March projects

Just a quick post with my projects for March.

First up, my latest Saturday Sampler block. I've managed to get a part of it cut and ready to go but still need to cut the rest of my fabric pieces. This block's finished size is quite large-16"!


Next up, the project that will be taking up most of my time this month is the wedding ring quilt that I am making for our niece as a wedding gift. I'm using an interfacing method by Quiltsmart for the arcs so that there is no curved piecing involved. Frankly, I'm not all that sure that I'll get the top finished this month since I decided to make the queen-sized version but I'll try! Why I couldn't have been content to make the throw-sized version I have no idea but sometimes insanity gets the best of me.

I spent most of my time yesterday cutting my strips for the arcs. I have to confess that cutting is my least favorite part so I'm happy that I've accomplished this much already.

Spotted, the first harbinger of Spring: tiny little yellow early crocus blooming in my front yard!

February finishes

Ok, I swear that yesterday was February 1st! Where did the month go and how did it slip by so fast? I didn't get to spend quite as much time as I would have liked to this month working on projects but I did manage to complete all but one of my finishes. The only one that didn't make it was my Valentine wall-hanging and no worries on that one now that I have nearly a year to get that one done!

All righty, on to the good stuff. I'm all caught up on my Saturday Sampler blocks. Yay! I had six kits in all to do and here they are. I'm a big fan of triangles on a roll and they came in handy with these blocks. By the time I was ready to assemble the blocks, I almost didn't care if my points were matching up anymore, I just wanted to get them done. The last kit turned out to be 36" strips that needed to pieced together which was a huge respite after completing the other ones. The strip will eventually be appliqued with leaves and acorns.

Last but not least are my two final heirloom blocks. Now that all of my blocks are done, I can't wait to get the quilt assembled!

Doing the happy dance!

After years of putting up with a phone line that would randomly go dead for no reason at all, sometimes for days at a time, and static so terrible that I could hardly hear the person on the other end (especially annoying because I'm hearing impaired), the phone service guy finally located the source of the problem and fixed it today. Now I don't have to worry whether or not the DSL line is going to be working long enough for me to be able to log on and post on here!

I can't tell you how annoying this problem has been, and it didn't help that the phone was always working the previous times a technician was called out. All I can say is that I'm so glad the issue has been resolved and I can now make phone calls again without worrying that I won't be able to hear the person on the other end because the static will start up again and drown him or her out.

February projects

Oops, here it is the 7th already and I just realized that despite taking pictures of my projects at the beginning of the month, I haven't posted them yet. The Rocky Mountain Sewing Expo is this weekend and I've been there both Friday and Saturday. I'll write more about that later in a separate post.

OK! The projects that I want to get finished this month! First, a little background on this one. The Great American Quilt Factory is a fabulous quilt shop here in Denver that does a Saturday Sampler program every year. Basically, the idea is that you collect a kit to make a block the first Saturday of each month. You take the completed block to the meeting the following month and you get the next month's block kit for free and on it goes. If you miss the meeting, you have to buy the kit, make the block, take it to the next meeting and you are back on track. When I did Saturday Sampler previously, I had perfect attendance. This time, not so much! For various reasons, I've missed three months in a row now, so I have those basic kits plus the the enhancement block kits (that are always paid for) to construct. Eventually, those blocks will be assembled to create this enhanced quilt called Pine Lodge:

Here are my kits, six blocks total to complete:

Next up are my final two blocks for my Heirloom Sampler quilt. I am meeting with my instructor at the very end of this month to start assembling the quilt top and I can't wait to see it completed.

Last, but not least is my Valentine wall hanging that I started during the Valentine Sewing Party. I spent the whole day after the party trying to come up with pieced panels that I liked to go on the top and bottom of this block and nearly drove myself nuts in the process. I learned some really good lessons that day, one being to just step away and go do something else for a while. If I had done that, I think I would have saved myself a lot of frustration when it just wasn't looking like I wanted it to. The other lesson I learned was not to hack up a fat quarter if that's all you have of that fabric! The store has none of that fabric left and I'll have to pick apart the blocks that didn't work to salvage the pieces that I need for the fabric combination that I eventually settled on. Of course, only after the fact, did I remember a tip that I had read a while back that if your fabric is limited, copy it on a color printer and use the printed paper to make block mock-ups to decide on your final design.

January finishes

The end of the month really snuck up on me! It was one of those weeks where after work I just came home every night and collapsed and yesterday was full of must-run errands so I finally made it into my sewing room today. I managed to bang out all five of my blocks for my heirloom sampler quilt that I needed to finish for this month and can't quite believe that I actually got them all done! They still need to be washed to get rid of the markings and trimmed but at least the hard part is done.

On this block, I finished the stitching on the crazy-quilt center, then stitched on the lace frame and cut away the fabric behind the lace.

This one had almost been finished in class, I just needed to stitch open the cathedral windows in the center and then add the decorative stitching to each side of the center panel.



On this one, I needed to stitch the pink waterfall panels onto the block on each side of the embroidered center. I almost wish that I could re-do the waterfalls as the stitching on the lace isn't the greatest. I usually do much better than that!

On this, I did the sharks teeth on the sides. They look relatively simple to do, and they are, but jeez, they take a lot of time to do!

On this one, I did the bias-shaping in the center then stitched it down. For some reason, I could not get my bias pieces to work in class but when I cut new ones tonight, they did what they were supposed to do without any problems at all.

Sewing party- 2

Ok! My first block is finished! This will be the center of my hanging and I am going to piece together two heart blocks to go above and below this one. I haven't actually done the embroidery yet as that will be done when I am quilting the hanging, so for now the stitch-out that I did last night will stand in for it.

Thank you all for the lovely comments so far! My hubby just informed me that my best friend who lives out of state just called and has a fabric emergency that she wants my help with so as soon as I've finished talking with her, I am going to take a break and see what you all have been working on!

Meanwhile, Lorelai is doing what she does best: napping.

Sewing party- 1

Welcome to my sewing room! Here it is, all ready to go!

Lorelai is in her little bed! She loves to be in here with me and is allowed if she stays in her bed or on the window sill. She knows she has to leave the room if she doesn't and she hates that, so she's really well-behaved.

Here's what I am going to be working on. I recently got this embroidery design and will build a wall-hanging around it. I don't have any specific pattern but will be winging it, using some different block patterns that I've picked out.

Here are my fabrics that I just picked out at the quilt shop an hour ago:

Ok, I'm ready to get started!