Moving Right Along

Continuing along on my wave of motivation after finishing my first Christmas flimsy, I got started on another one last night. I cut 16 of the 20 initial blocks needed for the Five, Ten, Twenty pattern I am using for A2's boyfriend's quilt. I'm just waiting for the fabric for the last four blocks to come in to finish cutting. I decided on four different kona solids to use for the last four blocks, the backing, and a scrappy binding. They (hopefully!) match the colors of the electric guitars. There is so much going on in the fabrics above that I feel like a few solids will tie the prints together while giving the eyes a place to rest. Now to patiently wait for that fabric so I can keep moving along!

One Thing, One Week Challenge Complete!

With a last minute push late Sunday night, I managed to finally get all the parts assembled for A4's quilt top. I will warn you, this quilt is not too easy on the eyes. The bright and crazy fabrics probably won't sit well with everyone's tastes, but my baby sister will absolutely love it. Of that, I have no doubts.I have even managed to keep her from seeing it. She asked me one day last week if I would get her quilt done before she went to college - the child isn't even in high school yet! So I don't think she suspects she's getting it for Christmas.

Thanks to Amy for hosting the challenge. It was just the push I needed to get moving on these Christmas projects. I'm ready to get moving on the next one now. I ordered the remaining fabric I need for A2's boyfriend's quilt today. I think I might get started cutting what I have already for that quilt since I know exactly what I'm doing with it. I'm still not 100% sold on my patterns for A2 and A3's quilts so I'd rather work on what I am sure of.

One Thing, One Week Challenge

This week I'm participating in the One Week, One Thing Challenge to help get me back to quilting.

I'm going to be working on one of the Christmas quilts in the lineup as I haven't made much progress on them yet. My goal: finish piecing A4's quilt top by next Monday. Hopefully this will be just what I need to get me going on these Christmas quilts!

Want to participate in the Challenge? Head on over to Amy's blog and sign up!

All of my Sewing Time

...has recently been taken up by making black&gold hair accessories. I was selling them to the little league cheerleaders, but popularity has been spreading and I keep having to make more and more and more of the headbands. My sewing time has been limited due to a family reunion, accompanying my sister to college visits, redecorating (including stripping wallpaper!) the living room, a special project my grandparents needed completed, and general life so the several dozen headbands I've whipped up have taken all my sewing time for the past two weeks or more. I'm hoping to get back to my quilting soon, but in the meantime am enjoying people's responses to my little creations.
Hair things have been a great project for using up some of my stash and scraps, particularly the non-cotton materials. These mesh scrunchies (I think I ended up with 11 of them) didn't even last one night of sales! People loved how they looked like they were made out of football jerseys.
It took me awhile to figure out how to make these headbands. The first couple didn't turn out too well, but after tweaking my design they are now coming out great! Each batch is different and most of the headbands are unique.There were a few bows and some ribbons too, but I forgot to take pictures of those.

Expanding My Repertoire

I was in Hobby Lobby one day a couple weeks back searching for something for my mom when I happened to notice they had all Simplicity patterns on sale for 99 cents. I've wanted to try my hand at clothes recently, but haven't known where to start. I decided to just jump right in and pick a pattern. I quickly flipped through as the store was closing in 10 minutes and found a simple looking dress pattern which I knew my sister would love. She tends to wear a lot of dresses and hasn't found a new one she loves in awhile so I was hoping to provide her with one. I stashed the pattern until I had a couple free hours last Friday night and this was the result. It took constructing, tearing it apart, and re-constructing to get to this point, but this dress fits her perfectly. I eliminated the elastic waistband so it drapes nicely on her. I just have to hem it up once she decides on short or long and it'll be ready to go! Hopefully I'll get a picture of her in it to show you since this one looks pretty much like a sack.

All in all I really liked sewing this dress and think some more clothes may be in my future. Think I'll wait for another sale before buying any more patterns though as they can get quite pricey. I think I will also have the recipient try it on as I go rather than after it is constructed so I don't have to tear my work apart again :-)

My Christmas List

I have five quilts I need to have done by Christmas. One for each sister (3), one for my mom, and one for my sister's boyfriend. Each of the five is in a different stage of the process.

A2's quilt fabric is in line for the wash.A3's quilt fabric I showed you a couple months ago. I am making some finishing touches to the pattern I designed for this quilt before cutting it up.
A4's quilt is in the process of being pieced.My mom's quilt is on pause. It is the black and red string quilt I've shown before. There is something about string blocks that I love and something about them that I hate. The part I didn't like so much started getting to me and I put this project aside for awhile.Finally, A2's boyfriend's quilt I am still purchasing fabric for. His is the guitar themed quilt I've mentioned before. I still need three yards of fabric before I can get started on his. The pattern, Five, Ten, Twenty, is just waiting for its turn.

It is an ambitious goal for me, but one I really hope I can reach. I don't want any of them to see their quilts before Christmas so I am hoping that posting progress on here will help keep me accountable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Memory Scraps Quilt

On Monday afternoon, I found out I was one of the winners of a Memory Scraps charm pack over at Just Ramblin'. Thanks to the amazingly fast U.S.P.S. the package traveled half way across the country and arrived in my mailbox yesterday. How can anyone not like the mailman when they bring treats like this...
I happened to have the fabric pictured at the bottom, which I think coordinates with the charms quite perfectly, in my stash. There should be enough to use for backing plus some.
Combined with these scraps from the magical box of squares and scraps I've been digging into lately, I should have enough for another charm square baby quilt.
I have quite a few other quilts that really should come ahead of this one, but the ease of piecing the pre-cut squares is almost too much to resist. We'll see how long I can hold out.

My Fabulous Failure

I was inspired a few days ago to create a little makeup bag out of some of the 3" squares I have accumulated. Not having a pattern, I decided to just wing it. I pulled 6 random blue squares and 6 random red squares and stitched the front and back of the bag together. I managed to piece sides and a bottom on though I'm sure there must be a better way to construct a bag than how I did it. I made a lining and put the whole thing together only to discover that there was no good way to put a closure on the top due to the dimensions of the bag. I was disappointed, but not discouraged and have made a couple more attempts since. None have been just what I'm looking for yet.
Anyway, after sitting for a day or so on the edge of my sewing table I discovered that although my first attempt failed as a makeup bag it makes a perfect little basket.
I've loaded it up with all the threads I like to keep on my sewing table for easy access and it is perfect for containing them.
I also have project cards for several of my projects that are in various stages of completeness tucked in the back. This way I can make notes about dimensions, what I still need, etc so if I set it aside for awhile and go back later I won't have forgotten anything.Pretty fabulous for a failure, huh?