Love Fat Quarter Shop!

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I got my shipment on Friday, but it’s been a little busy around here and I haven’t had time to post it yet.  I love the way things are packaged when you get order from Fat Quarter Shop.  Everything is in nice zipped bags and fit in just the right size box with no extra shipping “junk” in it.  I got a few things for myself, charm packs of Moda marbles – bright, pastel, citrus and warm – and a mini charm pack of Indigo Crossing.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with any of it, the mini charm pack might end up being a hexagon pillow or something since they are already 2.5″ squares.

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The main purchase is the Camp Peanuts bundle to make a quilt for Alex’s bed in the RV.  I need to decide on a pattern, I’m not sure the one I was thinking of will work.  I’m going to need to muddle on it for a week or two before I start anything.   Alex saw it the other night and flipped out, he likes Snoopy!

I’ve been thinking about getting an Accuquilt Studio lately.  They have a sale going on that ends today, but it’s not enough of a sale to tempt me yet.  The Studio cuts more layers of fabric, the Go can only do a maximum of 6 layers.  I’m just starting to think I need more of a power house than the Go.  It would have to be just the right sale to get me to do it though, since it’s a lot of money!  There are more dies for the Studio than the Go and now that they have a tray that you can use the Go dies.  So I’m not wasting the ones I’ve already bought.  I’d still keep my Go since it’s portable and can be used anywhere.  I’d just have to figure out where to put the Studio in my office, since I’m a little packed in here already.  I might be able to put the printer somewhere else and put the Studio in its place.  Since I’m not ready yet it doesn’t matter too much though!  But that is something to think about before I buy it!

I don’t have anything new to show on Hexagon Diamonds, I wasn’t feeling well part of the week and didn’t do much work.  I did however get all 5 diamonds prepped with the black pathways and I’m almost done with the first one.  I hope to finish it tonight while we watch the Miami-Cleveland basketball game.  Hopefully I’ll have an update on that soon!

New Fabrics!!!

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Oh my goodness!  I was scrolling through my Facebook feeds today and came across a post from Fat Quarter Shop.  They have a Camp Peanuts collection that would be PERFECT for Alex for the RV.  Of course I had to order it!  I’m thinking I’ll cut the panel apart and use it in blocks, but I’ll have to wait until it gets here to figure out the pattern I want to use.  Depending on the size of them I might even know one already, but I’ll have to wait and see.  If it ships today I’ll have it on Friday, if not it’ll be here Monday.  Can’t wait to see it and get a quilt made for Alex!

Wiggly Whimsy – Row 2

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So I had some free time over the weekend and decided to work on another row of the Wiggly Whimsy quilt.  It a sew a long and I should wait until next month to work on it, but it’s such easy stitching!  I might just keep working on these as time allows, just because it is so easy to do.  Plus as usual I can’t wait to see what it looks like completed! I need to finish some of these UFO’s and this seems to be such an easy one to finish!  Then it can sit in my to be quilted pile for awhile!  This might be another good one to hand quilt, we’ll see when I get the other ones completed.

Quilting Stencils

Final selections
Final Selections
Quilting Stencils
Quilting Stencils

Well, I couldn’t stop thinking about what to use on the ribbon table runner for quilting.  So I started looking through my stencils and my Quilting Designs software by Electric Quilt.  I found a couple of stencils that would work for the large areas, but not for the 4″ square sections.  So I started looking through the software.  I have 7 of the 8 volumes of stencils, I think I have the books for 5 of those.  I found a few that I think will work.  So I got a few pictures so I can ponder it while I finish the table topper I’m working on.  What do you think about my selections?  Now I’ll need to figure out the best way of marking the ones I’ve printed out on the runner!

 

Design Wall Monday – 2/18/13

Hexagon Diamonds 2-18-13Manged to get another row completed in the last week.  I’m really liking how this looks.  I’ve picked the next 5 diamonds for the next row and will be starting them this evening. I was wondering how I was going to be able to get a decent picture since this is getting so big.  Usually I stand on a chair and hold the camera (or phone) as high as I can to take the picture.  Lucky me, hubby decided that I could get a new phone and we picked up iPhone 5’s yesterday.  The new panorama feature on the camera is so cool!  Took me a few tries to get a good picture, only because Alex wanted to play on the quilt since it was on the floor.  Hoping to get the next row completed in a week just because I want to get this done so badly.  I want to see the whole thing done and quilt it.  I know exactly how I’ll quilt it on the machine.

