August 25, 2015

Bummed!

By    5:42 PM // 9 comments
This is how my Lucy has been for the last month, all covered up and bored to tears.
I have not been able to sew a stitch since this time last month.  After getting back from vacation and our China travel group reunion, I was home a whole of 2 days and that was consumed with unpacking, laundry and repacking.  Then we were off again as Sunshine and I spent 3 days at Girl Scout Cookie Camp which is for girls that sold at least 500 boxes of cookies.  We were in the lodge with all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade girls. It was a ton of fun but when I got home I was completely exhausted.
 This is the project that I was last working on.  It will be a baby quilt for my newest grand niece.
This bin fill of Halloween goodies is waiting for me to dig into it and start creating my City Sampler blocks.  I'm planning on doing some of that on Friday when I'm off from work.
This quick panel quilt is draped over the frame waiting to be quilted (another quilt is loaded underneath it).  I'm anxious to see the response from the future recipient of this so I wanted get it done and gifted very soon.
This is also waiting to be quilted.  Sorry about the sneak peak but it is for an Instagram swap and I don't want my partner to see the entire thing until it is in her hands.
There have been some bright spots though lately.  I picked up my new wheels 2 days before we left on vacation so now I finally get to drive her a bit more.  I love it. It has been 10 years since I've had a new vehicle.
I'm outfitting her properly including adding these kick mats so the kidlets don't make a mess of the back of the seats (they have a better strap system on the bottom than many others and they are bigger) and seat protectors under their car seats.  I want to keep my new baby as pretty as possible for as long as I can.
I also added a little fun bling to the back window.
I'm still on the hunt for the perfect license plate frame, the Weather Tech liners just arrived at hub's office this morning and a great handmade holder for the tissue box is on its way which I will show you when it arrives.  You'll like it, I promise.
Some fabric goodness has passed through the front door recently too. A lot of parcels have been showing up at my house for the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap but I never expected this surprise package that came last week.  My good friend Katie of Karma Willow Designs sent them to me just because.  I feel very spoiled and thanks so much Katie.
The big pile of green felt is for a Girl Scout-y project for my troop members and while I was at that store, I spotted a few more interesting Halloween prints to add to my City Sampler bin plus I grabbed another spool of clear thread because I know that a lot more Girl Scout patch sewing is in my future.
This big bin is stocked full of packages containing the Kate Spain Christmas charms and the sorting will be starting tomorrow afternoon.  I'm still waiting on a few stragglers to arrive and then they all will be on their way to their new homes.
 So hopefully life will get back to normal and I'll be able to make some progress on my projects.  My work schedule is changing when the new school year starts so I'll be home earlier every day and I should be able to get more things done.

August 16, 2015

City Sampler At Your Own Pace Quilt Along Linky Party

By    8:55 AM // 4 comments


I had good intentions of getting this linky party started yesterday but I honestly just didn't have the energy.
Truth be told...I've barely been home the past few weeks. First we went on vacation and then finished up that trip with our China travel group reunion.  We were home 2 days and then Sunshine and I were off for 3 days of Girl Scout Cookie Camp that she earned.  I got home late Friday and let me tell you, I was beyond exhausted.  Being one of the counselors for 14 girl in grades 1-3 is hard work!

So what have I accomplished for my City Sampler?  Pitifully not much, because I haven't been home to sew. But I did make a teeny amount of progress, sort of.  While on vacation I visited 2 local quilt shops and although I didn't find much of interest at either one, I did pick up a few bits. I was on the hunt for some additions to my quilt along pile, namely those Halloween prints with White, Yellow or Green backgrounds.  Unfortunately the 2 shops had very little Halloween fabrics but I did find these few.
 Although these 2 pieces aren't for the quilt along, I did need to have them.  I have a train panel for hubby's train room that I need to do something with so the sign print will go for that and the Red with Gold Asian print is one that I don't already have in my largish Asian stash for the kids' eventual Asian quilts.

So now it is time for you to link up any City Sampler At Your Own Pace Quilt Along progress you have made, whether it just be a fabric pull or some blocks in progress or even some completed ones.  I can't wait to see what everyone has done so far.
I hope to get some sewing time in later today, after the laundry gets finished and put away so hopefully I'll get a block or two made.




July 25, 2015

A different kind of quilt along

By    7:16 AM // 13 comments
Today I'm starting a different kind of quilt along and you might want to play along too.
Here's how this idea came about.....a couple of months ago my friend Katie of Karma Willow Designs posted how she was trying to make some progress on making her Tula Pink City Sampler blocks and was sort of stalled in the process. I've seen so many versions of this around the quilting blogisphere when the book came out and when Sara of Sew Sweetness hosted her quilt along that I got sort of interested in eventually making one too.

I don't know about you but over the past 8+ months I've had a hard time actually making into my studio to do even just a little sewing.  That doesn't make me happy and I desperately need to change that.  

So....when I read Katie's post, I proposed to her that we cheer each other on in our quest to make a City Sampler and in the process we will be each others' cheerleader to applaud our accomplishments.  She loved this idea and I was lucky enough to quickly find this copy of the book on one of the Facebook destash sites that I belong to for $8.  Whoo hoo for bargains!
Then....we thought why not invite others to join us....to motivate and cheer each other on to complete individual blocks and eventually an entire quilt, whether it be all 100 blocks or some lesser quantity. 

This is what we've decided to do:

This will be a no time commitment quilt along...
no deadlines, no expectations, no pressure.

If you make any progress during the month Great!  If not there is always the next month.
I'll do a linky party on the 15th of each month where we can share our accomplishments and cheer each other on.

