July Goals

Ugh! Has it really been 3 months since I’ve posted? May was so busy with end of school activities that I don’t even remember doing any sewing. As soon as school was out it was off to California to visit the in-laws, then another trip to Virginia for more family visits. Here it is already in July and we are home for 2 weeks before another camping trip. I’m really hoping it’s enough time to get some things done!

Last month I had plans to join the guild community sewing day, but kids halted that plan in it’s tracks. Alex had a fever and wasn’t going to be going to his Lego Camp so I had to stay home. So at the guild meeting I picked up a kit to make a small quilt for one of our community groups. I’d like to get this finished before our meeting next week.

I have 2 quilts that I need to do for my friend, both are signature quilts that won’t take long to put together, I’ve made at least 4 of them for her in the past, I just need to get moving on them! So this month I want to at least get them cut out and the tops put together. If I get more done great, if not that’s ok I’ve at least gotten some work done on them!

I hope to be doing more sewing, but summer is hard when the kids are here all day or we are gone camping. I’ve slowly been working on my hexie temperature quilt, but I have a LONG way to go on that one!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

April Goals

I would absolutely LOVE to get another quilt finished this month! 🙂 I actually have 2 goals this month, I want to finish my Good Night Irene quilt that I basted last month, and I would like to start working on my blue and white challenge quilt for guild. I have the quilt designed, and I need to stitch out blocks on the embroidery machine.

I also have a commission quilt that I need to have done for next month, but I don’t know an exact due date yet, as soon as the fabric I ordered gets here I’m going to get to work on that too, the top should be done by the end of the month. So many things that need to be done this  month, but I don’t think there’s a lot going on around here and I might get a lot of time to work on projects this month.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts.

Sunday Slow Stitching

Commission Quilts 040117.jpgI’m hoping I can get binding finished today on 2 commission quilts that I’ve been working on for a friend. I got the labels, hanging sleeve and binding all machine stitched yesterday and started working on the hand work last night. I got a little tired and didn’t get as much done as I liked, but I think I will at least finish one of them tonight. If I get both of these done I can get back to working on Dear Jane EPP, I only have 4 more blocks finished on Row C. Row E just arrived yesterday, so I’m a bit behind!

Since I have hexagon diamonds basted, I’m hoping to start quilting it soon. I’m still not sure how I’m quilting the diamonds, but I know I can start working on the black pathways. I’m hoping to get a lot of work done on it this week, we’ll see how far I get.

Linking up to Slow Stitching Sunday.

Past Due Updates

Cassie 3 years old*sigh* This is not my year. I’ve been sick since the beginning of the year and as soon as I think I’m starting to get better I get worse again. I’m almost at the end of another bout of bronchitis and after a pulmonary function test my doctor told me I have asthma. Most likely it was brought on by all the bronchitis episodes this year! Needless to say, since I’ve been sick the last week or 2 I haven’t worked on too much. PLUS we had a birthday to celebrate this last week. My little princess is now 3 years old and I can’t believe how quickly the last year has passed. My sister and I took her for her first hair cut and then took her 3-year-old pictures. This is one of my favorites, although there aren’t that many bad pictures of her (yeah I know I’m biased)! We had a wonderful party and she gets upset when I start to take the decorations down now that celebrations are over.

I did get some work on done on other projects, I’ve been working on and off on Dear Jane EPP blocks and I have 6 of the Row C blocks finished. I had hoped to be working on Row D by now, but it just wasn’t meant to be this month. I will continue on and it will get done when it gets done. I’m in absolutely no hurry on these blocks and I’m enjoying working on them. Getting tired of working on the curved blocks, they are harder to work on than the straight pieces.

xoxohexieswap block 032417I’ve been doing hexie swaps for the last few months and I’ve finally decided what I am going to do with mine. Each swap will be made into a block, about 60 hexies makes a 12.5″ square block. Once I have enough blocks sewn together I’ll sash them and put them together. All of the swap information will be put on the label so I’ll remember where the hexies came from. I just finished the first block last night, these are from the #xoxohexieswap. There weren’t enough to do the whole block, as we only swapped 30, so I pulled from my Valentine’s bag of squares to get enough to finish it. I have the next block planned and ready to start, but I wanted to work on Dear Jane a little before I started putting the next one together. I’m waiting on more hexies to arrive, but some of the swaps aren’t finished yet – I got mine sent in right away and now I have to wait for everyone else to finish and send theirs in. I’m pretty sure I can make 2 blocks from the typography hexies, at least one with the St. Patrick’s Day hexies and I have a few signature hexie flowers that I think I’ll figure out how to put into a block. PLENTY of work to do around here!

I guess my break time is over, time to go work on pinning the second commission quilt so I can start quilting them in the next day or so.

Design Wall Monday – 03-06-17

Commission Progress 030617.jpgI started working on the last 2 commission quilts for my friend. I got all of the blocks cut out and put together for both quilts, I just need to get them put together. These quilts go together so quickly that I don’t mind that I’ve made so many of them. My friend is coming to visit this weekend, so I’d like to have the tops done before she gets here.

Good Night Irene 030617While I work on the commission quilts, I’m working on the border blocks for Good Night Irene, which has been in progress since 2014. I slowly worked on the top during 2014, but it was hard with a newborn in the house. The border blocks are just simple 9 patches, and use 162 white squares and 162 colored squares. My 2.5″ square bin doesn’t even look any emptier! I finished half the blocks needed, I hope to finish the other half today.

Cassie 030617Cassie is LOVING playing with fabrics. She asks at least once a day if she can play with them. Sometimes she wants the 2.5″ square bin, sometimes she wants “her fabrics”. I have a container full of fabrics I’ve collected for her, including 3-4 Minnie Mouse fabrics. At some point I’ll make something with them, haven’t decided yet what it will be. I might wait until she gets her big girl bed and make a large quilt like I did for Alex. Her birthday is in 2 weeks and she’ll be 3, I still can’t believe how fast the last 3 years has gone by! I bought her some Minnie Mouse sewing cards for her birthday, I’ll start her sewing with something easy for her little hands.

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

Dear Jane EPP – Commission Quilts

A4

I finished 2 more Dear Jane EPP blocks last night while catching up on shows with the hubby. Kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s, so we had lots of time to do all our show watching. Even watched a movie! A4 was an easy block, there looks to be a bubble in the middle, but that will ease once the papers get taken out. A11 was a bit harder to get everything to fit in together, again I think it will flatten out more once all the papers are taken out. Down to 6 blocks and this row is complete!

A11

I also finished the commissioned quilts I’ve been working on, they need to go through the wash so I can get them shipped out. I will take pictures once they are out of the dryer in the next day or so.

Back in October I joined a hexie swap. All the hexies needed to have words on them. I had gone to Miller’s Dry Goods and bought 3 fabrics that I loved and sent all my hexies in. We just got our hexies back, I have 120 individual hexies with words! She sent some awesome goodies with them, I love the little button! I’m waiting on 2 more swaps to get sent and I just signed up for another one! I don’t know what I’m going to do with all these hexies yet, I can wait until I come up with a plan though!

Updates

Oh my have I been busy!! In preparation for working on my UFO list I pulled some backings, batting and did a little bit of basting. I started quilting one of them this afternoon. I’m hoping to get it quilted before dinner so I can work on binding tonight.

New Years weekend I managed to get 2 commission quilts put together and quilted. As soon as I get the pictures needed for the labels I’ll be able to put the binding on and ship them off to my friend. I’ll have pictures after they are gifted.

A6
A8

Last month I noticed that Paperpieces.com was doing an 18 month Dear Jane quilt – all in EPP! Now this is how I’d like to do a Dear Jane quilt! I signed up and they sent me the first 2 rows to get me caught up to everyone else and I’ve already completed 2 blocks and I’m working on a third. I’m using Moda Marbles for my blocks – yes another quilt with Moda Marbles! This will be my third!! I’m hoping to get caught up with all the row A and B blocks before the end of the month, we’ll see if I can make it before the next row gets here!

Over the weekend I pulled out my Civil War Dear Jane that I decided to abandon and figured out what 3 blocks I needed to do to finish off the last row. I found 2 blocks in process that I left as is and then I just needed to do 1 more. I found an alternate block in the Dear Jane software that didn’t take me very long to do, so now I just need to decide on a border and the top will be done. In all likely hood I will do some very simple quilting, I don’t even know what I’m doing with it since the colors just aren’t me. I have all the leftover fabrics ironed and ready for some friends at guild who really like Civil War fabrics.

Hope to be back soon with a finish!!