Wow! I can’t believe it’s been over 5 months since I posted anything! My only excuse is that I’ve been really busy with my business and the kids. I spent a lot of time in November and December working to get my new website up and running. Check it out Grace Embroidery & Quilts. I’m still selling on etsy, planning on using them both. I don’t think I made any Christmas presents this past year, although I did give my sister my blue and white quilt that was in the quilt show. She saw it and loved it, and since I really didn’t have any plans for it myself, decided to gift it to her.
The picture is from our guild quilt show, and the only picture I got of it finished before I gave it to her. I don’t know why it’s turned wrong, it was the right way when I uploaded it. I’m still getting used to this new way of working in wordpress. I’ll figure it out someday! 🙂
So last month as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed I saw a really cute pattern called All the Hugs and Kisses quilt (#allthehugsandkissesquilt on instagram) and there was a giveaway. So I entered like I always do and promptly forgot all about it. About a week later as I’m scrolling I see there’s another post with winners. Lo and behold my instagram name was listed! Katrina had decided to give each of us that entered a free digital copy of the pattern! My plan was to make the quilt for Cassie for her big girl bed that I need to get from my sister’s house. I’m just not ready for her to be needing it! So I showed Cassie the quilt and she wanted to know if it was going to be ready the next day. My little one has no patience! So we pulled some pink fabrics, because that is her favorite color and last night I started cutting them into the pieces needed for EPP. That’s one of the reasons I entered the giveaway, it’s an EPP pattern and these days it’s almost all i have time for. Today we stopped and got background fabric at Joann’s and some heavy card stock at Staples for the EPP papers. They are all printed and I’m going to start working on cutting them out tonight during the Super Bowl.
So, my One Monthly Goal this month is to get all of the 20 X’s done for this quilt. If I can get started on the O’s that’d be great, but I at least want all the X’s completed by month end. Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.
I’m hoping to be around more this year, I’ve picked up my Dear Jane quilt again and will be joining a SAL (sew along) so I hope to have some progress on that quilt this year. And since I’m running the UFO challenge for guild I need to get some of my UFO’s done too!
*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’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 did a good job on my February OMG, now it’s time to chose March’s goal(s). This is a busy month for us, every weekend is booked – out of town guest next weekend, Cassie’s birthday party the following weekend. I think I’ve decided that my goals this month are to finish the border on my Good Night Irene quilt (started in 2014, centered completed J
I’m not sure how, but I managed to finish the 2 items I wanted to for my One Monthly Goal!
2008. That’s when the pinwheel topper was pieced and set aside. I have another in red, white and blue that is in our half bathroom on a corner table, I think I found the pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine. It’s simply quilted, but again nothing straight line. lots of curves in the black areas. It’s hard to see in the picture since I used black thread. I have no clue what I’m going to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll find a place for it eventually.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was participating in some 
Since I was already prepping hexies for the swap I decided to get some more ready for basting for Hexie Insanity, which hasn’t been touched in awhile. I pulled all the completed diamonds out and made sure my spreadsheet was correct as to how many of each color I have completed. I need to make 5 of each color to have enough for the project. I love how this is going to look when it’s all sewn together!
Last week I ordered some neutral Moda Marbles for the Dear Jane quilt backgrounds. I already had some that I’ve been using and wasn’t sure which color it was so I ordered 2 that looked pretty close. Turns out I actually ordered the 2 colors that I have and I’m going to be mixing between the 2 as backgrounds for the blocks. Anyway, Cassie wanted to play with the brand new fabrics that came Wednesday and I didn’t want her messing with them, but I said she could play with my 2.5″ square bin. She loved it! She was sorting colors, picking colors out and showing me what it was in sign language (she’s learning it in day care) and just plain having fun. Hopefully one day she’ll be a quilter like mommy, but it’s totally up to her!
