July - the NewFO Month

This month, I decided to do whatever I want. Partly because it's summer and partly because my husband left on a no-notice deployment. It's rough being the only one to take the kids to swim lessons, and the park, and to the ice cream store. Okay, not really, but it's harder to fit in sewing time.

Finished Flimsies: Tennessee Waltz, Ohio Nines, Wee Wander {with mitered borders!}, Mitered Corner Practice Piece {okay, it's hardly huge, but I'm going to make it a pillow. It counts.} Only Tennessee Waltz was started prior to July.

Finished: Central Park Sudoku {AYOLF goal}

Finished: Christmas Tree Skirt {started and finished in July}

Blocks: Ripples and Reflections Parts 1 & 2, red Weekly Churn Dashes, Hello Luscious-Avignon Picnic, California Girl Double Hourglass, Sawtooth Star + Denim - all new projects except for the churn dashes.

So, that's eight NewFOs for the month. Not bad. Especially since almost all were on my UFO list somewhere.

And in between there's been the zoo and kids museums and tie dye and family and treasure hunts and accidentally learning things. And that family in the middle picture is expanding - new quilt niece or nephew due in February!

And no races, but I'm doing the world's worst 5K training program. I've never been this fast...or sore.

Linked:
A Year of Lovely Finishes
Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
NewFO @ Cat Patches

Christmas Tree Skirt - Finished!

It's Christmas in July! And an order fulfilled long before it was due!

Of course, that does make it difficult to take pictures, as there's no Christmas trees around. Or snow.

It's made entirely from my Christmas scrap bin - lots of Rudolph and the Grinch and Kate Spain and Sandy Gervais.

I alternated Kona, solid pieces of Christmas fabric, and pieced sections. Made a good dent in the scrap bin...until I tossed the backing scraps in.

Made some ties for the cat to play with. Um, I mean, to close up the back.

Not my first time making bias binding, but my first time sewing it in a circle. It was a lot easier than I thought! And bias binding really is a dream - no fraying and manipulates so easily.

Quilting is just simple straight lines along the wedges. I don't do it often anymore, and it was nice to just follow the lines.

I used the Sew Crafty Jess tutorial, which was very well done. However, in the future, I'd just buy a wedge ruler. {And there will be a future, because this is totes adorbs and I want my own.} I spent so much time making sure the ruler was lined up on the template and not enough time making sure the rotary blade wasn't lined up with my thumb. Owie.

Quilt Details

Fabric: Christmas scraps, Kona Bone

Backing: blue snowflakes from Joann's

Binding: Christmas stripe from Joann's

Size: 60ish" round

Pattern: Sew Crafty Jess' tree skirt

Linked:
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

I Quilt @ Pretty Bobbins

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Make Baby Quilts @ Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Feline Friday @ Sarah Did It!

Finish-Along @ The Littlest Thistle {FAL List}

WiP - Pool Time

I'm at my in laws, so there's not a lot of sewing going on here.

Whole lot of this, though.

I did manage to get some stuff done before I left, and during naptimes.

Okay, Central Park Sudoku isn't new, but the finished post is.

Checked off part 2 of Ripples and Reflections - a whooping 2.75 hours to build these four matching blocks, at 180 pieces total. I was right about them luring you in with part 1 being fairly easy. Glad to put it away for a month!

Now I'm strip piecing my Hello Luscious-Avignon Picnic. Strips are done and cutting is happening...when there aren't little fingers around. And there's twice as many of those than normal!

The first section is nearly together...and yes, I went color-sorted-scrappy. And yes, cell phone pictures at nine p.m. are amazing.

In a departure from the norm, I went scrappy with my last red churn dash, because I adore my Punctuation scraps and I didn't have enough of one piece to make a block.

And my palette of the week. Look, it's not food! Although suddenly I want pomegranate punch.

There's also been trips to the zoo, and Mary Jo's, and treasure hunts, and smores, and lightning bugs, and did I mention the pool?

