Super Tote: Take 2

My roommate, the crazy bird lady, wanted a bag with birds for her birthday! It was hard not to deliver, since she did buy all the fabric and appropriate interfacing. I got the hint. The only fabric details I know, is the sides and straps are Essex Linen in Denim. The outside is a floral print with birds and the inside is a matching stripe.  

The pattern is Super Tote by Noodlehead. This time around I opted not to put the zipper in. The roommate actually requested the bag without the zipper knowing it was going to be a work bag. Second hint, she didn't buy a zipper! She also didn't like the elastic pockets on the inside. So this is the basic model.

Poor Rosa was not impressed with having to take pictures outside, she was giving me a pouty face and looking at the door! This Tennessee gal hasn't adapted to the cold yet. Notice the shovel in the background? She will ONLY do business on grass so we have to shovel her out an area each time. Then watch the wind blow the snow over the grass again.  Oh, it's been fun. 

Sugar Block of the Month

It's back! After missing last year Amy is bringing back the Sugar Block of the Month Club. The 2014 blocks were an absolute hit in my book.  So much so, I actually made my sister a full quilt from the January block. For the 2016 edition, Amy is releasing each block as a quilt pattern!  Totally takes away all the math I had to do. She also had made this year FREE, who doe's like free fun? Sign up with the link above. 

Back in 2014, she had us reflect each month on different things. This year Amy has a "twist" each month on a traditional block. January starts with the Churn Dash block.  After learning from last time, I am going to start with making 2 of each block and fill in as needed for 30 total. 

In the write up for the Club, Amy writes about taking a scrappy approach to the blocks. I am a huge fan of scrappy, but controlled scrappy. Starting with this pull I am going to try and stick with these 18 fabrics for the year with a low volume background.

NHMQG: Charity Blocks

My guilds charity committee put out a call for a new charity quilt.  They made these super cute mini bundles of Michael Miller fabric for the holiday party. My sticky fingers got my hands on two! The committee asked us to make blocks from Janome's 100 Blocks in 50 Days. Here is what I decided on ...

It should be fun to see how all these blocks come together!

Penny Tiles

Second project start of the year has arrived! Last year Messy Jesse released her Penny Tiles pattern, and I loved every inch of it. I started pulling fabric with fat quarter bundle of Sweet Shoppe (below), it's an older line by Michele D'Amore. The pattern calls for twenty fat quarters, so I went to my stash for the others. It took a while but I found ten more that played nice together.

Left: Stash Fabric, Right: Sweet Shop

After cutting up these sweet fabrics, I made a couple blocks just to see how they looked. Still loving every inch of this pattern. I'm excited to watch them all come together.

Mini Barn

Ladies and Gents, grab your Mod Podge and a brush. The Mini Barn Quilt kit is the prefect snowed in activity. Recently I was cooped inside with a snow day and grabbed this little project. After looking through what seemed like all my stash, I made my fabric decision and got podging (that's my new word). Turned out pretty awesome and was super fun.

After watching the tutorial, I was a little scared on the wood glue part. Going back to architectural model making days, I grabbed my Sobo. Using the craft glue allowed me to place each piece individually and have more control. It was a total win. 

Down on the Farm

The NEW camera is here, in my hands. You are looking at my first post using my new toy. Nothing crazy, but a newer version of my ten year old DSLR. (Whew, times flies.) The weather around here has been dismal in the last week. I finally lost my patience for real daylight, I decided to take out the flash to see what this camera could do at night. There might be a learning curve but not horrible.

Now onto the meat and potatoes of this post. Last year I signed on for the 1930's Farmer's Wife Quilt Along hosted by Gnome Angel and friends. It was a good ambition. Between holiday sewing and other craziness the project was forgotten with only five blocks done. Now, things have settled around here and it's time to get going again. The goal is to get caught up, hahaha. I laugh while writing this. So far, I have made an honorable attempt but not caught up. I did get 9 block finished.

Yes, the corners got sewn on wrong in my attempt to mass produce these blocks.

I must admit these shots would have come out so much better had I used natural light, but I just couldn't wait! Dear sun come out so I can play.

Outline Plus Quilt Along

Fabric is pulled, pattern purchased. I am ready to go! Hyacinth Quilt Designs is hosting a quilt along using the Outlined Plus pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. Also check out Instagram, #outlinedplus. For fabric, I actually pulled around two different prints, those geeky glasses and the view finder. Everything else just happened. 

But, enough with pretty pictures. I am dying to start a project. The second half of last year was all about finishing projects and commitments, nothing NEW. My creative side needs something more, it needs to cut this fabric! Let's say I am excited that with my WIPs slightly under control I can explore some other quilts.

The Reveal: Family Challenge Quilt

Left: My Quilt, Right: Gram's Quilt

Gram and I are finished! The reveal took place at our family Christmas party, just a little slow getting things up on the blog. Both quilts are made from Somerset by Fig Tree. It's interesting to see how differently they turned out. Once, again each was a hit for different reasons.

