Around the World Blog Hop

So. The lovely and talented Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts tagged me to join this crazy chain of bloggers answering questions about themselves. I'm really not sure where this started, but it's so fun to see how many people are participating! Seriously, just google Around the World Blog Hop and maybe add quilting and tons of results will pop up! Isn't it amazing just how many of us are tied together in this online quilting and sewing community? I think so! So without further ado...

1.      What am I working on?

The Catvent Quilt Along top from last Christmas... Yeah. It's still just a top.

Mario's quilt also really needs quilting. I still don't even have a backing for it. Definitely need to finish this by Christmas.

Nothing major right now. I have 2 quilt tops I need to finish and turn into quilts. Aiming for the end of the year on those. I've also been working on making more clothes for myself, so expect to see more posts about that in the future. Really, right now I'm coming down from a month of intense, deadline-driven sewing, so I'm taking it a little easy. Just sewing what I want to sew, catching up on bee blocks, and planning for the future. So far, I am enjoying September very much!

Some leggings I finished this week.

2.      How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Hmmm. That's a tough one. I have a tendency to do what I want and not care about things like what the pattern tells me to do or worrying about trendy color combos. I try to just make what makes me happy (or what will make the intended recipient happy!) and not worry about anything else. I don't know if that really makes what I do different, but it definitely makes me happy!

Swoon blocks... still waiting to be sewn together...

Mother Day Dumpling bags

3.      Why do I write/create what I do?

I create to fill a need. I don't do well with idleness and I find I am the calmest and most satisfied with my life when I am actively working on creating something. What I create can vary widely- I love crafts of all kinds, but I also love writing. Little known fact about me- I studied English and Creative Writing in my undergrad career with an emphasis in poetry. And those poetry workshops were the best classes I took in college. I've loved writing since I was really young. I still have the first book I ever wrote, laminated and spiral bound for the Young Authors program in Washington. Lately my writing hasn't been so regular, but I'm working on that!

So I guess long story short, I create because I love it, because I need to, because it's fun and fulfilling in a way that nothing else is. 

A wonky wedding quilt I made for a friend

 4.      How does my writing/creating process work?

I think this one is even harder because it really isn't a standard thing. Sometimes I have an idea that I need to make or write RIGHT NOW or the WORLD WILL END. And I get started as soon as I possibly can, taking breaks only for my day job and sleep. But sometimes I have no idea what I want to do, so I just wander around my sewing room or doodle in my journal until I figure something out. Sometimes I work on something a little at a time, sometimes I focus on one thing to completion, sometimes I jump around from project to project. I guess my creative process is just really flexible and sometimes unpredictable. Which suits me just fine.

So now it's my turn. I suppose I will get the other ladies of the Fierce Quilters Bee in on this action- Kitty, Allison, and Sarah. TELL ME STUFF, GUYS. :D

The Wedding Quilt

Okay, guys, I finally have something awesome to show you. Are you ready? Let's pretend I took really awesome pictures and wasn't totally rushing 10 minutes before I had to get ready to leave, okay??

BAM. Star in a star in a star, self-drafted pattern. Then I added the fun border to make it a little bigger. It finished at about 85x85.

Look, a slightly different angle! I couldn't stand back far enough to get a straight on shot of the whole thing without the sun glaring off the camera lens... *sigh*

See the glare?? And I was standing pretty close! I don't know if you can see it, but I quilted it with an all-over FMQ stipple. I need to start getting braver with my FMQ, man. I'm getting a little tired of the stipple!

This quilt was for my future sister-in-law's wedding, so it was very special! She also happens to be one of my best friends who I have know almost 10 years. I introduced her to her now husband, who I had known for several years, just about two and a half years ago. They're such a great couple! Their wedding was lovely and fun and everything a wedding is supposed to be :) And the quilt was well received!

Here are some progress shots of the quilt, just for funsies:

I also made the bridesmaid dresses- I will post pictures of those AND the awesome bathing suit I made for our little vacation following the wedding next week! August was a super busy sewing month, even though I didn't blog almost at all. But now I have plenty of fodder to keep this space busy for a couple of weeks! Stay tuned!

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

It's a Quilt Top!

It has been a long, silent week. I know.

But I do have an excuse. I finished my quilt top and I really wanted to share it with you... but it has been monsooning all week. For those that aren't familiar with summer weather in Southern AZ, that means it rains every day. And not just rain, but big lightning storms that dump buckets of water on us and cause fun things like microbursts that routinely take out power lines and you know, trees. Usually these storms happen in the late afternoon and sometimes the heavy clouds stick around all night and into the mornings, which has been the case this week.

