Friday Finish

last week i had some travel time riding in the car, plus a lot of time sitting on the couch hanging with my parents for mother's day weekend.  i decided to give cross stitch another chance.  i'm pleased.

i hung this in my office this morning, on the file cabinet behind my computer monitor, where i can see it all the time.  already it's made my day better.

it needs to be taken out of the hoop and pressed well to remove the crease marks from the frame i stitched in and also from being folded up in my bag.

i whipped up another for a friend who has a new sewing room, and i have a third in the works.  yes, i think i'll do some more stitching!

The Weekly List

wow!  another exhausting week here!  we spent friday through sunday with my parents in corpus for mother's day weekend, and i was ready to come home last night!

i didn't get as much sewing done as i'd hoped last week (and none while i was out of town!), but i did get my black and white top from jacey and sew on the buttons, and i also managed to make my mom a fold up tote to carry in her purse.

i know i have another busy week, so i'm going to be pretty conservative in setting my goals.

goals for this week:

---> finish coral & mint pincushion for a pressie
---> whip up pink pincushion for a pressie
---> wash greenfield hills floral voile so i can cut out dress pattern
---> cut out Denyse Schmidt Florence fabric for HMQG challenge

The Weekly List

wow!  what an exhausting week!  i spent the first part of the week getting ready for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild annual retreat at Deep Woods Retreat in Smithville, Texas, and the weekend there sewing and having a blast.  i came home exhausted last night, so this post had to wait until today.

i got most of my goals for last week accomplished.  i got my remaining squares for my low volume HST quilt sewed, cut, pressed, trimmed.  i even got all but the last few HSTs sewn into quads while at the retreat!  this is going to end up being about a twin size, at 72" x 96"!

i got my shirt dropped off to jacey for buttonholes, but i have to pick it up this week before i can sew the buttons on.  i'm hoping to do that in a few days.

goals for this week:

---> unpack my crap from the retreat!
---> pick up black/white top and sew on buttons
---> get low volume HST quilt top assembled
---> make a quick tote for my mom for mother's day!

what's on YOUR list for this week?

What I've Been Doing Wednesday

i don't have any new pics of anything in process this week, so i thought i'd show you what i've been busy with the past few days.

last week, i finally ordered Ayumi Takahasi's book, Patchwork, Please! and it arrived on thursday.  i immediately thumbed through it to drool over all the yummy projects and tried to figure out which one to try first.

while i was still trying to decide, i went ahead and whipped up some feather blocks using some scraps of anna maria horner's field study linen i saved from being tossed at Stash Bash.

i made three large blocks and one smaller one from the rescued scraps and some linen.



i decided the smaller one was perfectly sized for a pouch and decided to make the Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch from Ayumi's book using my feather block as the front panel instead of piecing a triangle panel.  since my block was larger than the panel she gives instructions for, i had to re-work the measurements of the pouch pieces.  the instructions for this pouch were a bit confusing, and somewhat hard to follow.  thus, it took me far longer than anticipated to complete, but i'm pleased with the end result!



next, i decided to try the Prettified Pincushion.

first i made a yellow one.



then a pink one.



then a red one.



the instructions for the pincushion were much clearer and super easy to follow.  it was fun to sort through my scraps to find prints to use, and since the print fabric pieces needed are so small, i got to use some rather small scraps i'd been hoarding.  the most difficult part for me was getting the buttons sewn on tightly enough to pinch together the center of the pincushion.  i ended up doing each one a little differently to see what would work best.  i also seemed to pack more rice (my filler of choice for pincushions!) into the yellow one than the other two.

the pincushions are kind of addictive, go together pretty quickly, and are a great way to showcase tiny treasured scraps.  i've already got pieces cut out for a pale aqua pincushion to whip up this evening!

