Friday Finishes

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, however and whatever you celebrate. Mine was quite lovely. Spent time with family and friends who are pretty much family. And I spent a good deal of time sewing, which has been fantastic! Here are some things I did.

FIRST. I did it! I finished all 25 cats for the catventquiltalong! If you follow me on IG (crookedbanana), then you've probably seen all my cats. But for those of you who don't, here they are in all their rainbowy glory:

YUM. That's all I can say. I'm so proud of myself for seeing this through til the end! Now I just have to sew all those cat faces together into a super awesome little quilt that will hang on my wall. I can't have real cats because Mario is allergic, so I guess this will have to do!

I also learned to make an infinity scarf!

I only got a phone/IG picture of someone actually wearing it, oops! It was super easy, though! I decided I really would like to be able to sew with knits. I tried it once before with pretty awful results, so I thought maybe trying a scarf that is meant to be worn all bunched up and lumpy would be a much more forgiving choice than a shirt. I was right! It still isn't perfect, but I think this is a great way to get comfortable with fabrics other than quilting cottons. I read a few tutorials, but just kinda did what I wanted. Here's one if you wanna give it a shot, though: http://www.sewcreativeblog.com/tutorial-how-to-sew-an-infinity-scarf-30-minute-project/

And finally, I finished my bee blocks for the month. Of course, I forgot to go to the post office today so they're going to be a little late... but hey. Holidays and finals. Right? And she's getting 2 instead of just 1 because my sugar and caffeine-addled brain thought 25 squares would yield me 25 HSTs. WRONG.

Oh man, hot pink is hard to capture, huh? And the dying sunlight didn't help. No excuses, though. I just forgot to take pictures until twilight... Oops!

So those are the things I have finished! How about you?? Linking up to TGIFF hosted by the lovely Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts :)

A Finished Gift

Guys. Finals are *finally* over and I am on the verge of a 12 day break from work. I cannot express to you how excited I am! I am going to sew, sew, sew and play some video games on my time off. And it will be GLORIOUS.

But today I wanted to share with you the only other project I have been working on besides cats. My boyfriend and I recently celebrated our 5th anniversary and I wanted to make him something special. Here's what I came up with:

Isn't it cute? He has loved Calvin and Hobbes since he was a little kid, so I decided it was about time he had a Hobbes of his own to have adventures with :)

I used this free pattern to make him. I can't tell you all the yarns I used. I know the black is Caron Simply Soft. The orange is some remnants I had lying around... Same with the white. The eyes and nose are felt and I used yarn to make the mouth. I don't quite understand how his belly turned out so small when hers is so in proportion! I even made it slightly bigger than the pattern! I think I'm actually going to remove that bit and make it a bit bigger. It's just really bothering me.

But he was definitely well-received! Mario had NO idea I was even working on it, which made me pretty happy considering I didn't hide the progress pieces very well! But I should never underestimate his obliviousness to my craft projects ;) Makes things pretty easy!

And because this post wouldn't be complete without it... here are the newest additions to the catvent family:

Yay ipad photos?

What have you been working on?

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

Winner!!

Just a quick announcement:

We have a winner of the SMS Giveaway! Mr. Random has spoken and he chose comment 426, which was Quilting Tangent:

Thanks so much to everyone who participated! I have been truly overwhelmed by the response. It was so much fun reading all of your comments! I wish I could have responded to every one, but there just isn't time when there are 535 comments! I'll be posting the results on the original post as well, just so everyone knows a winner was chosen.

I hope you all had fun on this SMS Giveaway day. I'll be posting again soon about Cat progress and maybe (hopefully) a super secret gift I've been making. Check back soon!

The Cats Have Taken Over...

Yeeeeeah... so all I've been working on is CATS. And homework. But mostly CATS.

This was my progress as of this morning. If you follow me on IG, you've probably seen these guys before ;) Aren't they fun?? I'm a little obsessed. I just finished Toby and Lucy, which catches me up to today!

