BOM Part 7

It feels so good to actually be on track with something for once!  I'm all caught up with the Lakeland Modern Quilt Guild's block of the month program.  Here's July's installment:

One for the guild, made with Northcott fabrics, and

one for me, in my chosen color scheme.  By the way, if any of you know where I can get my hands on more of that Madeline by Blank Quilting print, please let me know!  I am dangerously low!

Here's the two blocks together:

 

And the moment you've been waiting for--a preview of my sampler quilt with all 7 blocks so far!

 



It's really going to be fabulous.  The only question is, do I add sashing?  I have plenty of that blue/black checked print.  Hmm...

Well, it won't be too long before I write again, so until then, God Bless!

Sewing for #babyschep

It's begun!  The first of many, many things I will sew for my little one.  First off, I simply cannot believe that I'm going to be a mom.  We had our 20 week ultrasound this past week, so here's a peek at my kid:

So what did I make for baby?  The oh-so-popular 1 Hour Basket.  The pattern is free from Hearts and Bees in the Craftsy shop.  Here's my first crack at it:

This particular one went to my mom's house.  She seemed truly excited about it, so bonus points for me, right?  I made the first one using home dec fabric from Ikea, American Made Brand solid for the lining, and Pellon Thermoloam Fusible Fleece for the interfacing.  Not so bad!  The only tricky part is making the gussets--I've always had trouble matching the seams up just so.


My second go-round was specifically designed for the nursery, which I've chosen to decorate in a neutral jungle theme.

Yes, I made three!

 I chose a neutral home dec fabric from Ikea.  The lining fabric was from a mystery sale table at Fabric Warehouse, so I can't tell you what it is.  If you recognize it, let me know!  This time, I used Pellon's new Flex-Foam, and boy, was it fantastic!  I even managed to match up all of my gusset seams!  Woot! 

I even added a little label:

Of course, I picked the messiest one to photograph!

I'm not sure why my baby needs to know this was made by mommy, but whatevs.  These were quick and fun to make--I'll probably make some more in the future.  Until then, God Bless!

2015 BOM: Parts 4, 5, and 6!

As y'all have heard me say quite a few times on this blog already, I've been behind on my work.  So much so, I did three (read 6) blocks of the month at a time.  I'll keep this short and sweet, so here they are!

April's BOM from SewMamaSew:

One for the guild...

...and one for me!

May's BOM from SewMamaSew:  This one involved paper piecing--not bad for my first try, huh?

One for the guild...

...and one for me!

June's BOM from Toefeather:(this one is my favorite so far!)

One for the guild...

...and one for me!

 I did one marathon sewing session to finish most of these up, because I was so far behind!  I bet y'all are curious about what my design wall looks like now...

And that, my friends, is half a year's worth of BOMs!  Hey, it's never too late to start!  Every pattern is on the guild's Pinterest page.  Check us out!

Until next time, God Bless!

My first Instagram swap!

So these ladies in my guild have been doing these super cool Instagram swaps for a while, so I decided to get in on the action.  By the way, check me out on Instagram!  I'll follow you back...

Anyhow, I just happened across the #IGNeedlebookswap.  Whaat?  I really needed a needlebook, so why not make one for someone else and receive one in exchange?  Brilliant!

Signing up was easy.  Anorina over at Samelia's Mum organized the swap, and the form was simple and easy to fill out.  I wanted to go international, so I opted in to swap with an international partner.  My assigned partner was from Brazil! 

Well, while the swap gave us plenty of time to stitch up our creations, I found out I was expecting my first child and spent the next month or so hugging the toilet bowl and/or languishing about in a perpetual state of exhaustion.  I managed to stitch together a needlebook the day it was due:

It's my understanding that little "extras" are customary to gift to your swap partner, so of course, I had to start with needles.  These are embroidery needles, since I noticed my partner does some embroidery.

My partner said she adores hexies, so I EPP'ed some hexies together from some scraps from my Millefiore quilt along.

I cut out some felt to match the size of the hexies, and finished it by machine, including some glittery ribbon as a tie-closure.  Not my best work, but I ended up running out of time. 

Due to the international nature of the swap, I decided to include a little gift unique to Florida, and what's more Florida than Disney??  They have these super cute international pins at Disney, so I found the Brazilian flag pin and included it in her package along with some colorful floss and a small spool of wool thread. 

My partner was very gracious when she received her package, and it really made me feel better about it all. 

Now for the receiving end:  I was completely blown away by what I received from Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts.  Well, just look at it!

It's not just a needlebook, it's a whole flippin' sewing kit!  There were some really fun goodies inside, too: a few pins/needles, seam ripper, measuring tape, and scissors.  Bonus--made with some of my favorite fabric--Geometric Bliss by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery Fabrics.  I hit the jackpot with this swap!  Next time, I'll try to be a bit more awesome for my partner. 

Do you swap?  Your feelings on it? 

I've got a lot more on the way--I'm just pacing myself.  No really!  Until next time, God Bless!

and the winner is...

Dody! 

 

I've sent you an email, Dody, so I can send off your brand-new fat quarter bundle of purple pretties!  Thanks to all of you who were oh-so-kind with your comments.  Happy making, and God Bless!

My Quilting Anniversary! With a GIVEWAWAY!

Okay, it's a few days late, but June 18th marks my quilting anniversary!  Let's take a quick trip down memory lane to see what my very first quilted project was...

This super-groovy clutch!  Wow, my seams don't match up the slightest bit, but who cares?  It's random enough that it isn't all that noticeable from afar. 

I think I've come along quite a way, don't you?  Anyhow, I'll keep this one short and sweet.  I wanted to do something cool to celebrate, and my husband says I have way too many projects going on at the same time, so I'm giving away a bundle of fabrics from my stash:

One randomly selected commenter will win my personal fat quarter bundle of Luminescence fabric made by Connecting Threads!  When this line first came out, I was immediately smitten by the way the light seems to shine right through the fabric.  It helps, of course, that it features my favorite color, purple.  So, wanna win?  Just leave me a comment below. 

This giveaway is now closed.  Thank you to all who entered and left such nice comments!

Disclaimer:  One lucky winner will receive 14 random fat quarters of fabric from the Luminescence collection. This giveaway is not sponsored or endorsed by Connecting Threads. 

Thanks so much for reading, and Happy Q-niversary to me!  Until next time, God Bless. 

LMQG Modern Elements Challenge

Okay, I know I've been MIA lately, but I assure y'all, I'm here and I'm fine.  I simply haven't been sewing in the last month or so.  I've simply been too exhausted.  Work has been more demanding as of late, and there's the whole I'm-growing-a-human-inside-my-belly thing going on too.  So let me try to preemptively answer the usual barrage of questions:

The culprit at 8 weeks.  Say hello, #babyschep !

Yes, I'm having a baby.  Yes, my husband is the father.  (I'm kidding, no one's really asked me that one!)  It's due on November 24th.  No, I don't know if it's a boy or girl yet.  Yes, we are planning on finding out before it's born.  No, we weren't really planning on having one right now, but yes, we're glad it's happening now. 

Okay, sorry to be curt, but let's move on to the sewing, shall we?  The one item I've managed to complete recently is my entry into the Lakeland Modern Quilt Guild's Modern Elements Challenge.  Northcott fabrics was so kind to give us some fat quarter bundles to play with for this challenge.  You can view the Modern Elements fabric line here.  The rules were simple:  make something quilted between 12"x12" and 24"x24" using all three fat quarters and matching Toscana blenders.  Simple enough, right?

Well...I had issues.  My instinct was to applique this thing and get it over with.  After all, applique is my thing.  I did, however, want to challenge myself.  Piecing is not my strong suit, so I thought that following a pattern might help.  Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine has done a mini quilt series this year featuring our local "sewlebrity" Elizabeth Dackson.  I decided I just HAD to make one of her patterns.  One issue: I found myself with two days left in the challenge, which is not the time to teach myself paper piecing.  I ended up choosing one of her non-FPP patterns. 

My hubby is a trooper.  He helped me get organized so I could finish my entry in time.  The hubster is extremely type-A, so here's the stacks of pieces he made for me, organized by size:

Cutting the pieces out was the most time consuming part.  Afterwards, the piecing came together fairly quickly.  I had some leftover fusible batting, so basting was a cinch:

I haven't finished very many projects, so I gave my free motion quilting a whirl (a design I learned from Elizabeth by the way!):

The swirly loops went very quickly and didn't turn out all that badly in my opinion.


Well, here's my finished entry:

I didn't win any prizes (not that I was expecting it to!), but it was fun to try something new without a huge time commitment.  Many thanks to the LMQG, Northcott, and the prize sponsors for a fun time!