Friday, December 29, 2017

December OMG - done

I have been puttering about doing other projects (and also lots of nothing!) this month, and only began sewing my OMG yesterday on 28 Dec.  I think the confetti block is fun and quick to put together, so I finished up my block today.

Here is what I came up with:
16" square

I used most all of the scraps.  Keeping the triangle...!


Linking back to Elm Street Quilts, our lovely host. 

ps: I am proud that I have kept this up all year!  12 for 12!

Thursday, December 7, 2017

December OMG - Improv in Blue

I was not sure what I wanted to do this month, but I finally decided.

I will take this small stack of fabric (from 2+ years ago...) and make it into a confetti block <--Second pic down.  It is from the awesome book Block Party.

that's lime green at the bottom...  I'm still a newbie at pics. :P


Linking back to our lovely host, Elm Street Quilts.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

November OMG - done





I actually finished most of this earlier in the month.  My method of quilting it was to attach the flimsy to the center of the roughly cut batting by folding it in half, then in half and lining up the center point.  I used glue basting and heat-set before I used a serpentine stitch over all of the block-joining seams in a vertical + horizontal grid.




Then I glue basted the back to this partially quilted bit and attached the long-side of the borders and did more serpentine stitching, spaced out with masking tape.  These lines are mostly straight, but since it is black thread on black fabric, it looks great!  Then I attached the last two border parts and quilted them the same way.



I considered my binding options and went with one that would blend in.  I decided to practice Rachel's zigzag method.


It was not easy for me because I do not think I measured out 3/8" correctly...  So I really had to pull some spots tight to get it to line up and did you know pins are sharp?


Last part was to do some "hand" quilting around Jason, Toria and my hands.


Linking back to Elm Street Quilts, our lovely host. 

Saturday, November 25, 2017

current list of UFOs/wanna-makes

In no particular order, a brain-dump of all* my current UFOs and (things I want to make).

From Stitched Holiday:
  •   Joy
  •   (Tree Pillow)
  •   (QAYG Tree Skirt)

Cobblestones with AG Sun-something-or-the-other

(DS Free-Wheeling Single Girl)

(HST via this month's Saturday Demo - purples/green/blue)

Building Blocks via October's Saturday Demo - brights/that really ugly fabric my mom bought for me 15 years ago for curtains...


*Ha!  All that I can think of/see right now.  Plenty more that I've got buried under other things.  :P


Wednesday, November 1, 2017

November OMG - UFO

I am not late.  I am just really early for next year...  :P   My goal this month is to turn this flimsy into a real quilt that the kids can snuggle under next fall.





I want to border this in black, using up the batting from my current design wall.  I have a few large chunks to piece together for the backing.  Binding is still TBD.

Linking back to our lovely host, Elm Street Quilts.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

October OMG - done

This month went by quickly!  I sneaked home to finish this up before trick or treating...  Not sure I'll be home in time to post later, but better pics soon!

Here's a close up:



Linking back to Elm Street Quilts, our lovely host.

Monday, October 2, 2017

October OMG - spiderwebs!

My goal for this month is to finish up the last three rows on my spiderweb quilt:


Linking back to our lovely host, Elm Street Quilts.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

September OMG - done

Found them!



I have been sorting through my piles and boxes and more boxes.  A bit ago, I found the missing pieces buried deep at the bottom of a box I thought I had sifted through before.

I also found the layout, but I remember when I started sewing the triangles together, I forgot to mark which way was up...  So I might need to improvise a bit.  :)


--------------------------edited 25 Sep 17-------------------------------
This past weekend, I finished up the rest of that row:



Linking back to our host, Elm Street Quilts.

Monday, September 4, 2017

September OMG - Halloween spiderweb quilt

Early last October, I took a class at my LQS on spiderweb quilts.  I got half-way done before Halloween came and went.


So I set it aside and moved on.  Seriously, I packed up all of my stash!  ...and the rest of the house too, plus kids and cats, of course!  We only moved one town over, but I was not very organized about packing, so I'm still searching for some things, like the other blocks-to-be.  They are buried in a box somewhere...

I know where the rest of the row in progress is:

I even labeled the pieces so I know what order to sew them in, yay!
As well as the box of scraps I was using:
scraps!