My giveaway for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day is still open, by the way! Pop on over if you haven't and toss your name in the hat for $25 to spend at Fat Quarter Shop. I have absolutely overwhelmed by the response! It has been so fun reading everyone's holiday plans. I'm not really "into" Christmas in a lot of ways- I don't really decorate or put up a tree or listen to Christmas music. But I do love spending time with my family, which is really what Christmas has come to be for me- both traditional and non-traditional family time. Judging by the comments, you guys all totally get that. SO thanks for making me feel warm and fuzzy :)

Just as a public service announcement... I have gotten a lot of responses from no reply bloggers with no e-mail address in the comment. I would hate for you to miss out on the prize! For instructions on how to correct this, there is a good tutorial by Adrianne of On the Windy Side. Go check it out if you think you might be one!! And even if you're pretty sure you're not, in fact! Just in case.

SMS Giveaway Day! - CLOSED

Hi all! If you're new around here, welcome! Hope you'll stay a while and look around.

I have been pretty quiet around here lately. But good news! The end of the semester is IN SIGHT. Just a little over a week left and I can go back to thinking about fabric in the evening instead of homework!

So here's a little preemptive end of semester celebration for you in the form of a giveaway! Up for grabs is a $25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop!

They've got just about anything you could want right now... Here are some of my favorites:

I loooove these hedgehogs and hummingbirds, don't you? And the little owls! And bikes! Okay, lots to love here.

And obviously, Acacia. So gorgeous O.O

Plus, so many great upcoming lines! Like Color Me Happy. I love these colors!

So there you have it. To win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your holiday plans are. Followers old and new get an extra entry. No reply bloggers- please leave an e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you! I will close the giveaway and choose a winner randomly Friday, December 13th at around 5 PM my time (Arizona time / Mountain time). GOOD LUCK!

After you enter here, go to Sew Mama Sew to enter all the awesome giveaways! I know I will be :)

**** GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED****

We have a winner! It was comment 426, Quilting Tangent:

Thanks so much to everyone who participated!! You guys really made this a fun week :) 

The Day of the Quilt Block

So. I had a LOT to do this weekend and definitely did not get it all done. House buying stuff keeps getting in the way of all the other stuff I need to doooo :( But for the sake of a new house and a sewing room with actual light, I guess it's worth it!

Here are all the blocks I managed to finish this weekend:

First up- for Audrey! Two big, bright churn dash blocks to go in her quilt for tornado victims. I wanted to make more but I ran out of white :( But these will be in the mail tomorrow!

Next, my slightly late and slightly difficult to look at bee block for November. The queen asked for bold and bright solids. Hope I didn't go overboard here! The red is Kona Flame if you were wondering. Probably because it burns the retinas. I don't remember what the other two are!

And finally, Ferdinand. Yes, Ferdinand. Do you follow Elizabeth Hartman's blog (is that a stupid question?)? Well then you may have seen her brilliant idea for a quilt along. She will be posting a new 6 inch cat block every day until Christmas. Isn't that awesome?? Instead of going with a solid background I'm doing LV scraps. Partially because I think it will be awesome but also a little because I didn't have enough of any good background fabric to make the whole quilt, small as it is. How sad it that? I need to build up my solids stash...

All 25 cats have their own names, which is amazing. Don't you want to join in? I know you do! Check out the links above for more info and come see what everyone is making by checking out #catventquiltalong on Instagram!

Well, that's what I've been up to. How about you?

WiP for the Holiday

Heeeeey there. Long time no see, huh? Yeah. School and house hunting have been totally wiping me out. I've been lucky to feel like I have enough energy at the end of the day to get some sewing in. But the end is in sight! Just one more paper, 2 tests, and a group presentation and I will be back to the blissful homework-free lifestyle. At least until next semester when I plan on taking another Spanish class :)

But things have been happening...

For example, I decided what to do with my Scrumptious layer cake :D I'm really excited about this one. I definitely need more white before I can finish, but totally have it all planned out!

