It’s been a while

I have been a bad blogger. Life has been busy. We were sick. My Grandma is having health issues. (Getting old sucks.) I just haven’t been very motivated even though I have a long list and deadlines. Although I think my sew-jo is renewed because my husband gave me the a-ok to get my dream machine, Pfaff expressions 4.2! He truly is the best :) I was able to go to a Pfaff demo class on Saturday to see what it could do just to make sure it was “the one”. Needless to say it came home with me and I think it is quite happy here. I played with it on Sunday, completely ignored my family. I even managed to finish a pay-it-forward gift. I think I am getting into the flow of this pretty sewing machine. I feel so lucky and blessed to have this as my first machine. I don’t have to use my Moms back up to her backup anymore ;)

The only thing that I am missing is the lever to put my foot up and down but that will come with time. It is such a habit to reach back there. I am almost ready to put Miss Ls quilt together so soon I will be ready to make my first FMQ voyage on her. I am so excited to have 10” of throat space plus my table extension! Can we say spoiled! Speaking of spoiled, Miss L thought since I wasn’t using my Moms old machine anymore and my Mom didn’t really want it back that we should set it up for her. So here is our new sewing set up. I even organized her little stash in a bin.

 

Yes she is already sewing in her PJs.

Happy sewing everyone! I will be back with my March goal soon :) I was so disappointed that I missed posting Februarys goal.

Doll Quilt Swap 14 received

I wanted to share the mini that arrived in my mailbox from Kristin at andChips. There was such a great group of talented ladies in the DQS14 on Flickr. It was so hard to figure out which one would be coming to you. Plus you your never expect the person you were making for would be making for you. Well guess what that happened! Mr. Fox went to live with Kristin and her loving star dresden (you can find the tutorial for the dresden here) came and lived with me!  

She said she was inspired by the shape of  my sewing room. I love all the low volume and  prints that she used! It is perfect :) And look she put a little stitching of Mr.Fox on the back as a label! Such a lovely reminder. Btw if you are wondering she loves Mr.Fox he is such a charmer.

I now have two minis on my wall! It is so nice to being finally hanging things in my space plus I am doing a private mini swap with one of my blogging friends too! So exciting!!!  

A mini finish

Last week it was my Mother in laws birthday. I decided somewhat last minute I should make her a little something. I decided to try the mini swoon pattern by Thimble and Blossoms. I only made one. I figured it would be a good mug rug or trivet since it is about 8”.

This baby swoon took almost as long as the Mama swoon block. So don’t be deceived by its size. So needless to say my MIL didn’t get her present quite as early in the day as expected. I am not too sure of the fabric line used here but I did pair it with Kona bone and also used bone as the binding. She was pretty happy with it. I had to make something for the lady who taught me how to chain piece when I was a super newbie to the quilting world ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

linking to finish up friday at crazy mom quilts

January Goal Completed

I am happy to say that I have made my January goal of cutting out all the pieces for the blocks for Miss L’s On a Whim quilt!!! I actually was even able to complete a block, Yay!

The rest of the pieces are all ready to be pressed and then on the next steps! I am excited to be getting this done for my daughter since she is growing while her current quilt is staying the same size, lol. She is also pretty persistent about asking when will it be finished. I am hoping I will have a completed quilt top soon!

Linking to January: A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of all Sorts

Spools Mini

Last Saturday I had a lovely sew-in date with my friend Christina. We decided to make the Spools mini quilt by Thimble and Blossoms. Camille does design some lovely patterns!

I was lucky enough to win a Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate from A Lovely Year of Finishes for my November goal which I splurged and bought the Heather Bailey True Colors charm pack with. I am so glad I did because I love, LOVE the colors so much and the prints are super pretty too!

I decided to be brave and practice my free motion quilting skills. I wanted to try pebbling and since this quilt is only 14” by 16” I thought it was a perfect practice size. It is not perfect and I did get some shifting but I am okay with that. I am super happy that I tried something “scary” and plus it is for my sewing room wall so I can deal with its imperfections ;) I quilted it Aurifil 50wt in a light dove gray (color #2600) which I have to say is one of my favorite Aurifil thread colors so far. It is almost gone. Sad face.

I took the binding fabric from my daughters quilt fabric stack, shhhhh. I was going to use this fabric to bind her quilt but the running stitch print and color was just too perfect not to steal from her stack to bind this sweet quilt. I will find something else for her I am sure.

There are so many lovely versions of this quilt popping up. It looks so different depending on the fabrics you use. I think that if I make it again I would maybe make a scrappy version or perhaps a rainbow. Next up perhaps a mini Swoon or Puddle Jumping mini. Did you see that Jaybird Quilts is working on minis too?! Fun! She posted a sneak peek on Flickr!

Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it up Friday

January Goal

Okay I am going to try to make a goal each month this year for A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014. I have some bigger quilt endeavors planned for the year so some of my goals may seem small (like cutting fabric, lol) but I am excited to create for those around me and perhaps myself!

I have this stack just waiting for my daughter. (She has been nagging me a little about it as well. Her current quilt is almost too short) My goal for January is to cut all the blocks out for her On a Whim quilt. I have reduced the size of this quilt but these blocks do take a while to sew and press and square up so sewing all of them this month might be a push.

linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes – January Goal

Mr. Fox

I was lucky to be able to take part in the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap round 14. I had so much fun being snoopy and trying to figure out what my partner would like. I was inspired and decided to with a design that was a little more fun than serious.

I was inspired by Pile O’Fabrics cross stitch block tutorial. This little block could be turned into so many cute designs. I had a vision of a little fox made with all different orange fabrics. I had one problem though there was no way I had 39 different orange prints. Luckily some lovely ladies (locally and not so locally) donated some of their orange scraps to my vision which helped me to create the most handsome Mr.Fox ever! Okay maybe I am bias. He also has 10 different low volume prints and 4 text prints mixed in with those 39 prints, that is a lot of fabric for a little quilt.

 

You might notice that my blocks are a little smaller than the tutorial. I used 1.5” squares and 4ish” by 1.5” strip. The linen was about 1.75 (I left it the original size in the tutorial). I squared them off to 2 3/8” so sewn they are approx 1.75”. This quilt ended up being 20” by 19.5”  for some reason it isn’t quite square. Oh well.

I decided to hand quilt because I didn’t want the quilting to take away from the design. I used an Aurifil orange variegated thread in 28wt. 

I even made my very first ever label. Sure it was just with a Sharpie and Heat n Bond but I am proud of myself, lol.

 

This quilt will be heading to its new home in a little bit. I have loved making it. I hope he makes you smile :) Everything came together so nicely and I really really hope my partner loves him!

Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it up Friday