Side Tracked with The Abbey Bag

I got the new Connecting Threads catalogue in the mail the other day and saw this cute scrap bag kit.  It is The Abbey Bag pattern and uses their new line of sewing themed fabrics.  I thought they looked really cute and ordered myself a kit.  It came in the mail Saturday and I started on it right away.  I finished them both up Sunday afternoon and can't decide which one I like best. I suppose I could keep one at my cutting table and one at the sewing machine.  :)

Very seldom do my two cats sit by each other, they usually prefer opposite couches, but this morning I guess the sun coming in the window and the soft quilt made them both want to relax in the same place.

Jasper and Sheen

=^..^=

Sewing Progress

I got a little bored cutting shirts, so I decided to shift to sewing for a bit.

I got all the sashing strips sewn together yesterday and half of the nine patches.  

I have a pile of squares ready to go for the rest of nine patches, and once those are sewn together I will start the string blocks.

=^..^=

Slow and Steady Progress

Cutting these shirts into strips is taking way longer than I thought, but I am making steady progress.  I have all the strips cut for the sashing and most of the squares for the 9 patches in between the sashing.  I took a small break from cutting and sewed a few sashing strips together and a small 9 patch.  Only 34 more 9 patches,  53 sashing strips, and 24 string blocks to go.  :)

While I was cutting and sewing, I had my daughter cut off the buttons of a few more shirts so I can cut more strips for the string blocks.  In the photo are two sets of sleeves I will cut next. Hopefully I can finish cutting the rest of the shirts up by this weekend and get sewing on the top next week.

The Start of Something New

During my craft time the past couple days I have been cutting up men's shirts.  My husband's Uncle died last summer and his Aunt has asked me to help turn his old shirts into quilts for her children.   So far I have cut off the collars, button plackets, and seams of 8 shirts.  There are many more shirts, but this will give me a good start.

I am going to make a slightly smaller version of this quilt on the right.  It seems easy enough to figure out the pattern just by looking at it.  If I knew the name of the pattern, or a link to who posted the photo, I would add it here, but unfortunately that isn't the case. When I snagged the photo years ago I didn't think to rename it to something that would tell me where I found it.  Instead I put it in my "Quilts by Other People" folder.  Now I am really wishing I knew who posted this so I could link to their site, so if anyone knows who made this quilt, please let me know so I can do just that.

*UPDATE*  

Thanks to Natasha of Scraps-A-Plenty, I now know the blog where this photo is showcased.  You can see it as the banner photo of  JulieKQuilts.  The pattern can be found in Evelyn Sloppy's book Strips and Strings. Thanks Natasha!!  

=^..^=

Last of the 5

Last night around midnight I put the last hand stitch in the binding of my pink Zig Zag quilt.  This one was the last of the 5 quilts that I basted all on the same day at the end of March.

I can't decide if I like this quilt.  Some of my daughter's friends, who came over while I was working on it, said, "oh I really like that," and sometimes when I glance at it I really like it too, but on occasion when I stare at it too long I think, "ew, I shouldn't have used that shade of pink".  The main reason I made it was to try out a technique posted by Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts.   So I am undecided as to what to do with this quilt.

In between the 5 quilts I basted in the end of March, I finished 6 other quilts and one diaper pouch.  They are all pictured below (except for one which has to stay secret till June 2).  They all had deadlines for the end of April/May so I made them a priority over this zig zag quilt.  I suppose that is another reason why it took me over a year and half from start to finish for this pink and white quilt.  Since it didn't have a preset destination or wasn't needed for a special event, it kept getting put at the back of the to do list.  

The last photo of my cat napping on a quilt at my sewing machine is now a finished quilt, but I don't want to show that one all the way until it is revealed at my next quilt guild meeting in June.  It is for my guild's yearly challenge.  The theme for that challenge was 9 patch.  In June all the quilts from the challenge will be revealed at the Hartsville Museum and be on display all summer for everyone to see.  I am excited for that meeting.

Now I feel the need to baste 5 more quilts so I can have something to work on in between customer projects and quilts that need to get done for special days like birthday's and upcoming holidays.

