Lots of activity (finally!) Not. One. Finish.

I have been in a bit of a creative funk lately.  For a couple of weeks I've been having trouble getting anything done.  I am here to say that I think my little funk was an aberration and I'm back in the groove.  Maybe.

Last week I posted photos of all the stuff in my to-be-quilted pile.  It is all still there.  Every last bit of it.  But it's funny how I got back on track...

A few months ago, my friend gave me this Juggling Summer Layer Cake to go along with the Juggling Summer FE bundle she gave me for my birthday.  (I have very generous friends, don't I?) 

So, last Friday, I was sitting here feeling all guilty about the stack of quilts that only needed backs so they could be sandwiched and quilted, and inspiration struck.  Finally.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the back of my Modern Maples quilt.

I dug into the back of that layer cake and pulled out 5 black squares and made this giant modern maples block.  It measures 27-1/2 inches.  It's gonna be the focal point on the back of that Modern Maples quilt.  I ordered some yardage to go along with it.  I think it's gonna be awesome.

And while I was digging around in that layer cake, I remembered a quilt pattern I've been wanting to make for-ev-er as part of my goal to make every quilt in Camille Roskelly's Simplify book at least once (there are several I've made more than that), and the rest of this Juggling Summer layer cake seemed like the perfect fabric choice.

So I grabbed the Wonder Under and started drawing circles.  And by Saturday afternoon, the layout was done...

all the circles were fused and appliqued onto the layer cake squares....

And by Monday afternoon, I had an almost-finished quilt top.  I'm still trying to decide what to do about the borders.  I used Kona Coal for the sashing (totally out of character, I know) because it really made the colors pop.  Yes, I admit it.  Gray has it's place.  (Speaking of gray, I'm sorry for the weird glary inside pictures, but it's been gray and gloomy here most of this week.  The weather seems to be more agreeable today, so maybe I'll try to get out and take some pictures later.)

I was catching up on my blog reading the other night and I noticed this quilt and it occurred to me that a giant wonky star would make a wonderful Quilt of Valor.  Our MQG has had an urgent request for Quilts of Valor  recently, and I've been planning to join in.  Yesterday, I dug into my newly purchased stack of fabrics and came up with this.  The problem is that the QOV Foundation has very specific rules for quilts to be accepted as Quilts of Valor.  They need to be a minimum of 50" x 70".  I wasn't there yet, and I was determined to work from my stash and not to buy any more fabric.

So, after some strategic fabric additions, here is the quilt I came up with.  It measures 60" x 75".  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I'm not sure I don't regret using Kona Putty instead of Kona White for the background fabric.  The putty has the advantage of matching the background of the light colored prints, so it won out over white.  Hopefully I will like it more once it's quilted.

The original center of the star quilt was supposed to be this bright blue square, but it just didn't work.  It was way too bright for the rest of the fabrics in the quilt.  But that fail gave me another idea.  The inspiration for this quilt seemed to come just one piece at a time.  It isn't finished yet, and I still don't know exactly what it will look like. 

I added a Kona snow panel (I had the Kona in my stash) with cornerstones.  (Here I was auditioning this red floral fabric for another row.  Nope!)

Next I added a row of red and then a row of 6" squares with nine patch cornerstones....  It's coming.  It measures 48" x 54" right now.  But I think I'm going to have to break my rule and go buy some fabric for the outside rows.

So now I have 8 (count them! E.I.G.H.T.) unquilted quilts, all needing backs, all needing batting (sounds expensive!), all needing sandwiching (yuck), and all needing quilting and binding.

Guess I had better get busy!

March Recap

I never feel like I accomplished as much as I wish I had, but there were a few finishes to report in March.

I finished my Madrona Road quilt using Ali's heximetry pattern.  Every time I see it, it reminds me of the quilt in this picture that Ali made and sent to Britton on the occasion of his arrival...

which was taken the day the quilt arrived.  Their mommy had no sooner put the quilt on the floor and placed newborn Britton on it in anticipation of a photo session, than his big sister had to lie down next to him for a chat.  I love this picture, and these children, and the quilt as well.

And here's another photo of our {then} new little guy {and the quilt, of course}.

