{WiP} Wednesday - Week 12

I've got something pretty up my sleeve!  It's for that new pattern I mentioned last week, and involves the New Brights collection of solids from Robert Kaufman, although I'm not using all of them.

                                        

                                                    

My sweet little 3 year old saw the rejects hanging on the design wall and said "Mommy, I love your quilt xylophone!"  So...I guess I know what I'll be making when this is finished!  (I especially love how she called it a quilt xylophone - it's just so like that sweet little girl of mine to transpose her words. :o)  )

And I've been working on another secretive quilt project, that I'll show you in about 4 months...maybe...if I remember...but here's a snippet:

                                           

My 5 year old wasn't pleased that I made 2 zippy pouches for our guild swap, and didn't make one for her. (She also didn't like either of the ones I received in return -- more for me!), so she chose these fabrics for me to make a pouch for her (WHEN, child, WHEN do you think I have time for this?????)  But I love this color combination!

                                                     

Have I mentioned that our guild is participating in an all-Colorado Modern Quilt Guild challenge? Everyone who is participating received 4 fat quarters of Free Spirit Solids in colors that represent Colorado, and we are to make a modern quilt that is inspired by Colorado.  (except two of the colors aren't right in this picture, sorry!)

Well, I've had at least 5 ideas, but I am VERY VERY VERY excited about the one that I had Sunday while driving to church. It is inspired by Colorado, and Denyse Schmidt, and Latifah Saafir, and QuiltCon, and my heritage...OH, I can't wait to get that started!!!!  However, comma, I must finish the first thing I mentioned...and then the fourth thing I mentioned...and maybe then the second thing I mentioned if I can do it quickly...


I hope you are having a great, and crafty, and productive week!

(linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced)

Hexie Queen Blog Hop

Welcome to my little stop on the Hexie Queen Blog Hop!
I was really humbled when Madame Samm contacted me asking if this rainbow hexie quilt was actually mine.  It was. :)

A friend had sent her a picture from Pinterest, and she wasn't sure how to get to the original blog post and quilter. She found me, though! :)  She told me all about the Hexie Queen Blog Hop, and it sounded like SUCH  fun blog hop that I jumped in feet first! :)

So one Saturday, when I was supposed to be working on a million other things, including potty-training Little Bird, I decided to start my hexie quilt instead. She helped. ;)  A couple of years ago, I participated in 5 rounds of the Hexie Swap on Flickr, and one round was all solids, so I had about 50 pre-cut hexagons, just waiting for a project! They were cut with the Accuquilt Go cutter, and they're perfect for a quick project like this!

Once Little Bird and I had decided on the colors we wanted to use, I set her free with her own stack of hexagons so she could make "her own" quilt. She didn't really do much with hers, but it gave me the chance to get mine all laid out. :)

Once I had the layout I liked, I adhered the hexies to the top of the 44" square of Kona White. I used the same method I used when I did my first hexie quilt. I sprayed the back with spray baste, and pressed it down with my hand. If I needed to adjust it, I could.

The next step was to heat set the hexies in place with a hot iron. I used a random scrap of fabric to protect my iron from any overspray of glue.

The beauty of heat-setting them this way is that when I inevitably had to put the quilt away, I could go away trusting that the hexagons wouldn't move a millimeter. And little hands couldn't move them, either. Security is a good thing when you've got curious little helpers around the house! :)

A couple of hours later, I was able to come back to the quilt. I raw-edge appliqued each hexagon in place with a straight stitch 1/4" in from the edge. I didn't want to stitch over any other stitches, so I stopped where I started, and tied a knot on the underside of the quilt top.

When the quilt top was finished, I just felt like singing! It felt soooooo good to put the must-do list aside and just follow the inspiration for once!

And then it came time to quilt it. I had a hundred ideas (and two more after I started, ain't that always the way!), but I went with a straight line between opposite hexagons, and then a spiral throughout the whole quilt.

Spiral quilting takes foreeeevvvvvvvvvvver! :) And this is a small quilt! I can't imagine doing it on a larger quilt. Sheesh!

