Good Reads

I absolutely loved the book we read for Book Club this past month.  It was so witty and very unique.  It's called:

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Here's the summary:

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

At first I was a little skeptical about the book, because I knew that the book was composed entirely of letters sent from character to character, but it got more and more interesting as the book continued.  I loved that the book was about a pretty heavy topic and yet the book wasn't depressing at all.  I found myself laughing out loud a bunch of times.  I fell in love with the characters, and I loved that there was a love story intertwined into the story.  I can't tell you how fun and distinct a lot of the characters are that live on the island of Guernsey.  I loved them and almost felt like I could travel there and meet all of them- the small town humor was fabulous.  I'm so sad this author pasted away, because I would have loved more books from her.    

Sock Monkeys Have Never Been So Cool

I love this quilt - the design is simple and it really brings out the fun prints. 

 I loved the loopy lines so much I did 3 different sections of loopy line quilting all over the quilt. 

 A little close up...














I kept the back simple and fuzzy, comfy cozy.  It is for a baby after all. 

Winnings

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm finally getting around to posting about the Giveaway Day at Sew Mama Sew.  I was able to give away a mini-quilt with some scraps, and was lucky enough to win from 2 people!!

The first was hand-dyed fabrics from the Quilting Gallery.  How fun is that?!  I'm already planning on using them for the next project at the Free Motion Quilting Project. 

The second is from My Creative Corner all the way from Norway- how cool!!  I am definitely going to have to make a few of these oven mitts - they're so cute!  And I'm still debating about what I want to use the fabric for - I really like the colors.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend- I have 2 quilts to bind this weekend, so I'm pretty pumped.  I should have a couple of finishes to show you next week.  :)

Quilting Away

I am super pleased with myself- don't worry - no sense of false modesty here!  My son pulled some "interesting" pieces/parts off of my sewing machine over the weekend, and I somehow managed to put it all back together by my lonesome.  It took some finagling, but she's up and running again.  Don't ask me how I did it, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to replicate it again if I tried.

This week has been rather productive even with the machine hiccup.  I started a baby quilt for my cousin.  The Sock Monkeys still make me smile.  (Full post here) and it's now layered, pinned and all ready to be quilted.

 I also finished quilting my Skill Builder Quilt #2.  I'm in love with it - I'm not going to lie.  I practiced the Loopy Lines for the Free Motion Quilting project (full post here), and then finished up the rest of the blocks.

  Other projects
Skill Builder Blocks- I'm behind a block
Christmas blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging- no progress

Blogger BOM - Up to date

Do.Good Stitches - Up to date

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 7

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.

Loop De Loop

This week's Quilt Along design is SO much fun!  I giggled a little when Leah asked if we were alright with crossing lines, because I'm always crossing lines when I'm not supposed to, so I was thrilled that not only can the lines cross, but they're meant to be crossed.

I did one of the inner borders with the double loops that we practiced:

I love using it, but my question for Leah is:

What's the best way to maneuver in the corners with these loops?  

As you can see I had some issues with my corners, and I would like to improve them for next time.

Here are a couple of blocks that I did with Loopy Lines:

 My personal favorite:

 And a picture of the back:

Progress Report

Well, our air conditioner broke yesterday - I almost cried.  There's nothing quite like having a sauna for a home.  Someone's coming over this afternoon to take a look at it, but I'm already cringing at the $$$ that will be spent by the end of the day.  Such is life, I suppose.

Anyway, enough about my state of melting- here's my progress report for the week:

1- Skill Builder Block #34- we could do a Surveyor's Compass or New York Beauty.  I chose New York Beauty #5 (with an added border to make the 12.5" I needed).  I wanted to see what all the hub bub was about with these New York Beauties and I must say I'm officially now a fan.  Not only are they really pretty, but they're a lot of fun to make.  I actually enjoyed the paper piecing.  Who would of thought?  Not me.

2- I quilted Circuit Board on 3 of my blocks in my Skill Builder quilt #2 .  Full post here.

3- I also cleaned out my closet and cleaned up my fabric stash, so it's looking lovely again.  I know my husband appreciates this accomplishment, because now he doesn't feel like it's taking over the closet anymore. :)

And that's about it, folks.  I only spent 2 evenings sewing this past week, so there's no progress on anything else.

Other projects
Christmas blocks - no progress

Halloween Wall Hanging- no progress

Blogger BOM - Up to date

Do.Good Stitches - Up to date

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 6

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.

Cleaning Out

Since I missed the memo about Spring cleaning we'll just have to settle for Summer de-cluttering.  It's a stormy day outside, so it's a perfect excuse to clean out the place.  I organized all of the closets upstairs, organized my fabric stash, cleaned up my laundry room, and finished off with the 2 junk drawers.  Not bad for a Monday morning!  I didn't even know that much stuff could fit in the desk drawer:

I got cleaning fever when I cleaned out our file cabinet the other day.  I couldn't believe the amount of paper that could go.  Once you start - you just can't stop.  Getting rid of stuff feels so good!  Now if only someone would cook dinner for me.  :)

FMQ- Circuit Board

This week's Free Motion Quilt Along was Circuit Board.  I really like this one a lot.  I quilted 3 of my Skill Builder Blocks:

 Perfect?  No, but I'm happy with them, because I was experimenting a lot with pedal speed - Thanks, Leah for letting us hear your machine as you quilted, because it helped me a lot. 

 I chose 2 blocks that had straight lines I could use as guides and then branched out a little with the 3rd one being a star.

 A picture of the back:

Inspiration in Odd Places

My cousin is having a baby boy this summer.  She has 2 girls, so this is her first venture into the world of boys.  I've been meaning to make a quilt for her for a while now, but other things keep coming up.  Her style is very retro - she LOVES vintage sheets.  She actually sells clothing made from vintage sheets here - cute stuff.

