Learning my ABCs

Hello!  I know it.  It's been a while.  My summer "theme".  Our summer has been moving steadily ahead.  In fact, it's almost over!

In 3 days, we're headed here:

Going to party it up.  Celebrating Punk's 9th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary.  This year she will be turning 9 AT Disney World.  She is soooo excited for that.  The day after we get back, my 4th grader heads back to school.  She's excited to start 4th grade and I'm happy she is excited.

I have been doing some sewing.  I started and finishd my ABCs in 2 weeks.

Moda did a blog hop back in February and all their fabric designers (and others) created the letters and Moda offered the letter patterns for free.  I followed along and downloaded all of them.  I have since found out that Moda took down their links to the free letters because they put all the letters into one PDF file and some online shops are selling the PDF for $8.00.  I'm not sure how I feel about that practice.  A bit shady to me.  But I have them all printed out and saved so I'm good.

I do love this quilt.  I was hoping to hang it on my bedroom wall but it's too wide for the rod hanging there already.  I hate to use it because while I love the black background and how it makes all the colors pop but the lint and cat hair it collects.... UGH.  I have lint brushed this thing numerous times while sewing it.

I got another quilt done and off my bannister.  Morning Joe is on my bedroom wall and I just love it!

Not sure what I"m going to work on now.  I have been creating some appliqued owls for a quilt but they take forever.  I work on them when the need strikes.  I think what I'm going to do it work on getting fabrics cut for the free pattern that the Fat Quarter Shop launched a few days ago, Fat Quarter Fizz.  Quick and easy and again, using up that stash!

Enjoy your day!!
Jen  :)

Scrappy Crossroads

Lori Holt did a quick tutorial on Instagram on a scrappy crossroads block.  Since I had nothing else to do (haha), I joined in the fun and TRIED to do a bit of scrap stash busting.  I didn't even make a dent BUT I have a very cute wall hanging for my efforts.

I only made four blocks since a big quilt is just not in the cards for me right now.  I have enough larger quilts in various stages of finishing.  The four blocks only took me a week to do; I worked on them a little bit each night.  Things went much faster once I found my box of 2.5" squares that I had already cut a while back.

I also added a 2.5" outer border to finish it all off.

I can't wait to get this one quilted!

Hmmmm.  Now I wonder what I should work on next?

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Cupcakes done

Cupcakes done and hung on the wall.  I'm really happy with it.  Seeing this on the wall is making me want to make a few more for the more major holidays.  I think I'm going to make pumpkins next.  :)

Instead of adding a binding, I layered and stitched and turned it out.  I made hanging tabs too for a change of pace.  You know?  I have a Halloween panel (plus backing and binding for it) that I have been hanging on to for oh - 6 years.  I think I'm going to do the same for it and hang it here.  I did some top stitching and that is the extent of the quilting on this piece.  If I were to do anything else to it, it would still be in the pile waiting its turn.

I've started sashing my nested churn dash blocks too.  Punk and I have been working on her quilt blocks too.  I've been doing most of the work though.  Her enthusiasm for this quilt isn't there.  I've been piecing most of the blocks and leaving a few for her to work on.  Maybe with the layout, she'll help some.

35 more days until Disney.  :)

Enjoy your day!

Jen 

Contractor must have been a bit tipsy

Finished my first mini.  Dwell is what I worked on.  Looking at it, I have a couple crooked houses.  I must have had a bit too much beer when I was sewing.  ;)

Eh.  It is what it is and it's done.  I added another round of borders because I'm trying to use my stash.  Backing is from my stash too as well as my binding.  I had just enough binding leftover from another project.  That made me happy.

My lone mini:

I need to make some more.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Hey Cupcake!

I've been waiting 2 years to find time to make this wallhanging.  It was on the cover of the Spring, 2012 McCall's Quilting magazine.  I found the time.  Got it done in a day.  Just need to quilt it.

Isn't it sweet?  Here are some close ups of the cupcakes.

My goal is to now get it quilted and hung on the wall for Punk's birthday in August.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Still Churning

I am churning along over here.  I'm almost done with the blocks.  Layout and sashing next.  I'm running low on my solid so the sashing will have to wait until I can get to the store in the next week or so.  I'm currently working on my last block for my quilt top.  Here's what I came up with since my last post.

Red and yellow.

 
Lime green and orange.

This one is a bit bright.  I mean really BRIGHT.  But look who's peeking out of the center.

Sheepies!  I thought it was a cute addition to the block.

Last - gray and aqua.

Last block is almost done.  I'll show them all together soon!

I was on a roll with these blocks, I decided to make new decorative pillows for my couch.

Love it!  It's HUGE!  It looks great on my couch but this was taken on my bed.  The second one is almost done.  I think that's the hidden theme of this post: "Almost done".  LOL.

I've been plotting along over here and hope to keep the sewing momentum going.  I'm also prepping blocks for a sew along with my Punk.  It's supposed to rain here Friday, July 4th which means a day in the house.  I thought we would do some chores in the morning but spend the afternoon sewing.  I'm prepping blocks (the boring part) and she can do the sewing.  I'm looking forward to it.

To those here in the US - Happy 4th of July!  Hope you have a fun day!  If it wasn't for the rain, I would be spending the day in the pool.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Nesting

Last day of school today!  WOOHOO!!  I am ready for lazy mornings.  So ready!  So is my future 4th grader.  4th grade.  Where did the time go?!??!  Tomorrow we are off to Hershey, PA for some fun time.

I'm not a big Instagram user (jenwith01); between blogs, Facebook, Pinterest... I just forget about IG but every now and again I will pop in there and check things out.  About a week ago I popped onto Instagram and got sucked into a new project.  :P

It all started with this:

Evolved into:

I just kept going.  

#nestedchurndash is the quilt along happening on Instagram.  They are big blocks too.  24" finished so only 9 blocks with sashing will make a very nice sized quilt.  I haven't decided if I am going to keep this one for myself or give it to Amelia.  I think if I give it to her, we'll have to share it.  I'm going to have a hard time losing it.  I'm sticking with a 2 block palette for each block and I'm really loving it.  I'm just not sure what to do for the last 4 blocks.  I'm going to have to start repeating colors.  I'm thinking more a lime-y green with aqua or yellow as one combination, red and yellow as another.  After that, I'm stuck. I don't want to do another pink block since there are 2 pinks already (pink and green/pink and orange).

What I have right now is:

pink and green

aqua and red

purple and gray

navy and yellow

orange and pink

Any 2 color combo ideas?

enjoy your day!

Jen  :)