Catching Up but Can't Stay Long

Hey everyone!  Well I'm back from my trip to Florida and overall I would call it a success.  I didn't make it to any quilt shops while I was down there because the hotel was so far away from everything.  My aching legs can attest to that after a 2 mile walk back from dinner one night in flip flops they were not happy.  But then again that's what happens when you don't plan things out.  I also managed to lose my debit card for the first time in my life.  I'm pretty sure the cashier didn't hand it back to me but there is a chance it could also be in the Atlantic Ocean now.  Luckily I was able to put a stop on it and get issued a temporary card so I could get home.  That of course was another adventure after Atlanta grounded all flights in or out on Wednesday due to weather.  In the end I made it even though my bags didn't but no worries they were delivered the next day with only a slight amount of damage.

Since I missed WIP Wednesday this week while sitting at the airport I thought I'd pop in really quick and give you all an update although I haven't been sewing.  I did convenience myself to join a couple of swaps right before I left for Florida.

The first one is the sewing room swap.  Well I don't really have a sewing room to speak of but I do have a corner of what is suppose to be our guest room.  Don't judge but here's a picture.  I'd love to replace that table with an actual sewing machine table that wouldn't wiggle every time I sew.  My mom has a great portable one that I like a lot so maybe I can start saving some pennies.

Here's a look at the mosaic I made for that swap.  I left it wide open for my partner because there are so many things I could use in that space that I didn't want to be too specific.  I think in my sign up form I mentioned a sewing machine cover which is something I could use for sure.  And it looks like that's what I will actually be making for my partner in this swap so it is a little ironic.  I need to find some good fabrics first though.  I have summer and bright colors on my mind but my partner is looking for a little something different so time to readjust.

You might have noticed some of my Anna Marie Horner fabrics sitting out in that photo.  Well that's because I also joined a charm swap of AMH fabrics.  I have lots of quilts made out of AMH but have wanted to make a very simple charm square quilt mixing all of her lines together for a while now and saw this as a perfect chance to get a variety of charms.  Here's hoping it will all work out the way I see it in my mind.  I like swaps like this because they are easy-just cut and send to one person who mixes up the fabrics and then sends them back to you.  And I can totally get that done before taking off on vacation next week.

Last up I signed up for one more round of the Sew Sew Modern swap.  You might remember I just did this swap to get my feet wet again in the world of swapping.  I was really planning to sit out this round but I knew I wouldn't be able to join the next one as it will be due right before the holidays so as the mosaics started popping up I ended up jumping on board.

Which reminds me I don't think I ever showed you guys the packet I received last time.  So here's a look at the pillow and little bag that I received.

Its going to be a busy work week and then we are heading off to Lake Gaston for a week where we have no cell signal and no internet so I'll be unplugged for a while but I promise I'll be back to catch up when we get home.  Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

WIP Wednesday-The One Without Sewing

I'm gearing up to leave town on Saturday for my annual work trip to the GFWC annual convention.  This year their convention is in Hollywood, FL so the only thing I know for sure is it will be HOT!  Between trying to get my desk cleared off at work and the chores done at home I really haven't had much time to sew so I am pretty well stalled on projects for the moment.

But I did join two groups on flickr this week that I'm pretty excited about.  The first is a Anna Marie Horner Charm Swap.  I think there is still room if you want to join in check out the group over here on flickr.  I love AMH fabrics and for a long time now have been thinking about making a simple patchwork quilt mixing up all of her fabrics.  Shockingly I haven't bought any of her most recent line, in fact I think Loulith was the last one I worked with but I am still loving my Loulith Tiles quilt.

1. Scrappy Storage, 2. Happy mail from yesterday. The most adorable fishy pins made by Christine & my spoonflower FQ!, 3. Happy Birthday Justine!, 4. Happy-Go-Lucky Quilt, 5. Sew sew modern, 6. Modernista Homemade Swap, 7. LBC sewing caddy 1, 8. Bunting, 9.Sew Sew Modern, 10. Feeling Stitchy, 11. hanging hoop wall pocket received!, 12. Sewing machine cover by Poppyprint, 13. Can you use this in your sewing room?14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

The other group is a Sewing Room Swap.  I am pretty excited about this one because my sewing space is the one corner of the house where I don't have to compromise on the decorating.  So I plan on making it overly girly when I finally get it all set up.  I know we moved way back in December but I just haven't made the time to really get it organized.  But I have plans to repaint a shelf to hang above my sewing machine for some pre-cuts and maybe some cute artwork.  I've been scoping out some printable art on pintrest of late and have found a few super cute pieces but think I can make up a few of my own as well.  I'll be sure to share downloads here when I get them together.

