Where Did The Summer Go?

It is only a week away from September and school had already been back in session for more than a week...how did summer slip by so fast?

I felt that I did have some time early in the summer to get some sewing done but because we planned a late summer vacation...my time was limited in August to a few days. 

We got home a week ago today and I started right back at school. 

My husband and I spent 2 weeks out west...8 days in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, 2 days in Rapid City and the Black Hills, a day in Sioux Falls, SD and 2 days in St. Paul, MN. 

As promised in my last post, I was bringing my fox quilt for a photo shoot...just had to take advantage of the beauty!

I renamed my version of Fancy Fox by Elizabeth Hartman, Foxy Baby!

  (First 3 pictures were taken at Yellowstone Lake)

The backing's large center is Outfoxed by Lizzy House. Perfect! 

A stray extra fox found its way to the back!

The quilting is basically FMQ straight line with a little leaf design along the strings. (Does that make sense?)

 These last 2 pictures are taken in The Grand Tetons.

Before leaving, I finished the Building Fun quilt (pattern by Geta's Grama) that I started many years ago but just didn't have a need for a baby quilt so it got put on the back burner. I called it Building Blocks. You can read about its start here.

I quilted with an all over stipple.

At the beautiful Grand Tetons!

 The backing is a cute stripe from my stash and the binding is Pezzy Prints by American Jane in multi colors.

(pictures at Yellowstone Lake)

Still no recipient in mind but it is nice to have a finished baby quilt on hand!

Also before I left, I deconstructed my Modern Black and White and reconstructed it with a bit more interest (a row of flying geese) but still giving a modern feel. You can see the original here.

This was the inspiration for this quilt. As you can see, I ripped it from an ad in a magazine. An ad for a bathing suit!

This happened last week!

AND...just before September rolls around and a new color is announced, I finished my August Rainbow Scrap Challenge block. The color was dusty purples but purple was a previous month so the suggested alternate color was gray. I do love gray as a neutral so I did have lots of gray scraps. 

Linking up to So Scrappy for the final Saturday post in August! Whew! Just made it!

Sunday's Summary

Another productive week! 

This week I worked on another baby quilt. This one for my DD2's best friend, J. I wasn't able to attend her baby shower in December as I was out of town...so I procrastinated...a little. Actually, I did start on this quilt 

with the intention of giving it but then my daughter sent me fabric for Christmas and 2 of the prints were to be used for J's baby quilt. 

Building Blocks was set aside. 

I had to rethink the pattern I would use and search through my stash for more coordinating fabrics. A perfect opportunity for more procrastination...after all, the baby wasn't due until the 1st week of March and I had UFO's to complete...namely Wings! and This & That. 

Yes, I do have a few more...but that's for another day Ü 

So on Monday night after Knitting Club, I decided to start cutting out the fabric. I had decided on using a pattern by Allison of Cluck, Cluck, Sew called Seville. I changed the size to make it a baby quilt and did my homework on how many of each block I would need. On Tuesday, I started piecing. These blocks went together very quickly. The whole top went together in a day and I pieced the back Wednesday.

On Thursday, I started FMQ and while doing so, my DD2 told me that J had gone to the hospital in labor. With the quilting complete, I made and attached the binding. Baby was born that night!

Yesterday, I finished hand sewing the binding, making the label and washing the quilt. Another finish!

Introducing Giraffe Love

 pictures taken before label and washing

I love the back almost as much as the front!

The 2 fabrics sent by my daughter are the giraffe print and the border stripe. I believe they are prints by Michael Miller...the rest of the fabrics from my stash.

On a techy note...I made my first button all by myself! (My blog button was made by my BIL.) I figured since I have been posting weekly summaries of my progress, I needed wanted a button and was determined to figure out how to do one. Yep, it's on top of this post and on my sidebar! Grab it if you like.

Finally, a friend emailed me this knowing that I'm a coffee/chocolate lover. 

Until next week...Enjoy!

Weekly Progress

Life is busy and I don't always find time to post on my blog. Instead I spend my free time actually quilting, knitting or creating in some manner. That is my outlet for busyness/stress. 

With that said, I am going to try to, at least, post a Weekly Progress update. 

This week I worked hard on finishing the top for a baby quilt I have been working on. The pattern is Building Fun by Geta's Grama. 

 It reminds me of these wooden blocks we had for building so I wanted to use similar colors. 

Remember these?

Here is my interpretation using Kona colors:

I did eliminate the borders around each block and made the borders 2 1/2" instead of 3 1/2".

I have a few quilts to work on before this one gets quilted Ü

I also worked on my February Art Journal for the 365 day challenge. 

I am having so much fun creating these calendars with mixed media. Since I am a quilter, for the most part, I am using fabric (from my stash Ü). The hearts in the balloon bouquet and the 2 hanging hearts are scrapbook stickers and the lace bow is from my stash left over from my doll making days. I am stamping the days of the week and the numbers. For writing on each day I have been using micron pens. 

If you want to be inspired, go here to see more.

And finally I sandwiched my Craftsy BOM quilt. Yay! Pictures soon!

What have you been working on?