December OMG - done

I made these three for my guild:

I made the other four into a scrappy pillow for me:

standing on a chair to take a pic...!

I edited one of the arrows from the beginning of the month.  I had enough of the same/similar fabrics to make them into kinda-pairs:

and these two:

 
I had fun with this, especially with arranging the pieces.  Sewing together the fiddly bits and getting poked by pins, not so much fun.  It is just a bit smaller than the pillow form, so I need to add a border.  Or make the pillow a bit smaller!  Also, with all the seams, thinking I'll make ironing it my January OMG.  :P

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

Dec OMG - scrappy arrows

My guild is making these for the January BOM, so even though I am far away, I am going to make some too!  These two are mine, and I need to make some in navy, teal, and purple and mail them in before the January meeting.

I think the HST came out pretty good.  :)

My OMG is to make 7 total.  Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

Nov OMG - done

I finished this up just as the plane was landing in Seoul...

A lovely pile of yarn ends!

Linking back to our host of the One Monthly Goal challenge, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

November OMG - ends on the crazy stripe

My goal this month is kind of strange...

On Wednesday night, I will be getting on a plane to fly to Korea.  I will be on that plane for 13 hours!  Due to my forced captivity, I will have no reason not to darn in the ends of this crazy stripe blanket that I began when I was stationed there in 2014.

My long term goal is to have this be a giant square blanket when I get on the plane to fly home to CA.  But my goal for this month is to simply darn in as many ends as I can on that plane ride!  Baby steps.

Linking back to Patty of Elm Street Quilts

Oct OMG = done

ta da:

I knitted the whole ball and bound off, plus I started with the finishing touches.  Plan to have lunch with her this coming weekend, so I need to tidy up those ends!


Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

October OMG - purple ombre shawl

Yesterday I bought another skein of yarn (color 5184) for this:

It is a gift for an old teacher of mine, to wear while she meditates.

My goal for this month is to use up as much of the ball as I can before binding off.  I leave for Korea early next month, so I need to finish this by then so I can gift it in person.

Linking back to Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

September OMG - done

Finished the last few stitches on the binding a little bit ago.  Posting with 45 ish minutes to spare.  :P

What I learned from this quilt is that I really need to take my time with the prep/basting.  Smooth it out and secure it well before I begin quilting.  I'm so eager to get started, but it ends up all baggy and droopy.  Still - I'm hopeful it will be snuggled in and well loved!  <3


Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.  I'm grateful for the accountability and motivation I get from this monthly link up!

September OMG - Zodiac Baby Quilt

Finish quilting and binding the baby quilt! 

Linking back to Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

August OMG - done

I got the embroidery done, and I have begun the quilting.  Made a not-so-straight line while piecing it that needs to be un-sewn before I can quilt over it all.

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street  Quilts.

August OMG - Zodiac Baby Quilt

My friend had her baby:

I've pieced the center of the quilt:

My goal is to embroider/free-motion his name this month, and then I can continue to the next step.

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

July OMG - done!

I darned in the rest of the ends last night while sitting at my daughter's karate class, so ta-da!

I also planned out the next two rows.  I want to make it 17 x 11 squares before I add the border.

Linking back to Elm Street Quilts.

July OMG - Progress

Evened it out, so it is 13 x 11 squares now:

Time to focus on darning in the ends!

July OMG - Coast grannies

I'm back to working with yarn.  I'm making this as a lap blanket for a co-worker, with the scraps from my previous coast ripple.  Yarn packs/pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

This month I will even out these 3 rows, plus one more, AND I will *darn in the ends*!

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

June OMG - 20 hexi-flowers

Linking up with our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

I made about half of the necessary hexi-flowers for the Kingfisher QAL, 10 of the pink/peach with teal center and 10 of the purple with yellow center:

My pajama pants might make a good border...?  :P

My fingers hurt right now, so I am going to take a break from hand-sewing.  I still have some more squares to cut and baste, so that'll give my finger a chance to heal.  And to find my thimble...!

Kingfisher QAL - June OMG

My goal for this month is to participate in the Kingfisher QAL, co-hosted by Rachel and Jodi.  I will cut out squares/prep the hexies and make 20 flowers.

I took pics of my fabric pull and posted to my Instagram.  I'm really not up-to-speed on how to use the app, and apparently my device is not compatible with the extra 'Layout' app to make it all fancy.  Whatever, I'd rather be sewing than taking photos.  :P

Linking up my OMG with Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

May OMG - done!

I finished my pillow cover:

The back is a former UFO:

Now I need to find a pillow to stuff inside.  :P

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

progress on May OMG

Pieced.  Ironed.  Batting roughly cut and spray-basted.

Planning to quilt it this weekend and trim to 15" square.

May OMG - Rainbow Road pillow

I am taking another class with Rachel of Stitched in Color - Curves.  One of our projects is an improv rainbow road.   Instead of a table runner, I am going to make a 15" ish square pillow.

I bought some yummy solids from Gotham Quilts and after a moment of hesitation, chopped the yardage into a wide strip. 

