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:

Bumbleberry Stitches

Quilted Delights - Me  :)

Red Quilts

On the Banks of Frog Creek

Words & Stitches

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.

March 27thBumbleberry Stitches
Quilted Delights
Red Quilts
On the Banks of Frog Creek
Words & Stitches
K and S Sweets and Stitching

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

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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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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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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)

Patchwork Breeze

Sheila's quilt world

vicky myers creations

Words & Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Sew and Sow Farm

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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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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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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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UFO to a WIP

 I worked on my Wild Thing quilt two days in a row.
Does this mean this project has moved from a UFO (Un-finished Object) to a WIP (work in progress)?
Or is it is considered both? Either way I am moving right along with this project.

This was my progress from yesterday....

  

 and here are the blocks today.

I'm linking up today at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.
Click on over to see what everyone else is working on today.

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Tackling some UFO's - Another finish

I've been working on some UFO's in my spare time and finished my Christmas Table topper.

It measures 25.5 inches in diameter.

I started this one in November of 2011.  I made one just like it for my friend for Christmas that year and liked it so much I decided to make one for myself at the same time, but I only got as far as making part of the top.  So when I picked it up this week I had to add the center, quilt it, and bind it.

This is a free pattern from Phillips Fiber Art using their 10 degree ruler.
It is called the Mini Ten Table Topper. Once you sew the strips together, it is just like cutting and sewinging a dresden block together, just on a larger scale.
This is my 5th finish from my my Q1 Finish A-Long list.

I am also going to link up to Handmade Christmas for February.

Several of the items on my Finish A-Long list this quarter are Christmas projects, which fits right in with the goals for Handmade Christmas.  I want to be ready for Christmas this coming year before December comes around.   This topper will decorate my small circle table for the holidays.
To see more Christmas ideas and projects that others worked on this month, click on the icon below.

After I got the binding done on my Christmas table topper I pulled out my Wild Thing quilt.  This UFO is also on my Q1 Finish A-Long list.  I have had some of the same projects staring at me for few weeks so I decided I needed to working with something different today.  I was able to sew all the quarters together for each block before I was called away from the sewing machine.  When I get some more personal sewing time I will sew these into blocks.

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Project Quilting Week 4 - My Who-niverse

"Across The Universe" was the theme for week four of project quilting.  I wasn't quite sure what I would make when I first heard the theme last Sunday, but I knew I needed to have a great background fabric.  My husband and I visited a few fabric shops on Monday while running errands and he found the perfect universe fabric for me.

Once I had the fabric I still wasn't sure of my game plan.  I knew I wanted some stars though so I downloaded this four point paper pieced star from Crafsty and made a total of 8.

Then I felt like the project would need a sun and in my searching I found this Supernova pattern, again on Craftsy.  At this point I still wasn't sure of my layout but I knew this Supernova was perfect for my big light source.

Once the stars sewn together my mind kept going back to Dr. Who. I am a fairly new Whovian and this week's theme was perfect for that show.  I had seen some great Tardis patterns on the web in the past and when I went to go grab one I ran across a brand new one posted this Tuesday by Trillium Designs. The block is called "Tardis in Flight" and is the last block in their Dr. Who paper pieced series. Perfect timing for me and my Who-niverse quilt!

Once I had the stars and the Tardis complete it was time to figure out how to put them all together.  I laid out my background fabric on my design wall and fiddled around with placement, but there was still so much empty space.  And then it hit me, the universe needed some planets and moons.  I found the perfect batik fabric in my stash and got busy cutting circles.

Once the layout was decided and the planets hand stitched into place it was a piece of cake to quilt up.  I used some heavy weight thread for some of the galaxy quilting and then did a small meandering all over the rest of the quilt in a dark blue (which is hard to see in the photo).

I am loving my own little Who-niverse!

It measures 38 x 44 inches.

Go check out all the other week four challenge entries here.

At that same link you can vote for four of your favorites.

Just click the heart in the upper right corner of the photo you want to vote for.

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Doc Freshly Crinkled

This is my Doc Scnibbles quilt in all its crinkly goodness.
I finished the binding on it during the last ice storm we had.
And it finally had its turn through the laundry cycle.

I had it marked up with my blue marking pen and was contemplating the best way to get all the marks out.
I thought about spritzing it, but the marks sometimes come back after it dries.

I decided to go ahead and wash it in the washing machine and dry it.
The quilt was made from a Moda Charm pack.  I didn't prewash the charms and I didn't use a color catcher.  There was no bleeding of the reds.  Moda is some good stuff!

This is another finish of my Q1 Finish A-Long list.

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Ice Storm and a Quilt

I can't believe we had two winter storms within two weeks of each other.
Seldom do we get one winter storm, but two and so close together... Why that is unheard of in these parts.

 

There was no snow this time.  At least not for our neighborhood. 30 miles north got 6 to 8 inches of snow.  All we got was freezing rain.

And with tree branches falling all over the neighborhood from the weight of the ice, we ended up losing power.

We lost power at 3:30 pm on Wednesday and didn't get it back till after 7pm on Thursday.

Some of our neighbors got their power back this morning.  Others are still waiting.
Shouldn't be too long for the rest of the neighborhood though.  All the ice is gone and they sky is a beautiful blue.  Other than all the branches down throughout the neighborhood no one would know we just had a spectacular ice storm.

While the first of the ice was coming down, I finished the binding on this quilt.

It is one of the UFO's on my Finish A-Long list.  It is a Schnibble pattern called Dimestore.

 It is also my February Finish for "A Lovely year of Finishes".  I quilted it using my current favorite design of swirls and feathers.

I put this quilt as my February finish because I had plans for it to go to a friend this month and wanted to make sure it got done on time.

It got done on time, but the ice had different plans for me delivering it on time.

Everything shuts down here when there is ice. Even the Wal-Mart was closed.

Everything sure is beautiful encased in ice, but it sure does cause a lot of havoc.

My poor Birch tree will never be the same.

The ice was just too thick for a lot of trees.

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