I'm Still Here!

In the past few weeks, I've had a realization - those bloggers that are super popular, have tons of followers, and post every day...AND HAVE KIDS...they're my new heroes.  I seriously don't know how they do it.  With my new taxi-driver-mom lifestyle, I'm finding it hard to do a lot of things.  Blogging is one of them.  I am finding time to sew, just not time to write about my sewing!  So I thought I'd just do a quick post showing some of the things I've recently made.  And by recently, I mean, in the last couple months.

First up is a bee block for Natalie.  She asked for wonky stars with these beautiful orange fabrics.  She said the block could only have one star, or multiple stars.  So I went with three.  I've never made a wonky star before, but I had been wanting to so badly, so I'm glad I had this "excuse."

Next are the items I made for the Modernista Homemade Kitchen Swap.  My partner was Karen, and she asked for pretty much anything.  She said she likes color combinations like blue and green or yellow and gray.  I went with the yellow and gray (obviously) and made her a table runner/kitchen mat, kitchen towel, and potholder.

Here's the back of the pot holder.  I used Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial.

I also finished up these two quilts.

I also made this fall pillow.  If you've followed my blog for a while, this may look familiar to you.  It was part of a QAL, and started out as a quilt for my second daughter.  I wasn't able to finish it as a twin size (which is what the QAL was for), so I finished the quilt at the size I stopped at and made a baby quilt for my friend's daughter.  I still had all these strips of squares left over, so I made a pillow out of them.

I also made this laundry bag version of Jeni B.'s drawstring bag out of Valori Wells' "Nest" collection.

Those last few items, I made for a craft fair that I participated in over the weekend.  They didn't sell, so they're now listed in my etsy shop.

Now this may seem like a lot of stuff, and some of my friends with small kids ask me how I do so much.  But really, I work very slowly.  What you're seeing are things that I've worked on gradually over a few months.  I rarely ever just crank something out quickly.  But that's okay!  You know why?  Because these people are the reason I can't crank something out, and the reason I haven't been blogging much.  I love them all so much, and I wouldn't change anything about my life right now!

Pillow Talk {Swap} - Done!

I've been wanting to join in the Pillow Talk {Swap} ever since I first discovered it, which was maybe around Round 3 or so.  This is Round 6, and even though I had so much going on (moving, travelling, etc.), I just couldn't resist joining in.

I really like the partner I was assigned to, but also a little intimidated.  She's great.  Her mosaics were awesome.  And I was scared. 

I wasn't able to start on the pillow right away, because we were still living at my mom's house, in the middle of closing on our house, and there was just too much going on.  But that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about it.  I'm glad my situation didn't allow me to start right away, though, because I was able to take the time to really figure out what I wanted to do. 

Like so many of us right now, I'm kind of addicted to Pinterest.  And I wasn't even looking for inspiration this one particular day, when it slapped me right in the face!  I found this picture of a painting...

Photo courtesy of jeffdepner.com

My partner likes zig zags, and I thought this was a cool, different take on a zig zag.  Alissa commented on this when I pinned it and called it a "messed up zig zag." 

But could I execute it?  That's always my fear.

I sketched and sketched and sketched until I finally figured it out how I could do it.

Once we moved into our new house, and I got a little bit of time to work, I cranked out the top of the pillow.  It actually came together quicker than I thought it would!

Then it was quilted...

Then we went on vacation, so it had to wait until we got back.  Then I really needed to finish my bee blocks, so those came first when I came back from vacation. 

Last night I was finally able to finish it, so here it is!

The back features a block (which is actually designed by Bek) that my partner happens to like, so it's just a little something extra.  For this blog - again - I had to do some serious sketching.  I actually gave up a few times on this one, but finally figured it out, which is so rewarding!

So that's it!  I'm sending it off today and I hope my partner likes it.

1 and a 100

Earlier this week, we had our LAMQG meeting.  The meetings are always great, but I have to say, my favorite meetings are swap reveals - and that's what this one was!  Flickr has the ever-popular Urban Home Goods Swap, which I've never joined, so back in March, when our officers announced that the LAMQG would be having our version of that, I did not hesitate to sign up!  We got our partner assignments, and I got assigned Katie, who's awesome.  Out of the things she listed, I ended up choosing to make her a table runner and a bunting for her baby's room.

