Sew Sunshine

I am getting way ahead of myself these days. I signed up for two classes in one week, I belong to 3 guilds now, and I am helping to host some improvisational sewing days at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.  The Saturday class I am taking there is with Victoria Findlay Wolfe and I can't wait!! All of this leads to little getting done and lots of things started and little getting done...did I say that already???? :) So my class yesterday was with Tony Jacobson, designer for Fons and Porter Magazine.  He designed the 3 Tours star quilt and so I signed up. It is a beautiful quilt design and very fun. However I am pretty much on a budget and wanted to do more from my stash.  Mine is not going to be the traditional look of red, white and blue but I think it will be pretty just the same.   I did manage to finish all of the star blocks and started to work on my striped section when suddenly our time was up.  So fun to sew with others so...

Well it is already 7 days into the month and I think I will need an easy finish for my goal. I have most of the front together on this one and waiting for some backing to come from Massdrop. I am not sure how I am going to quilt it at all so if you have any ideas???? pass them on to me. Keep in mind straight lines are really more my thing but that is because of a few limitations (I choose to believe that anyway) at the moment. The slide on tray for my Bernina is cracked so I am waiting for a replacement table with a big flat space to do some fmqing practice on. Not sure I want to risk anything too hard on this quilt though. This is going to be for a very special little great nephew! The pattern is Kite Flight by Robert Kaufmann. Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes @Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all Sorts

"Something from Nothing", a scrap quilt 51 x 52 1/2" Leader and ender method started early 2014 650 2 1/2 squares with bits and snips of binding ends   My goal was set HERE   I love all the bright snips of fabrics and I especially love that this was all throw away scraps. I should have made it bigger but with the mess of the stacks of 650 of these little blocks was enough AND this little guys is plenty heavy!! I spent all yesterday blocking it so it can hang on the wall. We will see if I get that done.   All stash scraps and scrappy stash backing too.  My stash is getting a work out this year and I am so happy!   My trouble on this one came with the straight line quilting. I knew I had to only quilt straight lines where the scrap corners were not. This is pretty bulky even though some of the seams are ironed open.   I started out with the idea of stitching down and then turning and stitching back up. I quickly saw ...

I finished this little "Streak of Sunshine" quilt for our local chapter of Lincoln Quilts for Kids  charity that gives quilts to kids in local hospitals.  I usually do bright but I had these soft cute peace sign prints in pink and green so went for it. Not great photos but I had to snap these before I gave it away. Hopefully it is on its way to help comfort a sick child.  Linking up to WIP Wed with Lee @Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee social with Lorna @ SewFreshQuilts

  The Final Challenge for Project Quilting @ Persimon Dreams is "Isn't it Charming".  The entire front of the quilt has to be made of 5" charms.  I happened to have two Bobbins and Bits Charm packs and 1 coordinating FQ and some I had to make some Kona snow 5" squares because all I had was white white.  I felt a bit silly cutting 5" squares then sewing them back together then cutting them in half for my border but I felt to use up the last of the charms in the border (cut these into 4ths) because it was so scrappy I needed that solid break.  I did not have a pattern for this just made wonky stars with the 5" size block an went from there. This was fun and relaxing which was great because I had limited time this week and just wanted to make it work.  All the fabric is from my stash as well as the charm packs. "Charm Stars" measures approx. 48" x 48" Made in Ne.  Straight line quilting with Aurifil off white. Bac...

One of the things on this weeks to-do list is this cute little Economy block for the SewCanShe Classic Blocks-Fresh Fabrics group HERE. I love this fabric and thought it might be fun.  See the scrap of the owl...well both ends of my fabric cut has half cut blocks. Why? Not useful but I still might use them somehow because they are too cute to throw away. Next up... A whole bunch of strips were made for this Robert Kaufman Kite Flight pattern. I don't really like how it is put together but I have started so must continue. And a recap with our winning quilts from the LateNight quilters SuperNova Friendship Block Swap. Jennifer Under the Juniper tree and I got together with our two quilts and too some fun photos.     Yep, there we are ...just two sewing sisters. So happy to have met Jen and that we live close enough to hang out! Whoop Whoop!! So many things to work on and so little time. It is National Quilting day at the International Quilt Study C...

I have to say this was another dream quilt for me. I love ogee/gula shaped quilt patterns. I found this one a while back and filed it away as a someday project.  When Kim announced the PQ challenge this week was our favorite fabric I floundered because I love so many many different fabrics. I just happened to see ogee quilt pattern by Rebecca Johnson called "French Connection" and bells and whistles went off in my head. I have/had a bag of Little Black Dress II and some other fabrics  (like grunge...mmmmm) collected that are sort of frenchy flavored bits of yum and I knew I had to put this together.  note: the sun going down made it a little washed out here. You can see the lovely gray greege colors, cream and black and beige. All of these worked really well together. This was a bit hectic this week to figure this out and do all those curves in one week but I kept at it.  I probably have a little bit less hair on my head but I love love love this quilt. ...

March already? What to pick? what to pick? I do have hundreds of these wonky squares in my leader and ender box so maybe I should just finish it? They are spreading onto the floor and on a separate cutting mat.  I am not sure if I need more sewn or if this is enough to actually be something but once I post this I guess it will be decided!! :) Linking up with ALYoF with Fiber of all Sorts and Bittersweet Designs HERE

Okay so last week I decided to work on some handwork for a change. I can have something portable and take to chat with my quilty friends. Then my wrist started feeling weird. That was okay as I now have another challenge I am working on this week. So this is the back of my handwork hexi piece. I think I am going to make a pillow out of it so it doesn't have to be too much bigger. Busy week this week so I hope to get back to this or work on my challenge. Linking up with Let's Bee Social with Lorna HERE and WIP Wed with Lee HERE  

A little bit of improv in my life lately! This is my finish for my guild challenge. A few months ago our new guild decided to try a challenge. We are in the process of making a guild banner and the "grunge" fabric used in the banner were thrown in a bag and we each picked two and had to make something. My color was blue green, and green blue...really pretty but together??  I thought about it for a few months. I kept thinking sea glass and water and then a friend posted an old picture of her and her husband looking at tide pools and I started piecing fabrics together. We could add in one neutral so I added in a wet sand color. No tide pools in this city but that didn't stop me from searching out some water. :)  Wavy line quilting over all helped with the watery look. The back is all the scrappy bits leftover from the scraps I used on the front! I really like how this came together. I love all the bits and fitting the curves in and adding splashes of color an...