Weekly Progress - To The Finish

I had a much better week last week - including a kick-ass long run on Friday. Yeah, I just described an eight mile run as awesome. The fresh air must be getting to me.

There's also been a ton of sewing - focused sewing - with several projects completed or nearing completion.

In full disclosure - the rest of my house is a disaster. I don't think I've folded laundry in three weeks.

Finished:

Striped Spiral

Also, the Dude's Halloween costume is finished, but you'll have to wait until Halloween for pictures.

Nearly Finished:

LQS Saturday Sampler 2011 - I just have the top and bottom border to add. And it's not due to the quilter until Nov. 15 - AND I already have the backing good to go!

Running T-Shirt Quilt #2 - all the blocks except for the hardest two are done! I just need to very carefully piece the shirts her husband made for her Ironman.

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

Monday - cleared the cutting table

Tuesday - folded fabric and cleared Necchi sewing machine table
Wednesday - cleared Singer sewing machine table
Thursday - nothing
Friday - cleared the treadle sewing machine
Saturday - cleaned off the bench the cats are supposed to sit on, although they only sit on fabric even when the bench is clear
Sunday - cleaned off the sewing table - and now all the flat surfaces are clear! {Okay, maybe not that exciting...but I don't think ALL the sewing machine tables have ever ALL been clear at the same time.}

Design Wall/UFO Busting
Since I finished off quilting of a UFO earlier in the week, and found some UFO blocks while cleaning, I decided to put them on the design wall and play around with them for my UFO day.
 

 Didn't actually sew them since I'm still playing... I have a total of 20 blocks. I like this frame...but I don't know what to fill it with. Plus I'll have leftover blocks.

I like it on point...could go two rows higher and one column wider... I think if I went with this one, I would slash the blocks instead of adding setting triangles before the border. Or maybe not.

It already looks totally different as I fiddle with the blocks every time I walk past it. And I prepped the last seven partial blocks to finish as leaders/enders throughout this week.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Striped Spiral - Finished!

I pulled this quilt off my treadmill hanging rack earlier this week when it became apparent that I would not finish Skorca in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. {Which was when I threw Skorca in the corner and yelled, "I hate you!" like a teenage girl. Poor Skorca.}

This was an easier quilt to finish. But it still looks pretty good. {Kind of like the teenage girl's Homecoming dance back-up date/best guy friend who totally has a secret crush on her.}

I made most of the top while living in a hotel in Vegas in June. Which is not as glamorous as it sounds. After I finished the blocks I brought with me, I decided it needed to have a neutral block in each corner, so it was put aside until I got back to my stash.

I added another row and column, backed it with a light knit, and quilted it in the neutral with three blue/brown stripes.

It goes to a friend who was the first person to take me to the LQS here in Oklahoma. Her husband flies the same plane that my husband used to fly, and they're currently moving {with their baby, who the quilt is actually for!} to Washington state, our previous assignment. And I am so, so jealous. Especially in the fall - Washington rules apple picking season! I will be less jealous once the snow starts. ;)

Her only request was brown and Tiffany's blue. It's not quite the right blue...but I'm hoping to make it up to her if our team wins the Nike DC Half-Marathon lottery. It's amazing how many women you can convince to run a half with you when there's a little blue box at the end.

The stripe has been in my stash for five or so years; the neutral is Dimples. The binding is April Cornell's Nature's Notebook.

Size: 40x40"

Quilted: Me

Special Techniques: paying close attention to the direction of the stripes!

Category: Best Baby Quilt

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ What a Hoot

Blogger's Quilt Festival @ Amy's Creative Side

Felt Friday & Other Randomness

So, the Dude is going to be a bald eagle for Halloween. Don't ask me why. I don't think he's being patriotic - his original pick was a cardinal, but he decided bald eagles are COOLER. {Which is true!}

 I made a hoodie out of brown and white felt, and added three 12" strips of the brown felt to the arms and back.

 Made a feather-esque template and started cutting.

I tried to make sure they kind of overlap...sort of...oh, heck, he'll be moving his arms a lot and no one will notice if they don't.

I need to add "feathers" to the head, and make the beak and claws/talons still. But the best part of using felt? No hems. I can finish tomorrow because there's no fussy little details!

