Thank goodness for Flikr!

I think without flikr I would forget that I even have anything to blog about - I never have time to sit down and blog right after I take pictures. Here is a little eye candy for you all tho on this overcast Sunday afternoon:

I received my Modern She Made swap item a week + ago and it totally made my day! Such an awesome package from Sunni:

These stacking baskets are the best and I love how each one is unique with the circle stamp, hexagons, and o yes - my blog name embroidered on the front of one of them - so cute!
From the snaps and raw edges to the coordinating handles and the orange/aqua/grey colorway, these are just so perfect for me! *swoon* She did an awesome job!

She also sent along the really cool Zakka Style book you see above and 2 Melody Miller type writer prints. I've been coveting this book for a bit and was waiting for it to go on sale later this year - so glad to have it and I've been plotting projects in it ever since! Thanks so much Sunni for being such a great partner! Now to find cool projects for those typewriters... hmmmm :)

I'm done with swaps for now but I am still in my Bee a Modern Swapper - Bee. We've had some personal issues with the ladies in our group and my heart and prayers go out to all of them. We're taking a break for July but hopefully things will calm down in their lives and the rest of us who've stayed will have a good rest of the year together.

My month was the first - March - and here are the blocks I've received so far for my "Picnic Quilt":

Such an awesome mix of paper piecing and applique - my group is so talented!! I feel absolutely spoiled and am not sure what to do with these beauties. I have a couple more on the way still so maybe that will force me to make a few more on my own to expand this quilt a bit. Right now it would be 36 x 36 and something this lovely is not getting made into a baby blanket to be drooled on lol. We shall see what their destiny is... for now I'm enjoying them on my design wall in my craft room.

Last but not least, I've been playing with my Bee blocks from this year and last from the 4 x 5 and 3 x 6 bees. I made a few of my own and had a few made for me by friends and I absolutely love the way they all look together. That open center space is for a swoon block I'm hoping to finish today.

First it looks like I should clean up my bedroom tho - yikes, what a mess! haha

Aren't these blocks lovely? This Orange/Aqua/Grey Sampler quilt is definitely going to be one of my favorites when I am done with it! I'm using this quilt as my submission for this month of the "My Precious QAL" - 2 of the blocks I made for this quilt used my hoarded Heather Ross Fabric and the center swoon block will also. Several of the others made by my bee partners use pieces of HR which I love!!

Off to do some chores and get started on the Swoon block. Hope your weekends are lovely and full of fun - the crafty kind or otherwise :)

Alive and finally some projects to show!

Yeesh - between work and school and playing outside in the little free time I have, I haven't been getting ANY sewing done!

Finally sat down this weekend and finished my May swap items - here are some project pics for your viewing pleasure:

1. Modern She Made Swap - (sorry for the cruddy picture, I had to get it in the mail since I was already a couple of days late so I grabbed the Ipad and snapped a quick pic.)
This project was way outside my comfort zone since I had to figure out the piecing from a picture and the quilting is geometric with some free motion - neither of which I am used to. Im happy with the experiment over all tho and hopefully my partner is too!

2. May Bee Blocks for Bee a Modern Swapper - I'm a few days late on these too but they will go out on Monday so again, sorry beemate! Life takes over sometimes...
She requested a mix of Yellow, Aqua, Grey, Brown and Navy - but we didn't have to include all of those colors in each block. She also requested that a triangle be in the block somewhere. I tried to be a little different/funky in my piecing and fabric choices and I like the way they turned out.

3. This block is for my Orange/Aqua/Grey quilt which will include swapped bee blocks as well as some of my own to make it big enough. Finally swapped out the light greys for darker ones and I like it way better than my first attempt.

My current translation class is a beast so if I fall off the face of the earth again, never fear, I'll be back eventually! When I do have a little free time the great outdoors are calling my name louder than my sewing machine and I think it is smart to listen :)

Splitting up siblings... aka fabric lines... do you do it?

