WIP Wednesday {8.22.2012}

Its been a few weeks since I've taken part in WIP Wednesday, and mostly its been because I just either haven't been working on much, or have been working on things that aren't quite ready to share yet.  I decided no time like the present to get back in the saddle, I find myself sort of feeling a little lost/overwhelmed with the scattered projects in various states of completion strewn about my sewing room, and WIP Wednesday is a nice anchor of sorts to take inventory of what exactly I have going in.  Without further ado, here is what's going on:

New Projects

2d Zoo Dream Garden

I posted about this yesterday, but this stack of fabrics is quickly turning itself into a baby quilt.  I'm using a pattern out of the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop book, and am super happy with how its coming together.  I should have a quilt to share in the next few days!

In Progress

Birds and the Bees Snowglobes

After I finished petting and drooling over this beautiful fabric, I decided no time like the present to dig in and make something with it.  I have a tendency to buy fabric collections, and then am almost afraid to use them.  Its like I'm searching for this elusive "perfect project," and I need to stop this madness and use the fabric that I buy, that's what its for, right??  I think I did find the perfect project, and therefore didn't have the usual amount of apprehension when cutting in to the fabric like usual.

Before leaving for vacation, I dug out my Tula Pink Snowglobes pattern, and got to work cutting and sewing.  I had a hard time settling on the background fabric, and ultimately went with Crosshatch Sketch in Cream.

 

I am loving how this pattern shows off the larger scale prints of Birds and the Bees so well.  I'll be working my way back to this one soon, but for now its keeping my design wall fun and bright, and I'm enjoying looking at it every day.

Not Your Grandma's Charm Quilt

Well, in this case it is my grandma's charm quilt.  My grandma recently had to be placed in an assisted living center, and I thought she might like a handmade quilt to put on her bed.  She is 96, and has been living with family members for too many years to count, and has never lived on her own, so this transition hasn't been the easiest for her or my family.  She really is such a special lady, and you would never guess her age by looking at her, we all hope we inherited her genes for aging!  

I'm in the middle of quilting this simple charm quilt using various prints from Denyse Schmidt's fabrics that are found at Joann's that I have accumulated in my stash.  I really love the way the patchwork has come together, and I'm quilting it with my walking foot in a large zig zag pattern.  I'm thinking of adding some hand quilting as well, but we'll see.  

Ripple Afghan

This is an oldie but a goodie.  I have a tendency to start hand projects, and just never finish them.  They sit around my sewing room sort of taunting me to work on them, and I usually just turn a blind eye.  I thought our 8 hour drive to the beach last week would be a great opportunity to pull out my ripple afghan that I started back in January and get to work.  

I'm aiming to really work on this to get it finished for the upcoming winter, as it will make a great snuggle blanket!

Whew!  It feels nice to get that out there, I really must get back into the WIP Wednesday swing of things.  Now that summer is just about over, life should be settling down and I can find my routine again.  Be sure to head over to Freshly Pieced and say hi to Rebecca who is guest hosting WIP Wednesday this week!

Is this thing on?

Hello!  Things have been quite quiet in these parts, and I really don't have an explanation as for why.  I've been squeezing in at least a little sewing time in the evenings, yet seem to be making no real progress on any of my projects.  I thought I'd just pop in and do a quick refresh, more to keep myself from feeling like I've been a stitching slacker!

Now, I may not have been doing an exceptional amount of sewing, but I've certainly been doing a great job of online fabric shopping!  This fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's The Birds and the Bees came from Ruth at SewLoveFabrics.  I completely forgot that Ruth lives about 10 minutes from me (I've actually been to her home to fabric shop a few years ago!), so when she saw my order come in at the end of last week, she messaged me to see if I wanted her to just drop off the fabric I had ordered in my mailbox, as she was going to be out near my house this weekend.  Of course I said yes, and Ruth (a.k.a. the magic fabric fairy) delivered this stack of goodness on Saturday morning.  I've just been admiring it so far, but have plans to cut into it soon and will be using Tula's Snow Globes pattern.

I also picked up this pretty bundle of Birch organic fabrics from Del Ray Fabrics along with some Ruby Star Shining typewriters (now out of stock) and a few fun Heather Ross prints that aren't pictured.  I have no plans for that stack or the extras just yet, but it sure is pretty, and those organic prints are so nice and silky, I have been randomly petting them at least daily as I walk by.

What I have been stitching up a storm is a project I can't share just yet, but here are the trimmings to show I have been working on something!

One more sneaky-peek- check back on Tuesday for a fun gift tutorial as part of the Christmas in July Blog Hop!  The festivities kick off tomorrow over at Don't Call me Betsy, and will feature 10 different gift/decor tutorials to get a jump start on your holiday sewing!

WIP Wednesday {3.7.2012}

I know I know, I say the same thing every week, but seriously?  Wednesday already?  Where exactly do the days go exactly?  I haven't quite figured it out just yet.  Any who...here's whats been going on in the sewing room:

New Projects

Baby Blocks Quilt

 

This quilt top came together super quickly on Saturday night and is a commissioned quilt for a friend.  She requested "boy" fabrics, and I don't know how much more "boy" I could have gotten with these fabrics!  It's in need of basting and quilting, but I should be finishing this little guy up soon.

