November Accomplishments

And just like that, November is gone. Well, it actually left last week but that’s ok. So, how was November you ask? (even if you didn’t ask, I’m telling…lol) It was great! I didn’t get as much done as I wanted but I feel it was still pretty productive. And I can’t complain about the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend. A much-needed break.

What happened in November?? Well, as I am writing this on Dec 8th, I feel the Twelve Days of Christmas song coming on…

12 Instagram mini quilt blocks

11 bobbins of thread

10 more IG mini quilt blocks

9 feet of binding

8 more IG mini quilt blocks

7 glasses of wine

6 more IG mini quilt blocks (DONE!)

5 Swoon blocks

4 borders added to a second IG mini quilt

3 nights of handsewing binding

2 Christmas Pillows made

and

ah-mazing Tula Pink Swag!

Sorry about that. I had too! Ok. Moving on….

Those IG mini quilt blocks took a lot of my time. I even spent our guild sewing day working on them. I mean, look at this…this is a 3″ block:

Here is the “for scale” photo. As you can see, small. So small. Not sure I will ever make this one again. If I do, I will generate up a paper piecing pattern for it. Without that stability, some of the smaller half-inch squares started to get a bit wonky.

All in all, it turned out magnificent. I added a border to not only bring it to size but to also keep all those small edges from unraveling during quilting and binding. This way, everything was secure. It went out today and I can’t wait to see what my partner thinks about it!

And while we are on the topic, I had a participant in my IG mini quilt group that couldn’t fulfill her obligation so Julie and I stepped in and teamed up to make her partner something great. Julie made the center block (its like an altered log cabin…so great!) and I added the outside curved geese borders. They brought it up to a good size and gave it a bit more playfulness. This one also went out today but she doesn’t know that we are the ones that made it. I figure she will find out eventually (my names is on the box) so I felt there was no harm in posting it here.

After sitting for over a year now, I am bound and determined that this Swoon quilt will be finished by Spring. (Hopefully sooner if I can figure out how to piece a 120″ x 120″ backing in my room that isn’t much larger than that. Oy!) I have decided that instead of doing one block here and one block there, I am just getting them all finished at once. So, I have made a Swoon assembly line. I have 5 left and they are all being worked on at the same time. I have a system and for some crazy reason, it works! These suckers are so big (24″ each) that it’s like putting together 16 mini quilts to make one large one.

What else…oh, 2 Christmas Pillows. Chrissy over at Sew Lux made up these pillow kits and I scooped two of them up to throw on the couch this Christmas. They don’t really match any of my stuff but then again, none of it matches each other so I figured, why not? I did try a new technique out though while making them and once I got the hang of it, these little things flew right along.

I am holding the pillow top with one hand and taking the pic with the other and as you can see, everything is hanging there (the first 3 rows have been sewn together). Because of the way that it was pieced, there are no rows to worry about mixing up or pieces that get turned around. Everything is where it should be. Once you get to this point you just keep sewing the rows together until you get to the bottom. Its hard to see but if you enlarge the picture you can see the threads holding all the rows together.

Here are my 2 pillow tops. They are basted and ready for quilting as soon as I get the Swoon blocks done and off my table. Hopefully this week.

And lastly, my favorite part. I have an Angel who got me some Tula Pink stuff while at the International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh last month. A brochure about her new line coming out next year, a sticker (which now lives on my sewing machine) and the highly coveted, rare, numbered, and autographed deck of playing cards. I may have squealed a little when I opened this (ok, a lot)!!

And that my friends, was my Nov. Well, that and the first week of Dec but who’s really counting. I have a Chem final coming up followed by the holidays with family. Can’t wait!!

 

🙂

Jess

Finishing Quilts and Glamping!

School has started friends. Even though it’s only 1 class, its a lot of time spent not in my sewing room. I finally turned on my sewing machine last weekend (and not since!) but it was only to work on trying to get some unfinished quilts off of my sewing room floor. 5 of them to be exact. All waiting on binding.

So, I made binding. Lots and Lots of Binding. Probably close to 2000″ of binding. Whew.

Than I had a sewing marathon. I got 3 of the bindings sewn on in an afternoon/evening. Not too bad! The one below is the PB&J quilt. Julie did an AMAZING job quilting this one. We went with a more dense design and did a coordinating one in the border. It looks fantastic. And, it is heavy. I will show it off more once I get the binding completely finished.

This is the Waterfront Park Churn Dash. Julie did a really simple swirl all over this one. It did a great job of softening the quilt design up a bit. It isn’t too dense so this will make a great snuggling quilt. Not for me though, Maybe for you?

