Another Friday, Another late night opportunity

May3

Fridays are particularly special for me because I have no hesitation to stay up late working on my quilt projects. I can get the kids tucked in, and then it’s all about “me time”. Yes, I do have a husband, and he does live with us. However, he has no capacity anymore to stay up past 9:00 pm. So – I get to go a little retro and pull late night sessions like I was in college again.

First – I wanted to show you what I have in my shopping basket right now with FQS.

There is a new collection of backgrounds/neutrals that really caught my eye. It is Linen Closet by Renee Nanneman.

I have two favorites in this group … the bees and the pins:

LinenCloset Bees

LinenCloset Pins

Both of these come in two colorways – light gray and wheat. I’m thinking the ‘Pins’ fabric will be a perfect background to go into the next Vintage AYOS pattern, called “Gentle Art”.

Gentle Art Pattern

If you were following some of the quilty blogs late last year, there was a big sew-along on another thread spool pattern. Although I had my fabric all picked out for it, I never got around to starting it. Now I have another chance for redemption – because I do think a “Spool” wall hanging is a must-have for anyone with a spare bedroom corner of a sewing room. The May AYOS pattern is called “Gentle Art”. You can purchase the PDF pattern through Carrie’s website by clicking here.

My thought is to browse through my vast collection of charm packs and jelly rolls of vintage Fig Tree fabric (perhaps Allspice Tapestry or Mill House Inn) and get started on this one as soon as I get my order in from FQS for the background. I was so inspired by the parade of quilts this week, that I am going to really study this pattern to see how I can make it my own.

Finally – I suppose it is time to get started on my Halloween BOM that I have collected over the past six months. I ordered the Sew Spooky BOM from Suzanne’s Quilt Shop and have all the components now, except for the backing. You can find this BOM at a lot of online shops, just search for it on the internet.

Isn’t it adorable? Some piecing, some applique, some fussy cutting and an accessory kit to go with it. Then I came across a new collection of Halloween theme fabric, called Spooky Shadows, while browsing “What’s New” on the FQS site and I believe I have selected this to be the backing. Cute – yes?:

Ok, I guess that’s enough on my plate for today. Hope you are getting excited about some upcoming, quality “me time”.

Have a spectacular weekend and thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

AYOS Virgin no longer!

May1

Today was the deadline for completing the first quilt in 2013 AYOS hosted by Sinta and Sherri. AND I MADE IT HAPPEN! My very first Schnibbles!

Really, it is amazing – if you just knew how little bits of time I have to piece (pun intended) together to work on quilt projects. Sometimes it may be only 5 minutes before running off to the next family crisis. In fact, I have my daughter hanging on my shoulder, trying to demonstrate to me how to blow pretend bubbles with her princess wand and a straw and she doesn’t seem to care that I’m typing. She just keeps talking. She is adorable.

But… back to my success… 🙂

Here is my completed Hat Trick quilt top. I didn’t alter the pattern at all. It has a pieced border on top and bottom, but not on the sides. I have one of the pink prints for the backing and binding. I plan to quilt it myself and then hang it in my sewing area to inspire me on the next month’s Schnibbles. I’m so excited!!

Pattern is Hat Trick by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company

Fabric is from the Lario collection by 3 Sisters for Moda

I can’t wait to see everyone’s completed Hat Trick tomorrow during the parades. Visit Sinta and Sherri’s blogs on May 1st to see the results and find out what the new pattern will be for May! And browse their sites if you haven’t been there before. Lots and lots of eye candy and enjoyable blog writing. Sherri has just come out with a book of quilt designs and Sinta is preparing for a quilt show of her own quilts.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Jennifer

Sharing some Spring

Apr24

Well, it can’t decide if it is Spring or Winter still even as south as Houston. We had to grab our jackets again this morning for the ‘cold’ front that passed through overnight. Temperatures in the 50s are valid around here to be considered ‘cold’. I hope this means a cool trend for our summer to come.

With Spring this year, I have decided to start again with my Daylily collection. When I lived in Charlotte, NC – I had a whole garden area dedicated to my Daylilies and would search out all the local nurseries for as many varieties as I could. I had many varieties that had double blooms and really vivid colors too. We had such a great selection of flowers and flowering plants in North Carolina. Almost anything you can imagine would grow in that earth. Beautiful! Probably the biggest thing I miss from the move back down to Texas. Loved the gardening and weather. A must have on your bucket list should be to drive on the Blue Ridge Valley parkway in the Spring. So relaxing and refreshing, unless you are driving too fast… there are drops and curves on the mountains that are breath taking for sure.