Then I sliced it into smaller chunks:

I was distracted by the selvage - can I make an itty-bitty garland out of them?

I am going back to play now.  :)   Thanks to our OMG host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

BBQAL - purple duvet

I made a duvet cover.  This is the huge-est thing I have ever made!

One only pic because my neighbor wanted to know what I was doing...  :P

See April OMG - done for a close-up ish photo.  Taking photos is not one of my talents.

Reflecting on the process, I wish that I had stuck with my original idea of multi-colored squares.  This is not super exciting/appealing to my sense of color/design, but I did get some practice with appliqueing the squares on, and with long seams, so it was overall a good experience.  I like the back of it, with the big swath of flowers.  I've got more of that print and I would like to make a Diabolical Jane someday!  :)

Linking up with Rachel, our host for the BBQAL.

April OMG - Done

I'm not super excited about the different sized 4-patches anymore, but I wanted to finish this all the way.   I can take it apart later, once I've made another cover.  :P  I decided that I really do want one that is all colors with squares everywhere.  And it makes me laugh that I like the back of this (with the Elda print) more than the front.

I found the center, ironed a crease, the placed the squares, holding them in place with Roxanne's glue because I do not like being poked by pins.

It wasn't too tough to stitch around the edges:

I was interested with how different it felt to have the edge to the left of the presser foot, as opposed to the right side where I usually have it.  I think sewing can be done in any direction, is I right?  Or is I left?  ((from the BFG))

Sewing straight is tough, especially in a long line.  I did not cut my pieces all to the same length, so the bottom edge was uneven...   I am choosing to see this as a learning opportunity.  :P

I think I need to find something smaller/QAYG style because this was a LOT of fabric to move around, and there wasn't even any batting!  I'm not ready to quilt a big big quilt on my home machine.  Yet. 

Linking back to our host, Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

Quilt Show

This weekend is the MPQG's 40th Quilt Show.

I just barley got my quilts done before they were due on Thursday.  I need to work on realistic amount of time that it takes to do each step...  Still, despite the stress, I am glad that I persevered and got two throw quilts done: Plan V and my daughter Toria's quilt.

I finally got her to finish designing it on Sunday so I could piece it, and then didn't get to sit down to quilt it until Wednesday, so the binding was stitched on at 3 a.m. on Thursday.  Silly me!  But it is done and we can use the scraps to make a pillow without any rushing to meet a deadline.

Distractions

Linking up with Meredithe and Anne for 6and6in2018. 

I am working bit by bit on hand-quilting "Plan V" for the quilt show, which is in less than 2 weeks...  Stay focused, Becky!

my 2nd-old-6

I soothe my stress (aka distract myself) with the plain garter-stitch of my first-new-6:

I've also been playing with ombre in my 2nd-new-6:

I bought a "My Small World" kit and began practicing applique with scraps from my BBQAL:

I love purple!

(March) + April OMG - BBQAL

Change in plans: I was one of the lucky winners of 3 yards of wide-back at the beginning of the month (thanks, Rachel of Stitched in Color!) and I really liked this shade, so I changed my plan a bit...   I wanted the backing to be the top, so I decided to stick with just purple squares.  The other colors will become something else, someday.

Sheree, my pretty kitty, and pretty fabrics! Bottom bit is the wide-backing.

Sunny, the big fat cat, on Elda from Mostly Manor by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

Also, I found out my comforter is not a square.  It is slightly rectangular.  Very glad I gave myself some wiggle room:

fuzzy fuzzy maths

Another important thing that happened this month: I bought a Sizzix Pro and several dies.  I am not a big fan of cutting precise things...  Did you know that 6" squares do not play well with others?  My previously cut squares were not compatible with my new dies for 4.5" or 2.5" squares...  Hmmm.  Time to improvise.

My very first try with the machine, I had to say out-loud "You are not emotionally attached to this fabric - it is a scrap.  You do not even like nautical things like whales..."   :P

Here is my first attempt with purple fabric:

Scary that it leaves marks, but it is supposed to.

little squares and left over bits

Not too bad, eh?

So, I made some four-patches and tried this layout:

sun is behind a cloud

And that layout:

sun came out

I was not super excited about either, so I let it simmer for a few more days.

Decided to take it apart and make more four-patches.  I made a medium sized one with 4.5 and 8.5" squares.  The fabric below was some of the first I bought, back in 2000 ish, when I was 16 years old and could not even afford a skinny quarter.  :P  I think I bought only 1/8 of a yard.

Not my current style, but it is purple.  :)

Then I made a giant four-patch with the original 6"squares in a four-patch paired with 11.5" squares.  I took out the all-polka dot one, so now I have these 3 blocks:

68" ish long!

I missed posting to the March OMG link up.  :(

But I met my (changed) goal and it is still March in my time zone - I'm happy with my progress.

This post will also count as goal setting for April: I am going to applique the squares and put in the zipper and ties I removed from my old duvet.  Linking to Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Rachel's BBQAL.