Hand Quilted 2-18-13In between working on the diamonds and sewing in my office I’ve been working on my hand quilting.  I now have the entire center of this completed and I need to move the hoop to work on another section.  It’s not a big quilt and I’ll use it as a table topper somewhere when it’s completed.  I am thinking about doing another test piece before I start working on the first hexagon quilt, just so I can work on the rocking motion some more.  I have a table runner using my favorite equinox fabrics I made back in 2008 that I still haven’t quilted.  So I’m thinking of hand quilting it and doing cables or something in the ribbons.  I have some time to figure out exactly what I’ll do, but I have pulled the runner out of the closet so I can start thinking about it.  I think I even have some equinox sitting here I can use for the back!

Back soon with more finishes!  This is linked to Design Wall Monday at patchworktimes.com

Hexagon Diamonds Update

Hexagon Diamonds 21313 I only have 1 more diamond to put together and I’ll be able to attach the next row to the main body of the quilt.  I might pick a different half diamond though since it is using the same fabric as one of the diamonds.  They are all ready, just need the 5 black pieces added on and those are fairly easy.

Tshirts Spent the afternoon working on tshirts for my sister’s preschool.  I do the shirts for the staff.  They added 3 colors this time, the lime, orange and hot pink – the others are their usual colors.  As long as I have them finished by Saturday I’m golden, my sister will be coming over and I can send them with her.  Otherwise Alex and I will just have to take a trip out to see Aunt Kimmie!

I’m such a bonehead!  Last night I was working on my hand quilting and bent a needle. So at bedtime I went in my office and was looking for the tub where I have an old mint container where I toss all my broken/bent needles/pins, old rotary blades, etc.  As I’m rooting around for the container my finger hit the rotary cutter with a pinking blade.  It’s not too bad of a cut, just a funky shape because of the pinking blade.  I need to put that thing somewhere else!  I’m also getting another mint container from the hubby, to keep with my hand work in the living room.  Very happy with the way the hand quilting is coming, I need to start thinking about what backing to use for my hexagon quilt so I can get it basted and ready to put in the hoop.  I think I need to buy some batting too, need to see if I have anything large enough.  I have a packaged one, that was supposed to be for our flannel bed quilt, but now I’m thinking that since that one is all flannel (even the backing!) that I don’t want any batting in it.  I think we’ll be warm enough without it.  So I’ll be able to use that batting for the hexagon diamonds or the hexagon quilt, it will work with either but probably be better for hexagon diamonds since the batting is king sized and hexi diamonds is going to be queen sized.  Oh heck, I’ll just get some batting at Joann’s for the hexagon quilt, now that decision is made I just need to figure out a backing!

Guild meeting is tomorrow night, can’t wait to show off my first hand quilting piece!!!

Design Wall Monday – 2/11/13

Hexagon Diamonds 2-11-13

I’ve been working hard the last week to get more put together on Hexagon Diamonds.  I officially have 3 rows completed and I’ve started working on the fourth row.  All the pieces I need are basted and ready to be sewn into diamonds.  I’m hoping to have this fourth row completed by mid week, just so I can get started on the next one!  There are 13 rows in the quilt and if my calculations are correct from the EQ yardage sheet, 2,477 hexagons.

I ordered a few things from 123 Stitch last week, some more of my thimble pads, some thread heaven, ultra thimble and a book of cross stitch ornaments.  I’m thinking they might be nice to work on while we are camping.  I like to have multiple projects when we go on vacation, mainly because after awhile you want to work on something different.  I thought these might be good for Xmas presents this year.  If I don’t get them done, it’s ok there’s always next year!  The tracking shows that it is delivered, which means it’s in the mailbox.  So hubby will bring it in when he gets home from work, I have to wait until 6!  I might take a walk with Alex when he gets up from  his nap to get the mail, we’ll see how cold and windy it is when he gets up.

I need to get working on the order for my sister’s preschool/day care, I’ll be back soon!

