Saturday, March 29, 2014

Wild Thing Quilt Finished!


Friday morning was suppose to be spent doing homework, but my teacher was stressing me out so I decided to drop everything and some something quilty to relax my mind.


I basted my Wild Thing quilt the other day so I grabbed it,put it under my sewing machine, and got to work.  I finished the quilting and binding a little after lunch  on Friday.  This quilt will be used on a regular basis so I did some simple meandering. It will be going on my son's bed and will be washed frequently.

  It is super soft and my son hasn't had a quilt for his bed in a long time.  He is excited about it.


This is my 6th finish from my Q1 Finish-A-Long list.


It is also my March Project for A Lovely Year of Finishes.
You can see all the March finishes here.

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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Flags on a Stick Blog Hop


I'm hopping today with the Flags on a Stick blog hop.

The hop is being hosted by Thearica and Mdm Samm.
Today's Hoppers are:

Quilted Delights - Me  :)
K and S Sweets and Stitching


And now without further ado... I present to you my my flag.

I was definitely thinking spring for my project.
My favorite flowers are tulips and since I have been in a paper piecing mood lately, I went in search of the perfect tulip paper piecing pattern.
I found just the one I needed here and moderated the pattern a bit to create my little spring flag.

It's a little stiffer than most quilts with all the quilting I put in it, 
but it still blows in the wind in the front yard. 



Again here are the hoppers for today.  Make sure you check them out.




The entire schedule can be found at Thearica's blog.



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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

FNSI Results - Start of Pythagoras' Lute

I'm a tad bit late showing the results of my FNSI, but I did get to sew that night.
I worked on my final project for Project quilting.  The theme was triangles.  Unfortunately I didn't get the project done on time - it still isn't done - there were a couple of reason why it didn't get finished.

First I had a hard time deciding on a pattern - this time I didn't have trouble with ideas, the trouble was that I had too many ideas and didn't know which one to pick. They were all wonderful in my mind. I finally decided to to start on a twisted triangle log cabin quilt. I even colored my layout and started picking out fabrics, but as I was laying the paper piecing patterns on the wall, I decided I wanted to make the quilt a lap sized quilt and I knew I couldn't complete that that in the amount of time I had left.

So I went to plan two, Pythagoras' Lute.  It has ten paper pieced wedges. I thought to myself, "Surely I can knock that out in two and half days, it's only 10 wedges." I reasoned that the piecing would take the longest, but once that was done I could do some simple quilting and still make the deadline for Project Quilting.

Well, when I got the pattern I found each wedge was made of 16 smaller pieces.  I small snag, but I still had hope. The first part was slow going. I was switching between the ten different fabrics for each tiny piece and cutting small pieces here and there from bigger chunks and trying to line up the pattern to make sure I was doing it right.  Then I realized I printed the pattern wrong (sizing issue) and had to scrap the whole first half of one wedge.  Then I started the same process again with right sized templates. I was beginning to think I had bitten off more than I could chew, but as the clock got closer to midnight I finally had an epiphany.


There are five color combinations, and each color combination is done twice, but the second one is done in reverse.  I realized I could take one color combo and complete all the pieces at once and then move on to the next color combo.  My piecing went much faster after that, but bedtime was looming and I had to get up at 6 am to get to my first day of BIO lab.
--This term is my last college term. I am taking Bio 101, the lab to go with it, and my last business class.  When these classes are over I will finally have my bachelors degree!--

I had planned to sew the rest of the Saturday after my bio lab and knock out the top, and quilt it up early Sunday morning, but my Bio Lab ended early.  You would think that would give me more time to quilt, but that wasn't the case.

My family had planned a trip to visit the in-laws that same weekend, but they had to leave by 1pm in time to get to a planned event. That meant I couldn't go because I wouldn't get home from my lab class till after 2pm or later.  But since my lab ended at 10:30 (that included my lab partner meeting afterward) instead of 12:30, I suddenly found myself free to go with the family.  I rushed home, packed up my stuff and headed out of town.

I didn't get home till midnight Sunday night, so needless to say I didn't get my last project done for project quilting, But that is ok.  We hadn't seen some of our relatives in almost a year and it was definitely worth it to see them.   I am still excited to finish Pythagoras' Lute, but it will have to turn into a UFO for the awhile.  There are other quilty items that are due first.  I don't think I will put this one in a bin though. The ones that go in bins seem to stay a UFO the longest.  I shall keep it on the desk in a corner to remind me to keep it on the current to do list.

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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Play Clothes

I haven't been doing much personal sewing this week, but I have been sewing.  I've been finishing the quilting on some of my guild mate's quilt, which I can't show yet but I can finally show off the play clothes I made for the Lake City Community Theater's production of The Sound Of Music.
The play ended last Sunday and was a wonderful success.  
This was taken during dress rehearsal right after Captain Von Trapp told all the children to get in a straight line.  The material looks really light under the stage lights, but it was really a flowery light blue upholstery fabric. My Thomas is right in the middle.  He played Kurt - I wasn't quite finished with his shorts in this photo.  I still had to hem them up with a cuff. They were done just in time for the first production.  Phew!  The heads in this photo near the children's feet are the live orchestra. Lake City sure knows how to put on a great production!

