Weekly Progress - MORE SNOW!

We did get the winter storm they predicted last week, and it was about as good as Oklahoma gets.

{Yeah wind, blast that tree!}

We lost power overnight, so I shoveled myself to the car to check Facebook. Luckily it was back by 10 am....other friends out here were not as lucky!

{Of course I had to make french toast! I had bread, eggs, and milk!}

Of course, my dear husband decided that the middle of a snowstorm was the best time to tell me we were moving back to Spokane, WA. You know, the place that got something close to 100" of snow the last winter we were there.

He's buying me a snowblower for my birthday.

Anyway... I waited until the end of the month to get anything significant done on my sewing projects... Good thing for those monthly link-ups to keep me moving! So while it looks like I did a lot this week, really, most of the stuff was near completion and I just finished it off.

{Finished!} Layer Cake Snowballs - post here.

{Finished!} Starburst Pillow - I'm really glad I went with a pillow instead of a quilt. I know it wouldn't have gotten done if I tried for a whole quilt. The quilting is based on Karamat's Mini-Swoon Swap - I wanted to practice before tackling my Swoon!

{BOM} I started putting together the Sampler, but quickly ran out of the black. Go figure - you need a lot of that!

 {Design Wall} All the pink blocks for Boardwalk. It will not look this pink! I ironed and started cutting the teal fat quarters today.


{Rainbow Scrap Challenge} These have been finishing up throughout the month as little leaders/enders. March is orange, which will be hard - I don't have a lot of it.

My new Flirt project is mostly cut out and strip sets are forming. And look - it's the ONLY thing on the cutting table!

I also made a set of Cat Tails. But I don't remember which set it was. One of these...

Oh, and I did this. Yes, the medal is bigger than my hand. Yes, I beat my Tulsa time. Yes, hills make your butt hurt. A LOT.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} I took a deep breath and plunged into the horrors of the scrap box, where bags of old projects are sent to never be sorted. Stuff I want to keep together are now boxed and labeled. And I have a bigger pile of scraps to re-sort into colors. {Still not enough orange!}

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Layer Cake Snowballs - Finished!

I am not late for last Christmas. I am EARLY for NEXT Christmas.

So this top was done last July...yeah...

I did a week-by-week tutorial on it.

Week 1 ~ Week 2 ~ Week 3 ~ Week 4

{Oklahoma obliged me with snow for the pictures}

I did simple quilting, outline the layer cake slices. I probably should have done more, but...I didn't!

The front is a Joy {Kate Spain/Moda} layer cake, with red and green Konas. I do not remember the exact shades.

The backing/binding is Tinsel {Maude Asbury/Blend} and it matches perfectly.

approx. 57x67"

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 

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt

Flaunt Your Finish @ OKC MQG

Finally Finished @ Quilt Story

End of Month Report - February

Man, this short month went a bit too fast! Who ever decided that February should get shortchanged? Darn you, Caesar! What was so wrong about making January, February, and March all 30-day months?

Family: We got orders! Surprisingly early! Back to Fairchild AFB, WA. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this...but at least the place makes us happy. We'll move sometime this summer - school doesn't start until after Labor Day {and Oklahoma gets out before Memorial Day} so we have a lot of time to work with.

Adoption: Still waiting to hear the revised timeline and requirements...and trying not to worry. I'm hoping we know before we schedule the move - obviously, it would be nice to be settled before the Little Man comes home.

Running: Little Rock Half is this weekend, and I feel insanely prepared. At some point, full marathon training stopped being tiring and started being, "oh, no biggie, I have a 2:30 long run this weekend. AND I WILL DO IT IN 2:20!!"

Sewing: I planned, this month, to... 

Quilt Star Wall Hanging and Layer Cake Snowballs

Ah, no. Finished Snowballs under the wire {post will be up tomorrow} but Star isn't even basted.

Pick 16 Saturday Sampler blocks to set on point and do that

Yes! Not only that, but all the on point blocks are sashed and I started putting together the other blocks. And then I ran out of fabric. Man, when you have a lot of negative space, you need a LOT of that fabric!

 
Figure out what I'm doing with Boardwalk and make at least ten blocks

Uh, sure. If you count slicing the setting pieces as "making blocks."