I love monsoons. Really, I do. There is nothing so nice as the smell of the desert after a good rain. But it means my only picture time during the week is when I'm at work! Super frustrating.

But luckily today I had the boyfriend at home with me in the morning and (gasp!) the skies were clear! So he helped me snap a couple of (very quick) shots before I had to go to work.

I'm short. It's hard to hold up a quilt top that measure about 66"x78"!

I am so pleased with how it turned out! I just used some awesome coupons at Joann to buy some Kona cotton solids to put together into a backing and I got some batting on sale, too. Yay sales and coupons! I think I'm going to FMQ it with an all over meander. I don't think echo quilting would work well with the wonkiness and I don't want to do straight lines... I definitely should have picked up more thread while I was getting the backing and batting. Oops!

Quilt top info: Assorted wonky scraps on a background of Kona Ash. I used the directions to make these blocks from Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen- an excellent book! Each block finishes at 6". They're super quick and fun to make! I highly recommend giving this sort of improv/wonky piecing a try. There are tons of layout possibilities!

I also finished my next swoon block! Still blue elephants because I cut them all at once, but the next two blocks will be with different colored elephants, promise! I can't wait to get this done :) I bought the rest of the white for the background during that same shopping trip, so I should be all set for the top! I hope to get my next Swoon block done next week and hopefully won't have to wait til next Saturday to show you :P

In other news... I am not up to 40 followers on Bloglovin'! You guys are great :D I am thinking about having a little giveaway once I can figure out what to give away. Stay tuned!!

And because I am a terrible, bad blogger, here is the lineup for the Let's Get Acquainted blog hop from this past week and next week (just it case it gets cloudy and I'm unmotivated to post without pretty pictures again!):

July 12
Karen @ Karen, {Novice} Quilter
Anne @ PlayCrafts
Rachel @ Let's Begin Sewing...
Jan @ Sew And Sow Farm
Anna @ Quilting Along The Grain
Cath @ Wombat Quilts
Sarah @ {no} hats in the house
Christen @ Love by Hand
Julie @ 627handworks


July 19
Karen @ Little Birdie Quilting Studio
Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures
Katie @ Snuggle Up With A Dish From Karma
Alison @ Making Happyness
Ella and Nesta @ Ella & Nesta's Little Room
Adrienne @ Chezzetcook Modern Quilts
Nicole @ Modern Handcraft
Aylin @ AyliN-Nilya
Kelsey and Amanda @ Everyday Fray

Let's Get Acquainted

I mentioned before that I will be participating in the 2013 Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop, organized by Beth at Plum and June.

Well it kicks off this week! Go check out these awesome new bloggers who are posting this week:

Friday, June 7
Nancy @ Owen's Olivia

Amy @ 13 Spools

Ashley @ Wasn't Quilt In A Day

Casey @ The Studiolo 

Nanette @ Yeah, I Made That

Ange @ Heart Of Charnwood

Kim @ Robot Mom Sews

Erica @ Kitchen Table Quilting

And for the rest of the hop:

Friday, June 14
Julie @ Jolie Maxtin

Melissa @ Melia Mae Quilting

Adrianne @ On The Windy Side

Molli @ Molli Sparkles

Laura @ Little And Lots

Sarah @ Duck Egg Threads

Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

Cari @ There's A Thread

Valerie @ Between Quilts

Friday, June 21

Leigh Anne @ Ella's Cottage

Stacy @ The Tilted Quilt

Sarah @ Quilt Candy

Jackie @ NW Patchwork

Liz @ Beadqueene's Bits And Baubles

Erica @ Happy Fabric

Stephanie @ Simple Sewendipity

Lauren @ Seraphym

Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts

Friday, June 28

Green @ So Sew Green

Gwendellyn @ The Rainbow Revolts

Jessica @ Stitched In Thyme

Amira @ Little Mushroom Cap

Kathy @ Kayak Quilting

Michelle @ Factotum Of Arts

Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

Kris @ Sew Sunshine

Camilla @ Faffling

Friday, July 5

Christa @ Christa Quilts!

Alyce @ Wonderland By Alyce

Anna (ME!!) @ The Crooked Banana

Rachel @ Sew Happily Ever After 

Stephanie @ Quarter Incher

Shayla @ Sassafras Lane Designs

Caroline @ Carolines Craftiness

Lisa @ Hilltop House Creative Works

Friday, July 12

Leona @ Leona's Quilting Adventure

Karen @ Karen, {Novice} Quilter

Anne @ PlayCrafts

Rachel @ Let's Begin Sewing...

