Catching Up #1

I promised to catch you up on what I've been doing since March, when I had just finished the Sparkle Punch Scrappy Stars quilt top.  I did piece a back for it (no photo), and planned to get it quilted, but then (as usual) got distracted. 

In pulling fabrics for its back, I realized I had too many light blue fabrics.  So when I saw this quilt here on on Moda Bakeshop

I decided that was just the thing to use my blues, and it looked like it would be simple and quick.  The blues then became blues and greens, and then became Tessa's quilt.  Here's another view of it on the design wall.

Since the goal was to use my stash blues and greens, I decided to piece a back from stash.  Then I saw all the granny afghan blocks being made across blogland.  (For a tutorial see: http://blueelephantstitches.blogspot.com/2012/01/granny-square-quilt-block-tutorial.html and for a granny square quilt along see: http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2012/07/great-granny-along-and-giveaway.html 

The granny squares were perfect since I had several leftover green and blue strips to use for the squares.  I decided to piece a row of granny squares to extend my backing fabrics.

But I liked the granny squares so well that back idea grew and grew, and is still in process, but had to come off the design board.  Here's what it looked like when it was last photographed. 

So now I will be needing two blue and green backs!  And this project has been on hold since then.

And finally, Hooray!  I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate on Angela Pingel's blog, Cut to Pieces.  It was hard to decide between all the lovely fabrics that XO Gigi Fabrics had, but these are what I went with--I think  they'll work nicely in another project I've recently started.  You should be sure to check out all the chevron fabrics XO Gigi's got in now--definitely coveting some of them!  Thanks again to Angela and XO Gigi Fabrics! 

That's more than enough for now--stay tuned for Part 2! :)

Sparkle Punch Scrappy Stars?

Remember these?

They were cut in the hopes of reducing my ever growing stash, with the plan to join the Sparkle Punch quiltalong by Oh Fransson!  In starting this, I didn't do any planning and just assumed that the large piece of background fabric I had (actually two pieces) would be plenty, and started stitching away.  This is what I ended up with at the end of cutting:

Then I realized I was short 13 squares--after cutting this up.  (I was making mine a tad bigger than the directions.)  I had trimmed pieces leftover from each strip--not the correct size, but just big enough to "tweak" and make them work if I crossed my fingers while sewing them.  And so the pieces are now this:

(Please forgive the moving quilt--it was breezy, but I had to take the photo in between the rain episodes).  Here's an indoor shot so you can see the fabrics a bit better.  (Any name suggestions would be appreciated.)

and a close up of my favorite blocks:

I've a few other things I've been working on to show you, but this will have to do for now, as I'm off to pick up some new medication for a very special old furry friend of mine who hasn't been herself lately--hope it helps!

And be sure to hop over to Stitched in Color and enjoy all the gorgeous scrap quilts in the Festival of Scrapiness!

Blah January

Blah.  Just blah. 

January has been nice (too nice) weather wise, so I've no real excuse for feeling so blah.  I think maybe I just have too many things going on, with nothing ending up like I envisioned.  And January has never been my favorite month.  I have been busy stitching, but am having a hard time getting motivated to post about it. Please bear with me. :)

January started with the temptation of Building Houses from Scraps, so I made a few of these:

They are making one a day, and I quickly decided that one a day isn't going to be feasible for me (since I have no discipline and skip from project to project).  Further complicating these is that when I printed out the foundation block to stitch, I didn't realize that it printed at a reduced size.  So they are an oddball measurement. While there may be a few more houses--they are definitely going to be a smaller wall quilt--someday.

Then I spent several days on the road, visiting Phoenix and then my parents, while I worked on this block from King George III:

Our springlike weather helped me finish these Flower Garden blocks which are all tilting to the left (which given the way my neck feels today, I am doing too!)

Then Just Takes Two offered more temptation.  I couldn't decide on just two fabric colors--I don't think I've ever made a non-scrap quilt, and definitely not a two fabric only quilt.  Since I need to use some of the fabric I already had on hand, after much digging around, I decided to do the blocks with scraps and pieces I have from Roberta Horton plaids(1990's) .  I already have a couple ancient UFOs from the fabrics in process, so hopefully I won't end up using up something I'll need for them, but since I couldn't find the UFOs, who knows. Here are some of the blocks that were finished when the photos were taken:

I managed to do all of the January blocks in January (hooray!) and have finished the first group of February ones too, although again I had the printer at less than 100% size and now have a 12" instead of 12.5" block. Not sure that I am going to redo it or just add a strip somewhere.  (Hopefully this lesson is learned now--as long as my memory works.)   I'm using more than two fabrics in some blocks--when using what's left, you use the pieces you have in the right size.

Sometime in January I also felt the need to do some mindless cutting and piecing, and when I ran into the Sparkle Punch quilt along at the Oh, Fransson! blog, yet another new project began.  Since I had leftover strips in many of these colors, cutting was easy (and I didn't feel quite so decadent in starting another new project--I am just using up the stash after all).

I finished all the cutting and the initial stitching of star points, but am at the point where they need to be laid out on the design wall.  Unfortunately my design wall is already occupied by a few layers:

Yes, that's Hugs & Kisses somewhere under there--a project I am tired of, and so obviously avoiding.  And yes, if you are counting, THREE new projects added in January.  (and I've already started another in February!)  Guess that explains the blah feeling!

Blah, Blah and Triple Blah--Happy Stitching!