Around the World Blog Hop

My MCM Bee friend Linda tagged me in the Around the World Blog Hop.  Welcome to those of you here for the first time as well as frequent visitors ;-)  Linda and I live in the same state but have yet to meet.  We plan on doing that in Austin next February at QuiltCon!

This quilting community has introduced me to so many wonderful friends - some I've even been fortunate to meet in real life.  Blogging provides that initial means of getting to know one another, and this blog hop is a great way of introducing bloggers you may not be familiar with.

So here are some questions asked to facilitate the process:

WIPs on the design wall

What are you working on?

There is always more than one project going on at a time in my sewing room.  My spiderweb bee blocks are taking up one whole design wall and I'm making this quilt a priority even though it is for me to keep.

extremely old WIP on second design wall

Usually if the quilt is for me it gets put on the back burner like this Cowboy/Cowgirl quilt that I started three years ago at retreat.   I put the blocks up on my second design wall in the hope of motivating me to finish.

M-5 Mother's Point

A new(isn) project is a Dear Jane quilt in all Kaffe Fassett fabrics similar to this beauty.  It has been on my list for a very long time and I have stopped and started working on it more than once.  During conversations with friends I find I am not alone when it comes to big projects such as this.

M-12 Hopscotch

For that reason, my sister Michelle, good friend Cindy and I are starting what we call Choose Your Own Blockalong.  While I am making blocks for a Dear Jane quilt, Michelle and Cindy have decided to sew blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.   In the spirit of accountability, on Mondays (starting today) we are each posting (at least) two blocks from our respective projects.  Feel free to play along if you need some motivation for an ongoing quilt project - it doesn't have to be either of these.  It's fun sewing with friends and seeing weekly progress.

How does my work differ from others?

I don't know…does it?!  Like most everyone, I make what I like.  My tastes have changed over the years, and my skills have improved which translates into evolution of quilts made.  There are times when I would like to ask for all my earlier quilts back from their recipients so I can redo them ;-)  I learn something from each quilt made.  Surely, I'm not alone in this.

Why do I create what I do?

Home…. quilt for a special family

For family:  Most of my quilts are gifted to family and friends. You can read more about the Home quilt for my son and DIL here.

Baby quilt for charity

Charity:  There was a time when I made mini quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, but they are no longer active.  The latest charity quilt I made was just finished this weekend and will go to our local Beta Center.

Sewing Circle DWR

Guild challenges:  Our OrlandoMQG encouraged participation in the Double Wedding Ring challenge.  Normally I would not contemplate such a quilt, but I did participate by making a small DWR.  I'm excited to say this Sewing Circle was invited to join Victoria's DWR Traveling Exhibit with the Original Sewing & Quilting Expo.

Peace, Love and Happiness - 50th birthday

Milestones:  I wanted to write a pattern for my peace quilt as a turning 50 goal and photograph the quilt at the top of our favorite hike on my 50th birthday.

Have a Heart celebrating 30 year anniversary

This quilt was made for my husband to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and was inspired by a Pandora jewelry ad.

Liberated just for me

Just because:  Isn't this a good enough reason?!  It should be, but I don't use it enough.

Hope you enjoyed this stop on the blog tour.  I am tagging three awesome bloggers for next week so be sure you visit them.

Michele of Nostalgic Cafe is my guild buddy, QuiltCon roomie and fellow founding OrlandoMQG officer.  If you are not a regular reader of her blog, you don't know what you're missing!

Jessica of  A Little Gray made the quilt I received in my very first Flickr swap.  I was happy to meet her recently in Nashville during Sew Down.

I have followed Nina Lise of Mrs. Moen ever since I  read her Blogger's Quilt Festival entry in 2009 shortly after I started my blog.  Nine Lise is an incredible artist, and her words on that particular day especially drew me in.   As she lives in Norway, I don't know that I will get the opportunity to meet her in person.  I will settle for her lovely inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by,

WiP Wednesday 8/27/14

Progress is being made on my spider web blocks.  I was out of town all last week, but did manage to squeeze in some sewing time before I left.

filler blocks

 These are what I call the filler blocks that will alternate between the bee blocks.

leftover trianges

 I love the triangles that are created when trimming the blocks.

quilt basted

My Michael Miller quilt top is basted.

