{WiP} Thursday ~ Week 11

I hope you've had a great week. The weeks always go by super fast for me! 

(almost two weeks ago, now!) Last Friday I gave a lecture/trunk show on modern quilting to a local traditional guild, and I think it was well received. (At least the people who came up to me afterwards were nice!)

Here I am showing off the awesome mini quilt Elizabeth Dackson of Don't Call Me Betsy made for me in a swap. (I won the jackpot, didn't I?) She turned it into a pattern if you want to make one for yourself. :o)

                                          

Here's the hexie quilt I made during Madame Samm's Hexie Queen blog hop last fall, and I'm donating it to Crafters For Courage so they can auction it off and raise money to build another Courage House for girls rescued from sex trafficking. I recently read that approximately 1% of the people rescued from sex trafficking have a safe place to go, so they often find their way back into the traps of the pimps. (We all need to do more to end modern slavery.)

                                                        

And this is the longest (and largest!) WiP, my Mod Mosaic bee quilt. The Mod Mosaic bee started 2 years ago, if that gives you any idea. :-). It's a king-sized quilt, and all that's left is the binding. Unfortunately, I didn't think about Susie's Magic Binding technique before I started binding this. :-/ But it's for ME, so it can sit. :o)

                                            

My newest WiP is this improv beauty of solids. I am totally crushing on it! Here is a bit of one of the sections:

                                                  

And here is a picture of the whole thing. I hope to get it quilted in the next week.

And something I've been wanting for over a year? The Sew Together bag by Michelle of Sew Demented!  It took me a full week (because I kept making stupid mistakes), but I love it!  And, yes. In case you are wondering, I am planning another one. Hopefully it won't take me another year! :o)

                                                

Here's the outside. I guess I've been in a gray mood lately! Everything I've done lately, including a super new pattern I'm working on, is gray! No worries, though. Rainbow is still my favorite color, and I'll get back to that really soon. :o)

 

And, finally, a super cute dumpling pouch and key fob for our Front Range MQG pouch swap on Saturday.

 

That'll probably be it for things I can show for a while. I've got to get my nose to the grindstone and sew up the new pattern (very exciting and daunting and nerve-wracking and oh-I-hope-this-turns-out-like-in-my-head stressing!)

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I'm planning to post a giveaway -- soon? -- just need to get myself together!

Blessings,
~Melissa

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 17/52

I am very excited to share this new purchase with you:

It's a Baby Lock Crown Jewel long arm. It's pretty intense, but I LOVE having it!!

It is loaded up with Spot On Wide by Robert Kaufman for the back (in Chartreuse), and this giant for the front:

I think one of the reasons I am loving it so much is that the quilt I'm working on (my Mod Mosaic) is for me. No one else. No judged shows, no one's baby, no one else's bed. So I feel like it's okay to accept my mistakes, to learn where to go slow and where to go fast, to take my time, and really just ENJOY the ride! :o)

I'm quilting it with "interlocking circles" I learned about over at Happy Quilter/Melissa's blog. (It's easier drawn than quilter...that's all I'm going to say!)

And it's a proper long arm. On a looooong table. :o). We opted for the extension, so the table/frame is 12 feet long, which makes my 90" quilt seem small. :o)  It lives in our basement, so I get a bit chilled working on it at night, but that's nothing a few extra layers can't fix. :o)

I also opted for the larger M-class bobbin over the L-class. I'm not sure of the size difference, but I'm able to quilt a little more than 8 12" blocks with one bobbin, and I know I would run out after 5 or 6 blocks with a smaller bobbin. It's a luxury, I admit, but one I am happy with. :o). And just in case anyone asks, I have not noticed any tension issues as the bobbin empties. It's good from start to finish!

I'm also really excited that the quilt is always there, waiting for me whether I have 20 minutes or 2 hours. I always have snippets in my day, but to start a new project on my domestic machine, or carry on piecing a quilt top, or to make a bee block? 15-20 minutes isn't really that much time! But it's just enough time to go to the long arm and quilt for a bit.


However, I do have other things I'm supposed to be doing!

Like finish this block for our in-guild bee:

And piece my April do.Good Stitches quilt. I'm still waiting on one set of blocks. I've already made 3 extra sets, and don't really want to make another if I don't have to! :o)

And mail out the charms Kelly won over a week ago!

