2014 Finish-Along ~ 3rd Quarter Results

I must say my results are much better for this 3rd Quarter of the 2014 Finish-A-Long hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle.  (See my original post here.)

A few things were moved from last quarter:

1 - I'd really like to finish up the Tula Pink "City Sampler" Sew Along hosted by Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I think I'm up to block 70, so I still have 30 blocks to go.  I did make some progress on this one!  I decided to stop at 70 blocks and I started adding the sashing ~ so far I have 7 rows sewn together.  This is going back on my list for next quarter ~ I think I can finish it by the end of the year!!  

2 - Good Night Irene quilt.  FINISHED!  Blogged here.

3 - Star Light Star Bright Quilt.  Another quilt-along that I lagged way behind on ~ I have 2 blocks done and hope to make a lot of progress this quarter.  NO PROGRESS.

4 -  Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  FINISHED!  Blogged here.

New on the list this quarter:

5 - My Heart Quilt.   FINISHED!  Blogged here.

6 - Four SquareTable Runner.  FINISHED!  Blogged here.

So 4 finishes out of 6!  I'm happy with that.  :)  Linking up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle.

2014 Finish-Along ~ 1st Q3 Finish!

I'm on the beginning of a roll (hopefully!)  When I posted my Q2 results less than a week ago, I hadn't even basted my  Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month.  I started that process on Saturday, 

began the quilting on Sunday with a wavy walking foot stitch and finished that on Monday after I posted my Q3 list.  Binding came next ~ I've never done a scrappy binding before and I love the way it looks with all those Happy Go Lucky fabrics by Bonnie and Camille.  I machine-bound it using this tutorial.

The back is made with Dr. Seuss Citron Eggs from Robert Kaufmann and a patched strip of Happy Go Lucky fabrics.

And today I'm proud to say it's finished!  

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday, Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Be Social and Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday!

2014 Finish-Along ~ Quarter 3 List

OK ~ Here's my list for the 3rd Quarter of the 2014 Finish-A-Long hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle.

A few things were moved from last quarter:

1 - I'd really like to finish up the Tula Pink "City Sampler" Sew Along hosted by Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I think I'm up to block 70, so I still have 30 blocks to go.

2 - Good Night Irene quilt ~ I have 13 blocks done.  I'm no longer doing this as part of a quilt-along, but I'd love to finish it this quarter.

3 - Star Light Star Bright Quilt.  Another quilt-along that I lagged way behind on ~ I have 2 blocks done and hope to make a lot of progress this quarter.

4 -  Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  I'm actually in the process of quilting this one ~ although it just dawned on me that I laid out the top row of blocks wrong when I put it together.  Too late to change it now, but it bugs me!

New on the list:

5 - My Heart Quilt.  I have the top done, so it shouldn't be a problem to finish it this quarter!

6 - Four SquareTable Runner.  I found this easy table runner kit on Craftsy, so it should be a breeze to finish before the end of September!

I think that's it for now!  Linking up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle.

2014 Finish-Along ~ 2nd Quarter Results

Here are my results for the 2nd Quarter of the 2014 Finish-Along.  (See my original post here.)

1 - Verona Hourglass quilt.    FINISHED!  Blogged here.

2 - I'd really like to finish up the Tula Pink "City Sampler" Sew Along hosted by Sara at Sew Sweetness.  I think I'm up to block 70, so I still have 30 blocks to go.  NO PROGRESS.

3 - Good Night Irene quilt.  Little progress ~ 11 blocks done.

4 - Star Light Star Bright Quilt.  Another quilt-along that I lagged way behind on, but I can't wait to see this done!  VERY little progress ~ only 2 blocks finished.

  

5 -  Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  Quilt top is done and I have the backing ready.

Not so happy this time ~ only 1 finish out of 5.  The other 4 are going back on the list for Quarter 3.

WIP Wednesday ~ Exhausted

Whew ~ just got back from a month in Michigan to visit our family for a graduation, birthdays, a baseball game and tons of other stuff, but I wanted to sneak in a couple of pics of what I worked on while I was there.

First up ~ I finished the heart quilt top! I love the way it turned out ~ the colors in the fabrics go together so well and they're not even the same collection!  I used fabrics from Kate Spain's Daydreams, Lauren & Jessi Jung's Chantilly, Stonehenge and Moda Modern Roses.  Love love the way they go together.

