Sunday Stash Report - 2/10

Last weekend I guess the excitement of Super Bowl Sunday and having company made me forget all about my Stash Report! So, this report is two weeks in one. These fabrics are from eQuilter as they had their geometric collection on sale - yes, more Pearl Bracelets!

The first 3 fabrics on the left will be used for my "And Sew On" paper pieced QAL Blocks. Since I didn't get my January block done I decided to find some measuring tape fabric instead of embroidering one. The grey tiny dot will be my background and the scattered pin fabric from Sew Stitchy will be using as sashing later. The other four fabrics were on sale at Connecting Threads.

I am crazy about this book! Connecting Threads has a huge selection of books on sale for 40% off and this one caught my eye. So many great pillow patterns to choose from, I can see making many of them to brighten up my home.

This is my favorite fabric find - it is just adorable and will make a great summer pillow for our screen porch. It's from a line called "Vintage Groove" by Adorn It.

And, last but not least, my Reward for Finishing 5 UFOs... a bundle of happiness from Pink Castle Fabrics! Some Bike Path in Gray, a scrap pack of neutrals, a scrap back of strings and a charm pack of Comma that didn't make the photo! I've thumbed through the strings, but am leaving them bundled up until I use them. I'm really happy with the selection and also the wonderful browns of which I have very little.

Used this Week: 10 yards

• 3 for I Heart Pink
• 2 for Leoni's Floral Stars
• 5 for Color Me Happy

Used Year to Date: 62.5 yards

Added this Week: 18.5 yards

• 2.5 @Heavenly Stitches Quilt Shoppe
• 2 @Stitching Post Quilts
• 5 @eQuilter
• 4 @Connecting Threads
• 5 @Pink Chalk Fabrics

Added Year to Date: 125.5 yards

Net Added for 2013: 63 yards

YTD Used for Charity: 34 yards (54% of total used)

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times and Finding Fifth.  

Snowbound Sunday

We are predicted to get up to a foot of snow by tomorrow at noon so it's not hard to predict which room I'll be hanging out in today! I've got Pandora playing my favorite 80's tunes, some chocolate kisses and a fresh pot of coffee - what more do I need?

No, I'm not protesting the snow! This is my light box to trace these cute designs for some embroidery practice. I decided to join the upcoming Stitch Me Up Embroidery Blog Hop which I'm really excited about. Embroidery was one of the first crafts I learned to love, I did many of the stamped tea towels and a few pillowcases too when I was young.

I bought this cute pattern last month and I think these will be a perfect warm up to my "big" project which I haven't decided upon yet. I kind of want to try something in redwork... but the patterns we have been given are calling for lots of color. I'll figure it out while I stitch these up. My new FriXion pen worked great drawing on the cold window.

The blocks for my "Four Patch and Friends" quilt are going to be trimmed today and I'm thinking a few might need to be frogged and resewn. Another of my 1st quilting projects (2002) that might have been partially sewn on my old Elna. I remember sewing most of them during March Madness because I pushed my sewing table out into the family room to "listen" along.  I don't watch much college basketball during the season but I ADORE March Madness!

This is going to be a such a pretty quilt... it might be my closest thing to an "heirloom" quilt when it is finished. Here is a picture from a previous blog post showing the lay out. I really want the corners on the white x's to match up and I think that's why it's been stalled for me. I know it's going to test my patience.

I might have to use my button to see me through!

I'm linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching@Kathy's Quilts and UFO Sunday@The Free Motion Quilting Project.

Purple Blocks & A V-Day Project

I am having so much fun making blocks for this challenge! Here are my purple Crossroads blocks for February. I ended up making 11 of them and wouldn't be surprised if I end up making more blocks at the end of the year for an all purple quilt.

I used all shades of purple from blue/violet to pink/purple. I was really amazed by the variety I had in my stash of 5" charms. A quick session with the rotary cutter and I had 2.5" x 4.5" pieces ready to sew.

I think these blocks create such an interesting layout. They go together quickly and there is only one seam to match but they look much more complex don't you think?

I just started dropping them on the floor as I made them and it was hard to stop when I ran out of purple.

I also got started on another QAL this week.
                                                               
Threadbias is doing a monthly Sew Along of projects from the book "Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays". Since I was lucky enough to win a copy of the book during the December giveaways I thought I'd join in. January got away from me a bit and the project wasn't one of my favorites, but February's project is a Reverse Applique Patchwork Pillow. I'm starting with a heart pillow for Valentine's Day and I'm going to use this for my February NewFO Challenge project.

I came across a stack of 5" charms that I had been setting aside for a someday project and picked out 13 charms to cut into 2.5" pieces for the patchwork. Once this is finished it will be quilted, then the background fabric will be sewn over the top in a heart shape and then I'll cut around the inside of the stitching to remove the background fabric and reveal the patchwork heart. Confused? I'll post more pics as I work on it this week.

I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday and can't wait to see what everyone else is making with purple!

First Friday Finish for February

This is truly a happy quilt and I've decided it deserves a solo finish post. I'm calling this quilt "Color Me Happy" because I just LOVE everything about it!

Some of these blocks came from a Happy Block Swap on Yahoo! StashBuilders group and the rest I made to fill in enough blocks in this color range. These bright clear colors are so wonderful and I wish I had them all in my stash to recreate this quilt again and again.

This is my favorite block, isn't that chair fabric adorable?

