New Year and Lots of Changes

Hello all!

It's been quite some time since I've posted on my blog.  I've missed it.  This last year was full of moving into our new house which I had posted about in some of the 2015 posts.  The actual move was only 1 day but because of my health issues, it took me about 6 months to feel like I was settled into my new home.

I'm back on my blog now and planning some major changes.  I'll be posting pictures along the way of our new house and of course my projects, etc.  I've missed blogging and reading blogs.  I have fallen in love with Instagram and it has taken me away as it has so many.  I want to do both in the future, Instagram and blog.  Instagram is a moment in time but blogging tells a story.

In the mean time, I'll just post a very few pictures from 2016.  Why are they so few you ask?  Because my dear husband accidentally deleted most of my pictures from my phone which is where they all were.  I had not been taking pictures with my camera for some reason.  But now I've learned my lesson.  Never let your husband download pictures for you.

These first two pictures are the challenge blocks I entered in last years local quilt show.  The first is a pattern from 627Handworks on craftsy.  The second is from the book Sweet Tweets by Erin Cox.  I won First Place ribbons on both.  The challenge was scraps and we had to use at least 16 different fabrics per block.

 These next pictures are a mini quilt I made for an Instagram swap.  The geese are a pattern from Jelliquilts on craftsy and the butterflies are from an out of print book by Linda Causee.  This was also my first foray into big stitch hand quilting as you can see from the bottom three pictures.

I didn't actually get any large quilts finished last year because of the move and setting up my sewing room and then redoing my sewing room again.  But I have some things coming up that are almost done plus some stitching projects that I'd love to share.  I'm trying to get myself more organized and stay off the computer and social media so that I can get more done.  It's funny how you can spend hours looking at the sale fabric in an online store and then the day is gone and no sewing got done.  I'm trying really hard not to do that anymore.  (It's so hard!!!)

I'm looking forward to a future of changing and growing my blog and getting way more sewing done!

WIP Wednesday - The back of Charlie Brown

I'm am still working on my husbands Charlie Brown Christmas quilt.  I have the front completed and yesterday started working on the back.

I have a plan for it which is half the battle.  I want to try and get it finished, basted and quilted this week so I will be done.
 

 

I had found some other Charlie Brown fabric that seemed to go with the panel and my husband wanted me to use it so it's going on the back.

I was going along really well yesterday until my bobbin ran out and then I stopped to eat lunch.  That's when all my energy drained right out and I had to stop.  I did work on my new English Paper Piecing project though.  I'll tell you more about that when I have more to show.

Thanks so much for reading my blog!  I hope you all have a blessed day.

**Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced**

MQG Riley Blake Challenge Quilt

In my continuing attempt to catch my blog up with all the items I've managed to finish so far this year, I'd like to share my Riley Blake Challenge Quilt.  As anyone who is familiar with the Modern Quilt Guild knows, the periodically have challenges sponsored by some of their awesome sponsors such as Michael Miller or Riley Blake.

 Earlier this year, Riley Blake sponsored a challenge with the Quilted Fish's fabric  line called The Cottage Garden.  It is a beautiful line of fabric with lots of my favorite colors like aqua, yellow, gray and it also came in a pink colorway.

We were sent the aqua/gray colorway to get started on our quilts.  Of course I had to buy more fabric because you just never know, right?

The challenge was to try something new and do something you'd never done before.  I had never done triangles and had been wanting to try them.  Also, I've been wanting to start designing my own paper piecing patters.  So I decided to design all the patterns for the entire quilt.  It was a very simple design as each square only had 3 pieces and I had 3 different square shapes and sizes.  It was fun and I really enjoyed it.

Ironically, I barely got my quilt posted to the site before the deadline.  I had finished the quilt but forgot to post it until the very last day.  I haven't received an email yet about the challenge winners so I guess they are still working on that.  But its the challenge that's the fun part - although it would be awesome to win ;)

My pieced quilt back and label.  I used lots of leftover fabric for the back and I think it came out great.

There were two great text prints in the line, a white with black text and an aqua with white text.  I loved them both.  I used the white for the binding. 

Quilt Stats:
Name - Triangles
for the Riley Blake MQG challenge 2015
Size - 39.5 inches tall and 32 inches wide
Quilting - Quilted on my Juki with straight line quilting.  I actually measures and marked every line because I wanted them to be straight and precise.  They were exactly 1 inch apart.

**Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?**

WIP Wednesday - The New Hexagon

Welcome to WIP Wednesday everyone!  

Even though I've always said how much I hate handwork, I've decided to try my hand at English Paper Piecing.  I bought a new book a few weeks ago called The New Hexagon by Katja Marek.  The makes EPP looks so much easier than other books.  For one thing, she teaches you how to glue baste.  I think that's great!  Less hand sewing but it's still something you can do while watching TV or in my case, when my energy level is at zero for the day but I'd still like to feel that I can accomplish something.

Katja is sponsoring a free Milliefiore Quilt Along on her blog.  There will be 12 Rosettes in all (I think) and you can make your own paper pieces or do what most people do and order them already cut from paperpieces.com.  The Rosettes use the hexagons from her book but she provides the patterns on her blog for the rosettes.  Confusing?  I was too at first but I think I've got it now. 

Anyway, I've got my book, my papers and now I'm trying to decide on fabric.  I'm trying to be careful about value because I tend to pull all medium value colors.

I've gotten it narrowed down to a green, aqua, pink, gray color scheme.

Or a red, yellow, orange, with black text print color scheme.

I think choosing the fabrics will be the hardest part.  I hope I can do this.  I really need some type of handwork that I like.

** Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - September Goal

I've posted about my husbands Charlie Brown wall hanging here as my goal for August.  I wanted to finish the quilt top and ta da - I have!  Unfortunately, I didn't get it posted to Sewbittersweet's blog in time.  BOO!  For some reason I was thinking that I had until the 7th day of the new month.  Sigh.

I'll try not to make that mistake again.

So my goal for September, is to piece the back of the quilt and get it quilted.  I want to finish it as fast as I can so my hubby can have it well in advance.

I've got several things I need to get quilted so I'm going to try to do those things this month.

But my goal will just be to finish the back and quilt the Charlie Brown Christmas Quilt.

*Linking up to SewBittersweetDesigns

Robyn's Valentine - An Art Quilt Project

Back in April, I made a blog post about My Psychedelic Valentine which was a Valentine themed table runner I made for a challenge in my Modern Quilting Group.

I know it's pretty far from February now but I wanted to show you my friend Robyn's Valentine challenge project.  I loved it so much that she gave it to me for my birthday present - which was in March.

Robyn is an art quilter.  She has been quilting for years and I think she has tried just about every kind of quilting there is so it stands to reason that she would eventually find her way to art quilting.  I think she's found her niche.

She made this Valentine mostly with selvedge edges plus a few scraps and some red rick rack.  I love the way she basically made a color wheel with all the colors and then used the red in the middle.  I think this is so creative and cool.

I'm going to try to talk her into entering it in our local quilt show in the spring.
Robyn blogs HERE at Quilting in the Robyn's nest.  She is remodeling her house right now and she is doing weekly updates which are awesome.  If you love looking at reno's as they go along, you will love reading her blog.

**Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts**

My First Quilt - A UFO Quilty Finish

About 4 years ago or so, I decided to take up quilting.  I had been reading quilting blogs and seeing all the beautiful modern quilts out there and it got me all excited.

So, I went out to my local fabric store and bought one charm pack which are 42  5" squares.  Forty two, I thought.  That will make a whole quilt.  Bless my heart.

Sorry for the picture quality.  They all have too much light.

Once I layed out the squares, I realized I needed more just to make it baby quilt size.  So, I cut out some solid whites and added those. 

Anyway, this quilt sat in the UFO pile for some time.  I didn't really like the fabric I had chosen and I didn't have anyone to give it to so I didn't see a reason to finish it.  Plus it was pretty wonky.  Seams that REALLY didn't match.  Borders that were just WRONG.  It was a hot mess.

But a couple months ago, I got it back out (in my effort to finish some of my UFO's this summer) and I quilted it and bound it.

It's still a hot mess but it's a finished hot mess.  I think that I will keep it so that I can see where I started and see my progress as I go along.  I still need to work on my binding but I'm getting pretty good at piecing and my quilting is improving.

And surprisingly, even then, I prefered a pieced back.

And always remember your label.

Statistics on this quilt:
Fabric - Moda but I don't remember the line, white fabric is also Moda.  The polka dotted fabric that I used on the back and for the wonky border was a fabric in the line.  My binding fabric, the green and white stripe, is from Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille.
Size - Approximately 40 inches by 40 inches.

**Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finish