WIP Wednesday 12-5-12

How is it Wednesday again?!?!  This time of year goes by so fast - slow down please!  Although I've been checking more things off of my to-do list which is a great feeling!

The big finish for the week is two baby quilts that are getting mailed out to two lovely families.  I'll post the pictures once I know they've reached their new homes but I'm smitten with both of them!

We also went out for my favorite tradition of the holiday season - cutting down our Christmas tree!  I have only three requirements when it comes to the tree.  1) It must be real 2) It must be a Blue Spruce 3) It must be gigantically round - Think Christmas ball.  This year's tree meets all the requirements :)



I also put together a little holiday swap amongst my do.Good stitches circle.  For my partner I made a pincushion and a little needlebook!



For the pincushion I made a small Ohio Star block from some Chicopee.



For the needlebook I used this tutorial from nanaCompany.  The tutorial is very well written and it comes together in a snap!  I highly recommend making one for yourself - I know I'm going to!





I have one more big project, a Swoon Quilt, to finish before Christmas.  My overly ambitious (read totally crazy and not going to happen) goal is to finish the top this weekend - I have one block done and nothing else cut yet.  What are you working on this week?

Linking up at Freshly Pieced!

Sew Seasonal Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Sew Seasonal Blog Hop!  Kristy & Alyce have done a great job of putting the hop together and wrote two awesome patterns as well! 

I worked with ornament #3 from Alyce's Ornamental pattern.  The pattern gives you directions to make either a 5" or 10" block of each ornament.  I chose to use the 5" directions and made some holiday coasters!

The 5" blocks  work perfectly with charm squares.  I only used 3 charm squares plus some white per coaster!  Once you make your block just layer it together with batting and backing, baste, quilt and bind.  They come together quickly and are cute too :)  I will definitely make some more to share with others this Christmas.

From now until the end of November both Kristy's and Alyce's patterns are FREE for you on Craftsy and you can head over to their blogs for a great giveaway! 

Be sure to stop and visit Susan from Patchwork N Play who is also sharing today, as well as everyone else in the hop!

1st November: Kristy from Quiet Play & Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

2nd November: Marieka from Bespoke Bites & Jane from Where Jane Creates

3rd November: Susan from Patchwork N Play & Kelsey from Kelsey Sews

4th November: Janice from Better Off Thread & Erin from Missy Mac Creations

5th November: Lucy from Charm About You & Rebecca from Making Rebecca Lynn

6th November: Charlotte from Lawson and Lotti & Amy from Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

7th November: Jess from the Elven Garden & Cindy from Live a Colorful Life

8th November: Elaine from Dashasel Sews & Kelly from Jeliquilts

9th November: Beth from Plum and June & Fiona from Finding Fifth

10th November: Juliet from Tartan Kiwi & Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches

11th November: Taryn from Pixels to Patchwork & Anorina from Samelia's Mum

12th November: Megan from Jaffa Quilts & Jane from QuiltJane

13th November: Gemma from Pretty Bobbins

 

Merry Christmas!!

October in Review

October was quite the stitchy month!!  I'm really trying to work on projects off of my Hustle List.

I finished two quilts - Maple Sugar and The Mary Kate Experience.  I did my do.Good Stitches and Stash Bee blocks, started on my 4x5 bee blocks and joined the 3x6 bee!  Plus I started a Sparkling Cider quilt for my husband, started my my quilt top for the Tula Pink Sew Along and finished all of the On a Whim blocks I started ages ago!

November is looking to be a fun month as well!  My mom and I went in on a used longarm together and it should be getting delivered in the next couple of weeks!!!!

The Sew Seasonal Blog Hop starts today!  Head here for the details and here is the schedule!  I'll be sharing on Saturday.

