January & February Finishes, etc.

It is time to summarize my finishes for the first 2 months of 2011 for the Charming Girls' Club.  

Some of my finishes I could only give peeks since they are for weddings. 

The wedding dress makeover has been delivered to the bride! 

The finished wedding quilt.  

[Full reveal of both after the wedding!]

This is my Quilt Around the Block stitchery made into a pillow.

Inspiration and my own design 'On the Fence' quilt.

Several mug rugs...for swaps and me! 

Oh the joy of paper piecing! Love it!

 Give Thanks stitchery banner and 3 verse cards from Jenny of Elefanz.

Stitching brings so much joy! It's sew relaxing!

I also finished 2 blocks for the Birdie BOM, the top of my Happy Camper Too quilt, added the borders and sandwiched my daughter's wedding quilt, and made 10 blocks for Block-A-Palooza but they are not real finishes as there is still work to be done. 

Here is block 10.

What have you finished recently?

Revisited

You may recall that last summer I finished a quilt called Happy Camper for a very special friend of ours.  

I was planning to make 2 quilts...one for Ken and one for us 

[our families love to camp together.]  

After starting both quilts and almost finishing both flimsies, I didn't like them so out came the seam ripper and I took them all apart.  I recut, added color, and changed the design and finished the one for Ken.  

You can see it here.  

The Happy Camper quilt for us never got redone.  

A UFO MFU [Masterpiece Under Fermentation] it became.  

I recently had the notion to get it out and start sewing.  Yep! it fermented just enough. 

I now have a finished flimsy.  

Don't have plans for the backing quite yet but it feel good to have it this far!

Yesterday, I got a little present from a friend of mine.  She isn't a quilter but she knows I am!  I like it :D

Each page of the year has another quilt block and directions on how to make it.  FUN!

This morning block 9 for Block-A-Palooza went live.  Here is my finished block called Lemonade Stand. You can check out other blocks on the flickr page.

Last Wednesday night, I went to my LQS for a demo [more about that another day] and I learned about this notion.  Yay! It protects your iron from sticky residue when ironing adhesives. Beats cleaning sticky stuff from your iron! I used it for a small applique project and it worked great.  It is made from a 

no-melt plastic.  Have you ever used this?

Tonight is knitting club.  Taking a special friend...I'll tell you about her another time!

Friday Night Sew-In results and a little more!

Did you join in the fun for last night's FNSI?  Here are the things I accomplished.  Again not quite as much I hoped but nonetheless, I did accomplish something!

I finished stitching the February block for the Birdie Stitchery BOM.  I am caught up with a week to spare before the next block is released! 

This is a good thing!

I also finished Block 8 for Block-A-Palooza - Basket of Geese!

This block is a applique block - a change from all the pieced blocks.  

I chose to machine applique the geese with a small blanket stitch and the basket with a zigzag applique stitch. 

 I like how this block is so different from the rest but fits right in.  

Take a look!  

To be honest, I am a little out of my comfort zone.  

I not used to purchasing fabric and making a quilt without knowing the end results. I chose not to use the fabric that the designers were using - even though it is among my favorites right now - I didn't want to spend the money not knowing what this quilt would look like. 

 Are you like this or do you like a mystery?

 So I chose the line Sips of Summer with a few other fabrics mixed in to round things out.

After the first few blocks, I really could not see how this quilt would come together...but as I add blocks...it's pulling itself together. 

What do you think?    

On a final note, I would like to send my thanks to my mug rug swap partner, Heather Spence.

 Aren't they cute!  Love the shoe!

I'm off to my sewing room! Hope you enjoy your day!

Busy as a Bee

I have been busy... not only in the sewing room.  Here's what I made for Valentine's Day.  

I followed the tutorial from Pleasant Home. 

After a little break, I worked on my daughter's wedding quilt and now the borders are on and it's ready to be sandwiched.  I need to get to the store to get some batting.  It is really looking good! Sorry, no pictures.

