Saturday, November 29, 2014

Do.Good.Stitches Nurture August Final Pics

Here are the final pictures of the August quilt for the do.Good.stitches Nurture circle. It has been washed and bound for a minute but the weather has  been less than cooperative in Ohio.
I shared a tutorial for this star here. This will be headed to My Very Own Blanket in good old Ohio.
Here are pictures of the bug happy print I picked for the backing fabric. 
Linking it up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Monday, November 3, 2014

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.
Linking up to WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced


Thursday, October 30, 2014

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***

Saturday, October 4, 2014

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

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

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


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

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


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

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

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced