Trying To Stay Accountable

In an attempt to hold myself accountable for my ever growing list of Works In Progress, I'm going to try and keep a on going list of my current projects, where I am with the, what I have left to do and what I WANT to do.

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Works In Progress

1) Flower Girl quilt- the top is finally finished, I need to order some backing and binding and get this baby finished!

 

2) Several quilted bags- I have some bags I've been commissioned to make and haven't had a chance to start on yet. Hopefully I will get to these this weekend.
3) Sidebraid quilt- this has been sitting on the shelf patiently waiting for a few months now. I have everything I need, backing, binding, batting, I just haven't had a change to actually quilt it. Not to mention I am not sure HOW I want to quilt it.
4) Log Cabin quilt- I worked on this one quite a bit last night. I have the sashing and blocks put together. I still need to do the inner border and order fabric for the outer border, and then the top will be finished.
5) Dream On quilt- this is a project that I should have put on hold until a few other things were finished, but now it too is in the WIP pile. I managed to finish these blocks last night too. I really want to lay these out and get the top together but I have so many other things I need to do they will have to wait a while longer.
6) Farmer's Wife quilt- I have 7 more blocks I need for this and then I will have to square up the blocks and get them ready for the setting I am going to use. This is another top getting closer and closer to being finished.
7) Grandmother's Flower Garden- This is the one project that I work on consistently. I work on this about every day while sitting on the couch, its the one good thing about hand work. I love being able to curl up on the couch under one of my quilts and watch TV with my boyfriend and sew. Its relaxing, and my favorite part of every evening. I am hoping to have this quilt top done by June sometime so I can start the hand quilting.
8) Scrappy Trip Along quilt- this is an "in between" project. I plan to work on this between other projects, if I ever get between other projects!
9) Berry Shortcake table topper- against my better judgement I started a new project over the weekend (I know I have a serious problem!) But this was so quick and easy, I finished the top in less than 2 hours, cutting and piecing and everything. It screams spring/summer to me, I am in love with the colors! I used Cluck Cluck Sew's Shortcake pattern and only did 9 blocks total to make a nice size little table topper for my kitchen table. All it needs now is quilting, which will take no time at all. (I just have to find the time to do it between everything else!)

 

Eventual Projects

1) Cherry Christmas jelly roll- This is an eventual goal for the year. I am hoping I am able to get to this over the Summer or fall, well before Christmas is here. We will have to see if I make it or not

2) Salt Water quilt- I still have my stack of Tula Pink's Salt Water sitting around waiting to be turned into a quilt. I drew up a pattern I want to use for it, but once again it is a time thing. I am hoping I will be able to get to this very soon though, I had hoped to have it done by summer.

3) Swoon quilt- I have no idea when I will actually get to this but I know what fabric I want to get for this project. I have wanted to tackle this quilt for a long time but was unsure about what fabrics would be just perfect. I think I have decided, and have a good picture in my head of how I want it to turn out.

Not to mention the new fabric I've been getting lately. I ordered some various scraps from Elizabeth and they came in the mail this week (you can see those below, and yes that is some coveted Melody Miller!), and I won some fabric from Jolene and a copy of Modern Quilts From The Blogging Universe (as if I needed more ideas for new quilts!) I also have a bundle of Farmington Feathers on its way along with a bundle of Stile by Liberty London. My first Liberty London fabric and I am beside myself excited for it to get here. I am fairly certain I want to make some pillow covers with it, but I am not sure yet. Maybe that and a wall hanging? We will see. I am sure I will be afraid to cut it for a while.

 



Chugging Along

I've been working hard at the half dozen works in progress I have going on right now. The one I am most excited about it my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I have all 68 flowers and am finally in the process of putting it all together. It's definitely tedious work though, but I am making good progress with it, and I'm already in love.

 

 

 

Here is my inspiration for this quilt, this is the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that my Great Grandmother on my mother's side made about 60 years ago. This is what made me act like a crazy woman and attempt this quilt, all by hand. This quilt is in pretty good shape for its age. There are a few places that are worn. There are a mixture of fabric types in this quilt, and you can tell it was made from what they had on hand. Some pieces of corduroy, some wovens (I'm sure they were my great grandfather's old shirts) some lightweight denim, some old sheets and plenty of flour sack prints.

