GYpsy wife -- FEB progress

Gypsy wife QAL started this month and I was so looking forward to starting this one so I jumped right in and pulled even more fabric

and I put together these blocks

• Pinwheels -- some of these will get borders once I figure out where they are going in the quilt

• card trick block

 

And here they are all together

 



I'm loving making these blocks and ready to start next month's assignment soon.

selecting something new

I have many projects that I want to do and more fabric that I need to at least get them started but I always seem to struggle with actually starting new projects. I'm not sure this is a real problem but I do like to have several projects going at a time so that I can work on what is inspiring me at the time. After my recent group of finishes I am ready to start thinking about what to start next because several of my current UFO's are nearing completion or are ongoing.

ongoing UFO's

• gypsy wife along -- all year 
• star along -- another month to go 
• bible blocks (4 blocks to make -- 10 wrong size) -- oldest UFO
•  unwind (quilt and baste)
• Pink star (quilt and bind)
• scout quilt (baste and quilt)
• Rebecca's project -- needs more focus 
• Bars of gold -- next Library project 

what to start next?

• Wonky stars 

• a large star 

• Swoon 

• Taffy

I also had a crazy idea of pulling a random magazine or book and just opening it at random to determine inspiration for something new. 

FEB fabriholics and Library Project revisited

February for the fabric fast went so much better than January for this quilter -- I am up to 10 finishes for the year and I have used at least 40 yards of stash to date. 

I did make one small purchase this month -- 2 yards of Konna Espresso for my scout class. A solid, which I have already put to use so I'm within my parameters and feel pretty good about things right now. 

I had a great deal more fabric come into my life -- Teri brought me some and then so did my quilt mama Brenda (the pic below are just from her). I Love them!!

I really, really gotta sort these out and make plans for them soon to help regain surface area in my craft room.
I have also been making progress on my Library project challenges -- where we try to actually make something from that pile of beautiful books and patterns that all us crafters collect.

Strip search -- finished

Lazy Sunday -- Finished

Scout Quilt -- after 3 classes -- top completed and the back is nearly finished.

Up next will be another project from the Jelly roll book -- fabric pulled and ready to start.

Gypsy Wife -- doing this as a QAL -- monthly goals have not been met at this time but I am hoping to knock these blocks out tomorrow or by the end of the week (for another link up). I do have all my fabric pulled together and ready to go .

My goals for March are 

• COMPLETE BOM blocks -- like for real this time, ideally I want to finish the quilt top 
• Quilt the 2 basted quilts and get these in the finished pile 
• Mom's apron needs embroidering and assembly 
• continue on with Gypsy Wife QAL 
• Project for Rebecca
• Star Along project -- deadline is the end of March
• work on Scout Quilt -- maybe finish
• Projects from Library Project goals 
• Start something from quilt wish list
• put away the donated fabrics and continue with the purge, using stash and non buying

got to hang out with 2 of my favorite quilters this weekend.

This weekend brought 2 fun days of quilting -- Saturday was the much anticipated feathers class with my sister and gal pal Kelly. It was AMAZING. I really learned a lot and know that this is a skill that I will need to work at for a while. We learned 4 types of feathers and so far my favorite is the easy feather and the hardest feather -- typical right. 

Kelly says the key is drawing it out and practicing so I invested in a sketch pad to hopefully be able to practice more with my shapes before returning to the cloth. 

Sunday was the final scout class with my buddy Teri and I am proud to say that the top is completed and the backing is coming together soon. (I ran out of the dark brown, needing only one more strip so another friend is bringing me some she has left over from another project). 

Not much other quilting happened this weekend so I know tonight is going to be busy with getting all my goodies worked on for the linkups happening throughout this week. I am thinking of combining them into one master post on Tomorrow or Wednesday so stay tuned for that -- otherwise it would be 4 mini posts and that seems a bit much. 

Lazy Sunday Link UP - Final

I have been joining in with Sew Lux and taking part in the Lazy Sunday QAL. I love this pattern -- this was my 3rd time making a version of this quilt but the first time that I actually followed the instructions and completed the project like the instructions said. 

Thus "Forever Love" was created. 

we had some snow recently so I used this opportunity to take a few beauty shots of this one.

The fabrics are from my stash -- Bazar Style from Art Gallery, along with some Kate Spain Verna, Nicey Jane, Kona solid and Moda grunge. 

This is my favorite shot -- I wish there had been more light hitting it but when your fighting the wind you take what you get. I haven't decided what to do with this quilt yet but I know it would make an excellent addition to my craft booth or Etsy site, if I can manage part with it. 