Last weekend, I picked up three daylily plants and got them in the ground to start enjoying. I can see them from my sewing machine too, which is a bonus. One of the three has a closed bud, but it will be open by the time I get home tonight.

I meant to look again at the plant tag so I could tell you the name of this variety. I’ll try to remember for next time, when I add some more.

Last picture of this Schnibbles until the big reveal at the end of the month. I took this picture after getting the center done, but before trimming it up. Last night I was able to get the inner border added, so just an outer pieced border left to go, and then of course the quilting.

Hope you are having a great week as well! Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

AYOS Update

Apr22

Beautiful weekend here in Houston. Sunny, clear days – not hot and not too humid. Enjoyed every minute with the family. In between cleaning up the family room and monitoring iPad usage, I was able to get more of my Schnibbles done. All the blocks for the 9 patch units are done, and the setting triangles are sewn together. Half of the center portion is connected – will be ready for those pieced borders by the end of the week (or tomorrow if I’m lucky). Here’s what is on my design wall this morning:

This will be the first ‘wall’ quilt I have made just for me and I plan to hang it over my sewing machine to keep me inspired. I can’t wait to enter it into AYOS parade in a couple of weeks. It will be the perfect size to practice my free motion quilting again! It’s not too late for you to join in also! Just click on my link above and it will take you to Sinta’s blog which explains more details and provides more links to all the participants.

No rehab this week. Wanted to make sure I had plenty done on the Schnibbles. My goal for next BOM Rehab is the last block in my Birdie Stitches BOM. I’ve decided to make it my signature block instead of adding a label to the back. Then I just have to decide on setting triangles (since I made them to be on point) and get it moved into the finished tops pile!

Hope your weekend went well and your Monday has started off smooth and easy. Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

It’s called “Schnibbling”

Apr13

I’m so excited to work on my first AYOS Schnibble project. I received my layer cake of Lario (a new 3 Sisters collection by Moda) on Thursday. Green Fairy has great online deals quite often (and if you come across them – they also do bids on eBay which can land you even better opportunities), and no shipping charge anymore (eBay purchases do have shipping)! You should see my collection of green pens (you get one free in your order). Can you say ‘office supply store’?

Here’s my progress on the first Schnibble of 2013 … Hat Trick by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company. For more information on joining AYOS (Another Year of Schnibbles) – just click on the blog button in the right side bar, and it will take you to one of the hostesses of the progam – Ms. Sinta of Pink Pincushion.

I’m having fun pairing up the color options and even doing a little ‘controlled scrappy’ approach to the 9 patch units. The instructions even suggest to go with the individual 2 inch square construction instead of strip piecing these blocks. I’m getting great practice at both perfecting my 1/4″ seam allowance and using my seam ripper. Then I discovered that ‘someone’ had slightly moved my needle position knob on the sewing machine. That could make a difference – right?

A little closeup:

And a few complete 9 patches on the design wall, along with my 8 Blogger Girls BOM blocks:

Today, the family is getting ready to go out to the Houston Pet Expo this morning and peruse the exhibits and animals up for adoption. Never been before. I have my eye on two kittens that will be available for adoption soon, and they will be at the Expo today with their sweet rescue group, … Dori’s Darlings. It’s been over four years since my last furbaby passed away and I have missed the company of a quiet, cuddle partner. Let me emphasize quiet.

But – what’s this? Another project waiting it’s turn? … more to come…

Have a beautiful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

Two Birds with Two Blocks

Apr9

Short and sweet update today. I have the auditors in the office for our annual reviews. Lots of paper shuffling and printing, excel spreadsheets, reconciliations, etc… Fun by all!

It is the beginning of another month, which means another Blogger Girls BOM block has been released! I finished up the second, alternate layout, block last night so I can both share my results with you and link up to Pink Pincushion’s BOM Rehab (a day late).

