New Schedule

I started my new job yesterday. Back to working full time! I'm pretty happy about it, especially because it gives me a reason to get dressed everyday instead of loafing around in my pjs all day. It may mean shorter and fewer posts here, though, at least for the first couple of weeks!

So, what did I do with my last weekend of freedom? Sewed like a madwoman, of course! Remember that I had all the pieces cut out for my sister's quilt and then I had all the blocks done... Well, here's where I am now:

Yes. I am FMQing the whole quilt! I must be insane. After only ever doing FMQ on 2 real blocks, the next logical step was obviously to go ahead and do a whole quilt, right? Well. Too late. I'm 2/3 of the way done and I just love it. It's so much fun and it looks so cool! No regrets. At least I am doing my first big quilt with a basic meandering pattern. I'm not that crazy (right??).

I am trying to get this finished this week. But I make no promises, considering I am coming off of a 3 month pseudo vacation in which I only worked part time and am now adjusting to full time again. But it is nice to just come home and sit down behind my machine to unwind... Why didn't I start sewing sooner?

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday at Better Off Thread because, seriously, if you have never made a drawstring bag with Jeni at In Color Order's tutorial, you NEED to. Like, NOW. :D

Yay Finishes!

A week of finishes. All drawstring bags were made with this tutorial.

I had an extremely busy sewing week! Above is a little mosaic of everything I completed. From top to bottom, left to right: 1. Sister's Ten BOM February block; 2. Quilted shift boot cover; 3. Drawstring bag; 4. Skill Builder BOM "Mood" block; 5. Quilted Skill Builder BOM "Magnum" block; 6. Quilted Skill Builder BOM "Sound Wave" block; 7. Skill Builder BOM "Em Dash" block; 8. Drawstring bag for my dad; 9. Drawstring bag for my boss's birthday.

WOW. Seeing it all together makes me feel pretty proud. I got so much done this week! And this isn't even everything I did... I also completed all the blocks for my sister's Kitchen Window quilt and started sewing them together! Here's the next in the "to be sewn into rows" pile:

It's turning out so good! Just like I imagined it. And I was very careful with all the directional animals and cut them so that they would be facing the right direction for both vertical and horizontal windows. It's going to be fabulous! I wish I could stay home and work on this all day, but today is the last day at my part time job. It would be sad to miss it! I think I can at least get the top done this weekend so I'll post a nice picture of it when it's done :) My sister's birthday isn't until mid April, so this is going to be done super early!

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts! What a good week for finishes. Now to go look at all the other eye candy until work time!

A New WiP

Yes. I started something new. A quilt for my sister's birthday! It's the Kitchen Window pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's The Practical Guide to Patchwork. I am using Pat Sloniger's Les Amis line in the warm colorway with some coordinating solids for the frame and background. I just love all the little animals! You can see the foxes on top in the photo.

I seem to only take pictures on dreary days. And considering I live in southern AZ, this takes talent. We have a "blizzard warning" in Tucson today! This mostly applies to the mountains, but the novelty of having a blizzard warning in the desert is kind of fun. I wonder if it will snow at all? We'll see!

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced! Don't worry, though. I will have all the little things I've finished to show you on Friday :)

Such a Productive Weekend!

I got SO MUCH DONE this weekend, sewing-wise. Everything else wise... Well, no. There are still dishes to do and a floor to mop and two giant boxes of stuff from my old room in my mom's house to find a home for... but at least I got a lot of sewing done, right??

I'm not going to show you everything. Yet. Because there's a lot. But here is what I was probably most excited about finishing:

Yes!! I finished the quilted shifter boot cover! :D My first attempt wasn't exactly pretty... For the second attempt, I ditched the idea of a snap on the top to hold it around the shifter and instead added drawstrings, inspired by the drawstring bags I can't seem to stop making. I added a drawstring at the bottom, too, so instead of having to sew the cover onto a plastic ring and then fit the ring over the shifter, I can just put the cover directly on and tighten it as much as I need to. This will also make it easier to wash. And to remove once Mario actually pits a shift KNOB on it ;) It also now has little plastic clips that keep the top and bottom cinched up (I don't know what they're called...), but we were too excited to put them on before picture time. And now the car is with Mario at work, so you'll have to use your imagination!

I have gone drawstring crazy... Since my last post, I have made 2 more drawstring bags and am already planning a third.

Bag for my Dad's birthday

Bag for my friend the Chef

They are just so cute and easy to make! I can now make them in an hour, plus the time it take to braid some yarn since I wasn't smart enough to buy a variety of ribbons while I was at Joann. This last one is going off to my out of state friend and is already chock full of mostly crocheted goodies. It's so nice to have something to hold it all in! I hope he likes it.

Those are the non-quilt things I did this weekend. I also finished several blocks and did my first "real" FMQ! But that will come in a later post so I don't totally bore you.

Linking up to Let's Get Acquainted Monday, hosted over at Weekend Doings today!

Another Little Finish!

So yesterday I posted about this:

My first ever bee block! It was very exciting, of course. I thought it was going to be the only thing I got done this week, too, so I went ahead and prematurely linked to Finish it Up Friday.

But then I decided at the absolute last minute that I NEEDED a drawstring bag to put Mario's little gifts in. See, we agreed not to buy each other anything because we're both pretty broke until our new jobs start. But I did go out and buy a bit of candy and wrote a little note... I may or may not have cut out hearts from some pink paper. It was fun. I needed to put them in something, right? So I made this:

A cute little drawstring pouch using the tutorial from Jeni at In Color Order. It was such a great, easy tutorial! I only had an hour and a half to get it done before Mario came home from work and I was able to choose fabric, iron it, cut it out, and finish the bag with a few minutes to spare! The only problem was that I didn't have any ribbon and I definitely didn't have time to make the ribbon out of fabric... So I used yarn. It's pretty ugly so I hid it for the picture ;) But I plan on getting some red ribbon to replace it. I am rather fond of the fabric I used. Two moose for the sort of focal point! How perfect is that? Moose are kind of a thing with us so I just HAD to fussy cut the fabric to put them in the center. I like it because it's Valentine's-y without being pink and girly. PERFECT. And he loved it, so even more perfect!

I actually got a lot more sewing done yesterday than I thought I would. After dinner and dessert (a delicious chocolate stout cake- from where else but Smitten Kitchen?) and a movie, Mario had a lot of paperwork to get started on. So I practiced some FMQ:

Found a use for the "irregular" squares from my Hounds Tooth quilt!

I know it's hard to see the white thread in the off-white fabric, but the upper left is swirls and the lower right is pebbles. I actually did a lot better on the pebbles on the white than the purple.

Still needs work, but I feel much better about actually quilting my Skill Builder blocks! I hope to get them both done this weekend so I can start on this month's blocks!

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