Barcelona Skirt

I finished a skirt for me this past week.  I made the Barcelona Skirt by Amy Butler in Kate Spain's Central Park.  I love the bright orange, and I think it will be perfect for watching Auburn football games in the fall with a denim jacket.  I intentionally bought the orange because it was close to Auburn orange;  does anyone else pick fabric based on football?:)

I received an invisible zipper foot for Christmas, and this was my first time using it.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to put an invisible zipper in with a lining!  I shortened the skirt about five inches, so it would hit at my knees.  It will be nice to wear this summer, too.  I am very happy with the way it turned out, and now I want to make more!  The pattern is easy to understand and follow; it is a great basic a-line skirt pattern.

In other news, I signed up to go to this quilt retreat today!  It is my birthday present, and I am so excited about it.  I want to learn how do more paper piecing, and Penny, from sewtakeahike, is amazing at it.  You have to check out this mixer that she designed and pieced.  I just read about the retreat last night on crazymomquilts blog, and she is going to be there too!  I can't wait to meet such amazing quilters and learn new skills!

I am actually including a picture of my head in this photo for the first time ever.  I like knowing what people look like, so I figured other people did too.:)

Sewing blocks!

 Over the past couple of weeks, I have been making some blocks to add to my sewconnected quilt!
It has been fun pulling out the fabrics and finding fabrics to fussy cut for the centers of the blocks.  I love the horses in the block above.  I am slowly cutting into the small amount I have because I love it so much.

It makes me happy that I waited for so long to start putting it together because I didn't have some of these center fabrics at the beginning of last year.

 I love the pink that is in the center of this one.  I wish I had more because it would make the sweetest little dresses.  I think it is the red and turquoise flours with the pink that I like so much.

 I love the owls in this one!  I tried to line the dots up around the center portion, and I like the way it turned out.

The last block is paper pieced.  I need to add eyes and a nose to the little fox, but I can't decide if I want to try embroidery or add buttons.  It is such a cute little pattern, and I found it here.  I had to rip it apart,a and resew it so many times because I stink at paper piecing.  I never cut the fabric quite right, but I love what you can do with it.  I have a couple more blocks that I want to try, so I will keep trying!

I have also been sick over the last couple of weeks, but I am starting to feel better.  I had strep throat, and then I had a bad reaction to the antibiotics which led to me being sick again with what seemed like food poisoning or the stomach flu-not fun!  I am hoping that with spring coming soon, all the cold germs will go away for the rest of this school year. 

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

Sewconnected: wip

I pulled out my sewconnected quilt blocks to try to finish up this quilt soon.  I had a little helper, too!  I have started making blocks to make it a little bigger, and I should be able to share those soon. Each block is 12 1/2 inches square, and I would like for it to be either a twin size or a full. 

I am trying to decide how I want to arrange this.  I can't decide between using white sashing for negative space and a place to let your eyes rest, or if I want to put them all together without sashing.    I will probably end up using sashing so it will fit a twin size bed, otherwise I would need to make a lot more blocks!