April - The Adoption Month

Our adoption was finalized this month. Does anything else really matter?

Well, actually, since that was all done in Korea with no input from us at all, I had plenty of time for other stuff this month, actually.

Like finishing the Little Man's quilt - my AYOLF goal.

And finishing Pretty in Pink, which was one of the several quilts listed on my Facebook page and already sold.

I also finished up a bunch of quilting, mainly of the striped table runners, but also of Cat Tails. I'm saving Cat Tails for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, so only sneak peeks for now.


Since the table runners have hand-stitched bindings, they finish up slowly. This one went to a silent auction for my church, so that's why it's done.

In piecing:

My four weekly churn dashes. Definitely a range of purples!

A couple extra RSC'13 blocks.

Finished the block piecing for Spin Cycle. I'm setting them aside now because I don't feel like sewing sashing I'm waiting for the release of MISS KATE for the borders of this Bonnie & Camille tribute quilt. I mean, really - obviously they named the new collection after me, so it only makes sense.

Some progress on Celtic Solstice. Last month I decided on a new layout and unpicked all of the secondary blocks. This month I actually started on the new design. I like it. The pinwheel was just too distracting, IMHO.

And then I made it all the way to the 29th without a NewFO! Instead of whipping out a kit, I decided to work on a quiet book for the Little Man. No iPads allowed at the embassy, so I have to have some way to entertain him. I know, weird, right?

But it is a sewing project, so I think it counts. The Dude and I have been having fun Pinteresting and designing the pages. The monster is completely his design. Unzip the mouth and unroll the tongue!

I'll have a post on Friday with more pages, or you can catch a sneak peek on Instagram. {@katiemaequilts}

And in family news, besides the whole finalization thing, the Dude became a Webelo. Momma cried. So did the Dude, when we had to rip that mustache off.

And I realized CC is the same size as Tycho now - and she's only eight months old. He still barely tolerates her. She manages to snuggle up with him if she creeps up slowly while he's not looking.

Linked:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

A Year of Lovely Finishes

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts

NewFO @ Cat Patches

Goodnight Monkey - Finished!

Well, since our adoption was finalized in Korea last week, it made sense to finish off the Little Man's quilt this week!

Unfortunately, final doesn't mean done. Due to holidays and random "system upgrades," we can't travel to get him {well, his visa} for a little bit longer.

But whatever - his quilt is done! And ready to go! Just as soon as we can! And I will make it through another week. Maybe.

Goodnight Monkey was inspired by a quilt I saw on Moda Bake Shop. I had a jelly roll of this line, and a friend gave us a blue sock monkey for the Little Man, so I decided to strip-piece the bottom and put the monkey on the top like a real bed.

I think the design was mostly like what I saw in my head. Close enough, at least! I still can't decide if I should have done shoulders! Probably...but...

The quilting is loose loops in a blue and yellow variegated thread on the stripped portion, and white thread on the "bedsheet." I thought about doing something in each strip, but decided on an allover design to soften the quilt up.

The back is slightly more random than I usually do! I had the panel that I wanted to use up. And a yard of the brown sock monkey texture from the applique. And some leftover strips from the front. And the extra blue dots from the pillow. So...there they all are.

Honestly, the panel is supposed to be a fabric book, so it's a little out of order here...the end is right next to the start! But I didn't want to take it apart and rearranging it, so...I think he'll still get the point of the story - which is, of course, totally jump on the bed.

I saved all the texture strips from the jelly roll to use in the applique and binding. I love it as binding - the texture just looks great!

In gratuitous kitten pictures, CC had this lovely little habit of curling around my machine, under my stand. As you can see here, she is quickly becoming too big to fit properly and ended up pulling the stand away from the machine to shove herself under it. Made strip-piecing lots of fun with the wiggling!

Snuggled up with the inspiration sock monkey.

And I'd love to show a great shot of it draped over the crib, but we had to leave something for my dad to do during the day when the Dude is at school. ;-)

Quilt Details

Fabric: mostly Goodnight Monkey jelly roll {a line from about 2009}

Backing: Monkey panel, sock monkey texture, blue dots that I can't find the selvage

Binding: jelly roll strips

Size: 40x60"

Pattern: similar to Moda Bake Shop

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ A Quilting Reader's Garden

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}

Weekly Progress - Final Approval!!

Sewing? Who cares about sewing? WE HAVE FINAL APPROVAL!!

This long, long, loooooong journey is finally at an end. But not without another little government hiccup - the embassy is closed for most of next week, so we have to wait just a bit longer to go pick him up. Because of course.

But, deep breath. It's almost done.

And I did get some sewing done this week!

Pretty in Pink - finished!

Goodnight Monkey - quilted and binding prepped. That will be finished off ASAP so it can go with us to Korea. Because I get to get my son soon!! {Have I mentioned that? I don't know if I mentioned that.}

Striped Table Runners - started quilting the myriad of these. I finished the daisy ones and the long spring-y ones. Hexagon spring-y ones are pinned and ready to go, witch ones are on the bottom of the long backing piece.

Oh, and once I remove the daisy backing, I'll add Dutch table runners. Because when you cut one off, another grows in its place. {Hail Hydra!}

{I should probably remove my row markers before quilting...}

And since by the end of last week, I knew I wasn't going to be flying to Korea this week, I went ahead and finished Cat Tails and scheduled quilting for tomorrow. Just because I really want to finish Cat Tails.

