2016 Goals

2015 has not been a productive year for me, in many respects, but especially in sewing and blogging. Readjusting to life with a new baby… there’s just things that take priority. Like sleeping, eating, using the bathroom, showering… and sometimes cleaning. Both my kids have been/are clingons so I don’t have free hands or time very often in the baby stage (and even after). And two is more than one! With one, when he napped or was busy I could get stuff done. Now I basically switch from one to the other and grab a bagel and a pee in between. But the little one is starting to have more independent time and he is starting to get mobile. We are starting to work on the sleeping. And the older one is in school. So, it all comes back to the goals. I am taking stock of where things are and where they need to be and how to get there. It is overwhelming.

1. The UFOs

It may be funny that I put this first, but honestly if I have one overriding goal in 2016 it is to tackle the ever growing pile of quilt tops I am amassing. There are a variety of reasons why I “abandon” a project at this stage, and usually a different reason for each one, but I need to make this a focus and a priority.

2. Learn to longarm

This has been a longtime goal. I have a past teacher/friend who has moved near me and has a longarm and has offered many times for me to come learn. I absolutely intend to take her up on this as things settle down in 2016. This should also help to chip away at item #1, above.

3. Get back to sewing

Well, duh, right? Other than a burst of deadline quiltmaking to get my Michael Miller challenge quilt (#quiltconreject) ready in time, I haven’t done much this year. I’ve more or less kept up with my block of the months (usually in three month marathons). I’ve been slowly making blocks for my cousin’s wedding ring quilt. I’ve managed to make some teacher and birthday gifts. But really, not a lot. I want more time sewing, more stuff getting done.

4. Get back to blogging

I’d been doing a pretty good job blogging and reading and making connections. That’s mostly all fallen apart this year. I need to find the time to sit and type at the computer as much as to sit and sew. And rebuild my online presence.

5. Clean. Declutter. Reorganize. Reduce.

And oh, this one is so big. When I named my blog, little did I know how true those words would be.

When I say it has all gone to hell, I am not kidding. So even when I do have the opportunity to sew, I walk into this and pretty much either start working on cleaning it or walk right out.

This is a theme for my house and my life right now. Other than the kids, the reason I am not sewing is that this is pretty much the state of my whole house. So when I have time, I feel I need to be cleaning, and even more importantly decluttering.

I kept a delicate balance in my home and adding another person, taking away the space that is now his room, taking away the time and ability I had to maintain and keep any order… it has all caused a perfect storm. This is the road to Hoarders, y’all. I am not kidding. I am so worried. One more life event before I get a handle on things, and that could be me so easily. I know it. So, I am working my way though my house. Trying to reduce, remove, declutter, sell, give away… None of this is easy for me but the overwhelming looming feeling I have when I look around is giving me the drive to tackle this. It means a lot for my house in general. It means less time to sew. And in my sewing room, it means I have to get rid of fabric. I need to use it, and I need to sell it. I just have to. I want to hold on to it all, but I can’t even work in there. I just shift piles from one surface to the other, then spend a lot of time looking for things I “just had”. It’s a waste and I have precious little time and energy to waste these days.

6. Storm at Sea

I throw this one out there for a stretch goal. When I started this blog, I wanted to pick one goal pattern to tackle every year that intimidated me. I did my kaleidoscope one year. I meant to do storm at sea last year, I believe. It didn’t even almost happen. So I’m throwing it out there again.

7. Put myself out there

Ok, one more. This is another hard one. I am so isolated. I’m being honest so far, so I can go all out, right? I said I  am a hoarder. I also have social anxiety. Badly. I have a hard time navigating new relationships. I need to. I have no friends. I want to try to bridge that gap with some people. I want to go to guild regularly. And, you know, actually talk to people there. Not just sit in a corner. I want to see if I can get a sewing circle or something to join. See people who can say more than a few word sentences that revolve around something other than bathroom habits. Y’know?

Thanks Yvonne, for giving me the excuse to sit down and write this. Even though it still took me a week to get it done. And I’ll probably think of 100 more goals once I hit post. 🙂

ALYOF: September. Am I back?

So I am trying to emerge from hibernation. The last several months deserve their own post, which I hope to get to soon, but to sum up:
-Baby
-Summer
-Baby
-Travel
-Baby
-Juki never worked
-Baby
-Still trying to get an RMA
-Baby
-Sewing room is a nightmare and I can’t get to anything
-Baby

When I am not constantly holding a baby, I am trying to do things like eat or pee or an occasional shower. If I get a longer free period I do strange things like laundry or dishes. Not a lot of sewing happening. Or ability to type.