Oh, and I got my fabrics in for my Thimble Blossom Mini Quilt Swap. Once you join one, its hard to not join any others! I have the pattern picked out for this one and as soon as my first test is over on Tuesday, this is what I will be working on. I hope she loves it! Picking out the fabrics is the hardest part of a swap. You just don’t know if the they will like it or not. Here’s hoping! 🙂

Autumn Woods Fabric Bundle

Ok, I know everyone is wondering about Glamping. What is it and why is it in the title of my blogpost? Glamping is, by definition, “Glamorous Camping.” And I am going to partake. In a sewing way. Confused yet? hehe..stay with me.

Pink Castle Fabrics is an online fabric store that hosts retreats every year for a small amount of participants. This year, they decided to do something new and bigger and opened up a 2015 retreat called “Glamp Stitchalot” (get it, instead of Camp…) for 200 people with some AMAZING teachers. Guess, who just happens to be one of them?? Come on, surely you know this answer? Did you just say Tula Pink? Correct!

Needless to say, when I saw spots were opened, I texted Julie as fast as I could and whipped out the credit card. I was not missing out on this one and I was making sure that she was going with me. Its being held in Ann Arbor, MI next November at a super nice looking hotel for 3 days. I know, its a long time away. Commiserate with me.

In the meantime, while Glamp Stitchalot is in the back of my mind, I will be studying and trying to fit in small things when and where I can. I did buy a whiteboard for my sewing room so maybe seeing everything actually written out will help me to stay on track when I have the time.

🙂

Jess

Sunday Stash

Not sure I have ever done a Sunday Stash post. But, I had purchased a couple of things a while back that I am pretty excited about so I want to show them off!

The first one is a bundle of Kona Cotton solids that I got from Pink Chalk Fabrics.

These solids have a very specific purpose. They are going to be used to make this epic quilt from Elizabeth Hartman @ Oh Fransson. It’s called the Aviatrix Medallion and I have everything for it, just need to find the time.

I also picked up some Waterfront Park from the destash a while back:

Designed by Violet Craft these fabrics have been calling to me for a while. I am completely in love with the navy and coral combination lately. So when I saw these I knew I had to have them. They are even more gorgeous in person!! Haven’t decided yet what they will become. For now, they are fun to look at. 🙂

Lastly, I preordered the new BOM (Block of the Month) a while back from Sew Lux. There were a couple of different options but I chose to make mine in Color Me Happy by V & Co.


I finished the first block last night. Now, I can put it away until next month. Going to make sure that I don’t get behind on this one.

So, that’s what I have added lately!! I am linking up with Sunday Stash hosted by Quilts From The Attic so that you can go see what others have added to their stash.

🙂
Jess

Salt Water Curves – WIP Wednesday

Well, a quilt bug has hit me. For the first time in a while, I found something that peaked my interest and I jumped on it!! When inspiration/motivation hits, you have to strike while the iron is hot.

The pattern that I bought is one that I have looked at in the past, but thought that it was too advanced for me. You see, even though I have paper pieced (like a champ!) and hand quilted, and mastered binding, and even made an Amy Butler Weekender Bag, this quilt has….curves. Lots of curves. Curves and Applique are my 2 fears. I have bought many a kits that require applique and inevitably, I always end up giving them to Julie. (She does it all!!) They just freak me out.

My Work-In-Progress for this week is this pattern, Metro Rings by Sew Kind of Wonderful and I think it is gorgeous.

Picture from Sew Kind Of Wonderful

I finally decided that this was it. I was buying this pattern and to make it more interesting, I was going to make it out of Tula Pink fabrics. After all, she makes everything more interesting. Well, her fabrics do. I imagine she would too but I haven’t had the starstruck moment of meeting her. Ok, back on topic.

I picked up these 2 Salt Water jelly rolls (2.5″ strips) from Missouri Quilt Co. If these fabrics look familiar, its because they are the same ones that my Hexi’s are being done with. Can you tell that this is my favorite line of hers??  I already have patterns picked out for all of the other Salt Water fabrics that I own (a charm pack (5″squares) and a fat quarter pack and the second jelly roll below) but they may never get cut up. We’ll see. 🙂

So, I got to cutting! After a whirlwind weekend of family and fun, this was a nice relaxing morning. Once all my strips were cut and sorted, I started sewing. This was my first batch of curved pieces:

I took 2 of these and some background fabric (Bella Bleached White) and sewed up my first block.

I used 2 of the same curved strips for this test block. From here out, I am going to make all of the curved sets first so that I can mix and match them in the blocks. Half of my corners will be this pink/coral seashell print and the other half will be a blue print that contrasts nicely.

Believe it or not, I actually can’t wait to continue working on these. No pinning. No hassles with the curves. Sew Kind of Wonderful also has some great video tutorials on how to cut these pieces using her curved ruler and also how to sew the curves. Really took away a lot of the nerves.