I don't know what Katie's plans are as far as when she wants to finish her quilt but I'm hoping to complete mine within a year, hopefully less.  Since most of these blocks can be sewn together in 15-30 minutes it will at least give me a few minutes of play on more days and slowly but surely work my way towards finishing the project.

This 1st linky party is for whomever wants to join us and will be open until August 14th.  If you want to sew with us, just post a link to anything related to the City Sampler....a fabric pull, blocks started but not finished, completed blocks.  Hopefully this will interest those of you that started a sampler and then put it aside to take it out again and work on it.  Then on August 15th and each following month on the 15th I'll have a new linky party to show off what you've accomplished so we can motivate each other to keep going.  

To get this party started I'm going to show you my fabric pull now....perhaps to help you think outside the box for this project if you don't already have a plan.  While I love so many of the City Samplers that I've seen pictures of, I'm going in a totally different direction for my version.  These are the fabrics that I'm going to use.
Yes I'm going to make a Halloween version of Tula Pink's City Sampler.  I looked around and didn't see where anyone else has done this so it should look really great when it is done.  Plus I want a big Halloween quilt and this will kill 2 birds with one stone. I'm really excited to see how this is going to come together.

Here is my White, Yellow and Orange pile.  I desperately need to find more White and Yellow background prints to use for this.
Here are the Green and Purple bits I'll be using.  I definitely need more Green too to add to this stack and a few other Purple ones wouldn't hurt either.
These are the Black prints I will be incorporating into my blocks.
I just might also include some pieces from my Ghastlies stash if the mood strikes me.  When I said that I'm addicted to this line, I wasn't kidding.  For each block I'm just going to wing it and pick my fabrics based on my mood at that moment.
So who wants to join us?

You can make your blocks with any theme that strikes you fancy...Rainbow, completely scrappy, 1930s prints, Christmas prints, Civil War fabrics, Asian fabrics (that would personally be my other choice), modern fabrics, geometric prints.....it's totally up to you.

Sew when you can.  Show off whatever you've accomplished.
There are no quilt police with this. Maybe at some point we'll have a finish linky party to celebrate completed projects but that will be a bit off in the future depending on how everyone does.  

If you want to spend just a few minutes each day (or at least every few days if your life is busy like mine) sewing for fun, come be a City sampler cheerleader with us. Oh and there is a button over on my sidebar if you want to use it on your blog and spread the news.



July 21, 2015

Last chance

By    5:33 AM // 2 comments
7 6 3 spots left!

Every day the packages of gorgeous charms are arriving and I can't wait to start sorting all of them into pretty piles to send back out to all of the participants. It's not to late to be one of those participants.
This is the final call for anyone who wants to join in on the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap.  Surprisingly, there are still a few spots available.  This swap includes all of her holiday lines including:
 
 
 
 
Kate's holiday designs are so modern and fun and will look great together in some fabulous projects for the upcoming season.  I already have a few projects planned for my stack of charms. The details are all in this post but I am extending the deadline to have your charms in the mail to August 15th to give the new people time to get their fabrics and get them sent out.

So sign yourself up today!  Sign your friends up today!  Don't miss out.

July 12, 2015

This week's progress and Stunning Stitching Sunday

By    3:27 PM // 6 comments
I'm happy to report that I actually got to spend some time in my studio this past week. Boy did it feel great.
I only had a little time on Wednesday afternoon before I had to pick the kidlets up from camp so I added borders to the Disney Villains panel.  Now I need to decide how to quilt it.  Any suggestions?
Friday was productive too although I only got one smaller task done.  It had a lot of pieced. This is a sneak peak of the mini quilt I'm making for the Spooktacular Mini Swap 15 on Instagram.  The top is done and again I'm trying to decide how to quilt it.
Yesterday the munchkins made a fort in the playroom/library using the coffee table and my Castles on the Horizon quilt that I made for the Moda Bake Shop. (I so love the morning sun that streams through the front windows).
Someone else was enjoying the morning rays. Mr. Juno is completely at home now.
Of course right after I captured this picture, he got up and moved. I guess I was annoying him with all the camera clicking.
Today the fort morphed and got bigger. As you can see, Jammer used the rainbow strings quilt made for me by Karma Willow Designs and my Thistles and Vines quilt (which is the first quilt I made ever).
He said it has 3 sections now...one for Sunshine, one for him and one for storage.  Silly boy.
Oh and BTW Sunshine finally lost her first upper tooth. She likes putting a straw in the gap.
Of course you really want to see all the quilty goodness I've come across lately.
I hope you enjoy today's showcase and please remember to click through the links to each quilter's blog and show them how much you appreciate all that they share with the quilting world.
1. Quilting is My Bliss, 2. Confessions of a Fabric Addict, 3. Piece N Quilt, 4. Dreamworthy Quilts, 5. Quilting is My Bliss, 6. Piece N Quilt, 7. Tamarack Shack, 8. Treadlemusic, 9. Dreamworthy Quilts, 10. Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures, 11. Green Fairy Quilts, 12. Creative Longarm Quilting by Karen Marchetti, 13. Ms. Midge, 14. Happy Quilting, 15. Alicia Quilts, 16. Quilting is My Bliss

Last but not least, I'm going to make another plug for the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap. There are still a few spots available so if you've been waiting to join in the fun, stop waiting and join now.
The packages of charms have started to arrive and very soon this bin will be overflowing with quilty goodness.  Then the fun part of opening each stack and sorting through the gorgeous charms can commence.
Enjoy your Sunday.  Another work weeks starts all too soon.
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