Subscriptions and A View of My Workspace

My friend brought to my attention that I didn't have an email subscription gadget on my blog.  I had it set up in my layout, but for whatever reason, Blogger wasn't displaying it.  I moved the button a little and now it is showing up, on the right, third section down.  

To follow me via email, enter your email address in the block. A popup window will open. Type in the letters it gives you to verify you're not a robot.  Then you will receive an email confirmation from FeedBurner.  Follow the link in the email and then you will be all set up.  You will receive an email from FeedBurner each time I post, which is currently Wednesdays, Sundays, and sometimes Fridays. 

I also have enabled (I think) RSS feed.  That is right below the follow by email section and the process should work the same.  There is also a follow by email button within the RSS selection.  It is the exact same process as I described above.

Additionally, there is now a contact form at the bottom of the right sidebar.  

I thought I'd share a photo of my workspace today.  I've mentioned before that my sewing is currently spread over much of the upstairs (can't wait until my actual room is ready!!).  This is part of our office.  My cutting/ironing table is in here, along with the fabrics I'm currently working with.  Sidenote--when my sewing room is done, I am having separate cutting and ironing stations. Such a pain to continually shift things.

You can see my pile of pink/aqua fabrics that I'm using for the 365 Challenge on the table by the rulers.  I'm getting ready to try making myself a shirt, so that's on the table too.  On the floor is my pile of doll clothing pattern binders and a tote of partially done doll clothes.  Behind that on my doll bed is a stack of quilt tops that are ready for quilting.  On the filing cabinet are quilts in progress, including my two ongoing blocks of the month/day.  Looks like I need to get sewing!!

365 Challenge Week 12

March 22, 23, 24, and 25--3" blocks
March 26--6" block
March 27--6" block with 16 miters!!!
March 28--3" block and March 27 bonus 6" block.  If I'd known there was a
spare block I probably would have skipped the mega-miter block. 

Fig Tree Quilts Mystery Block of the Month 2016

I mentioned a few weeks back that I'm participating in Fig Tree Quilts' mystery BOM this year.  Each month you receive fabrics and directions and a printed Fig Tree pattern. Here are the first two months' worth of blocks.
Month 1
Month 1--still have to applique the flower centers.  The Daisies pattern was included
in month 1.
Month 2--this is a BIG block, 14".   This block is from her Sweet Sugar Swirls pattern,
which was included in month 2.
Month 2--an "a" for Anne-Marie!
Month 2
The month 3 shipment should be here any day.  I'll keep you posted.

365 Challenge Week 11

I'm all caught up again.  Whew!  Some of these blocks were really tough/time consuming.
March 13, 14, and 15.  Mitered corners.  Eeep!  I don't mind one miter, but when all four
corners were mitered, I about pulled out my hair!  These are all 3" blocks.
March 16.  FOUR four-corner miters.  It's not square and I don't care.  This is a 6" block.
March 17.  Also a 6" block.  I rather liked this one.
March 18, 19, 20, and 21.  Back to the 3" blocks.
This one is March 20 for those in the southern hemisphere.  It will be Sept. 22's block and I thought I'd just get it done now.  It's a 3" block.  Seeing it this large is a little shocking to me.

Rainbow Mini Swap

Now that my rainbow mini swap partner has received her package, I can share what I sent her.  She had mentioned in the info I received that she preferred useful notions and chocolate.  I hope I did well with what I chose to send her!


The pattern I used for the mini quilt is Dusk by From Blank Pages.  Find it here.  I made my quilt using the 18" size included in the pattern.  I added a 1.5" (1" finished) strip along the outside edges for stability.  My partner said she likes Kona solids, so that is what I used.  If you want to recreate the quilt, the colors I used are Valentine 451, Silver 1333, Pool Blue 45, Aqua 1005, Marine Blue 1218, Poppy 1296, Canary 26, Tangerine 1370, and Chartreuse 1072.  I used matching gray Aurifil 50 wt. to quilt most of the quilt.

I found what I hope is a perfect backing fabric--she likes rain and I thought this print was really cute. It's by Michael Miller and has been out for a while, so it is kinda hard to find, but does pop up on Etsy now and then.

I saw some really cool rainbow pencils in a magazine, which I thought would be perfect for this swap.  Luckily CW Pencils has not only a storefront in New York, but an online store too.  So I ordered and received!  Isn't this the coolest pencil ever??



I also received my swap package right away.  And what a cute package it was!  Esther took the time to check out my Pinterest pages and correctly guessed that I really like Churn Dash blocks.  She also took into account my fabric likes, which made me feel happy.  Here's what I received:





front
back
This concludes most of my swapping.  I have one birthday swap package left to send in June and then I should receive five back in July.  I can't wait!

365 Challenge Week 10

Here is what I've finished so far.  I'm two blocks behind.  I'll include those in next week's post.  I am not really a fan of this "hidden squares" method we've been doing since March 3.  I will be so glad to move on to another method!!
March 8, 9, 10, and 11--all 3" finished

March 12.  This one gave me fits.  It finishes at 6".  The fabric looks red, but is really hot pink.

Funny Things #21

I saw this in Sam's Club the other day.  Evolved fish?


Another Mini Finish!

I'm nearing the end of my swap quilts and I'm really glad!  I sent out a birthday swap gift a bit ago.  Now that the birthday girl has received it, I can share!  For this one I made a mini quilt using Kate Spain's Canyon fabrics.  My picture isn't the best for color representation.  (Can't wait till we are past winter.  Lighting is hard.  So dark.)  The oranges are coral in real life.  I quilted this mini on the long arm.  I marked all the loops.  I should have marked the outside loops too.  I thought it would be easy to just use the foot to space them.  Yeah.  Didn't really work.  Live and learn.  And probably need to practice a lot more.
Front
Back
Here is the entirety of what I sent for this one.  She likes pens and I think she is interested in English Paper Piecing, so I sent some things that I've been using for EPP.  In case you're wondering what that strange thing on top of the spool of thread is, it is a rubber thumb from the office supply.  I use them for thimbles because they are inexpensive and make gripping the needle really easy.  I also included a quilt book.

365 Challenge Week 9

March 1, 2, 3, and 4

March 5, 6, and 7
I've been sewing all the trimmed off triangle scraps into HST and for the 7th, all the pink/white HST are made from scraps of previous blocks!  

Lots of Project Updates

I don't seem to be able to work on just one thing at a time.  Anyone who's seen my WIP list knows this already!  I've been working to finish up my last few swaps, catch up on all my 365 Challenge blocks, make more progress on the R2-D2 quilt, and start my Fig Tree Quilts Mystery BOM kits (I received the first one at the end of January, but it had a missing fabric, so I waited to start until I received February's shipment).  Oh, and my husband has been working to get the walls built in the sewing room.  Here are a few photos of my progress:

Finished rainbow mini--more photos and color information coming after I send it to its new owner.
First blocks of Fig Tree Mystery
Sewing room progress--I need to go clean up after him again.
R2-D2 pixel quilt--what feels like the never-ending project.
What are you working on?  Do you do one project start to finish or jump around on many projects?