I even started a few blocks (these were for testing purposes but will definitely be included in the top!). Picture is pretty dark, sorry! There is no light at all here until after I go to work :/ And the sun is gone when I get back. Lame.

I've still got these waiting to be turned into blocks, too.

I haven't made much progress on the scrappy chevrons, but I'm having an Alternative Black Friday Craft Day (yes, it needed caps!) this Friday so I plan to work on that while sipping wine and giggling with my friends. It will be a good day. I also have all the bits for 2 more swoon blocks cut and ready to go on my sewing table... To be honest, my sewing table is quite a mess right now. But I don't want to clear it off because I'm still working on all the stuff on it! So here it is in all its messy glory. Because I'm nice and want to make you feel better about your sewing space ;)

See? What a mess! Oh well. Creativity isn't tidy, is it?

One last thing! This weekend I'm going to be making some 15" Churn Dash blocks for the lovely Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts, who is making a quilt for the people in Washington, IL who were affected by the tornadoes. She lives in that area but was very fortunate not to have any serious damage to her home or her family. But so many others weren't so lucky! Do you have time to make a quick block to send off to her? If so, you can find the details here. And the original post is here. Thanks for considering it!

What are you working on for the long weekend?

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

So Many Colors!

Progress is happening. It is. I am finally ironing the 500+ little blocks that will eventually become a big scrappy chevron quilt. I am turning the orderly little piles on the left into the chaos on the right:

It took me 2 recorded lectures (both over an hour) to get this many ironed. I think one more and I'll be done... I really hope. I hate ironing! Although I do like it more when I'm actually watching something fun.

Here's another shot of all that color:

I think this quilt is going to be SUPER AWESOME. when it's finished. It better be after all this work!

I also may have had a little shopping accident...

Yes. That is a layer cake of both Scrumptious and Salt Water. And two mini charm packs of In From the Cold and Simply Style... The Simply style is for my granny blocks. The In From the Cold is because I think (probably mistakenly) that this may finally be the year I make stockings. Maybe. Scrumptious is already being turned into a Christmas gift (pictures to come!) and the Salt Water... is because it's pretty. So, whatever. 75% have actual plans attached. That's not bad!

I know I have been an infrequent visitor to my own blog lately and that's because there is SO MUCH else going on in my life. I went to my first conference last week (which means I'm officially an adult) AND. I'm house shopping! AHH! Add the two classes I'm taking to that and it pretty much means I barely have time to think, let alone blog. But once or twice a week is just fine for my brain right now. Hopefully once things settle down in other areas I'll have more time to focus on my far more glamorous internet life. Because let's face it, quilt/craft blogging is MUCH more glamorous than dealing with the day to day problems of a budget-strapped academic research library. RIGHT?

Oh man, I am tired. Have a lovely evening. And wish me luck on my test tomorrow! ;)

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Bee blocks!

The blocks have been arriving pretty steadily over here, but I thought I would wait til I had most of them to show them to you...

Here they are, so happy together. I know they look like they're all different sizes- it's because they are. Some of the ladies purposely left them big so I could trim them down myself. Aren't they fun? I thought at first I would sash them all in white when I put the top together but now I'm not sure. What do you think?

This represents the efforts of 8 of my bee mates with one more for sure on the way... It's a newbie bee and we've had some problems with people disappearing, so I'm planning on just being content with what I receive.

Action shot of the hyper pooch leaping over the blocks (at least she jumped over them instead of running through them?):

Silly dog.

I also made a cover for the cushions on our new couch. See, we bought these awesome new leather couches... The price was so good, we just could pass them up. And honestly, we hated our old couch. It was waaay too much of a hair magnet to have a husky. No amount of vacuuming ever did any good. But we realized (after we paid, of course) that our dogs are definitely not trained to stay off the couches. Which is fine, really. I've never in my life had pets that stayed off the furniture. But that did present the problem of their little claws scratching and ripping our pretty new leather couches...