"In My Room" backing fabric from Jeneane Morrison

I also pieced the back as I didn't purchase as much of the backing fabric as I thought, adding the same shot cotton background fabric to the Jeneane Morrison fabric.

OrlandoMQG Sew Day is Saturday so more spider web blocks should be finished by next week's check in.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for stopping by,

WiP Wednesday 8/12/14

Now that my bee blocks are all current, there are several projects in the works that need attention.  I'm thinking Lee's WiP Wednesday may help with accountability.

bee blocks from friends

I brought my spiderweb bee blocks to work on at Gruber's.  I assembled all the blocks made by my bee mates (I requested them unassembled so I could play around with layouts) and pieced them into giant blocks.

not the prettiest design wall but love my blocks

While at retreat, I also decided on a layout for the quilt and determined the total amount of blocks needed (quite a few more actually but not as many as pictured below!).  I cut and marked the necessary background blocks, prepped fabric strips and even managed to sew a few blocks.

layout designed with Touch Draw app

Now that I am home, I put all the blocks back up on my design wall, prepped more strips and am excited to get moving again on this quilt!

Michael Miller challenge needs quilting

My Michael Miller fabric challenge quilt top was started during a workshop with Jacquie Gering in June and finished at Gruber's.  It just needs to be basted and quilted.  I have already picked out the backing, thread color and quilt design.  This quilt is destined for a baby quilt charity drive.

Our guild is encouraging members to finish those old WiPs, so I need to get busy.  There are a lot more where these came from ;-)

Linking up with Freshly Pieced.

Thanks for stopping by and happy stitching,

What's Up Wednesday: Experimentation

I've been doing some stitching around here but even more cooking.  Over the summer I didn't cook much at all, to the point I believe my family wondered if I had forgotten how.  It's nice to spend some time in the kitchen....not as nice as spending time in my lab....but nice nonetheless.

Southern Banana Pudding

I experimented with some recipes I found on Pinterest, and happily my family approved.  That has not always been the case.  The Herb Roasted Citrus Chicken was a big hit as well as the Southern Banana Pudding.

before grilling and baking

Nothing beats my husband's filets though.  These roasted sweet potatoes aren't as good as the sweet potato casserole made at Thanksgiving time, but the lack of butter and sugar is probably better for our waistline.

hexagon stitching

 Hexagon stitching is going on in the lab.  Just when I think I've mastered the y-seam, I realize I haven't.  It's frustrating, but I am determined to finish this quickly so I can move on to other projects.

latest quilt book

This Quilt Essential book just arrived in the mail.  I can't wait to find a free minute to open it up and start reading!  Anyone else have this book?

Thanks for stopping by!

What's Up Wednesday: Sewing Time

I enjoyed some quality sewing time today on this rainy first day of spring Wednesday.

36 patch blocks

Four more 36-patch blocks are pieced for my Cowboy/Cowgirl quilt.

Shoo Fly block

April's OrlandoMQG block of the month is done.  I have made many a shoo fly block, so don't know why I had to pull out my seam ripper not once but twice while piecing this simple block.  We followed this tutorial for making the 12.5" blocks.  For my block I used scraps of Architextures fabric.

Oops

I finished the quilt top for a gift several months ago but wasn't happy with one particular section so it was put aside.  Today, I pulled the quilt top out and unstitched then restitched the offensive area.

Unstitching

The quilt top and quilt back are now ready for basting.  I am showing just a tiny peek in case the recipient pops over for a look ;-)

Sneak Peek

 So far I have maintained the organization of my fabric stash as I have pulled, sewed and acquired new fabric.  My family is quite in shock that The Lab is still clean!

Fabric additions

These three yards of fabric arrived today, and I immediately wrapped them neatly around my comic book boards.