I don't own any vintage sheets, but I wanted to do something that's still true to her personality, and then I noticed this cute Sock Monkey sitting in the playroom.  The kiddos both came home with their own sock monkey from Grandma & Grandpa Thompson's home on our last visit and I thought, "That's perfect!"

My inspiration led me to Moda's Funky Monkey fabric.  It's seriously adorable!  I have a few thoughts about the design, but they're still bouncing around in my head.  I have some FMQ to practice this evening, but I'm hoping to start this quilt soon. 

Hope you're enjoying the beginnings of summer.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Blocks A Plenty

I love when there's actually some progress to report.  I got 5 blocks done this week- I'm all caught up!

do. Good Stitches June Blocks:  They're based on Elizabeth's Kaleidoscope Blocks.  I always wanted to try these blocks, so I was excited. 

 One turned out well, and the other I wasn't as thrilled with - it just wouldn't square up, but the more I messed with it the worse it got, so I just decided to leave it alone.  The points aren't exact, but I'm trying to let go - Walk away, Becky - Walk away!

Blogger BOM: up to date - blogged about here.

Skill Builder: got the last 2 blocks done (blogged about here), and I also got the second quilt back done and it's all layered and ready to be quilted.














My favorite block of the week was probably the Hexie Flower:

I also still need a couple of people for the Purple Charm quilt, Chain Letter-ish thing.  :)  You send out 14 total 5" charms and the hope is that you get 72 charms in the mail.  The only requirement is that the charms have some purple in them somewhere.  If you're interested leave a comment or email me.  For full details go here.  You know you want to do it! Tee hee.




 

Other projects

Christmas blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging- no progress

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 6

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.

A Night At the Spa

Well, not quite a spa, but it was Spa Night for the Activity Days girls.  I've totally slacked on my Activity Days posts lately.  I kept forgetting my camera.  They've been doing a lot of fun things, too.  These are the 8-11 year old girls at my church.  They meet twice a month for an activity, and I'm in charge of it.  They've done sock dodge ball, made cards for people, heart attacked doors, did a service scavenger hunt, dyed eggs, and there were more, but they've slipped my mind at the present.

This past Activity Day they were invited by the Young Women (ages 12-18) to come have a Spa Night in their pajamas.  The YW painted their finger and toe nails, and educated me in the art of Crackle.  It's only been 2 years since I taught Middle School and I'm already out of the loop.  Apparently Crackle is the "thing" to do with your nails.  You paint your nails like normal and then apply a thin coat of white crackle on top - it actually cracks and then you see the color in the cracks.  Now you can feel hip and up to date on your nail polish trivia.  Tee hee.

The most amusing part of the night for me was watching the girls apply a homemade oatmeal facial completed with cucumbers.  You should have heard the squeals when the oatmeal made its first contact with their face!  For some reason none of them liked my idea of just eating the oatmeal and cucumbers off their face.  Good times.

Up to Date & Some Charming Along

After 2 weeks I've finally caught up with my blocks for Skill Builder.

#32- Hexagon Flower:

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I actually enjoyed hand sewing those hexies.  Don't get me wrong- I'm not planning a hexagon quilt anytime soon, but it was a fun, little project.  I also starched those puppies to within an inch of their life to make the applique easy, but hey - it worked.

#33- I took the easy way out and did the LeMoyne Star (and I still had issues):

 For some reason this time round with the Y-seams did not go quite as well for me.  You'll notice this block does not lay flat (and this is the best I got it after ripping out seams close to 10 times).  Oh well, it's done, and I'm moving on with my life.  I'm happy to be up to date again.  I don't like being behind - there's just a nagging feeling of pressure when you know there are blocks that you haven't done yet.

I'm linking up to BOMs Away. 


Meanwhile, I got a sort of chain letter for a Purple Charm Quilt in the mail this past week.  I need to ask 5 more people to be a part of this tree, and I thought before I asked people I would see if any of my lovely, quilty readers particularly wanted to be included in the fun.  I'll copy a couple paragraphs of the letter to give you an idea of what it is about (I'm obviously leaving off the list of people's names/addresses for my post) :)  If this interests you leave a comment and/or email me your address, so I can send the letter to you with the charms. 

Purple Charm Quilt

This is a quilt tree – no money involved, just postage stamps, and a lot of fun!  Please send 2 six-inch squares of purple (or purple in it) cotton fabric to the first person on the list below.

Then remove the name you sent the squares to and put your name below mine.  Next, copy this letter and send it along with 2 six-inch squares of purple fabric to six other people.  All together you will have cut 14 squares of fabric.  You will probably get at least 72 squares, which is enough to make a nice, cute, purple quilt.

It will be fun to see where the squares come from and what the various materials will look like.  The best part will be to gather up all the individual pieces and create a quilt from them.

Bedazzled

I finished the May Block for Bloggers BOM on the last day of the month. :)  It's the Jewel Box Block and I really liked this one a lot.

I had a moment of panic, because about 3/4 the way through this block my machine stopped working.  The upper thread wouldn't pick up the bobbin thread no matter what I tried.  I cleaned out the machine, and all that jazz, but I found the suggestion to re-thread the upper thread on the internet (what did we do before google?), and it worked.  It must have just been thread tension issues.  Phew.  This machine has been given me so much grief lately I was really worried this time around.

My Little Helper - aka The Little Lady

The 1st 9 blocks all together:

Meanwhile, I've got my hexies all prepped and ready to hand sew for Skill Builder Block #32.  I've seen a ton of hexagons on blogs, but confess they never interested me, because I'm not much of a hand sewer, but I promised myself I would try all of the blocks, and so we'll see how they turn out.  Luckily, the flower only requires 7 hexies - I couldn't imagine doing a whole quilt of them!