 



And I finally got my Happy Go Lucky wall hanging quilted and bound. I can't wait to wash it so it wrinkles up. I love a freshly washed quilt!

And here is my biggest step this past week, my Flower Girl quilt top is finished. I have been working on this quilt top on and off for months. I am so glad to have the top done and ready for quilting. I have to order the backing and figure out a binding, and how in the world I am going to quilt this. I still haven't purchased a new machine so this is going to be quilted on my little machine, and I am NOT looking forward to doing that.

I am hoping to get some bags crossed off my list next. There are a few bags I am making for other people that I need to get done, and my beach bag as well. Then hopefully I will get a chance to baste and quilt my Sidebraid quilt as it has been sitting around waiting for attention patiently for months.

Is It Spring Yet???

Wishful thinking on my part, but the past few days its actually started feeling like Spring. I planted my herb seeds Friday, and worked on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I finished the last of the flowers today. I decided to do 68 total and make a bigger quilt than my original 50-something. I've ordered Kona Snow as the background so hopefully this week I will be able to start putting it all together. I also finished my Flower Girl blocks and hope to have some pictures of a finished top tomorrow or so. In the meantime enjoy a few of my pictures from the past couple days!

And Happy Easter!!!!

New Fabrics, and unkept Resolutions

I've not been very good at keeping my resolution to finish my Works In Progress and refrain from starting new projects, but I'm really going to buckle down and try harder in the next few weeks. I really want to finish a few things so I can stop worrying about all of it. Right now I am more than a little overwhelmed with everything that I have on my plate and definitely need to cross a few things off my list before I tackle a few of the other projects I had in mind.

But I ordered more fabric. And it came yesterday. And I am in love. I bought some Eat Your Fruits and Veggies by Pat Sloan for Moda, and I am thinking it will make a great table runner for my kitchen, light and summery. And I ordered some of the storybook print from Windham, and some retro Michael Miller fabrics. I LOVE the cowboys, and wish I had ordered more.

 

 

Today my boyfriend and I did some running around (it was such a beautiful day!) and we stopped into a local hobby shop to look at some die cast cars and things for him. I was wandering around and lo and behold they had fabric! Not a lot mind you, but they did carry some designer fabric. There was some Hello Pilgrim by Lizzy House and one color of Pearl Bracelets, and then I found some end of the bolt fabrics and got some True Vintage by Robyn Pandolph and some Everything But The Kitchen Sink by RJR Fabrics. I got a yard and half of each for under $9 total!! And buying some more thirties prints made me think about my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I was saying to myself this morning that I only needed two more flowers, and then I decided to make it bigger so I could add some of my new fabric. And that is what I have been working on this evening. I still only need about 9 more flowers, I decided to make each row one flower longer. Soon I will be ready to put it all together.



 

 

What have you been working on lately? I am hoping to make some progress and post pictures of FINISHED projects soon!

 



Many Works In Progress, Only Actual Progress on One

As you know if you've read any of my recent posts, I am swamped with projects right now, and not just sewing projects. This is such a busy time of the year. The weather is starting to warm up and its time to start getting my garden ready for spring, and time to clean the house. And on top of my deep spring cleaning I am trying to clean out one of our extra bedrooms at my dad's house and turn it into my sewing room. All of this on top of the hundred or so sewing projects I have ongoing right now. Its hard to accomplish anything that isn't sewing related when all I want to do is sew!

I spend a lot of time at my boyfriend's, and my sewing machine is at my house so when I am home I want to sew, not clean, but I know if I get my sewing room set up and get my sewing machine out of my bedroom (where it is right now) it will be a lot easier to sew and keep my projects organized and on track, so that is my goal for this weekend. Cleaning! Organizing!

Speaking of wanting to sew all the time, look at this cute mug I bought! I am in love with it :)

What I do manage to work on steadily is my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, since I spend a lot of time away from my sewing machine I get a lot of hand sewing and quilting done. This quilt I plan to do completely by hand. I have almost all of my flowers done, and soon I will be ready to start putting it all together with the background. I think I am going to use Kona Snow for the background. I like that it isn't a bright white and I think it looks more like a white they would have had in the 1930s. Once the weather warms up I hope to post some pictures of the Flower Garden quilt my great-grandmother made. (Along with some pictures of the other things I have been working on lately. Hopefully I will also have some finishes in the next couple weeks!)