Linked:
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
Color Mondays @ Porch Swing Quilts
Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure
Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

Central Park Sudoku - Finished!

Yet another quilt that languished in several spots along the process journey. It was just waiting for the right pieces, I guess?

It started when I fell in love with Central Park by Kate Spain. But not the animals. So when this Sudoku kit came across my path, I snatched it up. And I showed my mom and she said, "that looks like the horrible stuff we had in the 70s." Woo, modern fabrics!

I adore Sudoku, but keeping it in place throughout a quilt isn't that easy. You'd think it would be, but there was a lot of double checking.

The top was pieced over the summer of 2012.

I bought the borders back in Oklahoma...probably at least 18 months ago? Finally put them on in February. I'm still not positive the dark purple was the right decision. But clearly it's staying. They're both Good Fortune by Kate Spain.

It was quilted with loopy flowers back in March, and then it waited until I would not be able to quilt but still needed a finish. ;)

I had no binding in mind until I was out picking up my machine from its spa vacation at Bear Paw Quilting in May. A tiny skinny end bolt of Good Fortune was in their clearance. I grabbed it and hoped it was enough...and it was!

Photobombing overwhelmed my shoot. 

The Dude took off with it and declared that it was his. All that pink and purple? "Mom. It's minkee." Well.

I thought the size was a bit off - too big for a baby, too small for a lap. Apparently the right size for a boy.

And complimentary colors for the cat.

Quilt Details

Fabric: Central Park, Good Fortune {Kate Spain}, Kona White

Backing: pink minkee

Binding: Good Fortune

Size: 56x56"

Pattern: Sudoku layout {with 5" charms and 1" finished sashing}

Linked:
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

I Quilt @ Pretty Bobbins

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Make Baby Quilts @ Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Feline Friday @ Sarah Did It!

Finish-Along @ The Littlest Thistle {FAL List}

WiP - Diversity

I'm still bouncing all over the place this week, but at least I have some finishes to show for it! And some new skills to boot.

I quilted and bound my sister's Christmas tree skirt, and bound Central Park Sudoku. Making bias binding wasn't a new thing, but attaching it in a circle was. And it wasn't that hard!

Then I practiced a mitered border on a little panel piece from my husband's grandmother's stash. It worked okay...

...so I went ahead and put the mitered border on my Wee Wander quilt. I'm so glad I learned the technique, because this is perfect. Straight borders wouldn't have cut it with this amazing border print.

I finally - finally - finished cutting my MIL's Ripples and Reflections, and made the first block. I'm keeping track - 1 hour to sew, 41 pieces.

And since working with Christmas, modern fabrics, 80s fabric, novelty fabric, and batiks wasn't enough for one week, I started one with homespun-style flannels.

When digging through Grandma's stash, I found two pillowcases with a design and her name and her husband's. And then I felt immense guilt because I've had the denim from her husband's jeans for three years and haven't made her a quilt yet. What kind of person puts off Grandma's quilt??

So I whipped together a plan, dug out these flannels from a kit, and got started!

And in between all this, I cut another neutral jelly roll for my vacation sewing. This is a new one to me - Plaster of Paris - that's very Grunge-like. The real jelly roll is California Girl, bought during my husband's last deployment. Fitting that I should work on it during this one!

Oh, yeah, and my Weekly Churn Dash. This is just a Joann's print, nothing special, but I love the pattern of the white dots and the random blue flowers.


And the design palette of the week! Orange, and I love the matching Kona names. {Photo courtesy of the EPA. Really!}

Linked:
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
Color Mondays @ Porch Swing Quilts
Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure
Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

WiP - Flimsy Finishing

The month of doing whatever continues, with a bunch of finishes!


First, I finished off the Christmas tree skirt for my sister. Waiting on a backing decision, and I'll probably quilt this at home so I can take it east with me.


Then my aunt made a decision on her final border and I finished up the Tennessee Waltz. And it was totally the right decision. This one will be quilted on the longarm, so not for a while yet.


