Freefall 2

So let's get right to the point here (see what I did there??)  I am having a blast making all these little Freefall leaves.  The next six blocks went together easy peasy lemon squeezy over here.  Since I was a pro at making them from making the first eight, I was able to chain piece the crap out of these little buggers.

I separated everything into neat little piles and in no time at all have my completed blocks.  I LOVE a project like that.  I chose to paper piece the large shadow leaf points as well.  Sandra has the paper piecing units also available in her Craftsy Shop.

So now I will leave you with all my blocks to date floating around on my mobile design wall.

Only six more blocks to go!  So now there is nothing to do but set around and wait for the next set of instructions, or maybe I could quilt something :)

Today I'm linking up with Freefall Linky and Main Crush Monday.

Changing Up My Game

If you were visiting my sewing space and sewing along with me right now, you'd probably think I'm crazy.  I'm tackling my projects much like I clean house, by getting distracted and not finishing something before I start working on something else.  Unlike, cleaning house, I do feel like I am making progress, but my game keeps changing.

I am still quilting away on our pattern release quilts.  Above is a little teaser shot of my baby quilt.  That was the first time I've used a hook swirl and I'm 100% sure it will not be my last.  To give myself variety and my poor wrist a break, I am working on my QAL projects in between quilting sessions.

The Children's Library Blocks

So far I am update on The Children's Library BOM by Pat Sloan, and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Jolly Christmas Quilt.  I am also up to date on Sandra's Free Fall QAL, but we will talk about that one more on Monday.  I also just got caught up on Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion QAL.  Since finishing the center medallion (although I need to add the bottom border), I fell behind making the first two 12" blocks.

  

First up was the Friendship Star Variation Block, 

followed by the Rosebud Block.  Both blocks sewed up super quick.

Here they are hanging out with the center block on my small portable design wall.

Next let's talk about Pat Sloan's Solstice challenge.  I am actually several blocks behind on this one, but don't fret, I have a plan.  This quilt will be a beast (as far as QAL's go) when it is finished; 86ish inches I do believe.  I decided very early on that I would make the asymmetrical quilt layout, which looks like this...

I realized that I am at a point where sections of the quilt are actually starting to come together.  My new plan is to work on sections as they can be completed.  That way I'm not stuck piecing all those blocks together when the last block's instructions come out.  Also, since I'm going stash scrappy, maybe I can make it look a bit more put together.  

So looking at the chart, I already had two of the three blocks in section C completed.  All I needed to do was make one block and add strips to either side of the heart block and BAM in about 20 to 30 minutes I had one completed section.

So I took that momentum and charged forward to section B, which is going to be a bit more work.

This section will live beside section C and will require one more block, border around the large bottom block and my first checkerboard filler.  I decided on a floral and a blue print for the Spring Fever block, a maroon/ red border for the large block (it is actually in the gray print fabric) and...

black and gray for the checkerboard filler block.

As of now, I'm still in the middle of piecing all of this together, but this is a sneak peak of my plans moving forward.  As sections and rows of things can be pieced together, I'm going to go ahead and do it to save myself time later.  This will actually apply to all my current WIP QAL's.  The last thing I want is for WIP QAL's to become UFO's, OMG that's a lot of letters!!! :)

When I end up with a ton of completed blocks that need sewed together, I can feel weighted down by them and that is what I'm trying to avoid.  Do you ever feel that way or maybe have a better plan for tackling such things?  Or do you just wait till the end of the project and sew them all together?  I'd love to know your thoughts.  Until next time, I will be still sewing my way out of my hole.  I still have the Aurifil block to make, one stitch at a time, one stitch at a time.

Today I'm linking up with TGIFF, Let's Bee Social and Weight Loss Wednesday.  

Easter Stashing

Ah, Wonderland by Rifle Paper Co for Cotton + Steel, oh how I love thee!  I've been debating on purchasing this fabric ever since it hit my Instagram feed.  Honestly, it wasn't 100% love at first site (I think I was sick that day).  But, when Pat Sloan released April's The Children's Library block, Alice in Wonderland and I saw her block in these fabrics, I knew I had to order some, just for this block.  No picture can do these prints justice.  They are AMAZING.  After they showed up in my mail box I couldn't wait to chop them up!

Pretty sure I'm going to need more!

Another package found it's way to my house this weekend...several spools of Aurifil Thread!!

