do. Good Stitches Bliss circle finished quilt!

I'm having the hardest time waking up today.  It's about 11:30 and I'm still in my pj's.  In my defense I washed all my pants at the same time and they're still in the dryer ; )
Anyway, I had a pretty productive weekend and finished two quilts and made a bunch of backings so I've got lots to show you this week! 

This is a project I've held onto way too long, but it's so cute I bet you'd do the same thing. 

Back in April (yes...that long ago) I was in charge of the Bliss circle of do. Good Stitches charity sewing bee on Flickr and had everyone make me two of these adorable house blocks for a quilt.

Then this past week, I made 4 more houses to make the quilt a little bigger and came up with this lovely top, which I was afraid to quilt!

I had great suggestions on Instagram to add clouds, windows, doorknobs, and other neighborhoodly goodness.  This also scared me, but I pressed on and gave it a try. 

And I LOVE it.  It's easily my favorite thing right now.  I've decided to make my kids a neighborhood house quilt and the block isn't really that hard to do.  I might be making some Christmas houses to turn into pillows also.  Won't that be cute?! 

Anyway, I'm thrilled to check this one off my list, and even more thrilled that it turned out so well!  I used an existing binding I had leftover from a quilt I made in July, and made a backing with fabric from my stash as well. 

 Yes, I did quilt a snowman the size of the house into it. 

It measures 45 1/2" x 56 1/2" before washing.

Now I just need to find the label and give this baby it's first spin in the washing machine and send it on it's way!!

I'm linking up to Sew Modern Mondays with Canoe Ridge Creations and entering this quilt into the Celebrate Good Stitches contest over at Stitched in Color, when December 10th rolls around of course!

*don't forget to use THANKS25 for 25% off my entire Etsy shop good through this week only (ending Dec. 1) and check back often for new items I'll be listing just in time for Christmas gifting!

WIP Wednesday

Wow what a week.  Just to catch up a bit (Hi to the grandparents - these pictures are for you!)

We're back to a better schedule here, with the little lady taking her naps again.  Husband is taking finals this week and then it's summer jobs for him.  We had a pretty fun weekend though - we went bowling and pitched a new tent in the living room!  We had smores (minus the fire part) and slept in the tent!  The kids thought it was awesome.  And who would have known that they'd both be great at bowling?! I did win the game though :)

I still need to post pictures from Matthew's birthday but we'll save that for later this week.

I got some great mail this week! Along with the wonderful Parisian Star blocks I've been getting from hosting two bee's with the same block in April, plus the lovely house blocks from the ladies of the Bliss circle of do. Good Stitches, I also got my lovely goodies from the ALFALC swap (A Little Fabric A Little Chocolate) all the way from accross the pond!

Oh man that Galaxy bar didn't last long!  Thank you Linda!  This was a fun swap and I'd be doing it again if I didn't have too much already on the list for May.

Ok.  Here's what I got done this week (that I have pictures of).

1 - Made In Cherry Quilt is Quilted!
I received a wonderful new free motion quilting foot from my sister in law, Anna, and put it to good use practicing on my Made in Cherry quilt!  Now I just have to bind it.  I have to say, FMQ-ing is really fun!  It's not as scary as I thought it'd be at all.

I doodled around the solid purple background with loops and stuff.  I like it and am excited to get it finished

2. Zooey goes to the beach! Top finished!
This is a quilt from the Zooey pattern by Lu of For The Love Designs.  I LOVED making this.  It was super easy to put together and I love the way it looks.  The colors didn't quite translate though...the orange parts are actually greens in real life.  I'm calling the quilt Zooey Goes to the Beach because all the colors are sort of sea-foamy greens and remind me of the beach.  I highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for something like this.  You can find all of Lu's pattern's here.

3) I picked and started cutting fabric for the Patchwork Prism QAL (details can be found here)


So...that's what I did!

I also made a list of all the things I have on my WIP list for now.  It's a list of almost 40 things and over half of them have deadlines for this month!  Several swaps for handmade items and bee blocks...lots of bee blocks...so you'll be seeing lots of those from me this month...but they all look fun to make so it will just be another busy month!

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Head over and see what everyone's doing!!  And thanks for getting this far too :)

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday survival wishes to all!

Here's what I've got to show for my absent-ness lately.  Our little ones have been trading colds and coughs but I think we're over it.  We did a lot of this recently...

 This is their new favorite book and favorite story - The Gingerbread Man.  And yes, that is me.

