Pinterest strikes again!

Pinterest.  It's love/hate relationship for me.  I love going out to the site every few days to see what catches my eye. I love to pin project ideas and food recipes I see online.  It's SO much easier than having a list of browser bookmarks.  I hate that I have over 2,000 pins that I don't do anything with except virtually admire.  I've been trying to make more of the recipes that I have pinned and oh those crafty ideas.

This is one of them.  Bubble magnets, glass gem magnets... they go by multiple names.  The idea caught my eye and I thought - HEY!  I can do that!  And I did.  LOL!!

Following the quick tutorial and using my Joann and Michael's coupons, I got everything I needed and set out to work. Only thing that I did differently is that I added 2 coats of Mod Podge to the back of the photo paper.  I had one magnet hanging around to use for my test gem and the next day, the glue for the magnet made my photo bleed. I used E6000 glue since that is what I had at home and I wanted to use it because I knew it would hold the magnet.

A couple of my photos bled a wee bit again so the next time I make these (and there will be a next time), I plan on doing at least 5 coats of Mod Podge.  It dries super quick so no extra work for the extra coats.

I dug up some pictures that I had handy from our first Disney trip, made a mini photo collage at CVS and this is what I ended up with

Aren't they fun?!  I plan on making tons more.  Maybe a few for Father's Day for Chris to put in his locker at work.

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Mastering the art of the 1/4" seam

Punk loves to "sew" on my machine.  She loves to dig in her fabric bin for the prettiest of fabrics, fold it in half and sew all the decorative stitches she can fit on that lone piece of fabric.  A while back, I had put a handful of good sizes pieces in her bin.  Nothing I cared for but too big to throw away.  I donated to the Punk Cause.

Working on a project, my shadow came to visit me and promptly dug in her bin for her own fabric.  I convinced her that instead of doing decorative stitches, to layout a quilt top.  Put her fabric in the order she would like and then mark the rows.  When there was time, I would square up the pieces to a uniform size and then she can sew them together.

The project was put aside for a while.  The holidays came and I was busy with my own stuff.  Last night after dinner, she and I needed an electronics break so we went upstairs and got to work.  We figured out which size to square the fabric to (9" square).  I squared up the first 2, showed her how to line up the edges and how to pin them together.  Where to line herself up on the foot for the 1/4" seam and off she went.

Concentrating

being her silly self

lining up those edges

sewing her first 2 full rows together

She did great!!  Out of 16 squares, in only TWO spots her seams didn't match up quite right.  She did much better than I did my first time!  At the end, she heaved a big sigh and was glad she was done.  She was a bit nerve-wrecked at the end.  The stress of "everything must be perfect!".  After her first two rows were sewn and I pressed them, I showed her WHY 1/4" seams were important and how everything lined up nicely when you did it right.

I only assisted with the squaring of the fabric, initial pinning on the pressing of the blocks.  I'm not ready to give her access to the rotary cutter and hot iron.  Punk was thoroughly impressed that her first quilt top took an hour to put together while mine take days.  LOL.

Her first (of many, I hope!) quilt top.  Please ignore the bedroom clutter.  I am a hoarder of slippers and clothing boxes.  :)  The rest of my bedroom is nice and clean.  That is my clutter corner.

I hope to stop this week to get some backing fabric and we'll finish the quilt this weekend.  If she is interested, I'll let her dig in my stash for the "good" fabrics and we'll work on making a bigger quilt for herself.  Bigger blocks and a few more rows and she'll have her own lap quilt!  Another idea is to bust out one of the quilt kits I bought for her that uses a very simple pattern (Yellow Brick Road) and have her help me construct it.  I fear that all the prep will bore her away so I'll stick with the super simple for now.

Proud Mama over here!
Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Detoured because of Strings

String blocks.  I've been wanting to make a quilt with string blocks.  I have several layout ideas pinned on one of my Pinterest boards.  It's just a task I didn't want to undertake since I don't prep my scraps when I get them. They either go in Punk's bucket if the piece is big enough for her to play with or in the trash if they really are too tiny to do anything with.  I did make a string block wall hanging 3 years ago - in January!

Stephanie from Loft Creations posted about some "potato chip sewing" she had been doing.  Once you start, you can't stop.  Once I saw her string blocks I knew I needed to push myself to cut into my stash and make scraps of my own.