1st November: Kristy from Quiet Play & Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

2nd November: Marieka from Bespoke Bites & Jane from Where Jane Creates

3rd November: Susan from Patchwork N Play & Kelsey from Kelsey Sews

4th November: Janice from Better Off Thread & Erin from Missy Mac Creations

5th November: Lucy from Charm About You & Rebecca from Making Rebecca Lynn

6th November: Charlotte from Lawson and Lotti & Amy from Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

7th November: Jess from the Elven Garden & Cindy from Live a Colorful Life

8th November: Elaine from Dashasel Sews & Kelly from Jeliquilts

9th November: Beth from Plum and June & Fiona from Finding Fifth

10th November: Juliet from Tartan Kiwi & Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches

11th November: Taryn from Pixels to Patchwork & Anorina from Samelia's Mum

12th November: Megan from Jaffa Quilts & Jane from QuiltJane

13th November: Gemma from Pretty Bobbins

And don't forget that The 100 Day Hustle half-way point linky opens on 11/6!

Linking up at Lynn's Fresh Sewing Day 

Happenings

Did everyone have a nice weekend?!  I actually finished a quilt this weekend!  It's in the washer now and is going to the dryer for some crinkling when I get home from work today.

I also learned this weekend that I'm not very accurate with my distance "guesstimates".  The hubs and I needed to run 13 miles on Sunday for our marathon training.  I told him I knew exactly how we should go, it would be so scenic through the National Park, loop back to the car, have some hills, blah, blah, blah.  Then we got lost, we ran out of water, and by the time we made it back on track and finished our 13 mile run we had to walk two and a half more miles to get to the car.  Longest walk EVER! 

I have a tutorial up over at Sew Festive Handmade today as part of the Christmas in July series!  Be sure to stop over and see how to make the Stacking Gifts Wall Hanging.  Bianca from Sweet Diesel Designs has a very cute pillow tutorial up today as well.


Stacked Gifts Wall Hanging

The Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop is still in full swing!  Here's who will be sharing this week:

July 17

    Katie from Kati's Quilting

    Claire from Sewing over Pins
    Caroline from Quilting in the Cold

July 19

    Jamie from Sweet Baby Jamie

    Janine from Rainbow Hare Quilts


Also, one of the blogs I read regularly, The Moden Balabusta, has hit 100+ posts!  Be sure to stop by and check it out.  Lisa makes some awesome quilts and we were both in the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL together.  I was even the lucky winner of the 100th post giveaway :)

Lastly, if you don't have enough projects already, there's a new quilt-a-long, Sew Intertwined, that you should consider joining!  Jenna & Melissa just announced it today and I can't wait!!  The quilt is such a great design - be sure to check it out!!

Have a great week everyone!!



W.I.P Wednesday 7-11-12

Well it's been a while since I've done one of these!  I'm going to do a quick little recap of the past few weeks since the last time I posted a WIP Wednesday was in May - eek!

Finished-

• Blissful Birthday Quilt - Finished, gifted, blogged and loved :)

• June Bee Blocks - Finished my blocks for the Heal @ do.Good Stitches group & my Stash Bee Hive

Heal @ do.Good Stitches

Stash Bee

New/In-Progress -

• Christmas in July Project - Here's a little sneak peek!!  My tutorial will be up next week over at Sew Festive Handmade - be sure to stop here, and check out the whole line-up and see the tutorials that are already up.

I have plenty of other projects I'm working on, I just need to find some time to actually work on them and take some pictures!  I'm going to do a whole projects-in-progress post sometime soon (even if only for my own sanity) so that I can see what I've got cooking.  If I were to turn it into a link-up, finish one project in August, prizes!!, kind of event would anyone be interested in joining in?!

Another blogging side-note, I know I'm rambling now, but does anyone know how to get tabs at the top of your blog?  Or can point me to a tutorial of how to make them?  I tried before but I just can't get it. 

Also, don't forget that the awesome Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop is still going on over at Plum & June.  Stop by and meet some of your fellow bloggers!  Here's the post with all of the posters and the dates, and here's who is posting this week:

July 10

    Jenelle from Echinops and Aster

    Julie from Bedsheet in the Kitchen

July 12

    Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade

    Marti from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Linking up @ Freshly Pieced this week!


Christmas Gift- Pincushion Organizer

Yay a finished Christmas gift!  My mom kept mentioning that she really wanted a thread bag for by her sewing machine, so when I saw this tutorial for a pincushion organizer on Sew Mama Sew I knew I had to make her one for Christmas.

