Wahoo! WIP

My husband being at a conference in Atlanta for a week meant a lot of sewing time for me at night after the kiddos went to bed.

I finished my Blogger's BOM quilt...

 Made fleece pillows for both of my children...

And got the last two blocks (#15 & 16) of my Christmas quilt done:

I may even be an overachiever and put together the Christmas quilt top BEFORE Christmas.  I know, I know, I'm pretty amazing.  (I won't tell you that I started making Christmas blocks over a year ago).  My husband equates my finally working on the Christmas blocks to a Christmas miracle.  :)

Other projects
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Do.Good Stitches - need to do December blocks


Stats for the Week:
New projects - 2
Completed projects - 3
WIP- 3 (that's the lowest this number has been in over 2 years- thus, the WAHOO!!)

Applique Issues

Well, machine issues would be a better description of the situation.  I stitched around my Christmas tree, and then I noticed that on the first side I sewed, the machine skipped stitches all over the place.  They should be all zig zags:

You can see from the punched holes in the fabric that the needle went where it was supposed to, but the thread had other ideas.  This is the first time I've ever had this happen.  Does anyone happen to have any idea why?!  The even weirder part is that the 2nd and 3rd sides of the tree stitched perfectly.

It's seriously annoying, but at least the block still looks decent.  I hadn't appliqued anything since Skill Builder, so it was fun to put together this block. 

A Bright Finish

I'm so excited to finish my Blogger's BOM quilt.  It's my first time using all brights for a quilt, and I love it.  It just makes you happy when the colors are so vivid.

I did something a little different with the binding this time.  I cut off the extra around the back of the quilt, added a little green and used it as my binding.  The majority of the back is made with comfy flannel to keep ya warm in the Winter.

I'm giving this quilt to my Aunt Cindy.  She's one of my favorite people.  For some reason my Aunt Cindy has had roadblock after roadblock in her life and yet she is still one of the kindest and most loving people I know.  A lot of people would have become bitter or given up, but not my Aunt.  She is seriously one of the strongest and most dedicated single moms I've ever known.

I lived in her basement apartment right after graduating from BYU while I worked several jobs.  It was so much fun living under her family.  I moved when I left Utah to start Grad School at Penn State, but I have so many fond memories of my time in American Fork. 

Linking up to TGIFF, BOMs Away & 2012 Finish A-Long (original goals for quarter here).

FMQ: The Slacker Edition

The amount that I can sew has recently been greatly reduced and so the quilt buster theme for this past month has been perfect.  I have a couple of things that I really need to get done before Christmas.  One of those would be the Blogger's BOM quilt.  It's been hanging over my head for a while now and I want to be done with it. 

I had 2 designs that I still wanted to try and I knew I could finish up the quilting with them.  I started with the Matrix around the edges leftover in the center of the quilt.  I like this design a lot and plan to use it again, but I quickly found out why it's better to use this on the edge of the quilt and not the way I did it.  I have SO many threads to hide now and I didn't even close the grid.  I did one set of wiggly lines all the way around about 2" apart from each other and decided to just keep it that way.  I liked the way it looked and to be honest I was running out of time. 

Today I quilted the Spiral Ornaments.  Leah quilted hers close together, but I left space between them.  While I'm confessing things I may as well tell you I knew it would take less time if I didn't sit them on top of each other.  I know, I know - I was being lazy, but I really had such a short time to quilt.  I wanted to make sure I could get it done, and as luck would have it, I like how it looks.  It reminds me of spiral garland.

I'm hoping to get the binding on the quilt tomorrow, and finish it up quickly.   

Silly Worrying

I realized it had been a month since I had quilted anything.  It's crazy how time flies.  I finally started quilting my Blogger's BOM quilt.  I started with Flower Power in the center of the quilt.  Well, it's slightly off-center (I realized that fact 3/4 of the way through with the flower), and I was irritated that one side of the flower looked stumpy compared to the rest.  It's ridiculous, but last night I went to sleep thinking of the easiest way to fix the one side without tearing the whole thing apart.  I woke up determined to fix it, and then reason finally found me.  I thought, "For the love, Becky!  You're not even keeping this quilt.  It's not that big of a deal.  Leave it alone!"  I mean seriously, is the person going to see the flower and say they don't want the gift because the flower isn't symmetrical?!

Luckily, I saw the Invasion of the Pods post and realized I could easily make my flower the center pod and echo around it.  It worked beautifully and it's really hard to even tell which side was shorter than the others.  Perfect? No, but I'm happy with the effect.  It also takes up the majority of the quilt, so that was really nice as well.  It feels good to be quilting again.

A Few Firsts

I completed the November blocks for do.Good Stitches this past weekend.  This was my first time making the Simply Woven block.  It seems deceptively easy, but you have to be really careful with how and where you rotate and cut this block, because it's really easy to cut it in the wrong place and have to start over.  A couple of girls in the sewing circle had this issue, so I was forewarned and paid close attention, so that I didn't cut it at the wrong spots.

I also finished up a bib made from an old shirt.  This was my first time sewing velcro, and it was surprisingly painless.  This is from the charity sewing circle at church.  It's part of boxes were forming for mothers in need.  The boxes contain pretty much the baby's first year of needs in terms of lightly used clothes and a few extras like bibs, blankets, books, and toys.  It's called a Loved Twice Box.  We're trying to put together a box for a boy and a box for a girl. 

 Linkin' up to BOMs Away.  Happy Monday! 

Blanket Woes

As part of the charity sewing circle, I was given an already made blanket, and asked to add a flannel border layering it under the entire blanket.  This is supposed to make it a little bigger and little more cuddly.  I thought, "How hard can it be?" - Famous last words.

Oof.  I way underestimated the amount of stretching the blanket would do as I sewed a blanket stitch on it.  The flannel does not lay flat at all.  I was so irritated that I had to walk away after sewing 2 sides.  I came back the next day and just finished it, so that it would be done.  I tried pinning it tons, but it didn't really help.  Yarn doesn't pin well.  I don't particularly like how it turned out, but it was a good experiment.  

The back doesn't lay very flat either, but since it's going to someone in need I'm not going to whine too much about it.  I'm sure they'll be happy to have a blanket for their baby.

A Little Bit of Progress

It's been several weeks since I've bothered doing a WIP Wednesday, because I haven't really been doing much sewing.  I'm finally getting my mojo back. 

I finished the Blogger's BOM quilt top last night.  I think the border totally makes this quilt.  I did a modified version of Jackie's tutorial. 

Meanwhile, I've got to get this bib finished up for Thursday morning.  A few ladies at church start a charity sewing circle.  We've been putting together boxes for children.  We needed some bibs, so we're using an old shirt and using it to make bibs.  It's kind of a cool idea.  I just need to sew it up and add velcro.

Other projects
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Christmas blocks - No progress-  Oh man, is it seriously almost Christmas again?!!
Do.Good Stitches - need to do November blocks


Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 5