Here's Little Bird claiming "her quilt" once again. :) I've never made a quilt just for the fun of it, so I've never had the chance to have one of my children claim it as their own. I'm not sure if she really thinks this is for her, but, other than it being a bit small for a 3 year old, there isn't any reason I can't give it to her! :) Plus, then I would get to enjoy it, too! ;)

Do you know this trick when you're attaching your binding to your quilt? I either wrap my binding around a pencil or an old thread spool, and then stick it on the extra thread stand on my sewing machine. It really helps keep the binding straight and orderly while I'm attaching it. Sure beats the pile of binding I used to have on the floor!

Here she is again! This time she is tracing the quilting lines with a play-doh cutter. :) Maybe she's just as attracted to rainbow quilts as I am... ;)

Uh oh! Buzz is making his move! Move over, sista! This one's MINE! ;)

It's hard to tell in this picture, but I backed it with a random yellow-and-white polka dot fabric I had. I'm happy to use something that I already had on hand. Going to the fabric shop with 3 little ones is NOT fun! For anyone! :)

You can see the quilting a little better here, I think. I realize it looks a bit like a spider web, but c'est la vie. I like it. And I have an even greater respect for spiders now! This web was TOUGH to weave!

I hope you enjoyed learning about my little hexagon quilt. Where else have you been on this Hexie Queen Blog Hop? Here is a list of the others that are posting today. If you haven't already been, you should go visit their blog! I am confident inspiration awaits. :)

Life@RuffHaven 

Pieced Brain 

Den Syende Himmel 

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Meadowbrook 

Sandra Kaye Designs 

Let’s Patch it Up

Sew Many Yarns

Around the Homestead

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much? 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my little hexie project! :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 4/52

My first WiP Wednesday post for 2013 -- even though we've already had 3 others! Whoops! I really enjoyed trying to post every week last year, and hate that I've already missed the first three. It's just that I'm...

BUSY!

You are too, I know that. And I appreciate you reading about my life and how I spend my time! I want to blog more often, but I just can't bring myself to sit down at the computer and tap out anything that seems valuable and worth your time! So, I guess I'll do what I can, when I can, and maybe come up with a bit more.

Plus, when I have quiet time, I don't necessarily want to be typing! I want to be sleeping. Or sewing. Or folding laundry. Okay. Haha. Not really. I don't want to be folding laundry. I want it folded and put away, I just don't want to be the one to do it! :)

But anyway, this is about works in progress. All I've been working on is this:

 

And this: 

And when I can, we do some of this:

 

And this:

(In case you can't tell, Buzz loved his first time on the swings. He laughed and laughed and laughed some more.)

I'm almost done with the top of the Hope Takes Flight (take 2) quilt. I just have to put on the borders, then sew 2 pieces of the backing together, and then it's ready for quilting! And, no. I'm not doing it (all) at home. I can't. I won't!!

My plan is to quilt the swirls in the butterflies on the long arm and do some long basting stitches in the white, then bring it home and quilt the straight lines in the white on my home machine. That part didn't take long, once I got it all figured out. :) 

My other WiP is going to be on-going. I've jumped on the Project Life bandwagon. Have you heard of it? It's a simplified method of memory keeping. I don't call it scrapbooking, because it isn't what we usually think of when we say "scrapbooking". While it is a book of memories, it's not a book of carefully designed and cropped and embellished pages. If you're on Pinterest or Instagram or Flickr, search under Project Life, and you'll find a TON of images of people's pages. And the blog post that pushed me over the edge was written by my friend, Traci. You can see her ADORABLE family over here.

While I have purchased some things, I scored all of this off of CraigsList today:

The binder isn't a Project Life product, but since I don't know what I want my overall book to look like, I thought a practically free binder would be a good thing to have. :)  For $30, I got a new box of assorted page protectors, a pack of 6x12 sleeves, and the binder.

I can already tell that being a Lifer is going to be a good thing. Just going back and logging what we have done for the past 23 days of 2013 has been great! There are SO many things I would have forgotten!!

And I really hope to record the REAL elements of life. And include ME!! You know how we mamas are. All the pictures have the kids, but none of the mama. All the stories are about the kids, but not the mama. In 3 years - or 30 - I want us to be able to look at this and see that I was doing things, too. That I was having fun, or that I wore the same sweatshirt for 3 days in a row, or whatever. I want my children to know what life was REALLY like for us. I have no memories like this of, or from, my mother, and I wish I did. And I know my kids wish I did!! Mookie, my 4 year old, asks about my mom a lot (calls her my "first mom"), and I have very little to show her. And as the years go on, I won't be able to show her much about my life as a child, either.