   Here are four of the girls back stage waiting to go on.  They look fabulous with their smiles.
Check out the nuns in the background too.  Thanks so much to Liesl for this photo!
Can't wait for the next play!

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

My Project for theRuffles Blog Hop

Today is Day 6 of the Ruffles blog hop, hosted by Mdm Samm of Sew We Quilt, and Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy.  When I first heard about the Ruffle hop I knew it was the perfect motivation to make myself a new church bag.  I have been carrying around a plain black tote bag for about 12 years.  It was definitely time for a change. So I came up with this smaller prettier version.


I was able to go with a smaller bag since because the wonderful digital age has given me access to all my class manuals and scriptures right on my phone and that means less books to lug around. My only requirements for this bag was that it had to be big enough to carry my doodle pad and it had to have a front pocket for easy access to my keys, phone, and pens.  I also have room on the inside for my fancier pens that are in a small case.


Some of you may be wondering why I need a doodle pad at church, but in all honesty, it helps me pay attention.  I noticed no matter how hard I try to pay attention while staring at the people speaking, my mind wanders. I end up thinking about the height of the podium, or the flowers sitting next to it. Or I focus on what the speaker is wearing, wondering why their left sleeve is raised slightly higher then the right, or why the manufacturer choose a certain type of button over the other - small trivial things that take me away from the spiritual message being given.


Then one day when the kids were little, I was doodling with them during the meeting and I noticed I got more out of that session than I had in a long time. I tested my theory the next week and sure enough doodling helped me pay attention better in church, so I went out and bought me a pad and some pens and now I doodle in church and this Sunday I will have a cute fancy ruffled bag to bring with me.




Make sure you stop by the other blogs today and check out their ruffled creations.

March 12th 

Quilted Delights - (You are Here)


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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Wild Thing - Top Done


Yesterday I took a break from quilting some of my guild mates quilts so I could finish up my Wild Thing quilt top. I sewed the last few rows together and added the borders.  I think I will let the top stay on the design wall while I finish the quilting on Sara's and Tish's quilts, which I'll post pictures of in a couple months. Their quilts will be going in our guild's Challenge Quilt Show in June so I Have to keep them a surprise till then.

  
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Monday, March 10, 2014

Project Quilting Challenge 5

The theme for challenge 5 of Project Quilting was: The Grocery Store.
We were suppose to find three things at the grocery store that inspired us to make a quilted project.  I'll admit this one stumped me.  Thursday night had rolled around and I still didn't have an idea.  I had been to the store and looked around, but nothing was inspiring me.

I did enjoy looking at all the colorful fruit in the produce section though, and finally decided I should go ahead and work with fruit. Apples in particular, since I had some apple fabric in my stash.  I contemplated layouts and designs and even asked friends for ideas, but I couldn't come up with something I liked, or something that I liked that I could put together in the next couple days.

I decided I better get off the apple idea and move onto something else.  Then I came up with a great idea to make a watermelon log cabin quilt.  I even played around with some layout ideas:

But as I started to cut out the light colored fabrics I realized I just wouldn't have enough time to complete a log cabin quilt in two days, even a small one.  I could probably get the top done if I stayed up late both nights, but I wouldn't be able to baste, quilt, and bind it before the Sunday deadline.  So I scrapped that idea as well.

Then I got to thinking about strawberries, one of my favorite fruits. They have been looking good on the shelf in the produce section lately and a couple weeks ago I printed out a strawberry iris folding pattern that would be perfect for some Strawberry themed fabric postcards.  I decided now was the perfect time to make them.
Since my last few daylight hours of the week were spent playing with relatives at the beach, I had to work on these four beauties Friday evening and during the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I finished them in time to get a few hours of sleep before I post pictures and headed off to church.

I made four at a time because there are a few mailboxes I want these to land in during the next couple days. I am submitting a small project this week but hopefully inspiration will strike early next week and I can work on a bigger project for the last challenge of the year.

To check out all the other entries submitted this week and VOTE for your three favorites,
click HERE.  My strawberries are #19.  To vote click the heart in the upper right corner of the project you like the best.


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Monday, March 3, 2014

Wild Thing on the Wall

This is what my design wall looks like this morning - rows of my Wild Thing quilt.
I got a few rows done this weekend.  I like to sew my rows in pairs, then pairs again. 
That way I don't have a huge part of the top hanging off the machine when I get to the last row.

I spent my other sewing time this weekend working on costumes for the Lake City Community Theater's production of The Sound of Music. I have to make the play clothes for all 7 Von Trapp kids.  I brought all the costumes to rehearsals last night for fittings.  I have a couple alterations to do and then I will get some good pictures to show.

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.
I am also listing this as my March Goal for A lovely Year of Finishes.



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