Edited to add:  Since Google Reader will soon disappear, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hope you enjoyed your first day of spring.  Thanks for stopping by,

What's Up Wednesday: Peeks and WIPs

At the moment I am working on three different quilt projects.  One is brand new, one is a gift, and the other is a WIP that I just can't seem to finish.

Shades of Green

Pantone's 2013 Color of the Year is Emerald.  Green isn't a particularly favorite color of mine, but neither was orange at the beginning of 2012, and I grew to love Tangerine Tango.  Maybe the same will be true with Emerald.  

More Shades of Green

In an effort to keep an open mind, I ordered many several shades of green KONA solids and went to work making half square triangles for a new quilt.  244 HSTs to be exact.

On the design wall

Here are some of the HSTs on the design wall.  Once all the dog ears are trimmed on the others,  I will arrange them in a design that looks cool in my mind.  Wonder if the reality will be as cool ;-) 

Gift sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek at the quilt gift I am working on.  The top is finished, but the recipient reads my blog so only a peek can be shown for now.

Cowboy/Cowgirl block

The cowboy/cowgirl blocks are constantly being pushed aside for other projects.  I organized the block pieces though and managed to piece a few more.

That's what's going on here.  What's up with you this Wednesday?  Thanks for stopping by,

What's Up Wednesday: Cutting and Prepping

I am back working on my Cowboy/Cowgirl quilt....cutting more fabric for the blocks and deciding how to create that planned scrappy look ;-)

36-patch block

I think this is my favorite 36-patch block so far.  The fabric is Moda wovens and two different colors of shot cotton.

Cutting area

Anyone else make a mess when cutting fabric?

Pair of blocks

Here's one of each - fussy cut block and 36-patch.

Latest book purchase

Picked up this book the other day.  Just love anything Melody Miller.  There is a Ruby Star Wrap Along going on right now that has some pretty cool projects from the book.  Haven't made any yet, but I've been taking notes ;-)

Free stuff

I received this lovely Marmalade layer cake courtesy of Moda as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Hmmm....wonder what I should make with these pretties?!

More Peace

And because you can't have too much peace, I started another Peace quilt.  This time I am using Christmas fabrics.  The squares are Aneela Hoey's Cherry Christmas.

I am excited (and a bit nervous) to announce that I will have the pattern for this quilt (in three sizes) out soon!

So, what's up with you this Wednesday?  Happy stitching!
Thanks so much for stopping by,

Back at it

School is back in session for my youngest, and we are getting back into a routine.  I don't think anyone in my house was ready for school to start, but having a routine can be a beautiful thing.

Nicely organized scraps

While my daughter was off learning middle school stuff, I learned some basic crocheting skills.  I'm talking really basic here.  I even had to take a picture of how to hold the yarn so I could remember later!

How to hold the yarn

My lesson consisted of the slip knot to get started, the chain stitch, single crochet and double crochet.  The stitches were just run through quickly to give me an idea, and I hope I can remember how to do it all when I'm on my own.  Eventually, I'd like to make beautiful baby sweaters join in the Fusion Blanket Crochet Along, but I don't think I am there yet ;-)

Practice stitches

All the 2.5" squares have been cut and sorted for my great granny square blocks.  I even determined the layout of 15 blocks and separated them into baggies for sewing time.

15 blocks and other fabrics scattered across the floor

Most of the fabrics are Kate Spain's Serenade with a few other fabric lines thrown in.  The outer round of blocks are Fandango I received as a Christmas gift.  I like how they play well together.

Fabric choices

I was a good girl and filed away my leftover 2.5" squares in the squares basket when I was done rather than throwing them in the scrap bag.  

Squares Basket

This basket holds cut 2.5" and 5" squares leftover from past projects and in limbo before being assigned to future projects.  The little squares are even in piles by color.  

Soon to be baby quilt

All the chevron blocks have been pieced and are up on the design wall ready to be assembled into a quilt.

Yes....it feels good to be "back at it"!
Happy Monday!