I Just Needed Thread

I walked into the fabric store with the intention of just getting this...

Instead I walked out with this...

I can defend my purchases, really, I can. As I was pin basting the quilt sandwich for the Soul Crushing Table Runner the other day I thought that this would have been the perfect project to try spray basting. So I put a can of Spray Baste on my mental shopping list. I went into the store, grabbed my thread and headed to the spray baste. Of course I have been wishing internally, for some time now, that I had a longer cutting ruler. One that at the very least stretch over a single fold fabric. I get ruler and cutting board envy every time I'm at the cutting station of my LQS. Lo and behold positioned right next to the spray baste were cutting rulers. And they even had one that measured a full yard. Well, I just had to pick that up too. And then I spied a ruler grip. Now, I've never used one of these before but I know a lot of people do and I thought that maybe using it would help give me some leverage when I'm cutting so what the hell, throw that in the basket too. Then I turn around and spy the latest edition of Stitch Magazine and $80 later I walked out with my thread and more toys than I need.

And as I was cutting down the Soul Crushing Table Runner last night I realized that my least favorite part of the process isn't the quilting or the basting... I think it's actually cutting the quilt down. I always lament over this part. The quilted quilts are always too long for my ruler or sometimes even my cutting mats so I worry about cutting down correctly with straight lines and proper measurements. It's always a stressful process.

But when it's done at least it means I get to move onto my favorite part... hand binding. Yippee! It's almost done!

And, even though it's not technically a "finish" since the Soul Crushing Table Runner is almost finished I'm linking it up to Sew & Tell Friday over on Amylouwho's Blog.

do. Good Stitches November Blocks

Check one more thing off the list! Last night I was able to piece the last few rows onto my second block for the do. Good Stitches {Hope} Circle. This month Emily of This Little Life of Mine, asked us to make two yellow and white blocks. The blocks could be any style we wanted but the primary colors should be yellow and white. Surprisingly I found I didn't have very much yellow in my stash at all. In fact, other than some scraps from other bees I am in, I only had some Monaco and two Kona yellows - banana and canary. But I thought using Monaco in both blocks would help tie everything together.

As I was searching for pillow inspiration, I stumbled upon this Evening Star on Flickr, complete with a link to a tutorial. Something about it spoke to me and I decided I wanted to try it for my first block. I finished it with a row of Monaco and a row of white to get it to 12.5" square and I like the way it turned out. Only one little mistake. Can you see it? One of the points in the center is slightly off.

My second block, for some unknown reason, I decided to do 2" squares. The initial concept was to cascade down from yellow to white but as soon as I pieced my first row I realized that my math was slightly off (surprise, surprise) so instead of 7 rows or 7 I needed 9 rows or 9. I cut more squares and laid it all out and only after I squared up my block to 12.5" did I see my mistake. See those two rows of white squares? Yeah, they're supposed to be on the bottom of the block, not the top. Since I had already cut the block down I decide to just go with it. Oh well.

So the To Do List is definitely getting smaller and I'm also quickly approaching my 100th post. I can hardly believe it! Thanks for sticking with me. And Amy finally got her linky working for this week's Sew and Tell Friday so I'm linking up! Come and join the party.

Sewn Together November Blocks

Last night I was able to get a little sewing done. I decided to tackle my Sewn Together bee blocks for Anna. She asked for two wonky star blocks and gave us this awesome French themed black and white fabric. This was my first attempt at making wonky stars. She had us follow a great tutorial from the Silly BooDilly. I think I ended up with a little too munch wonk in my block (I had to rip a seam or two... Shhhh!) but I am pleased with the end result. So pleased that I'm linking up to Sew and Tell Friday's over at Amylouwho's blog.

My wonderful and amazing fiance even commented on these blocks. He really liked Anna's fabric choices and even liked the wonky star pattern, which is good to know because it's really tough to get him to settle on a design aesthetic that he likes sometimes.

Speaking of which... Yes, I am a bit obsessed with City Weekend at the moment and I really want to make a pillow for our couch out of my City Weekend stash but I'm trying to find a pattern that said wonderful and amazing fiance and I can agree on. We've settled on a couple different patterns that we both love.

The problem is we both really, really love Anna Maria Horner's 16 point star pillows (top left) and I can't find a pattern for a 16 point star anywhere and I KNOW I will need to paper piece something like that. Anyone out there know where I could find a pattern like that?