A Little Bit of Everything in October

October is over?? Wow! It went fast. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before you know it. I have a lot to share today so I hope you like pictures!!

Lets see…Last time I posted, it was about a mini quilt. My ThimbleBlossoms mini quilt to be exact. Well, that got finished and turned out quite good if I do say so myself. Take a look:

This was the fantastic package that I got back from my partner! A Tula Pink mini quilt, lots of little goodies, some non-chocolate candy and a wonderful ornament.

I love Christmas so I can’t wait to hang this up. Look at these little pieces of fabric all folded up. It’s the perfect colors and suits me to a T. Overall, it was a great swap for my first one.

Speaking of swaps, I have finally started on my Instagram Mini Swap Quilt. After getting thru another Chem test (aced it!!) I figured it was time to get cracking. I have to mail this bad boy out at the beginning of December. I am doing this terrific pattern that requires 1″ 4-patches. Doesn’t that sound awesome! I thought it did until I started working on it. Oh, I still love it, it’s just taking some time to get used to working with pieces this small again. It’s been a while! Don’t worry though, it will be amazing when I am thru working my magic on it.

I think I also told you that I was going to be handsewing most of October? Well, I was. I even had a needle go thru my finger because I am really bad about not using a thimble of any kind. It all paid off though, I won a couple of ribbons at the Quilt Show!!!

Mario took second place in the Juvenile category. I don’t see him as being juvenile and originally entered him into another category but apparently the judges disagreed. In the end, it all worked out.

The Salt Water Metro Rings Quilt below, took Honorable Mention in the Lap Quilt category. I pieced it and Julie quilted it. There was some good competition in this category so this makes me very happy.

Christmas Countdown didn’t place but, since I didn’t expect any of them too, I am not even a bit disappointed! It was still so fun to see it hanging up. As was all of them. Just an overall neat experience. I especially liked seeing people stopping to view them. Kind of cool!

The quilt show pick up turned out to be long and then it was rainy and cold out so I went home and cuddled up on the couch and finished the binding on this 3-year-old table runner. Yep, you read that right. Year 1 = make it & use it unfinished. Year 2 = Use it unfinished. Year 3= realize that it will never get finished unless you finally give it to Julie. Now I will be able to use it properly this year! hahaha

I also finished another Swoon block in this month. Definitely a bit girly with the pink, but in person, it looks really nice with the green complimentary fabric. I also fixed my 3 Swoon blocks that had mistakes in them. I am down to 4 or 5 blocks left and I can put a quilt top together. As soon as my IG Mini Quilt is finished, these are next.

And lastly, I whipped up a pattern test for Chrissy over at Sew Lux Fabrics. She has a great online store and if I ever have a question, she is right there with an answer willing to help out. As an added bonus, she is so close to me that I get overnight shipping on most everything I order. This is her Machine Sewn Mini pattern and its adorable. The machines came together in no time and there was no paper piecing!! This one is going in the pile to be quilted. I thought about doing it myself but I don’t want another Thanksgiving table runner situation. 🙂

 

Whew, I think that does it for October. My intention is to blog more often I have been doing good until this past month. Everything just kind of all hit in a span of a few weeks. Glad to have a lot of stuff off my plate.

November will be for the IG Mini Quilt, a sew day at the guild, another Chem test, Thanksgiving with the hubby and maybe some Swoon blocks worked in.

🙂

Jess

More Mario…

I thought that I should post a few last pictures of Mario with the Binding on and it having been washed and dried. It has been heavily used this week! Yay!

Sorry for the crappy inside pictures. It was raining most of the weekend and I never got a chance to take it outside.

Coin: (The blue in this picture is WAY off)

Goomba:

Turtle:

Pipe:

Mario:

You can see all of the free motion quilting really well in these pictures. I love the way it got all crinkled after washing and drying.

Started working on the wildlife quilt this weekend. Got everything cut up and now am in the process of sewing it all back together. Its going to be really big, but I think that it will be awesome. (At least in my mind, thats how I am picturing it!)

🙂

Mario Quilt Finished!!

Well, 99% finished. I said that I wanted my Mario quilt completely quilted by Sunday night and I got the quilting done on Saturday!!  Whoo-Hooo!!!! (I thought it would take me all weekend)

Binding was made on Sat evening and sewn on Sun morning. I will be working on tacking down the binding over the next few evenings and than into the wash it goes. I imagine it will crinkle up very nicely becuase of all of the quilting.  Can’t wait to see it when it comes out of the dryer.

Husband is completely stoked and cannot wait to start using it!!

It took me about 4.5 hours to quilt this. So much faster than straight line quilting.

In work:

I just LOVE my new dining room table. I don’t know that I could have quilted this the way I wanted to on my old table. With this type of quilting (stippling) you just need so much room to maneuver the quilt. Having this big table was awesome. Also, my new quilting gloves are heaven. (Its the little things in life that make me happy….lol) and yes, I free-motion quilt with my machine turned sideways. Its so much easier to move everything around and too see where you have been and where you need to go next.

Well, here it is. In all is greatness. This picture is before I trimmed up the edges and sewed the binding on. I will show a complete photo once the binding is done. It started out at 64″ x64″ but I do believe it has shrunk some from all the quilting. I’ll have to measure it again once it comes out of the dryer.