Snowed in -- finishes abound (photo heavy)

On Wednesday last week we were facing the arrival of a large snow storm coming in off the Gulf with a Canadian blast so here in NC that is the perfect formula for large amounts of snow. Well it started about mid day and came down hard and fast -- it took me nearly 3 hours to make it home, for my usual 1 hour commute. 

We ended up with over a foot of snow and then the sleet and icing started -- followed by another 6 inches of snow and more freezing rain. In this case, what's a girl to do when the weather has you home bound --- Quilt, DUH!!! 

There is no secret that I hate binding -- hubs jokes and says I'm afraid of finishing projects so that is why I dislike binding. But with so many of my projects in the final stages this meant that it was time to bind. You know unless I was going to totally neglect the UFO's and start something new. So I hunkered down and made what seemed like miles of binding. 

Once I got started it wasn't as bad as I always make it out to be and the results are these 6 new finishes to add to the totals for 2014. 

#4 - Opal -- 4 yards used

#5 - Table runner -- 1.5 yards used

#6 - Food Fight -- 3 yards used 

 #7 - Simple Beauty -- 1.5 yards

#8 - Lazy Sunday -- 6 yards used (full post soon)

# 9 New project --- Passing Love Notes -- 1 Yard used

#10 - Skinny Pinnie Swap item and bonus goodies -- 1 Yard

total of used fabrics ---  18 yards
Yearly total used -- 40 yards (wow that's a lot of fabric) 

I am currently working on finishing up my Bible Blocks from last year. So far 59 have came out the right size, I have 4 more to make and I need to figure out what to do with the 10 that are not the right size (some are to large and others are to small). 

Sunday brought Scout class #2 and it was a blast -- I did buy some solid for sashing, but that's within the rules so I am still doing good at 17 days in on the restart of my fabric fast. 

So much more to do to meet all the goals this month, Happy Quilting Everyone!!

Snow Kitties

My kitties love quilting. 

They have been a great deal of help during this snowy time in the south this past week. 

See they are making sure that projects are minded, held in place and I don't get lonely while quilting. 

Kahn and Nugget take quilt inspection very seriously. 

They ventured outside a little onto the roof overhang to make sure that the weather was still purrr-fect for quilting. 

Kahn says -- no thanks I will just look 

Hurley tried to have a Ralphie moment with the downspout. He loves the snow. 

Nugget was not a fan -- so much so that his neck disappeared.

And there is as always lots of this going on. 

Scouting out another UFO

Last weekend and the last week have been quite a whirl --- here are the highlights .....

Basted my Lazy Sunday during Lunch one day 

Quilted 2 projects 

Teri brought me a big ole bag of fabric 

Scout class started

I made a huge pile of HST  

We've had a bunch of snow and Ice this week and I spent some quality time with my sewing machine so stay tuned for the next post to have a pile of finishes and adorable Kitty snow pictures. 

Tiny Beauties

Recently I participated in the 14th round of the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr and you all saw my mini California Dreamin'  that headed off to Jen @ Quilter in the Closet. 

In watching the items in the swap, I had a few that I was so hoping were for me but there was one (two) that stood out in the group. Now I figured there was no way that these beauties would be coming my way because the quilter lived on the other side of the world . Well you can imagine my surprise when my husband calls me and says I have a package from New Zeland -- really I thought he was kidding me because he knew my obsession with certain minis in the group and I figured he was playing a prank on me. So I rush home and this is waiting for me.

I quickly opened it and the squealing started --- my partner was indeed Rebecca @ One Wee Bird and the received items were.... for lack of a better word AMAZING. She was super generous with her item and the extras she included and had nailed all the things that I was looking for from the swap. 

I Love these little pouches and am already putting them to use.

(Adorable and he knows it)

Rebecca initially had made this mini for me but had encountered an incident with the iron as she was finishing it. 

After much work to remove the iron stain she decided that she would also included the 1st mini in my parcel -- now you can't tell it was stained initially. 

Being the awesome partner that she is she decided to make another mini -- even though myself and several others in the group were insistent that the mini was excellent and should be sent -- the story made it more special. It had numerous offers for homes it could come to if she wasn't going to be sending it to her partner. 

The 2nd mini is also AMAZING but in a very different way -- more simplistic in design but beautiful handwork, and as a person that has no handwork skills I really appreciate the effort and time that goes into the process. 

I was still in shock and awe at receiving these items when my happiness suddenly changed to compassion and sorrow as I read the letter she had included. This is part of the reason that I have been putting off making this post --- out of respect for Rebecca. During the time that she was working on the swap. she had a great personal loss when her husband died suddenly in an accident. In reading her beautiful note the mini became even more special to me. 

I could not begin to tell you which mini, of the pair is my favorite because I love them in very different ways but one thing is certain, Rebecca is amazing and though we may never meet in person -- she is special to me and I will think of her often and hope for healing for her and her family during this difficult time.