And lastly, I ordered Wee Wander as a deployment gift for the kids, received it on Wednesday, and whipped it into a top by Sunday. Okay, it's not a complicated top, and it still needs to be trimmed, but I really enjoyed fussy cutting the adorable kids.

I'm going to miter the fabulous border, which I've never done. Debbie {A Quilter's Table} suggested Amy's Creative Side's tutorial - I've read it and I think I'm going to try on something smaller first. I don't want to mess up my lovelies!

And then there's my Weekly Churn Dash. The Dude and I bought this fabric during an Oklahoma Quilt Shop Hop a few years ago. He has pretty good taste.

Jennie {Porch Swing Quilts} is starting a palette linky. As it is Rainier Cherry season out here, I have one red thing on my brain. {Photo courtesy of Rainier Fruit Company.}

And finally, I cut 2.5" strips for a jelly roll quilt while I'm on the East Coast. Jelly rolls are easy travelers! This one is Hello Luscious by Basic Grey, with the cream Grunge from the same line, and it will become Avignon Picnic.

Of course, all these finishes leave me wondering what to do next...

Linked:
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure
Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric
Color Mondays @ Porch Swing Quilts

WiP - Doing Whatever I Want

So... I deliberately didn't take on much work this summer because it's my first one with two kids. Turns out, that was a really good plan, because now I'm also solo parenting for the summer.

So I have officially declared that I'm doing whatever I want in July. If I want to add things to my UFO list and not check anything off - fine. If I want to do Christmas in July - go for it. (As is Sew Lux, Fort Worth Fabrics, Quilt Story...) If I want to slice off part of my thumb...oops.

Case in point. Inspired by Winding Bobbins and using Sew Crafty Jess' measurements, I ran a rotary blade right over my thumb. Okay, that might not be their fault.

But anyway - my start on my sister's Christmas tree skirt. Which is adorable and doesn't have any blood on it...thank goodness.

And since there was a little too much desert khaki in my life last week, I pulled out some fabrics I got out of the Cozy Quilt's sale section. They were leftover from a applique quilt, and random sizes, so I ran a couple quick calculations and made an Ohio Star/Nine Patch/Irish Chain baby quilt.

I don't have any reason for it, and I'm not going to be quilting it any time soon, but I hung it up on the railing and the bright colors make me happy. And CC loves to hide behind it for sneak attacks.

And of course, my red scraps always make me happy. The real challenge this month is to not use all Sandy Gervais Valentine's fabrics.

Linked:
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure
Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

Halfway Through 2014 Review/July Goals

I was just going to do a quickie Finish-Along round-up for the last three months, but since it's halfway through the year, it seems like a good place to stop and take stock.

For starters, major life changer:

After almost 2.5 years in process and two years since referral, the Little Man finally came home. He's been home almost eight weeks now and things are going well. He still won't speak English other than CC, no, out, kitty, and ammo {in reference to Nerf gun darts...thanks, Dad.} But since the lack of communication is our only complaint, we're doing really well.

I got a half marathon PR in the beginning of the year, which means all the rest of this year's can just be "finish at any time." Woo! Which was definitely necessary in Portland and Seattle.

In sewing, I've completed 12 quilts.

Three customer quilts - T-shirt Quilt / Vera Bradley Quilt / T-Shirt Quilt
One start that wasn't on the UFO list {that was actually completely done from scraps} - Pretty in Pink
Five already-started-and-stopped UFOs - Chunky Log Cabin / Four Patch Frenzy / Skorca! / Cat Tails / Flirt Marks the Spot
Three projects that I already had planned and purchased the fabric - Road to Oklahoma / Owl Always Love You / Goodnight Monkey

I also made some table runners and wall hangings and some more table runners and an ironing board cover and did I mention the table runners?