I finished my bee blocks for this month of the bliss circle of do. Good Stitches.  I winged it and I think they turned out ok.  Next time though, I've got to make sure the edges aren't going to be lost when all the blocks are sewn together.

I am currently hand quilting my husband's quilt!  Yahoo, this beast has been weighing heavily on my shoulders.  Here's a very badly lit photo of the top, which measured 81x91.  And it's pretty great.  I tested it by falling asleep while working on it yesterday and it was very nice. It has flannel on the back :)

Here's a sneak peek for my partner in the covert robin swap!  I'm hoping to get this baby on it's way this week.

I started a new project from Camille Roskelly's book, Simplify, last weekend and got all the strips sewn up last night.  This is the Dream Big pattern in the book and it's been a super quick and painless project so far.  I picked out a bunch of spring prints from my stash to use here as it was grey skies and almost rain/snow/sky-spit yucks last week...blah...this quilt will be a reminder of happiness even when the weather sucks.

I still have to pick border fabric.  This pattern has a couple borders and I might do white as one of them...or a solid...any ideas?

Hope you all had a happy St. Patrick's Day this weekend!  We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner, per tradition, and saw the first green in the grass in months!

And to leave you with something that makes me smile

It's so nice when we all get along! 

Linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations for Sew Modern Monday  

and with Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday

Happy March!

I can't believe February is gone.  March will probably go even faster, there's a lot to do already!!

I suppose I did get some things done in February:

 HST block of the month from In Color Order

 Greek Cross

 Solstice Star Sampler from Fresh Lemons

 Granny Squares from Jolene's tutorial at Blue Elephant Stitches

 Finished 2 out of 3 baby blankets using granny squares

 2 Blocks for Avery

 Bee block for We Bee Modern February

 Sailboat blocks for do. Good Stitches Bliss circle

 Extra large granny square block (2) using Joelene's tutorial again and Fly A Kite fabric

 Books and Blocks bee February block

 Map blanket for my kids to mess with

 Picked fabric for a friend who's getting married in June.  It will be a Swoon!

Finally  put together my Drunkard's Path quilt and got about 1/4th through hand quilting.

I guess February was enough time to get a few things done.

Here are my plans for March:

-Bee blocks (1) We Bee Modern - I get to pick which one I want to make out of the book, so that will be fun, but which to pick!! (2) Books and Blocks bee - our leader has chosen Megan's star from the book, which is an awesome block.  I'm a little less excited about this one, just because it's just not my style of fabric choices, so this may be a bit of a challenge. (3) do. Good Stitches bliss circle - we get to make pink and orange wonky log cabin blocks, awesome as I have lots of pink and orange to choose from!  I haven't made wonky log cabins before either so I'm excited to learn.

-Finish quilting Drunkard's Path quilt

-Finish quilt from the Mr. - I've got almost all the blocks done and am really really hoping to have the top done this weekend

-Solstice stars and summer sample quilt - I have enough to make a top with and want to use the rest of my Woodlands fabrics to finish it.  Should be easy to put together once I finish a few other things first!

-Last baby quilt - bind, wash, and mail!

-Sew Cherry Quilt - I picked the background fabric and just need to cut it, and piece the back.  I'm going to use some Sarah Jane prints on the back and I think it will be cool enough to be reversible.  Really want to check that one off the list and start using it!

-HST Block of the month from In Color Order - Jeni's posted to tutorial for the March block and I'm hoping to get that done today with my Salt Air and Bella solids in white charm squares

-Swoon wedding quilt - fortunately my friend isn't getting married until June, but I'd like to get a couple blocks done for her quilt this month.

-In Law's wedding quilt - Start putting the virginia stars together that will make up the top.

-make a plan for another Wedding quilt 

Wish me luck!  I'll update soon.  

Bee blocks finished, I Spy Charm Swap...

I feel like I finished a whole bunch of stuff this week!  Yay!  Got several things in the mail, off of my sewing table, and now I can tackle the next layer of projects!! 

Here's what I did:

I finished my February bee blocks for the Bliss circle of do. Good Stitches:

I'm pleased with how they turned out, and hope they are enjoyed!  It was fun to try something I haven't done in a while, and making the scrappy sail was really fun.  Good way to use up those little scraps.

I also got to make a February block for Katie as part of the We Bee Modern group that I'm in.  Everyone picks a block from the book Modern Blocks (99 modern quilt blocks compiled by Susanne Woods) and then we all get to make it!  Katie chose On The Plus Side on pg. 124.  I wanted to practice first before I used the fabric she sent (all the way from Canada!), and I think I will do this with all the future blocks and then I'll end up with my own cool quilt of the blocks chosen throughout the year!  Here's how my practice block turned out:

I like the colors I picked out and am going to stay with this grey, blue, and yellow thing for all my practice blocks! 

