February 22, 2012

WIP Wednesday

If you are interested in joining my i spy fabric charm swap, please see this post or our flickr group.

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WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

With my participation in some fabric swaps, I have discovered many new blogs over the past few weeks and several of those blogs led me to WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced.  Since I am forever starting new projects and rarely finishing any of them, I figured some on-line accountability could be a good thing.  (And since I usually have Wednesdays off from my real job, there's actually a chance I will blog about it on a regular basis.)

I have a huge problem with making lots and lots of quilt tops and never finishing them.  Making tops is just too much fun.  Before I receive any charm swap fabric and start even more new quilts, I figured I'd better finish some of my WIPs.  Before today, I had 4 completed tops, 2 being quilted (including one that was intended as a Christmas gift for my mother in law), and fabric cut for several more tops.  This week I made significant progress on two quilt projects.

I finished quilting this cute little baby quilt using Elizabeth Hartman's instructions for FMQ loopy flowers.  While some flowers turned out better than others, it was a fun way of quilting and I'm sure I'll get better with practice.  I like the back of the quilt because I love the look of quilting with white thread on predominantly white fabric.  I just need to finish hand-sewing the binding and it will be done!


(While a drawback of my 5-year-old son growing like a weed means I have to buy him new jeans again, it is nice he's now tall enough to hold up my baby quilts.)

I also pulled out a quilt top I had initially blogged about in January 2011--so it's been in the finish pile for awhile.  It's The Road Trip Quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Over the weekend I made the quilt sandwich and started quilting it--just randomly spaced horizontal lines but it's finally on it's way to being finished.


This week's stats:
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 0
Currently in progress - 6 quilts (and too many others to count!)

February 21, 2012

i spy with my little eye. . .

. . .a stack of fish!

This morning I cut my charm squares for my i spy fabric charm swap.  (Note to self:  change your rotary blade more often.  Mine was way overdue and it's amazing how nice it is cutting fabric with a new blade.)  This cute fabric is Red Fish / Odyssea by Momo for Moda.  I purchased it on Etsy from Ready2QuiltShop.  After I received it I was worried the print was too big.  Fortunately, every square ended up having 2 to 3 full fish that didn't get a head or tail chopped off!  I was also happy with my pile of scraps.  They're big enough to cut into 2&1/2 inch squares so that's 14 squares added to my stash to someday make this bow-tie quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Someday.

I think I'm addicted to this i spy/fabric swap thing.  This weekend I ordered $40 worth of i spy suitable fabric from fabric.com.  (I got 6 yards plus free shipping which is a pretty good deal.)  No plans for any of it yet--just wanted to add to my stash so I'm ready for the next fabric swap!

There are still spots available in my i spy fabric swap.  Go here for more info and check out the flickr group to see the great fabrics you will get.  Know somebody who may be interested?  Please let them know about my swap!

February 18, 2012

a Valentine's monster

If you're interested in joining my i spy fabric charm swap go here.
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I figured my son wouldn't get to make a Valentine's box until next year when he was in kindergarten so I was pretty excited when he brought home a note from daycare stating we should make a Valentine's box at home to bring to school for the party.  I have fond grade school memories of making my Valentine's box every year.  My son and I decided a monster box was a good idea and I had visions of a cute little Valentine's monster with hearts and other such stuff.  His box:
In case you can't tell, it's a rancor from Star Wars.  You know. . .the monster in the dungeon of Jabba the Hutt's palace.  (Because it's all about Star Wars at our house.)  Not what I had in mind but we had a ton of fun making it and he was pretty proud of his creation!

February 15, 2012

i spy fabric charm swap

Thanks for stopping by, but the swap is now full!

I've been wanting to make an "i spy" quilt for a long time.  I'm too impatient to slowly collect enough appropriate fabric and I keep missing out on all the charm swaps.  I figured the best solution was to host my own swap!  Want to join in the fun?  I'm looking for 55 participants (US residents only for my first swap).  You send me 56 charms of one fabric and get 56 unique charm squares in return.  What a deal!

If you know of anybody that may be interested, please pass this along.  I'm fearful that my first swap will be a huge flop!

to join the swap:
  • Leave a comment on this post if you want to join the swap.  Leave an e-mail address if you are a no-reply blogger.  I will e-mail you to confirm your spot in the swap.
  • Purchase one yard of 100% cotton, designer fabric appropriate for an "i spy" quilt.  (No Hancocks or JoAnns and no licensed prints.)  We will be exchanging 5 inch charms so make sure the scale of the print you choose is appropriate.
  • After you purchase your fabric, upload a picture to the Flickr group.  Do this as soon as possible so we can make sure there aren't any duplicates.
  • Do not prewash your fabric.  Cut your fabric into 5 inch charms.  If you need a tutorial on cutting your fabric into charms, please read this tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman.
  • Place your 5 inch fabric charms in a plastic zipper bag along with a 3x5 card with your name, mailing address and e-mail address.  Mail your charms to me (my address will be e-mailed to you) and be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope so I can mail your charms back to you.  The tentative due date for me to receive your charms will be March 15th.  (I've never coordinated a swap before, so we'll see how quickly the group fills up!)
  • Try and wait patiently for your charms to arrive in the mail then create something amazing!

I'm so excited I've already ordered my fabric!

Red Fish Odyssea by MoMo for Moda

There are so many cute fabrics, though.  Here are some of my favorites from Fort Worth Fabric Studio (my new favorite on-line fabric source):




If you have any questions please leave a comment below or send me an e-mail.  Thanks for stopping by!

February 11, 2012

embroidered quilt block

My aunt recently invited my mother and I to embroider quilt blocks for her new granddaughter's baby blanket.  They have a wonderful tradition where all of the women in the family embroider a block which are then made into a baby blanket.  I was honored to be included.  My quilt block:


I typed out the saying on my computer using a variety of fonts and upper and lower case letters.  I am happy with how it turned out and am excited to see pictures of the finished quilt.

February 8, 2012

a quilt pattern {by a 5 year old}

Excuse my absence from blogging.  Sometimes life gets so busy. . .

My son and I have the day off today (me from work and him from daycare).  I always love days off though I never get as much accomplished as I want to.  This morning he was very excited to show me the quilt pattern he made for me the day before.  I was a little surprised when he pulled this from his backpack.



At daycare yesterday he made me a pattern for the next quilt I make.  And he informed me if I don't have all the right colors of fabric we can go buy the right colors of fabric.  Now I am not anything close to a perfect mom.  I am impatient.  I raise my voice too much.  I get frustrated.  But there are two things I/we have done well.  
  1. I (or my husband) have read to my son every single day since he was very young.  Even when he didn't have any interest in being read to, we continued to read to him.  Even when he chewed on books and ripped pages, we continued to read to him.  Because of that he has a wonderful imagination and incredible vocabulary for a 5 year old.
  2. I have included my son in my crafting adventures.  We color and paint.  We sew and make cards.  He appreciates my handmade gifts and he understands the amount of love that goes into making them.  He always wants to be included in my crafty projects and that warms my heart.  (The down side of this is he wants to save every little thing I try to throw away because "maybe we can make something out of it.")
So I haven't quite figured out how to translate his pattern into an actual quilt, but I will.  (Though it probably won't be anytime soon.)  For now, his pattern will hang on the wall in my sewing room as a reminder of how lucky I am to be Mom to this sweet boy.