Finished Supernova and Stocking

I'm on fire this week! I finished two projects that have been on my list for so long! The quilt was part of the Supernova Friendship Swap that ran earlier this year over a period of five months. It hasn't been on my list for terribly long but I've been wanting it done since the first block because I'm so in love with it! The Supernova quilt is also #6 on my 2014Q4FAL list. The other project is a stocking for my baby which I bought two years ago after I found out I was pregnant with a girl.

First up, the quilt. LOVE!! Izzy from Dizzy Quilts made five of these blocks and I made the other seven. We each ended up with ten blocks and I was going to make a 3 x 3 quilt and a pillow but then I figured if I just made two more blocks it could be twin size. So I whipped them up real fast and I'm glad I did!

Here's a fun artsy picture. I quilted 1/4" in on all the stars. I love the look of it.

I added a cool tag this time too. I just found some yardage that has a bunch of tags on it and you cut them out and sew them on. It's such a fun look and a personal touch.

Here's the completed stocking. You have no idea the relief of having this off my list!! Too bad I didn't poke it on my 2014Q4FAL list. Oh well, it's done and I love it!

Here it is with all our other stockings. Finally ALL the stockings are hung.

I made all of these except the Julie one. That is from my childhood. I love how they look and that they continue on the tradition of having felt handmade stockings that my mother started.

Those are my finishes this week. I can't believe I finished that stocking. It wasn't even close when I posted about it on Wednesday. Next week I'll share my Christmas sewing projects and they won't be a secret any more! I'm linking up with my favorite places... TGIFF, Finish It Up Friday, and Fabric Frenzy Friday.

WiP Wednesday: I'm Back!

Sorry for my brief absence. The flu hit us hard last week, as in I lost seven pounds hard. Thus, I didn't get anything done with the illness and then trying to catch up on laundry and dishes. I have made up for it this week though and have some great things to show you today.

The day the illnesses started I received my IGminiswap package. It was so fun and a welcome break to all the nasty. I love my mini quilt made by Anna (@wollykat).

Since I learned how to do color changes in knitting I made my little girl a hat with her name on it. It was fun. I still want to add pom poms to the top but haven't made it that far yet.

In a fit of productivity I quilting my Supernova Friendship Swap quilt today. I was thinking of adding more lines but I actually liked it this way better. That may or may not have been influenced by trying to shove this twin-sized quilt through my sewing machine on the diagonal.

I even made the binding too. I'll happily share this one later in the week.  With the double layer of batting it is so warm I'm in love! I may do that for all of my quilts in the next batch.

Look I made mittens!! I've always wanted to know how to knit mittens. I got a kit mailed to me from my favorite former LQS Stitch in Des Moines. I seriously adore this shop and will continue to shop there by post and stop in whenever I can make the two hour drive. Anyway, the kit included the pattern, needles, and Knit Collage yarn to make these adorable mittens.

Even the baby loves them! She saw me trying them on for a picture then handed me the camera and put them on herself. It was too cute not to share.

My final WiP is Ruby's stocking. It's coming along slowly because I can only work on it when everyone is asleep. Ruby really likes to get involved with this one and the sequins are better in the bowl than all over the carpet.

Well, that's my excitement this week. I'm so glad to be back in the swing of things. Be sure to stop by on Friday to see the finished Supernova quilt. Also, I can't wait to share the things I made for Christmas! Good thing it's next week! I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

Knit Finish and Basting Party

I finally have the internet in my new house!! It took nearly three weeks and I've done so much in that time that I can't wait to share. I have a few WiPs going but for today we'll just stick with the ones that are finished or nearly so.

So this is my second knit finish. I'm pretty in love with it. It is a seed stitch cowl using this really cool yarn that gets variably bigger and smaller. It is #10 on my Q4FAL list.

The yarn made for a really cool texture when combined with the seed stitch. It was a fun project and with record low temps in Iowa I've already gotten some good use out of it.

Next up I added the borders and basted my Supernova Friendship Swap quilt. Izzy from Dizzy Quilts and I did this together over several months and I just love how it turned out! I added two more blocks to the set that we made so it would be bigger. With me being 6' tall and my hubby 6'6" longer quilts are always welcome.

I also finished up and basted my April Showers quilt. I love how this one is pretty basic but really fun too. It shows off the fabric without being terribly obvious that that's what I'm doing.

