WIP: Yo-Yo Quilt

 I pulled out my yo-yo quilt this weekend to see how much I had left before it would be finished.  Penny, of sewtakeahike, is doing a yo-yo quilt along this summer, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to finish up this quilt.  Plus, as I have been slowly working on my 60 degree diamond stars, I kept thinking I should really finish my previous hand sewn quilt before I start another one.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I really don't have a lot left to do!  I have huge sections that are already pieced together that just need to be joined together.

My goal has always been for it to fit a full-size bed, so with a little help, I laid it out to see how big it is on our guest bed.  I think it is big enough!  So my focus this week is going to be to see how far I can get with this quilt over the course of the week.  I spent some time yesterday while Z was napping sitting on the back porch, swinging, and piecing parts of this together.  It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon!

This is the very first quilt that I ever started when I didn't know anything about quilting and I didn't own a machine back in 2003 (which is way too long ago!).  I had no idea what I was getting myself into; I just knew I wanted to make a quilt, and I knew I could make yo-yos so I jumped right in! 3,236 yo-yos that finish at 1 5/8" inches across later, and I am close to finishing!

If you want to make one of your own, you should join Penny's quilt-a-long!  If I finish this one soon, I might have to hop in to make another one; did I really just admit that out loud?:)

Back from the Beach!

Hi, everyone! I have been visiting family in Mobile and Destin for the last two weeks. I returned home early this week, but I couldn't get Blogger to upload my pictures! I finally switched to the old editor under settings-basic, and it finally worked.  I spent almost a week with my mother and father-in-law in Mobile and in Panama City Beach.  I then went to Destin, where I met my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and my niece.

We went to the beach several times over the week, and it was so nice to sit out on the warm sand.


 
We went very late in the afternoon since we had a 20 month old, my daughter, and a three year old, my niece with us.  It was perfect!  No sunburns occurred over the week!

We also drove over to Seaside, FL one afternoon.  It is so beautiful there!  It is where they filmed the Truman Show if you ever saw that movie.

I took over a thousand pictures over the week and a half, but I thought that might be a little much to share here.:)  I was determined to get a good photo of my daughter on the dress that we could have printed on a 16 X 20 canvas.  I had one printed of her last year, and it is so beautiful.  I want to do one every year to make a big display on the wall. 

 This is the view from the pool we went to everyday.  We stay on the bayside of Sandestin, and it is so nice.  It is a short drive or bike ride to the beach, but it is much quieter.  The girls were able to ride my niece's tricycle around  on the neighborhood street.

We also went for several bike rides over the week.  I enjoyed it so much that I have pulled my bike out of the shed, and we got a cart that hooks on the back to pull Z around in.  I am going to have to work up to long distances.  I try to walk three miles every day during the summer, but biking uses different muscles!

I loved these little beach signs.  I don't think they would look quite right hanging on the wall in Colorado, but I loved that they were quotes from Emerson and Thoreau.  I am a big fan of the Transcendentalists, and I love Walden by Thoreau.

We really  had a wonderful time!  I am happy to be home, but I miss everyone so much.  I brought all kinds of projects to get done while I was gone, but I really had very little time to work on them.  I am hoping to pull my sewing machine out this weekend; we have showing of our house tomorrow and an open house on Saturday, so it won't be until Sunday.

I have done a little hand piecing this week working on my stars, but most of my free time (late at night and while Z naps) has been spent devouring a Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Series.  I have read five of the six books that are out this past week, and the last one is on hold at the library.  They are great if you enjoy urban fantasy books with vampires, werewolves, fae that are also mysteries.   I went to a book signing by Charlaine Harris, who writes the Sookie Stackhouse books that the tv series True Blood is based on, and she recommended them to me while I was getting my book signed this past May.  I have stayed up way too late this week reading!  Does anybody else like these type books?

I am glad to be back, and I hope to have a few sewing related projects to share soon.  I am slowly wading through my Google Reader, which accumulated over 1000 posts during a week and a half!  Have a great weekend!

My luck continues!

I won another giveaway recently that I just received in the mail from Gen X Quilters on SewMamaSew's big giveaway day a couple of weeks ago.  The fat quarters are so lovely, and I love those buttons!  She also made a business card holder, which I am going to put to use soon.  It is such a lovely package, and I love it.  I had to go pick up lottery tickets for my dad recently, and I am hoping my luck continues on those-very doubtful.:)

Farmdale Apron Dress

I finished a new dress this past week using Alexander Henry Farmdale and DS dots, which I love together!  I used the Portabella Pixie Claire Pattern with a few variations.  The skirt, apron, and straps are from the Petal Knot Dress and the bodice is from the Apron Dress in an 18 month. 

I was going to use the Petal Knot Bodice, but it was already too small for her.  I cut out the pieces, sewed them together, and made the buttonholes; I then proceeded to try it on her before attaching the skirt, and it didn't fit! I was so happy that I hadn't finished the whole thing before putting it on her!  So, I ripped out the straps and started over with the bodice.  I also shortened the skirt by three inches, so she wouldn't step on the hem of it as she climbing around.  We tried it out at a local farm this past weekend.  It matches her bucket hat!

Terrain that I won!

My luck continues!  A couple of weeks ago Kate Spain had a giveaway for scraps from her newest collection of fabric, Terrain.  I won one of the envelopes full of strips of fabric! 

Isn't it all beautiful?  I received a large envelope stuffed to the brim with strip ranging from 2-4" in size.  I laid them all out to admire them and start dreaming of all the fun things I could do with these.

