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's for Wednesday - a quick update

It's Wednesday again and I thought I'd make a quick post to update the progress of some of my WIP's from this post.

WIP #1 was my Halloween quilt wall hanging that my DH requested for his office.  

I'm almost done with the quilting.  I thought I'd finish today but I had to shop at Macy's run errands.  I want to have it completely finished by Monday so he can take it to work.

My WIP #2 was to finish some items for my etsy shop and I did finish the stack I was working on but now it's time to start more.

WIP #3 was the homecoming mum which I finished and wrote about in my previous blog post.

WIP #4 was the stack of HST blocks that I have been slowly trimming.  When I last posted about them, they looked like this on my design board:

I've trimmed a few more and rearranged them and now they look like this:

One of the first modern quilts I saw was a version of this but in Christmas fabrics by Basic Grey.  I LOVED it and have wanted to make one ever since.  I'm not for sure that these blocks will stay like this but I'm really liking it so far.

WIP #5 was my cross quilt.  I haven't made anymore blocks for it although I do have a stack of fabric waiting for me to cut it so that I can make the final 6 blocks.

And of course, now I have a WIP #6.  

I've started a fall table runner using a stack of mini charms called Wrens and Friends by Moda.  I don't have a fall table runner and I thought I could whip this one up while it's still fall.  Especially since we, just this week, started having temps below 90 degrees. 

That's my progress this week on my WIP's.  I've got my fingers crossed that I will actually have a finish soon.  Maybe. 

*linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced**

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

It's been a long time since I blogged but I'm going to try to catch up on my life in the coming weeks.  I don't like to ramble on and complain about life's crummy stuff but I wanted to share what's been going on in the hopes that someone who has or is experiencing the same thing might comment or give me some insight.

I've been having health problems for about the past 4 years.  However, the last year and a half, they have increased exponentially.  They have prevented me from blogging, sewing, cleaning my house, acting like a normal person, going outside, ----- you get the picture.  It's not been pretty.

But anyhoo, I've finally been diagnosed.  Fibromyalgia and Lupus.  Actually, my official diagnosis is Fibromyalgia and an unspecified connective tissue auto immune disease such as Lupus.  But since I'm being treated for Lupus, I'm just going to call it that.
It has made me feel craptacular 24/7 for the past year and a half.  But finally having a diagnosis and being able to learn about the diseases and read forum posts about what others are going through, makes me feel less alone.  It makes me feel less like I'm going crazy.  Less like I'm just a big ol'
 lazy slug who can't do anything.  Less like a burden.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude although it's hard.  I'm trying to leave my house at least once a week to do something - even if it's just wander through Macy's or the mall.  I joined a sewing club at a local quilt shop.  Just anything to make me feel more normal.  I'm not to the point where I can start volunteering on a regular basis at my son's school again though, which makes me sad.

If anyone who is reading this blog has these same issues and would like to share with me how you cope or how someone you know copes, please email me or leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

I have been able to do some crafting lately - due to some new meds that seem to be helping.  I have lots to share starting with a Christmas Candy Cane table runner that I've made.

It started with a red and white striped table runner that my MIL and I had done for a special thingy at her church.  I helped her decorate the table last year for it.  She didn't want to keep the runner and gave it to me.  I decided to dissect it and make a runner that was more to my liking.  So, I cut it up into pieces - enough for 6 striped placemats and a pieced runner.

 

 I added more cool fabrics pieces to make it a pieced runner.

 

I sewed the pieces together and ironed them flat and whatnot.

 

And voila', this is what it looked like before I quilted it.

 

 

I quilted it with some in-the-ditch decorative stitches that looked like snowflakes.  I'm still a newbie at quilting and boy is it harder than I thought - and I already thought it was hard!!

 

 

On my table, a red and white candy cane Christmas.

 

 

One of the mistakes I made was in using craft batting.  I thought I was out of cotton batting, so I used craft batting which is very fluffy, like fiberfill.  Then of course, I found my cotton batting.  I think the craft batting is going to go in the Goodwill box I've started.  I realllllllllly don't like the way it looks.

 

That's all for now.  I'm going to try to make more posts but keep them short - because I have a LOT to say. :)

One Christmas Present Down

A few weeks ago, I posted about a table runner that I had seen in a magazine and wanted to make for my MIL for Christmas.  I even posted pics of the top that I had finished piecing together.  See the post HERE.

Well, I've finished it!! YAY!!
I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  This is not the entire runner - I have it folded in this pic.  

I really enjoyed making it though, and I think it turned out great for my first quilting project (if you don't count the Christmas tree skirt that I made 20 years ago).  You can see in the pictures that I quilted each seam.  I did what's called "in the ditch" quilting.  At least, I think I did. 

(this is the back side.  I'm not loving the fabric I chose for the back as I think I should have gone with a darker color like a matching brown.  But hey, live and learn.)

The quilting part took the longest of any part of the project but it would probably have gone faster if I had known that I needed an even feed foot for my sewing machine before I got started.  I didn't figure that out until I was at least half way done quilting.  But now that I've used this foot, I LOVE it.  It is soo awesome.  I've even been using it when I sew up my aprons.  It makes all the fabric move so much smoother and it goes over seams well.

I've also started making quilted Christmas stockings which I'm going to list in my Etsy shop.  I'll post about those next time.  Stayed tuned for more great crafting :)

Look what I made!

I've been trying to make a blog post for several days about this great looking July 4th cake that I made but for some reason, I can't post the pics.  I'm so frustrated by it that I just have to cuss! $#(%)#((%&#)9877124##

Okay, I feel better now.  Let's all just move past that.  It was really AWESOME though.

I bought this sweet jelly roll at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.

I bought it to try this - a table runner, which I found in the Summer edition of Quilts and More magazine.

I wanted to make it for my MIL for Christmas.  It will be only my second ever quilting project.  The first one was about 20 years ago and it was a Christmas tree skirt which I made for myself and we still use it every year.  It's really cute.  Here's a pic of it around our tree a few years ago.  It was all hand sewn and hand quilted.  I'm not sure why I didn't use a sewing machine except that I think I felt like I was cheating if I didn't hand sew it.  I no longer feel that way :)

I have enough of the jelly roll left to make myself one too or I may use it for something else.

Anyhoo, I finished piecing the top together on Saturday.  I think it came out pretty good.  I made it about a foot longer than the instructions so that it would hang off the ends of my MIL's table.  The table in the pic is my table.  Her table is oval and smaller than mine so I think it will work well.
Now I just need to finish up the backing and then I'm going to quilt it with my machine.

I'll keep you updated :)