My one-monthly-goal for September is to find those other 15 blocks!   Thanks for hosting, Patty, and encouraging me to sew more!  <3

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

AUG OMG - DONE!

I completed my goal of taking apart my UFO and re-sewing it.  Now it looks like this:



And the little one that was this:


Became this:


Linking back to our host: Elm Street Quilts

Thursday, August 10, 2017

13 years

Today marks my 13th year in the Air Force.  Only 7 more years to go until I can be the crazy cat lady that I have always wanted to be!

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

33 and 1/3

Today I am 33 and 1/3 years old.

I "started" this blog in September of 2013 to document my second tour to Korea.  My family and my heart stayed in California that long year.  I think I had posted maybe twice that year...  I was scared it was not going to come out "right".  So I deleted those posts.  Silly me.  Now I do not remember the details of what it was like, to be there alone.  I recall staring at the wall a lot, at the pattern on the door.  I made it into a mini quilt I gave to my Grandma!

I named my blog after the song from "Rent" that goes like this:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure - measure a year?

In daylights- in sunsets
In midnights- in cups of coffee
In inches- in miles
In laughter- in strife

I like coffee.  I like lattes even more - vanilla, extra hot!  Cups of coffee seems like a pretty good way to measure things, huh?  But I also like sewing and playing with yarn - all the pretty colors!  I want to be better at taking all the ideas I have bouncing around my head, and actually creating something.

I do not want to waste another day, or 1/3 year*, or 525,600 minutes.   "Forget regret, or life is yours to miss."

*Seriously, I need to get ready now for Christmas because I get so easily distracted.  :P  I only mailed 6 out of the 20 cards I made for New Year's 2017.  And that was in April...!

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Aug OMG - UFO from 1997

20 years ago (way back in the summer of 1997!) when I was 13, we moved from CA to CT.  We stayed with my grandparents while my newly-retired from the Marines father and mother looked for a new home for us.  I missed CA, but I enjoyed that summer because I got to sleep in my Grandma Taylor's sewing room!

I made this not-quite-square block:
8.5" ish
And this dinky (4.5" ish x 3.25") little fussy-cut piece:




My seams were not even or straight...


Still, I like the colors I used. These are scraps from Grandma!  My favorite is the one with those purple, green and yellow flowers.  <3

My OMG is to take this apart and straighten it out.  ((extra credit: add border and turn into a wall hanging))    Linking back to our host:  Elm Street Quilts




Saturday, July 29, 2017

July OMG - done

I finished the top back on Saturday the 15th, but then I got distracted...  Where did the last 2 weeks go?  ((Only 149 days until Christmas!))



I also found some fabric for the backing.  Months, maybe even 2 years ago, my daughter won a $25 certificate at the local fabric shop and wanted to buy the rest of this bolt, about 5 1/2 yards.  :)  Now I have a use for it!
Pale blue with white triangles.
Extra bits sewn together, a bit wobbly...  I want to include it on the back.
Now I need to double check that I am happy with all my seams and move on to the final steps.  Most of the squares nestled nicely together, so I am pleased!  I also kept all the directional prints facing the correct way.  Yay!  Cutting out all the blocks wasn't nearly as hard as I though it would be, so I am very glad I joined this sew-a-long.

Linking back to our lovely host:
Elm Street Quilts

ps:  Here are some slightly smaller (6") squares for my rainbow version.  I am maybe 1/3 or 1/2 done cutting?  Purple is my favorite color, so there will be a lot of purple squares!  Kekekeke.


Saturday, July 1, 2017

July OMG - picnic blanket

I have a gazillion things that I "should" work on, but I really want to do something fun...  Sewing is so much more enjoyable when you get to play, right?  So I'm going to choose something I *want* to do this month for my OMG, hosted by Elm Street Quilts.

One of my favorite blogs is Stitched in Color.  Rachel is currently hosting a sew-along for a simple picnic blanket.  I just bought a cute Christmas-y FQ stack from Connecting Threads that I've wanted to buy since last year:


My goal is to participate in the sew-along and complete the top.  ((Need to find backing fabric...!))

Friday, June 30, 2017

June OMG - Done

I finished putting on the binding and my son says this pillow is just the right amount of "fluffy and non-fluffy".

