A return to WIP Wednesdays!

Wow, the past few weeks have been crazy!  If you follow my blog you know that I just recently moved.  We are still getting settled in and there are still random boxes around.  I have my own sewing room now which is amazing!  I have it semi set up.  I need to get some storage units though.  Until now I always kept everything in totes and I want some shelves to display all my fabric.  This way I might actually know what I have and don't have.  Life will be so much easier. 

I did get time to get in a little sewing.  I have been working on the above pieced for a few months now.  A lot longer than I should have been.  I needed to keep taking breaks from it.  It is a commission piece for a friend.  Thankfully a very patient friend.  However my absolute deadline is in a week from now so in between unpacking I have been finishing this guy up.  He is going to be a gift for a birthday.  I only have one small section to do for the lower right hand corner and I am done the top.  Then I need to embroider some detail to his face and hands.  All I have planned for quilting is some stitch in the ditch around him and the leaves.  There are so many seams in this that I couldn't imagine doing any free motion.  There are a few random pieces of paper I need to pick out of a few of the seams.  Hopefully I can find my tweezers soon.  But I think I am well on my way to finishing him in time.

This week I am linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced for the first time in quite a few weeks!  

A quick hello!

I haven't posted in almost three weeks!  Wow.  Sorry about that.  We are in the process of moving and as you can imagine it is a lot of work.  Moving day is August 10th.  I have squeezed in a little sewing time but I didn't have any time left over for blogging.  A girl needs a break every once in awhile doesn't she?  And a little quilting time is the perfect way to relax.  

As for the move, we couldn't be more excited.  Its a much bigger place and closer in town.  Right now our morning commute to work is about 30 mins.  The move cuts it down to 5 minutes!  My work is a mile and a half away!  I can even go home for lunch!  Both of the kids schools are within walking distance.  My daughter's school is five driveways down the road.  And here is the part I am most excited about.  Our new place is an older New England style home and has two living rooms.  We are not a formal type of family so we don't need two.  So guess what that means!  One of them is going to be mine for sewing!  Ok.  Not the whole thing but most of it.  Its also going to be where we put the family computer and office area but its a huge improvement over what I have now.  

Anyway,  on to some sewing items!  The main thing I have been working on is the quilt along at the Quilting Gallery.  A block is released every Thursday and I have been trying to stay caught up on it.  This quilt is promised to my son for his new bedroom when it is done.

Week 3 block

Week four block

This is a mock up of what I have together so far.  One of the girls I am doing the quilt along with figured out how to do layouts like this with an app from Apple.  It is named Juxtaposer.  It is an amazing app.  I am going to use it for most of my quilt layouts from now on.  It is super simple to use.  All you do is load a base image and then load other images on top of it.  You use your fingers to resize and place the image where you want it to go.  All you need to do is make sure that you try to take the pictures straight on so you can get the best result.  I obviously didn't do that with one of my blocks.  I just haven't had time to go back and fix it.  Because I was able to see my quilt in progress like this I am debating on redoing the block on the left.  The colors are more muted in that block than the others and it just doesn't go.

This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced. 

WIP Wednesday 7/10/13

I wasn't going to write a WIP post this week so pardon the horrible photos.  I spent this past week working on a Cynthia England piece and since it is still in pieces with freezer paper all over it, I didn't think it would make for good pictures for a blog post.  However, last night my husband and I decided to have a TV night so I sat and prepped an applique block while we were catching up on some shows.  We finally watched the season five finale of Sons of Anarchy last night.  I can not wait until the next season starts.  We really love that show.

This is the last applique block from the quilt a long over at One Piece at a Time.  She is releasing a new block any day and I wanted to get this done before I fell behind too far.  I still have to add a few pieces to it and then stitch it down.  There are little tiny leaves on those circles and a circle to go in the middle.  I think I have mentioned before in my blog that I do turned-edge applique with a foundation.  This block only took a couple hours to prep.  I should have ironed it again before the picture.  I am pretty sure my kitty took a nap on it last night.  

And here is a cute picture of my kitty, Frodo, trying to help me.  For some reason, the only time he wants attention is when I am hard at work.  

Don't forget to click the link below to check out the awesome Christmas in July sale at Fabric.com.  I am having a hard time restraining myself.  I have a slight obsession with anything snowman.  Have you started working on your Christmas gifts yet?

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This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced!

Friday Finishes

Not a lot of finishes this week.  I spent most of the week plugging away at my Jamestown Landing.  I posted the other day that I was all done my broken dishes blocks.  All 210 of them.  Well, I was wrong because I apparently miscounted along the way.  I only have 200.  I must have counted a group of ten twice.  Grrrr.  Now I need to cut enough different HST's to make it keep its scrappy look.  That should be fun.  Not.

Block 2

I did the block above for the quilt along at Quilting Gallery.  It was a pretty fun, quick block to do.  Its huge.  It's 16.5" x 16.5".  I have been pressing my seams open on this quilt and I am really starting to like it.  My blocks are coming out perfect.  If you are interested in checking out the quilt along and maybe join us, its never too late.  Just click on the banner below and it will bring you right where you need to be. 

Last weekend I needed a fun quick project to do to take a break from Jamestown Landing.  I had been wanting to make some pillow covers for our grungy pillows on the couch for a long time.  The picture above is what I came up with.  Pardon the wrinkles but I decided to take a nice little nap today on the couch before I remembered that I needed a picture of it. 

This is the back.  Just a simple cover that we can take off and wash when needed.  Next time I make one I am going to have it over lap just a tad more. 

I got the pattern for this pillow from Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  I have been eyeing this book since it came out.  Last week was my birthday and when I received an Amazon gift card, this was the first thing in my cart.  Blogs all over the internet are doing a quilt along with it and I have loved every block.   I am probably not going to join the quilt along as I have too many projects to do but this book is full of so much inspiration.  When I was trying to decide on a pattern for my pillow I grabbed this book and so many blocks would have been perfect.  I decided on No. 24.

One of the things I loved most about this book is that it has every block diagrammed over graph paper.  It made it super easy to enlarge this 6" block to 18" for my pillow.  I could very easily see that I only had to multiply all finished sizes by 3. 

I am going to try to get a second pillow cover done this weekend with a different block design.  I will share it when I get it done. 

Thanks for stopping by this week.  I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Link a Finish Friday, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.