(I love sewing my hexies wrapped up in my Butterscotch Cake quilt!)

 

But for now I am going to keep working on my hexies, and hopefully I will have this quilt top finished in the next few months. I'm not sure how many white hexies I will need for the background, but I know its going into the hundreds and even as much as I work on it during the week I imagine this quilt will be lucky to be finished totally by the end of the year since I plan to do the quilting by hand too.

 

 

Oh, and I'm trying to diet too. That is going about as well as my million works in progress.

Farmer's Wife blocks are almost finished

I haven't been posting much about my Farmer's Wife quilt lately. Mostly because by the time I use the templates to cut out all those little pieces and then sew them back together I am a little bit sick of it. (But still in love with it at the same time, how does that happen?) This weekend I finished 5 more blocks and realized that I am only 7 blocks short of being finished. I am NOT making all 111 blocks, I am doing 72, and using a different setting that I found here, and then a nice big border to round it out. I should end up with a nice full/queen size quilt. I am super excited for Avalon from Fig Tree quilts, I am definitely using the yardage to make the border and probably the backing and binding as well. I love the way the different Fig Tree quilt lines work together. Not to mention how ecstatic I am for Joanna's newest line Honey Sweet! Have you seen the snail peek on her blog? If not, please go check it out!

The Spiderweb block is probably my favorite. At least for right now. It seems my favorite block changes every day or so, but I am in LOVE with how the Tapestry fabric mixed with the Breakfast at Tiffany's fabric and makes the block appropriately fall looking.

 

 

I have been busy working on lots of projects, but not finishing many of them. My resolution this year was to work on my WIP list, and so far the only thing I have crossed off is my Butterscotch Cake quilt and it's already March! But I am still plugging away at several things and trying to work on a couple things and get them finished. I have way too many things going on all at once, and I bounce back and forth way too much to get much done, but I am going to try and change that. I'm going to work really hard to finish my Flower Girl quilt top and post some pictures. My Sidebraid quilt has been patiently waiting with its backing and binding to be basted and quilted. SO many quilts I want to do!

 

What is your bad quilting habit?

 



Daylight Savings Time

I hate losing an hour of sleep. But I love that it is now going to be daylight when I get home from work. It also means that Spring is almost here, and I am definitely ready for Spring. Yesterday was 60 and sunny! I didn't get to enjoy it (that is a long story) but at least it was a taste of what is to come. I have been working on some projects even though my blog has been relatively quite the last couple weeks.

My Grandmother's Flower Garden is constantly a WIP as well as my Farmer's Wife although I have been very inattentive to me FW blocks lately. I've been rather addicted to making pillows lately. I found some beautiful Denyse Schmidt fabric at my local Joann Store and it made me dream of Spring, so I made some matching pillow covers to brighten up our drab, ugly, old dilapidated couch. (You can tell I'm not a fan of it) I am however a fan of these beautiful pillows!

I finally used my Tri Recs tool on the front pillow, and it was strange at first figuring out how to sew those triangles together (my seam ripper and I got well acquainted for a little while) but after the first little bit it was a lot easier, and I love the results! It was a simple envelop back. The other pillow in the back has a zipper closure at the bottom. I'm getting pretty good at putting zippers in!

I also have ordered some more fabric and it came just the other day, and although I have other projects I NEED to work on, I will probably end up cutting into this today.

 

 

I have been in LOVE with Dream On fabric by Urban Chiks for Moda for a while now, but was SO sad that I had missed out on it. I didn't quilt in 2010 when this fabric came out, and I have been seeing all the beautiful quilts on blogs and Flickr and of course the fabric was printed several years ago and I had given up on ever having any of my own. And then I found it. For $3.99 a yard no less!! I ordered 15 yards. They didn't have all of the prints in the collection but they had enough variety to make a wonderful quilt. I ordered 4 yards of the white print on the bottom intending to make it into the quilt back, but I'm fairly certain now that I'm going to use a vintage sheet to back the quilt because that is exactly what this fabric reminds me of. And I am most definitely making one big enough to go on my bed. Because I LOVE this fabric.