LCQA Block 10

Well I've been in North Dakota for the last few weeks, so I have fallen behind on my Layer Cake Quilt Along blocks.  I had some time today to catch up on block 10.  All the blocks have been posted now, so I have 2 more to put together then I'll be done.  Then I get to put them all together and do a happy dance for my finished quilt top!  

WiP Wdnesday 3-2 I'm Back!!

Well I'm back to blogland.  I've had a crazy few weeks and I'm just now settled down.  The last two weeks I've been moving... yay!!  (Other than that whole packing/unpacking crap)  I'm now mostly moved into our new place and I'm already in love.  The best part...???  My own sewing room!!!!!!!!!!!  Yep - no more sewing in the dining room.  I told my boyfriend he could have the garage all to himself if I could have a bedroom all to myself.  It works out very well for us both -especially since I have an auto start in my truck and don't need the garage!  Here are a few pictures of the sewing room so far:  (I'm not quite done unpacking so it's a bit bare... It's my major WIP right now!)

Yes, that is Wizard of Oz Monopoly!  I'm a bit of a geek, and I love me some Wizard of Oz.  I wanted my Oz collection in my sewing room for inspiration.  I'm also hanging up my Rob Thomas and Johnny Depp posters - not much better inspiration than that kind of beauty!  Hehe.  

Here's my design wall - it's a Fon's and Porter I got for Christmas this year:

I've only been able to work on a few things since moving but last night I was suffering from my usual insomnia and my design wall went from the above picture to this:

It's 90% if my Pure quilt. I'm using the Sugar Pop N Change pattern from Moda Bake Shop.  I'm not sure about my sashing color yet.  My sister's two best friends both want this quilt when it's done...so I might have to make one more.  I think since one of them is male and the other female I'll choose sashing colors by who I'll give it to.  I think a cream sashing would be beautiful, as would a dark brown.  I also love just crisp white sashing.

I wish I could make a dozen quilts from the Pure line.  I'm incredibly in love with it!!  I think I'm going to make a baby blanket with it just in case I have a baby boy some day.

I also got some awesome things in the mail the last few days.  I've been wanting color cards forever.  My local quilt shops do not carry much in the way of solids, so I have really no way of knowing which solids to order online when I need them (and I'm a huge fan of solids!)

This is the kona color card that I ordered from Sew Fresh Fabrics.  They had 4 and posted on Facebook that they had them listed and I was lucky enough to get one for $16.95 (They are $29.99 some places online!).  I'd definitely recommend 'liking' them on Facebook so you can get in on some good deals.


I'd like to add: I'm in no way affiliated with any of the companies I talk about, but I will absolutely share if I find a shop or company that I love and Sew Fresh Fabrics is one of those shops!

And this is the Bella Solids color card I ordered from Thimbleanna for $19.00.  They were great and the delivery was super fast!!   Now I just have to control myself from ordering a bolt in every color!

I'm also looking into taking up a new hobby along with my sewing.  I've found a few great blogs about thrifting and refinishing furniture and such.  I ran across Vintage Revivals the other day - and literally spent 2 hours looking through every post.  I was so, so inspired.  So my new project will be refinishing this coffee table that I rescued from the burn pile a few years ago

I want to refinish it with a dark wood stain and maybe get one of those awesome vinyl decals for the top.  It is very sturdy and it's a great size... it just happens to be in kind of rough shape.  So this will be what I'm working on this week along with finishing my Pure quilt top and catching up on the LCQA.  

If you guys are still reading - thank you - and I have a question.  How do you name your quilts?  Like for this Pure quilt I'm using a pattern, so do you usually use part of the pattern name, or is it customary to name it something completely original?  Do you even name quilts that you make from a pattern?  Or is it just quilts you design??  I've never named a quilt before, and I just don't have any idea of how people usually do it!  I know I've seen some fabric line names and such - I just didn't know if there was a system or something 'normal' that people do.  

Thanks!!  Happy WIP Wednesday!  I'm so glad to be back in blogland and I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to since I was here last.

WiP Wednesday 02-09-11

Hello everyone :)  I'm back after a bit of a break.  We've had some time to heal from our recently family sadness, and it's definitely still a struggle to accept that he's really gone.  Acceptance will come in time.

I have been being productive since I last posted - I just haven't had much time or energy to blog. 

I finally finished my dragonfly wall hanging that I've been working on for way too long.