I'm working on making this a shared printable.
But I still need to work out the kinks.
Let's consider this a sneak peak.

The good sewing news is that my trip to Florida means I should have time to work on my hexagon project.  Have any of you been to Hollywood?  I have some free time on Tuesday while I am down there and hope to check out at least one quilt store.  I won't have a car so a cab ride or public transit it will be but that's okay it's worth it for a quilt store, right?  I'd love to hear recommendations if anyone has some.

That's it for me this week.  Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday

So the excitement of the mystery quilt wore off almost as soon as I opened the instructions to step two.  I called my mom when I had finished up step one because she had finished step one earlier in the day.  As soon as we opened the envelopes for step two I was kicking myself for this stupid idea.  Step two requires us to make at minimum 96 half square triangles (HST).

Then there is this weird stitch and flip block that looks like 2 HST units sewn together.  I think we have covered many times how much I hate snow ball blocks and these are really elongated snowballs.  So I know I would be much more accurate if I sewed HST blocks but then that would mean making an extra  192 HST.

So how do you make your HST blocks?  I'd love to hear if anyone has some great suggestions for easy ways to make HST's.  Typically I make mine by marking the blocks and sewing on two lines and then trimming them up.  But this is a lot of HST's!

I'm also second guessing the choice to use two fabrics instead of one for the background because the next step ultimately looks like we are making star blocks and so it is going to take a lot of brain power to make it work.  I'm just hoping in the end I end up with something that looks good and has enough contrast because looking at them now I'm not sure that I do.

In other news have you heard about the contest that Threadbias is having in connection with the release of Wallflowers?  I decided to try my hand at designing a quilt and figured I'd give it a go an enter the contest.  I designed this one for my mama and named it Mama's Wagon Wheel.  My mama is a huge part of my life and I don't know what I would do without her.  I didn't always understand or respect that so now that I am grown up and know just how lucky I am I'm trying to make up for all the time I wasted being a bratty teenager who thought I didn't like her.  I think the wheel is a pretty good symbol of that.  She's the important part like the axle and I'm a spoke.

It's a little hard to see all the detail in this little picture.
Head over to Threadbias to see it up close.

My mama is a big fan of gray and yellow so I started with those colors.  Then I added in some aqua for me because after all if I were on some off chance to win the contest I would be actually making this quilt with my winnings so I wanted it to be something I would enjoy sewing and something should would enjoy using.  What do you think?  Would you vote for Mama's Wagon Wheel when the contest opens?  Be sure to check it out up close here.  It's easy to miss a lot of the detail in this little thumbnail picture.

That's it for me this week.  Head on over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday

I had a great time touring around the different quilt stores in Raleigh, NC with my parents the end of last week.  I'm looking forward to sharing a little recap with you all as soon as I have a minute to breath.  But I didn't want to miss my second WIP Wednesday post for the year already so I thought I would at least share with you a little about the mystery quilts since that is what is currently on my sewing room table.

Just a few of the goodies I picked up.  More on these later.

Prior to leaving for Raleigh I had a friend print the instructions for two different mystery quilts.  Just google mystery quilt and you will find several of them.  Of course the fun is not knowing what the finished quilt looks like so you need a friend to help you out by printing out the steps.  Or I guess you could just look at Step 1 like I did.  That's why I had her print two, I gave the instructions in step one a very quick look over to make sure it wasn't too complicated of a project.  Having instructions for two quilts also gave us options.  We could each make the same quilt in different fabrics, different quilts in the same fabrics, different quilts with different fabrics but you get the idea.  I will tell you we did several coin tosses along the way to make the choices for us.  I usually pick my projects and fabrics based on who I am making the quilt for so it was really hard for me to choose since this project was really just about having fun on our trip.