And, because I love pictures, I thought I would do 1 more. I don’t have class this summer so in an effort to try to give us back our dining room table, I moved my sewing area to my desk.

Turns out, all it did was give me the ability to now not only use my desk, but also the ENTIRE dining room table. Oh well, I had good intentions! Not sure if it will last but its a nice change anyway. On a side note. I love having the natural light on this desk. Makes sewing feel really different compared to the yellow toned dining room light.

🙂

Jess

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

 

Finish It Up Friday!! Errr…Saturday??

Well, this is technically a finish for last week but since I was out of town last weekend I think it still applies. Shhh…I won’t tell if you don’t!

Since my Classmate that I made was a bit too large for toting around my Hex on the Beach stuff, I knew that I wanted to make something smaller. But it had to be something that would be organized. Not just a small bag that you dump everything into. Enter the “Sew Together Bag” by Sew Demented.

Using Tula Pink fabrics, of course.

(Excuse the dark pictures, I finished this at 10pm the night before my trip so I had to work with what I had)

Just like with my Super Tote, I have been seeing these little nifty things all over Instagram. They seemed to hold a positive vote among all of the people I follow and the hashtag #sewtogetherbag is bursting with bags in various stages of completion. Its inspiration overload.

Well, from the outside it doesn’t look like much. Maybe a round bag, with some binding on it, oh, and a long zipper down the top. Here, let me show you another angle (you all know how much I love pictures in a blog post)

hmmm…now it just looks like another ordinary zippered bag. But wait, this is where is gets good. What looks ordinary on the outside, often never is on the inside.

Its a treasure trove of organization, 3 zippered pockets, and tons of space! This thing really expands. To give you a better idea, here it is during construction all laid out flat:

Look at all of that room!!

I won’t lie though, this thing was a bit rough to put together. The pattern did not really contain much in terms of graphics and no pictures. I am completely spoiled by the internet now and some designers that do step by step instructions. For something that is a bit more advanced like this, its super nice. So, I almost put the pattern away.

Than, on Instagram one evening (0f course, where else?) I found a Sew Along being hosted by The Quilt Barn on their blog. So, I headed over. And lo and behold, I started working on it that night. The sew along made it so much better! There were step by step pictures and she talked you thru each step. You still need the pattern for the proper cutting and interfacing information but I don’t know that I looked at it again after that.

This is what it is now being used for. All of my Hexi’s. The classmate was just too large to throw in my purse and go. This is perfect. I have about 500 hexi papers, 100 or so fabric squares, scissors, a spool of Aurifil thread and needles in there, with room to spare. Everything is organized and in its place.

 

I have a feeling that a couple more may make their way onto the gift list.

Now, I am in a bit of a lull which is why I have been working on my hexi’s so much. I am not really up for a quilt but want to sew something. Going to sit down and look at my list and see what appeals to me to make next. I also have some swoon blocks to get back to so they may move up the list.

🙂

Jess

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

Christmas Stockings

I LOVE Christmas decorating. Tree, garland, little santa’s and snowmen. The whole 9 yards. But, I have a confession. We have never had christmas stockings in our house.
(Pause for dramatic gasp…)
I know…unacceptable! I have never really found any that I liked and if I did, it would be at a time when I couldn’t or didn’t want to spend the money.

So, this year, I said no more. I searched online and found a great, extremely easy, tutorial for christmas stockings from Positively Spendid.

I dug out some scrap christmas fabrics that Julie had given me years ago. Sparkly goodness that I have been holding onto for something small and holiday related.

People, these were so simple to make its ridiculous. I whipped them up so quickly that I didn’t take any photos as I was making them.

I took my pictures late last night so while the lighting is horrible, you can still see how cute they turned out.


I still have more scraps left…wonder what else I can come up with in the next 6 days 🙂


Merry Christmas!!

Jessica

Fall Happenings

Brrrr it has gotten cold here. This is the time of year that I love even though I stay cold pretty much 24/7. Which I guess isn’t really a bad thing when your house is littered with quilts. So cozy.

I have had some free time so I have been working on this:


I love me some Christmas. Christmas anything. Songs, decorations, traditions, and of course, quilts. All of this piecing has turned into 10 star blocks and 10 square blocks. At 16″ a piece, these are some large blocks. They are now sitting, waiting on me to lay them all out and get them sewn into a quilt top.

I think I have went thru almost 6 bobbins of thread so far in this quilt. Sooo much thread for all this piecing. Love it!

While I love working on Big J, I had had enough this afternoon and was ready to work on something else. I decided to pull out some of the wedding blocks and start getting them squared up. Between the bias edges and the freezer paper, most of them had gotten out of whack.

Look at this pile of trimmings. Sure, it doesn’t look like much, but looks can be deceiving. There were a lot of trimmings. And this was only for half the blocks!