I used one of the blocks from the 1920's Farmers Wife book and paired it with a 16 patch block. Gram announced that her quilt was done back at Thanksgiving, I had been procrastinating. Four days before the quilt was due was my start date. Add in the stress of holiday sewing, I really was kicking myself. My sewing machine could not go fast enough as time flew by!

Detail shot of Gram's quilt design

The one thing I did learn from this quilt, custom quilting is not my thing. Each of the pinwheel blocks has a different quilting design. Don't look close, it's scary. What I lacked from lack of time, I thought I would make up for it with the quilting. Well, not so much.  Putting custom quilting on my list of things to practice!

Since I photographed these beauties on Christmas day, Mike was at my parents. My two favorite guys helped me set up and take down my photoshoot. I have to say I am a pretty lucky girl. Notice that Mom got us all matching fleece, you can't see but I had mine on too :) 

Now onto the Challenge of 2016, "Battle of the Colors". I purchased Atrium by Joel Dewberry from Massdrop last month. In need of new challenge fabric, impulse buy was perfect. After dividing the fat quarters into blue and pink (13 of each), I then decided we would pull randomly for our color. If you look closely they are both the same prints in each color way.  

Gram got the cool selection.

I got the warm selection.

Now I just need to find a pattern. My mind is racing, but it's so hard to settle on one plan! One thing is for sure, this year I will be starting well before the due date. Lesson learned.

LINK UP - Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday, My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday, 

Some Excitement for '16

Last year and the year before I laid out an extensive list of goals for the upcoming year. Well, I met some of my goals, others I did not. It's quite depressing starting the year reading about last year's failures. So, this year I am just writing down things I am excited about in the New Year. Either they are upcoming projects, classes, social sewing, or just plain want to try out. Disclaimer: This post is very rambling in my opinion and I have tried to limit the use of the !!!!!!! These are all things I am excited about so please don't judge me! 

Blogging: Year 3

Patch and I have two years of blogging under our belt, more me than him. But we are excited about another year coming your way! As you may have guessed there are some pretty AWESOME things coming to a post near you.  I plan to blog about many of the things in this list, so keep in touch :) 

RETREATS!

Well, because what happens at retreat stays at retreat.  There is little to share here, other than another Marden's adventure (discount.designer.fabric) trip is in order! 

Family Challenge Quilt 2016

Sometimes it blows my mind how a fun little something can become a annual event. The family challenge quilt is now in it's fourth year of the competition. No one is ever marked a winner. It's just fun.  The basic rules are: my Grandmother and I receive similar or the same fabric and we have to create a quilt. For the 2016 challenge we will be battling color ways, warm or cool. I'm also putting together a post for the big reveal of last years, stay tuned!

Tribal Block Club 

Amy Garro @13 Spools is releasing her first online class, Tribal Block Club.  She had put out the call for pattern testers last month and I volunteered. I love the block above, so I am excited to see what she does with the class. Check out more at the link above.

The Sugar Block Club is Back

In 2014, I participated in Stichery Dickory Dock's Sugar Block of the Month club. All of the blocks were great. So good I even made a whole quilt from one of them and planning to make another whole quilt from another block. Amy Gibson has such a great eye for design making each block very interesting. Having fallen in love with the 12 blocks I ended up making doubling and tripling production until I had enough blocks to make a nice big quilt. It's next on my "to finish" list. This year Amy had made the club free to all who want to participate. I hope you join us the link is above! 

Outline Plus Quilt Along 

Hyacinth Quilt Designs is hosting an Outlined Plus Quilt Along using a Meadow Mist Designs pattern. The fabric is pulled and the pattern purchased. I am ready for the January 4th start date!

Meadow Mist Designs Pattern Writing Series

One of my goals in 2016 is to make more patterns. To help me out here, Cheryl is releasing a whole series on the topic! I am interested in writing real patterns, so this will be great to get some advice from people who already write patterns. Cheryl is bringing in guest speakers as well. There is a button on the side of this blog in the "What's Going On?" section if you are also interested.

Arrival of my Round Trip Quilt

As I am writing this Mary @ See Mary Quilts is working on finishing up my Round Trip Quilt. I will be so excited the day we are reunited again. Based on the pictures, I will not be disappointed!

More Friends

I love friends, who doesn't? Thank you to all who comment regularly on the blog. Any of you readers out there who don't please do, I would love to hear from you. Even though I am not usually timely (sorry about that) I do read every comment and respond. Some of you lovely readers are actually a non-reply blogger, which is sad, because I cannot send a response. I look forward to another year being apart of this community and thank you to everyone who keeps this the best group of people out there :) 

Phew. I believe that is all! Nothing short of a full plate for 2016.  Hopefully everyone has made a quick recovery from celebrating last night and is resting up for a safe, happy, and healthy new year. I am off to start the year off right, hitting up a fabric sale.