My Mom's Mystery Quilt Fabrics

In the end we choose to make the same quilt but I choose to use the optional border.  I had thought we would pick one of our fabrics from each store but my mom quickly vetoed that idea because of this whole making sure they blend well and match thing.  She ended up going with a gray and yellow color scheme and I ended up with Boho in a green colorway.  While I do use one line of fabric pretty often this is the first time I can recall that I have limited myself to one color way.  I'm hoping the end result will look okay and have enough contrast.  One change we did make was that the original pattern only called for 3 fabrics.  Mom and I both decided to split the fabric for what was referenced as a background fabric into two different fabrics.  Fingers crossed it will work out and won't destroy the pattern at the end.  Picking fabrics for anything other than a scrappy quilt when you don't know what the finished pattern looks like is very stressful.

My Mystery Quilt Fabrics with Optional Border

So that's it for me today, I'm almost through step one of this mystery quilt but I'll be waiting for my mom before moving on to step two or at least before I blog about it.  After all it would take all of the fun out of it if she knew what it was going to look like.  Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday (The really small one)

It's been a slow sewing week here as I am still dealing with weekly vet trips and an ever growing list of chores to be completed before I head out of town for almost a week for work at the end of the month.  So I'm sorry no pretty pictures to share today.

But my mom, dad, and I are taking off tomorrow to go on a little mini quilt shop hop around the Raleigh, NC area on Friday and Saturday before heading back.  Those unexpected vet bills have killed my budget so I doubt I'll be doing much buying but there are a few projects on my list that I'm hoping to pick up some pieces for.  And of course if I see this pretty little thing I am sure it will make it's way into my cart without a second thought.

Olfa Splash Rotary Cutter

My mom doesn't know it yet but I also planned a little game for us to play along the way and when we get home.  I have never made a mystery quilt before but the idea intrigued me.  Especially after seeing the one that Amanda Jean made recently.  So I had some help from a friend so I wouldn't know what the finished quilts would look like and they printed of the steps for two mystery quilts.  I thought it would be fun to try and get one item from the material list at each place we shopped and then come home and make the quilts.  I don't know yet how this one is going to play out and I built lots of variables in for extra fun so we will see how it goes and I'll give you guys all a little update next week on where we are so far.

Thanks for stopping by my rather boring WIP Wednesday.  Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.  Oh, and if you are from the Raleigh area or have been shopping there and have a favorite quilt store do me a favor and leave me a comment.  I'm still finalizing the route and would love to hit up some recommended shops along the way.

WIP Wednesday

I worked on a lot of different projects this week based on my location.  So while I didn't make a significant amount of progress on any one thing I made small progress on several things.  I baked a yummy cake for the holiday and spent a lot of time not doing sewing related things so I don't have a ton to share.

The first project I worked on I talked about on Monday and you can read more about that here.  I really do enjoy pulling this project out every once in a while and passing the time sewing all of those hexagons together.  Plus it is a great conversation starter, I got to talk to a great lady at my meeting on Friday who was working on a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt as well.

When I got home I gave myself permission to change the way I was working on my Complications Quilt and once I allowed myself to change the blocks up I made a lot of good progress.  I have two more blocks to make and then it will just be about joining all of the pieces together.  I am still working through how I will go about doing that.  I am thinking maybe I will create a few more smaller blocks that will allow me to fill in some of the empty spaces.

That's it for me this week.  Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to this week.

Hexagon Love

I spent a good part of Thursday and Friday taking a train back and forth from Norfolk, VA to Washington, DC.  I had never ridden a train here in the US before so it was a new experience.  Who knew so many people still take trains to get places.  Maybe it was because of the holiday weekend here in the states which is exactly why I didn't want to drive around in downtown DC but it sure was a busy ride.  Something I would do again for sure.  On the way up to DC I spent most of my time on my Nook doing work emails and reading because I had a great wifi signal but on the way back I wasn't able to get connected so I spent the time working on my Hexagon Charm Quilt instead.  It is such a great little project to travel with because I can just sew up chunks and then add them to the mail piece whenever I am ready.  When I look at the big piece I have done it seems to be growing so slowly but I know I managed to add two pretty significant chunks this time as well as filling in a few wholes where I needed just one or two hexagons to make the piece more even.  It's still wonky but I assume that comes with the approach.

Needless to say I have tried to spend the weekend relaxing though as always that had proven to be a bit more of a challenge than I would like so if you will excuse me I'm going to go enjoy my piece of this little beauty that I was too full to eat at today's cookout.

Happy Memorial Day to all of my fellow Americans.  If you or someone you know has/is serving our country be sure to give them an extra hug today and let them know that there are still plenty of us who appreciate their service.