WIP Wednesday - A name tag for my new modern quilting group!

We have started a new Modern Quilting Group in Tyler, Tx.  We meet every 4th Thursday from 4-7.  The time is "come and go" so if you can't get there right at 4pm, don't worry about it.  Come when you can and bring your sewing machine and a project to work on.  We meet at the Nimble Thimble on Old Jacksonville Highway.  Everyone is welcome and there is no charge.  We would like to get the word out to people in Longview and the surrounding area so please help us spread the word.

My WIP this week ties into our new Modern Quilting group.  We are all making name tags to wear for our meetings.  Since I love paper piecing so much, I decided to do a small paper pieced pinwheel in a star and sew my name on bottom.  I plan to hand embroidery my name.  

Here's a pic of what I have so far:

And here's my messy work station.  I also have a block cut out for my Saturday Sampler and I just need to put it together. 

I love a work in progress.  It makes me want to start another project :)

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced.**

A Quilty Birthday Finish

I made up a sweet little quilt to give to my friend for her birthday.  I was 2 months late.  Sigh.  But that's okay because she liked it and that's really all that matters.

 My pictures stink.  Sorry about that.  I took them inside in low light and that was a mistake.  Especially, since I can't fix that.

Anyhoo, two of the blocks are paper pieced and the other two are regular pieced.  I've been itching to do the paper pieced circle of geese for some time now and I just love it.  She loved it too which made me wish I had made four of them in different colors.  The multicolored star on bottom is also paper pieced.  The green plus block and the scrappy patchwork are the regular pieced ones.  I used some of my favorite fabrics in the scrappy patchwork.  See the little yoga monkey?  That fabric is from Michael Miller and is no longer available.  The plus block is my favorite block of all the blocks I've done so far.  I don't know why.  Maybe because it's easy and clean looking.

The background fabric is Kona Ash and Kona White.  I quilted it on my home machine with my walking foot in a diagonal straight line.  I did mark all my lines so they are straight not "organic" like I usually do.  I used a white 50 wt. Aurifil thread, I think it was number 2021.
The fabrics are all from my stash.  We'd be here all day if I listed them all.  See the little elephants in the star fabric?  OH, how I LOVE that fabric.  I also have it in blue and orange but my blue is running really low and my orange isn't far behind.

This quilt measures approximately 24 x 24 inches.  It's bound with scrappy fabric binding that was the extra on other quilts but I made sure it all matched.

My backing is made up of more Kona Ash and some of the fabrics from the front.  See my cute quilt label?  I've been following the tutorial from My Quilt Infatuation for some time now and I just love it.  It makes a sweet little label.
I swear it wasn't all crooked in real life.  At least I don't think it was.

Thanks for reading!
Tricia
Linking up to Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday**

WIP Wednesday with Half a Finish

I meant to write this blog post this morning but somehow the day just got away from me.  Today was my son's first day back to school.  He's a 10th grader now.  It makes me so sad but at the same time, I'm so proud of him.

Anyway, I've almost missed WIP Wednesday since I'm posting so late.  I'll make it short and sweet, how about that?

For the past few days, I've been working on a Halloween table runner.  I know most people could have finished this little project in a day or two but I'm super slow.  
I do finally have the top finished though so now comes the fun part of making the back, basting and quilting it.  I'm taking Jackie Gehrig's Quilting with a Walking Foot class on Craftsy so I'm thinking about using a technique from the class to quilt it.

This pattern is called Granny Square Stars and I got it in a little book I picked up at my LQS a couple of weeks ago called On the Run Again by Heather Mulder Peterson.  It has lots of little table topper projects in it.  I used Riley Blake's Witch Hazel charm pack to make it but since there were only 21 charms in it, I had to add 3 squares that I cut from my stash and 12 solids to coordinate.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I usually like brighter, happier colors but this is for Halloween so I guess I'll live.  :)

 I think the problem I have with it is this dark green I used.  I should have gone with the orange to brighten it up.

I'm not usually a fan of the Granny Square though I've noticed it popping up on several blogs, kind of like Trip Around the World did last year.  But I do like this block with the star in the center.  It was also easy to make and I like the end result so I can definitely see myself using this again especially for a table runner.

So, that's my WIP.  A partially finished WIP. 
**Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.**

Wip Wednesday and ALYOF August Goal

This week I've been working on my dotties.  It's a project that I started several months ago with the teaching group in our guild - The Hive.  I got sidetracked working on my butterfly quilt (which is completed and will be in an upcoming post).  So, my dotties got moved to the side.  I went to all the Hive dottie classes but just didn't have time to work on it.

It's a great project that combines several sewing techniques - paper piecing, sewing curves, applique.  The final project is a quilt but I decided early on that I wanted to make mine into placemats.

I need some placemats and these will be scrappy and fun, filled with every color.  I was going to just make 6 but I've changed my mind to 8 so I'm going to need 32 quarter square circle paper pieced bits.  So far, I have 20 completed and I find my attention wandering.  

Wandering over to my project basket of things I want to get done sooner rather than later.  One of the things in there is a Halloween charm pack from Riley Blake called Witch Hazel.  I also bought some of the fabric in the line and I'm going to make a long table runner.  I've found the pattern I want to use and I can't wait to get started cutting on it.   
Ok.  Really, I've already started cutting,  I just couldn't stand it.  So, I guess that makes it another UFO. sigh

Those are my 2 works in progress for this Wednesday.  My dotties and my Halloween table runner.  My goal for August for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to finish the paper piecing for my dottie circles so that I have 32 quarter circle sections.  I'm setting my sites low in the hopes that I will finish my goal and go above and beyond -  hey, it could happen!

PS:  I actually did finish my Butterfly quilt in time to make the goal last month at ALYOF but I didn't get it blogged or posted which was my fault.  But hey, I finished something - YAY!

Happy Wednesday!
**Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of all Sorts**