She listed some of her favorite fabric lines and designers, so I based a lot of my decisions on that.  She said her favorite fabric line was Central Park, and some of her favorite designers were Joel Dewberry and Sanae (who I had never heard of), so I got a little of those 3 things.

I made the table runner reversible - the one side being Chrysallis by Sanae, and the other side features some Joel Dewberry mixed with solids.  I wanted to use Essex linen in natural, but the store I went to didn't have that, but they had it in white, so I used that.

I've really been wanting to try piecing curves, so that's what I did for the Chrysallis side.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results, considering I thought I would totally mess it up!  It didn't lay totally flat after it was pieced, but I figured the quilting would flatten it out, and it did. 

For the Joel Dewberry side, I wanted to do more of the plus design, like I did for one of my Valentine's pillows.  Amazingly, I had these solids in my stash that I think look so great with the Dewberry prints.  I like it so much, I'm going to make something for myself in this same color scheme!  FYI, the solids I used were Kona Aqua, Kona Sand, and a shot cotton.

I really went back and forth with how to quilt it, so I mixed it up and did criss-cross quilting throughout the pluses, and then just straight parallel lines outside of the plus section.  I used painter's tape to help me keep the lines straight.  Oh, and I used my new favorite thread color - it's Mettler 844, and you can get it in the big spools.  I just like how it contrasted against the white linen.

For the bunting, Katie said she wanted pink and green, since it was for her baby's room.  So I used a little Central Park, that Joel Dewberry herringbone print (which is one of my all-time faves), and some other things I had in my stash.  I'm usually a very matchy-matchy person, so when the greens and the pinks didn't totally match, I wanted to scrap it, but I pushed myself to just put it together and see how it turned out, and I think it all works together nicely!  I wanted to do something a little different than the triangle bunting, so I found this tutorial for a Scalloped Fabric Garland, and knew that's what I wanted to do.  For the bias tape, I wanted it in linen, but didn't even know if it existed, so I started searching for it online.  I found some on Etsy, and noticed that it would be sent from an Asian country (I can't remember - Thailand, maybe?), so I got the idea to check my local Japanese fabric store, and sure enough, they had some!  I was pretty excited.  But it was the small bias tape, not the extra wide, like the tutorial called for.  So getting all the pieces in there was pretty tedious.  Please excuse my messy bookcase.

So Monday was our big reveal!  Here's a couple of pictures of me giving Katie her table runner.  

As for what I received, when I heard that Brianna had my name, I was pretty excited, because she is a very meticulous and precise sewer.  Everything she makes is so beautiful!  She made me a sewing machine cover, which is what I really, really wanted, and I absolutely love it!  I have this same Echino print, but I've only used it to make stuff for other people, so now I have something for me using this fabric!

There was a story behind this!  Brianna and I both have Brother sewing machines, but she didn't know if mine had a handle or not.  So she emailed Melissa to see if she knew.  She didn't, so Melissa emailed my husband to get him to find out.  As Brianna was explaining this, I suddenly remembered my husband randomly asking me a while back in my machine had a handle, and I thought it was very strange, but didn't really think too much about it.  I think everyone got a good laugh out of the story, and for me, that just makes it so much better!  Oh, and when I came home from the meeting that night, my husband got all smug and said, "So, how do you like your sewing machine cover?" 

So here's a couple of pictures of it in use.  I have no excuse for the mess, except that I'm messy!

It was a fun swap, and I think everyone was happy with what they got.  Check out the LAMQG's Flickr Group, and see all the great pictures Nichole took of the meeting.

If - and that's a big if - you're still reading this, and you're wondering about the title of this post, it's referring to a couple of milestones.  The 1 is because I realized the morning after the meeting that it has been one year since I started going to the LAMQG, which means it's been one year since I started quilting, and since I started this blog (it's funny for me to read that first post)!  The LAMQG, and the talented people in it is what got me quilting, and quilting is what I love to do now!  So that's a pretty big deal to me. 

The 100 refers to this being my 100th post.  I can honestly say that when I wrote that first post exactly a year ago, I had no idea that I would still be doing this, but I'm very glad that I am.

Two milestones in one post!

So....

I'm feeling like a giveaway.  I want you to pick a number between 1 and 100, and leave the number in the comments.  In one week (May 11), I'll have my husband pick a number.  Whoever gets the closest without going over the number he picks will win something.  Not sure what yet.  But I'll make it good.  It'll be some kind of fabric bundle.  I'll announce the winner on May 12.  Good luck!