Soon these spools of thread will all be frolicking in a quilt top together and I will be sharing it with you, but alas not yet.  Ordering just the right thread online can be tricky.  Computer monitors and picture lighting can drastically skew what a thread color actually looks like and for some reason, matching turquoise is the worst.  So awhile back I broke down and purchased an Aurifil color chart and now there is no guessing at all.  I know exactly what I'm getting.

Saturday, David and I took at trip to one of our favorite LQS south of us, The Quilt Shoppe.  This store has fabric in just about every color you could think of.  It's many nooks and cranny's make it so cozy and inviting.  The shop owner has a wonderful 30's reproduction, civil war reproduction and batik sections.  The rest of the fabric is in sections by color.  After about 2 hours of walking around and petting all the pretties, this is what I walked away with.

I really am having a love affair with fabrics with text.  I have no idea what I will do with this, but I'm sure it will find a home soon enough.

Next up, is a few random FQ purchases.  I thought these greens and purples would look lovely in the Medallion Sampler QAL over at Stitchin at Home, that I am working on.  I was able to make a bit of progress on this one, but I'll save that for another post.

Sandra (mmm!quilts) and I have been kicking around the idea of working on the Sewcial Bee Sampler, later this summer when our schedules slow down a bit.  I plan to piece my blocks using a FQ bundle of Paradiso by Moda Fabrics.  I've been searching for a sashing fabric and finally fell in love with the Moda Grunge on the left.  I'm thinking the gray linen print will be my block borders and the white will go in some of the blocks and an extra fabric choice.  Note to Sandra:  we need to start this sooner than later so I stop buying fabric for it :)  This is actually the second time I've bought sashing and border fabric for it...quilting confession.

Last but not least, I decided to pick up another pair of Machingers quilting gloves.

The pair that I have now, have definitely been well loved.  The rubber tips of the fingers are quite discolored from use.  The gloves themselves have little picks in them from where the cats will snatch them up and run off to play with them.  Sigh, I can't have anything nice.  It was just time for a new pair.  It's a quilting item I cannot do without.  

The temptation to purchase more fabric was strong, but I held back.  Being a two quilter household, I have to leave room in the budget so that Dave can pick a few things out too :)

Today I'm linking up with Sunday Stash and Main Crush Monday.

Freefall Update 1

She's a good girl, loves her Sandra

Loves quilt alongs, and being caught up too

She's a good girl crazy 'bout kittens

Loves puppies and quilty Dave too

And I'm free, Freefalling!

Yeah I'm free, Freefalling!

Okay, so maybe those are not the words to the song but I just had to and I'll warn you now, the quilt along isn't over and me doing that probably isn't either.

Today, I'm just quickly checking in and linking up with Sandra's Freefall QAL over at mmm!quilts.  The linky party is open all week and we are all anxiously awaiting the next set of instructions on Monday.  Never to late to join in the fun, obviously there is good music along with it :)

WARNING:  This next section of post may contain graphic and violent material for those of the quilting faint of heart.  Viewer discretion is advised.  Especially if your name is Dave the Quilt Engineer.

As I am working through my QAL's I am also feverishly quilting my and David's quilts for our upcoming pattern release.  Since am almost finished quilting his baby quilt version and my neighbors (my mom) left their garage door open when they left, I quietly borrowed their garage and tables to baste my quilt.  

His quilt lay neatly folded with the backing facing up (Thank God!) on my HQ Sweet Sixteen.  When I returned from my basting adventure (I was in and out like a ninja) I discovered one of the cats had thrown up on his quilt!  OH THE HORROR!!!!!

Jen, being the best daughter ever, cleaned the mess up for me, since I was frozen in a mixture of panic, anger, fear, sadness and a few other emotions that haven't yet been identified.  Sadly, what was left was a yellowish stain.

After I came out of my frozen state and re-animated, I did the only thing I could do...Shout.  I shouted at the cats, I shouted at the sky.  Then I realized there might be more proactive shouting to be done.  I grabbed the bottle of stain remover and generously applied it to the spot....and walked away.  

I am happy to report when I checked on it this morning, it does look like the stain has lightened quite a bit.  I plan on finishing this up ASAP tonight  so I can pop it in the wash.  Did I mention how happy I am it's the back of the quilt and not the front?

That's it for me, back to getting projects finished up.  Hope everyone is having a great quilting week.

Spinning My Wheels

Do you ever get that feeling that you are running, running, running, but your wheels are just spinning, spinning, spinning and you aren't getting anywhere??  I think this post is more for me than you, to assure myself that I am making progress, it's just I can't share a whole lot, just yet.