I have a major problem with splitting up fabric lines - aka siblings! They are a family - you can't just rip them apart!! lol Apparently I have some issues ;-)

ANYWAY.... do you tend to buy and sew in fabric lines or do you try to mix and match? I have friends who take awesome fabrics in certain colorways from several lines and combine them to make fantastic projects. I try this... but then my thought is always "but if I use that print, my set won't be complete anymore!" For certain lines I really do want a full set, my lizzy house and heather ross favorites to name a few, but honestly most of the others could be split up... by normal people... who don't have hoarding tendencies lol. Any tips on how to get over this hump and just rip those little fabric families apart? Seriously... I need some help, this collection hoarding has to stop :)

Favorite Fabrics for this Summer

Spring Market has come and gone - I am absolutely loving all of the blogs and sneak peeks about what people saw, purchased, and ordered from the new lines coming out this summer. I'm trying to keep my list short so I can save for Sewing Summit and not spend ALL my personal money on fabric - but these 3 I just can't let go :)

1. Brr! by Laurie Wisbrun- coming sooooooooooo soon in June!!

2. Perfectly Perched by Laurie Wisbrun - coming out in July I believe? - A great companion to my full Tufted Tweets set!

 3. Nursery Versery by Heather Ross - I don't have a picture of the full collection but these are my 2 favorite prints and colors from the set. This is a much smaller collection than most of hers which has us all a little disappointed but it is fabulous none-the-less!

Aren't those little spiders just awesome? Itsy Bitsy spider in purple is def my favorite but those mice are just so cute, they are a close second :)

4. I also heard rumors that Red Letter Day by Lizzy House may be re-printed this Fall and may come out in alternate colorways. I love this line so so much and finally have a full FQ set of all the prints! I'm definitely going to be holding onto them in case she comes out with more colors to add to my collection before I make my "lucky duck" quilt :)

Is there anything coming out this Summer/Fall that you are super excited about? I'm trying to be good and keep my wishlist short but I still love knowing what everyone else is excited about! :)

My Precious QAL & a Mother's Day Present

It is the end of the first month of the "My Precious QAL" on flikr. I finally cut into some of my very precious Heather Ross fabric to start a few projects but I wanted to share one that I was able to complete. This is a Mother's Day present for my mom - who absolutely loves cats. I love this HR print with the cats and their names on it and it worked so well for these polaroid blocks. I gave it to her today when we spent some time together and she seemed to like it - which is good because I wanted to keep it myself haha - and I don't even like cats all that much!

It is definitely more my style than hers, but I wanted to share my quirky style with her since she is a lot more traditional, and I think it went over well.

So - there you have it - my first finished project using any of my Heather Ross fabric! It was hard to cut up, espec. since I have such small pieces of this but I did it and survived to sew another day lol.

Stay tuned... there will be more "precious" fabric being cut up from my stash in the next few months - for this QAL and just because I need to finally do it and enjoy it more than just letting it sit on my shelf!

Happy Saturday!

A few projects to share

I've been really bad about taking pictures lately but this weekend I finally remedied that and have a few things to share.

#1 is Chuckles the Aardvark - made into a pillow

Who wouldn't want a rabid aardvark chewing on your face at night? :)

He is super soft - I love this pillow!

#2 is my Moda - Botany log cabin quilt. I started this in 2010 - it was my first jelly roll! I made 55 out of 80 blocks and then it got put into a container and ignored for almost 2 years - poor thing. I really like the way it looks turned on point, maybe I'll be motivated enough to finish it this year!

#3 is my Moda - Hometown Plus Pillow - I'm not in love with it but I enjoyed working with this block pattern. I wouldn't use 2.5 inch squares again because it is WAY too small but it was a good learing experience. I guess I'll finish it at some point and make it into a pillow but not sure what I'll do with it at that point. We shall see.

#4 - last but not least, my Mendocino collection! I FINALLY cut into it and o buddy was that difficult! You see here a pile of triangles cut from 28 of the 38 Mendocino prints in existence. I have a few more to cut and a few more either on their way to me or pending swaps. I might not be able to use the complete collection but it is going to be awesome either way :)

That is all for now - working on the binding for my queen sized bed quilt I got back from the quilter last month. Once that finally gets done I will show some pictures - it turned out GREAT - Michelle is awesome :)

Have a lovely Monday!!

Mendocino - a quest and an obsession!

