cute!  It's amazing for me to see my unwanted quilt fabric transformed into lovely dresses for young girls in need.

Speaking of my Mom, she is taking her first quilting class today.  I am so excited for her!
We my mom, sister and I are going to get in so much trouble together now are going to have so much fun now!!!!

Great granny square block

Back to sewing, I managed to piece another great granny square block.  These aren't hard to assemble, just a little time consuming.  I find myself easily distracted, wanting to move on to other projects, so I think these blocks will be a long term project like all my other projects seem to be unless I set a deadline for myself.

Ugly fabric

I'm off to my guild meeting now.  Here's my fabric for our latest Ugly Fabric Challenge.  Wonder if I should finish the last one before I get started with this one?  Hmmm.....

So, what's up with you this Wednesday?  Have a good one!

Mini Monday: Round About

Happy October!  Where did September go?  I'd like to ramp up my production of Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts and other small projects on the to-do list, so I'm introducing Mini Mondays to keep me on track.

Spiral quilting

Today I have October's mini for the AAQI Quilt a Month Club to show you.  Round About is made with more leftover scraps from the Quilt Con block challenge.  This little quilt features a small four patch block in the center framed by strips of various solids.  

Mini quilt top

 The spiral quilting was done with my walking foot using Gutermann gray thread.  The backing fabric is a Remix stripe from my stash.

The back

I followed Victoria's method of facing a quilt.  This is my new favorite way to finish a small quilt.  

Round About

I still need to register this quilt and update my page while I am at it. 

By the way, AAQI's October online auction starts today.  There are some gorgeous quilts up for bid!

Happy Monday!  Thanks for stopping by!