 
Keep up with one Cat Tails block each week

Yes, I'm up to nine blocks. And out of space on the design wall, again! Four more to go...I think. I should really come up with a plan...

And then also...

Starburst Pillow - I love it! I'm really glad I decided to make it pillow-size. Now I can enjoy it instead of letting it linger on the to-be-quilted pile.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - ten cute little purple blocks!

And then there's my NewFO. I did not plan on a NewFO this month. I blame my mother-in-law - she ordered me quilt magazine subscriptions for  Christmas. I couldn't resist making this one in Flirt!

As for March...it's got Spring Break and two half marathons, so I'll try not to be overly ambitious.

1. Keep up with Cat Tails - I should finish the cat blocks and have them ready to set in April.

2. Quilt Star Wall Hanging, Frolicking Pinwheels, and Skorca. {I know, three. But two are small and should not take that long! And I know I'm going to keep putting Skorca off.}

3. Make a new Creeper pillow for the Dude's birthday. {The first one went to a friend. The second will be properly pixelated.}

4. Make at least half of the fourteen remaining blocks for Boardwalk. Luckily, they're all blue/teal, so the pink will be balanced.

Linked:

Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Getting It Done
Year of the Finished Project
Just Three

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
NewFO Challenge @ Cat Patches 
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

FAL - First Quarter

My January goal list was mostly finish blocks, not finish quilts. So...what do I want/expect to actually finish before March 31?

The pile o'unquilted tops is nearing the top of the chair...should probably work on that. 

Specifically, Fall-gyle, Frolicking Pinwheels, Star Wall Hanging, Layer Cake Snowballs, Skorca!, and Olivia Schnibble. That's two a month, one big, one small. Doable.

Two are Christmas, but with a move halfway through the year, I'd really like to get all the Christmas stuff packed and moved together, including the finished quilts. Which requires finished quilts.

I also want to get over my nerves and deconstruct a flight suit. Really want to make it into a camera bag for our Spring Break vacation. Desert or regular?

And I have two t-shirt quilts, a heart wall hanging, and a Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star quilt to make. But they're not UFOs, so they don't count. As much. I took the orders in 2012, so maybe they should count!

Linked:
Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt

WiP/FMC - A Vacation from My Vacation

Because life is so hard, I decided to take a vacation from it all. Well, actually, I'm visiting my in-laws and playing tourist in North Carolina. Next week, we're playing tourist in Washington, DC. So there's not going to be as much sewing for a bit.

Finishes:

Before I left, I finished up the Layer Cake Snowballs top.

Fifteen Minute Challenge

  Still steadily working through Big Blue's binding. I turned the third corner yesterday. Home stretch!

In-Progress:

Central Park Sudoku - nine patches are sewn, partially sashed, and triple checked for Sudoku accuracy.

LQS Saturday Sampler 2012 (15/36 blocks) - good GRACIOUS, these blocks were a pain. Such simple blocks, such numerous simple mistakes.

Quilting:

Bad Romance & Fall-gyle - No progress on either of these. Oops. Really not doing well at catching up on my quilting. 

Swapping:

Picture-Perfect Polaroid Block Swap

In-Progress-But-Not-This-Week

Fat Quarter Stars (6/12 blocks)
 

In-Progress-But-Not-This-Summer

LQS Saturday Sampler 2011 (12/12 & center) 

Chunky Log Cabin (13/20 blocks)

St. Paul's Cross (2/42? blocks)

Adoption:

Application Submitted - 2/12 

Home Study - approved 5/12

USCIS paperwork - mailed 6/12
Home Study to Korea - 6/12
Referral Accepted - 6/12

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 1

In Progress: 10

Stash Report - Week 30

It's a good thing there was no stash report last week - now this week's looks great!

Finishes:

{Nine Patch Snowball}

{Layer Cake Snowball}

Yay for Snowball Fights!

Used this Week: 8.05

Used Year to Date: 73.89

Added this Week: 0

Added Year to Date: 122.20

Net Used for 2012: (48.31) yards

Snowball Fight! {Week 4}

Do you save your snowballs' HSTs? Good, because now you have a whole other quilt!