Here’s the main layout of Block #4 for Blogger Girls BOM. That gray ‘background’ is actually my sidewalk. I am trying to get the best light for these pictures.:

Here’s the same pattern for this block, but in an alternate fabric layout. You will also note that each month I do one in a red/green colorway and one in a red/blue colorway. Now that I have 8 blocks on my design wall, I can see that they are going to look great together in the end!

Here are the two blocks, side by side. I just love French General reds!:

So – knock down Blogger Girl BOM for April and another week of BOM Rehab with the same two blocks! Efficient.

On the LOST front … I just finished Season 2 last night and watched the first episode of Season 3. Can you believe what Michael did? I did NOT see that coming. I’m on the edge of my office chair now, waiting for my lunch break so I can get in another episode.

Have a fantastic week and thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

Robin Redone and AYOS

Apr3

I am having a competition for free time since last week. My husband and I rented the movie “This is 40” (pretty funny – like the actors in it). During the movie, the oldest daughter references the series “LOST”. The first season was 10 years ago. I never got into it for some reason, and I really didn’t watch more than a few episodes past the first season because … unless you really watch from the beginning … you would be …. lost.

So – I thought for some reason I would start to watch the series through Netflix (awesome service for this kind of thing). Let’s just say that more than a few hours of what could have been quality quilting time has been spent on this new endeavor. I am through 28 episodes now out of 120 – so there is an end in sight. And I can watch during my lunch break at work, because Netflix is everywhere you want to be, as long as you have internet.

So … blah, blah, blah – here is what I have accomplished! I did the redo of the center circle on my Robin’s Nest from last time. It is soooo much better and almost every point on my stars is clear and sharp! Yay!! I decided to join the stars to the hexagon first, then piece in the connecting triangles.

Here’s the ‘block’ completed:

I can live with this!

Next step is to finish the 12 blue stars and they go around as well, with connecting triangles in a coordinating blue/cheddar fabric. I have four of those done already, so I’m on a good start. Linking up a couple of days late to Sinta’s BOM Rehab for this past Monday.

Even though my plate is pretty full, I really wanted to join in another sew-along type event that is hosted by Sinta (Pink Pincushion) and Sherri (A Quilting Life). They have started the new season for AYOS (Another Year of Schnibbles). This is where we make a quilt from one of the patterns designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosies Quilt Company. This month, the pattern is called Hat Trick and requires less than two charm packs and a wee bit of yardage for the inner border, binding and about a yard for the back. I ordered my PDF pattern last night from Carrie’s website and as soon as the fabric comes in, I’ll knock this one out!

And I believe my choice of fabric will be from this new collection by 3 Sisters… Lario!

It looks a lot like Oasis that came out a year or two ago, but I have a layer cake on it’s way and I think it will make a splendid Hat Trick quilt!

For more information on participating in the AYOS each month this year, please visit the blogs of Sinta and Sherri. Great blogs, lots of eye candy, and tons of inspiration!

Finally – I’ll close with a few pictures from our Easter holiday. The egg hunt of 2013!

Happy first week of April!

Jennifer

Weekend Finish and starting BOM … again …

Mar25

Hello again. Been gone awhile – but it went by so very fast. Closed another month of books at work and tried to be ‘in the moment’ with the kids the past two weeks. Had to get some ‘me’ time in though still. I have a weekend finish to my Avalon quilt top, although I may still embelish a bit when I go to quilt it. Waiting on the Avalon yardage to come in (and another paycheck) to get the backing.

I decided to make excellent use of my California Girl fabric that I bought on extreme sale from my local quilt shop that sold out its bolts last year. I bought several yards of each of the stripe fabric in three different colorways. I picked the gray and yellow stripe to complete the border and 9-patch corners. Very sunny and cheerful! Turns out that it could now fit a California Twin (if they existed).

Borders are my nemesis… and finding any place that I could possibly lay out a quilt to baste it. I may have to wash down my driveway one day, pitch a tent to keep bird poop off and tape it to the concrete. I just don’t have that much floor space! Or… I guess I can bring it to my office and baste it after work one day by T-pinning it to the commercial carpet. It all feels like dirty options. Or tape it up on the livingroom wall? I saw a tutorial one time where someone took newspaper to mask off the surrounding area and spray basted their quilts in the garage on the wall. Maybe I could try that in the livingroom.