The backing is just a solid red. The front of the quilt is the star of the show and I didn’t want a back that would take away from that.

Wanna see a little bit of the stippling type quilting? (you should be able to click on any image to view it larger) See all those thread swirly’s…that’s the quilting. You can see them best on the pipe that Mario is standing on. I used a light blue thread to blend in with the sky. I like it on all of the quilt except for the cloud above Mario. I think the blue is too prominent against the white but that’s the perfectionist in me. I will definitely be leaving it the way it is.

I was soo nervous to quilt this thing that I was ready for a glass of wine or something to calm the self-imposed nerves. Yeah, it was like 10am. Needless to say, instead, I just took a deep breath and dove in. I figured since it was staying at our house that it didn’t really matter if it wasn’t perfect.  I am a true perfectionist and its hard to swallow that understanding sometimes.

And, because I have promised to show a picture of the mushroom pillow for weeks now, here you go:

This pillow has a green twin. I keep forgetting to photgraph them together so you will just have to imagine them sitting beside each other on the couch.

Thats all folks! After working on binding for a a few hours yesterday, I started cutting up a wildlife/outdoors quilt. Its a commissioned quilt for a co-worker and while there is no due date, I would like to get it finished soon so I can keep moving down my list of quilting/sewing to-do’s.

🙂

Quilt Updates

After shopping all day on Sat, I decided I need to get a couple of things done on Sun.

I finished up another section of Mario:

The brick is about done and Mario has feet and is now standing on a pipe. The next section is already sorted into baggies and ready to be sewn together.  Its slow going but I have hit the halfway point!

I also got borders cut and sewn onto curious george:

I am not sure that I love this one with borders but I needed to showcase some more Curious George fabric. Oh, well. I am hoping that once I get it quilted I will like it a lot more. Heading to the LQS tonight to pick up some 505 spray so I can baste this and start quilting it this week. I would like to give this to the recipient asap so I can focus on some other things.

3 posts in one day. I am now over 50! So far, my goal of blogging more this year is going pretty well. It kind of helps to keep me motivated so that I will have something to show everyone!

🙂

 

Weekend going-on’s

So, I am currently working on 3 projects at once. One is a paper piecing project that I am trying to see if I have the smarts to do it, the 2nd is Mario, and the 3rd is a crib quilt.

The crib quilt is an appliqué quilt of pirates, a ship, and all the fun small stuff that goes along with that theme. I practiced appliquéing a couple of fish so that I could see what I thought. They weren’t horrible! They were big though, so I have already decreased the pattern. I am going to try to pick up some interfacing for it next weekend when I am in Raleigh and than I can really get started on it. (if his tail looks funny, it’s because I didn’t finish it…)

I am also working on the next section of Mario. I sat down and sorted out the next 8 rows. I feel like I still have soooo many pieces for this quilt. I haven’t had my sewing machine out yet since the holidays so I think it is about time to plug that baby up!!

Here is my box of Mario squares. All cut and sorted in baggies by size. 

I than pull out what I need for each row in the order I need it and put it into it’s respective row # baggie. This goes a long way towards helping me stay organized with all those small pieces. 

On a side notes, I got my color card in on Thu! So excited to use it! I won’t have to settle anymore for solids that I don’t think match as perfect as I want them too. Yea!

I am headed out to do some stuff with the hubby, maybe bowling tonight, maybe jacksonville tomorrow for some shopping and texas roadhouse. Great weekend ahead!!

🙂

Long Time No Post

Well, I have not posted in over 2 months. I know, no excuses! I had a couple of weddings (including mine!) and company visiting and the start of a new project. *Like I need another one to add to the pile! HAHA

The recipients of their gifts LOVED them!! Whew!

My watercolor one is still going strong. I am working on the 3-color one that is almost ready to start putting squares together. I have too many projects going at once. I have 9 patches that are ready for sashing and a king sized top that is ready for quilting.  Goodness!! It didn’t seem like a lot until I started writing it all down!! HAHA

My goal for the next 2 months is to see how many of these unfinished projects I can finish. A couple of them I would like to have before christmas so we will see! 🙂

I did finish a couple of birthday gifts…a few dishcloths and an apron! See, I am able to finish some things that I start! HAHA I just forgot to get pictures of those. 😦

A few pictures…

Some kid-friendly backing I picked up for $2 a yd at the local quilt store…Not sure what it will back yet…hmmmmm….

Some solids that I picked up….they are destined to be a part of the  greatest quilt ever! Well, I think it may come in 2nd to my Marshall Quilt. LOL

Would you like to see what they are slowly becoming????

Does it look familiar yet???

Do you recognize it now?? We have some super mario brothers going on here!!

I got the pattern off of Etsy and while it looks awesome as it is being slowly completed, it is definately the most piece heavy quilt I have made yet. So many pieces that I have to keep them all organized in baggies with their measurements on the outside of each one. I sew it up row by row so as to not get myself too confused or lost. Its not perfect but it wouldn’t be original if t was, right?

There will be a pipe that mario will be standing on, a brick that the gumba is on  as well as a turtle at the bottom. This one may go one hold for a little while but I had to show what I have completed so far.

Thats it for now. Hopefully I will have some progress on those unfinished projects here soon.

Wish me luck! 🙂