On a side note, I am going to be doing some brainstorming this week. Since I sew out in the open I can’t hang anything on the wall, but I need a way to know what my to-do list is. I am a visual person and I love to see things. I have made lists in the past and they just get misplaced or thrown away. I have some older projects that I still want to do that I keep forgetting about so I need to think of something. Hmmmmm……

After a fun weekend of play, it’s back to work and school tomorrow. Hope everyone takes a moment tomorrow to thank all our veterans for Veterans Day.

🙂
Jess

Christmas in October

I have been itching to make a Christmas quilt for a few years now. Unfortunately, I have never thought about it early enough and I have always had something else on the to-do list. So, this year, I said no more!! It’s christmas quilt time.

I found a pattern that I fell in love with on the Moda Bakeshop website, Starry Eyed. When I saw The Christmas Countdown line by Deb Strain for Moda, I knew that I had a perfect pairing.

When reading thru the pattern, it didn’t look that bad. A little cutting, a little piecing. Man alive, I completely misjudged this one. More like a LOT of cutting and a TON of chain piecing. But that’s ok! I got everything cut for this (and for 2 other quilts!) yesterday and got all of my chain piecing done this morning. I took the weekend off from school so I figured I should make it worth it. Haha

I did change up the materials a bit. It called for a layer cake and 2 charm packs. Since it had you cutting the layer cake into 2.5″ pieces, I figured I would try to save some work and instead, I bought/used a jelly roll.

Once I got it all cut up, this is what I ended up with:

There are about 15 sets in each one of those piles!! Lots and lots of 2.5″ squares. After a marathon of chain piecing and ironing, I had piles and piles of strips.

From here out, it’s just putting the blocks together. I got 2 done. Considering everything else that I did this weekend, I don’t think that’s too bad!!

It’s back to my regular scheduled programming starting tomorrow so it feels good to have everything already cut and available so that I can sew a little bit whenever I have some time. Maybe I will be able to finally have a Christmas quilt on the couch this year. That’s my goal anyway.

🙂
Jess

Quilting

I have been such a busy bee that I haven’t had a chance to show you the quilts that got finished for me by Creekside Quilting. Julie did such an amazing job and I can’t wait to get binding on them and get them completely finished.

The first one is my Good Luck quilt. I only have some up close pictures of it. I haven’t had a chance to get full pictures of it because I am waiting until I get the binding finished.

Isn’t that fantastic!!! I picked out a very bright variegated King Tut thread. A green Bottom Line thread was used on the batik backing.

She also did my Good Fortune quilt for me. She took some full pictures that you can see here. I have a couple of up close ones that she sent me. We also picked out a lighter variegated thread for this one along with some meandering feathers.

I am so excited to get this one finished too.

I see lots and lots of binding in my future!! It’s a good thing that I enjoy hand sewing.

🙂
Jess

Chugging Along…

I cannot believe that it is almost August. I feel like the year just started!!

Things have been busy here. I have been working a little each evening on the wedding stuff. I have the Ring Pillow done. The bunting is about halfway there, and the quilt squares are about halfway. That stuff, on top of tailoring some of Mr. SewpatchedUp’s wedding clothes, means that I have a busy few weeks ahead of me.

Changing the subject now…in the evenings I love to sit down and relax for a few before turning in for the night. Instead of spending the time on my iPad (throughly addicted!) I decided to dip my toes into some Cross Stitching. I love handwork (is that a word??), so I figured this may be fun to try out. Floss and needles are so cheap thats its not a big deal if I ended up hating it.

Turns out, I LOVE it! I started with a very small Raccoon Mario that I found on Etsy. (Mr. SewPatchedUp’s request)
This was a picture at the beginning.


These stitches are not great because I figured out too late how many strands of floss to use. You know, in all of the internet tutorials about how to Cross Stitch no one tells you that number. Well friends, its 2-3 depending on how full you want your stitching to look. (There are 6 strands to a bundle, i just wrap the rest back up for next time) So, once I got that down pat, I was flying along.


Being that it is my first one, I am actually really happy with this. So is Mr. SewPatchedUp.


I cut it to size and stuck it in a frame. It now resides in the gaming room/office. I already have the pattern and the floss for a second project. Its another Mario, but this one will actually be a scene from one of the games. I think it will end up being about 20″ wide and 9″ high. I can’t wait to get started.

Do any other quilters/sewers sometimes feel the pull to try something new? I think it is ingrained in you to always be moving towards something new. New projects, new techniques, new ideas. And if you end up not loving it, thats ok too. For me, it’s so much about the process. Yes, seeing the finished product is amazing, but I love the process of getting there. Thats where all the fun is!

Happy Friday!!!

🙂
Jess

Edited:
Here is the pattern that i am currently starting:

You can purchase this and the Mario Raccoon here!