=^..^=

Cat Nap

Of all the quilts to sit on in the room, I wonder why my cat, Jasper, always likes to sleep on the one I am working on.   I am halfway done with this pink Zig Zag quilt, but Jasper is sleeping so sound I will have finish it once his cat nap is over.

=^..^=

Don't Faint...

I have actually finished a project two and a half weeks before it is due!     

This is my version of the Candy Bar Pinwheels quilt, the May pattern for the "Le Petite: A year of Small Projects".  This is a small quilt that I plan to use on my rectangular coffee table in the living room.  I started it on Mother's Day and finished sewing the binding on this afternoon. 

Usually I am up till the wee hours of the morning the night before in order to get my projects finished on time. So this feeling of being done early is rare and feels very nice.  And this isn't just a top finished in the nick of time, it is actually quilted and bound.  A true completed finish. Yay for finally overcoming my desire to procrastinate! (at least this one time anyway)

I used a charm pack from Connecting Threads called Abigail's Garden.  I don't usually buy charm packs, or any precuts for that matter, because when you add up the fabric that comes in pre-cuts and compare it to the price paid for yardage, you sometimes end up paying $12 to $15 a yard for pre-cuts while regular yardage is about $8 or $9.  With such a huge price difference, I figure I can do the cutting myself and I usually stick to buying yardage.  But when I was at the Connecting Threads website buying orange thread for a different project, I saw that they had a some charm packs on sale at a great price so I bought a few to try.  I admit they were easy to work with (the pattern called for 2.5 squares, which meant no waste of the 5 inch charm), and I enjoyed having a whole variety of different fabrics to work with. So perhaps when I find more charm packs at a price that brings them closer to yardage prices, I may end up adding a few charm packs to my stash.

=^..^=

Fabric Postcards

I finished up some postcards this week for some of my swaps.  

One of the swap themes was flowers, so I made these.

Another theme was Houses.
So I copied an idea from Lynn.  She had previously sent me this postcard.

Here are my versions.

Thanks for the inspiration Lynn!!

My last swap theme was Bridges. I took one of my drawings and printed it out on white fabric.  Then for more emphasis, I stitched around the bridge and waterfall in black thread.
I hope my swap partners like my sketch

.

=^..^=

Quilting, Quilting, Just keep Quilting....

This quilt was made by a guild mate of mine and I did the quilting for her on Wednesday.
She doesn't like heavy tight quilting so I quilted a loose all over swirl pattern for this one.

=^..^=

Quilting with the Cat

My cat, Jasper, came and sat on the quilt I was working on this afternoon and decided to take a nap.  Since he sat on the opposite corner from which I was working on, I let him stay while I finished up that section.  By the time I got to the corner he was all snuggled up in the other end of the quilt.

=^..^=

My April Le Petite - Brocante

Here is my version of the Le Petite Challenge for April. I wanted something bright and cherry to drape over the couch for summer so I made my version slightly larger and more rectangular than the original. It measures 40 x 64

It took me forever to make my fabric choices for this quilt.  That was the whole delay in my starting, trying to decide which fabrics to use,  but I finally picked out a base fabric and was able to get a move on this project.  I started with the black Debbie Mumm fabric, which I have had for years.  I bought it on sale not sure what I was going to do with it, but for such a good price I figured I could eventually find something to do with it.  Now it is finally having its turn in the sun, literally.  Once I had that base fabric picked out, it was quick work to add  6 coordinating tone on tone solids to go with it and then I got to cutting.

I started sewing the top Saturday morning, did a few house chores in between, went into town to get some groceries for the week, and then stayed up super late to get it finished in time for the parade on May 1rst.  Which is now today....

I am so excited about how it turned out, that I wanted to blog about it right away. Now that its picture is up, I better hit the hay. Hopefully while I rest, I will dream of a good way to quilt this bright beauty.  :)

=^..^=

A day at the beach

My kids had spring break this week, so we drove down to the beach and spent a few days with my parents.  Unfortunately it was the same days that the rain storms swept through the east coast.  But we did have a small window when it didn't rain so the kids and I headed to the beach with the dogs.