Enter: super cheap chevron canvas at SAS and my brilliant idea of sewing up a little "fitted sheet" for the cushions. The dogs don't really go on the arms of the couch and I didn't want to cover the whole thing up, so this seemed like a pretty good solution! What do you think? It really is made like a fitted sheet. It has elastic in the bottom to keep it on and boxed corners. So far it's working really well! I know it looks a little loose, but that was intentional. Canvas doesn't really stretch and when there's two or three people on it, it becomes much more taut but not so taut that it pulls the elastic up. Of course, we'll have to wait and see how long it hold up. But at $5 a yard for pretty heavy canvas, I wouldn't really mind making another set!

 I haven't finished up the one for the love seat yet and I have been trying to take pictures of the process. Would anyone be interested in a little tutorial? I figure there must be some other people out there with pets and couches to protect :) Let me know in the comments!

Also, that giveaway I keep promising... it IS coming. As well as a proper post on my first year of blogging! It's just been hectic here and tomorrow morning I leave for Atlanta for my FIRST EVER conference (if you don't count the state thespian conferences I went to in high school)! I feel like such a grown up! I'm going with my team leader and one of the team supervisors, so it's a little nerve-wracking. I'm also using Airbnb for the first time- staying in a nice couple's apartment who travel a lot for business. I'll be sure to report on my experiences on both fronts! But yeah, the blogiversary giveaway will definitely have to be when I get back next week!

I'm linking up today with Show and Tell Tuesday with Randi and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

All I've Done This Week...

Well. Other than making it to gym #7. And finishing Sense and Sensibility. And Eleanor and Park. I have been on a huge reading kick this week...

A little wall hanging for a friend's housewarming/halloween party! I used this pattern from Cut to Pieces To be totally honest, though, I only did the quilting and binding this week. I actually finished the piecing sometime in September. Then I got distracted by the Split Personalities quilt. But I finished in time for the party and that's the important thing, right? RIGHT?

Sorry for the dark pictures... I literally finished it *just* before the party and it was dark by then so... Yeah. I'm actually really pleased with how the quilting turned out. It's a star! Like, a Mario Bros. star! I printed a picture from the internets and traced it. It's pretty awesome, I think.

If I'm really, really honest, I hated piecing this. I hate tiny squares and I don't think I'll ever have the courage to make a super awesome David Tennant quilt. But that's okay. Because at least I gave it a shot, right?

If I'm really, really, really honest... I'm two glasses of wine in and typing feels like a lot of work. It has been a LONG week. Promise that giveaway is still coming. Just need to recover from all the craziness of the week first.

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

A Finish for Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Yes, that's right. Just in time!

I actually finished my little low volume pinwheels quilt last weekend, but just hadn't gotten around to posting about it. Because my wonderful boyfriend may have bought me a 3DS and Pokemon X and I may have been playing it all week. Ahem.

But here it is finally in all its glory!

I decided to include this one in BQF because it is really the first quilt I have made that was designed by me. It just sort of grew organically from the idea of placing some brightly colored pinwheels in a sea of low volume fabrics. I really, absolutely LOVE the way it turned out. It's just as I imagined it!

The back is pretty much the opposite of the front. Bright, random, scrappy, unplanned. I love it, too, though. Because the two sides are so different, I am calling this quilt Split Personalities. Yup! I bound it in the triangle print from Lizzie House's Outfoxed. you maybe remember I picked up a sizable piece for my recent discount fabric excursion. I had planned on using it on the back, but I think it's much better as a binding.

I quilted it very simply with straight lines in white because I thought a sweet, simple quilt like this should really have sweet, simple quilting. I do love straight line quilting, if I'm honest. It's just so pretty. I love FMQ, too, don't get me wrong, but I think straight lines work better here.

Details:
Name: Split Personalities
Finished size: 56"x56"
Materials: Bright Kona Cotton solids with a variety of low volume scraps, some from a swap and some from stash.