So, I am hoping by making this post it’ll give me the extra motivation I need to try to get back to sewing. And clean the sewing room. And get my machine fixed.

This is the status of my cousin’s wedding quilt. The wedding we went to in June. I had a small period of productiveness a few months ago, but I was staying up til 3 or 4 to get sewing in, and it wasn’t pretty. I’m needing more sleep now. So I have 12 blocks done (And another two in progress). I think I need 24 plus sashing to finish the top, which is my September goal.

4×7 Challenge Week 4: Crib Skirt

This week I buckled down to get my crib skirt done. It was initially challenging as first we had company, then we ended up with several “we thought we might get snow but really didn’t” days which resulted in everyone being home (and in my way and causing extra work for me). But I finally got a couple days to really devote some time to it and get it done.

I used this tutorial I found on Pinterest some time ago. It isn’t the most detailed tutorial but I was able to figure it out well enough. I was hesitant because I am not the most competent gatherer in the world. I used muslin I got cheap for the crib base.

Then I cut, gathered and added the fabric strips one panel at a time.

And then sewed the panels to the base.

Today I put the crib bedding together.

(I bought the sheet. lol.)

(I also can’t remember how to put the breathable bumpers on. I am going to have to work on that. It’ll be a while before the baby starts sleeping in the crib anyway.)

My son’s crib was set much higher and I made a longer crib skirt for him, which has spent most of its life in a puddle on the floor after we lowered the mattress. This one has a little lowering room, but I think will eventually, despite my best calculations, pool a bit on the floor as well.

So, of my sewing goals for the month, I managed to finish my curtains and crib skirt. As I’ve said, it wasn’t as productive as I’d expected, but I did make progress. I also had to work around a couple of pattern tests, a bee block, emptying and setting up an entire room, lots of laundry, company, unexpected days off of school, and I finally got the hospital bag packed the other night too. So, the end result is though I didn’t finish every single sewing project to make the perfect room, I am pretty much ready for the baby to come when he is ready. And that was really the over riding goal. While we wait, I think I will do the changing pad cover next.

I enjoyed participating in this challenge! I think it gave me a little extra accountability when I might have otherwise slacked longer on some of these things. It really is a relief to have some of it done. I really am ready to get back to quilting though.

You may see all my posts about this challenge here.

4×7 Sewing Challenge Week 3: We have curtains!

It has been slow going. I am not getting as much done as I’d hoped. But I am making steady progress. I finished the second curtain. They aren’t perfect. But they are good enough.

Here they are released

Here they are tied up. I do wish the ties were longer or that one tie was longer than the other. I am getting very uneven bows. I didn’t do a great job. Also, ignore my blinds. Someday when I don’t have little kids I am going to have to replace all the blinds in my house.

Next up: I need to make the blackout shades and the crib skirt. Those are my major items left. Anything else I get done in time is bonus.

This is my ALYOF goal post

Fat Quarter Shop Single Wedding Ring Pattern

Hi everyone!

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I was fortunate to be able to try the new Fat Quarter Shop pattern for the Single Wedding Ring. The block is a free pattern. They are also offering a quilt pattern in several sizes.

I have cousins getting married this summer and I thought this would be a great pattern to use for their wedding quilt. It was fortunate timing! I contacted my cousin-to-be and she told me that her home is done in earth tones – mostly golds, corals and greens. I decided to use those colors and add aqua as well. So I chose fabrics in those colors and made a few blocks from the pattern.

This is a fairly quick and straight forward pattern – it is half square triangles and squares.

You create your HST two at a time using the diagonal line method. I did find on my first block that following the given measurements was a close call. Some of my HSTs were a little short. Even so, that block still finished larger than 13 inches somehow. For the second block I bumped my HST squares up just a teeny bit to 3.5 inches and that gave me enough to trim a little bit which made for more accurate HSTs and easier trimming of the ears.

Other than that one adjustment, the pattern is very clear and fun to make.

You can view a video tutorial here.

Fat Quarter Shop is also offering a Single Wedding Ring Quilt Kit in White Washed Cottage.

Thank you so much to Fat Quarter Shop for allowing me to share my blocks on their blog hop today. Keep an eye on my blog as I continue to create this beautiful wedding quilt for my cousins by this summer!

Please also visit the other bloggers in the hop today!

