Pages

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

WIP Wednesday

Wow - three posts in a week!  I'm on a roll although I can't guarantee that this continue but for now I'm having fun with it again. 
So I'm linking up with Lee over at Freshly Pieced for WIP (Work In Progress) Wednesday.  I sort of have quilter's ADD this week and am actually working on three different quilty things this week. 
Firstly, I signed up for an online quilting bee hosted by Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts.  And the first month bee block has been posted which is a star plus paper pieced block.  The Queen Bee for this month loves bright colors and has been generous enough to give us pretty free reign on the colors for the block we are making for her.  I got the block started yesterday and I have half of it pieced together.  Its a fun block which I hope to be able to finish up before the end of the week.  And hopefully the Queen Bee will like it!
I also joined a second mini quilt swap on Instagram.  I had so much fun with the first swap that I thought I would give it another go.  The Spring Fling Mini Swap is hosted by Nelma over at The Yellow Crib.  I'm super excited about the partner I was assigned and have all ready been doing some serious brainstorming about what to make her.  I feel pretty confident that I've come up with THE perfect quilt to make for her.  So far, I've gotten a test block done:
 Which turned out pretty well for a self-drafted paper pieced pattern.  The block ends up being 6" finished size.  And I finally cut in the Fat Quarter stack of the 33 new Kona colors that I won back in September!!  
 The colors are so beautiful and I can't wait to hatch up other quilty plans to use them in the future.  Plus, this mini will end up being made mostly from fabric I all ready have in my stash!  Yay for a Sew My Stash 2015 project!  I do think this will end up being a long term WIP as its a little time consuming but I figured I would work on a block here and there in between other projects until I get it done for its due date of mid-April.
 And lastly, I'm finally paying attention to a quilt I started back in November as part of a quilt-a-long put on by Lee over at Freshly Pieced.  
I managed to get this far on it by mid-November:
 But then Christmas sewing kicked into high gear and since this is a quilt just for me just because I loved the pattern to much, it got put on the back burner for a while.  The finished rows have been hanging behind the door in my sewing room for two months begging for attention and now I hope I'll be able to finish this quilt up in the next couple of weeks so I'll actually get a chance to enjoy it. 
Wishing you all a productive finish to your week!




 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

La Passacaglia Mini Quilt

Hey, I'm actually posting twice in one week!  Imagine that! ;)
It's been an interesting start to 2015 - the typical post holiday calm, the somewhat expected but still lothesome stomach flue, the almost mild winter (compared to last year anyways), and the slow down on the sewing front post Christmas craziness.  But I do have my first finish of 2015 to show you!  
I stumbled upon the Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap round 2 last summer on Instagram and I was smitten by all the beautiful quilts that were being created and shared.  I missed the sign ups for that round, but when sign ups for round 3 opened in November, I jumped at the chance to be a part of a mini quilt swap with 950 awesome quilters from around the world!  I was lucky enough to be assigned a lovely lady over in England to make a quilt for!  I had fun stalking her and after a bit of sleuthing, I noticed that one of her wish list quilts was the La Passacaglia quilt.  It's an amazing English paper pieced quilt made up of several interlocking wheels that have a very kaleidoscope like effect.  There has been a plethora of gorgeous variations of this quilt popping up on Instagram and it is definitely a quilt pattern that I have became fascinated with but didn't know if I would ever have a reason to make one.  
I have also been intrigued by English paper piecing (EPP) for some time but again didn't have a reason to actually learn how to do it.  Well, I decided to see if I could learn how to not only English Paper Piece, but also take on a small version of the La Passacaglia quilt for my partner.  I'll admit, it's an extremely ambitious project to do especially for a beginner. But once an idea gets in my head, I tend to jump off the deep end.  Sink or swing, right?
So I ordered the book that has the La Passacaglia pattern in it and set about trying a few less ambitious EPP projects to make sure I could even figure this out.  I made this cute hexi snowflake mug rug for a quilty pen pal:
This hexi snowflake mug rug for a dear friend and mentor:
This Pentagon ball as a gift for my younger son for Christmas:
And this teeny pin cushion for myself:
Once I figured out this EPP thing, I loved it and decided to take the plunge and make one of the wheels from the La Passacaglia quilt as a mini quilt for my swap partner. 
Thankfully. I wrapped up my Christmas sewing a few days before Christmas so I was able to get the whole mini quilt cut out before we left for our Christmas road trip to see our families between Christmas and New Years.  

