Spring Time

It's spring time in Florida and we went from warm to cool to hot in less than a week. I don't know that I am ready for 90 degree weather any time soon. On the plus side, I did find  insulated curtains for my craft room that keeps it really cool during the day. That makes idea of the upcoming summer heat more tolerable.

I've been working on a few projects at the same time trying to put a dent in my UFO list. The crazy thing is that somehow the list keeps getting longer. I just keep getting new ideas and will start it right away before finishing up what I was doing before the idea hit me. Do you have that same problem?

I think my resolution for next year will be to finish a project to completion before starting a new one. (Giving up new fabric purchases for a year is so hard! There are so many pretties that I want in my collection but will have to hope that I can find them in 2016.)

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In no particular order, here are some photos of things that are keeping me busy:

I am pretty addicted to Instagram swaps this year and signed up for way too many. This bag was for an Easter swap that uses the open-wide pouch pattern. It was so easy to make that I will definitely do a few more as gifts.

My partner likes nerdy things so I was happy to oblige.

This bag is for my Charley Harper swap. I used unconventional to me fabrics including wool and velvet to give my fox a cool texture.

My partner loves the foxes and I used
E. Hartman's Fancy Fox pattern to make her a tote bag.
I only had to modify it slightly.

So tempted to keep this tote bag for myself.

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is sponsoring a postcard swap with other guilds in the area. Here's mine:

Of course I had to make a rainbow!
(Sorry about the bad lighting...gave it away before taking a better photo.)

The guild also made and distributed quilts to our local veteran's hospital in April. I made the Giant Vintage Star in shades of green, gray, brown and black. The back was a fun eggplant color. The gentleman who was given my quilt loved it because brown is his favorite color. I also used a "new-to-me" technique for the binding and used the backing fabric folded over instead of attaching strips.

I will definitely make another one like this to keep.

My Stash Bee Hive #2 block for April. I really love how easy this pattern comes together and looks like you spent hours making it. (It seriously took longer to select fabric than it took to assemble it.)
I can already imagine making one with rainbows of color all over.

Blues and Greens for my hive mama.

That pretty much wraps it up around here. I have a few more things on the horizon including some minis, completing some UFOs and planning some bigger projects. I'll keep you posted.

What's keeping you busy?

November's End

So much has happened since my last post.  I'll do my best to sum up the fun parts.


The second annual Orlando MQG retreat took place the first weekend and that was such a blast. It was nice to get away for a few days and just hang out with some wonderful people. I didn't take many photos while I was there but did put a dent in my budget allotted for shopping.

Here are some highlights:

Our view for breakfast each day in Cocoa, FL

Couldn't resist more Cotton+Steel.

Periodic Table Symbols: I'll be making something
nerdy and fun.

Fantasy Forrest:
No plans yet but am so in love!

My continued addiction to Whites with Black prints.
(Love those mustaches the most!)

Coffee...yum!

Crazy great prices so I had to get both!

Some yellows and orange since I have so little in my stash.

Something intriguing in this retro design.

I've had my eye on this Effervescence print from Michael Miller
 for a while and took the plunge.
Those purple polka dots are fun, too.

Safety pins and a fun black on black print.
(I'm going to make a few projects that needed zippers this
Christmas so I bought one to practice.)

A gift from a fellow guildmate!
(She finished a project and gave me her leftovers!)

My absolute favorite!!!

 Finished some blocks:

Last set of StashBee Hive blocks were sent to their new home.

Worked on a few block from T.Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.
(Still have a long way to go!)

BOM for OMQG Block Lotto this week!
(They need to get trimmed but I was chain piecing
a bunch to better my odds of winning.)

I've just realized that I had many other good times but didn't take any pictures to share. I'll need to do better next month.

How was your November?

September, where did you go?

Somehow September flew by and I am just now sitting down to post what's been happening. I was very busy and having lots of fun. This post will be mostly a photo diary, if you will, of everything since last month.