Facing the ocean, the sky was actually pretty clear and the sun was shining hot enough to give us sun burns.  But...

When you turned to look behind you, the gray clouds loomed over the sand dunes.

We stayed for about an hour and a half and then went back to grandma's house where we visited and played games.  Even though the weather was bad we still had a good time on our break.

We got home late last night and today I was inspired to make some beach postcards.

They are for one of the "open theme" postcard swaps I am in.

 I have also finished cutting out my fabric for the Le Petite Challenge for April.
I am cutting it close to the deadline again for this one.  

I sewed two of the quarter triangle squares together and that is all the sewing I have done.  So I know what I will be doing tomorrow.  Luckily the easy part is left.  The hardest part for me is trying to decide which fabric from my stash I want to use.  I stare at my fabric shelves for hours testing out color combinations.  I pull out a fabric and then put it back because I'm not ready to cut into it yet.  I told my daughter, who was watching me and questioning my process, "I haven't had that piece of fabric long enough to cut it yet.  I want to stare at it a couple more months before I make anything with it."  She just rolled her eyes and left me to my madness.  :)

=^..^=

Eggs for Easter

I made these 5 eggs for my Flat Easter Egg Swap at Fabricards.  They are made just like the fabric postcards, and can even be mailed in this shape.  But since mine had some beading on the flowers, I decided to put them in some clear envelopes.  I kept the one in the middle for myself and added it to my Easter Decorations

These are the ones I got in return.

Now I have a basket full of flat eggs.

YAY!!

=^..^=

4 down 1 to Go

 I finished the quilting and the binding on my Sweet Spot quilt this afternoon.
The shadows strewn over the quilt are from the tree in my backyard. This little bit of shading sure has helped the actual quilting show up better than when I took its picture in full sun.

I only have one quilt left to quilt from my original 5 quilts that I basted on the 21rst of March.  Which is the Pink Zig Zag quilt, but that will have to wait till after I finish the quilt I am making for my Quilt Guild Challenge, which is due the first week in May.  The challenge theme for this year is "9 patch or 9 patch variation".  So I have decided to turn in a very traditional 9 patch and finish up the nine patch quilt I started with Amanda Jean's sew along back in April-July of 2009.  Wow, two years ago.  It really doesn't seem that long ago. Again I am glad for this blog to keep my dates in check.  I would have sworn it was only last summer that I put those 9 patches together into a top.   I don't have any current photos of the top as is, but all it needs now is a thin outer white border and some quilting.  I pan to add the white border later this evening and then I can baste it. Hopefully I can get started on the quilting in the next couple days, that is if my schedule can stay uninterrupted, but with 4 kids and lots of pets, you never know what will come up in the days to come.  :)

The four original basted quilts I completed, plus the two extra I made from start to finish in between, make 6 quilts completed in about a month.  I have to admit that I am impressed with myself for getting these done.   I am not usually that productive, but lately I have been putting all my tasks into my phone using a Task App that I downloaded. It keeps track of all my tasks and reminds me when they are due and when I get close to getting behind. When a task is complete I check it off and it goes off the list. It has really helped me manage my time better.  I enter in every thing that I have or want to do, whether it be work or play.  If I am working on one task and think of something else that needs to get done, I quickly add it to my phone with a completion date and get back to the task at hand.   I feel like I get so much more done in a day than I have in the past by using this simple little app.  I use to keep notes on paper, but they would get lost, or I just wouldn't read them, but since I carry my phone almost everywhere, I have a constant reminder of what needs to get done and when.  I love it. and my fabric stash loves it.  It is finally getting some lovin' other the usual caressing as I walk by.

=^..^=

Spring Time Fabric Postcards

I've Made several postcards over the past few weeks in between quilting quilts.  Can you tell I really like this green flowery fabric?  I have used it in all of them but one.

This Easter Egg was done using the Iris Folding technique.  But instead of paper, I used fabric.  I sure love the look of these types of cards.  I also made an iris folded strawberry.

Then I used the egg I cut out from the Iris folded card to make new Easter Cards.
I used up some of the left over Easter appliqués I had left over from previous cards.
So they are all a little different.