Slow Stitching Sunday

I plan on doing some machine quilting today, but later tonight while the kids play and after they go to bed I will be relaxing in my chair working on more Dear Jane EPP blocks. Yesterday I finished up all the basting on Row B (except for the missing pieces on B6 that are being mailed) and I managed to finish 2 blocks last night while I caught up on shows with the hubby. I enjoy watching tv with him and being able to work on a project that means something to me. Right now it’s either Dear Jane EPP, hexie insanity or knitting – although I haven’t worked on any knitting in awhile!

I have a table runner to quilt, and I’m thinking of trying to stipple or meander – I did a little of it yesterday when I made a zipper pouch for Alex and I think I can make it look halfway decent. I also have to finish unpinning and rebasting a charity quilt that I started last week. I had it all the way basted and realized that it wasn’t lined up properly, the backing just wasn’t right. I’ll quilt that one with all straight lines because it doesn’t need anything more, it’s just a simple top!

Linking up to Slow Stitching Sunday.


Updates!

Rainbow hexie swap 021717I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was participating in some hexie swaps on Instagram. The other night I finished basting the Rainbow Swap hexies and I’m just waiting for all the information for shipping (swap hasn’t actually closed yet!). I can’t wait to see what’s coming back to me, I actually have some ideas for a project for these hexies, but nothing is firm yet. I really didn’t need another swap, BUT it’s an addiction and I signed up for another one. Fabrics have been pulled and approved, cut up and pinned to the papers and are ready to be basted as time permits. 80 more hexies that will be added to my collection!

Hexie Insanity 021717Since I was already prepping hexies for the swap I decided to get some more ready for basting for Hexie Insanity, which hasn’t been touched in awhile. I pulled all the completed diamonds out and made sure my spreadsheet was correct as to how many of each color I have completed. I need to make 5 of each color to have enough for the project. I love how this is going to look when it’s all sewn together!

I’m moving along on Dear Jane EPP, Row B has been started and 4 blocks are now completed. I’m working on pulling the fabrics and prepping pieces for the rest of the row today, I found some papers missing for B6 and paperpieces.com is going to be sending me replacements. I like working with companies like this, they are SO helpful!!

Cassie fabrics 021717Last week I ordered some neutral Moda Marbles for the Dear Jane quilt backgrounds. I already had some that I’ve been using and wasn’t sure which color it was so I ordered 2 that looked pretty close. Turns out I actually ordered the 2 colors that I have and I’m going to be mixing between the 2 as backgrounds for the blocks. Anyway, Cassie wanted to play with the brand new fabrics that came Wednesday and I didn’t want her messing with them, but I said she could play with my 2.5″ square bin. She loved it! She was sorting colors, picking colors out and showing me what it was in sign language (she’s learning it in day care) and just plain having fun. Hopefully one day she’ll be a quilter like mommy, but it’s totally up to her!

Linking up to Sarah Did it! and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Design Wall Monday – February 13, 2017

A12
A12

So last night I finished the last block in Row A, A12. I was quite happy with how it turned out and it went really fast. So I started right in and worked on adding the sashing and cornerstones and attaching it to the rest of the row. I’m happy to say that Row A is completely done! I need to start taking the papers out and I want to label each piece as I take them out in case I decide to make another one of these in the future! Since I figured I’d finish the row last night I spent a little bit of time yesterday afternoon working on prepping the next 2 blocks of Row B. They both look to be easy blocks, in fact the first one is applique and should go pretty fast. I’ll have to see if I can prep the sashing and cornerstones today so that it’s all ready for the blocks. I like putting them all on as I go, so I don’t have to do it all at the end. Looking at the rest of Row B, I hope I can get them done quickly and get started on Row C so I can catch up before the next row gets here. I think the hardest part is picking out the fabrics for the blocks! I have so many Moda Marbles to use that it’s hard to decide what I want to use for each block. I just started signups for the Fat Quarter Exchange at guild and I have requested Moda Marbles, so maybe I can get some more colors to use! I now have 2 quilts that I’m using these fabrics for, the Dear Jane EPP and my hexagon insanity quilt. I’ve been so busy with Dear Jane that I haven’t worked on hexie insanity in awhile. If I can get caught up then I’ll have time to work on that again.

Row A

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Dear Jane EPP Update

I have more blocks done!! 🙂 I’ve been working hard this last week to get Row A finished and I’m happy to say I have only 1 block left to do. It’s all prepped, I just need to sit down and work on it. I finished up A9 last night and I LOVE how it looks! In fact I’m loving the whole row! Looking forward to moving on to Row B, I’m behind since Row C just got here this week. But that’s ok, I’m just having fun picking out the fabric for each block as I go. I hope to have another update in the next day or so with the entire row put together.

Linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy’s Quilts.

Hexie Swaps

xoxohexieswap 020417I got some squishy mail today! Oh I love some of the hexies I got from the XOXOHexieSwap! My absolute favorite is the one with the cat (top middle) and the skeleton heart one next to it. These will be added to my pile of Valentine squares that I bought on ebay a couple of years ago. Recently at Joann’s I found a couple of cute fabrics for Valentine’s Day that were on sale and I bought a quarter of a yard of each of them for hexies. Some day when I have time (HA!) I will put all of these together into a wallhanging for the holiday.

floralshexieswapThursday I mailed out the hexies for the floralshexieswap, they should be there on Monday. I won’t see those back for 2-3 weeks I think. I didn’t think I had that many floral fabrics – but I found some in in 2.5″ square bin and some yardage in the cupboard. I even had enough to make sure that some of the fabrics were made into hexies for me to go with the ones that come back!