I found some muslin tucked away on my shelf and I cut it up into 9.5" squares for some foundation and off I went.  12 blocks completed because I ran out of foundation squares.  I am take pause on this endeavor for a bit.  I dragged out a bunch of fabrics and I would like to spend some time cutting different strip widths.  Organize myself a little bit.  That will make my block sewing go much faster.  I've been cutting strips as I went so the process was slow.

I made one black and white block (upper left) that is sticking out a bit too much for me so I will make a couple more just to balance it.  I like the block and want to use it in this quilt.

Okay.  NOW I'm going to focus on my husband's quilt and get the borders on my Scrappy Trip quilt top.  After those are done, shift focus back to Home to Roost.  Lots of stuff going on here.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Wishes QAL - Block 1

The Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a quilt along for 2014 using the Wishes fabric collection by Sweetwater.  I bought the kit and got started.  First block of 12 is finished.

Happy little flying kite block.  Patiently waiting for February's pattern.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Too much?

I told you I had some major sewing momentum the last week or so.  4 blog posts in a week??  I haven't done that in a long time!

I'm working on getting some quilt tops prepped for quilting.  My Scrappy Trip Along has been waiting for a year (this week!) to get quilted.  I've held back because I wanted to add borders to this top to make a bit bigger for my bed.

Now that I'm looking at it, I'm wondering if the green outer border is going to be too much for the quilt.  My thought is to do a small inner containment border of a white; no wider than 2" finished and then a 4" - 5" finished outer border.

Thoughts?  Too much with all the scrappiness?  I really want to use this yardage because that's what I bought it for.  I really don't want to throw it into a tub and use it "some day".

I have one more thing to show you but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Home to Roost

I spotted this fabric group early last year and while it isn't my "style", the folksy look of the houses and chickens really spoke to me.  I took the time in September to gather up some fat quarters during the CT shop hop so that I could work on the pattern I purchased over this winter.  I stored it all away and promptly forgot about it.

I dug it out on Monday and got to work.  This is what I finished so far.  Not much but it's something.

Here's my dilemma with the pattern:

See that sunburst block there on the left?  I hate it.  I need a substitute.  I'm willing to use gold or a soft yellow for the block to represent the sun but I do not, I repeat, DO NOT want to deal with curved piecing.  I'm not good at it and I don't want to use this project to hone my curved piecing skills.  The quilt has small pinwheels so I was thinking a larger pinwheel but I'm not in love with that idea.

Do you have any block ideas to replace that sunburst one?

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Keeping that momentum going

I'm on a roll over here.  I got another project done over the holiday weekend.  Morning Joe is finished.  It's also too big for the space I wanted to hang it once it was quilted.  It is now going to hung in my bedroom.  I have the perfect wall space for it.

I'm on a roll with this sewing.  I got all the blocks pieced for my husband's quilt.  I'm doing a simple rail fence pattern for him.  Quick block construction.  I just need to lay it out and figure out if I need to get a couple of 1/4 yard cuts to make a few more blocks.  I have 78 6.5" blocks but don't know if it's going to be big enough for him.  Once I get moving a bit further on this, I'll show you.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Cherry Bake - No longer a WIP!

I started this project at least 8 months ago.  I dug through scraps and made all the log cabin-like blocks and stopped.  Why?  No clue.  I don't remember why I buried the blocks.  I created a super long weekend for myself.  I took Friday off and yesterday was MLK Day and the office was closed.  Sewing happened.

Very happy for my finish.  There is one cherry block that I sewed backwards.  Sighhhhh.  I'm leaving it.  Happy to have this one 100% stash.  I hope to get this one quilted soon so that I can hang it on my dining room wall.

Sorry for the dark picture.  It's a gray day here today with snow on the way.  Lots of snow.

Cherry Bake - pattern by Lori Holt

First WIP finish for 2014.  Very proud of myself!

Enjoy your day!

Jen  :)

Summer Excitement

Last week, prowling the virtual world, I planned my family's fictitious, grandiose trip to Disney.  I had a good time with it.  Money wise?  Wasn't happening.  But I had fun.

This year, my husband and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary.  Last year, I stated that I wanted a real vacation.  No long weekend away.  No "quick trip" to PA to pick up farming supplies.  A REAL vacation. One week.  An airplane ride away.  Preferably on a white, sandy beach.  My husband was on board.  Kind of.  Beaches are not his thing.

Time goes by and house expenses come along.  I took the tropical vacation off the table.  No need to stress things out more.  But I wasn't willing to cave on the real, one week vacation away.  Figured we would draw a circle on a map and drive somewhere.

