Freedom

How the year has flown by. I didn't believe adults when I was younger telling me that time just flies by as you get older but I am a believer. Now that I am 40, I can only imagine how quickly things will happen. Fingers crossed that I am ready for it.

I lost my sewing mojo for a while, hence the lack of posts in recent months. This was the first time in years that I didn't sew everyone's Christmas presents. I have decided to not put any stress on myself for any reason to finish any project. I have not signed up for any additional swaps (other than those I committed to before this year) and did not join my online sewing bee for this year. Letting go has been quite liberating.

I've been slowly getting back to my sewing space and working on my projects. I do have a few things to share and will post more of my progress this year.

Bought a new machine. This beast is pretty awesome!

Made a little pouch with this great Afro fabrics from Spoonflower.

Finished my last blocks for my online bee!
These were fun to make with one color way and selvages.

Designing for my Michael Miller Glitz
quilt for QuiltCon 2016.

Thank goodness for a design wall and post it notes
to help keep things organized.
I had a lot of fun putting this together.

My Houndstooth quilt.
Although it wasn't accepted into the show, I think it was a winner in my book!
(It was really hard to photograph this one. I need to up my lighting skills.)

Made a bag for our guild's holiday party swap.

It was made with lots of love!

Working on a design for the improv blocks made by
the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild.

Final top design before it went to our quilter for her to work her magic.
Check out: the quilted piece HERE

Took a great class with Lee Monroe of May Chappell.
She was such a fun teacher!
(This is all the progress I've made, too. I look forward to finishing
this quilt top later in the year with the Charlie Harper fabrics I've been collecting.)

Fabric pulls for my second to last mini quilt swap.
I chose a pattern from Make Modern Magazine called
Betty Hearts Fabric. These will be the rainbow pile of fabrics in
a stack for part of this mini.

I really love when paper piecing projects come together so nicely.

Betty Hearts Fabric
This is the finished piece that went off to it's new home in GA.

Pattern testing for an IG friend.
It had so many little pieces. This is a 12.5 in block!

Here's the mini rainbow quilt I was given from my swap partner!
She used all Tula Pink and created this amazing piece.
I love how perfectly the tiger's face came out from two separate pieces.

All the goodies from my partner! It was a rainbow of so much fun!

My latest project is finishing my economy blocks from last year's 
online bee. I asked for novelty prints in the center with a
coordinating color for the second square. 
The outer squares were made with black, gray or white fabrics. About 30 were sent from
my bee hive mates, the rest I made over the last few
months trying to get my "sewing mojo" back.
I plan to piece this together and quilt it over the next few months.

I joined one last swap with my guild to make a mini for a
Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild member.
She asked for a traditional block made modern so I decided to stick with the economy squares 
but made them a third of the size of the ones I have above.
She loves Cotton+Steel and Tula Pink so I tried to incorporate those in the center.
Then I used Anne Kelle (another favorite of hers) to make the rainbow border.
She loves rainbows like me!

Making a little baby quilt for my friend who is due in 7 weeks.
I have 1 week left before her "Baby Sprinkle" to have it done.
Her theme for this baby is this Gypsy Baby line.
I tried to pull from my stash colors and prints I thought would compliment this style.
(I am still not sure how I will quilt it yet. It's 36 x 36 and will fit nicely under my Juki.)
Wish me luck!

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I made gnomes!
My friend is a gnome maker and recently invited me over to work/play at her
house. She showed me how to make this little gems.
After trying 3 different dying methods, we used coffee to get a darker skin tone!
The bodies are made with super soft felt that I cut into tiny strips, too.
She made the tiny glasses and hair for my partner's gnome.

Because we also needed capes, she did some amazing
embroidery work on the back of each one.
(Can you see the little baby pick in my Super Afro emblem?)

I worked with raw wool roving to make my afro. I had to use a needle and
 Styrofoam board to get this shape to come together.
(I only stuck myself a few times before I got the hang of it.)

She is working on a series of vegetable king/queen gnomes.
These are her pumpkin and tomato royalty.

She made these stools for her kids using logs and
felt to make the seat top.
She's pretty crafty!

This is just one of her gnome tree houses where some of her
creations live. She has a gift for working with wood, wool, and felt.
It was pretty cool to see another artist work her magic and share her passion.
I came home from that trip energized and ready to get back to sewing.

Last but certainly not least, here's a quick set of picks of Artemis. She is doing so well and learning new tricks every day. I bought this book and cannot believe how simple the directions were and love the step-by-step photos. (Many of my dog-owning friends were given a copy of this book for Christmas.)

She really likes sleeping with a pillow and has laid claim to this one.

Our first purchase of a LootPets crate included a matching shirt
for Artemis to celebrate the return of the X-Files!
We have yet to wear our matching shirts out yet.
(It's way too hot to put her in black!)

A very rare, non-blurry picture of her sleeping.
She never stays still for photo ops.