The directions were great and I was able to make the whole thing in one night!  I will definitely be making more of these as gifts and for myself :)

The top is weighted (I used rice) and has a spot for needles made of felt.  The panel has pockets for a seam ripper, thread snips, a marking pen etc.  My favorite part is that the thread bag detaches so you can dump it out or take it somewhere else without moving the whole thing!  I used three fat quarters of Kate Spain's Terrain which is my mom's favorite fabric line right now.  I didn't have any buttons in my stash that matched so I made a fabric covered one from the scraps. 

The rest of my mom's gift is quilty too- A trip to the International Quilt Festival in April!  We live in Northeastern Ohio so the drive to Cincinnati isn't too bad so I'm taking her down for the weekend as a Christmas/Birthday gift :) SO excited to let her know!

I also went and used a long arm machine and quilted the quilt for my mother-in-law on Saturday.  Now I just need to get that binding on there and wrap it up!

Kelsey

Gnome Ornament

I'm alive!  We've been so busy and I've been trying to get lots done around the house to get ready for Christmas but I have been doing some projects.

The first was decorating our tree :)  I LOVE going to pick out our tree, cutting it down and bringing it home and decorating!

Then I joined my first swap!!  I signed up for the Sew a Holiday Ornament Swap over at Lindsay Sews and had a great time making this ornament for my partner.  She mentioned really liking Gnomes so I was on the hunt to find a Gnome ornament to make.  I tried a freehanded version and it was terrible!! So I found a great pattern on Etsy, and went to work.  It was a little ambitious since I've never embroidered anything but I did some googling, taught myself some stitches and I love the way it turned out.

I've got a few more Christmas gifts I'll hopefully finish in time and be back to post about before the holidays :)

Kelsey

Coming Home for Christmas!

Ah the joy of finishing your second quilt.  I learned so much from this one...like that you should use pins when you piece things together  :) 

I got the pattern, Coming Home, from Camille's book, Simplify.  It is listed as a table topper in the book, but at 36" x 36", I've deemed it a perfect wall hanging for our dining room.  I decided to use a mix of Christmas fabrics (all from Joann's) for the main part and I used a dark green with gold snowflakes for the border and the backing.  I pieced it opposite of the book so mine looks like Os instead of Xs. 



Coming Home for Christmas

The pattern was great, very easy to follow, and quick to put together.  I straight-line quilted it diagonally in both directions and did machine binding (solid green).  It washed up so nice and I can't wait to get it hung up for the holidays.  **Side note- does anyone have a favorite way to hang wall-hanging quilts?**

Coming Home for Christmas Stats:

Fabric- Christmas mix from Joann's 

Pattern- Coming Home from Simplify by Camille Roskelly

Finished Size- 36" x 36"


Did you finish any projects this week?

Kelsey

Stockings For Kids/Finished it Friday

Finally the weekend is almost here!  We had a busy week but I have managed to finish some projects!

One of them that I finished up is my stocking to donate to the Stockings for Kids program that Lyanna at Purple Panda Quilts has set up.  I used scraps and fabrics from my stash (all were from Joann's) and used ric-rac for the hanging loop.  The back is just a solid piece of Christmas print fabric (never even thought to take a picture of the back!) 



Ohio- Please stop raining so I can take nicer pictures outside please!

I loosely followed this tutorial to make the zig zag panel for the front. but it took me several tries and cuts until I got them to be the size I envisioned.  Then I made a pattern from a stocking we had at home and added red to the top and bottom.  The front and back are quilted with batting and then I used a green for the lining.  I opted for ric-rac for the hanger for two reasons 1) it looks cute and 2) I was so into following the directions to make the lining that I completely forgot to add a loop so I decided to just stitch on the ric-rac and not take the whole thing apart.  But seriously, when I realized I left off the loop I wanted to cry!  I used this tutorial to make the lining and the cuff (which I just did in the same red) and it was very easy to follow (as long as you remember your loop!)

If you have the time please consider making a stocking to donate!  I had a great time making mine and am thrilled that it may bring some Christmas cheer to a child this holiday season.  If you need some inspiration check out the Flickr page, or the Purple Panda Quilts page for some great tutorials!

I'm linking up at Stitching by Starlight's Finished it Friday!  Be sure to stop by and check out what others have finished up this week too!

Kelsey