And start working on something old with some of the charms I won from Elisabeth so very long ago. :o)

Plus a million zillion other things craft-wise, and a zillion million other things home-wise. I know you all have just as many craft and home projects, so I just wanted to say that I appreciate you coming here and reading about my life. With the switch to Bloglovin, I am reading a lot more blogs than I used to (they would just sit, languishing in my Google Reader!), but I'm not always commenting. :) I love being inspired by you, though! :)

As always, I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for her WiP Wednesday Post .

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 16/52

So this is still in progress. :)  I have most of the rows sashed together -- just a couple more to go, then I have to sash the sides. Then prepare the backing (Spot On Wide in Chartreuse by Robert Kaufman) and the binding, and I'll be ready to quilt it!

I'm pretty excited about the way I am going to quilt it, but I'm going to keep you in the dark in case it goes bad and I have to default to loops. :)  Loops will still be fabulous, I love loops, but this new way? Pretty cool.

I'm also waiting on one more set of blocks for this little gem for the Faith Circle of the of the do.Good Stitches bee. I think this is my ideal layout - I'm calling it Wonky Zigs. :)  (I'll use the Spot On in Aqua for the back of this)

And I finished my April blocks for Anita in the Faith Circle. Simple, yet stunning.

I have to say that my circle seems to really embrace the idea that simple CAN BE better when it comes to making quilts. We haven't made any complicated quilts and complicated blocks in a while (8 hours for a Swoon block, anyone???)  And I really, really appreciate that.  We all know that these quilts are going to be an amazing blessing for the girls that receive them (they are donated to Restore Innocence, an organization that partners with the FBI and helps girls rescued from human/sex trafficking).  Those girls don't know an Ohio Star from a Wonky Star from a WhirlyGig. They just know that these quilts represent unconditional love...something most of them have never felt. (I could go on talking about Restore Innocence for days...)

And I am REALLY excited to have these books! C&T Publishing had a sale a week, or so, ago, and I chose these. I wanna drop everything and just eat these books up! Just flipping through One Line at a Time got me all fired up to try some new quilting techniques.

So, that's me! What I'm working on! How about you? Did you link up with Lee of Freshly Pieced?

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 12/52

Happy Wednesday!

Does anyone still call Wednesday "Hump Day"? I never liked the term much, but I just wonder if it's gone the way of the 8-track tape. :o)

Did you get much done on Worldwide Quilting Day Saturday? I didn't! ;-). Of course it was our guild meet-and-sew, and my birthday, so instead of sewing, I was eating! I got to have lunch with my friends , which is a rare treat, and then I got to have Mexican food with my family, which is another rare treat. :o)

On of our members brought her 6 year old granddaughter (and her machine), to the meet-and-sew, and when little Bree found out it was my birthday, she made me a sweet little something.

All by herself!


Yes, she used her grandma's fancy embroidery machine, but Bree did all the work while Sally worked on her own project. I was floored!!! And I swear my daughters will never get their paws on this!

I did sew a little on Katie's bee blocks...

And I got my solids so I can sew together my mod mosaic quilt.

Except, whoops! I forgot that there were 7 that I have to patch or fix in some way. That's one of the disadvantages of being in a bee (or 4) ... some people don't have quite the same standards of stitching or definition of 1/4" seam as I do. :-/ Such is life in a hive, though. (Note: my Bee Happy hive makes me perfect blocks every time. Every. Single. Time. They ARE the bees' knees!). And I don't know who made each one - there are 48 - so it doesn't really matter, I just have to figure out how to fix them! Like this:

I'm not even sure HOW to fix that one! Can I put some fusible interfacing on the back and then fuse another layer of white? Will that work?? I would HATE for this thing to start disintegrating after I get it finished!

So, my goals this week are to finish Katie's blocks, and fix these mod mosaic blocks.

OH!!! And I've started to get my do.Good Stitches blocks for March. I'm excited! This'll be such a fun, spring quilt. :o)

I'm playing with the layout, there are at least 4 different designs I've played with so far. Once I get all the blocks, I'll decide what looks best all together.

Have a great, crafty and productive week!

I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced. Go see what everyone else is doing! It's always so inspiring. :o)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 11/52

Hi there! I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I hope you're doing well, and enjoying Spring a bit. It's been snowy then sunny, and windy then beautiful, and blizzardy then glorious here. It's March in Colorado -- predictably unpredictable. :)

The best thing I've finished lately is a pair of pajamas for my oldest. Tuesday was Pajama Day at school, and even though she's almost 5, she has a size 3 waist. We have a hard enough time keeping her belted jeans up at school, I just knew store-bought pajamas would be Droopy from Guadalupe! :)  So I got out my old Bedtime Story Pajamas pattern from Oliver+S, and modified it.  When I made the first pair for her 3 years ago, I cut the pattern at 18-24 months, so I had to do a fair bit of modifying, but they turned out pretty good!

