WIP Wednesday

I've been out of town at a convention for work so I don't have a lot to show you this week but I miss blogging on a regular basis and you know what they say, no better time then the present.  Since I was out of town and spending a lot of time in a convention center and hotel I took along my hexagons for a little hand sewing.  I forgot how much time this project takes.

Hexagon Quilt Progress

I found that I have the best luck with sewing little chunks and then adding them to my middle so that's why this thing isn't even but I think it is coming along okay.  With any luck it will be done by 2016.

I think this one is called Honey's Choice but I'm not sure.

This is the last Farmer's Wife Quilt Along block I made before choosing to pack this one up for a while.  I've been finding these little blocks to be pretty challenging lately and because of that I've lost a little love for this project.  I am determined to finish it and I think if I give myself a little time off when I pick it up again I'll be ready to give it everything I've got and finish it up.  Really I packed it up because if it's out in my sewing room I will like I HAVE to work on it and it takes the joy out of something fun sometimes.  So it's just taking a little nap.

Blocks for Dueling Flurry

 I've been cutting pieces for my half of the dueling flurry quilts.  It looks like I am making my brothers quilt while my mom is working on the matching one for my sister in law.  These are going to be Christmas gifts but our goal is to have the tops pieced by the end of July so that the long arm quilter has plenty of time to work on them.  I guess I better get busy.  We are using Alison's Seville pattern.  If you haven't check out her patterns yet I recommend them for sure.  This is the second pattern I have used of hers and they are just so easy to read and follow.  This quilt looks really complicated finished but its really just the repeat of 3 different types of blocks.  While cutting I needed a little bit of a break and I couldn't help but sew up a few of these super easy blocks.

1st Row of Scrappy Stars

Finally before getting busy with Summer Sorbet I did manage to sew one row of my scrappy stars quilt together.  It's very skinny so I am going to have to make a few more blocks in order to get the size I want but that's okay.  It is going to be a great quilt when it's done.

Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is working on.  Lee's taking the summer off from WIP Wednesday but she has lined up some great talent to guest post on her blog during her break.

WIP Wednesday

First off I want to say I don't know how those of you with young kids do it.  We have been helping out a friend who is having a bit of a hard time and part of that package is a 2 year old every other weekend and a few days a week.  Now I love "monkey" almost as much as I imagine I will love my own child someday but man does she cut into some serious sewing time.  So I am very slowly making progress on some projects on the days that she isn't staying at the house.

I only managed to squeak out one Farmer's Wife Block in the last 2 weeks which means I am behind schedule again but I'm hoping that I will be able to knock out a few this weekend.

Cats and Mice Block #17

I am still working on sewing together my hexagons by hand which is another very time consuming project.  But it is pretty relaxing until you start to get a callus on your finger.  Yeah I'm one of those who refuses to wear a thimble.  I can't explain it they just feel weird.  But I've never been a fab of gloves or anything like that either so I guess my hands are like my feet, they like to be free.

Hand Sewn Hexagons Progress

I've found at this point it's a little easier to sew clumps together and then add the clumps to the main piece which is why it is such a strange shape but hey it seems to be working for me.

The last little project I worked on was this quilt top for Nichol.  A group from the Old Red Barn Quilt Along Group broke off to create traveling quilts this year.  I am in a group that is doing a round style quilt.  So I started with Nic's middle which was the pinwheels inside of the brown boarder.  I changed my plan about a million times but this is where I ended up.

I added the yellow boarder with floating pinwheels.

I wanted to make a ton of pinwheels but I was afraid it would be too busy so I went a little minimalistic and I hope she will really like it.  It did give me the chance to write my first ever tutorial for that patchwork pinwheel in there.  You can find that here.  I also made cornerstone blocks using one of the patterns from the Farmer's Wife Book because Nichol had used cornerstones in her round I thought she might like to keep that going. 

I think the hardest part about this group for me is that there is no real direction.  I think everyone wanted to leave it open ended so the biggest restriction so far has been a request to stay with a color scheme.

I borrowed this photo from Nichol because this is where she ended.