And I want that to end. Now.

I want pictures of windy days at the park:

Love the hair, Sprout!

And silly faces:

Buzz. Loves to make noise. Guess it's a fitting name, then, eh?

And the backyard picnic in 68 degree weather, 2 feet from unmelted snow (Colorado weather is so confusing!)

 

So. My WiPs. One I'm almost finished with, and one I'm just beginning.

Hope you have a great, and crafty, week!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regularly scheduled WiP Wednesday linky party.

Insta.Friday ~ September is Gone

I know it's just a season, but these are the days where I feel like all I do is change diapers and wipe noses and wash jammies and referee squabbles. That's why this Instagram Friday link-up is handy. It helps me remember some of the other things we did this past week.

I sewed some colorful strips together for a happy-making quilt top.

I unearthed some long-stashed Valori Wells Delhi print, and while deciding whether or not to use it for a quilt, I decided to try to press out the creases and wrinkles while it was in my design wall. Worked like a CHARM!!

Then I decided to attempt a simple quilting pattern (traced CDs).

It was a colossal failure.

And I haven't touched it since. :-/


My blog-friend, Kerstin, sent Buzz a quilt (and me some fabric and Swiss chocolate! Both are yummmmmmmmy!) The package was bigger than he is, but he sure enjoyed the wrapping paper! :-)

Little Miss Cranky Pants giving Mama the ol' stink eye. About a millisecond later, she was all smiles. :-)

Buzz, of course, thinks holding him is my only job. But since my personal chef seems to have gotten lost, I have to make dinner. Enter the Ergo. Buzz and I both love it.

All in all, life is good. :-)

Have a great weekend!

(linking up with Life Rearranged for Insta.Friday)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 34/52

Holy Toledo, folks! Do you know what happened here? This last week I actually completed the things I wanted to complete this week!! Wow. Either I'm getting back on the horse, or I've finally lowered my standards to realistic levels.

(it's the second one, in case you didn't know)

I finished Alison's blocks, finished Des's blocks, and made the car seat cover. And if my children could better synchronize their nap schedule, I would have mailed them already!

You saw my "Melissa" block for Alison in the Bee Happy bee, but this one is new. It spells "woven.", which is very much what we are as a bee. Woven very tightly together. Best. Bee. Ever.

Here are the two very simple, yet very impactful blocks for Des in the {Faith} circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. She's using this technique from Moda BakeShop.

And I finished the car seat cover. I used this pattern from Georgia Leigh Designs for a friend expecting her first baby girl. I love this fabric SO much!! It's girlie, but super modern, and feels nice. :)  I backed it with Kona Navy so when the baby is sleeping, it'll be pitch black for her. Mama needs baby to sleep! I had planned to put buttons on the straps, but just wasn't gonna happen. It's really cute, though. And I'm reminded once again that I need to get one made for Buzz!! Poor kid. :-)

I also bought the fabric for my Grayson quilt and my Field Study quilts, though I can't start on them yet.

I'd like to deviate for a minute and talk about Field Study. Folks, I am not a die-hard AnnaMaria Horner fan. I mean, I am now, but wasn't in the past. Her fabric designs were pretty, but I didn't NEED to buy them. But, Field Study? 800 times more beautiful in person than on the web. I just keep taking them out of the bag and looking at them. Glorious. I can't wait till the voiles come out. Mmmmmm...dreamy. So if you're on the fence about it, I encourage you to somehow see it in person. You will want it, I almost guarantee it! :-)

But...before I can work on those, I need to make Mary's mod mosaic blocks, and Kelly's improv blocks. Then, I dare say it out loud, I'll be caught up for August!! I haven't been caught up in forever!!

And I need to write up the description because September is my month in the do.Good Stitches bee, and I've got a very special, very deserving, unknown-to-me recipient of this quilt, and I'm pretty psyched. I also need to make my sample blocks.

THEN I can work on my Fruit Stripe quilt, my Grayson quilt, and my Field Study quilt.

Oh, and I pulled out an old beauty. A multi-generational WiP. I'll tell you more about it later, but here's a sneak peek:

In other news, bunk bed training sucks. We are really struggling. My 2 year old just doesn't seem to know how to truly relax and settle down and go to sleep. We've tried quite a few techniques, and some help, but nothing works. And she wants to sleep in the bunk bed, but she just plays too much (even when she's notably tired), so we've been doing the bedtime routine as though she will stay in the bunk bed, but then, after 3 warnings, we remove her to her crib again. She just sleeps SO much better in her crib. SO much better. It's amazing how different her personality is when she's getting enough sleep. I'm so discouraged, though.