Kiera of Simply Vanella

Lydia of Telafante

Greg of Grey Dogwood Studios

Laurel of Drowning in Fabrics

Amber of A Little Bit Biased

Katie of Good Golly Ginger

Jo of Jo’s Country Junction
Kaye of Miss Print
Paula of The Sassy Quilter

4×7 Sewing Challenge week 2

Week 2 went a little better than week one, but I still wasn’t able to accomplish as much as I hoped.

First, Sunday and Monday I spent sorting and sending back my fat 8 swap.

Then I needed to do my bee hive block for this month.

The queen chose the tic tac toe block. She wanted low volume text/architecture for the background and vibrant prints like Alison Glass or Anna Marie Horner for the x. I used some of my newly swapped Alison Glass fat 8ths and some fat 8ths from previous text and low volume swaps. I am finding my fat 8 swaps are great for using in stash bees! We are also making signature blocks.

Then I made more test blocks for my pattern test, which will be posted on Monday.

Then I finally buckled down to power through my curtains for the baby’s room.

I used the sailboats for the top of the curtain and the waves (which I have 8 yards of!) for the bottom. I was going to use the crabs for the ties, but I thought it was too much dark blue. I forgot that the sailboats were on a navy background instead of a lighter blue. So I chose the green anchors instead. I like it because it looks like the ships are dropping anchor. lol.

I measured the windows against the pattern a couple times, and I have 8 yards of the waves so plenty to make them long enough, but they came out too short! Of course, they get tied up anyway so they only cover half the window anyway. So I stalled on the second curtain because I am not sure if I should make them the same or try to remake them longer.

I also hate using patters/pattern tissue/etc. This is why I quilt and don’t do stuff like make clothes, I am reminded. I feel it is so inexact. You can get such perfect straight lines with a ruler and rotary cutter. But pattern templates shift and they are unruly and I get wobbly cutting lines and my fabric isn’t perfectly straight. My hems/seams aren’t either. Drives me nuts. But I am trying to just run with it and get it done already. I am probably the only one these things bother and it is not like I am making for sale. I am so nervous the two curtains won’t match up though, and as they sit right next to each other it will bother me.

Anyway, here is the first curtain!

I have the second curtain cut out but have not gotten to sew it yet. I also am making black out shades to go behind the blinds. As I’ve said, that room gets very bright and very hot and the curtains obviously aren’t going to block it all, nor do the blinds. I am not as uptight about how the blackout shades will look, just more a logistical get-it-done thing. Then I will move on to the bedskirt, which I have nerves about because it is gathered.

We have company coming this week so my focus right now is on getting the house presentable, then I don’t know how much sewing time I will get once they are here. Hopefully I can at least finish the curtains before then. I think I am done with all the other sewing I needed to do for now (til the next bee block) so I can spend my sewing time focused on this now.

4×7 Challenge: week 1 FAIL

OK. So I totally failed in my challenge goals this week. So I don’t deserve to be entered for the prize! But still wanted to give my update.

What you need to understand is that last week when I emptied out the guestroom-cum-new-baby’s-room to be painted, all that stuff went into my sewing area, which is the alcove across from that room. So I couldn’t get to anything in my sewing room. It was packed with boxes, etc. I spent a good part of the week finding new places for that stuff (or replacing it in the baby’s room) so that I could get into my sewing room. Then, it was a mess. There was fabric and everything else everywhere from the whirlwind of getting my Tessellated Leaves quilt finished on a tight deadline. So I spent a good bit of time getting the sewing room back to a useable space.

Then when I was finally able to set up my ironing board and access my sewing machine, I opted to make a test block for another pattern test that is coming out this month (so I can’t share that at this time). That’s what I accomplished this week, along with about 100 loads of baby laundry. I did spend some time reading over the curtain pattern but the one part still doesn’t really make sense to me. I think they won’t be sideways, at least, though.

I need to buckle down this week!

February focus

I found a challenge on Berry Barn Designs to focus on sewing for myself in February.This is very well timed as baby will be here in a matter of weeks and I haven’t done the first bit of sewing for him. Last week we got the room painted and the furniture set up. I’ve been going through clothes and attempting to get things put away. Of course, that room was our guest/storage room so all the stuff that used to be in there has now filled my sewing area. I can barely get to my machine let alone have any type of organization or room to work. I am trying to get rid of stuff and find somewhere new to store the clothes (my non-maternity/off season and my son’s too small/save for the baby).

First, here is the fabric I am working with

The room is painted the color of the light blue crabs. The furniture is white. I still have the guest bed in there as well, as we have guests coming in a couple weeks and my mother will be staying with us for a while as well. I got some navy striped sheets and a navy/grey herringbone duvet cover for the bed today.

