Just Made the Deadline

I finally sorted my Sewing Room and am so thrilled. It only took most of March to do. I had to come the realization that I have a lot of fabric. When you're shuffling things around, it doesn't seem like it's out of control. When you have to box it up to add/remove furniture, it's another story.

I am reaffirming my pledge to not purchase any more fabric for the rest of the year. (Said after I placed an order today to use my expiring vouchers at Pink Castle fabrics. I couldn't let that deal go!) I am done with online fabric shopping. For real this time.

Now that I have my long desired design wall in place, it's on! I still have to figure out how to get more time to sew but that's another problem for another day. I'll share pics of my room later.

So, I also needed to make my BOM for my Stash Bee hive due in March. Since I didn't even have a place to sew for weeks, I was able to work on it last night and this morning. Finally.

I just made the deadline!

Here's my March BOM for hive #6:

Super Scrappy Sunny Day block

I love that I was able to chain piece each section as I went and whipped it together pretty quickly. This was a lot of fun to make for Melodee.

Hope you've been making a dent in your stash.
Enjoy your week!

Birthday Month's Almost Over

January is almost over and I feel like I just celebrated New Years yesterday! It's been a spectacular birthday month and I am now able to sit down and start sharing some of my swag since my last posts.

My friends and family know exactly how to spoil me. The fun fabrics and Angela Walters books are already being put to good use. I am pretty excited about future projects that I can dream of making.

Here's part of my haul:

Place mats from Judy!
I love how well they match my table runner.

Pressing mat with pockets and a trash holder.
Love!

Fabrics from my love.

The little scissors make me smile.

This love letter fabric is amazing.
J'adore the center where is says,
"Holding your hand over the rainbow".

The following came in a goodie box from my in-laws in PA:

Precuts - too many to spread out.
I'll just share the finished projects later.)

This photo does not show the awesomeness of these batiks and
hand-dyed fabrics she found online.

My favorite way to have sweets!

These ethnic prints are so fun.
My favorite is the wax print elephants, of course.

Rainbows, butterflies, colorful elephants,
yes please and thank you!

Great colors to use for piecing and borders!

I am open to suggestions on this one!
A yard of pink, gray and black animal print has me stumped.

I hope you get lots of fabric from those you love this year!

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Works in Progress:

Switching gears now for a bit, I wanted to share something fun I worked on today.

A very generous Beth let me have some time on her long arm to work on some quilting. Here's the Halloween quilt and am finishing for my godson. I am forming a giant spider web using free motion quilting with glow-in-the-dark thread. I get a little giddy when I turn off the lights as I am pretty excited about how it's turning out. I can't wait to see his smile in person instead of on Skype since they are coming down in a few months for a visit.

I'll try to get a good picture of the glow-in-the-dark thread work
when it's all finished and bound later this week.

(He's now very into Wonder Woman which has my brain already thinking of another project for him. Perhaps I'll make a pillow? You may not know I feel about Linda Carter but I love her! Can't wait to start sketches for that!)

I also worked on my friends' baby quilt that is coming along nicely. I didn't get any good pics of it yet but I'll be sure to post those when the sun decides to come out.

I'll stop here for now and share my other projects in another post this week.

Thanks for reading to the end of this one! Enjoy your last few days of January.

New Year's Re"sew"lutions!

Happy New Year!

I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful holiday and shared some great memories. We kept it pretty simply around here and it was so nice. I can't even explain where the time has gone!

Here's my favorite book, a gift from my love:

I've wanted to learn this technique for a while.
I am so excited to play with dimension this year.

So cool. I love that there are no
crazy seams to achieve these looks, too.

 I have many re"sew"lutions this year including:

- Regular blog posts showing works in progress/completions
- Finish UFOs hanging in sewing room
- Learn new techniques and experiment with the art of quilting
- Finish 2 blocks per week from Tula Pink's City Sampler (100 can easily be done in a year.)
- Improve free motion quilting skills
- Create blocks on EQ7 and share some tutorials
- Use up more of my stash (so I can get more to replace it, of course.)
- Have more fun! (Try not to stress over work!)

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My dear friend is visiting from Korea and brought an amazing gift from her travels. She teaches overseas and is able to take several weeks to travel to various countries. She recently went to China and Mongolia...so jealous!
She did stop for shopping there and brought me this:

They feel as luxurious as they look.

I love this red!
Love, love, love this one!

This photo does no justice to the softness of the blue
and the boldness of the gold dragons.

Part of me has no desire to cut this fabric. The rest of me want to make something practical so I can see them on a regular basis. I am open to suggestions in the comments below.

She will be on the lookout for bojagi cloth when she returns home to Korea in Feb. I hope she can find some to bring back next year when she returns stateside.

How were your holidays? Did you do anything/get anything fun?

The Quilt Retreat

This past weekend was filled with great company and quilting. I attended the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's first retreat weekend. The Quilt Place Retreat Center provided a cozy and beautiful space to get together and be creative.

Of course, I couldn't decide what to pack so I brought everything that fit into a jumbo-sized suitcase. I did get a lot done while I was there. Here are some photos:

Our Workspace all weekend!

My Cozy Bedroom!
Since we had an odd number, I was lucky enough to get my own room.
How sweet is that?
I loved this green and pink log cabin quilt.

Our view of the water for breakfast each day.

The front of the Retreat Center B and B.

The Dock View overlooking the Indian River

So many pretty views!

Pool and Hot Tub available!

Saturday Morning Workshop: We learned about mediums on fabric that can act just like watercolors when a wet brush is used.

My first use of Inktense Pencils. (Thanks Katherine for a wonderful workshop!)
I want a set for Christmas!

Played "strip" poker! I had a lucky night.

Great gift bag with fabric and other swag from "The Quilt Place".

 Our stay included exclusive shopping time at The Quilt Place with a discount on our purchase. Check out these great fabrics I picked up:

Check out these quilts hanging in The Quilt Place! I left there so inspired.

More projects I finished:

Quilt top for someone special this Christmas!
(I won't say who in case they are reading this.)

Front of Mug Rug for OMQG Holiday Party!
(My first mug rug actually.)
I just love the little blue bird in the bottom corner of this scrap fabric I used.
She was a fun surprise. 

Back of Mug Rug

Front of Pot Holder

Back of pot holder...mmmm coffee!

 Borrowed Michelle's book of mini projects to make this tea bag holder:

A little Christmas stocking gift for someone special.

Completed 3 Christmas BOM for the next guild meeting.

I finished the quilt top for my godson's Christmas gift. These are just some of the Halloween blocks from my guildmates and I really love it! The back will be pieced with the rest of the blocks and other random scraps of Halloween-themed fabrics I have.

(Sorry for the blurry mess. I will post better pics when I have it all quilted.)

I could write a mini book about my time away and still not cover all of the great fun we had. I am forever grateful for the company of these talented, wonderful women. My cheeks still hurt from laughing so much.

Packing up to leave there was a sadness, much like I imagine leaving the last day of summer camp. It was hard to say goodbye to my friends and go back to work today.

I can't wait for our next adventure.