Another psuedo finish for this weekend was my Robin’s Nest BOM. I did finish the center ring of red stars and stitched it to my appliqued hexagon. Those star blocks finish at 3 inches! 3 INCHES! This was going to be a challenge for sure. I have my mini fit-to-be-geese ruler on order with Monique, but she is waiting for a shipment to come in… I do have perfect acrylic templates that allow you to cut the shapes exactly as they should be, with squared off corners and all to make it fit. Surprisingly, I got better results on this project when I made sure I didn’t skimp on the 1/4″ seam allowance. Those seams seemed so BIG compared to the finished size of these pieces.

Look at those pitiful points and pinched connecting triangles!

I nearly cried when I put it on my wall and stepped away to view it. It was terrible. !@#$!@#$

Calm down, not the end of the world.

Except that I have someone special in mind for this quilt and I want it to be as perfect and beautiful and I know it could be. Thankfully, Homestead Hearth provided enough fabric such that I could screw this up at least twice and still make another set that is worth a damn.

So… I ripped out all the stitches and salvaged the center hexagon. The red stars were too distorted to fool with.

Here is “Take 2” on those stars. They look better already. Practice is making better (not perfect yet). So, 2 stars redone and 4 more to go. The next ring is 12 blue stars, done the same way. Hopefully I will be a pro by then.

Therefore, I am still linking up to Sinta’s BOM Rehab since I technically did complete my block – at least once.

Finally – a gratuitous picture of my grandmother and daughter. I took this last weekend when I was visiting my parents to celebrate my brother’s and my birthday week.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Jennifer

Starting new BOM! Border of the Month from Australia!

Mar11

New BOM – Robin’s Nest

I’m going to count this as a rehab project, even though it is referred to as a border of the month. Same acronym, so it works for me. I’m a few months behind and it will definitely take time to do it right. I’m looking forward to enjoying all the steps and mixing traditional piecing with paper piecing (a first for me) and needle-turn applique. The project came from Karen Styles in Australia. Her shop, Somerset Patchwork and Quilting, plays host to some really phenomenal workshops with ladies who know how to stick to a project. Take a look at her blog and browse her website store for reproduction groups and BOM projects that take your breath away! I got the pattern and acrylic templates from her shop, but I started the fabric BOM delivery from Homestead Hearth.

Robin’s Nest by Karen Styles

Block 1 is technically the full center ring of stars, triangles and 6 center leaves. But, as I just mentioned, this one will not be a race to the finish. So, I count my first block as the center applique hexagon! Done!

The little pencil points at the tips of the leaf shapes are going to be the points of the finished hexagon. I won’t dare cut this out though, until I have the other part done to make sure it fits like a glove.

Today is also my birthday and I hope to get a really good mix of family, friends and quilting in today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

My instant gratification is almost done!

Mar8

LOL … for me, instant gratification seems to mean about a month turn-around for a quilt top. If I get the borders on this weekend, like I plan to, it will have taken just over a month to do this. I’m very excited about it though, because it will be done in the newest Fig Tree collection which isn’t even out in yardage yet. I’ll wait for the yardage though to come out for the backing and then I’m trying to decide on whether I hand quilt it or send it off.

Here’s a little impromptu addition I made to the bottom of the quilt last weekend:

I thought the little flower blocks needed some baskets to go with them! I had those half-square triangles left over from my ‘scraps’ when making the flower blocks. Don’t look too closely though. I didn’t do any math to figure out the positions. I just added on strips and cut them down to size to fit the bottom of the quilt. I did have to break into my Avalon charm pack to get the handle applique, since I didn’t have long bias strips to use instead.

Avalon Blue Basket

I was auditioning the yellow flower fabric from Strawberry Fields for my containment border. I’ll be sewing that on next. It goes perfectly!!

Thinking of adding a few applique flowers and vines to complete the look I want. I’ll lay some out after the borders are on and see what I think. Stay tuned!

Have a wonderful weekend – see you on the other side for BOM Rehab!

Jennifer

Seams Crazy

Quilting and Family – both crazy!

Another Friday, Another late night opportunity

AYOS Virgin no longer!

Sharing some Spring

AYOS Update

It’s called “Schnibbling”

Two Birds with Two Blocks

Robin Redone and AYOS

Weekend Finish and starting BOM … again …

Starting new BOM! Border of the Month from Australia!

My instant gratification is almost done!

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