Pics of my monster:




Linking back to our host.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

June OMG - red pillow

Linking back to our lovely host:  Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal June Linkup.



This is a pillow I made for my son, whose favorite color is RED!  Someday I will do a jelly roll race...  But this is only a 16" square to try out the technique.  It still needs binding, so that is my June goal: bind the red pillow

Saturday, May 27, 2017

May OMG - done!

I am not the most organized, so I do not know which of these are the 15 blocks I made this month...

Here are the 22 squared up ones:


The final 6 that are still waiting to be trimmed:


My favorite of this batch:


Linking back up to our host:  Elm Street Quilts

Sunday, May 14, 2017

mid-month OMG progress

I am breaking this goal into smaller bits that I can manage in between the rest of life -- I think I have done well so far.  :)  5 blocks are all sewn up, awaiting a press before squaring.

Here are the rest:


Friday, May 5, 2017

May OMG = blue and grey QAYG blocks

I took a class at Back Porch Fabrics in January.  I did 8 blocks in class and made 5 more since then...  One is not shown here:




I have 15 more squares of batting already cut, so that is my goal for May: sew 15 more blocks.

I'm not sure if I was planning a 4x7 (28 blocks) layout, or if I just got tired of cutting the batting...?  Blocks finish at 8.5".  So... we shall see!  :P

This one is my favorite so far because that leopard print was a pillow I made about 20 years ago!




Linking back to our host:  Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal May Linkup.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

April OMG - Pineapple

I want to repair this pineapple pillow I got in 2004:

The leaves were chewed up by a puppy and pulled out, so they need to be repaired and reattached.  Perhaps I can shift the fabric a bit to make the bite marks less noticeable?  Also, I'd like to make sure the tag on the bottom is completely removed.

Linking back to our host:  Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal April Linkup.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

March OMG - done

I said that I would: "quilt this, echo-stitching with machine quilting and hand-quilting with pearl cotton on the inside of the rings.  (( And post about it on time!  :P ))"

And I did.



It is not 100% complete, but that was not my goal.  I just wanted to make progress, so I am pleased that I got done what I did.  :)

Linking back to our host: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html

Monday, March 6, 2017

March OMG - Double Wedding Ring

Linking back to our host: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/p/omg-one-monthly-goal.html

Last week, I got to take a class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe on Double Wedding Rings.  This is what I came up with:


Here it is ready to be basted, but the kitties interrupted...

And then before I posted those, I got distracted with the quilting, so this is what it looks like right now:


My One Monthly Goal is to quilt this, echo-stitching with machine quilting and hand-quilting with pearl cotton on the inside of the rings.  (( And post about it on time!  :P ))  I am hanging out with my Victoria, who is home sick with a fever today, so while she is sleeping, I am making progress.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February OMG done

Linking up to: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/02/one-monthly-goal-february-goal-finish.html

I am not sure if I will be allowed to link up still, but I did finish this in February and it is only 10:45p my time on the 28th.  :P   I finished up the binding the other day, but she has been holding on to it pretty tightly, so I haven't been able to take a good photo...



She likes it.  :)  <3   That is what is important.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

OMG - February

This month I will finish the binding on a quilt for my daughter.  She will be 6 years old on the 18th.


Linking back to Elm Street Quilts, our lovely host for the OMG events.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Purple Zebra - DONE!

Ha!  I am not very good at this blogging/posting picture-thing...


 As I was taking the above photo, my cat, Sheree, (like the French 'mon cherie') came up and made the fabric all wobbly.
A mostly flat view.
And one of the back!



This was a good goal because I tried something that did not come easily to me.  I got a bit frustrated because my stitches were not very straight or even.  But this was my first attempt at embroidery and I did enjoy parts of it a little.  I liked using the pearl cotton for the hair.  And purple is my favorite color.

I think the part I liked most about doing this OMG (which I told serveral people about!) is that I can see how much I need to keep up the momentum to finish things - I got distracted after day 4 or 5.  Lots of stitching yesterday/today because I procrastinate...  :P

Linking back to: Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal January Linkup

-----------------
ps:  I changed my time zone!  And now I know how to upload the photos directly to Blogger.