In other felt-y randomness:

 School assignment: disguise a pumpkin so it won't be carved.

He chose an aquarium.

I have too many felt scraps, methinks.

In other randomness:

My Quilt Festival quilt is ready for binding.

No, it's not Skorca.

If I had to write a blog post about Skorca, it would be all the reasons I hate Skorca.

Skorca and I are not talking right now.

We made Halloween cookies today, from this recipe. It was a failure. At least, they are NOT cut-out cookies, and even when I switched to cutting them off a roll, they are not hard cookies {as implied by the recipe name.} Definitely very soft. And break-y.

Luckily, they still taste like delicious chocolate cookies - just not the kind we intended to make.

And because they break so easily, I can't mail them to my husband. Oh, darn, will have to eat them myself. 

Linked:

Really Random Thursday @ Live a Colorful Life 

Tuesday at the Table @ A Quilter's Table

Weekly Progress - On UFOs

I have not started anything really new in ages. But I need to get somewhere with all these projects before I can start something new!

T-shirt quilts are not very creative. But they force me to be very precise in piecing. And they pay for more creative quilts.

Design Wall - LQS Saturday Sampler 2011

I'm working on this because I have to - it has a date with the long arm and needs to be in a box by Christmas. But all that white space and the simple layout makes the blocks pop.

Grandmother's Choice, block six. I like this one. I don't like #7, and I really don't like #8. But this is a BOW about choice. So...I'm going to do the blocks I like, and appreciate the work the designer put into each week even if I don't make the block.

 Fat Quarter Stars - I made two 12" blocks - Weather Vane and LeMoyne Star - from my shop hop collection. Then I figured that if I was going to get my sister's block book back to her, I should start doing those. So, my first 9" block - Air Castle.
Technically, Weather Vane and Air Castle aren't stars, but they are kind of star-like.

UFO Busting

 Oh, Skorca! I mowed the backyard on Sunday to put off quilting this UFO...talk about a bad sign. I think I need something different than one UFO day a week - because I will come up with a hundred excuses to not sew that day! This week, I'm going to try quilting for an hour each day. That should, hopefully, take care of Skorca, and then maybe I can move on. 

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

 I only folded fabric once in the past week. The cutting table? Covered. The sewing table? Piles on the corners. Felt boxes are on the floor from a kid craft project, I have a giant basket of t-shirt scraps... I need to DO my 15 minutes this week!

Oh, and my other deadline project. Crazy as the idea was, this is actually coming along nicely. The base of the costume is done - now I'm adding the layers. 

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Running T-Shirt Quilt #1 - Finished!

And another bites the dust!

This one went together very easily, despite the involvement of a tech shirt.

I bought a piece of plastic, cut to 15.5", from a local store. For $10! About half the price of a real ruler. I marked the diagonals, and sliced away.

 

About 3/4ths of the blocks are whole, and the rest are pieced to include backs and sleeves.

 

Quilted in invisible thread, through the sashing and on the diagonal.

Measures 63x80"

 

Fabrics from Hobby Lobby

{I feel like I'm missing some zebra trend}
The backing is black minky

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Echinops and Aster

Sew and Tell @ Amy Lou Who

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Weekly Progress - Scattered

I feel like my progress this week was a bit scattered. Or at least, scatter brained. I totally forgot to take a picture of my mother's wall hanging before putting it in the mail. Ah well - she can get an accurate shot of it hanging!

Anyway, things I did do - and sometimes remembered to take pictures of...

Finished:

T-Shirt Quilt #2

Candy Corn Bunting {from Sew Lux's tutorial}

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

The floor is clean, the flat surfaces are clean, and I have a nice pile of fabric that needs to be ironed and folded this week. Never ending process.

Design Wall - LQS Saturday Sampler 2011

I didn't actually sew a bit of this, but I did make some decisions. Mainly, to use the little flowers, plain, in the corners of the center, and to use the longer strips on the sides. Everything else will be filled in with the white-ish from the words.

UFO Busting
I've done a bit of quilting on to Skorca! But I'm not sure I like it. So on my UFO Sunday, I ended up hemming a pair of pants that have sat around for 18 months. For a five-minute hem. 