I quilted this using freehand walking foot waves with white thread. So fun, fast and easy. I think it adds some nice movement without taking away from the pretty fabrics. The backing fabric was an an easy choice as it just seemed to mirror the colors in the blocks. I love using scrappy bindings on these Happy Block quilts.

"Color Me Happy" is UFO Finish #10 for 2013 and will be donated to Project Linus.

I'm linking up to TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Finish It Up Friday and Link a Finish Friday.

Messy Wednesday

On Monday I decided I needed to clear a drawer in my quilting room to store blocks and supplies for my QALs. The blocks I am making for the RSC13 are 12.5" unfinished and don't fit into my Artbin containers but a drawer would be perfect. One of the drawers contained lots of 5" charms and 2.5" strips that needed to be sorted and put away so I moved it out to the living room and dug in.

After 2 days of catching up on Season 1 episodes of Downton Abbey & Revenge (what do you think of that combo?), sorting charms and mindlessly dumping & grabbing stuff in my quilting room in between I have this mess to take charge of this morning. Ugh! Does anyone else make things worse in the process of trying to make things better?

On the positive side,  I have an empty drawer and 5 colors already picked out for RSC13. I needed to make some room in my charm bins and hadn't "played" with them for a long time so I thought I might as well take some extra time indulge in a few more episodes. So many pretty little squares!

Reds, yellows and blues.

Oranges and greens.

Can't wait!

What's Hot:

1. Project Linus quilts - I've got this Happy Block quilt ready for binding and 2 backings ready to sandwich.

2. Purple RSC13 Blocks

3. Christmas Stocking #2 - the gold fabric is for binding.  A very masculine feel to this one!

4. Triple Zip Pouch

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday@Freshly Pieced.  Back to the mess...

They're BAAACK!

Guess who is here for Super Bowl Weekend? Tucker and Jax are sharing a fresh stash of catnip... both are obviously WAY under the influence to be this close!

J-Meow emerges from underneath the sofa to investigate why these two are suddenly bonding.

 A rare action shot of Tucker getting another quick hit!

 J-Meow to Tucker and Simon "Lay off that stuff! NOW!"

Last night I had a great time getting to know my new machine... meet Juki F600!

I love how the bed of the machine is laid out... although I was a bit freaked out that you just drop the bobbin in as there isn't a removable bobbin case! It's pretty fascinating to see the bobbin appear when I get to the last piece in my chain. The 1/4" foot is right on the money - woo hoo!

Here she sits in my new sewing station (where the Monster Ab Machine used to be!) with my Pfaff set aside for a well deserved rest. We spent the night making HSTs.

For Depression blocks that I'll be using for FMQ practice...

and Birds in the Air blocks for RSC13. February's color is purple, which I'm excited about because it's one of my favorite colors. Especially to wear!

I'm linking up to It's a Saturday Sharing Day@Pigtales and Quilts and Scraphappy Saturday-Purple Pride@soscrappy.

February Goals

A new month... a fresh start... all things are possible. I just LOVE turning the calender over!

January was a really productive month but it got a bit scrambled towards the end for my liking. Some things were out of my control but others can be learned from going forward. I think my UFO single minded focus got a bit too narrow and I ended up short changing my fun/reward sewing... in fact I still have a New Project Reward "on the books" that I haven't even picked out yet and I'm already halfway to my next one!
DaGMT is underway and I've pledged to spend 2 hours a day in February working on quilting projects. Time to put the foot pedal to the floor and just get 'er done~!

This month I'm adding my QAL projects to my goal list so they don't get neglected. I have a pincushion swap coming up at the end of March but would like to get them done this month. Notice how I put those Christmas Stockings at the top of the list? I did piece & quilt the front of #2 this week. Baby steps.
                                                             
I'm getting a little bored of random FMQ practice but not feeling quite up to a full quilt yet. I came across a group on Threadbias last week that is making a block a month to improve their FMQ skills. That seems to be a nice next step for me, plus I've wanted to try QAYG (Quilt As You Go) so this will give me a chance to use that technique. For January through March they are using Depression blocks which I love (here is one from quilterscache.com). I think I'll make some up with scraps and use them as practice sandwiches for the next few weeks.

And, since I'm having so much fun playing around with walking foot quilting on Mr. Juki I want to take advantage of that and build up my stack of Project Linus quilts working toward my goal of donating 50 this year. Not to mention that my new Juki F600 is all set up and raring to go. I have a lot of GREAT reasons to get busy in my quilting room!

So, here's what I've settled on for my February Goals. My project for a Year of Lovely Finishes will be #5 Paper Pieced Cabin & Trees topper.

1-Finish Christmas Stockings 2,3 & 4

2-Finish Four Patch & Friends Quilt

3-Finish Spring Flowers Quilt

4-Finish Shabby String Quilt

5-Finish PP Cabin & Trees Topper

6-Finish 5 Project Linus Quilts

7-RSC13 & And SEW On (Jan & Feb) Blocks

8-Threadbias QAL Reverse Applique Pillow

9-Threadbias QAYG Blocks (FMQ)

10-HGTV Pincushion Swap

To see project pictures associated with goals 1-6 take a peek at my Q1 2013 UFO Progress Tab above. If all goes well, I'll be trimming my UFO Collection by 10 in February!

I'm linking up to Just Three, Monthly To-Do List Linky Party and A Year of Lovely Finishes. Go take a peek and see what other bloggers have planned for their February Fun.