Because this was my first binding, I was really intimidated, but it turned out way better than I thought it would!  

I've also been working on my hexagons, and I got one full flower done a few nights ago.

 I also finished block number 8 for the LCQA.  This was a really fun and easy block.  I really like how it turned out!

I guess that's it for me today.  Make sure you link up over at Freshly Pieced and don't be afraid to leave me a comment, I enjoy hearing from everyone :)  Happy WiP Wednesday ladies and gents.

The New Kids are Coming + Sliced Coins

It's been an extremely hard week in my family.  Last week my 14 year old nephew was hit by a truck outside of his house in Washington.  Because of the extent of his injuries, he was put into a medically induced coma.  On Wednesday an MRI showed no brain function.  They took him off life support yesterday.  I know he's in a better place now, but our grief is deep.  He will be greatly missed.  When he was little, if he was upset or scared he used to say "The new kids are coming," like the New Kids on the Block were his personal body guards.  It was my favorite thing ever.  Hopefully the New Kids came to see him off in his dreams...

On a much lighter note, I was able to focus my sadness into some productivity last night while I couldn't sleep.  I am a bit behind on the sliced coins quilt along (click the button to the right  to join the fun!) but last night I got all my coins sliced.

I didn't really go into the slicing with much of a plan.  I used my 9.5x9.5" ruler to figure out what coin width would look good on each part of the fabric.  The smallest coins I cut were 2" and I cut some in each inch increment from 2-6".  I did find two spots that a 7" coin looked best, so I just went with that.  I used 10 fat quarters, so I'm sure I won't be using all my coins for the front, but I do love pieced backs.  Here's a shot of some of my fabrics all laid out

I think these are my favorite two of the entire line:

I'm working on this, and a couple other fat quarter projects right now, and I've gathered all these beautiful little selvages!  What to do with them??

Maybe I'll just keep them on my shelf for inspiration :) 

WiP Wednesday 1-26-11

The last week has flown by!  I can't believe it's Wednesday again! 

I did my very first machine quilting this week!  Yay!  I was really nervous so I decided just to do something simple.  I quilted my wall hanging that I've been working on for just this purpose.  Here it is all basted:

I was going to leave this plain but I decided to applique a few dragonflies on the front.  There are actually dragonflies in one of the prints, so I just traced one of them on photoshop and printed out the pattern that way. 

Then I just used my walking foot to quilt straight lines 1/4 of an inch from each seam.  I used monofilament because of the contrast in the fabrics (I couldn't find one that would blend all the way down or acroos). 

I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I'm nervous about binding it though.  I've never bound anything bigger than a mug rug.

I also finished block 7 for the layer cake quilt along (see button in sidebar.)  I am in love with this block design!!

So that's it for this week.  Happy Wednesday everyone!!



WiP Wednesday 1-19-11

Another Wednesday already?!  Its been an interesting week for me.  I stopped drinking Coke, which is a much bigger deal if you know I usually drink 6-8 every day.  I know its not healthy and my boyfriend and I are talking about having a baby within a year - so I figured this was the perfect motivation.  Its day 3 today and I'm not as miserable as I thought I'd be :)  Now... on to quilting!

First this one:

I've been fighting my Fandango Cabins quilt all week.  I originally was following a pattern, then I realized my fabrics were just too busy for that pattern.  So I decided to add some simpler blocks like this one

I loved this block, so I made some more just like it to go with my log cabin blocks. 

I have 2 problems though... first I have no idea what the layout should be; second I'm completely out of the blue fabric, so I have to go with what I have.  (My local quilt store is out of it too and of course I wasn't smart enough to write down the name of the color off the bolt when I bought it.)

I have been playing with the layout a lot.

First sketching

Then on my design wall (I will add another coloumn and/or row so its 5x5 or even 5x6):

Layout 1

Layout 2

Layout 3

I apologize for the quality of the pictures, my camera has been malfunctioning lately.

So which layout do you like?  Yes, you!  I want/need opinions on this one!  Let me know please.  Or if you have a different idea entirely, I'd love to know that too!

I've also gotten some hexies basted this week

So thats it for me this week.  Happy hump day!

Dupioni Silk

I was just looking through all the blogs I follow and I found this awesome post about using Dupioni Silk for quilting and other crafts.  I love these ideas!!  Click here to go over to the Stash Manicure blog and check it out.  I'm so inspired!!