Once I finished this practice one I felt much better about tackling "the real thing".  I get a little nervous when I am making something for someone else, because I want it to be perfect.  It didn't iron as flat as I'd hoped it would but hopefully Katie will like it anyway!  I think it turned out pretty well!  And the fabrics she chose from Echo are simply wonderful!

I also joined in on another I Spy Charm Swap and couldn't decide between two fabrics...so I picked both!!  If you're looking fora swap to join here's the link to the group on Flickr.  I'm pretty sure there are still several spaces open, and the fabrics picked so far are AWESOME! Here are the two that I picked:

Bug Jars in Grey from Patty Sloniger's Backyard Baby (really I've just been looking for an excuse to buy some of this!).  The bottom one is Toyroom in Lilac from Sarah Jane's awesome line Children at Play.  Both fabrics I bought at Hawthorne Threads (and borrowed the images too!).  Love that shop.

I still need to finish the binding on one baby quilt, wash them, and take pictures of them to put up here.  The other thing I'm hoping to get done this weekend is the February block for my the other bee I'm in.  It's another bee with using the book Modern Blocks to pick a block each month and make it (This way I get to be in two bee's using this book so I'll get to do more blocks from it!).  She chose the book block on page 126 and has great ideas for what she wants us to do.  I'm excited to show you the finished block (once I make it of course)!

I'm also hoping to get some progress made on the Mr's quilt so I can justify cutting fabric for my first SWOON quilt!!  Really excited about that fabric stack I've got.

What are you doing this weekend?  It just started snowing so we might be enjoying some hot chocolate and coziness today!  Hope your weekend is enjoyable and relaxing!! 

It's Wednesday again!!!

The time is just going so fast!  I have gotten a few things done that I'm excited to show you! I've linked up at W.I.P Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced, go see what everyone's working on!

Finished:
-Baby quilts -  I finished two of the 3 baby quilts that I've been working on, and the other I'm hand quilting right now, so it should be done this week.  Love those quick projects like that. (I haven't taken pictures of the finished ones yet)

-Blocks for Avery - I was able to make two blocks for a great cause.  Avery is a 13 year old lovely girl who was a fabulous gymnast.  While practicing a routine she had an accident and she is now paralyzed from the waist down.  You can see a video and hear about her story here.  A new friend on Flickr wanted to make a quilt for her to have while she's in the hospital and recovering and asked for some help making blocks, and I was super excited to be able to help!  Here are the two that I made.  Now I just need to mail them!

"In Progress" (Next on the list):
-We Bee Modern Feb. Blocks -  Got my fabric in the mail (from Canada!) and am hoping to get it done this week and mailed next week
-Books and Blocks Bee Too - Get to use fabric from my stash to make a book block!  Also hoping to get this done and mailed next week
-Solstice Star Series (and Summer Sampler) - Faith at Fresh Lemons just posted the tutorial for the next Solstice Star today so that will be my naptime project, and I'm also going to try to do more from the Summer Sampler series so I can end up with a larger quilt top.
-Wedding quilt for old roommate (I'm going to make a Swoon quilt! Pulled fabrics this week) 


No Progress (But also "next")
-Virginia star quilt for in-laws

-Made In Cherry QAL (need to order the background fabric and figure out what to use for backing and binding)
-Husband quilt (strips are cut, need to assemble then cut blocks and just get it done)
-2 patchwork quilts (one with Aneela Hoey prints, one with boyish prints)
-do. Good Stitches Feb. boat blocks (also need to just sit down and do it! Hope to have these in the mail next week too!)
-Hoop up! Stitch and Send swap (Picked my plan for one partner, still searching for the other.  Haven't stitched yet)
-I got this wonderful world map fabric from Hawthorne Threads that I just need to make a quilt sandwich out of and sew up.  Really easy but I haven't done it yet.
-Drunkard's Path QAL (top is done, backing fabric picked, just need to get it done)
-Farmer's Wife QAL (I'm not sure how many I have...But I'm either almost halfway, or a little over.  Haven't made any new blocks in a while)

New Projects
-A friend got engaged this past weekend so I see another wedding quilt on my future list!  Perhaps also a Swoon?
-Another friend is pregnant!  So exciting, especially since that means another baby quilt!   

I'm wishing for a productive weekend!

Hope you had a great Valentine's day yesterday!