Rainbowswap2 020417 As if I didn’t have enough hand work to do, I signed up for another hexie swap this week. This one is a rainbow swap and I signed up for 2 sets. I posted this on Instagram once I had all my colors pulled and cut out. I haven’t started basting them yet, the shipping deadline is April 10th, so I have plenty of time!

Off to keep working on Valentine’s items for the kids parties at school!

Dear Jane EPP – One Monthly Goal

A2
A2

I’ve been busy working on Dear Jane EPP blocks and finished another one last night. 40 pieces in this block, but it wasn’t too hard. I have A1 prepped and last night I got all the sashing and cornerstones prepped for this row. I got an email yesterday that Row C has shipped, I have a total of 5 blocks left in Row A! I’m not worried about the rows, I’m just going to keep working on them as I can and hopefully I’ll catch up soon!

floralshexieswapI also finished working on basting hexies for the FloralsHexieSwap that I signed up for recently. 30 hexies that I mailed today to Utah to the swap leader. Can’t wait to see what comes back! I’m thinking of signing up for another swap, this time it’s a rainbow swap. I need to see if I have the 6 colors needed and they need to read as solid. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to look through the stash and see what I have, I have until February 20th to make a decision.

Pinwheel tabletopper
Pinwheel Table Topper

I’ve seen quite a few people posting about One Monthly Goal (OMG) lately, so I decided that maybe I needed to do it too! So based on my UFO list for guild, I’m going to say that this months goal is to get the pinwheel table topper  (made in 2008!) and the circle table runner (made last year) quilted. The pinwheel table topper is already pinned and ready to be quilted, and I’ve already cut backing and batting for the table runner, it just needs pinned and quilted. I can’t wait to get the runner finished, I had it on the breakfast bar last fall during Alex’s birthday party and it got icing on it, and I can’t wash it until it’s quilted! Linking to Elm Street Quilts.

Circle Table Runner 020217
Circle Table Runner

Dear Jane EPP – Commission Quilts

A4

I finished 2 more Dear Jane EPP blocks last night while catching up on shows with the hubby. Kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s, so we had lots of time to do all our show watching. Even watched a movie! A4 was an easy block, there looks to be a bubble in the middle, but that will ease once the papers get taken out. A11 was a bit harder to get everything to fit in together, again I think it will flatten out more once all the papers are taken out. Down to 6 blocks and this row is complete!

A11

I also finished the commissioned quilts I’ve been working on, they need to go through the wash so I can get them shipped out. I will take pictures once they are out of the dryer in the next day or so.

Back in October I joined a hexie swap. All the hexies needed to have words on them. I had gone to Miller’s Dry Goods and bought 3 fabrics that I loved and sent all my hexies in. We just got our hexies back, I have 120 individual hexies with words! She sent some awesome goodies with them, I love the little button! I’m waiting on 2 more swaps to get sent and I just signed up for another one! I don’t know what I’m going to do with all these hexies yet, I can wait until I come up with a plan though!

More EPP Finishes

I finished another Dear Jane EPP block the other day, and almost finished another last night. So right now I have 5 of the 13 blocks in the first row completed, soon to be 6. I’m a little behind, but that’s ok, this is totally a long term project! I’m enjoying the process!

Everyone in the house, except Alex, was sick over the weekend and I couldn’t get into my office to prep another Dear Jane EPP block, so I worked on hexie insanity instead. Just 3 more of these to do and I’ll need to restock my container with more hexies. Still a LONG way to go on this project too, but it doesn’t bother me in the least!

Today I’m working on the labels for the 2 commission quilts and attaching the binding to the front so this weekend I can work on hand stitching it to the back. I’d like to get these shipped out next week if possible! So back to work!!

More finishes!

I’ve been busy this week! I pulled out a table runner that was already basted and just needed quilted. I still need to wash it and get the markings out of it, but I like how it looks. I went out of my comfort zone and decided to try something other than straight line quilting and went with corner to corner arcs. After marking the first few columns I started doing the rest without marking and it wasn’t as hard as I thought. I have a lot of UFO’s to quilt, maybe I can do some custom quilting on them instead of just doing straight line quilting.

I finished another Dear Jane EPP block the other night, A10. I’m really liking doing these by hand with EPP. Doing them by machine too me forever, these are only taking me an evening while watching TV. I now have 4 of the 169 blocks done for a total of 63 pieces.

Two more diamonds are done for Hexie Insanity, only 88 more diamonds to put together! I’m still loving this project, it’ll be at least a year, if not more before it’s completed. I can’t wait to see it all together though!

Should have more finishes soon!

First Finish of 2017!

I finally finished something!! I started this a while ago, just playing with my Hunter’s Star die and didn’t know what I was going to do with it. After I finished hand sewing the binding I realized it was just about the right size for the table next to my chair in the living room. First item off my UFO challenge list!

I also managed to finish another Dear Jane EPP block last night after I got the binding finished. It’s a little off, but I think when the papers come out I think it will lie flat.

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.

Time to prep another block and possibly start working on some more quilting!