January Finishes

Since it's wintertime, I'm indoors a lot more and lots of sewing has been going on:)  I can't stick to one project, so here's what I got done this last month:

 This is my first block of the month club.  It's from Sweetwater's new line that comes out this spring, called Feed Co.  They send 2 blocks a month for 6 months and they are all hand embroidery.  Takes A LOT of time but it's great to do while hubby is watching football games.

 Block 7 of my swoon quilt...getting closer!!

 This one was a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop with all Cotton and Steel fabrics.  Such a simple, quick quilt to put together.  I can't decide on a backing for it though.  I think I want something warmer like flannel or minky but can't decide!  Any suggestions??

 A new baby blanket for my etsy shop using V. and Co.'s Simply Style line

 Another baby blanket for my shop, pretty gender neutral but love the color combo:)

 Baby blanket using V. and Co.'s ombre fabric.  So fun!!

I finally bought myself a serger so I have been experimenting a lot!  Both fun and frustrating!!  Here's my newest blankets using my serger.

I seem to be on instagram more these days so if you want to follow me there, you can!

Swoon 5 and 6

My newest blocks for my swoon quilt.  6 down and 3 more to go...

Now, I have to get back to all of my Christmas wrapping:)  I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts!

Blogger quilt festival

It's been a while. I kinda took the summer off to spend more time with the kiddos and then school started and I just fell out of the habit of blogging and checking blogs. I've still been sewing...just haven't been sharing as much of it on here.  So here's a quilt that I made for my newest nephew. My sister-in-law didn't know the gender so I made a gender neutral quilt with yellows and grays.

I'm entering this one into the Small Quilt Category for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. It finished at about 36"x40".  I used a big mix of fabrics...some from my stash and then some I picked out.  No pattern, just a simple patchwork.  I did quilt this one on my machine with a 1/4 inch along each of the seams.  I machine sewed the binding on this time since it might be used and washed a little more than a regular quilt. If you haven't already, go check out all of the other amazing quilts from the Blogger quilt festival.  I'm linking up to Amy's Creative Side and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Swoon #4

I had cut out the pieces for my next swoon block at my retreat last month and finally got a chance last week to sew the block together.  So here's block #4:

Things are picking up speed here with school ending in a few weeks.  My friend sent me this hilarious article about moms, kids, and the end of the school year.  If you have a few minutes or need a good laugh, read it here:)

Swoon #2 and #3

A few weeks ago, I went on a little retreat up in the mountains with some friends.  It was a small group of women, about half scrapbooked and half sewed.  I couldn't go for the whole time but went for about a day and a half.  It was exactly what I needed:)  I did some sewing, scrapped a couple of months from my Project Life album (from, ummm..... 2012), and chatted with new and old friends. Want to see a couple of blocks that I got done for my swoon quilt??

I love the horses in the background.  Such beautiful scenery:)

A little more close up

Just a little windy...ha ha!

Here's the first swoon block in case you missed it!

Buggy Barn Finished!

I finished my March goal and my first quarter goal too!  I got my buggy barn quilted and the binding is sewn on and we've already started using it on our couch:)

 This quilt started out as a friendship block swap.  You can read all about that here.

 For the backing, I used a cream and red ticking fabric and binding I went with a blue.  I know it's a little patriotic but all of the colors go really well with the front fabrics.

And for the quilting, I did stars and loops.  It was my first time following an actual pattern while using the long arm quilter.  It definitely takes some getting used to.  Some of my first stars kinda look like starfish...oh well!!  At least that makes it a one-of-a kind quilt.  The final size is 50x56 so it's a great lap size quilt.  I'm linking up here and here and here:
                     

My Quilty Bucket List

 

Stacey, over at The Tilted Quilt has a fun blog hop going on.  She's compiled a list of quilts that are on her quilt to-do list sometime during this lifetime:)  They could be a certain pattern or color scheme or technique or quilts you simply LOVE.  I have quite a few of my favorite quilts pinned here. So without further adieu, here's my quilty bucket list:

 

1) A swoon quilt was at the top of my list but you can see I finally made my first block last month.  Yeah!!
 