I swear I haven't fallen completely behind on my BOM craziness, or at least not yet.  I ordered special fabric to make one of the Pat Sloan blocks this month, but it hasn't arrived yet.  Is that crazy, ordering fabric for just one block??  Possibly, but I've admitted to being mad crazy before.  And I'll catch up on the other Pat quilt alongs later this month, just not now.

This weekend, among all the secret sewing, I decided to catch up on Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Jolly Christmas Quilt.  Two blocks have been released since the last time I worked on this project, the Cardinal and Partridge Blocks.  I started off with the Cardinal block and things went so smooth.  This bird pretty much flew together (see what I did there?).  A little West Virginia history and Jeopardy preperation for you, the Cardinal is our state animal,

So when I got up Sunday morning, I was feeling a bit cocky about how quickly I was going to make the Partridge block.  Let me tell you, Tish got her @$$ kicked by a bird.  The first picture in this post was almost all the blocks it took to make this.

At about 3 hours into it (given a few distractions here and there) I had to walk away from the block.

The eye section just wasn't coming out as it should and I couldn't figure out why.  A few of the pieces are only .75" unfinished, so I was feeling a bit rattled.  So I switched gears completely and headed to my Sweet Sixteen for a bit of free motion/ruler therapy.

Here is a sneak peak at the pattern Dave the Quilt Engineer and I will be releasing in the near future.  I have a few versions of the quilt to finish quilting before I'm ready for the big reveal, but I'm feeling pretty confident I will be ready by the end of April/beginning of May.  This is a baby/wall hanging size made by David.

After almost finishing this quilt, I decided to revisit the bird one more time before bed.  Quilting must have been the break I needed, because with very little picking and reconstructing one tiny little section, I got the bird within an acceptable level of finished.

Here are all my blocks up to date.

And lastly, I will leave you with a bit more secrete sewing, that is sort of like a DrEAMi moment, in that I have dropped everything I was working on to make it.  Basically,  all I can show you is the fabrics and well, they are just yummy.

I am in love with that black floral fabric.  I purchased some of it a few weeks ago, but had to go back to the store for more and changed up the coordinating fabrics just a bit too.  I'm drooling over here.

So it is back to the sewing tower for me, to be locked away this week, quilting and piecing and quilting some more.  On a side note, David found some quilting time this weekend.  His schedule has been crazy busy.  If you get a change hop over to Dave the Quilt Engineer and check out what he has been up to in his absence from the blogging world.

Today I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday.

Meadow Mystery Finish-Take 1

Mark this one off the list and call it done!  I have to say there were a couple times during the quilting process I found myself questioning if this quilt even wanted to be finished.  It seemed to be challenging me every step of the way.  That's okay, though, I showed it who's boss.

Last year,  I had the honor of pattern testing the Meadow Mystery Quilt for Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs.  I pattern tested the pattern as a mystery, getting only one clue at a time.  So when I picked the fabrics for this quilt,  I honestly had no idea what the quilt would look like.

I think this is only the second time I've really talked about this version of the quilt on the blog (I could be wrong).  So it seemed only fitting to give this quilt an all over custom quilting, since it's never really had it's time to shine.

Let's talk thread for a minute.  I reached into my trusty Aurifil stash, trying to find just the right colors that would melt into the different prints, allowing for some fun texture without over powering the fabrics.  For the yellow fabric I used #2130 Medium Butter  for some therapeutic stippling.  The black polka dot print contains #2692 Black to add wishbones, loops and radiating lines.  For the green triangles, #4026 Forest Green for some dot to dot fun and the rectangles became ghost flying geese.  And last but not least, #2024 White for the off white fabric, for more stippling, straight line quilting, pebbling and curvy flower fun.  I chose to leave the light blue sections unquilted, but matched it with #5006 Light Turquoise to attach the flange of the binding to the front of the quilt.

This will be a post with few words, I think I'm just going to let the thread and fabric do the talking for me.

This one will have a special little place in my heart.  I got to play around with the blocks and try to figure out the layout, without any influence from social media.  It was like getting a copy of your favorite mystery author before the book ever hits the shelves.  Another huge thank you to Cheryl for allowing me to read over the pattern and trusting me with it until the quilt along started. 

If you haven't head already, Cheryl will be hosting another mystery quilt along starting in July called the Magnolia Mystery.

I am so stinking excited I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself until then??  Oh, wait.  I guess I could work on my other quilt along projects and quilts a pile of quilts.  I'm good.

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Main Crush Monday and Linky Tuesday.