I think I will use these to make a strip quilt because I have been wanting one of those for a while.  It is going on my list of things to make this summer!    I may make a quilt like this one or this one.  I have a few quilts that I must finish before I start another one, but I so want to play with these strips!

I know that I am going to have to buy some yardage of some of these prints because they would make such cute skirts or tunics, like the three prints together above that go from light blue with  navy and orange stars to the tone on tone soft blue!

Bucket Hat

This past week I made the bucket hat from Oliver + S's Little Things to Sew for my daughter.  I love the way it turned out!  I used DS for the polka dot side and Alexander Henry Farmdale for the blue side.  I love that it is reversible, and she can put it on by herself! 

She has been wanting to wear hats lately that she can put on; we were at the park a week ago when it was in the upper 70's and she was insisting on wearing one of her knit wool caps, so it was time for a spring/summer hat that is lightweight and will shield her face from the sun.

The pattern was super easy to follow and I plan on making several more for her to wear throughout the summer.

Ribbon!

Last week a happy package arrived at my doorstep from Modkid!  I had won a giveaway they had a couple of weeks ago for some of their new ribbon.  They were taking some of these sample packs to Quilt Market, and they gave some away too!  

 I am so excited that I won!  Look at all that beautiful ribbon!  It is all two yard cuts, so it is perfect for embellishing dresses or a top. 

I am including a picture of the back of the boxes in the same placement as the picture of the ribbons, so if you wanted some for yourself you can figure out what ribbon is what.  I know the picture is  a little blurry on the type, so if you have a question, leave me a comment and I will double check for you.  I can't wait to use it!

Hexagon Pillow

 I finished my hexagon pillow this past weekend.  I started it last week, and yesterday I added another row of hexagons, quilted, and put it together during nap time.  I love the way it turned out!

I think it will go nicely in the corner of our breakfast nook, and it coordinates well with one side of my tablerunner without being too matchy-matchy.

 I love this fabric on the back!  I quilted on either side of the circles in simple vertical lines.
 This is the first quilted pillow I have made, and it love the extra shape the batting gives it.

 I did a envelope enclosure on the back with binding around the exposed edges of the quilt sandwich.  I didn't want to hand tack the binding down because I wanted it to be finished during nap time, so I experimented with one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine.  The stitch is a big circle followed by a small circle.  I thought that would look neat next to the circles on the back.

It adds a nice pop of color to the corner of the kitchen!  Today was such a great day.  I finished this pillow and then took my daughter to the park; the weather was beautiful which was great because it has been raining and cold here this past week.

Yesterday was not as good of a day, and if you don't like gross baby stories, don't read on!  We have our house on the market, and we had an open house yesterday from 11-3..  We left at eleven in the morning and went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  The thought was we would have lunch and then Z could play on the indoor playground there.  We started eating, and then she projectile vomited all over herself,  my pants, and my husbands shirt. I felt so bad for the people eating around us! We had brought extra clothes for her but not for us!  Needless to say, we couldn't go home until 3 and it was 11:15.  So we had to go into Target, which was right next door, and pick up a new pair of pants for me and a new t-shirt for my husband, so we wouldn't have to walk around in yucky clothes for the rest of the day.  We then went on to the park, and the rest of the day was great.  Since then she has been feeling great, so it was some weird fluke.  I learned to always have a change of clothes for me in the car when you can't go back to the house!

English Paper Pieced Diamonds

I recently saw this post on Crazy Mom Quilts, and I knew it would be the perfect summer project for me.  In a couple of weeks, I am traveling to see my in-laws and my parents in Mobile, Al. and in Destin, Fl.  I needed some type of project that would travel easily and would allow me to work on a sewing project while I was there.  I ordered some quilt patis and got started!

I am not very far yet, but that is okay! This will be a great project to take along to the park or for car rides, and I mainly plan on working on it when I am unable to pull my sewing machine out.

Life Under Quilts has started a Quilt-a-long for this type of project, and if you click on the link above, it will take you to the flickr group.  She also has a great youtube video for how to put these together if you would like to start one too!

Auburn Mugrug from the FRMQG Swap

Last week we had a meeting of the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, and we exchanged mug rugs that we made for our partners.  I blogged about the one I made here, but at the time I didn't have a picture of the awesome one I received in return.  I had left it in Monument so it could be entered into the Monument Art Hop because I loved it so much that I wanted other people to be able to see it.

Melissa, who made this one for me, took a picture this past weekend to send it to me.  I can't wait until it is in my house, so I can see it everyday.  There are so many things I love about it!  I went to Auburn University for college, and it was really neat that Melissa also attended Auburn. I had the best college experience, and I love Auburn so much.   How cool is it that we went to the same school in Alabama, we now live in Colorado, and we met through the modern quilt guild?  Just to give you a little insight into how deeply Auburn is rooted in my family check  out how many people from my family attend(ed) Auburn: me, my brother, my husband, my brother-in-law, my dad, all of my aunts and uncles (6 of them), five of my six first cousins, numerous second cousins, and the list keeps going on.

She  made it out of lots of blue scraps because I love scraps of fabric, and all of my recent quilts have been made out of scraps!  There are people in my guild that don't believe I buy yardage (Traci), but I do.:)  It is easier for me to use my scraps because I don't worry as much about messing up.  So I love that this has so many blue scraps in it because it reminds me of my scrap quilts.  I love the way she quilted it with the lines going all over-it seems so modern to me.    I don't have a picture of the back, but she put on the cutest label with her name and the title of the swap.  I wish I had done the same to my mug rug, and it will hopefully remind me to do that to my quilts in the future.  Thanks, Melissa!  I love it!