I am entering this into the Throw Quilt category. And also linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts since I did *just* finish! :)

P.S. Tomorrow is my one year blogiversary! Stayed tuned for a little celebratory giveaway coming this weekend :)

Back to Swooning...

Yes! I have finally made more progress on the Elephant Swoon by finishing up this pretty block.

I probably say this about all my swoon blocks... But this one might be my favorite yet! I love orange and green together :)

So that brings the total up to 5... Just 4 more to go! That's doable, right? I'd love to have at least the top done by the end of the year!

Have you finished anything awesome this week? Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

The Other Side of the Quilt

Um, so there's this awesome linky party going on. Have you heard? Katie over at Swim Bike Quilt is hosting a party to celebrate the Other Side of the Quilt. You've heard me say more than once that I often love the back of the quilt as much if not more than the front, so how could I resist participating?

Here are some photos:

 

This is the back of my Scrappy Trip quilt. It really came about because I didn't have enough continuous yardage of anything to make a quilt back. So I slapped together bits of all my bright solids and near solids and threw in a strip of leftovers from the front to create this. I absolutely adore it! I love the little strip of squares down the center and all the fun colors. This one really inspired me to make pieced quilt backs as often as possible for the future!

And this is the back of my Stitch and Flip or Wonky Triangles quilt (I never really settled on a name!). I had a few stitch and flip blocks left and didn't feel like making more to make the top bigger, so I just put them together on the back with bright teal and green to go with it. I love this quilt back, too! It's so simple, but so pretty.

The back of the quilt I'm currently working on is fun, too. You'll see that soon, hopefully! I want to get it quilted first before I try to take photos.

So I'm linking these up for now! I may link up future quilts as well depending on how long the linky stays open. So how about you? Have any exciting quilt backs to showcase? You should go link up!

Progress!

Well kids, it's Wednesday. Shall we see what kind of progress I've made this past week?

Quilting of the Low Volume Pinwheels quilt has begun:

I am keeping it simple with this quilt. Just straight lines on either side of the seams in the pinwheel and 4 patch blocks. I am halfway done- I have quilted all the lines going one direction. Hoping to finish this up this weekend if I can decide on a binding!

I have also been working on a scarf for a friend.

It's a Hufflepuff scarf! I'm knitting it in the round so it's nice and thick and looks nice on both sides. It is slow going this way, but I love the way it's turning out!

So that's what I've been up to this week. How about you?

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced and Keep Calm and Craft On at Frontier Dreams!

A Happy Little Project

I just wanted to share this little project with you today. I made it for my mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago, but now that she has it in her hands, I can show it to you.

Isn't it cute? It's just a little fabric basket. I didn't use any tutorial, just sewed up some rainbow squares and did the math to figure out how big to cut the other pieces :)

I used the little scraps left over from cutting all the rectangles for the Scrappy Chevron quilt that is currently in progress. The inside I believe is a Joel Dewberry print. Not sure what it is exactly, sorry!

The bottom is the Fireworks print from Frippery. I did a slight oops there- I forgot the interfacing. But at long at the basket is sitting on something, it's just fine.

Of course, I filled the little basket with other goodies before gifting it to my mom :)

What have you finished lately? Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

IT'S HERE

I got a very happy package today!

OMG so exciting! Acacia! AHH!

Look at that pretty stack!

Do you like the dog paw in the picture? The dogs were particularly clingy today. It was hard to get a shot without one of them!

This is what they were doing most of the time I was trying to take pictures... Sniffing the fabric, staring at it, wondering why it was so interesting to me...

Until they got bored of me and gave up.

So I could finally get a dog-free picture ;) Seriously, though, isn't it pretty? Look at those colors! And the raccoons! Oh my gosh, the raccoons!! I am not sure yet what I am going to make with these lovelies, but it has to be something AWESOME. I was so sad when Salt Water came out because I was sooo broke. I have some of it now, so it's okay, but it's much better to get it when it's still brand new and easy to find! Yay for having a job!

That was my excitement for the day. What about you?

One more gratuitous cute dog photo...