WIP Wednesday 9-11-13

I've had these Japanese + and x blocks for awhile now and am finally putting the quilt top together.  These are the blocks from the Believe circle at Do. Good Stitches from February that I was supposed to put together and quilt months ago.  Alas, pregnancy and motherhood and all that goes with that got in the way and I'm only now getting it done.

The new design wall I hung over the closet doors in my sewing room has definitely helped me in putting this quilt top together.  Before I had it up I had pulled the blocks out several times and tried to figure out how I would piece them together, but without being able to see them all at once I was at a loss as to what to do.  With the help of the design wall I was able to arrange them all in a way that I thought looked good.

Since the top was sort of on the small side I added a 6" border of Kona Bone.  I have a pretty blue voile fabric that I bought to back this baby, and I hope to get to that either later today or tomorrow.  I also have some pretty ambitious plans for how I'm going to quilt it, so hopefully they work out and the quilt looks good, otherwise I have no idea how I'll quilt it.

Linking up to:

January Bee Blocks

I've been busy all day trying to catch up on bloggy stuff.  Mostly Stash Bee stuff (have I mentioned that I'm the Hive Mama for Hive #2 in Stash Bee?).  Well, I'm finally all caught up and I thought I'd share the January blocks I finished for the bees I'm in.

For Rebeckah in Stash Bee:



For Megan in the BELIEVE circle of do. Good Stitches:





My blocks for Megan are all packed up and ready to be posted, I just have to find time to go to the post office!

In other news I'm going to a birthday party for my aunt tomorrow and have yet to make a present.  Let's see what I can get done last minute!  Woohoo procrastination!!!!

August do. Good Stitches Quilt Finished

Way back in August it was my turn in my do. Good Stitches circle to be the quilter. That meant that I got to pick the blocks and the color scheme for the blocks we all did and in return it was my job to make sure that the blocks turned into an actual finished quilted quilt (for the post I wrote about what blocks I wanted see here).

I was supposed to finish quilting the quilt by the end of October but with the Sewing Summit in there and finding out about the baby I was a little distracted and so it didn't get finished in October.  And even though I wasn't feeling good for the majority of November I did manage to get the quilt finished up before the deadline for Rachel of Stitched in Color's Celebrate Good Stitches celebration.

August do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Stephanie of Sewing by Stephanie

The quilting ended up being much simpler than I had wanted it to be, but at the time I was actually sitting at the machine quilting this was the absolute best I could do.  Even though I wasn't impressed with my quilting job, I'm still happy to know that the recipient of the quilt will love and cherish it (all of the quilts my circle makes are donated to "My Very Own Blanket" an organization that gives blankets to children in the foster care system)

August do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Stephanie of Sewing by Stephanie

These photos were taken on a rare rainy day in southern California.  I managed to sneak outside before the rain started coming down to take these shots, but as you can see in the little bit of sky pictures in the photos the sky does not look very happy.

But let's rewind a little bit.  Remember a little bit ago when I mentioned Rachel of Stitched in Color's Celebrate Good Stitches celebration?  Well, my circle didn't choose the quilt I quilted as our one quilt to submit for the contest, instead we chose this beautiful quilt quilted by Jenn of Knotted-Thread.  And guess what? We're currently in 2nd place!  So if you have a moment and haven't already voted please go over and consider voting for our quilt (or consider going over and voting for whatever quilt you think should win!).  Click here to vote!

October do. Good Stitches Quilt -- Quilted by Jenn of Knotted-Thread

 Thanks!

October Bee Blocks

I've been pretty absent from the sewing scene recently.  I don't know how October ended up being so busy for me, but I found that I just had no time to sit down and sew almost all month.

As a result, I was a little late getting by bee blocks done, but here they are.

My October Stash Bee blocks:

My October do. Good Stitches blocks:

After uploading my do. Good Stitches blocks to the group I realized that I made a mistake in my construction of the blocks, so now I'm waiting to hear if the bee mama Jenn wants the blocks as is or if I need to pull them apart and re-assemble them correctly.  I guess it's just a lesson for me in the importance of actually looking at the tutorial while making the blocks. 

On a side note these do. Good Stitches blocks will be flying off to Hawaii with some friends.  The October do. Good Stitches mama for my circle is Jenn of Knotted-Thread and she's doing a few charity quilts for Sandy victims and I signed up to make a few blocks for one of her quilts. She's planning on hand delivering the quilts in December when she goes to visit family and friends in New Jersey.  If you're interested in donating a few charity blocks the sign ups are still open.

September Bee Blocks

What?!?! It's not even the end of the month and I've already finished my bee blocks? Crazy!

Here is my September block for Anneliese in Stash Bee.

I used a lot of Good Fortune scraps while making this one.

And here are my BELIEVE at do. Good Stitches blocks for Vicki.

I love the grey/black/white/red/pink color scheme that she chose.

I had a lot of fun on this one getting the squiggly lines to match up.

And since we had one member of our do. Good Stitches group drop pout in September I was two blocks short for the quilt I was planning so I made two additional blocks.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday, I know I'm planning to!

August do. Good Stitches Blocks

August is my first month as a quilter for the Believe circle of do. Good Stitches and I'm excited to get to choose the block.

When all of the blocks come in I get to quilt it and then send it off to our charity, My Very Own Blanket, based out of Westerville, Ohio.  My Very Own Blanket is "an organization of volunteers dedicated to helping children in foster care feel valued and comforted.  We connect diverse people, community groups, businesses and services as we make and deliver personalized blankets and other personal items to children in foster care."

I'm excited that the quilt we make will go to such a great cause and that a child in the foster care system will benefit from what we will lovingly create.

source

The block I've chosen for this month is the asterisk block designed by the Selvage Quilter (Karen) at the Selvage Blog.  I've asked the ladies in my circle to be as scrappy or improvisational as they want while making me two 12 1/2 inch squares.  I was inspired by this quilt that was made by the Love circle of do. Good Stitches and thought that it would be fun to make and quilt.  I love the colors the Love circle chose to use but for the Believe circle we're going to use a teal/grey/yellow combination that I came up with instead.

I pulled fabric from my shelves and using the original asterisk tutorial as well as this tutorial about how to make the asterisks wider I came up with these:

The asterisk blocks were so fun to make, I might just need to make something for myself using them.  I love these colors too, so bright and sunny.

July Bee Blocks+ Polaroids!

July has been a busy month!

This month in addition to making all these:

I also made blocks for the two bees I'm in.

I've been in Stash Bee since February and this month Jennie asked for a string block with selvages following this tutorial she made.  I pulled some 30's reproduction prints I have and came up with these beauties:

This is my first month in the Believe circle at do. Good Stitches and I had some fun coming up with combinations for the box in a box in a box design that Megan asked for.  These are what I came up with:

And these last guys aren't for a bee but they are for a swap!  For the *picture-perfect* Polaroid swap on Flickr I made 65 polaroid blocks to swap.  I also made one of each fabric for myself and one for my bestie Beckah, so all in all I made 130!  

I already sent my blocks in and can't wait to see what I get back.