Slow and steady......

I've been plugging along on my hexie stars. It is my newest hand carry scrap quilt project. I am using quilt Pati's and haven't joined these together yet as I still have template pieces. I showed these to my mother a few weeks ago and the first thing she said was I hate the purple one. Ahhhhh I know mom, I know there isn't enough contrast between the fabrics. I decided since she said something unprovoked that it wasn't just my own brand of crazy, it was at very least a genetic defect.  

I took apart the purple star and added pink fabric and it looked much better. I also had the blue star (now with the orange fabric) originally had the fabric around it that is now surrounding the red star. It also didn't have enough contrast and was picked apart. On the plus side the templates make it easy to recycle the pieces into another star. I'm at 10 stars. By my math I can make another 10 before I have to start joining them to get some template pieces back. Unless I have lost some in my travels or decide to buy more the next time I am in Columbus. All are valid options....Happy Monday! 

Linking up to Monday Morning Star Count @ Life Under Quilts.
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This block makes me want to punch a puppy.....

This is the October block for the Nurture circle of Do.Good.Stitches. It is a Moda bakeshop pattern and you can find it here. When I first saw the pattern I thought kick ass, I really like it...and I do, but it has so many pieces. My circle was making the smallest one, so 64 2" squares. So many HST, so much trimming and much piecing. Let me be honest this is an eye crossing, swear spewing, time consuming block. Looks great when you are finished and I think if I I was making one of the bigger ones it would be much more rewarding. These are finished and going in the mail. Maybe one day I will make the big one but for now I need a break from this pattern. God speed evil blocks, may you make a beautiful quilt for a lucky foster kiddo. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced & Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

***No puppies were punched in the making of these blocks***

Friday finishes a touch late......

 Finished up last months blocks for the Nurture circle of do.good.stitches. Unfortunately the solids I had on hand were mostly pastels. 

I went back to the fabric store and bought some bolder solids, I still hate red and pink together and couldn't put them in the same block.

Last but not least I finished the sashing on the blocks from August do.good.stutches and put together the top. I will need to quilt it up.

Linking it up (late) to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday

Keep on tinkering.......

I started making HST for this quilt. Originally it was intended to be all blue and low volume fabrics. I didn't have a strong reason as to why but I saw this quilt at Sew Crafty Jess and loved it.

As the stack of HST grew I started adding purple fabrics and playing with the layouts. 

I even tried the crazy no plan lay out that made my eye twitch. We started refinishing our floors last week and I lost my layout area. I have a bad habit of not planning out the number of pieces needed for a quilt and ending up with way too many. I was trying to avoid that and I had no floor space or design wall to work with so I started sewing. I also added green to the mix at some point.

I wasn't paying close enough attention and changed the layout some, so the seems in the colored areas are all running parallel instead of making squares. I think the colors it ended up with look lighter and more youthful. I'm still on the fence so to speak but I am not ripping apart these blocks!

Linking up to 

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Let's be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts

That's all I have to say about that......

I was the quilter last month for the Nurture circle of the Do. good.stitches circle. I picked this star that has no name as of yet. Summer star, Squash blossom star......It doesn't matter. All the blocks have arrived at my house. I have completed sewing together column 1 and 3, the other two should come together quickly. It needs to get finished and off the floor as we are scheduled to sand the floors this weekend and it will be returned to use as a bedroom.

I also completed my blocks for September do.good.Stitches. Turns out my stash does still need more fabric. It is lacking solids. I almost never buy solids and the ones I do have came from swaps and scrap bags. I am going to redo these with bold colors, red, pink, orange, and purple. To the fabric store! 

Linking up to Freshly Pieced

On the road again, like a band of gypsies we go rolling down the highway.....

I had great hopes for a few weeks working at home. Working all day, going on long bike rides, making home cooked meals and sewing in the evening. I had gotten back into sewing full force spending lots of time in my sewing room. I was starting new projects left and right. I got all the blocks for the nurture circle do.good.stitches and was playing with the layout and started putting it together. 

And then I got thrown back on the road again.....Its hard to plan for anything with my job. I am covering a woman that is out unexpectedly. So I am back in my home town of Pittsburgh. I working to work off the fluff while I am out on the road. We are trying to do a half marathon in November. I would say or die trying, but I don't want to tempt fate. Yesterday I decided to do the steps in the Cathedral of learning. 36 flights up up up into the sky. My father went to college at the University of Pittsburgh and used to take us there when I was young. I had lots of time to think about him while I was hoofing it up the steps, down the elevator and up again. I left looking like I had been rode hard and put up wet, very very wet.

On the sewing front I am working on my traveling scrap buster. I have been grabbing fistfuls of scraps from my bin and making these hexie stars. I have no color scheme other than trying to make the star and the border of the hexie play nice together. The purple and white star at the bottom doesn't quite hit the mark. There is not enough contrast between the fabrics. I am not sure if it is easily fixable or if I should take a deep breath and let it go. Selective bleaching? 

Linking it up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Organized like a Dusseldorf bus schedule

Over the weekend I had some time to sew sew sew. When I got back on the sewing wagon I didn't just start one WIP, I started like 4. So here is some progress on two of them. 

I was able to make some more HST for this quilt. I am still not set on the layout so I am just sewing and waiting for the spirit to move me. I am however running out of floor. Our September house goal is to refinish the floors in half our upstairs. Then I can have my sewing room set up and I can get off my knees.

I briefly thought why be so structured, why not just throw all the HST in a bin and randomly lay them out. Then I had a panic attack and had to rock myself back to sanity while breathing into a paper bag. I need the planning and structure, otherwise it drives me mad, mad I tell you. Granted I never work from a pattern and I love making scrap quilts, but there has to be a theme, color theme or general design or I start getting twitchy.

In accordance to Murphy's law the instructions for the September do.good.stitches quilt came out and it is exactly what is below. Random HST and to make me extra twitchy pink and red together. I am going to need to be medicated to make the blocks for the quilt this month. But I am going to embrace my crazy and move on!

Then to soothe myself I put the HST together in this pattern. Oh yeah that's better!

Since we are redoing our bedroom I thought it was time to make a quilt for our bed. I also thought that my scrap bin is out of control. In an attempt to solve both problems I started working on this quilt in the style of a Spring cleaning quilt I saw here. I have been working with all pastels for the stars and low volume for the background. I have one full star done and alot of middle pieces. I have to get working on the points. Unfortunately working with scraps leads to smaller scraps, but that is a project for later.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced