ALYOF: Econoblock top

I haven’t been feeling well lately, so not much sewing or posting has been going on. However, last week I did finish my economy block top, my goal for this month. I actually finished it twice. I finished, decided I wanted it longer, and busted out another twenty blocks over the next couple days to make it a little longer. I am not sure it made much difference in the end, but made me feel better. It’s taken me this long to find the energy and light to get a picture taken. I wanted to show some of my favorite blocks too, but that will have to wait for the grand finish. I’d also hoped to be showing the back in this post, but again, have not been up to the sewing.

I got real good at matching those points, and am pretty happy with my work overall. Like most of my quilts, I mostly randomly assembled the rows. Some similar colors/patterns/designers ended up closer together than I might have liked, but that is the nature of randomness, and it was just too hard to try to keep all of those things intentionally evenly spaced. Hopefully I will be up to sewing again soon.

 

Here is my goal post

Here are other posts about this quilt

Saturday Swap #7

This month, my Flickr fat 8 swap swapped Joel Dewberry prints. We had enough interest for two groups. Each group was 24 different prints.

This is one of the groups.

This is the other group

I’ve been using a bit of Dewberry in my swap projects lately. I really love some of the prints/lines. I am on the lookout for a pattern to use these in along with the other prints I own.

Your Turn! What are you swapping this week?

Saturday Swap #6

This doesn’t quite count as a swap, as it is a one-way swap, but I am showing them off this week.

One of my friends signed up to do a donation for Dress a Girl Around the World. This is a charity that collects pillowcase dresses and distributes them to underprivileged girls around the world.

Now, y’all know I don’t really do clothes, but these dresses were so easy I was knocking out two in a sitting. I bought pillowcases at Goodwill and the thrift shop down the street. I used premade bias tape from Walmart. I made my pockets using charms from the scrappy charm swap. I also cut some pillowcases for pockets that I got at Goodwill that turned out to be shams.

In all I sent 8 dresses. She plans to do it again in the new year and I will be collecting pillowcases til then!

Your turn! What did you swap this week?

Sunday Stash: Does this count?

I’ve been quiet on Sunday the last few weeks. That’s a good thing. I am making a true effort to cut back my spending. Not just on fabric but in other areas as well. My fabric buying was getting out of hand. Not only is that a drain on money, but also on my space. I love love love bringing in new fabric but I am truly overwhelmed when it takes over my floor, cutting table, and ironing board because I don’t have anywhere else to put it. Then that clutters up my ability to work an efficient manner.

Fabric’s been coming in…. but not like it was. And nothing I feel compelled to show off. I am trying so hard to purge and organize my house. I have gotten pretty motivated. But I am still a hoarder at heart and have a hard time parting with things. I will get to my fabric at some point, there are more pressing areas for now, but I hope that it will start to disappear in use in the meantime.

But today I got something I am very excited about.

I first was introduced to the Oliso iron at Stash Bash 2013. I seriously fell in love. I had every intention of running out and buying one as soon as I got back, but that was when my year of hell started and I couldn’t indulge.

This iron blows my 20 year old Sunbeam out of the water. It gives such amazing heat and steam. The thing lowers itself on its own when you touch it, then raises again when you let go so it doesn’t burn your ironing pad like I might be known to do from time to time.

It has a well with a spout for water and even comes with its own little pitcher to fill it with.

I haven’t used it yet. My son spent most of the day playing with it as if it were a truck. “vroom vroom”. He is also quite enamored of all the buttons and knobs. I have a feeling he will be learning real soon what I really mean when I say hot.

I got this in an amazing deal on Massdrop. This is a daily deal type site that has a remarkable amount of sewing deals AND free US shipping. They beat the sales at Joann’s by $20. So psyched. I love a deal.

I also got my fancy new Zumba shoes today, but I am guessing you don’t care about that. 🙂 On sale for $30 (not Zumba brand), I hope they work well because I am having a lot of full time foot pain from my Nikes.