This is the next top that I get to work on and I have to admit I am at a total loss right now as to what to add next.  Any suggestions?

Well that's a look at what I'm working on.  Be sure to head over to Lee's to check out what everyone else is up to on this WIP Wednesday.

Out of Focus

Things around here have been a little crazy lately.  Bertha went to the spa for her annual visit and while she was gone I worked on my 5 Year Project (hexagons).  But now she is back and I've been wanting to sew.  Trouble is I just can't seem to focus on anything.  My mom and I went to the Midatlantic Quilt Show yesterday and I expected to be showing off my goodies and to be inspired and excited about a lot of things.  Truth is I expected to be out of focus because of overwhelming amounts of inspiration.  But instead I was pretty disappointed with the show this year.  There weren't very many quilts, and some of the ones that were there I wasn't a fan of.  I have to say I think when entering a quilt into a show you should at least make sure your seams haven't popped and that there aren't loose threads covering the quilt.  Just a little pet peeve of mine.  There were a ton of vendors but an overwhelming amount who didn't have fabric.  It was just less than impressive to me.  I came home with a box of pins and a charm pack of Walk in the Woods.  No major goodies like last year's discovery of Swell.  It's okay though now I can do a little online shopping knowing I'm not missing out on a great deal at the quilt show.

Hexagons that are sewn together.  It's getting bigger!

Now that Bertha is back and I can sew on my machine again I took the opportunity to catch my Farmer's Wife Blocks back up.  I made three blocks so far this weekend but I imagine I will make a few more tomorrow.

Block 52 Hovering Hawks

Block 90 Storm Signal

Block 28 Duck and Ducklings

Last I picked back up my blocks from the Summer Sampler.  I had been putting off this project because as you know if you have read my blog before, I don't know how to paper piece and the rest of the blocks require some paper piecing.  Well there was one that didn't so I made that one first and then I actually tried paper piecing and I made a block.  It's not perfect, it's a smidgen small, and I think I have some extra fabric in my blue on two of the pieces but I tried it.  It took me a long time and I'm not very good at it but at least I can say I tried.

Summer Sample Series-Star

Summer Sampler Series- Lucky Pieces

So while I'm looking for my focus and my sewing mojo I'd love to hear what you all are working on.  Maybe you can spark some inspiration for me.

Sometimes It's Just Hard

I've been meaning to update my blog for a while in fact I have even sat down and started writing out blog post only to leave them unattended until they are no longer relevant.  Things here have just been hard lately.  It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is just a few short days away.  Don't panic it's not here yet but I am sure I will be putting the finishing touches on presents on Christmas Eve.  A few of those gifts are actually surprise gifts that I am very excited to be gifting.  Not that I don't always put a lot of thought into my gift giving but this year there are a few that are pretty sentimental and I'm hoping the recipients will love them as much as I do.  Plus this is the first Christmas with my nephew so I am super excited to see the joy through a little ones eyes this year.

This is what my tree currently looks like, it's only about 1/2 decorate because I just wasn't really feeling it this year.  Like I said it's been hard.  I had the tree about 1/4 of the way done when we had to take our bulldog to the emergency vet.  Unfortunately she never got to come home with us and so like I said it's been hard around here lately.  After that I managed to get enough ornaments on the tree for it to not look too sad and I've managed to wrap the two gifts you see there.  I guess I better get busy and wrap some more since Christmas is almost here.

Denali Snowberry Boyd July 21, 2005-December 5, 2011

I have been making some progress on a few projects.  I started slowly sewing together my hexagon charm quilt.  I decided to just go with an all over scrappy look.  It's very slow going and I'm not very good at it so I'm just hoping and praying the darn thing will stay together when it's finished.

Hexagon Quilt

I also managed to make a few of the blocks for my chasing chevrons quilt along quilt.  The quilt along is actually wrapping up but I'm still working away at it making blocks.  I've been sidetracked some by projects I can't share here just yet but as soon as the presents are opened I promise to write about them here.

Chasing Chevrons

Wishing you and yours a very     

MERRY CHRISTMAS!