This is what happens when I try to work on the couch.
She puts her head on the keyboard to make me stop and pet her a while.

We both wear each other out on long walks in this Florida heat.
(I often want to lay on the cool floor next to her.)
I am grateful that she makes me go outside every day because work has been hectic!

Artemis has stolen our hearts for sure.


I hope you are well and having a great year so far. Let me know what you've been up to in the comments below if you wish.

Friday's Photo Finish

I am so excited that it's Friday. I FINALLY finished my Michael Miller Fabric Challenge quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild.

It took a while to get here but I am so glad I finished it in time to enter the competition.

Here's a quick summary of how it's made:

I cut the fabric into squares that I made into 9-patch blocks.

(Trying to make random patches was harder than I expected.)

I used muslin on the corner of 13 of them since they were going to be cut off anyway.

I then used EQ7 to create a custom template for my Drunkard's path pattern that would create my letters. I needed the curves to end with 1/4 exactly that would make smooth curves for each letter.

Each template took two pages that were taped together and
cut out on freezer paper for the blocks.

I practiced a few times on muslin to be sure it would work first.

After sewing all of the 9-patches together, I tried to keep similar colors from touching. It wasn't perfect but it started to become fun.

I slowly made my way through all 13 blocks that needed to be cut and added gray to form curves to create the letters. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of this part since I was doing this at night after grading papers. Le sigh!)

To ensure the letters weren't touching too much, I added 2 in strips of gray in between each letter to give them a little space to show off. The shorter letters needed an extra gray block to make them as long as the "L" then I added gray on the top and bottom to make the finished piece.

This is my first quilt made entirely with Aurifil thread and I think I am hooked for life now. White and steel gray were used for all of the piecing and for quilting the many, many, many lines it took to make this dream a reality.

This beast is 68 in by 68 in and was bound using my favorite fabric from this collection called "Pegs a Plenty". (It's the only purchased yardage from this collection used to make this quilt.)

I love this quilt and am thrilled that it's finally finished.

It's been a while!

Hello out there!

Hope you had a fun-filled Fourth of July! We live off of Lake Monroe in Sanford and we can see one of the largest fireworks displays in Central Florida right from our front yard. (I don't know if our daughter-dog, Evie, would agree with that statement. She was actually ok last night and didn't bark or panic which is always our concern.)

I've been working crazy hours as usual but am making time to quilt at night. (My photos look terrible but that's the time I can sneak in some fun.) I'm making some progress on my UFO list for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild challenge. I think many of the projects will just be on my list indefinitely. I am ok with that now.

I finished making the Paper Pieced Bee Hive Blocks for each of my guildies and love the ones I received in return. It was a blast to see the blocks everyone made in their group last Wednesday. I may opt out of the next round but I look forward to doing these hives again.

The Lone Starburst is one that I might do again because it turned out beautifully in rainbow colors. (You know I love a good rainbow!) I also really loved the pattern from A Squared W called Graph-ic. Math lovers would really appreciate her inspiration. The possibilities with this design are endless and I can't wait to try my hand at designing my own quilt from it.

The Scrappy Diamonds was also fun to make except I couldn't get my printer to scale it right. Thankfully, Leslie printed out copies for me and I was able to whip it together in less than an hour.

I liked making the tulips and butterfly but don't see myself making them again for a quilt unless someone asked for this specific design...and they were paying me. :) (Ok, I didn't really like making them but was happy with how well they turned out for the people who requested them.)

I can't wait to see everyone's quilts when done, including my own. I didn't get a good photo of all the fun paper planes my guildies made for me so I'll just wait to show the final quilt when it's all done.

My sample planes that my guildies were asked to make for me.

July was also my turn to be the hive queen in my online Stash Bee. I am getting help with my rainbow log cabin-ish idea I drew a few years ago but never made. I've asked them to make concentric squares using rainbow colors and I can't wait to see what they each will send me. I had a blast with the interview questions that you can read all about here if you wish.

"I Can Sing A Rainbow" is possibly what this quilt will be called.

I've been working on the Michael Miller fabric challenge for the MQG and am getting excited with how well it's turning out.

Sewing lots of blocks! (This photo does no justice to the great colors in this collection.)

I find it funny that I fall in love with my quilts as I am making them and they each become my new favorite quilt. Does that happen to you, too? This one I especially love because I designed it on paper and then recreated it in EQ7 so I can get the right size and make my block templates. I love that I can calculate fabrics needed and knew precisely how to cut my fat eights with no waste. I'm glad when I can cut all pieces given with nothing left over because my scrap bins are piling up and I have yet to really make an entirely scrappy project.

I will have a lot more to share at the end of this month when I've finished up this MM challenge quilt. (Plus, my work load will be a little less after August.)

I hope you've been able to quilt to your heart's content. Tell me all about it in the comments section when you get a chance.