I will full-out admit that I am obsessed with Heather Ross' Mendocino collection. I should never have gotten started but I did and now I just can't stop, especially when I am SO CLOSE to having them all! lol

Here is a picture of the full collection:

If I counted correctly, there are 38 prints. I have a swap pending for 3 and am only missing 3 otherwise. That means I already own 32 of these prints - yahooooooooooo!

Here are the 3 I am missing still - looking to swap if anyone has a F8 or FQ - I do have a few extra F8s or FQs of other Mendocino prints to swap just for these:

A little background if you don't know about this line. It was printed in 2008 I believe and finding it in 2011/2012 has been very difficult and VERY expensive. It was originally around $9 a yard - normal retail price for designer fabrics - but I didn't start sewing until 2010 and when I saw it then I liked it but I didn't know anything about fabric prices and thought that 15-25$ a yard was just WAY too expensive.
Wow, I wish I would have started collecting it then because those yard prices are now FQ prices!! Some people are selling the fabric for $10-15 a fat quarter - no joke - $60 a yard and sometimes even more! I was able to find a lot of REALLY awesome swap partners for over 1/2 of this collection but there were some shameful purchases at ridiculous prices for a few of the prints.

Is it worth all of the money I've spent on it (swaps and outright purchases combined)? Probably not - it is just fabric afterall and what quilting fabric is really "worth" $15 a FQ?! HOWEVER it is absolutely one of my favorite lines and I love all the colors together and I will absolutely adore the quilt and whatever else I make out of this line so even if the financial worth is not there - it will still be worth a lot more to me in the end :) We quilters spend so much on getting things quilted, giving away items to family, friends, charities, etc tho so I guess a splurge just for myself can be justified in the grand scheme of things... maybe just a tiny bit.... ;-)

Mr. Lightening Bug got himself some setting triangles and boy does he look cozy in that field of flowers :) I've decided that this will be a pillow cover for my Modern She Made swap partner. Just need to get some fun quilting done on him and the white space around him will have some free motion loops if I can handle it! Wish me luck!

I've worked on little things here and there but honestly haven't been doing much crafting lately. I've just been busy with work, school, being sick, and otherwise not being motivated. Maybe this weekend I'll get motivated and have more to show next week!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

WIP Wednesday - little projects

Helllllllllooooooooooo..... and happy Wednesday everyone! That is right - 2 more days til Friday, yay!

Here are a few little project I've been working on lately - just experimenting with a few ideas I found on Flikr:



Firefly block - inspired by: this awesome girl's mini-quilt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55243381@N04/6926925989/





Postage Stamp Block - need to fix the grey tho, want to go darker
Inspired by House of A La Mode: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35939871@N05/6338713108/in/gallery-58229916@N06-72157628894181847



Reverse Applique and Porthole Method Reverse Applique - Idea take from here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48813034@N04/6937634792/in/photostream

Which was originally inspired from Lu Summers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lusummers/4745030343/in/set-72157623830606179

:

It has been fun trying out so new blocks and methods. Love flikr and all the wonderful inspiration and ideas to be found there!

New Blocks - on a roll today!

Somehow I had such a productive day today! I went to a baby shower, did my homework, made 3 quilt blocks, and used the elliptical for an hour - what an awesome Saturday! No cleaning got done and that was on the list... but o well... I can blame that on the homework, not the fun stuff, right? hehe

Here are some blocks I was working on today - all 3 are for my "Orange, Aqua, Grey" quilt which will be made 50% from bee blocks I received last year.

Granny Square Block

Long Log Cabin Block - using my 1st piece of Mendocino I received as an "extra" in a swap last year!

Orange Joseph's Block - Love those HR puppies!

I want to make a quilt just like this - with a swoon block in the center and my bee blocks all around it:

Picture from Colleenamarena on Flikr

I think it might end up being too small if I do this tho. I could add a border.. or I could add another row on each side and another column on each side... we shall see. I still need to make the swoon block and 5 or 6 more just to make one as big as above, so I have some time to think about it. 

Hope you all had a productive or at least enjoyable Saturday too!

