We interrupt this program...

Things have been a bit topsy-turvey at my house the last couple days, so my plan to get lots of sewing accomplished on Friday and Saturday did not materialize!  On Friday evening my husband was admitted to the hospital with a blockage in his small intestine and yesterday afternoon, he had surgery!  He is already feeling much better, so I am very thankful for that, and anxious to get him home.

In spite of the excitement, I did get going on a couple of WiPs that I want to complete in the next couple of weeks.   My string blocks are sewn together and I have some fabric chosen for the border that I want to put around them.

I also decided to finish a much older WiP , my braided quilt, so that I can give it to a friend who is a new grandma and needs a "grandma" quilt!  I first blogged about this quilt back in November of 2013!  It is made from yardage of Hello Sunshine that I bought from Connecting Threads in the fall of 2013, and a few additional fat quarters from my stash.  I think it will be a great quilt for a little boy!

I used this tutorial from Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for the basic quilt, but I have since added an additional border to make it a bit wider.  It now measures about 45" x 55".

Friday, I had the chance to piece a backing for this quilt and baste the layers together.  Hopefully, I will have a chance to start quilting it this week..  But first, I am off to the hospital to see how my hubby is feeling today. Hopefully, life can get back to normal pretty soon!

Travels and More

My mom, who will be 84 on her next birthday, is going on a cruise to Alaska!  I'm so excited for her!  So, I decided she needs a brand new pouch to carry things in on her travels.  Hopefully she will find this little pouch as useful as I am finding the ones I have made for myself.  I used the tutorial from Noodlehead for the Open-Wide Zippered Pouch.  It went together so quickly, and made me think maybe I am getting the hang of doing the zipper!

The outside is a blue polka dot that I think I bought at Hobby Lobby and the lining is from a fun, low volume striped fat quarter, both from my stash.  I can't wait to give to my mom when I see her next week.

Last Friday, I received a package from Tanya, of Tanya Quilts in CO, because I won her blog anniversary drawing!  What a fun treat!  Tanya made a Watcha Got? project bag and a pin cushion out of sweet Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  It is such a great bag and will be fun to use to store a project in with its clear plastic front window.

                           

Tanya also filled the bag with goodies like thread, a measuring tape, buttons, hand lotion, and my favorite candy, Peanut M&Ms.  Don't look too closely in the picture above, or you will notice that the M&M package was already empty when I took the picture!  Yum!  And look at the adorable zipper pull she put on the bag!  I love it!

Thanks, Tanya!  You are so generous!

In other sewing this week, I have been adding string blocks to my collection, and am up to 16.  Every time I make a few more, I have fun laying them out to see how they could potentially look.

I am thinking I might stop at 20 blocks, and then put a pretty large border on to give myself some negative space for quilting in, as inspired by this quilt made by Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  I love how her quilting follows shape of the string block diamonds out into the borders!  And it's something I can do with my walking foot, which is what I do best right now!

Have a great week, everyone!  I am looking forward to a visit with my oldest son for the first few days of the week and then a trip to Arizona to see my mom.  It's supposed to be in the 110s there while we are there... Yikes!  At least there is a pool to cool off in!

I will be linking up with Oh Scrap! on Sunday, and looking forward to reading about the other fun projects going on out there!

Playing with Scraps

Since I had a big finish (for me!) last week, I decided to dedicate this week to playing with my scraps. While browsing the Oh Scrap link-up last Sunday, I was inspired to start working on a String Quilt, something that's been on my quilty bucket list for quite awhile.  I went back to Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza quilt from last August to get the scoop on how these blocks are made.  After re-reading that series of posts, I pulled out this inspiration fabric from my stash.  I love the blue, green, and cream, and that bright orange that really catches your eye!

I don't have very much of it, so I cut a few strings from it to add into the blocks, but I was also able to choose a bunch of fabrics to go with it that are ending to make a very fun combination!

I have also added some dark gray and cream fabrics, plus more with the blue, green, and orange theme.  My scraps aren't necessarily cut into strings, so I have had to do quite a bit of cutting as I go along, but since I just need various widths and don't need to worry about the length, that has gone fast! The other thing I needed to find was some muslin for the foundation of these blocks, and lo and behold, I had some! So, here is what has happened so far:

I think I like where this is going!  But I definitely need a lot more.  I'm a slowpoke at these kinds of projects, but I do have fun just making a block or two whenever the inspiration strikes!

Also, my Scrap Vortex quilt is growing!

Don't you just love my Design Floor?!

And one last WiP to share... I am not much of a gardener.  In fact, I have a bit of a brown thumb for just about everything except petunias, but I am so proud of my tomato in a pot.  It's big, green, healthy, and has lots of tomatoes on it!  Yay!  Can't wait to start eating them!