I also sent out these mug rugs and extras to my secret swap partner, Helle in Denmark.  She received them and really liked them! Yay!  

How cute is that little cat cookie plate?  And the mug is so cute!  It says 'time for tea with a cat on my knee.'  The box is just as cute.  

I so enjoyed making the paper pieced cat that I had to make this mug rug...for me?

This is a free pattern from Artisania...here.

I think I may be in love with small paper piecing!

I am also completely caught up with the Block-A-Palooza blocks. These are the first 6 blocks and

Block 7 (oops...it says block 6)

See more blocks on the flickr group page.

Caught up on stitching the Give Thanks BOM from Jenny of Elefantz, too. Verses 2 & 3 are done.  A great reminder of all the blessings in my life...God's beautiful creation and my warm home.  The little verse cards are interchangeable.

Finally, I finished the 1st block in the Birdie Stitchery BOM.  I was so close to finishing when I ran out of yellow floss.  One swirl on the birdies little belly and no more floss.  To make it worse, Hobby Lobby was out of the yellow I needed.  I either had to wait for Hobby Lobby to call and tell me they got it in OR get to Joann's.  It took a couple of days but I got some more yellow floss and finished the block.  Now I'm working on Block 2.  

I was so excited to have it finished I didn't even press it before I took the picture. Yikes! You can see more on the flickr group page.

I told you I've been as busy as a bee!

Snow Day 2!

Just a quick update on how I spent my 2nd Snow Day.  I have  been slowly working on this very cute wallhanging...Give Thanks BOM...by Jenny of Elefantz.  

I would do some stitchery when I wasn't in my sewing room or working on the extreme wedding dress makeover.  Now that the wedding dress is done, I and I caught up on the Block-A-Palooza blocks, I concentrated on getting the stitchery done.  

The first verse is hanging in its spot and the second verse is now being stitched.  Yay! I love getting things finished! And I really like how this turned out.  

I also completed the 4th Block-A-Palooza block...Gingham Pinwheel by Cherry House Quilts.  

One final note...here is a picture of my blizzard 2011 casualty.

Before I really started quilting, I use to make these little garden banners to hang out in my front garden.  I made one for just about every holiday, birthday, season or celebration.  They are actually hand quilted using a preprinted fabric (the snowman).  

This one was hanging in the garden and was swept away with the gale force winds we had Tuesday night.  20.2" of snow later, I realized it was gone and probably buried under the snow somewhere down my street.  

As the snow was being cleared by my neighbor and his handy snowblower, guess what he found?  Yep...my banner was picked up by the blades of that snowblower and spit out.  My neighbor was kind enough to bring my little snowman back to me. 

Although I really liked my cute little snowman banner, I am grateful that he was our only casualty of the blizzard of 2011.

Snow Day!

It is officially the 3rd largest blizzard in Chicago and I have lived through them all! Here are a few photos taken around this morning.

  

A snow day...sew what's a quilter to do?  Of coarse, sew! 

I started by finally cutting all the squares for Little Miss Shabby's Birdie Stitches-BOM and getting a head start on preparing the squares.  I also traced the 1st BOM...hmm...block 2 has been released.  I'm a little behind. Pictures soon!

I then got started on cutting the fabrics for block 1of Block-a-Palooza.  This pattern, Flying over Fields, is from John over at Quilt Dad.  I got that all sewn together.

Sew I moved on to the next pattern, Word Search, by Elizabeth over at Oh, Fransson. Cut and sewn!

The next pattern, Shoofly Geese, is by Amanda at sasikirana handmade.  Done!

Tomorrow the 4th pattern is released over at Cherry House Quilts.  Now I'm ready...bring it on!

I also finished my mug rugs for the secret swap.  I hope my partner likes them.  They should be in the mail soon.  Are these for you? I'm not telling!

I planned to send these to Corrie for Quilts for Queensland yesterday however Mother Nature postponed my plans by sending the blizzard.  They will be in the post soon!

A productive snow day and we have another tomorrow! 

What will I get done?