The basting party was fun. I only have hard floors under my dining room table so I had to move it and all the chairs to baste these. I waited until I had three to make it worth the effort. The last one was my Instagram Mini Swap quilt. I just love this and have even started to quilt it already. It is turning out so well! My kids keep telling me they can't believe I'm just going to give this away and suggest I make another for myself. I may just have to do that.

I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Well, there's my productivity for the week. I am also nearly finished making the foxes for the orange twin-size fancy fox quilt and have made good progress on my knitted hat. Not to mention how the boxes are going away and it's feeling more and more like home here. I hope to have the mini finished this week as the posting deadline is December 1st. I can't wait to show it off! Thanks for stopping by!

Finally Finished and a Few Starts

I finished my Nancy Drew quilt that I began in March 2013 (post here). This finish has been on my list for what feels like forever! I'm so excited to get it out of my craft room and in use! After finishing four quilts last week I was determined to once again become a monogamous quilter but I don't have it in me any more. There are too many things and I want to start them all now! First off - the finish.

I am so glad this quilt is done and I finally get to cross it off my FAL list - fourth times the charm with this one. I'm still in love with the fabric but the quilt is not a sample of my best work. Some of the seams don't line up and I was so over it at this point the quilting is really basic and not interesting at all. Just a serpentine stitch every three-ish inches. When I first started this quilt I wanted something that would show off the fabric because I really didn't want to cut it. The end result is underwhelming but still good.

I think I may like the back even more than I once did though. It's so fun! This panel print worked so well. I think this may become a picnic/park quilt and at 74" square it is pretty perfect for that.

Now these I love!! Eight of the ten Supernova Friendship Swap blocks done. I cannot wait to put this one together.

I'm loving this one more than I thought I would. This is April Showers by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. I was inspired by this quilt but honestly the tutorial is so bad I'm basically having to figure it all out myself. She doesn't really tell you how many strips to use or how much to cut or any of the basics you would expect in a tutorial. Also if you do it willy-nilly like she did you end up with 24 extra blocks (!!!). So I'm just taking this as inspiration and running with it.

I'm part of the Instagram Mini Swap and this is the progress I made on my project. The pattern is Cut Glass in the Vintage Quilt Revival book. I bought enough fabric to make two if I decide I need one, which I think I already have.

My youngest boy (#4 of 5) has decided he needed this Fancy Fox quilt done in all orange - his favorite color. I'm pretty in love with this idea and it's now also going to be my hot pad for the Hot Pad Swap I'm also in. My partner adores foxes and it should be pretty perfect.

Last but not least I volunteered to test a pattern for Kitty over at Night Quilter. I'm so excited about this one. It's going to be a rainbow fish pillow that is paper pieced with a low volume text background.

I'm linking up all this loveliness over at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

WiP Wednesday: Finish, Unpicking, and Starting

I had an amazingly productive week. My guild held an all-day sewing day on Saturday and I took along three quilts. I quilted and bound one of them that day. I also quilted another and bound it the next day. On a roll I quilted and bound the third on Monday. Since they are all on my 3QFAL list I have to share them one at a time. I'm starting with the one I finished on Sunday. I also made time to nearly finish a crochet order from my shop and spent HOURS unpicking quilting from my second oldest WiP. Finally I chose fabrics for my exciting things next in line. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

Here's my finish. This is #3 on my Q3FAL list. It's another one with the Line Dance pattern - love! This one was done with Chirp Chirp by MoMo for Moda. It has a great fall feel and I love the 1" straight line quilting. This is available in my shop here.

I love the backing on this one and that orange binding is so fun. I love a fun binding!

This is an order that just needs ears. It is a Sheep Hat which has to be my favorite one in my shop.

Here's the one I spent all my time unpicking. I had intended this quilt to be FMQing practice but my old sewing machine couldn't manage the tension properly and after 11 squares I decided it was too big of a mess to keep going. I was also frustrated with how my thread hid all the beautiful fabric. I've since given up on the FMQ idea and will probably do straight lines and get some solid or something more plain to try again later. It took me hours and hours to unpick all this and I should have just stopped when I didn't love the first square or two instead of pushing on.

I'm currently participating in three swaps/exchanges and I'm so excited about them! I have all my fabric and patterns picked out and am excited to get started.

This awesome fabric is for my partner in the IGminiswap. I am so excited about this one and have loved seeing what everyone is coming up with. Mine is going to be a paper pieced pattern from the book Vintage Quilt Revival.