 This kind of hand work turned out the perfect thing to bring with me on our trip.  I was able to work on it quite a bit during the evenings and nap times when is adults were all sitting around chatting and catching up.
By the time I got home, I had gotten this far on it:
 It was turning out better than I had hoped.  I posted a progress photo on Instagram and it's always a huge reassurance to get such great feed back from fellow quilters.  Especially when one one of those fellow quilters happens to be the person you are making it for yet they don't know its for them but they tell you that they love it! It's fun!
 Over the next two weeks, I spent nearly every minute of down time sewing my fingers off and working on nothing else in order to get it done in time for the shipping dead line.
But of coarse, the week of the shipping dead line, the stomach flue struck me and Little Bear and it was BAD!  Bear and I did nothing but be sick for 3 days straight and it was nearly a week before we were back to normal.  Once I started to feel better, I was able to finish up the quilt.  I even did a little quilty math and made EPP templates to make the boarder around the edge of the finished La Passacaglia wheal.  Thankfully, I had a very understanding swap mama who gave me the time to finish it up properly.
 It seemed to take Forever to get all of the papers out of the back of the quilt especially since I glue basted the papers and some of them didn't want to let go very easily.
 Here it is all basted and ready for quilting!! I was a little giddy when I reached this point as I had put in so many house all ready and finally finally I could see the end!
 I decided to quilt it in a dense straight line quilting that radiated from the center of the quilt.  I love the texture the dense quilting gave the quilt.

 Unfortunately, the sun decided to never come out the one afternoon I had a chance to properly photograph it so the photos turned out a bit darker than I would have liked.  But still - I can't get over how well this quilt turned out!!  Sqeee!!!
 As an added little something extra to the quilt, I decided to piece together a back that was inspired by another quilt on my partner's wish list and by some of her favorite fabrics. It's pretty enough to be its own quilt.
I ended up having a little extra time the evening before I mailed out my partner's box, I made her this super cute little hexi pincushion as an extra.  I love that I had a pair of vintage buttons in my button jar that accented the pin cushion perfectly!  
Overall, this was probably the most elaborate and labor intensive quilt I've ever made.  It was so hard to let it go as I really wanted to keep it for myself because of not only the hours and hours that I had poured into making this mini quilt, but also, I have fallen so in love with how gorgeous this quilt turned out.  However, it was a little bit easier to let it go knowing that based on the comments my partner has left on the photos I've posted on Instagram, I'm pretty sure she is going to love it!
 My husband sweetly told me that I could make myself one.....I'm not likely to get that kind of motivation any time soon.  For now the pictures will have to do. 

Monday, January 26, 2015

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Hi.  My name is Maggie and I'm a fabric addict.
Hard to admit....yet true.  This past year, I've bought way more fabric for way more projects than what I realistically have time for.  It was all justified of coarse - "I'm pregnant", "It's for my Etsy shop", "It's going to be made into a gift for someone", "retail therapy?"....Ok that last one was a tad weak....
Thankfully, I have a very understanding husband, but in line with my goal for 2015, I'm choosing to do better.  I'm choosing to be honest with myself and tell myself no.  I'm choosing to avoid Joann's and only look at fabric when I absolutely have nothing in my stash that will work for a project I'm actually working on.  And even then, I'm choosing to only use money I've earned from my Etsy shop to pay for said fabric.  I'm choosing to join in with Leasa over at Project Leasa on her #SewMyStash2015 challenge.  It's a good feeling to know that there is a whole group of us making the effort to use what we have and appreciate what we have.
And no....that first picture is not an accurate photo of how much fabric I have.  Here is a more honest photo of my stash:
Piles of flannel, minky, knits, fleece, etc overflow the bottom part of the shelf..... So many projects just waiting for me to get my butt into gear.
Wish me luck on my new fabric diet - 37 days thus far with only $6 spent on 2 fat quarters of fabric.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

2015 Word

I know it's all ready a few days into the new year, but the last week and a half have been a bit of whirl wind of crazy around here.  Finally this evening after the craziness of Christmas, followed by an 8 day 1800 mile 4 state road-trip with two kiddos, followed by two days of unpacking, 8 loads of laundry, putting Christmas decorations away, massive house cleaning and organizing binge, I had a chance to just breathe as I was snuggling little Wiggles at bed time.
The past 18 months have been so full for me both in really good ways and in some pretty crappy ways.  As I take a moment to just breathe and look ahead to what this coming year could look like, I realize that I have to make some choices for myself.  Somewhere in the past 18 months, I've lost sight of who I am and where I want to be as a wife, a mother, a friend, a person....a child of God.  I hate having this lost feeling nagging at the back of my mind and in the deep dark places in my heart.
I've been seeing several people pick a word to claim as their word for the year - something to help give them direction, a goal, or a groundedness to their lives. I love this idea because well, I suck at making big resolutions that are just supposed to change something big overnight.  I love this idea of hanging onto a word that can help ground me because it seems more reflective of life - that little by little, things can change.  So I'm choosing "Choose" as my word for 2015 because I'm going to:
Choose to invest in those most precious to me - especially my husband and two boys
Choose to seek God in the quiet small moments of my life
Choose to be honest with myself about what I need and what my limitations are
Choose to forgive myself when I'm not "good enough" or when I fail
Choose to let go of things and people who are weighing me down and be ok with that
Choose to hang onto the good

I'm sure there will be moments when I forget to choose wisely, but I long to be like Mary who "has chosen what is better..." (Luke 10:42).  She chose to let everything else go in order to sit at Jesus' feet and soak in the moment she was given.

I know this is a bit off from my normal - albiet sporadic - sewing/crafting posts, but I needed to get this out there.  I do still want to post about my sewing projects when I get the chance, but I'm also choosing to be ok with it if I don't.
Wishing you all a New Year that is filled with many moments of peace.