Done. Just in time too.

Phew!  I finished block 2 of the Birdie Stitches BOM last night.  All I had left to work on were the floating hearts and the eyeballs for the birds.  But finding the time to sit down and work on it proved difficult.  Found the time last night and my block is done.  I strayed just a tad from the stitchery pattern.  I added more floating hearts and got rid of the running stitches that were there.

Overall, I like my block!

And here is block 1 and 2 together.  I have plans to head to my LQS on Thursday to hunt down some St. Patrick's Day fabric or the like.  I have green in my stash but not a good shamrock or kelly green.  But when the next month's block debutes tomorrow and it's not St. Patrick's Day themed, I won't have to worry about the green fabric.

Enjoy your day!
Jen 

Pinwheels Resurrected

Like a lot of quilters out there, I have projects started and not finished.  Too many that I care to admit.  One of them is the pinwheel sampler that I started last year in a quilt along.  I had wanted to make it large enough for my bed and got discouraged.  I put the whole thing away and haven't really thought about it.

It's been gnawing at me lately because I really want to get this finished because I love the fabrics I'm using.  So I pulled it out yesterday morning.  I told myself that I'm going to make all the pinwheels I can with all the fabrics that I have set aside for the project and that's that.  If it fits my bed, great.  If not, I'll use it elsewhere. 

Here are the two blocks that I worked on.

turn your head.  Darn blogger!

I have a few more pinwheel blocks that I've decided I would like in my sampler so I'm going to work on getting the fabric cut for them.  When I get the itch, I'll get them pieced.  My goal is to have this top complete by the end of the year.  I think I can handle that.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Back to the Layer Cake blocks

I've ignored the layer cake quilt along for a while now.  One reason is that I don't like a couple of the blocks that are going to be in the sampler and the other reason is because other things got in the way.  I told myself that this is going to be my sampler so I can do whatever I want.  So I'm going to substitute the blocks I really don't like and make pinwheels blocks or something else in their place.

So, here are blocks 4 and 5.  I have 4 more to go to catch up.

block 4

block 5 - turn your head

I have a story about block 5.  Pretty busy looking, isn't it?  Well, I don't really care for the ric-rac fabric and I really didn't care for this block but it isn't one of the ones that I really don't like so I made it anyway.  In the instructions (which I didn't read very well, obviously), it states not to use stripes due to the block orientation.  Well, stripes was spelled "strips" in the instructions and my brain didn't process that until AFTER my block was done.  That's way it's all crazy-like.  But you know what?  I like it!

If you recall, I took Amelia last Saturday to get her little toes painted.  I thought I would share all their blue sparkliness.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Retro Girl Whimsy Bag

I finished my Whimsy bag on Friday.  This Lazy Girl Designs pattern is a lickey-split one to do.  What I would change for next time is to line the lining with either a medium weight interfacing or another piece of fusible fleece.  I feel the bag is too "soft".  Needs a bit more stability.  But for what I'm going to use it for, it's okay the way it is.

Are you enjoying your weekend?  I am so far.  Punkie and I had a "Girls Day" yesterday morning.  She has been wanting to get a pedicure so I took her yesterday and she got the works done.  She picked a blue sparkly polish and the man who did her pedicure gave her a cute design on her two big toes.  She loves it.  Then we hit the grocery store for some odds and ends, McDonald's for a quick lunch and then Jo-Anns to finish off our morning.  I got some embroidery floss in various shades of pink and green to work on my Birdie Stitches block for this month and I collected some greens for next month.  I'm anticipating a St. Patrick's Day themed bird.  I hope to have a completed embroidered block to show you by the end of this week.

My mom is on her way over to spend the day with us.  Punkie is excited to have her Babci visit.

Well, if you are one of the lucky ones (I'm not) to have tomorrow off, enjoy it!  I have to work and Amelia has school.  HOWEVER, they are predicting snow overnight so maybe she'll be home after all.


Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Sunkissed Chubby Charmer and Goodies

My new tote is all done; except that I have to sew my turning hole closed... I love this bag!  It's huge.  It's going to make a great overnight travel bag for myself for a travel bag for Punkie to hold all her crap that she insists she "needs" when we travel by car.  I made the handles the length specified in the pattern but they are a tad too short for my liking.  Truth be told, I was just too lazy to cut another WOF to create a second handle piece so that I can cut it down to the right length.  My husband even got me a piece of Plexiglas for the bottom.  He just has to round out the corners a bit.  I'm afraid I would rip the lining.  It fits but it's a bit snug.  Don't want to create holes in my new bag!

tote with snapped sides

inside of bag.  Love the gray Sunkissed check!

And just to give a little more perspective on the bag's size, here is it sitting next to my iron.

I really like this tote and I would like to make another one to use as a beach bag with longer handles.  :)  I would make it a solid piece of fabric (not patchwork).

Last week I received some goodies in the mail from my blogger pal Kris.  I had admired the fabrics that she used in her apron that she made not too long ago and asked her what the line was called.  She surprised me and sent me some along with a super cute zippered pouch that I had to hide from Amelia.

love that card too!

AND I already know what I'm going to use with my new fabrics....