And the best part? Her pants didn't fall down all day! :)

Other than that, I've been making some bee blocks, catching up from January and February. :-(

Mod Mosaic - January (the bee is now finished, whew!)

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - January

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - February

 

The final layout of this quilt is stunning. Debbie J of A Quilter's Table is in charge of this quilt, and WOW!!

Faith Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee - March (2 of the 9 I have made so far)

 

Bee Happy - February  (haven't started yet, but aren't the colors cool and refreshing?) :o)

I've also been playing with the layout of my Mod Mosaic quilt again. I realized that I wanted it a bit wider, but didn't want to have to make the blocks, so I took this picture and posted it on Facebook and Instagram and Flickr and asked for everyone's opinions. The overwhelming response was to go with solids in the open space, but place them in a random order. The solids should arrive any day now, and then I can commence to piecing! :)  It'll be really nice to finish this one FOR MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I've never made a quilt for myself. Or my children. Dave has one from before we were married, but it's hideous and I hope you never see it. Yes, it's really that bad. :o)

And lots of laundry, lots of other projects just screaming to get out of my head. As usual, right? :o)

I've linked up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regular WiP Wednesday post. Go on over there and be inspired by everyone else linking up today!

It Is Finished (WiP Wednesday 42/52)

I haven't really done much sewing the last week. Well, no. I haven't done ANY sewing this last week! :)

The Front Range MQG made about 50 "Angel Baby Wraps" (a.k.a. Fetal Demise Pouches...but we detested the term!) as our outreach project. Alex at Teaginny Designs wrote up the tutorial, and we had a little assembly line set-up so we could really maximize our sewing time. We had at least 10 members involved in the cutting, ironing and sewing of these, and they turned out really cute.

One of our members, Kelly, is a Labor and Delivery nurse at a hospital in Colorado Springs, so she'll be taking these to give to parents whose babies were born in heaven, those "angel babies" that don't ever breathe air on this Earth, the babies who didn't get to stay in their mommy's womb long enough to be born alive and healthy. (I just can't say it, but you all know the babies I'm talking about, right? And you can understand why we changed the name from "fetal demise pouches"...)

Anyway, they sewed up really quickly, and Kelly said they sometimes need larger ones for babies who died closer to term, so we modified the tutorial to make medium and large wraps. A few of us took some of the supplies home to make more, and this time we'll give them to Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock to give to the hospital in Denver where her sweet, and perfectly healthy, twin boys were born.

And then I got all ready to have my bible study group over so we could square, trim, and then tie fleece blankets for Restore Innocence. We are part of a group of people making 100 blankets for the charity, and our little group was charged with making 16 of them. I got out my rotary cutter, and my large cutting mat so I could square them up, and then my group got to work snipping and tying.This picture only shows 4 that were trimmed and ready for members to take and tie at home, but just imagine this times 25!

100 fleece blankets are going to take up a HUGE amount of space on the stage at church! :)  By the way, this is the organization that the {Faith} Circle of do.Good Stitches is making the Butterflies and Rainbows quilt(s) for.

We do the ties a different way. I saw this in a quilt shop outside of San Diego, and don't know why it hasn't taken off like wildfire! Instead of long ties, you make little bow ties. They're incredibly sweet, tie up SO fast, take up less fabric, and we thought they would really be a good choice for the girls who receive these quilts.

Our little group has 5 more to make, and I know other groups are doing theirs now, too. 100. That's such a blessing. :)

Not that you need it, but I hope to post a tutorial for this method soon.

Anyway...

I haven't been sewing much because I'm sad.

As some of you know, a good friend of mine, Yolanda, passed away last Friday. You may know Yolanda from one of the multitudinous Flickr swaps she did, or one of the many bees she participated in, or just her overall incredible creativity, or sincerely overwhelming generosity.

She started feeling poorly in February (2012), but the doctors couldn't find out much. Then in May, after continued problems, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 biliary cancer (Bile duct). There's a super long name for it, and you can read about her journey here, if you want. But that was May. It's October. 5 months. And it's not like she never went to the doctor, or anything, biliary cancer is just a fast-moving sonofabitch.