Here's a Moda Bake Shop tutorial with several different HST layouts.

I'm planning on this one, because there's stars in the pattern.

{Leftovers from the Layer Cake Snowballs make a 12x14 layout, 30x35"}

One of my favorite non-traditional HST layout is Debbie's from A Quilter's Table.

Need more inspiration? There's a whole Flickr Group for that.

Or you can toss like-sized HSTs in a bag - I have my Nine-Patch-Snowballs leftovers in with my leftovers from my Blue Bowties. At 1.5", they're pretty tiny, so I'll add more bonus-HST before I decide what to make. Someday.

Week Three of the Layer Cake Snowballs

 Assembly!

Alternating color corners, sew together seven rows of six blocks.

{57x67"}

You can either lay it out in advance, or wing it. Press each row in alternating directions, and I pressed my final seams open.

My layer cake had a lot of directional prints, so I planned out each row as I went along, but I didn't worry too much about where everything ended up as long as they were right side up.

WiP/FMC - Lots of Little Things

So, where to start...?

How about...we accepted a referral for this little guy!

His name is William WooYeong, he's ten months old, and we have about a year to wait until we get to bring him home.

So that's my favorite little thing...but I did do a lot of other little things this week.

Finished:

Nine-Patch Snowball {Well, the top, at least.}

Fifteen Minute Challenge

 I decided to do Big Blue's binding while supervising the Dude's daily homework. {Which is one worksheet page..but also torture. Apparently. And often takes longer than fifteen minutes.}

I've forgotten how nice a hand-stitched binding looks. Need to do it more often. Anyway, I stitched every day but Sunday, and I'm done with 2.5 sides.

In-Progress:

Layer Cake Snowball Fight - all ready to be assembled!

Central Park Sudoku - really doesn't look like it's changing, but all the blocks are in rows, at least.

LQS Saturday Sampler 2012 (12/36 blocks) - despite screwing up my block last week, I could still make this set by switching the green and brown...and then I miscut the green. That's a six-piece 3" square to make into HST on the top of the green pile. Attractive.

Quilting:

Bad Romance - lines all the way in one direction, third of the way in the other. So I unpinned so that I could free up the basting pins for...

Fall-gyle! I'm probably going to need a new category - Quilted Enough So That I Could Baste Another Quilt. Because buying more basting pins would be silly!

Joining:

Picture-Perfect Polaroid Block Swap - searching for a good charm pack, since I don't have access to my scraps!

In-Progress-But-Not-This-Week

Fat Quarter Stars (6/12 blocks)

In-Progress-But-Not-This-Summer

LQS Saturday Sampler 2011 (12/12 & center) 

Chunky Log Cabin (13/20 blocks)

St. Paul's Cross (2/42? blocks)

Adoption:

Application Submitted - 2/12 

Home Study - approved 5/12

USCIS paperwork - mailed 6/12
Home Study to Korea - 6/12
Referral Accepted - 6/12

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 1

In Progress: 11

Snowball Fight! {Week Three}

And now, my favorite part of the snowball...combining it with other blocks to make awesome patterns.

Starring my just-finished Nine-Patch-Snowball flimsie!

{Yeah, the picture is a little wonky. I had some help. Small boy help, not cat help.}

This was a three-yard kit, but I decided to snowball the blocks the pattern said to have as squares. Such a simple swap adds so much more movement to the quilt.

Another great example - the combination of the snowball and the "54-40 or Fight" block in the Tennessee Waltz. This is the very first quilt I wanted to make, after seeing how easy it was on Simply Quilts.

Some other good blocks to alternate with a snowball:

{Economy}

{Shoofly}

 {Nine Patch Variation with HST corners}

{Any star block}

{Same star, different coloring in the flying geese}

In all of these, the size of the snowball corner is determined by the other block. In my Nine-Patch-Snowball, the pieces of the nine-patches are 2.5" unfinished, and so are the snowball corners. In the Waltz, the corners match up against a 3.5" unfinished four-patch.

Week Three of the Layer Cake Snowballs

Make 21 snowballs {and the bonus HST} with the other colored corners, just like last week. But press the seams toward the printed fabric {center} this time.

And square them up. The corners should square at 4" and 6" on your ruler.