Sew Sunshine

Wednesday again? I have had an interesting week and sort of lost track of time. I tend to sew on something, cut out something, quilt something or just dream of doing something. Between all of that, I watch dvd's and tv series in one swoop and walk while listening to audio books. When one of those options is out of commission it seems everything is off. I am having a huge glitch with my tv and dvd player. Suddenly they won't work together so my little movie break has come to a halt. Today my cd player is giving me fits and it is the one in my sewing room so I am all discombobulated. ;) However, it has not stopped the progress I am making on some blocks I am doing for the Mod Olive QAL over at SewKindofWonderful.  HERE   Two more Skillbuilder blocks are ready to quilt QAYG style:   The second block is not from the Skillbuilder persay. I used the pixel block style again but made this much smaller to sort of make a wonky type of log cabin block. I am substitu

I was all ready to write about my progress on my diversionary little log cabin blocks I started last week. If you remember I was side-tracked from the project at hand and just wanted to sew...so I made mini logs. (even had my husband sew a few logs on) :) ***** Update: I entered this log cabin finish in the FB group sponsored by  SewCanShe  and won! I am so so happy and shocked...but happy!!woohoo Well today I was quilting on it at 6 a.m. and by lunch time I was thinking I would just sew the binding on...then Voila! it is done.   Trying out the rolling foot...let's just say "LOVE IT"! I am trying not to let the imperfections of my FMQing stop me...I just kept quilting. The log blocks in the center were pretty bulking so I just did minimal circles there. I faced a bit of my 'negative space' fear by making up part of the circles out in no where land. I sort of had this lacy look going so I went with it.  And...this is what I ended up with. So much

  Sometimes when I think too long on a problem quilt or a hard project I feel the need to just sew. I happen to have some fat quarters that I came across when straightening up around my cutting table (another diversion from hard project).  I can't remember ever making a log cabin quilt before. I starting playing with the fat quarters and on such a small scale comes these little 4.5" blocks.    I like it so far. I have 36 little blocks. I am not sure if I will keep making them or stop there. There are lots of layout possibilities. Right now I am leaning towards a star shape. I don't know...this was just a diversion. I think I am ready to get back to the other projects now so this will sit on the back burner a bit.  There is a group on FB from  SewCanShe that is making things this week with mini log cabin blocks. So fun. (it might motivate me)??? For now off to work on what I was working on before I got distracted!! :) Linking up with Lorna with Let's

Yes it is Wednesday already and I am making some progress on my "Goodnight Irene" quilt top. Terry at  Terry's Treasures is hosting a sew-along for this quilt.    So here are my blocks that I am working on. I am having some trouble with the seams matching but overall the blocks are not too bad.    I decided to use some red, white and blue fat quarters I had on hand (you know ...use what you have instead of buying so much..haha). I am sashing it with navy kona. The random piecing is working well. Instead of cutting all the squares I stripped groups of 4 together and then cut and arranged. The 16 patches went quilt. The x blocks not so much! I also had trouble with 1/4" seams and scant. I need to be more careful and hopefully lesson was learned. I will see how loud I scream when I am putting the rows together. :) Also linking up with Lee at  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

  Here it is midweek and I am fighting the urge to start something new before working on an old. I stopped and took a breath yesterday and told myself I can stick to a new years goal longer than a week...I hope anyway! I did not set a goal down in writing, but in my mind I would like to sew something old (or at least work on it) before starting something new.  With that in mind my WIP for this Wed. are a few of my Skill Builder BOMs at Pile o Fabric with Alyssa Lichner .  I modified a couple blocks to my liking and have them sandwiched and ready to quilt. I think I will try to push through a few more blocks and then set them up to quilt all a once.  I am just happy to get at them again as I have fabric set aside for this BOM in several places and I need the space.  I am linking up with WIP Wednesday @ Lee with Freshly Pieced  

I am hoping it is something like riding a bike, tying your shoes or boiling water.  I think "sewing mojo" needs to be nourished as much as possible but sometimes life just happens and there is nothing you can do about it.  Earlier this month I had a strange neck injury that I had to baby. I was on such a sewing high the last few months that when this hit all I could do was walk around and look at all I wanted to be doing.  Then a family member got sick and my focus had to change again. In order to keep any kind of mojo I tried not to let it all get me down.  Good thing 'we' quilters know the importance of seeing and touching our favorite fabrics for therapy and comfort.  :) After much study of my project goal for the month of July with  A  year of Lovely finishes at Freshly pieced and Sew Bittersweet designs  I finally just took my own advice and jumped in to the project and ended up with a "Lovely" finish for July. My goal was to figure out how to use th

Since it is only the 3rd of July and I already have a finish, I am going to talk about that first.  I recently checked out the book " Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe" published by Martingale.  Angela Nash over at mythreesonsknit.blogspot.com made the StarFlower quilt design and I loved it. Here is mine:   I used a few fat quarters and white kona. The finish is 60" x 60" approx. and I straight line quilted in white Aurfil. My biggest machine quilt yet.  Love the 'tweet street' backing too.  On to my WIP for this week in July:  Linking up with Lee at  Freshly Pieced  hosted today by Stacey at  The tilted Quilt . Stacey is a fellow New Blogger on the New Blogger Blog hop.  For my entry in the Blog Hop go  HERE  and that will lead you to other New Bloggers this week.  I am trying to get my Retro Ruby quilt done for the QAL finish tomorrow.  Um....this is where I am as of right now. Yikes Batman!!!  June Report card: June 14th I finis

   Today is WIP day with Lee over at Freshly Pieced . For the last few weeks I have not been participating because I have been losing and so falling behind on my WIP's. Okay enough whining! I am taking charge and working on getting caught up. Today I am working on my Skill Builder blocks from Alyssa over at  Pileofabric .  Finally all three of these are put in their boarders and ready to quilt. I also have the hexi block (below)done that needs to be quilted too. I am going to watch the FMQing tips and after lunch hit the machine. I want to get them done because tomorrow two more blocks will be up to make.  Slow and steady wins the race??????? :)

  Geta over at  Geta's Quilting Studio  is hosting a "Quilter's Favorites"  linky party.  I am new the blogging world and trying to get back into sewing and quilting.  I am not an expert in any way but I just used one of Geta's tutorials and so I thought it appropriate for me to participate.  I have learned so many things from the wonderful blogging world. Bloggers are so caring and accessible.  They tend to share freely of their work and designs as well as tips and tricks. Often there are challenges to get you to try something out of your realm and there is always something to learn.  Some Favorite Tools: I do have some favorite tools that I have found to be wonderful.    I love the Havel's Sewing Embroidery Scissors - It has a curved up blade so you can get really close to the fabric to snip threads. I just won this from my quilt guild last week and used it on the challenge piece I made this week (using Geta's tutorial) I love the Fr