Odds and Ends

Decided to take a trip out to the nearest Hobby Lobby today.  I was not impressed.  There was a lot of frames, flower “stuff” and knick-knacks.  Not much of a fabric selection for quilting, a few cross stitch kits that I would love to get, but they were $42 each and I just couldn’t justify it right now.  I didn’t find any of the items I was looking for, which means I’ll need to order them online now.  I’ve been looking for some vinyl numbers (years) for a project that I found on Pinterest.  I finally remembered that one of my friends has a cricut and I’ve asked her if she can do what I need.  I doubt I’ll go back there, especially since it’s almost a 45 minute drive from my house.

Tumbler RunnersBack before Christmas I was playing with a new Go die I had ordered and decided to use up some scraps to make a runner for the island.  While I finished the top, I never got it quilted before the holidays and just put it on the island as a top.  I managed to quilt it in January but hadn’t sewn the binding down to the back.  I also had a pile of additional pieces cut out to make a smaller runner for the dining room table and got that put together and quilted over the weekend.  So my Super Bowl project was sewing down binding on them.    Took me a few days to get all that binding sewn down, but I’m loving how they look!  I used scraps for the back and for the first time I sewed pieces of scrap batting together to make pieces big enough.  It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be, and I used up a bunch of littler pieces.  For smaller projects this will be a great way to use up all those little pieces.  I just can’t see doing it for a larger quilt, I’d rather buy the right size instead of piecing it together.

Paper Pieces Order

I also spent a little money this week!  I decided that instead of printing and cutting more hexagon pieces myself (which would involve getting more paper the right thickness), I’d buy some from paperpieces.com.  I ordered Sunday, they shipped Monday and I got them on Wednesday!  Can’t beat that!  I ordered the biggest pack of hexagons, and I also bought some diamonds and triangles that will match up with the 1″ hexagons, just because I have ideas in my head I’d love to try out sometime.  If I was ordering I might as well get all the pieces I wanted at the same time.  I need to punch holes in the center of the hexagons so I pin them like all the ones I’ve made myself.  I’m trying to decide if I want to make all the hexagon diamonds first or put them into the quilt as I make them.  Having this many hexagon papers will help, but I still don’t think it’s going to be enough.  One of these days I need to count how many pieces are going to be in this quilt.  If my calculations are correct there are 1605 hexagons in the diamonds (half and full).  I have no clue how many hexagons are in the pathways, that will take a lot longer to count up!  Maybe this will be enough hexagons.  I also need to take all the papers out of my first hexagon quilt so I can use those too, that will be the next one that I hand quilt, if I can ever get back to my second practice piece.

I’m thinking about joining a hexagon swap, I can’t commit to the current one because I need to get other items done first.  I’m just concerned about the way they baste, I’d like to baste my way!

Oh well, things to do around the house, hopefully I’ll be back with some updates soon.

Hexi diamonds update!

DSCN0449_1I have all the half hexi diamonds completed! So excited that these are done!  Now I can start the full diamonds, I only have 47 left to do! 🙂  Just spent a little bit of time looking on paperpieces.com and ordered some 1″ hexagons papers, 1″ diamonds and 1″ equilateral triangles.  I figured if I was ordering I might as well get it all now.  I figure I need the hexagons now and I just don’t feel like cutting those out anymore, I’ve done enough of that.  Besides, I don’t have anymore of the paper I was using anyway.

Gotta run, I have a table runner to see if I can quilt before Alex gets up from his nap, then I can work on binding tonight during the Super Bowl!

Wiggly Whimsy Row 1

Well, I have the first row of the Wiggly Whimsy quilt completed, only took me a couple of hours to do. (Kept having to take care of other things or it wouldn’t have taken me so long!). It was so simple since everything was already cut out!  I can’t wait to see the whole thing put together, I’m really liking the way the black makes all the colors pop, although I knew it would since I have other quilts I’m working with a black background!  I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait until next month to work on the next row, we’ll see what happens since I have a bunch of other quilts I should be working on.

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I’m continuing to work on hexagon diamonds and I’ve started hand quilting the next practice piece. I will be concentrating on hexagon diamonds though because I need that one finished before we go camping!  I have a few others that I can work on at the machine while Alex is napping, in fact I’m going to see if I can put one of them together now, it’s been cut out for at least a month.