 

2) A herringbone quilt like this one on the Persia Lou blog:
 

 

3) A Granny Square Quilt like this one by Blue Elephant Stitches:
 

4) A red, white, and blue quilt (most likely in stars).  This one fits both requirements by  A Little Bit Biased:

5) Another star one but I love how this one is reverse...scrappy pieces with white stars.  This one's  by Katie's Corner:

6) A triangle quilt.  They look kinda tricky but are soooo pretty in the end.  Love this blue one by Material Girl Quilts:

7) Last but not least is a Farmer's Wife quilt.  Well....because I'm married to a farmer so that means I really should make one, right?  It's a sampler type of quilt and here's one by Camille Roskelley that has some fun fabrics:

Now I've shared my list:)  What's on your quilty bucket list??
 

 

 

 



Swoon #1

I started off this month with a goal to cut out all of the white fabric for my swoon quilt and to make one block for it.  So here's what we've got:

 White fabric all cut up, check!

My first swoon block, check! 

Only 8 more blocks to go:)  I still can't get over how big these blocks are....24 inches.  One of these will make a nice wall hanging in my sewing room but gotta finish the quilt first.  I actually loved putting this block together and learned a lot about half square triangles and flying geese from this Craftsy course.  I'm linking up at Fiber of All Sorts.

Starting to Swoon

I bought some fat quarters back in August last year to start a swoon quilt.  I LOVE star quilts so when I saw lots of swoon quilts on flickr, I knew I wanted to make one (plus I love anything Camille Roskelley makes).  I started with this initial stack:

and wasn't sure if I should add in some navy so I asked my readers and everyone said yes! So here is my new stack with some navy thrown in there.  I like it much better so thanks for the tips:)

My goal this month is to cut out the white background for all of the stars and to finish one block.  These blocks are pretty big, 24 inches big, so we'll see how it goes.  Excited to get started on this quilt:)  I'm linking up here:

Buggy Barn Quilt Top

My goal this month was to finish up my buggy barn quilt top.  This quilt has that country, primitive feel to it and I love all of the stars in it.  I {heart} star quilts!!  This was a friendship block swap so I was in charge of making all of the tall hearts.  You can see those here and then we swapped blocks last February.  The blocks all sat for a while in the box but it was great to finally put them together.  I'm deciding if I want to add some borders to it or not.  What do you think? Right now it measures 40x46 and it will just be a lap quilt for the couch. 

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and A Lovely Year of Finishes

 

 

Getting into the swing of things

I wasn't going to set a sewing goal this month...but then I realized that I get more done when I have an actual date set in my mind to finish something.  So, for this month, I'm going to try and get this buggy barn quilt top done.  It's about halfway sewn together and been sitting on my design wall for a few months.  This morning I came across this Finish Along on The Littlest Thistle blog so my goal is to finish up this quilt completely by the first quarter of the year...so end of March.  I think I can do that:)  I couldn't get a complete picture of it since my room is a long narrow rectangle shape but you can kinda get the idea.

 

I'm linking up here and here:

                  

 



Moda Comma

I finished up this Moda Comma baby blanket and added it to my etsy shop.  Such a fun line to sew with. I laid it on my chair by accident, and then really liked how it matched so well:)

 

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Stash Match

There is a fun stash matching game going on at the a(2)w blog. 

This month's inspiration was fall.  Hop on over to Ali's blog to play along and you just might win this fun fall bundle from Westwood Acres.

A little extra hint about my stash: I started a quilt earlier this year with the fabrics from my stash.  Have I finished it yet....um...not yet, hopefully this winter:)

Ironing Board Makeover

So I took the ironing board makeover challenge over at Bonnie's Cotton Way blog.  I haven't done a "quick" project in a while and it felt good to finish something, unlike a quilt, which takes quite a while.  I used Bonnie's patchwork pattern for this project and it was pretty easy to follow:)  Ok, so here's the before and the after.  I don't know if you can see all of the pen coloring from my girls on there:)  I used Riley Blake medium dots grey fabric and then some aqua and white fabrics from my stash for the patchwork.

Love how it turned out:)  Maybe I'll actually use it to iron some clothes on instead of just my quilty projects....maybe.