Finish-a-long Quarter 2

It is second quarter of 2012 people! Time to get a move on those UFOs and WIPs if you don't want to be stuck with them at Christmas this year still :)

Here is what I hope to accomplish this quarter:

1. I get to pick up Pinkie tomorrow - o buddy I am so excited to see her all quilted up! Need to get the binding on her and she will be DONE - this is one of the longest UFOs I've had - since 2010 when I started quilting - my very first beginning! She was for me and only for me so she kept getting pushed back for millions of other project but this month is HER month and she WILL get finished! :)

2. Puppy pillow - I am not letting this WIP turn into a UFO - it is getting finished and snuggled this quarter darn it!

3. Quilt for my hubby - 5 rows are done but I ran out of fabric. Picking up more tomorrow so hopefully will get the top finished by the end of April and will def. get this done this Quarter - wish me luck!

4. This was supposed to be a Christmas present for a friend... yea, a little late on that. I'd like to get it done before "Christmas in July" so this is going on Q2's list.

What is on your plate for this Quarter?? WIPs or UFOs?

I also have the Modern She Made Me swap item but I haven't even started that and have NO idea what I am going to make so I can't even put it on the list yet lol.


Linking up with the Finish-a-long 2012 - Quarter 2:

Progress Report Friday - yay!

I was too slow for WIP Wednesday so I am going to make up "Progress Report Friday" and act like it is a real thing haha.

I am participating in the "My Precious QAL" on flikr - where basically we are challenged to use "the precious" (insert gollum's voice from Lord of the Rings here) from our stash and MAKE SOMETHING from it... instead of continue to be the fabulous hoarders we all are!

I had to start small because this is a very scary thing, so I made a pillow cover out of my HR dogs on yellow:

 I started off matching pink fabrics to the puppies - because a lot of them had something pink next to them like a bow or sweater or ball. I REALLY like the way these turned out and it was fun cutting the dog pieces in different shapes instead of doing them all square.

I happened to have the perfect shade of Kona curry to match the dog blocks and decided a fun 9 patch pillow cover would be just the thing to highlight these puppies and show off the fun colors. I probably never would have put pink and mustard yellow together but I really like them!

I am thinking about some thick straightline quilting in the yellow parts but I can't quite come up with a design or idea... I was thinking horizontal strips 1/4" apart on the top and bottom squares and then vertical ones on the left and right... but I can't decide if that is too boring. Any ideas?

I had to set this aside to work on my husband's quilt this week and I was able to get 5 rows done on it so far before I ran out of fabric. I haven't decided how many rows long it will be but atleast I finally got the width figured out so that is good. I am picking up matching fabric this weekend from my mom because I accidentally sent it to her house - so hopefully I can keep working on this next week.

I really like the way it is coming together and more importantly, my husband really likes it. He loves argyle :) He really wanted a brown border around it and I found a shade of Moda brown that is closer than the Kona Browns - not perfect but still a good match. Once I have the top made I will do a border around the whole thing and then a fun white/blue print binding. He hasn't decided what he wants for the back yet so that will remain a mystery for now... even to me haha.

Not a ton of projects to show but I'm happy with these 2 and glad I was able to get SOMETHING other than homework done this week.

Happy Friday everyone!!

Slowing the growth of my stash... help please! lol

Last night I decided to go through my stash and pull out piles of fabrics that I either don't love so much anymore, have no idea what to do with, or I like but won't be using anytime soon - and I put them all in a big plastic tub. I then took all of my favorites - "My Precious" - as our flikr group would say, and put them on the shelf so I can see them and remind myself of all the awesome fabric lines I have gathered and need to use.

The first thing I noticed is this... I have WAY too much fabric! I know, I know - what a blasphemous thing to say but it is so true! When it is all piled up on a shelf I don't notice how much there really is but when I started pulling out pile after pile and realizing how many full lines I do have - yikes - I was a little embarassed!

I will show some stash pics later maybe just to share my favorites but for now I need help on keeping that giant stash from growing at an alarming rate lol - which it has been for the past 2 years I've been sewing. (So embarassed to have so much fabric and I honestly have only been sewing for less than TWO YEARS... ahhhhh I am insane and addicted lol).

So - here are the lines that I REALLY want for the next 3 months - just ignoring the ones that would be "nice to have" in bits and pieces and telling myself NO until there is a month where I don't want a whole line.

April - Summersville - how can I not love this? - the problem is I definitely don't have any fabric money for April so this will just have to go on hold :( I am thinking I don't need a quilt out of this tho - maybe some FQs for smaller projects like fabric baskets or something later on tho?