Britton was a year old yesterday.  Look how far we've come!

... But I digress...  we were talking about March finishes, weren't we?  Let's see - Madrona Road...

And Jelly Roll Race...

And the wonky Hexie Scrap Basket...

And the little Selvage Pouch...

 And a {sorely needed!} new ironing board cover...

Leona's mug rug...

A table runner, napkins, market tote and pouch for my partner in the Wish List swap....

And my sister's Music Tote.

So, there were a few accomplishments.  And let us not forget that I had my first experience with a long arm, which was a blast!

So, that about wraps up March...  In addition to the Lovely Year of Finishes, I'm linking up with Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Friday (even though this was posted on Thursday) because they said there were no rules.  =)


Here's to April!

Catching Up!

Hello again!  There's been a fair amount of activity around the prsd4tim2 studio, even though I haven't recorded anything here.  Now that Leona has received her mug rug, I can show it here.  Leona is a "fabric collector" and quilter extraordinaire, and she was my partner for the Rugs with Friends swap this time.  I decided to use some of my selvage stash in her mug rug.  The idea is a peek into the window of a fabric store, with all the bolts sitting on the shelf, just waiting to be purchased.  I thought it was a little "blah" in this version, so I added a little gold "chain" and a button peg above the sign, but sadly forgot to take a photo of the finished product, so you'll just have to imagine...

Then, I'm playing along in the Wish List Swap.  My partner wanted a fairly unique item, so I can't show it until she receives it, but I created this little table runner as the accessory.  The fabric is from the DS Quilts collection at JoAnn's.  I love making wonky stars - they're tons of fun as long as I remember to have the triangle cover the corners.  Sadly, since Priscilla's little mishap with the pin a few weeks ago, she doesn't like FMQ, so this is pretty simple straight line and echo quilting. 

I've got a good start on some pillows for my partner in the Modernista Swap.  Just have to put these together.  These were inspired by the Double Hexagon Tutorial on Kerri's blog and by the Jawbreaker pattern by Jaybird Quilts.  My partner wanted some colors I don't generally collect, but then I remembered I have the leftovers of a FQ bundle of Prince Charming by Tula Pink, which I think hope is perfect. 

And I've finally gotten around to working on my granny square quilt.  I started it last spring (May?) during the Granny Square QAL, but didn't finish enough blocks.  Then last October, I had the ladies in the Sew Fun Bee make some more blocks.  And there it sat.  And sat.  And sat.

But my friend Marcy has offered to let me play with her long arm to do the quilting, so I had to get the top made.  I'm really jazzed by getting to try a long arm! Anyway, here's the layout.  The top and back are now done (sorry, no photo yet) and just waiting to be quilted.   We're getting together next Wednesday, and I hope to remember to take lots of pictures.  Can't wait.

For relaxation, I've made a couple more flowers for my GMFG.  I think I need 4 or 5 more to finish.

Krista has been making me half flowers for the edges and I received a bunch just the other day.  I love the way they make it look so finished!  It's almost done!

Along with the half flowers, Krista sent me (look at all the cool Christmas stamps on the box!) a whole bunch of fabric she inherited from someone.  It will make wonderful quilt backs and other things.  It really was like Christmas when I opened the box.  So fun.

Anyway, I've been needing a new ironing board cover (and new ironing board too I thought).  Desperately.  The old store-bought one was stained and had holes where even the foam underneath was gone.  Can you see it?  Even though this cover is only a year old, it has apparently been abused.  Or maybe they just don't make them like they used to.

So I went to Walmart and brought home a new ironing board.  (Of course I had to clean the sewing room to make the exchange, so the process took - um, a few hours.)  Anyway, I got it set up, and realized that my 1970s ironing board is way sturdier than the new one I bought, and for the kind of use I give the thing, sturdier is better, even if it isn't totally flat any more.  So the new ironing board goes back to Walmart.

But I really did need a new cover.  So what to do?  Going back to Walmart was out of the question, as once a day year is really more often than I care to go, and the sewing room was clean, but everything was out of order so it needed to be finished sooner rather than later.