Sewing Room/Fabric Organization

You can read more about my DIY ironing board/scrap storage project here.  Needless to say, I can't believe it took me two years to put something together like this!  

I've also been slowly but surely turning my curret hot mess of fabric storage into these super pretty neat stacks using Jeni's tutorial.  Seriously love.  Like I sometimes just go downstairs to look at those pretty stacks of fabric now :-)

In Progress

Japanese x and + blocks

These little guys have been hanging out on my design wall this week, just making me smile.  These are the extra blocks I will need to complete my do. Good Stitches quilt for March, and I just couldn't resist whipping them up ahead of time.  

What's on your sewing agenda lately?  Be sure to head over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!!

quilt along? yes please!

The last thing I need right now is another quilty project to get myself into, but when I saw Elizabeth, of Don't Call me Betsy was hosting a kaleidoscope quilt along, I couldn't help but join in!   I've actually been wanting to make one of these for some time, so why not now.  

Elizabeth has posted the basic fabric requirements here, so go ahead, check it out and join in!

I knew I wanted to make this pretty scrappy, and work from my ever growing stash, so here's what I'm thinking:

Kind of a range of warm and cool tones in a mish mosh of fabrics from my stash.  There are a few I'm still thinking of subbing out, but for now I'm excited to get to work!

There's still time to join in the quilt along, I don't think it technically starts until June 23, when cutting instructions will be posted, but what do you think?  Quilt Along anyone??

Oh, and on an aside, we had a cookout yesterday, and I just had to snap a few pics of my quilts being put to good use:

Melts my heart, the only thing that makes a quilt even better is when you have an adorable little baby crawling around on it!  

Lookie what I found...

Lookie what I found on my latest trip to Joann's!  I had heard that Denyse Schmidt had designed a line of fabrics for Joann Fabrics, but I figured there was no way it would be in my Joann's out in the burbs in PA...but much to my surprise as I ventured back into the quilting fabrics to pick up some muslin, I spotted the DS Quilts Collection!  Eeek!!  All the prints were so so pretty, but I resisted and only picked up a half yard of these five prints.  I'm sure I'll be back for more, but this should get me started.

Sooo...bust out those Joann's coupons and go get some DS yummy fabric!!

shop hop loot

Yesterday, a few gals from our local MQG went on a little shop hop to three local quilt shops in the Pittsburgh area...I'd say it was a success!!  Our first stop was the Quilters Corner in the little town of Finleyville, PA.  Now,  not only had I never been to Finleyville or this shop before, I'd never even heard of Finleyville before!  I must say, walking into the fabric shop was like walking into fabric heaven.  I think I may have heard the fabric angels singing when I walked in the door!  I seriously could have spent hours in this shop alone.  

They had Amy Butler's Style Stitches on display, you know that book that I had to have...and has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 months now with nothing made out of it?  Yeah that'd be the one.  They had many of the bags out of the book on display in the shop, I wish I had thought to take some pictures, but I didn't.  Seeing all those lovelies on display was just the motivation to get cracking on bag making!!  They look even better in person than in the book.  I picked up some City Blooms by Kitty Yoshida and two Riley Blake prints (purple bead chain and Riley Blake Victoria in fushcia) to use for the cosmo bag, and itching to get sewing with them.

I had dots on the brain yesterday!  There is something about polka dots that just draws me in...no plans in the immediate future for these, but they are nice additions to my stash.   The two dots on the left were Hello Betty  by Chloe's Closet for Moda, and were 25% off!  They literally jumped into my hands! The red dots are more Riley Blake, Rainy days and Mondays, I believe; some Mary Engelbreit for Moda (Attitude Girls I believe) green dots and some Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow aqua dots.

Our second shop was Quilters Depot, and was more along the lines of a quick stop on the way to our third shop, the quilt company, which yielded many fabulous finds, including these Amy Butler Daisy Chain prints and a Love print!  Get this, we found the Love print in the back room and was marked 50% off!  Couldn't pass that up.  

We also found this Katie Jump Rope print in that sale back room too!  Cindy and I were on the same page all day long and literally lunged for the bolt when we saw it!!

I am really digging light grays right now, so these were nice finds that will work well in some upcoming projects.

A few more that I just couldn't resist.  I could have bought yardage of the entire Ty Pennington line that they had at our first stop, but resisted with only this little fat quarter.  The blue is from Monaco by Dena for Freespirit, so fresh and spring-y, couldn't resist.  

I consider yesterday to be an uber-successful and super fun fabric shopping trip.  Cindy, Corley, Mary, Priscilla and Thea, I had a blast!!

WIP Wednesday {1.12.2011}

I've come across Lee's blog over at Freshly Pieced and have discovered that she has a weekly WIP party on Wednesdays, how fun!  This is such a great way to see what others have in the works, and to share what you're working on as well. 

I have quite a few little projects floating around in my head, but for what I'm working on this week, It's my disappearing 9 patch charity quilt and the beginning stages of psiquilt's postage stamp quilt along.

