W.I.P. Wednesday!

I'm back with another installment of W.I.P. Wednesday. I was nervous about joining at first. And, sure, this weekly post helps remind me of the fleeting nature of time, BUT it's helping me focus on turning my to-do list into a to-done list. (Confession: I was feeling pretty clever about that last sentence...until I realized I ripped it off an Ace Hardware commercial. Moving on.)



Finished:


Supernova! It was starting to feel like I hadn't finished a big project in a while, so this one was particularly sweet.


April VIBees block. Corey precut all of the fabrics for us, so this dresden came together pretty quickly!

Ongoing projects:


Bottled Rainbows quilt-along

Just one Bottled Rainbows block this week. 10 out of 16 blocks finished.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee (I finished 1/4 of this one last night, so I'm hoping to mark this off the list soon.)
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

As always, head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Supernova in Central Park

Lee posted the final instructions for piecing the Supernova top on Thursday, and I couldn't wait to get this quilt finished up.


I love it! Lee is a great quilt-along host. Her instructions are clear, and she had helpful tips along the way. If she ever decides to host another, I'll be first in line! I love the cheery, bright prints of Kate Spain's Central Park fabric, and I think it works well with the Supernova design.


For the back, I used some randomly sized strips of Central Park (influenced by Ashley's strip quilts and this quilt from Faith of Fresh Lemons) and one strip of Kona Aqua.


The binding is Kona Eggplant, and I used the neutral Cobblestone print from Central Park in the border.


I tried to do some fussy cutting for the center squares.


I asked Luke what he thought of this quilt, and he said, "It looks like all of the colors of Batman!" He kind of has a one-track mind.

We have a winner!

Thanks for all of your comments on my giveaway post! And a big welcome to my new followers! I love the enthusiasm for this fabric line. I couldn't possibly pick a winner, so I left it up to Random.org...

The winner is lucky #2! And that's Jen!

Jen, you should have an e-mail from me. Just send me your address, and I'll ship these up north!

P.S. I put my finished Supernova quilt in the dryer this morning, so I'll be back later tonight with some pictures (hopefully!).

It's a 197 followers/527 posts/new Denyse Schmidt fabric giveaway!

I was planning a giveaway when I reached 200 followers, but I say we call 197 close enough, okay?

By now you've heard of the new Denyse Schmidt line at JoAnn's. The blogs and Flickr are positively atwitter over this new fabric. (There's even a Flickr group devoted to it.) And, because I've never come across a bandwagon I didn't jump on, I high-tailed it to JoAnn's after dinner to find some for myself.


My store had all 21 prints, but I showed a tiny bit of restraint and only got a half yard of the ones I *needed.* (The quality is nicer than most of the fabrics you'd find at JoAnn's.)


On to the giveaway part of this post! I'm going to cut these into fat quarters and give one lucky winner a FQ bundle of the 11 prints you see here.

So...if you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post (international entries are welcome). Just make sure I have a way to reach you if you're the winner. I'll pick the winner on Monday using Random.org.

Thanks for reading my blog!

W.I.P Wednesday

I'm back with another installment of W.I.P. Wednesday (aka, dang, that week went by fast!).



Finished:
Spring wreath: So this one was never on my to-do list, but whatev. Still counts.


Mail off fabric for the AnneMarie's Kona Your World Swap. Done! This stack is off to a new home. (The fabric on top is Kona Amethyst. One of my new favorites.)

Ongoing projects:

Supernova quilt-along

I'm all caught up, waiting for the next set of instructions. (Disclaimer: I'm pretty much in love with this quilt already, so you can expect to see lots more of it.)

Bottled Rainbows quilt-along






I've entered my green period. I think that makes 9 out of 16 blocks finished.


Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Mail out fabric for Kona Your World 2 swap
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

Marking things off the list! Always feels good.
Head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Spring wreath

When I flipped the calendar to April, I realized it was probably time to take the heart wreath off my front door. (I put it up in February when I took down my Christmas wreath.) Around that time, Jeni posted pictures of her vintage sheets wrapped wreath tutorial and listed some kits in her Etsy shop. Perfect!


Jeni sent me a bundle of vintage sheet hems, and I got to wrapping. In less than an hour, I had a finished wreath. Easy and fun.


I added the rosettes, using this tutorial.


You could use any fabric scraps to cover a wreath form. I really like the Easter-y look of the vintage sheets! (And, let's face it, this will probably be on my door until Halloween.)

W.I.P. Wednesday {Gulp.}

This is my first time officially participating in Lee's W.I.P. Wednesday. I've held off thus far because, well, my crafty to-do list scares me. But I suppose that's a good reason to participate! So, here we go.