Okay, getting back to work  playing with my scraps!  Linking up with Oh Scrap!

A Summer Finish

I am so happy to have finished my Winter in the Woods quilt earlier today!

It is made from a jelly roll of Into the Woods by Leila Boutique for Moda and a jelly roll of Kona Snow, loosely based on a video tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company (called Summer in the Park) and a pattern from England Street Quilts.  I say "loosely based" because after the initial jelly roll strip sewing and cutting, I put the rows of smaller blocks together completely differently than the patterns called for!  Rather than unpick and re-sew, I decided to leave them as is, and go with the quilt this way.  And I have ended up being very happy with it!  

I love the color palette of this fabric line and quilt - it has always reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream!  (With a little strawberry thrown in!)

Awhile ago, I used a few orphan blocks leftover from the construction of this quilt to make a pillow that goes with it.  It's fun to finally see them together!

I quilted this one myself on my Janome with edge to edge organic, wavy lines.  I love the result of the quilting, but have to admit that one of the reasons it took me so long to finish was because the quilting process went very slowly for me!  I started and stopped many times because I got bored and needed to work on something else!  So happy to have it finished now!

I often forget to put a label on my quilts, but not this one!  Another leftover part of a block made a great label.

And, finally, a shot of the binding.  I ordered some yardage of the mint dots from Into the Woods for the backing and binding, but also added in the last few jelly roll strips in green and pink to make a scrappy binding!  My favorite!  

Yay for a Friday finish! Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Oh Scrap on Sunday!

Progress and a Pyramid Pouch

With my Scrap Vortex blocks, I am making slow progress, but definitely having fun!

Week one:

Week Two:

Today:

For this project, I really need a design wall in my sewing room so that I can keep the blocks up all the time and work on how they will fit together.  That will require some furniture moving and figuring out!  

This week, I have also been working on a Pyramid Pouch, and just finished it up this morning! 

For the last couple of years, I have had fun trying different types of pouches and bags, so when I saw that Sandra of Musings of a Menopausal Melon had published her pattern and tutorial for the Pyramid Pouch on Moda Bake Shop, I knew I wanted to try it!  Working with equilateral triangles was a good stretch for my sewing skills, and although my points aren't as perfect as I would like them to be, I'm not disappointed in my work, for this first time!

I used 16 charm squares from a charm pack of One for You, One for Me by Pat Sloan for Moda for the outside.  I chose the navy, teal, and lime pieces because I thought they would go well together and give my pouch a happy look!  Unfortunately, the lime color didn't photograph quite right for this close-up.  For the pouch lining, I used a lime fat quarter from my stash.

Sandra's tutorial was very clear with lots of helpful hints on how to make the pouch turn out exactly the way you want. (Which I am sure I followed perfectly..wink, wink!)  There is definitely plenty of room for whatever you want to carry in this pouch.  I think I might use it to house all of those pesky cords and things you have to take along when you travel!

Now it's time for me to get back to work on one of my bigger WIPs.  But pouches and scrappy sewing are a fun break now and then!

Linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Simple Things

Simple things always make me happy!

A young hawk using our bird bath to cool off:

The little birds at our feeders probably aren't so happy he is there, but I love the variety of wildlife we are able to attract to our suburban backyard.

My favorite souvenirs from our recent trip to Oregon include rocks, shells, and bits of driftwood from the beaches we visited.  I think I will add "beachcomber" to the skill description on my resume!

A simple sewing-related thing that made me happy today was replacing the old pillows that I put inside the pillow covers I made in the last year or so with real live pillow forms which are the correct size for the covers!  I made these with the best of intentions: to dress up some old, tired, gray pillows we had for our couch.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite match the size correctly and the pillows looked kind of slouchy and wiggly.  So today I put 18 x 18 pillow forms inside them, and love the difference it makes!

Before:                                                   

After:

Here's to the simple things in life!  Happy Friday, everyone!

Scrappy Projects

I have one tiny little scrappy finish this week... a pincushion!  I have admired Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts' collection of mini pincushions for a long time and made one other before this.  This one is made from scraps of Gleeful.

I sent this one off to Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun than Housework, along with the dot fabric giveaway she won from my 101st post.  Thanks for always being such an inspiration, Cynthia!

Having survived the end of the school year, and thoroughly enjoyed a trip to beautiful Oregon, I am more than ready to get back into my sewing room on a regular basis.  I decided I want to participate in the Scrap Vortex QAL at Crazy Mom quilts and this is what I've done so far:

My plan is to match darks and lights so that, hopefully, I will have a good balance of those as the quilt comes together.  This will be fun to try! Time to get some more bits and pieces put together!  

Linking up with Finish it up Friday and Oh Scrap on Sunday, too!