Sew Sunshine

Time to decide what I will complete this month. I am currently working on a quilt called the BarnDoor in a QAL hosted by Sarah at SarahQuilts.   I am using only fabrics I have had in my stash (for a long long time) and I came up with this. I love it! I have to make the two borders yet and I will have to piece the back because this is way bigger than I expected. Not sure what the quilty plan will be but I will make this my goal for the Feb. A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs linky party Also linking up with Sarah at Sarah Quilts for the Barndoor QAL

Here it is Friday and the end of the month. I am sad it is going so fast but I think I have some pretty good momentum going and I "hope" that takes me into Feb.  My January Finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all sorts  HERE is my Giant Starburst from the QAL over at  Canoe Ridge Creations . Original post about finish goal  HERE    It has been really windy so I have had to have my husband help but it is late in the day when he gets home so some of the pics are in the shadows. I really need to work on photography.   Yep, jumped on the IKEA fabric for this back. I love it with this. One of my favorite quilt making experiences ever! Measures 60x06 straight line quilting with Aurifil pieced binding Love the way the colors came together too! I might be using this in an upcoming contest but will have to wait and see.  Other than that I dabbled in some other crafty things. ...

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...

I finished my "Goodnight Irene" quilt from the QAL over at Terry's Treasures blog .  Since I used a few fat quarters I decided to finish most of them off on the back side. I think it works. Next I finished 2 more blocks from the Skill builder 2013 QAYG BOM. Yeah me!!!   Looks like I need some spray starch. :) So...let's see I think I have 4 more blocks to go then quilt them and sew them together. Too early to say the end is near but I am just happy with a couple more done.  Linking up with  Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!

  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 Lorn...

  Today I have a quilt top done from my "Goodnight Irene" QAL over at Terry's Treasures HERE .  This was a pretty fast and fun put together. Few issues along the way but now going to piece a back and get this baby quilted. Today...or tomorrow...or soon!!!!   I decided to go 5 x 7 rows and then add the border. I think it will be a pretty good size. I am going to use more fat quarters for the back I think. The mix of prints and colors worked pretty well overall. Indoor pic..sorry! We have had nothing but high winds the last couple of days.  Lovely looking scorched ironing board in the corner and all for your viewing pleasure.:) I will be linking up with  Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday Now I am going to let you know that yesterday was my 100th post ! whoop whoopie!!!  AND.... Dec. 31st 2013 was my 1 year Blog-anniversary ! If I would have been on task I would have hit them both pretty close to the same time. But here I am now and ready t...

  Rachel over at  Stitched in Color   is hosting a Pink Mosaic contest. I don't usually choose pink right off but I wanted to see what I could come up with. This was really fun so I wanted to share. Check out the fabrics at SewModern and see what you can come up with.    I am calling this one "Frosty Pink" and I am already thinking of what I can make with this selection. :) p.s. I hope this looks as good to everyone out there as it does to me. My monitor is old and the colors not always so accurate.

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

  So excited that Kim over at  Persimon Dreams is hosting Project Quilting again this year. It was so fun last year and I accomplished a lot.  This year I had so many ideas for this first Challenge. I wanted to do something more arty but when it came down to it I really need to make lap or baby size quilts for some of the charities I contribute to. I am sure I will do something more artsy before the challenge is over but for today I am going with a version of a scrap quilt.  The Challenge is "String Along with Me" I used the same strip quilt as you go as I did in a quilt I made last Oct following Maureen Cracknell and her Herringbone QAYG quilt tutorial.  This was is called Scrappy II  it is 43 x 45. All scrap strings, scrap batting pieces and scrap binding. It might not be very creative but my scrap box is looking so much better!  (notice the fun fabric I found for the back...lovely dotty diamonds!) Simple quilting since each st...

I can't really decide what I want to do for the first quarter FinishALong but I want to try. I hope that sort of counts. :) I think I have to start low and slow and give myself some momentum to finish a few things.  1.Skill builder BOM QAYG blocks:   I have 10 blocks sandwiched and quilted; 4 sandwiched and 6 yet to make. I would be happy to just get all the blocks done and the remaining quilted. But if I get them put together that would be great too.  2. Craftsy 2012 BOM blocks: I made all the blocks during 2012 but then didn't want to put them all together. So in 2013 I made 3 smaller quilts with some of the blocks and just have a few left to work into a small quilt.  3. Metro Medallion QAL   This quilt top is actually sewn together. I am just a scardy-cat over quilting it. I hope for some inspiration or.... a huge snow storm!  4.  Diamond quilt This top is also together, back pieced I just need to sit down and quilt it...