We'll keep trying, because somehow, she's gotta get outta that crib, but I just don't know how. Maybe we put the toddler bed in her room, and put the crib in the bunk bed room, and have the baby and the 4 year old share a room. I don't know the answer.  Any suggestions or books or websites would be great. She sleeps fine in her own room, but just not in the bunk bed, yet. She doesn't cry or play any of the manipulation games that other kids do, she just won't stop in the bunk bed. It's like Six Flags over Texas for her, and just as big!

She's adorable, though, even when she doesn't get enough sleep. :) When I wash her hair, it's curly, but when she sleeps, the curls fall out.

Have a great week!

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced, hosted by Michelle, and the weekly {WiP} Wednesday feature.

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 7/52

I feel like Alexander the Great trying to solve the riddle of the Gordian Knot!

The back of my Sea Glass quilt has been quite perplexing and puzzling and brain-draining. It's finished now, but I still can't show you a picture. :-/  It took as much of my energy as I expected it to, but since it looks exactly how I wanted it to, the fact that it nearly destroyed my last 3 brain cells is okay. :o)

I basted it, with a little help, yesterday. When I got out the roll of batting, Sprout immediately started rolling back and forth on it. She had SO much fun!

Now my dilemma is how to quilt it! I had the perfect idea in my head all along, and then, lo and behold, Alissa's new book Modern Minimal landed on my doorstep, and she inspired me to quilt it a different way! Shoot! Now I have to make a decision!! :o)  One way is all horizontal, but not tightly quilted (every 2-3" maybe?), and the other way has horizontal and vertical quilting. Both go with the quilt design, and I think the first one would be easier, but I just don't know if it's better, since there isn't any vertical quilting. I'd hate for this thing to fall apart after a few years of love!

And I'm super excited about the binding. I chose this, which I love!  It's Maude Asbury's Ovals in Cool.

It's just dreamy. The hand, the colors, the design. If you haven't petted this, yet, you totally should. If I could move past my infatuation with the fabric, I might consider using it to actually decorate the baby's room with it!! :o)  And that's saying a lot because I'm not much of a decorator!

Our Front Range MQG Retreat is this weekend, and I'm planning on getting it bound and finished while I'm there. I've only got about 18 projects that I hope to get done over the weekend.

Here are the other things I'm planning on doing at the retreat:

1. Sleep.
2. Finish the Harrison Quilts
3. Complete all 10 of my bee blocks for February, and start on March, if I can.
4. Sleep.
5. Make some Mod Mosaic blocks for myself.
6. Not clean up after myself, or anyone else all weekend.
7. Make some serious progress on the Swoon quilt for my uncle. I need to get my pieces cut before I go so I don't waste all my time at the retreat cutting, but I'm not quite sure when that will happen. :o)
8. Eat really yummy food I didn't have to make.
9. Maybe make a pin cushion for our FRMQG swap for March. There are some darling pin cushions out there!
10. Sleep some more.

I think that's enough for that list, don't you? :o)

And, hopefully, next week, I'll be able to show you some pictures of things I actually made! I mean, I guess we can say I made Sprout, up there, and she's pretty darn cute, and she is definitely  a "work in progress" (amen?), but you know what I mean. :o)

I hope you have a great week! Now go over to Lee's and check out what other people have accomplished and are working on this week!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 6/52

(sigh)

This hasn't been the greatest week for me - emotionally, physically, creatively...so I don't have much to show for my very limited efforts. I wish I did, but I think the about the only WiP I made any progress on is Juice. He's growing and healthy and active and that's all good, it's just that pretty much every other element in my life has taken a hit this week.

That's not entirely true. We celebrated our first birthday as the Front Range MQG on Saturday, so there was a lot that went into the preparations for the wonderful meeting, and then it's a whole day (we have a meeting in the morning, then a sew in the afternoon), and I think I just over did it. Last week was a busy week anyways, then the meet-and-sew on Saturday, and then Sunday I was tired, and Monday I was tired (and my fibroid was overactive) and Tuesday I was tired (and my fibroid was active), and all of that just doesn't make for much time to sew!!