Are you super excited about this line? Do you know what you will do with it? Please... tell me I don't need the whole thing... make me feel better about this (bad bad!) decision to wait on it haha.

May - Lucy's Crab Shack by Sweetwater

If I am honest with myself, I WANT this ENTIRE line to make an awesome summer quilt! However, after discussing it with hubby and my budget, that just can't be :( So... I am thinking maybe a charm pack so I get a little bit of all the prints, and then maybe FQs of the plaid and polka dots because they will work so well with other projects. Such a hard decision to make... did I make the right one? Ahhh I am so weak lol. honestly as much as I love this line, I need to learn that I don't need to buy EVERY line and I need to learn to mix and match, which I think will work well with the plaids and polka dots.

June - Brr! by Laurie Wisbrun

Out of all 3 months, this is by far my favorite. I will be getting enough of the blue/red to make a quilt for sure and then some FQs to make into other fun projects. Love love LOVE this fabric line and out of the 3, this one is definitely the top priority.

There are other lines coming out this summer that I am super excited about, including one mentioned by Heather Ross that is supposed to come out at May Market. Knowing there are other lines I will want, I need to curb my wish list for the next 3 months - as much as it pains me.

How do you cut back on your fabric buying and convince yourself to either buy less or wait? I have gotten really bad at getting layer cakes of Moda ones I like, F8 or FQ bundles of ones I LOVE, and ending up with SO much fabric that I will never be able to use it all! This needs to stop... I need to get better... and I would love your tips and advice on how you decide what fabric to buy and convince yourself to pass up on other lines even if you like them.

... thank you, self-help group, your words of wisdom are appreciated. My name is Tiffany and I am addicted to fabric. "Hi Tiffany" says the group... ;-)

Vintage Singer - o buddy! :)

I went down to Havre de Grace, MD with a couple friends last weekend and while antiquing (is that a verb? haha) I found this great vintage Singer! It is a bit worn and not functional because the cord has been cut, but I am really enjoying having it as a decoration in my home.

This was such a great find - it was originally $75 and was marked down to $35 and came with the wooden top case. The case is a little beat up too, but I can still see the "Singer" embossing on the front which is cool. I will try to take better pictures of the 2 together - we just have no room in our apartment to display them together right now!

I kind of love the fact that the decals are worn and it definitely looks like it has had a lot of use - it was well-loved and I am happy to give it a home for retirement :)

I did send some pictures and questions to a guy that has a blog about repairing vintage Singers so who knows - maybe she can come out of retirement yet! If not tho, she will be loved by me just as much as if she was functional.

Do you have a vintage Singer from family or that you've found somewhere? I think they are so cool :)

Just 3 Challenge - April

TraceyJay Quilts is starting something called Just 3

Basically this is her plan:

So I'm giving myself three goals.


Each month, I will write down three goals, and at the end of the month, I will reflect, report, and re-evaluate for the next month.

I think this is a great idea and something I was kind of trying to do but maybe more structure and linking up will help me stick to it!

So here are my 3 goals for April:

1. Finish this quilt top for my husband

This is a realstic goal because I have all of the blocks made, they just need sewn into rows and then I need to decide if I am making it bigger or adding a border. 3 weeks left - I think I can manage it.

2. Pick a pattern and Fabric for me "Pretty Little Pouch Swap - Swapping with myself" project from this post
The actual swap mail day is 2 weeks from Friday - April 20th - but I am not pushing myself to meet that goal. I have too much homework and other things going on so I will be happy if I at least have a plan and fabric choice by the end of the month.

3. Find all of the pieces, pattern, and material to the purse I started for my mom so I can get that finished by Mother's Day. Putting this on here so I will force myself to go look and get working on it!! I am very intimidated by this pattern and I altered it to be smaller so I have no idea if it will work out... so I've been ignoring it for a few months and lost it in several boxes lol. I REALLY want to make this for her for Mother's Day tho, since it was supposed to be a Christmas present and that obviously didn't happen :-p

So there you have it, my 3 goals for this month. 3 weeks left to meet them and A LOT of life stuff going on between now and then that will make this a challenge.

What are your 3? Check out TraceyJay Quilts and link up to share your 3 goals for April as well!