So I dug in the big box of fabric Krista sent and found fabric long enough to fit the ironing board.  I cut the old nasty one apart and laid it on top, cut around it, found a scrap of quilt batting and some bias tape (labeled TG&Y with a price tag of 96-cents!) and sewed up a new cover.  Honestly it was easy peasy.  And free!  Way better, don't you think?  I may never buy an ironing board cover again.

So that's what's been going on around here.  What have you been up to?

Building Blocks

This weekend I managed to finish up a few things that were on the "to do" list.  First, I made this block for Kat, who is this month's queen in the Sew and Bee Happy.  She is doing a reverse rainbow quilt and asked everyone to do a different color block.  I had aqua/teal, and I thought this color scheme would be easy given that I just finished up my Teal We Meet Again quilt.  I was right, but not in the way I imagined.  Most of the scraps in my scrap basket were too small, so I ended up raiding the stash and cutting 4" squares.  I really was surprised at how much aqua and teal fabric I had - I think I could have made 2 blocks and never repeated a fabric.  This was a simple wonky star block with a fun twist, and I enjoyed making it.

I have now received all of my blocks for the 3x6 bee, which I started before the Teal We Meet Again block swap.  I've been thinking that 2 teal and red quilts might be too much, so for this round I tweaked my block request by adding yellow.

I really like the aqua and yellow combination.  I hope it will look great with the aqua and red and brighten up the quilt a little.

And finally, January was my month in the Fall Bee and I asked that everyone help me with my GMFG quilt I started in the First Time Bee.  I think I have figured out that I need 80 hexi flowers to make this quilt, and so far, I think I have 20, so I need all the help I can get.  This is the perfect project for a virtual bee, because I really want a scrappy quilt, and so the more folks who contribute from their stash, the better.  Hexis are so fun to make while you are watching TV or just need a few minutes to relax.  It's also a very portable project, so you can take it with  you if you have a few minutes.  Wish I had known about hexis when I was spending endless hours sitting in karate studios and waiting for piano lessons to finish.  Oh well.

Anyway, I received my first 3 blocks from my bee friends and I finished 3, so I'm making progress.  I finished another during the Super Bowl this evening and  have 3 more started, with 10 more expected from my bee friends, so I'm closing on 35.  I am participating in 2 more bees this year, so if I decided to do GMFG blocks, maybe I'll collect enough by the end of the year to make my quilt.  I'm really excited about these blocks.  Aren't they fun?  I'm actually getting enough blocks that I'm beginning to wonder what color to use for the filler rows.  Suggestions gladly accepted - the only colors I don't want to use are white, black and gray.  I'm actually thinking about yellow, maybe a cute yellow polka dot.  Would that be too busy?

Meanwhile, it's back to work tomorrow, so I'd best run along.  Have a great week.

One Last Block

This is the first month of the Sew Fun Bee S-e-w - & - B-e-e - H-a-p-p-y bee (Sheesh, are these bee names really alike, or what - no wonder I'm confused!) and Cindy was the first to be Queen.  She chose the Stargazing block which was really fun to make once I realized I wasn't clever enough to use different fabrics for each point of the star.  You have to follow the directions, though, or you and your seam ripper will get to become even better acquainted.

Cindy really wanted two blocks, but I didn't have time to make another stargazing block (these little guys get to go all the way to Ireland), so I decided to do the next best thing - I made her a simple wonky star block from some scraps in the scrap bin.  This Erin McMorris fabric always makes me smile. 

Funny, I had this block already made when she said her quilt needed more orange.  Too cool.

Cindy, I hope you like them! 

In other news, I'm playing along in craftytammie's shades of gray charm swap but I mis-read the instructions where she said she wanted them in the mail by January 15th so that she could mail them back by the 31st - I thought she wanted them mailed by the 30th.  Oops.  I felt really stupid.  I bought the fabric a couple of weeks ago, so I really didn't have any excuse.  Saturday morning early I got up and chopped charms so I could get to the post office before it closed to get them in the mail.  To try to assuage my guilt, I made Tammie a little gift.  I thought this Prince Charming hexi needlebook turned out kinda cute.

I guess I really need to start paying closer attention to the details, huh?