My disappearing 9 patch is in its final stages, as I'm about half way done quilting we got hit with a good bit of snow last night, which resulted in a day off work, so I have finished the quilting and am on to the binding!  Yay for snow days! 

My second "WIP" isn't quite in progress yet, but I did finally receive my fabric I ordered for the postage stamp quilt along! 

I decided on It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda and a Bella Solid in snow.  These fabrics are so fresh, fun and bright, I cant wait to get sewing with these!  I've haven't decided 100% who this quilt will be for, or if it will be a keeper, but I'm leaning towards giving it to my cousin for her bridal shower, as she's getting married this summer.

I just love all the fabrics in this line, I'm having a tough time deciding which fabrics to order for the backing and binding!!

Happy WIP Wednesday, I'm off to enjoy my snowy day off down in my sewing room!  Head on over to Freshly Pieced and check out all the awesome WIPs!

Fabric Binge

This may have been both the best and worst things that has happened to me!  I have been thoroughly unimpressed with the fabric selection at most of the local quilt shops I have managed to find in my area.  The fabric just seems so "fuddy duddy" or "old lady-ish" nothing fun and modern.  That is until I discovered that there was an online fabric store, sewlovefabrics who is literally 15 minutes from my house AND she welcomes local shoppers to come to her studio to shop!!!  Like I said, both the best, but possibly worst (definitly worst in my husbands eyes) discovery.  I immediately checked out her etsy shop and was in love, and messaged her to set up a visit to her studio ASAP! 

After work today, I went to her studio and wanted to buy just about every fabric she had.  I limited my self to just a few though...

She had the whole line of Innocent Crush from Anna Maria Horner.  With a great deal of restraint, I picked 4 prints.  I have plans for those pinks to be turned into a slouch purse/bag, and the blue I just couldnt resist.

I couldn't resist these two tuffted tweets by Laura Wisbrun

And finally these few Meadowsweet prints by Sandi Henderson. 

I am incredibly impressed by the huge amount of self restraint I expressed today.  I was almost temped by some Heather Bailey Nicey Jane and Heather Ross Far Far Away 2, but I'll save those for next time.  I think this set of Meadowsweet will be made into a tote bag for a friend for Christmas, that is if I can stand to part with it! 

I highly recommend checking out sewlovefabrics on etsy, Ruth is the nicest lady, with the most amazing fabrics.  I can guarantee she will be seeing more of me in her future!

As for what else I've been up to, I have been working away, things are busy for us on the home front, so I've been sneaking in some sewing and quilting time when possible, heres a sneak peek of my current project...

Just some Christmas-y holiday goodness!!  Hopefully tommorow I'll get this finished and have more to show you then!

Just in time

Finished just in time for the beach!  This is a second tote bag that followed the tutorial from jcarolinecreative.com.  A few weeks back I was online shopping perusing.  Yes, I wasn't intentionally looking at fabricworm.com to buy fabric, but I just couldnt help when these half yard bundles caught my eye...

This set of fabrics is from various designers, I ordered a half yard bundle, and received all these yummy bright fabrics.  How terrible, I forget what half of them are, but I used some of the Heather Baily Pop Garden fabric I received, some of the blue/aqua dots for the lining and some Kona Chocolate for the bottom of the bag. 

I also ordered a half yard bundle of Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line of fabrics.  I am just dying to dig into these!  12 different half yards...I'm still deciding on what project I will cut into these for...perhaps my mother-in-laws quilt for Christmas...we shall see.

This bag just screams "take me to the beach", I had initial plans to use it as a laptop bag carrier, but I think it will have dual purposes! 

Well, my vacation has officially begun, and we will be beach-bound as of Sunday!  See everyone in a week or so!

Jessica

Happy (early) birthday to me!

So after my love of quilting/sewing or crafting in general, I love love love to read. I have about a book a week habit. So I have been eyeing this for a few months now, and have not kept it a secret from my hubby that I want it. Imagine my surprise when Tuesday evening dear hubby asked if I wanted my birthday present early! Now I am one to not want to wait for things, but I said "I can wait" (my birthday is next Friday). He apparently really wanted to give it to me early, because after a few minutes of my holding out, I gave in and said I would open my present early.

He got me a Barnes and Noble Nook! I absolutely love it. After playing around with it for a while, my next thought was "I need to make a cute little holder for it!" So I went to my trusty list of favorite blogs, and came across this at the Moda Bakeshop. I decided I need to make this immediately, and kind of improvised and came up with my own version:


While I was perusing fabric.com last week (just looking, I swear! haha) and came across this fabulous Amy Butler Love fat quarter bundle and decided that I needed to have it.


Since it came in the mail, I have been dying to make something with it, and thought this little project would be perfect for it!


I used the Paradise Garden for the outside and Sunspots in Tangerine for the lining and binding, and straight line quilted it with criscross diagonal lines.

I am linking my post today to Lit and Laundry's Finished for Friday and Amylouwho's Sew and Tell

Hopefully my next post will feature a finished beach quilt! Just a sneak peak...I finished quilting it, and just have the binding left to do!