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:

The Past Eight Months

How the time flies!  I knew I had been neglecting my blog but it's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that it's been eight months since my last post... and even that was just a quick post and not anything substantial.

What have I been up to?  Well, I had a baby, and since she's been born I've spent all my time loving her and thinking about how utterly perfect I think she is.

Honestly though, in the two months since I gave birth I haven't done a whole lot of sewing, but in the months leading up to her birth I was sewing like crazy, so I hope to be able to start posting about all that stuff I made as soon as I finish taking pictures of it.

In the meantime, here's a recap of my past 8 months, Instagram style:

And while I'm at it, since I missed the big exodus from Google Reader to Bloglovin' because I was in a hospital giving birth, I'll use this post to claim my blog on Bloglovin'.

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***All photos on this blog, unless otherwise noted, are the sole property of Stephanie Granite and may not be used without expressed written permission.***

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!!!!

WIP Wednesday... er... Thursday

I had INTENDED to write this post yesterday morning but instead got caught up in a frenzy of cleaning house/ doing laundry/ baking bread/ making dinner that lasted until 8pm.  I am very happy to say though that while my Wednesday might have ended up sans-sewing and sans-blogging, I did get a LOT done, and it leaves me all day today to work on sewing projects.

Okay, onto the WIP Wednesday post!

I managed to get two of the WIPs on my list finished, as well as get 4 blocks completed for the December queen of Stash Bee.

Finishes from WIP list:

1. Repair Deacon Rick's Vestments (I currently need to cut new panels and then sew them in)  Done! (Completed 1/8/2013)

No pictures of this one.  I made a mistake cutting the lining of the vestment and then panicked.  By the time I figured out how to fix it and then actually got it fixed it was late at night and I just wanted to be done with it, so I wasn't really in the mood to try and set up a photo shoot.  It ended up being a good thing that I made the mistake I did, because the way I ended up fixing it looked much nicer than it would have looked if the way I was going to do it had worked the first time.

2. Finish sewing Steve's bookshelves (need to surge the edges and then make the fold-over pockets for the rods to go through) Done! (Completed 1/9/2013)

Here the bookshelves are installed in Steve and Jennifer's nursery

The seam where I had to sew two panels together

Stash Bee December blocks for Jackie (completed 1/15/2013):

I'm hoping to get my do. Good Stitches blocks done in the next few days, and maybe also a little free motion quilting using the Supreme Slider I bought back in September and still haven't had a chance to try out (why is it that September through December are always my busiest time of the year?)

"Finish"

If I had to pick a word for 2013 mine would probably be "Finish".

Image credit: PixelPowerDesign on Etsy

Looking back over 2012 I realized that I started a ton of things... and then never finished them.  When I came to that realization I decided that in this new year I was going to make a point to finish all the projects in my WIP pile.  I of course have many other resolutions but this is a big one for me in regards to my sewing and quilting.  I've even gone a step further and decided that until I've either finished all my WIPs or scrapped them permanently I will start no new projects.  The exception, of course, is stuff for the baby and gifts for birthdays and showers.... and curves class stuff (since I already paid for it).... and previous commitments like Stash Bee and do. good stitches blocks.

I know, I know, that's a lot of exceptions, but if you think about it it's still very limiting.  For example, I'm not able to jump on the trend and do any Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks, and I'm not able to do the Starburst quilt qal. 

Since I'm making the commitment to finish my projects I thought I'd go ahead and get something out of it (hey- why not?  I'm already doing all the work), so I'm joining up with the 2013 Finish-a-Long with Leanne from She Can Quilt.

My list of WIPs is pretty atrocious, but here we go:
1. Repair Deacon Rick's Vestments (I currently need to cut new panels and then sew them in)

2. Finish sewing Steve's bookshelves (need to surge the edges and then make the fold-over pockets for the rods to go through)

3. Sew Heike's dirndl (currently only cut out) (and can't find to take pics of-- eek!!)

4. Finish Mario blocks and turn into quilt

5. Do something with Polaroid blocks

6. Quilt Christmas tablerunners

7. Turn Stash Bee house blocks into quilt

8. Turn 12 days of Christmas blocks into quilt

9. Finish Solstice Stars blocks and turn into quilt (3 blocks finished, only 2 to go!)

10. Finish Sew Happy Geek QAL blocks and turn into quilt (I think 7 blocks are finished)

11. Quilt and bind "be Creative" wallhanging

12. Surge napkins

13. Turn Buhler's blocks into baby quilt (only have 6 blocks so far)

14. Finish Harriet's quilt blocks turn into quilt (applique on all blocks complete, but need to add some detail, then sash, border, sandwich, quilt & bind)(pic is just of the sashing, the blocks were tucked away and I didn't want to pull them out)

15. Finish brown and blue purse (need to attach hardware)

16. Bind red & black potholders

17. Sew green skirt (currently only cut out)

And I know these don't count for the finish-a-long, but each month I want to get all my bee blocks finished and mailed ON TIME.

Oh, and while we're talking about resolutions and stuff, I'd like to start using my stash more.  When I do need to start a new project I plan to try and use fabrics out of my stash and not just go out and purchase new fabric.

Okay, here we go.  Wish me luck!

(p.s. I plan on posting pictures of Christmas finishes soon.  Another resolution: blog about ALL my finishes)