I'm going to make myself a Whimsy tote (lazy girl designs pattern).  I can't wait to get started.  I'm going to get the pattern all cut out today and fingers crossed!  by Sunday I hope to have another tote completed to show you.

And I should probably get back to working on my Bliss blocks and maybe my BOMs.  But oh.  Those can wait another week or so!

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Morning!  Happy Monday to you and Happy Valentine's Day!  We're not big celebrators of Valentine's Day.  Amelia and my husband will each get a little something (pillowcases and chocolates) and a nice dinner that is cooking in my crock pot as we speak.  Done and done.

Sewing has been happening here but I have no pictures to show you.  Forgot.  Sorry!  I got block 7 done of the FQS BOM.  I will say, THIS block was my least favorite so far.  But it is done.  And I did a bit more work on  my Chubby Charmer.  My lining fabric was in the mail on Friday so I got that all cut and ready to go but had a busy weekend.  So I'm hoping that I'll have time tonight or at least by the weekend to get this thing together.  It is a HUGE bag.  I can't wait to use it.

Now that I'm in a better spot with my FQS BOM, I'm going to move on and work on my layer cake quilt along blocks and my Birdie Stitches one.  I'm debating about taking Friday off this week so that I can play in my sewing room.  We'll see how my work week goes.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day and I'll be back soon!
Jen

Only 2 months behind now!

I found some time over the weekend and I worked on 3 more blocks from the FQS Mystery BOM 2010.  Now I'm only 2 months behind. WOOHOO!!

Block 7 truly scares me because it has wee little HST in it.  I don't know if I can handle it!  But I got it cut.  I will wait for another time to work on that one.

block 4

block 5 - least favorite so far

 

 

block 6

 And here's a picture of the first 6 blocks together.

Now I only need to play catch-up with my layer cake BOM, stitch the second block for the Birdie Stitches BOM, put together my jelly roll sampler top and oh yah... my pinwheels!  UGH!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Quick gifts

For Valentine's Day, I am at a loss for gifts.  I want to acknowledge the holiday with Amelia but I really don't want to make a "must give a gift" holiday.  We have plenty of those in the year.  With her getting older, she LOVES presents.  It was so much easier when she was say, 3, and had no clue.  LOL!

So I made pillowcases.  One of her and one for my husband.

Fabrics - Sent with Love and Mr. Fix It

I'm sure you can tell which pillowcase is for which person.  Chris can use his when he working his 2 overnight shifts at the firehouse.  Pillowcase and a bag of Hershey Kisses for each.  Good to go.

I was feeling left out of the pillowcase fun so I had to make a couple for myself too.

Turn your head to the side... Giddy.  Love them!  They are already on my bed.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Friday Blog Post

I couldn't think of a cute blog title.  Friday Blog Post is all that I could come up with.

Slowly, I've been making tracks back into my sewing room.  I think part of my problem is that my mind is full of projects that I want to get done and then new projects I want to start.  Have you seen the Postage Stamp quilt along?  Well, the quilt along is now over but you know what?  I want to make one!  So now that is on my mind 24x7 but I haven't acted on it yet since I want to make it out of Sunkissed and I don't own a Sunkissed jelly roll.

About Sunkissed.  I'm a little disappointed in Moda's charm square production.  OH NO!  I am going to speak bad things about Moda!  Don't shoot me.  Just venting.  ;)  I bought 3 Sunkissed charm packs to use in some future something.  I hadn't decided yet.  Then I got the itch to make myself a new bag.  Something to use when traveling or for Punkie.  Sunkissed called my name.  And then I found a pattern in my ever-growing pattern stash.  The Chubby Charmer Tote.

I don't have any of the lining or handle yardage yet but I thought I could get started on the front and back charm panels.  I busted open 2 charm packs because I needed an odd number of charms for the pattern and I wanted to mix things up a bit.  Well, one of my charm packs had odd bits in it.  Like pieces of a charm square but not a whole charm square.  I ended up with 4 of them in one pack alone.  Did I count to see if I got even the right number of squares in my pack?  No because everything was all mixed up by then. AND my charms are all over the place with sizing.  Some are way big.  Much bigger than 5" and some are smaller.  So my piecing was a bit of a swearing showdown.  Some of my seams don't match.  This isn't the first time I've run into this either (both issues) but it's the first time I'm venting about it.  Moda is getting sloppy, in my opinion.

So here is my start.  After all is said and done, this is going to be a big tote.  I need to finish the second charm panel (2 more rows).  I started yesterday afternoon before heading out to my ceramics class and ran out of time.

Ready for some Bliss?  I've also been working (slowly) on my Disappearing 9 patch Bliss blocks.  I have decided for production reasons that I would make all the 9 patches first then make them disappear.  I'm sure many of you work that way (step A, step B...) but it takes me a while to figure these things out.  I'm usually a little late to the party.  LOL!  I also get very excited to see things emerge so I like to have everything done NOW.  It was getting to be a PITA to work one 9 patch block at a time so I changed gears.

There are 14 blocks here.  I need like 20-25 more.

I'm also working on some Valentine's Day gifts for my husband and Punkie.  They are getting pillowcases.  Chris can use his at the firehouse when he sleeps his 2 nights there and Punkie just loves pillowcases from Mama.  I will post those when they are done.

Enjoy your day!
Jen