She was the president of the Orange County MQG until she resigned because she wasn't well (before her diagnosis), she was a cherished member of our Bee Happy Bee, as well as the founder of the Mod Mosaic bee. She started the Hexie Swap, the Circle Swap, and the Tumbler Swap. She participated in a number of fun quilt-alongs. And she made quilts for pretty much everyone she loved.

Here are some of my favorites of hers from Flickr:

(she made this for the woman who donated her kidney to Yolanda 4 years ago)

This was her Tumbler Party quilt.

In her memory, Leona has started the TumblerPartyToo. If you're interested in joining, the details are here.

Liberty wrote a really poignant, really personal memorial about Yolanda here. Go read it.

Yolanda had the dream of making quilts for all her nieces and nephews, but early in the summer, she realized that she wasn't able to sew as much as she wanted, so Liberty promised her that the Bee Happy bee would be her hands and get these quilts made. We enlisted the help of some other ladies who loved Yolanda, and together made 14 (or more, I think!) quilts for her loved ones. Yolanda and Liberty went through her beautiful and well-apportioned stash and got the fabric into the hands of some very skilled quilters who were very glad to be able to do this for her.

You know, we all just wanted to help. To do something, anything for Yolanda, and we quilters want to quilt. So it was a great opportunity to do what we love for someone we love.

And Yolanda really didn't know what to say. She knew that we were making her dream come true, and she was always SO very thankful. She knew she couldn't repay anyone, but I think she also knew that we weren't doing it for the recognition or reimbursement. We were doing it because we loved her, and because it is what we would want done for us. And like I said, Yolanda was overwhelmingly generous with everyone, so it was nice to be generous back.

Now, to be fair, I didn't have much to do with many of these quilts. I was only able to sew a few blocks, and to donate some batting, but I did reach out to our friends who I thought might want to help, and they came through like you've never seen.

I love that her family will always have their quilts to remember her. She led an amazing life, a colorful life. One filled with challenges and successes. One filled with love and laughter and more love. She cherished her fiance, her sons and grandchildren.

She passed away one day shy of her 48th birthday.

48. It's just not fair.

But...I do know that Yolanda loved God, and that she trusted Him to be in charge of her days on Earth. She knew that God has a plan, and she asked Liberty to create a graphic with this verse from Proverbs 31:25:

"...she laughs without fear, unafraid of the future."

I hope I can grow to be more like that. To be like Yolanda and live life unafraid. And carry her legacy with me.

God's work in Yolanda is finished. I am thankful she is no longer in pain, but I'm sure gonna miss her.

(linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday)

A Week in Instagram

I feel bad only posting on Wednesdays. I'm pretty sure 98% of my posts in the last year have been {WiP} Wednesdays.

BORING!!

Sorry about that. I won't promise to make any improvements, but when I can, and when I think of it, I will. :)

SO...today, thanks to the inspiration from my guild friend, Kate at Oh Write, I'm linking up with Life Rearranged for InstaFriday.



The idea (I think?) is to simply recap your InstaGram highlights on your blog. I have fallen madly in love with Instagram, and spend more time on it than I should. Same as any social medium, of course, but it's fun!  It's funny - I'm more private than Facebook in some areas, but more "real" in others. Anyway, here we go!

 Pouch baby snoozes. I don't wear Buzz nearly as much as I should because it makes life a lot easier. But look at that little smooshy face. He's a snuggle bug, that's for sure!

 Look, Mommy! This plant glitters! I'm not sure what it was that made it glitter, but I thought she looked cute with her glasses and hood.

 Sacked out on da mama.  I know I pretty much flood the IG world with pics of Buzz asleep, but that's kinda the only time I think of taking pictures and posting to InstaGram!

 I'm sleeping in a tent, Mommy! Love her imagination!

 Serendipity! I pieced this mod mosaic block, and when I finished it, I realized that there was a perfect little flower in the middle. No fussy cutting required. :)

 Happy Making! Oh, I am LOVVVVVING this quilt! It just looks so great on my wall, and it's SO super easy to piece. I almost made an Amish mistake in the layout, though. I'm debating on keeping it or not.

 McFwooowie, Mommy? We took a break while big sister was at school to enjoy a little treat. Girlfriend loves herself some ice cream!

Silly Monkeys! We got a new bed delivered (I feel so grown-up!), and let the girls jump on the old mattress for a while. It was really precious.

And that's it! I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to getting my new iPhone (5, thankyouverymuch!) so I can update my IG software! :)

Have a great weekend!