And I finished off some tops to join the neverending "to be quilted" list. {And other ones got quilted, but they're close enough to finished that I'm just ignoring them for now.}

How's the list looking? Still pretty bad...but there's more crossed off than added, I think. I won't be quilting as much this summer, since quilting will cost me babysitting fees as well. My plan for July is to piece whatever the heck I feel like, whenever the heck I feel like it. It's summer.

Orders

Chevron Baby Quilt - pieced, awaiting quilting

Vera Bradley Stars Quilt - finished!

Witch Table Runner - quilted, hand-stitching binding

Wedding Quilt - waiting for the blocks to be sent back

Christmas Tree Skirt/Stockings - due Dec. 2014
Tammy's Running T-Shirt Quilt - finished!

Lori's Running T-Shirt Quilt - finished!
Tennessee Waltz - added 5/14 - pieced to borders
Celtic Love Knot - added 5/14 - planned, awaiting fabric choices
Space Twin Bed Quilts - added 6/14 - awaiting pattern choice

Awaiting Binding

Christmas Stars

Heart Table Runner - finished!

Frolicking Pinwheels 1

Ornament Table Runner

Postage Stamp Table Runner

Sunkissed Pillow

Four Patch Frenzy 1 - finished!

Central Park Sudoku - my AYOLF goal for July. I even have the binding, so it's probably a total cheat, but whatever. It'll definitely get done.

Reverse Heart - added 2/14 - finished!
Striped Table Runners

To Be Quilted

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Skorca! - finished!

Leftover Bunting Quilt

Pink Hunter's Star

Christmas Sampler

Baby Owls - finished!

Chunky Log Cabin - finished!

Toy Story 1

Summer Drinks

Partially Pieced

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013

Cat Tails - finished!

Four Patch Frenzy 2

Frolicking Pinwheels 2
Log Cabin Shoes

Polaroid Quilt

Saturday Sampler 2012

St. Paul's Cross

Strip XOs

Woven Snowmen

Cat Flying Geese

Cars

Toy Story 2

Little Dude's foster mother's Road to Oklahoma - finished!

Celtic Solstice

Bedtime Monkey - finished!

Cardinal Charm Tesselation

Just Needs Borders

Flirt Marks the Spot - finished!

Boardwalk

Bonnie & Camille Spin Cycle {and justifiable, waiting for Miss Kate's release to finish}

Block of the Month/Week

{as in, I will be piecing it throughout the year with no hurry to finish}
Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014

MIL's 60th Birthday BOM - Ripples and Reflections

Fat Quarter Stars

Quilt Doodle's Row Along

Planned

{as in, I already own the fabric & pattern}

Coffee panels and yardage

Lone Star
Pez Schnibble

Voila Pumpkin Kit

Trip Around the World

California Girl Double Hourglass - this one, and Luscious, are my Something Old goals for the month. I know - how can they be old if they haven't been started yet? I've had both jelly rolls with a planned pattern for two years, so I think that qualifies. And I'll be visiting family for two weeks, so what's easier than a couple jelly roll projects?

Hello Luscious Avignon Picnic

Mason Jar quilt

Homespun + Jeans

Star Wars Pixelated

Scrap Project

{as in, scraps that are partially pieced in some way and enough to make a mini or pillow, or there's enough that I can get another entire quilt out of it and am therefore unwilling to separate them...}

Civil War Scraps

HST Joy Scraps
Winnie the Pooh Scraps

Sew Cherry HST Scraps

Fairy Scraps

Saturday Sampler '11 Scraps

Pink Hunter Star Scraps

Blue Hunter Star Scraps

Steelers Scraps

Flirt Scraps

Small Project

{already in some stage of production}

OU/OSU Bunting

Crayon Rolls
Car Organizer

Red Suede Purse

A ridiculous number of pants that need hems or elastic repaired

Ironing board cover - finished!

Linked

A Year of Lovely Finishes

Something Old, Something New @ Never Too Hot to Stitch
Finish-Along @ The Littlest Thistle