Festival of Tress

Earlier this year, our guild was asked to create a quilt that would be donated to a charity auction in Orlando. I was on the FoT committee and after lots of searching, I decided to make a pattern myself on EQ7 and propose it to the group. My design won and we set off to make this idea I had a reality.
All members were asked to make a 6.5 inch block that would be made into my Modern Sampler Tree. We used the 25th and Pine collection, various blenders, and a white on white houndstooth print for the background.

Finished top!
So in love with the way it all came together.

Started arranging the design and cutting out HST
to make the side line up just right.

I didn't love the idea of a straight line across the bottom
but didn't have enough for a full row.

I sewed more HST and a few leftover blocks
I was saving for the storage bag that was being made.Then I added
some brown strips and made a little trunk for this cute tree.

After all of my math, I ran out of white for the background!
I called and they still had the fabric so I made a quick run at 8:00.
(They closed at 8:30 and I just made it.)
Fun times!

The fun part was sewing each row together and seeing it take shape.
It was faster than you might think.

I asked the guild founder to make the star that goes on top.
I think it is such a lovely compliment!

Finished quilt measures 86" by 88".
Quilting and binding completed by OMQG members.
It's one of my favorites designs to date.

                       

 Stash Bee Blocks

Plus Cross block for August
(I was running a little behind.)

Mini modern plus sign with large color background for September. 
(I can't wait to see her finished Wombat-style quilt.)

Modern Quilting Salon

At our last board meeting, I proposed the idea of hosting a modern quilting salon in the evenings for those interested in the modern movement and cannot attend our morning Orlando MQG meetings. I think we had a nice turn out and I shared a little about the guild and what modern quilting means to me. I was so nervous but everyone asked questions and stayed until the end. (I think it's great when they don't run out kicking and screaming before the last slide on your presentation.)

Maker Faire Orlando

Part of the craziness this month was spent participating in Maker Faire Orlando. If you are not familiar with the maker movement you can learn more here.

Read last month's post on how we started things, here.

I made the banner for our table one night.
I made hexagon bunting instead of
traditional triangles because I'm geeky like that.

It was hard to get a great shot in my tiny, dark sewing room.

We spent some time meeting together before the faire to decide on demos to share, completed projects and supplies to bring. Kathryn kept us organized and we came up with ways to break up the weekend. It was a wonderful event and I had so much fun. I met a lot of creative folks and I'm already excited about doing this event next year.

Love this little robot in this logo.
(The shirt is super soft, too.)

Lots of prep work to complete before the event!

I was showing a few pixelated quilt designs and
my Accuquilt cutter got lots of mileage last month.
It's worth it's weight in gold!

I pulled out my English Paper Piecing project to share, too.

Mid-week shopping therapy at
Indie Craft Exchange.

Coffee is my go go juice when I needed to stay awake
 and keep cutting/organizing for the event.
(Wonder Woman always makes me smile!)

I spent a lot of time counting before cutting so I could stay organized.
I have an Excel spread sheet of all the pieced needed for each project.
This way I can maximize my cutting time with the Accuquilt cutter.

A cassette tape is a part of my retro pixel collection
I'm working to complete by 2015.

The Weekend at Maker Faire Orlando

We were on the 4th floor of the Orlando Science Center.
The Dino Digs room was pretty awesome!
It's where all the cool kids were hanging out.

Setting up the Friday night before Maker Faire Orlando.
(We were in the dark for a while until they dropped in our lights later.)

Geeky Chic of Florida
We won a Maker of Merit Award that weekend!
(The triceratops behind us was so cool.)

I love how diverse the four of us were.
We had lots of people stop by and ask questions
and advice on their sewing/art projects.

Tried to get a better picture of that ribbon
but the perfect shot eluded me.

Other Stuff!

A gift from my dear friend Kim.
(I made her a Tetris quilt for her 10-year wedding anniversary in March.)
It's my new favorite board game.

The last Friday of my vacation with a great sunrise on Lake Monroe.
I had ten glorious days off from work and enjoyed every second of it!

You've made it to the end, you brave reader! Thanks for taking the time to go through this month-long journey.
Let me know what you were up to last month while I was gone from the blogosphere.
I love reading your comments.