The Weekly List

I got everything on last week's list done!  and then some more!

in addition to finishing the disappearing nine-patch, my miniquilt for a swap, and yet another sorbeksten tank, i cut and marked squares for 226 more HST blocks for my low volume quilt, which was a pretty big accomplishment since i find the marking to be sooooooo very tedious (although not as tedious as trimming up HSTs!).

this week i have a couple of smaller items i'd like to crush, and see what i can get done before i head out friday morning to the Houston Modern Quilt Guild retreat at Deepwoods Retreat.

goals for this week:

---> mark buttonholes on black & white polka dot top and pass to jacey, who is awesome and is going to make my buttonholes for me!
---> add buttons to black & white polka dot top
---> sew low volume HSTS, cut apart, press and have ready for trimming up
---> pack for retreat!

Friday Finishes (A Day Late!)

earlier in the week i promised photos of the two quilts i finished in the past two weeks.

the first finish was a tumbler lap quilt made from a charm pack of A Stitch in Color, with a couple of FQ and one half yard of three prints from the line.



originally, i intended to make a pillow cover from the charms after i used my Sizzix Big Shot to cut my charm pack into tumblers.  but once i got the tumblers stitched together, i found it to be not really to my taste.  fortunately i'd grabbed two coordinating FQs and one half yard to use for the back of the pillow cover!  i used these to piece three borders around the tumbler section to get a 40" square quilt, which is a good size for either a baby quilt or a wheelchair lap quilt. best of all, i dug into my stash for the backing fabric and binding!

i took advantage of the fact that i'm not keeping this to have some fun with some quilting designs i'd not tried before.

in the innermost border i used a wishbone pattern.  fun, but definitely wonky!



in the middle border i used a wavy back and forth line.  a bit wonky, but i was not exactly focused on precision by this point!



in the outer border i did pebbles, a good old standby!

the center tumbler area was quilted with a much smaller meander than i've done before, which i quite like.



my second finish was a quilt that from start to finish was destined as a charity quilt.  after a charity sew in for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild last year i ended up with a set of 6 FQs from a line called Bon Vivant donated by fellow member and friend Frieda.  i intended to stitch them into a quilt right away, but time got away from me, and the fabric took up residence in my fabric china cabinet.

i pulled the FQs out and packed them to take to Stash Bash in Georgia in early April and, with a bit of consultation, decided on a disappearing nine patch,  i did need one more fabric, but Beth of Stash Fabrics had come to the retreat, bringing lots of fabric to purchase!  Jacey helped me pick the darker blue solid, a choice i'd never have made on my own!



i dug into my stash and found yardage to use for the backing, together with a strip made out of the scraps from the Bon Vivant FQs.  i also pulled from stash for the binding.



this quilt also finished at approximately 40" x 40" and i quilted it with a loopy meander.

WIP Wednesday

i've been pretty lax lately about taking photos of works while they're in process.  i'd like to try to get better at it, so that i can document all the stages of my projects, not just the end result!

since last august i've been slowly working on blocks for a low-volume HST quilt.  i'd cut a bunch of fabrics and sew blocks.  then i'd trim those up. then i'd make some more.  rinse and repeat.  before i went to Stash Bash earlier in the month, i got out my pad and pencil and drew my layout.  i knew i had 144 blocks.  i thought they each finished at 6", so i was thinking a 12 x 12 layout would give me a 72" square quilt.  great, no?  no.  my blocks finish at a mere 4", so a 12 x 12 layout gives me a nice sized baby quilt!

regardless, i laid out my blocks i did have at Stash Bash and sewed them together into quads.



this week i pulled my fabrics and gathered up scraps collected from friends and cut 226 more squares and marked them for sewing HSTS. this will give me 226 more blocks for a total of 370.  this is a few more than enough for an 18 x 20 layout, which will give me a generous 72" x 80" quilt - plenty big enough to snuggle under, even if M wants to share!



i'd like to get this stack of squares sewn together, cut in two, pressed and ready to trim up at the HMQG retreat May 3-5.  with a little perseverance i might just make it happen!