The wave fabric I got at a clearance sale at my LQS for $2 a yard! I bought everything on the bolt, which was about 8 yards. The sailboats took a lot of searching to find, and I have actually piecemealed it from a couple different shops. I am hoping I have enough for what I want to do. I am still batting around another fabric or two (I really wanted some whales) but I am not sure I will need it.

Anyway, here is my list of things I need to make.

1. Curtains

This is the most important, and also my ALYOF goal for February. It is also the most intimidating. This room has huge south facing windows. The room gets hot and bright. I bought some blackout shade fabric which I intend to put on tension rods behind the blinds (which aren’t enough to block the heat). Then I have a pattern for shade curtains I am trying to decipher. I am so scared of messing this up or miscutting my fabric that I am finding every excuse not to get started. But I can’t do anything else til I do this because I have to make sure I have the fabric for it. Parts of the pattern don’t make sense to me, and I am so scared of cutting sideways. I also have to make a wider space for the curtain rod because it is a wide one, so I have to work that out. Anyway, the waves will be the main part of the curtains. The boats will be the top. The crabs will be the straps. I didn’t finish my older son’s curtains til close to his first birthday, but they are much more vital for this room than his.

2. Bed skirt

I keep debating between the kind I made for my son – which seems too long and took a lot of pleat making – and a tutorial I found on pinterest which looks shorter and possibly quicker and maybe less fabric,  but requires ruffling. It’s a draw.

3. Lamps

I have decided to make my own lamp shades using my fabrics rather than pay ridiculous amounts for the cute lamps I want. I am having a hard time finding white lamp bases that aren’t a ton of money though.

4. (possibly) crib sheets

I bought a couple cute sheets because I knew this would probably not happen in time or I might not have enough fabric. I also have some sheets I could swipe from my son. He still sleeps in his toddler bed and uses crib sheets. As cute as it is to have matching sheets, I learned last time around I really do prefer the jersey or muslin sheets to quilting cotton, so I knew this would probably not be a priority.

5. Other possible accessories

Like a crib organizer. I made (a crappy) one for my son and really it was never anything more than decoration. Or an accent pillow. A changing pad cover. Teething pads?

6. Quilt(s)

Let’s be honest. This isn’t happening this month. But I will get to it. I had planned to make a storm at sea quilt using some nice fabrics, and then I’d also like another with the leftovers from the fabrics from the room.

I am certain there were other things I wanted to make which are escaping me now. It feels so overwhelming when I go to do it but now I am realizing there are really two main things I need to get done. If I would buckle down and do it, it wouldn’t take that long. Anything else would really be bonus at this point.

Tessellated Leaves Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Tessellated Leaves Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by.

In a past life I used to teach Art and one of my favorite projects to do with my 5th graders was to study Escher’s tessellations. So when I saw Quilting Jetgirl Yvonne’s tessellated leaves pattern it brought back all kinds of memories and I was intrigued to try it in fabric form.

When she announced her new pattern and asked for testers I signed on. The quilt actually looks a lot more complicated than it really is, which is how I like them! I made the 4 color lap size quilt. It finishes at a perfect throw size at 60×72.

Yvonne was very generous with her fabric estimates for the lap size. I was left with about ten inches for each color. This is good because it gives me a little extra for my stash. Also, I misread my ruler and cut a strip too small at one point, so I had plenty of extra to cover that error.

I had to make 30 blocks (120 quarter blocks) and I worked on about ten at a time. Due to various errors, I had a few to fix up at the end. One of my fabrics was easy to mix up right and wrong sides so I needed to redo some blocks for that reason. The first set of blocks, I didn’t pay close enough attention to the fact that it matters which side you put your hsts on. I had a few where I flipped the HST pointing the wrong way…. So, It is good to pay attention to how to assemble your blocks! Once I got through that first batch, it was much smoother sailing with the rest of them.

Sneak Peek

My time with this quilt was not without various issues. I took a lot of pictures through these steps, and then my phone fried in a storm. I had to totally replace it and lost everything. Somehow, I was able to recover a couple pictures, but not many.

Once I had my blocks assembled, I spent an entire day getting the top completed. I was on a roll. And then I went to spread out my finished top and look at it all put together…. and it was covered in glops of white goo. I still have no idea what the goo is or how it got on there. I was so devastated. Then I spent the evening trying to get it out. I had to scrape it off and tried scrubbing the spots with warm water and toothbrush, but you can actually see the goo in the fabric weave. It looks better, but it is there.

