The Queen of Slackers

I'm so behind on my sewing, blogging, and pretty much everything else. Except Big Brother--you have to stay on top of that show, or you'll never catch up! So I guess you could say I've been relaxing since it's so stinking hot, and I sew under the hottest light in our house. I did work on a bee block last night for Kristin in the NYGQB, but I only got it 1/4 finished, so no pics yet.

And I bought some fabric yesterday for a new quilt for my oldest son. I still haven't finished his first one, but I want to keep that one at home. This new one will be for daycare. He is a little scared to be moving to a different room, the one for pre-schoolers, so he thinks a new cars quilt might make it a little easier on him. Who am I to deny him that? I'm thinking just a simple strip quilt with these fabrics, although I'm playing with the idea of appliquing his name on there somehow, since daycare things often turn up missing.Purchased from fabricshoppe on Etsy.

Quilt Along - Week 3

Here are all of my blocks so far for Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along. It's a good thing I'm going to be sashing this because it's a little too busy all jumbled together like this. I just finished week three, but week four is already up, so I need to catch up a bit.

The new ones by themselves:

This one might be my favorite so far. It's so simple, but makes a strong statement to me. I think it looks like a Christmas wreath!

I'm glad to only have two bee blocks to make this month, and I'm a procrastinator, so I feel like I have a little time to work on some personal stuff until later in the month. I want to make another little travel pillow for my youngest son, to match his big brothers.

It's late and I'm off to bed now. :)

New Fabric

Fabric.com had a great sale on some Westminster fabrics last week. I got some of all the Good Folks prints they had. I have been wanting some of this fabric for quite some time, so I was thrilled to see the sale. I just fell in love with it while reading Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. I already have a quilt in mind for some of it, and I even sketched it out! I've never sat down to plan anything out quite like that before, but I think it will be helpful, since I know what I really want to do with it. I'm thinking Kona Coal will be the background fabric. Do you think that would match well?

Here is pretty much all of my Katie Jump Rope fabric cut up into strips. I sent the packages out for the bee yesterday. I had totally underestimated the time it would take to cut them all, and cut the white center strips, and seperate them out for 11 people, and cut the foundation paper, and package them up. I debated sending each person larger chuncks of fabric, and letting them cut, but I wanted to make these more enjoyable for the participants, and all that cutting can get tedious, so I just cut them myself. I hope everyone got a wide variety of strip widths, and I know everyone got almost every print. There were only a couple that didn't have quite enough for everyone, but they all got over 20 prints for sure. I can't wait to see what these ladies make!

There were two people who needed a break from the bee this month, so we found some replacements for them, and I sent each of them a Scentsy Bar in Paradise Punch for helping out. I know they both have warmers already, so I hope they like this scent. I'm pretty sure they haven't smelled it before, since it just came out last week!

Starting Out

This Katie Jump Rope fabric is some of the first fabric I bought when I started quilting a little over a year ago. I recently purchased some more, but it was much harder to find now! I had no idea that it would be so popular back when I first bought it. I had a pattern in mind that I was going to use it for, but I wanted to work on my skills before cutting into it. Then life stepped in, and I was too busy for quilting for several months.

Last week I finally cut into it though, and I'm loving the look of the string blocks. You're probably thinking that I still look like a beginner, but I promise I'm much better than I was when I first started! I sort of blended tutorials from Ashley and Rachel to make these blocks.I was waiting for some more fabric to have a bigger variety in my blocks, so I only have three done so far. I love the looks of them though, so much that this is what I am sending out this month for one of my quilting bees. I still need to make several myself though, because I want this to be my biggest quilt to date.

I hope to have more to share soon!

NYGQB Block for Kendra

May was Kendra's month in the Not Your Grandma's Quilt Bee. I enjoyed the blocks she requested, but I just couldn't get one of them to line up right. I ripped it out three times, but I was scared to rip anymore for fear of damaging the fabric. Hopefully she can fix it!

Week 2 - Simple Modern Sampler

Here are my blocks for week two of Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along. I was so excited to see this week's instructions posted this morning, since I am home from work today. Now I have a whole week to catch up on some other projects. You can still join in at any time! Click here for some more info, including a drawing of the entire project.

Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along

Even though I already have several projects going on right now, I couldn't resist joining Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along going on at her blog. I love quilt alongs because there is a set schedule. I'm not good at making schedules, so I like having it all laid out for me to follow along with. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up! I love that she posted a sketch so that I can see in advance which blocks will be made. This really helps in my fabric selection. I was inspired by another quilt-alonger (Melissa) to pull out some of my Christmas fabrics for this project. The fabric is Funky Christmas by Michael Miller. I like the pink mixed in with the traditional Christmas colors. I think this quilt will be a gift for my sister when it is all finished up. She loves anything pink!

I learned a great tip in the very first post! Even though I'm pretty diligent about pinning, I have always pinned perpendicular to the seam, removing the pins as I go. Amy has a picture on her post showing how she puts a pin in the middle, parallel to the seam. As long as the pin is in far enough to miss the presser foot, then it can be left in while sewing. I think this will really help me keep my fabrics lined up the whole time I am piecing. Thanks so much for that tip, Amy!

The instructions for Blocks One and Two can be found here. It's certainly not too late for you to join too!

A sweet little pillow.

I made my son a pillow for daycare a while back, but somehow the pillow and the case were lost. I secretly think someone thought it was so cute that they must have it for themself. So I made him another one, and I love it even more than the first!

I used a great tutorial that Ariel has on her blog. I think I made the top fabric a little taller, just because I love that farm animal print. I learned a few tips the first time I made it, so the second one is a little better. First, I put his name on both the case and the pillow! I sewed in a name label like I use for his clothes. I also made sure to zig-zag stitch the hem of the envelope closure, just like the tutorial says to do. I have no idea why I didn't do that the first time. Finally, I use pinking shears to trim the seam allowance after it was all sewn. The first one had lots of fraying after just a couple of washes.

Here it is!
And just for kicks - The original.

My First Bees :)

I'm in two quilting Bees right now. Both of them started in May. One is six months, and one is 12 months, so they will keep me busy for a while.

Here is my first block for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee - The Bumble Bees.

Kendra asked for blocks inspired by coin quilts, and here is what I came up with.
For the other Bee that I organized on a private board, Mary wanted a specific pattern. The fabric is Martinque by 3 sisters for Moda and it was wonderful to work with. She sent honeybun strips, so some of the cutting was already done for us. Very nice! What do you think?

I should have some more to post soon, because I still have one May block to do (the fabric was lost in transit), and I need to be working on all my June blocks too!

Thanks for Reading :D

Bloggers Quilt Festival

The Bloggers Quilt Festival is set to start on Friday, and I'm frantically trying to get something finished to show. You can find more info here. You should join in too! All are welcome, no matter how new or old you are to quilting.

I am going to consider this my comeback to blogging! I have joined two bees, and I'm even running one of them. It's nice getting back into everything, it's just really hard to find the time. I know I need some "me" time though, so I'm doing what I can to make it happen.

Have a great day!