*BTW – no part of this post was sponsored, just my honest gushing love. But if they want to become sponsors I won’t say no! LOL*

 

Saturday Swap #5

The second round of the mini quilt swap (but the first I participated in) just concluded. This swap consisted of 600 swappers! Can you imagine? I am pushing it when I have 16 in my swap.

The partner I was sending to gave a lot of information about her likes and dislikes. She mentioned both Joel Dewberry and Kate Spain (among many others). Unfortunately, my Joel Dewberry swap is still in progress, but I still had plenty to draw from my own stash. I found I had some prints from each designer that worked well together. My only concern was that the colors I was using were not really specifically mentioned in her likes. I just took a chance that designers are more important than colors. She also mentioned she liked Jaybird quilts, so I ordered the mini northern lights pattern and mini ruler.

Because I was so scared she wouldn’t like it, I also made my chicken pincushion and wallet. These are becoming my standard swap extras. I also included some fat quarters and washi tape and other goodies.

My beautiful swap came from Jessica.  She was clearly concerned it was going to escape.

She clearly picked up on the Tula Pink love, as well as my favorite colors. I don’t have a lot of foxfield, so I am very happy to have this sampling of the prints.

She also spoiled me in extras. So much so that I feel like I didn’t send enough now! She made me a darling bag out of Waterfront Park, which I’ve been crushing on lately, and in the colors that didn’t come in my fat quarter pack. Check out the zipper pull!

and lots of other goodies.

I may have eaten some of the chocolate.

 

Your turn! What are you swapping this week?

Here are the link up rules:

1. Link up a post about a recent fabric, block or hand made item swap. You may share both what you sent and received. You may also post about an upcoming swap you are hosting.

2. In the post, link up back here to my blog.

3. (Assuming there are multiple linkups, we are still new) Comment on a few other links!

 

Finish Along Q3

How depressing to be gearing up for quarter three! Where is this year going? Q3 to me means fall, and I feel like we just got out of winter into summer. I am not ready to start moving back into the dark cold months already. 😦  I logged two finishes last quarter, and anticipate several more this quarter thanks to the other thing fall represents – back to school!

Onto the ridiculous WIP pile –

 

 

1. My BOM class top. I doubt I will get to this, but here it is just in case.

 

2. My Chevron quilt. I am still hunting back fabric for this, but want to get to it soon as it is a thank you gift for a friend.

3. My Tula Pink “houndstoothish” – still in this state. Blocks are done, need to be squared and sewn together

4. Bloom bloom pow – I haven’t touched this one since I put it away last summer. I need to make the back.

5. Ribbon Chevron – This one is still festering in my sewing room. I will get to it some day – if for no other reason than to be done with it. I don’t love it as much as I did a year and a half ago. It’s funny to see how I’ve grown/changed.

6. Tula pink sail away –Need to quilt and bind

7. Kaleidoscope – Triangles cut, several blocks put together. That’s all.

8. Economy block – have a few more blocks to finish up.

9. Improv quilt

 

Is that it? It feels like there is lots more. Well, that’s a good bit to keep me busy. I have a lot of backs to make.

 

Saturday Swap #4

So I’ve had a lot of swap deadlines I have been working against this month. One of those is my scrappy trip block swap that I kind of joined on a whim. I made a Trip quilt for my aunt last year. It was a huge undertaking and consumed my life for several months. I figured I’d make another one sometime, but didn’t think I’d jump on the bandwagon so soon. Oh well, this way I am really making the blocks for other people. LOL. Keeps it interesting and also helps me USE MY STASH! Which is seriously multiplying in the night and slowly taking over.

Here are the blocks I made for my bee mates:

 

Ok. This one is mine. I told you I’ve had this color scheme on the brain lately. I actually picked this before I made my improv top, and now I wish I had gone with something else. LOL. It’s ok. I am liking it.

 

 

This one asked for blacks, whites, and brights.