Jan @ Sew And Sow Farm

Anna @ Quilting Along The Grain

Cath @ Wombat Quilts

Sarah @ {No} Hats In The House

Friday, July 19

Karen @ Little Birdie Quilting Studio

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures

Katie @ Snuggle Up With A Dish From Karma 

Alison @ Making Happyness

Ella and Nesta @ Ella & Nesta's Little Room

Adrienne @ Chezzetcook Modern Quilts

Nicole @ Modern Handcraft

Aylin @ AyliN-Nilya

Kelsey and Amanda @ Everyday Fray

Friday, July 26

Vicki @ A Quilter's Mission

RobinSue @ RobinSue Quilts

Elisa Lea @ Lovelea Designs

Elizabeth @ In The Boondocks

Jenny @ A Note To Follow Sew

Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Sonia @ Fabric & Flowers

Emily @ Sew E.T.

I'll post the week's schedule every Monday so you can keep up. Go support these new bloggers! :)

In other news, I now have over 50 6.5" stitch and flip blocks completed.

You can see the disaster that is my craft table in the background. I just have a huge pile of scraps so I can grab a couple at random as I make the blocks. Looks messy, but makes block making go by fast!

It seemed like most people liked the first layout in my last post, so here is a slightly larger preview of that.

I love it so much! It has the sort of weird hexagon start things that I was rather fond of in one of the other layouts, but it also radiates from the center, which breaks up that pattern a bit. Best of both worlds, right? I am so excited for this quilt. Just 90 more blocks to go until it is will be the size I want! Yay!

That's basically all I have been working on. Well. I did start a new pair of socks. I sort of messed up the first one, though, so I may rip a few rows down and re-do it. We'll see!

Playing

First- Have you gone and looked at all the wonderful winners of the Blogger's Quilt Festival? And all the entries?? There is some seriously fabulous inspiration there. You should go check it out if you want some serious eye candy!

I have been playing with layouts for my stitch and flip blocks. Because I guess I like to know where I'm going before I get to the end of a quilt... It has been really bothering me. How is it going to look when I'm done making all the wonky gloriousness? So I have been rearranging them in different layouts, trying to decide so I will cease to be paralyzed by a lack of a known destination...

I sort of stumbled on this one by accident. I was trying to show the boyfriend what I was doing and just laid them out randomly... but then it started to look like fun diamonds radiating from the center. So I went with it. I kinda like this one. I wonder how it would look in a full quilt? Maybe with the central diamond off center? Or maybe with a few large diamond-y things? Hmmm.

There is also this diamond-y layout. I quite like how wonky they look. Another possibility.

This one has possibilities if I make all the little blocks sit on point. Then they kinda look like poorly drawn hexagons with pretty points. Like weird multi-colored suns?

I could also add a little more dead space and make rows of bow ties/butterflies. Or whatever you wanna call them. I prefer to think of them as weird little butterflies. This one could be fun, too... AH!

What do you think? Any preferences? Or other ideas? I could also make some with just one bright corner. Or four. Or three. See what I mean? I could do SO MANY THINGS. I thought this was just going to be easy and fun... But now... I don't know what to do. Any suggestions are totally welcome.

THANKS. What have you been playing around with lately?

Linking up with Let's Get Acquainted, hosted today at one of my favorite blogs to read, Life's Rich Pattern. Go check out Annabella's blog and look at all the linkies! :)

The One with All the Sickness

I have been sick since Saturday. What was supposed to be a fun weekend for Mario's birthday turned into The Weekend of Sickness, culminating in Mario getting food poisoning on his actual birthday (Memorial Day) and being absolutely miserable for a day and a half. Sometimes things don't go as planned... I am not feeling any better so today I decided that rather than struggling through another day at work and subjecting my coworkers to my drippy nose and frequent sneezing fits, I'd just stay home and sleep the day away. That is my plan. I just had to get up and feed the dogs so I thought I'd pop in here to let you know what's been going on.

Then guess what happened? My SD card reader decided to stop working. I haven't been able to find my transfer cable for the fancy camera, so today you'll have to settle for crappy cell phone pictures of things I've been working on.

My biggest news? I FINISHED A SOCK.

Not a super fancy sock, but it is functional and it fits and it has PURPLE on it :D I used these videos from Knitpicks to help me figure it out. Super clear step by step instructions to make a basic sock. Now I understand what things like "gusset" and "heel turn" mean and they aren't nearly as scary as they sound! I think now I might be ready to tackle something slightly more complicated from my Sock Knitting Master Class book. Maybe.

Seriously terrible picture, I know. But I wanted to prove it fits!

I have started work on the second of the pair... but I don't know if I'll have enough yarn to finish. Because this happened.