Then I worked on cutting out my son's Halloween costume, which is not a UFO, but really does have a deadline, so...

Blocks

Saturday Sampler 2012 - Four Corners, Swamp Patch, Ohio Star - love this set!

Oh, and we carved our Halloween pumpkin!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Felt Friday & Some Randomness

Any guesses as to what my infuriatingly creative Dude is going to be for Halloween this year?

And the randomness...




Walking foot troubles

This piece keeps popping loose on my walking foot, rendering it completely useless, since it's the piece that makes the grippers on the top move. It will work for a while, then pop off. Anyone know why or how to fix it?

The cat has taken his love of feet and his over-involvement in my sewing to a new level. {What? You're not wearing Christmas socks yet?}

I got him back by shaking minky backing on him.

The minky backing of this t-shirt quilt! Which is half-bound! Woo!

And Karin at Cascade Quilts is hosting a Modern Siggy Swap. Go join.

Oh, and see the little Daily Mile ticker on the right? It's moving. I'm training for Tulsa's Route 66 Half Marathon. Perfect time of year for running - I'm doing the Bridge-to-10K running program and I'm very impressed at my pace improvement. {Yes, I know a 10K is not a half marathon. In a week, I'm going to start doubling up on my Friday runs.}

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Really Random Thursday @ Live a Colorful Life

Weekly Progress - Serious Progress!

We are finally getting into a routine and getting life into a rhythm, and I got tons done this week!

Finished: 

Bad Romance - finally!

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

Slow and steady, I am getting my sewing room under control. I did my fifteen minutes every day this week: sorting scraps, folding bigger scraps, filing patterns and keeping the flat surfaces clear.

Design Wall - LQS Saturday Sampler 2011

I want this to be a Christmas gift, so I talked to my quilter and scheduled it to go to her on Nov. 15. Deadline!

UFO Busting
Leah's post last week was about the snowball effect - working on little things to free up more time to work on the bigger things. So I looked at my stack of flimsies and picked Bad Romance because it was already halfway quilted.

Next, quilted a wall hanging for my mother. Binding is on and handstitching has begun.

Now I'm at the point that the next quilt done will probably be my Blogger's Quilt Festival Quilt....so I want it to be a good one. But also one that has a back picked already...which kind of limited it to Skorca! 

Blocks
 
Grandmother's Choice, block five. It's a little chaotic, but I like it!

I found six of these blocks {leftover from Sunkissed Jewel Box} and made four into a pillow-sized block. Once I quilt the quilt version, I'll use leftover backing to finish off the pillow. The other two blocks...I don't know. Probably make a notebook cover or something.

Other
 
Toyland Row Quilt had a few of the rows sewn together. I'm not in a hurry to finish it...only to add it to the quilting pile.

No picture, but I finished another t-shirt quilt to the quilting stage! I should finish that off this week.

And finally, I started making these as leaders/enders, thanks to a tutorial on the Sew Lux blog.

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Bad Romance - Finished!

This one was a long time coming. In fact, I had to look back almost two years to see when I finished the top.

{All the while hoping it was 2011 and not 2010!}

But it's done!

58x78"

Pattern: P.S. I Quilt

Quilted diagonally through the solid.

Fabrics, hmmm...

Backing: RJR Momma's Apron Strings

Binding: Chez Moi's Hunky Dory border print {and it looks awesome scrappy even though it's not actually}

Solid: Baby Pink Kona

Prints, including but not limited to: 

Bloom and Grow by Riley Blake

Candy Kisses and L'Amour by Sandy Gervais

Hunky Dory Chez Moi

Thimbleberries

Whimsy by Fig Tree

Oz by Sanae

Love Letters by Clothworks

Simplicity by 3 Sisters

I tried to stage a picture with the cat, but the one who sleeps on them every minute they're in progress, doesn't care when they're done.

You may think this is a nice shot, but that's the face of a cat who just discovered there's a fish on the dresser.

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Better Off Thread

Sew and Tell @ Amy Lou Who

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Finish-Along @ Quilter in the Gap {quilting was finished on Sept. 30 - I just had to hand stitch the binding in the fourth quarter!}
Just Three @ Traceyjay Quilts {again, technically, this was a July Just Three goal...but...July, September, same thing, right?}