 

 

This one said Anything Goes but no black! I was really nervous about this one, but got an email from her today that she loves it.

 

 

This one asked for Orange, yellow, green, lilac, red, no blue.

 

 

This one asked for V and Co., Violet Craft and Bonnie and Camille.

 

I have one more that I made a cutting error so I need to redo it.  I’ve gotten two of mine, I will wait til they all come and show them off then!

 

OK, your turn! What are you swapping this week?

 

Here are the link up rules:

1. Link up a post about a recent fabric, block or hand made item swap. You may share both what you sent and received. You may also post about an upcoming swap you are hosting.

2. In the post, link up back here to my blog.

3. (Assuming there are multiple linkups, we are still new) Comment on a few other links!

 

 

ALYOF July Goal: Economy Block top

Oh, I have been so conflicted over what to pick this month.  I didn’t finish my anchor quilt last month. Even worse, I haven’t even started quilting it. I’ve suddenly gotten very gun shy. My mom’s birthday is at the end of the month. So here is my conflict. Do I reselect my anchor quilt and run the risk of not finishing it again? Or do I select something else and run the risk that doing that will take my time and attention away from my anchor quilt which I need to be finishing? And, in a way feels like admitting out loud that I don’t expect to conquer it?

*sigh* I’ve opted to go with something else. I feel like my mom’s birthday is enough pressure without adding this goal as well. I am, honestly, scared I won’t finish the anchor quilt. I do hope I will, but I have 100 other wips going on as well, and maybe diverting the pressure will help me get at least something accomplished.

So, instead I am electing to finish my economy block top this month. This was meant to be a graduation gift for my cousin. Now, uh, maybe I will finish it before college starts? LOL. So, this one has some pressure on it too. But not as much. I am pretty sure I can get this done. I have about 75 blocks completely done and maybe another 20 going through the machine now. and a pile of centers to go. I think I want 120 blocks total, I just hope I have that many fussy cuts in my stash. So, I need to finish the blocks, do a ton of squaring, and figure out how to put them all together!

July goals/June review

June goals –

1. Supernova swap for June Yes! And the July one!

2. Mini quilt swap Yes! Mailing it out tomorrow! (I was really nervous about this one)

3. Make back for bloom bloom pow No

4. Make back for Chevron No

5. Make anchor quilt back. Finish? Back done, basted, sweating the quilting

6. Kaleidoscope Um… I am not sure what, if anything, I had done at the beginning of the month. I have several blocks started, but that’s about it.

7. economy top Still plodding along on this one. I have 75 or so blocks completely done, and some number of others in progress.

8. Finish tula top No

9. Reinstate cleaning regimen Heh. No?

10. Clean out office and/or baby’s closets. Guest room? Gather stuff to sell As we are in the midst of (what I expect to be a long process) potty training, I did spend some time going through diapers. I have a ton of diapers, and many we haven’t even used for one reason or another. They are taking up a lot of space in his room that could better hold other things now. I started to make decisions on those about what to sell and what to store and what will still be in use for a while. I also went through some rather large boxes of clothing taking up space in the garage. I decided what I am going to sell/donate and what I just can’t bear to part with (even though it has been living in a box for 8 years). I am glad to say most of it is going, and I have a large pile of memorabilia tshirts from high school and college for a someday tshirt quilt. Most of the other stuff I kept includes some really nice dress coats that I don’t even remember owning, and some dress clothes that I can’t fit but just can’t part with yet and a couple of my grandmother’s sweaters. Um. Not near what I hope to accomplish, but small steps in the correct direction.

11. Scrappy trip swap Yes! Although I have one I need to remake due to cutting error, but all the others are done and ready to mail.

12. Read

 

July goals –

1. Improv quilt back

2. Make back for bloom bloom pow

3. Make back for Chevron

4. Finish Anchor quilt

5. Kaleidoscope

6. economy top

7. Finish tula top

8. Reinstate cleaning regimen

9. Clean and declutter stuff.

10. Read