Next ~ I finished putting together the quilt top for the  Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month.  Yay!

See that block on the bottom left?  Yep ~ I put the one hourglass block in sideways and didn't notice it until I took the picture ~ but it's fixed now.  :)  It still needs a border or two, but I like it!

So now I have to go and unpack and go through a month's worth of mail and get back into the swing of being home.  Whew ~ I'm tired!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday ~ May already?!

Has it really been 3 weeks since I posted anything?  It's not like I haven't been doing anything ...

I guess the most important thing I'm working on is a quilt for our great-grandson who's going to be 3 next month.  I had made him this pillowcase for Christmas (he LOVES the Cars movies) ~

and I decided he needed a little quilt to go with it!  So I scrounged around for some more Cars fabrics and came up with a few more in different colors.  I cut them all up in 5" squares and started adding sashing.

I was inspired by this pattern by Lindsay @ Craft Buds.  My layout ended up looking something like this:

and I wanted to put his name on it somewhere, so I added it to the back ~

I added some Franken-batting (thanks to a tutorial by Kati @ from the blue chair) ~

and now I'm in the process of quilting it.  Can't wait to see it finished!

I have to admit ~ I'm not doing so well on my 2014 2nd quarter Finish-a-long list.  :(  Although I have made a tiny bit of progress on the Good Night Irene and the Star Light Star Bright blocks.  And my Hop Skip & Jump BOM quilt is almost ready for sashing.

In spite of the lack of progress on my list, I did sign up for another class at our LQS (just what I need, right?) and picked out these fabrics to make it sort of monochromatic.

So ~ I have LOTS of WIPs ~ all I need is a kick in the hiney to actually finish some things.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

WIP Wednesday and a missing camel

Guess what day it is?  Has anyone seen that camel lately?  Here's a little "behind the scenes" video in case you miss him as much as I do!

This week I'm working on finishing up my mug blocks for the In From the Cold quilt for our last class on Saturday.  As of this morning, I had 6 mugs done (although one still needs its steam).  So today I worked on the most difficult one ~ the dreaded pinwheel mug!  I started with 36 1-1/2" half-square triangles:

pieced them together to make nine 2-1/2" pinwheels:

sewed those together:

and ended up with this mug

The pinwheel points aren't perfect, but they're good enough for me!  And here's my progress so far (still need two more blocks and some steam).  Can't wait to see it finished ~ I want to cuddle up with it this Christmas Eve.  :)

We're halfway through the Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  These are my 6 blocks so far.  Lovin' the Happy Go Lucky fabric!

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Finish Friday

Being gone for the last week, I've only got one finish to speak of ~ Block 4 of the Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  At first I thought it required paper-piecing, but alas it did not.  (I'm new at paper-piecing, so I need the practice)

I really like this block!  I love the fabrics for this Block of the Month ~ I'm using the Happy-Go-Lucky collection by Bonnie & Camille for Moda.  Here are the other 3 blocks that I've done so far:

OK ~ back to spend time with Grace (my machine missed me!).

QALs and BOMs

So yesterday I mentioned that I'm working on the Tula Pink "City Sampler" Sew Along hosted by Sara at Sew Sweetness, and the Hop Skip & Jump Block of the Month over at Sew Lux Fabric.  How fun it is to do quilt projects on a schedule!

I really look forward to getting a new block pattern and fabric every month for the HS&J BOM from Sew Lux (and I love the way they package their goodies!).  Last month's Block 3 forced me to learn a new skill ~ my first paper-piecing ever.  Happy with the way it turned out!  and I just got Block 4 in the mail today ~ more paper piecing ~ but I'm feeling confident.  :)

For Sara's City Sampler Quilt Along (or Sew Along, whatever), I'm afraid I've fallen a couple of weeks behind (could have been the order for 35 Zipster Pouches that I had to mail out before school started! combined with the test pattern that I need to finish this week!).  Anywho ~ I had a bunch of fabrics that were grey, white and light blue, so I thought I'd use these for the 100 block sampler.    Here are some of my favorites for far:

     

Both the QAL and the BOM are great practice for me, so thanks to Sara and Chrissy and Linda for putting those out there so we can play along!