I can show you this, though. Oh, wait. I was going to show you pictures of the swaddling blankets and burp cloths I made for Kelly, but I just realized that I sent them without taking any pictures! I'm a dork! I was so focused on keeping them a secret that I am keeping them a total secret! Doh!

Eh, you've all seen flannel swaddling blankets and burp cloths. I was just kind of excited to be able to show you a FINISH!!!  :o)  Thank you, by the way, to all of you that said the "lettuce edge" (i.e., wavy edge) to the blankets was attractive and not an unhappy accident. I appreciate it!

One thing (not sewing related, though), that I did accomplish this week was making Valentine's for my oldest daughter's preschool class. They were very specific that we couldn't bring anything edible since some kids have allergies, so I went with the oh-so-popular-on-Pinterest heart-shaped crayon idea. (I used the tutorial from Chef Messy, but there are tons out there.)

Here's a picture of the girls watching the crayons melt. They, of course, did not stick around for the entire process.

Here are the crayons after they came out of the oven:

Here is Mookie writing each one. All. By. Herself. Holy shemozzle, my blood pressure was sky-high during this! I know how to clean Sharpie off, that's not what was stressful, it was the whole process of her writing...the...capital...T...then...writing...the...lowercase...o...
then...two...dots...for...the...colon...then...starting...each...kid's...name...
Oy! Girlfriend was proud of herself, though, and that's more important, I know. :)

And here's a picture of Miss Proud-of-Herself with a finished Valentine:

 So, yeah. There's a finish for the week! And, believe you me, it took nearly all week!!

Here's what's on the menu for this week, though:

Still Cooking

1. The Harrison Quilts ~ even more progress, though not finished.
2. Christmas Cards ~ no progress. I think I might just put these away and call it a failure.
3. Bee Blocks ~  Back to 9. Being in 4 bees kinda stinks right about now. :)
4. Seaglass Quilt ~ I'm making some VERY slow progress on the back. I keep wanting to work on it, but bedtime keeps happening. Or dinner needs to be made. It'll happen, I know it will.   I was very disappointed to not be able to show it on Saturday at our meeting since I fully expect to be finished with it and it be gone by the next meeting, but that's what Flickr is for, right? :)
   
   Here. Here's a picture of a print out of a picture of the back that I need to work on:
   
   
   (it's purposely a crappy photo because I want to keep it a secret) :o)
   
   
5. Baby Gifts ~ making progress! Some gifts done (Kelly received her receiving blankets last week! Yay!). I was down to 12 friends pregnant, but then another friend made known how fruitful her uterus is, so we're back to 13. It is IN the water, folks. 
6. Juice ~ daily progress. I'm getting larger and more uncomfortable every day. I'm not very excited about the fact that he's taking my breath away, and he's not even born yet!
7. Mod Mosaic Quilt ~ I haven't done anything on it this week, but the FRMQG retreat is coming up, and I plan to Mod Mosaic my way through that weekend.

On The Back Burner

1. Fruit Strip Quilt ~ stalled.
2. Mod Mosaic Blocks ~ stalled.
3. Puppet Theater Backdrop ~ stalled. The girls think it's superfab without it, so why bother?
4. MQG Showcase Quilt ~ stalled...and I'm not actually sure it's going to go anywhere. Which is a real disappointment because I really wanted to do it and submit it for the MQG showcase, but I just don't know how realistic it is to finish it by March 2nd without completely abandoning all my other responsibilities and commitments.
5. Secret Projects ~ stalled, sigh, 8 still to go.
6. Maternity Skirts ~ I'm taking these off. There's no point in even thinking about making them.
7. Quilt-alongs ~ stalled, but I had a great conversation with some of the gals coming to the FRMQG retreat, and we're going to have our own little Shhhhwoon-Along at the retreat. Yay!
8. Juice's Quilt ~ stalled.
9. T-Shirt Quilts ~ stalled. Since I'm doing this with/for other people, I'm waiting on them to make it urgent.
10. Sprout's Goodnight Moon Quilt ~ stalled, her birthday is in May, so maybe I'll finish it then.

I've also kinda tried to stay away from the computer this last week, trying to spend my upright-and-on-a-machine time to the sewing machine, so if you left me a comment last week, I apologize for not responding! I totally meant to! :-(  I love that you commented! Rilly, I do!

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regular WiP Wednesday feature. Check out what other people have accomplished this week!