The second one is a hot pad swap. I had these pieces partially sewn together for a different project that I went a different direction with. So now they are all ready for a hot pad with simple patchwork.

I forgot about this last one until last night (!!!). These are for my Supernova Friendship Swap. It was supposed to be a block and we usually mail on the 10th. Sorry Izzy! It's totally going to be late this month.

Let's see if I can keep up my productive streak and finish (or at least start) some of these things this week!

WiP Wednesday: Cut and Scrap

I have been soaking up the last two weeks with my kids until they go back to school so I haven't worked on much but I do have a few projects to share. I'm linking them up over at WiP Wednesday.

First off I finished up my Supernova blocks for the month. I was so early with these that the writing assignment wasn't even posted yet. We make two blocks a month, one for us and one for a friend, and we send them off with a letter containing an assigned topic. It's been a fun swap and I love seeing the quilt come together. Once I get my partner's block for this month I'll share them together. We have six of the ten blocks done so far.

I have the pieces all cut out for my first, of probably several, Cotton and Steel bag. I found a free pattern here that seemed like a great fit for carrying around my quilts.

Miya has her quilt all ready to sew together. There are 22 strips for the main body of the quilt and then it gets a border. She wants the main part sewn by her eighth birthday in 12 days. We'll see how that goes.

I've also got all my pictures sorted and ready to scrapbook my France trip from 13 years ago. I am so excited about this project now and my friend even found and emailed me an itinerary for our trip so I can get them all in order.

That's it for this week. I hope to have the bag finished to share on Friday because I'm really excited about this project. The rest of the sewing this week will hopefully happen by Miya and I'll try to stick to my scrapbook. Thanks for stopping by!

WiP Wednesday: All At Once

I have been into a lot of things this week. This is my busiest month for sewing. On the list this month was three quilts, a pillow, an octopus, my blocks for the Supernova Friendship Swap, and several crochet hats. I've already finished my Michael Miller challenge quilt (posted here), the pillow (posted here), and the supernova blocks, most of the octopus as well as a few hats. Check it out...

Here are my blocks for the Supernova Friendship Swap this month. I love how they turned out! This is one of my favorite colors lately and I'm so proud of myself that all of this fabric came from my stash. I mailed out my partner's block on Monday.

Here's the octopus. Isn't it lovely?! I'm so proud of myself. I had a few frustrating moments with this little thing but it worked out pretty well in the end. It still needs and embroidered face and a little bow before I give it to Ruby for her first birthday next week. (!!!) How did that year go by so fast? I found this adorable pattern here.

This is the beginnings of the next quilt on my list. I need to have it done in less than two weeks so it can me mailed in time for me niece's wedding on August 2nd. It could happen, maybe. I have all the HST made and half of the 320 pressed. I need to finish pressing and then trim. After that it's just some simple web piecing and quilt/bind. Okay, that sounds like a lot. I better get moving!!

These are the last things I've been working on. They are some fluffy sheep hats I'm working on for my shop/craft fair. Last year I was really unprepared for the craft fair and if I had more pre-made hats I would have made a ton of money. So when I watch TV at night with the hubby I work on crochet hats as well. It's pretty relaxing.

Well, that's it for this week. I need to get going on my wedding quilt to get it done in time! I also have to finish up that octopus for next Thursday. It's going to be another busy one. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

WiP Wednesday: Ready To Quilt

I had a great week. I finished off my scrappy I-Spy quilt (see it here) and prepped three quilts for quilting. I did some fun shopping online and received my Supernova Friendship swap block. It's been a fun week and I'm excited to get quilting.

My sweet hubby took the kids to swimming lessons so I had over an hour to myself. I used it wisely! I spray basted these three quilts and got them ready for quilting. It was so fast that I also got some laundry and dishes in. Have I mentioned how much I love spray basting?

I got some really fun mail this week, some prints and precuts from April Showers by Bonnie and Camille and a fun charm pack of Serenade by Kate Spain. However, my favorite bit of mail was this bunch of Aurifil! The Fat Quarter Shop was having an amazing sale and I got these at just over $6 a spool, for the big ones! I tried Aurifil once, on someone else's machine, and can't wait to see how fabulous it is on mine.

Last but not least the fun blocks of the Supernova Friendship Swap. They are so cute together! This quilt is going to be so fun!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.