I selected the Lotta Jansdotter grey squares that I got from the clearance bin of my LQS for my backing and I just love how it complements my fabrics.  I usually like to piece the back too but for time’s sake I chose not to. I also forgot to add a label.

Again, time played a role in my quilting decision. I usually like more quilting, but let the pattern and time lead me. I quilted diagonal lines through the center of the leaves. It makes a large diamond pattern. It is hard to see the quilting through the black and white leaves in the pictures, but it is there! I used grey Aurifil for all my piecing and quilting.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to bind it, but as I looked over my fabrics this awesome black and grey Benartex fabric jumped out at me and I knew it was the one.

This is the first time I have ever made an entire quilt from cutting to binding in less than a month. It feels good to know I can do that. I pretty much didn’t work on anything else, though the holidays and travel were factors as well. If I didn’t have that going on, I may have been able to do it quicker.

I had every intention of giving this quilt as a gift, but now I am completely in love with it. I love the colors and the backing and the binding and everything together. I just might have wished I did a little more quilting on it.

The pattern is now available for purchase in her payhip store, and if you buy it this week, you can get it for only $6, which is a great price. This deal ends on the 31st.

Thank you again for stopping by and please take the time to check out our other hoppers’ quilts –

Sunday, January 25th – Introduction by Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
Monday, January 26th – Debra @ Quilting Makes My Heart Sing
Tuesday, January 27th – Audrey @ Hot Pink Quilts
Wednesday, January 28th – Laurel @ Drowning in Fabric
Thursday, January 29th – Shauna @ Shauna’s World
Friday, January 30th – Pamela @ PBarrettHill Fashion
Saturday, January 31st – Wrap-up by Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl

This quilt was also my January finish for ALYOF –

Here is my goal post

Sunday Stash

It’s been a while since I posted Sunday Stash. A lot has come through in that time. LOL. Here are some of my more recent additions…

I went a little overboard on the Craftsy New Year sale…

This was the main reason for my purchase. I actually don’t have any moonshine in my stash. I really didn’t love it and there’s other stuff to buy. But when Craftsy marked down a complete fat quarter bundle to $55 I couldn’t pass that up!

I think we all know I have a bit of a crush on Ansonia. I had been hoping this would be the fabric for the new baby’s nursery, but alas, it is yet another boy. I never saw that coming, and this disappointment runs deep. But, Craftsy was selling these partial FQ bundles for $15 or so. I added them in the name of free shipping. I now have a half yard bundle, 2 partial fq bundles and several yardages. I need to find something to do with these soon! They are taking over.

They also had kona solids for $3.60 a yard. You can’t beat that. And as we have learned previously, when they say yard, they mean a cut yard. So I did know I was getting one yard cuts. It still annoys me. But the 2 and 4 yard cuts were closer to $5 a yard. So, I sacrificed continuous yardage for the unbeatable price. I can easily use these yards in block piecing. You can also see on the right some TP Octos I got recently as well at $12 a yard.

This is one of my new additions to my sewing room. I’ve gotten into the facebook yardsale groups and grabbed this up for $15 one day. It isn’t quite the size of the Closetmaid Cubicals so the fabric won’t fit standing up, but will lay flat. This is very heavy filled and I had to move it yesterday to pull out my cutting table and that was difficult. But I am running out of space in my sewing area. However, this did help me get a lot of fabric up off the floor.

Also of note in the two right hand cubes are many fabrics that I got at my LQS’s pre inventory clearance reduction sale. $2 a yard on the clearance room. No lie. I cleaned out several bolts. The Lotta Jansdotter squares will be featured next week in a quilt I made. 🙂

Perhaps the most exciting addition… A holiday gift from my mom. I am very excited and intimidated by my fancy new Juki. I’ll probably give it its own post soon….

And here is (some of) the fabric for the new baby’s room. I have put this off so long… When I had my first son, I was so excited to jump on making the nursery. This time I just don’t have that same excitement… It took a long time to even decide what to do and then to find and settle on some fabric for it. I’m still not really thrilled. I wanted some whales. I wasn’t able to stick to the color scheme I wanted. And these colors seem so similar to my son’s room…

The blue waves I got in the $2 sale. It’ll be the curtains. I cleared out the bolt – 8 yards. The sailboats I had to search hard for. I also got the crabs from the same line (Don’t be Crabby). I had basically given up on sewing at this point in my first pregnancy because I was so big and uncomfortable. I am only just about to get started this time. I am still doing ok (this is a smaller baby) as long as I sit frequently. Pressing and cutting can get hard on my back. But I have a lot to do and time is ticking down.