Finished: Hmm. Nada



Ongoing projects:

Supernova quilt-along

You've seen some of these before. I took some new pictures because the old ones made me feel like I owed Kate Spain an apology.

5 out of 9 blocks finished (Well, technically 5 1/2 out of 9. I made a cutting error on one, so I'm awaiting new fabric. Grumble.) Lee is posting the next set of instructions tomorrow, so I'd love to finish the last 3 tonight.

Bottled Rainbows quilt-along





6 out of 16 blocks finished


Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Mail out fabric for Kona Your World 2 swap
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

So, looks like I should get to work, don't you think?
Head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Quilting along

This weekend I made good progress on my quilt-alongs.

Still loving Bottled Rainbows. I got all of my prep work done. The blocks are basted and ready to go when I get the itch to work on them. I finished up two yesterday:


Sunshine! I had more yellow scraps than expected. Love this one.


Emerald! This solid is a perfect match for Sanctuary, so I used lots of my scraps here. My favorite so far.


I started piecing my Supernova quilt too. I'm using Central Park for this one. Here's the rough layout for my blocks:


And here are the two units I've started piecing.



I was prepared to be confused when I put these together, but Lee's instructions are extremely clear and precise. It's actually pretty simple.

Side note: I've been using the Harbor Freight blades in my rotary cutter for about a month. They seem to cut well, but they're kind of hard on my cutting mat. Anyone else experience this?

Hooked.

Rachel billed her Bottled Rainbows as a leisurely quilt-along, but I don't know...these blocks are pretty addictive!


I've finished four, and I had plenty of scraps for these. Some of the other colors are going to be more difficult (I'm looking at you, purple). Going through my scraps is telling me a lot about my fabric buying habits. Pretty lopsided!


I probably could've made a dozen of these light blue blocks. I squeezed in a little Sanctuary selvedge on this one.


Pretty in pink.


I have more orange fabric than I would've guessed.


This is my favorite one so far. I was able to incorporate some of my favorite fabrics in this one (Arcadia, I hardly knew ye!).

Up next: Yellow. But first, I'm going to start cutting my fabric for Lee's quilt-along. Cause what's better than one quilt-along? Two quilt-alongs! (Fact.)

Quick fix

We have a coat/broom/etc. closet in the hall, and the door broke, leaving this less-than-attractive site:


This weekend, I finally got around to sewing a fabric fix.


Super easy, and it adds a bit of color to my otherwise drab hallway.


I used this pretty Tudor print in Spice from Ty Pennington's fabric collection (I'm pleasantly surprised by his line of fabrics. Anyone else?). The rust color is a pretty close match to the walls in my kitchen, which adjoins this hall.


I took the lazy way out here. I bought a "no tools" curtain rod, which works like a tension rod but seems a little sturdier because it has little grippy things (technical term) that go on the inside of the door frame. I also used these drapery clips instead of sewing a sleeve in the fabric. I'm not sure how durable it will be, but it works for now! And I'm glad that I can easily remove it for washing if when it gets full of dust and dog hair.

Adventures in paper piecing

I finished up my March block for our Sew Beautiful Bee. Elizabeth requested spiderweb blocks using Anna Maria Horner fabric. What's not to love?

I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Megan's blog. Head over there to check out some awesome projects!

This post is brought to you by the letter F.

One of my friends is having a baby boy soon, and I just finished up this quilt for them.



I was excited to find out that I had enough Riley Blake All Star fabric left over from this quilt to make another baby boy quilt. I used this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew for a Charm Squares baby quilt. Quick and easy. I added some Kona Orange and Grass Green. I debated with myself over the sashing. I thought about orange or green. I considered white too, but that seemed impractical. In the end, I settled on this dark brown. I was afraid it might be too drab for a baby quilt, but in the end I think it looks pretty cool.


I went with the robotic/blocky quilting again. I think I'm getting a little better at it. The binding is Kona Grass too.

I had a tough time settling on a plan for the back. I really wanted this to be a 100% stash quilt, but I didn't have enough yardage of any one color of solid for the backing.


So...after some advanced math...I came up with this!


Luckily the boy's name starts with F and not, say, Q. This little boy is joining a family who has an appreciation for the orange and blue combination, and I had just enough of each to make this work. I need to get this in the mail! I hope it is well-loved.

Supernova!

I'm so excited Lee decided to do a quilt-along for her Supernova quilt.


I've been drooling over her Hope Valley version for a long time, so I couldn't pass this up.


I'm thinking this might be a good excuse to unwrap my Central Park bundle. Some of the larger-scale prints might not work, so I might have to focus on the smaller prints. What do you think?

There's still time to join in! Head to Lee's blog for details.