Weekly Churn Dash - this one...hmm. I know I've used it before, because it's not a full FQ. But I can't remember where. I told you the purple scraps weren't all that meaningful!

Spin Cycle - two more blocks added. 18/25 done.

A random question. I've been working on updating my pages at the top. Since I do a lot of baby quilts, there's...a lot of quilts. I think I have 50-60 finished ones?

Anyway, what do people think is the best way to display that? Quilts by year? By category? Smaller thumbnails so you don't have to scroll past twenty quilts? Collages? No one actually ever checks past works so who cares?

And lastly...I finally gave in and joined Instagram. In case you want to see daily pictures of Bad Kitten being bad, instead of weekly ones. {Or Korea pics. Because I'm going to Korea!! To get my son!!!}

Linked:

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

Weekly Progress - Airplane Germs

Well, it was inevitable with 24+ hours in airplanes. I came down with a head cold of sorts and spent the last week sleeping it off and drinking tea. So not that much got done in the sewing room.

Spin Cycle - added one more block...of course, the one that Bad Kitty is sitting on.

At that block, I ran out of square-in-a-square pieces, so it was time to start chain piecing some more. Woohoo.

Weekly Churn Dash - this was from one of my very first projects, a purse that I put together totally wrong and never fixed. It's a good reminder of how far I've come!

And I stitched down the applique on Goodnight Monkey, and started prepping the back. I'm using a panel and the leftover pieces from the front.

And, very exciting for the Dude - we're spending Spring Break cleaning and organizing closets, which includes swapping out some of my sewing room shelving. So far, his room is looking a lot better...and the rest of the house is looking a lot worse.

Linked:

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

March - Big Events for My Boys Month

I haven't posted in two and a half weeks...gosh, I wonder where I might have been! ;)

If you need a hint, "Eolmana ma?" is how you say "how much for a yard?" at a Korean fabric market. Sort of.

And this is what 15 yards for $45 looks like.

And that other thing we went to Korea for...I think that went well. Honestly, I'm not going to breathe again until we get initial approval. But, we met the Little Man and he flopped right down on the quilt I made for his foster mother and hugged it, so I like him already.

Sewing

Chunky Log Cabin - Finished

Skorca! - Finished

Both long-time UFOs, so good to knock those off the list.

Some smaller projects...

...a table runner for a friend...

...a pillowcase for the Dude...

...and a birthday table runner. For my NINE YEAR OLD.

Quilted

Central Park Sudoku / Reverse Hearts - Hearts is now bound but not all the threads are buried. CPS is waiting for binding.

Piecing

Spin Cycle - adding a few blocks every week. By the way, who bet on 2.5 months before Little Miss Fluffy Tail ripped the design wall down?

Bedtime Monkey {my NewFO} - done to the applique. I can't decide if the monkey ought to have shoulders. He looks a bit weird without them.

Striped Tablerunners - I took a class on these at the beginning of the month and whipped together a few more. Only the birthday ones have been quilted so far.

Weekly Churn Dash - quickly polished off the last two {bottom row} this weekend. The darker teal is from Boardwalk, and the other is, of course, my most favorite fabric ever, the Lovely from my Celtic Solstice. {Does it count as a scrap if you're not done with the quilt yet?}

And speaking of Solstice, I didn't do any sewing on it this month. In fact, I unsewed. I decided the pinwheel centers in Block B were too distracting, so I used the 12+ hour plane rides to rip some seams, and the down time in Seoul to sketch out a plan.

And I dug out Toy Story 1 and discovered it was a whole six seams from finished. So now it's a top.

Linked:

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

A Year of Lovely Finishes
Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts

NewFO @ Cat Patches

Weekly Progress - Still Moving Along

Still doing a pretty good job knocking things off the UFO/to-do list. It helps that I have so much stuff allllllllllllmost done, plus nervous energy to spare. 

And I know this is the home stretch - in less than a month, the Little Man should be home with us, and my sewing time will be severely limited. Since I've been waiting, oh, almost two years for this, I plan on enjoying the break.

Finished

Skorca! - and after promising it to the Dude for two years, it was a good finish to knock off the list!

{Oh, and there's a giveaway on that post. You might want to check it out.}

Quilted

Chunky Log Cabin and Central Park Sudoku - Chunky just needed the borders, and CPS was pinned to my zippers, so it got ahead of Reverse Hearts. I do have binding for Chunky, but not CPS, so it'll still be a while before CPS becomes a finish.

Piecing

Okay, it's not quite piecing, but I cut out the letters for the growth chart that went with the H is for Henry quilt panel. That meant the teal leftovers were finally free to...

...become a Weekly Churn Dash. Henry was my first ever long arm finish, so of course one of his teals would make it into the churn dashes.

I started a table runner based on my Hearts and Cabin, for a friend. One more heart and it's into the quilting box!

More Spin Cycle blocks, slowly moving along here. Really wish I could get a good shot, but we've got some rainy, dreary weather out here.

And I strip-pieced the main body of the Monkey quilt. It's supposed to be a "bed," with the white as a sheet and the blue dots as a pillow. I can't decide if the monkey applique is too small - it's only about 10" on a 44" quilt body. But the monkey will also have paws and a tail appliqued onto the "sheet," so... I don't know. It seems like a lot of white space for a kid's quilt!

And gratuitous kitten pic. What, were you USING this?

Linked:

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabric

Messes and Mess-ups Monday @ Sewing by Moonlight