Here comes the exciting part.  My husband walked in on me planning our fictitious trip to Disney and after talking about what we would do different, what we would skip and scaled it waaaayyy back.... he agreed to go back this summer!

Punk's first trip - 2012

Comparing prices for lodging/food/airfare to Disney and driving to say, Virginia Beach for a week... Disney won!  He very much surprised me with his quick agreement because that is NOT my husband.  He will take time, LOTS of time, to mull things over and just think about it.  For him to agree after an hour's conversation, that's a big deal.

No secret this time.  We told Amelia over the weekend.  And you know what?  I got the same exact reaction out of her when I kept it a secret for 8 months.  She just doesn't get excited the way I think she should.  She is helping us plan our trip.  Figuring out what she would like to do again versus what we can skip.  We are skipping Animal Kingdom this time around and I booked an additional "chill out" day.  No park that day.  Just pool time and hanging around.  I like that.  Just a day to relax.  We didn't have that our first trip.  She helped pick out the resort too.  We're staying at Disney's Port Orleans - Riverside resort in a "Royal Guest" room.  Can't wait!

218 more days!!  LOL!!!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Cuppa Joe on High Street

I'm starting strong and am working on my 2014 goals.  I want to make 4 new Schnibbles for dining room wall.  One of them will be Christmas themed because what I have for the wall for Christmas is just too small for the space.

I forgot that back in November I ordered 3 new Schnibbles PDF patterns.  I dug around in my email for them and in my stash for the perfect charm packs to use.

I decided on Morning Joe using High Street by Lily Ashbury (link to mini pack.  I'm using full sized charms).  I confess - I was hoarding High Street.  I couldn't bare to use it but then what's the point of having it??  I do have a layer cake from the line as well.  I will find use for that too somewhere.  2014 will be my year for stash busting!  HA!  Probably not but I'll give it a try.  LOL!

This is going together pretty quick.  I have 3 blocks completed so far (in 3 hours over two nights), another ready for piecing and the 5th mapped out.  I'm not one to follow the instructions in the pattern and cut out and make 100+ HSTs and THEN start putting blocks together.  I wing it and cut/piece blocks one at a time.  I audition charms as I go along and lay things out.  I like the instant gratification of seeing blocks not pieces of blocks.  :)  It works for me.

So far, so good.  I'm pleased.  My husband is working the next 2 nights so after Punk heads to bed, I plan on sewing for at least an hour each night. I would like to get this completed by the end of January so that I can turn my focus over to my husband's birthday quilt.

Enjoy your day!

Jen  :)

2014 Crafty Goals

I have a bunch of ideas and projects swimming in my head right now and I figured I would get them down on "paper".  Not sure I will stick with the list but I will make an effort!

1.  Wishes quilt along being run by the Fat Quarter Shop.  I made the honest mistake of ordering the fabric kit for the quilt along.  I thought I was ordering a monthly block pattern.  Shocked as I was to see a mega charge on my credit card after the holidays from FQS.  Soooo, I'm stuck doing the quilt along.  Thankfully, Wishes is on my "need to have" for a fabric list.  

2.  Four Schnibbles.  Now that I have blank wall in my dining room, I want to keep it decorated with a wall hanging.  The space is so big that I need to create a few of the larger Schnibbles.  I'm not lacking in charm packs or patterns so I think I can handle this one.  Maybe I'll even join one of monthly Schnibbles parades that are hosted by Sinta and Sherri.  

3.  Quilt for my husband for his birthday.  I have the jelly roll (Bali Pop) for this one.  I planned to do it for Christmas but I ran out of time.  His birthday is in April.  I have a very simple pattern in mind.  Just need to get started.  

4.  Another quilt for Punkie.  I have AT LEAST 3 quilt kits or fabric/pattern purchased for some lap quilts for her.  I want to get one done by the end of the year.  

5.  Finish binding the quilts that have been hanging around for 6 months. Self-explanatory.  I'm lazy when it comes to bindings because the process is slow for me.

6.  Get 2 (or 3) more quilts quilted.  I have backing for one already.  Swoon is in this list.  I WILL get that one quilted this year.

7.  More loom knitting learning.  I would like to loom knit an afghan of some sort.  I have a couple of ideas pinned for this task.  I need to get a few more stitches under my belt and collect some yarn.

We'll see how well I do with this come December, 2014.  :)

Enjoy your day!

Jen  :)