My little demon puppy got a hold of the other ball and now it is hopelessly tangled... Probably my fault, really, as I left it on the couch. What else is a puppy to do with an unattended ball of yarn? It would be nice if she had picked it up and knitted the other sock of me... but I guess that's a little too much to ask. I have less than half of the first ball left and I was able to get some yarn from this tangled mess, so I might pull it off. I got the yarn on clearance at Joann, though, and I can't find this color anywhere. Not that I even know what it's called because she ate the label, too... But I know it is no longer available at Joann either locally or online. So I'll see what I can do with what I have. If worse comes to worst, I will just pick up some gray or purple yarn and finish the toe with that. It's my first pair, so I'm not stressing over it too much.

Other than that I have just been steadily increasing my pile of pinwheels. Oh, and I started a new project with stitch and flip triangles...

That is one dark picture. But you get the idea! I'm going to make them into butterflies, I think... Or something. I'll probably make a whole bunch of blocks and decide on a layout later. I was looking through Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson (you can see it at the top of the picture) and I just loved all the quilts with stitch and flip triangles. I would one day love to make a Supernova quilt from that book, but  I would definitely need to buy a lot of fabric for that. So right now I am happy using scraps and some Kona Ash :)

Okay. I've rambled enough. I need to go take some cough syrup and lay down for a while... Hopefully I will have some decent pictures next week.

Oh yeah. There's still a day or so to vote for your favorites in each category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! You should totally go do that! There are soooo many pretty entries!

Make a List... Tuesday?

Hello!

It was a quiet weekend on my little blog. I took a little break from sewing after the whirlwind of finishing my sister's quilt. I was a tad obsessed with it and pretty much spent every hour I wasn't working or eating or watching a movie with the boyfriend (I couldn't neglect him completely...) with that quilt. No regrets! It turned out great and my sister loved it :) She just got a new job, too, so I decided I was justified in giving it to her 6 weeks before her birthday.

After that I needed a break. I was also scheduled to work Saturday, so that was part of it. But then that afternoon I got a job offer from the place I REALLY wanted to work, so the rest of the weekend was spent celebrating. And, you know, booking a hotel room in Vegas since I won't be working this weekend anymore. It wasn't a total whim! Some of my old coworkers have been planning a reunion in Vegas and I soooo wanted to go. And I thought I would be able to when I finally got a job except then I got scheduled for Saturdays! But now I've left that position and have another couple of weeks off, so I decided to splurge and just GO. I can't tell you how excited I am! I haven't seen most of these people in almost a year... some much longer than that. We all worked together as undergrads. They were like my family. SO EXCITED. It is going to be legendary.

I also did this while on a break from sewing:

Yeah! Painted lamp shades. I was originally planning to cover them in fabric, but then I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to go for it. I love how it turned out :) The other one is not quite finished yet. Hopefully I can get to that this week and show you the finished lamps!

But sewing is what you came for, right? Well. Yesterday I did this:

Oh, man. Basting a queen sized quilt was a HUGE job. My fingers still hurt! I had to move most of the furniture out of the living room to do it. But it's done and basted and I've already started the quilting! YAY! The quilting is definitely going to take a while. That quilt it heavy. My shoulders get tired just thinking about it. But it's going to be so worth it when it's done... Just have to keep my mind on how pretty it will look all laid out on my bed!

Quilting this has already taught me one thing.

Variegated thread makes pretty bobbins :)

Before I get back to quilting, though, I need to organize my thoughts. There are so many things I want to do and make! I feel like I need to write it all down so I can get a handle on all my ideas and plan what to do next.

Things I need to do this month:

March Sister's Ten blocks
Quilt February's Skill Builder blocks
March's bee block (a sawtooth star! Yay!)
March Skill builder blocks

Things I want to do not necessarily this month:

Finish quilting Hounds Tooth
Turn my finished Sister's Ten blocks into pillows
Plan a quilt for Mario's birthday
Make a Velocity Girl bag (I already have the supplies!)
Make another dress
Make another skirt
Start my pinwheel quilt
Make myself some pretty potholders
Start a herringbone quilt using my other FQ bundle of Les Amis (I started designing this with the Quilt Design Tool at Thread Bias)
Learn to make blouses and shorts
Turn some silly flannel I bought at Joann into PJ pants
Make a Kindle case
Make a plastic bag dispenser

WOW. Okay, I want to do more things than I thought. And I will probably think of more. But at least I got them out of my head for now. I don't think I will be able to do all of this list in a month! Maybe they should be more long term goals? Ah, well. We'll see how I do. And now, back to sewing!

Linking up to Show and Tell Tuesday with Randi at i have to say... and WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced, hosted by Claire from Sewing Over Pins this week! :) Have a great week!