WiP Wednesday -Some Boy Quilts

So I have been trying to sort, pack and purge the past week or so, but I have still sneaked in a bit of sewing!

I posted my most current completed quilt blocks a few days ago (here), but I forgot one so I'm giving her a little recognition today :) 

 This is block #8 in the Virtual Quilting Bee Sampler Quilt.

The other WiP's I have been working on is this quilt for my new nephew, who was born 2 weeks ago...5 weeks early!  But I was planning to give the quilt when I went to visit for his Blessing the end of September anyway, so no rush on this one:

I have the rows pieced...kindof. Turns out, I ended up sewing 5 of the 11 rows wrong, so I've got a little unpicking in my future before I get this one finished.



This brown and blue star quilt was a random project that I wasn't expecting to start, but I finished the top last night.

This one does have a story behind it.  Some of the fabric in this was salvaged from one of the two matching bedding sets my twins had when they were babies.  When my third son was born, I obviously didn't need two sets anymore, so I decided to make a matching quilt with the fabric from one of the sets for my third son, since neither of my twins wanted to give up the blankets that actually came with the set.

I cut what I had into charm squares, bought some backing fabric, put it in a bag....and totally forgot about it.
Well, now my son is nearly three and won't be in a crib after we move, so what to do with the bedding and the partial matching quilt squares to go with it?  Why, give it to one of my two nephews that have been born within the past 3 months, of course!

To make this super easy for me, I am not quilting it.  This will be a tied, comforter-type quilt instead.  I dug around in my scraps and found enough fabric to make it work without having to get anything else for it (except the high loft batting and yarn).

For an impromptu quilt that has been put together from what I had on hand, it's turning out pretty cute, I think.  In fact, it is cuter than the blanket that actually came with the set!

That is it for this week.  I am packing up my fabric for the move as I type this.  I have two words: Fabric.  Hoarder.

Some Blocks and Some Changes

Yep, I'm here!

Forgive my month hiatus, but things have been changing around here.

While my husband was away at a school for 8 weeks (he left mid-May), my sister came to stay with me.  She brough her two kids - ages 2 years and 6 weeks.  While it was totally AWESOME to have my sister with me for 6 weeks, as you can imagine, having 5 kids ages 4 and under in the house meant almost constant chaos!  

Then my husband came home the beginning of this month...and told me we were moving within the next two months.

The fact that we are moving didn't surprise me - we've known we would be moving eventually.  But we had just decided to stay put for another 10 months, to let the boys finish preschool in the school they love, among other reasons.  So this news was a bit of a surprise and has changed the name of the game around here.

We aren't moving far - just one state north to Maryland (about a 3 hour drive in D.C. traffic!)  And to be honest, I am nervous AND excited about the change.  My husband and I have been married 9 years this year and this will be our 5th move in that time.  This is the first time it has had a noticeable affect on our boys...one of my twins has cried twice about having to leave his beloved preschool/primary teacher. (Insert sad face and mommy-guilt feelings here.)

Amid all this chaos, however, I did get some sewing done!  I am (finally!) caught up with my Virtual Quilting Bee blocks.

(Forgive the crazy vividness of this pic.  I could't seem to tone it down - my PS skills are limited!)

 I also finished my Sister's Ten June Blocks.

WiP Wednesday - More Finishes

I have been on a roll the past two weeks trying to finish up my WiPs.

I did have 2 finishes this week - my improv log cabin pillow top that I made a few weeks back, and some plain pillow covers I've been meaning (for a LONG time) to make to revamp my living room couch.

The blue and green paisley/floral pillow behind the improv block pillow is one of the other pillow covers I made. 

My other WiPs worked on this week are:

I got MOST of the binding on my nephews quilt.  But when I had it all sewn on and ready to join the ends, I decided I didn't like how the fabrics were joining on that side (it is a scrappy binding and there was too much orange on the side where the ends were joining), so I have been doing a little unpicking and cutting and adding until I have it fixed a bit.  I will have that done by tonight.

I am just about done with snipping the rag edges on my son's Toy Story rag quilt.  I think I have one row of blocks and the outer edge to do and then I will be done.  Because it is hard on my hands, I only clip a few rows each night, hence the reason it has taken its time being completely finished!

And I had mentioned last week that I found a decade-old, unfinished baby blanket in a box in the garage and decided to throw a binding on it and get it finished and usable   

So while I was at Walmart one day, I stopped in their fabric section (since I had no plans to drive out to any other fabric stores for awhile) and found this pink floral in a tone pretty darn close to the pink in the quilt. 

 This is one of those "Get-It-Done" projects for me, so I was not picky about finding the "perfect" fabric.  And I think it cost me all of $1.28!  Not bad for a free blanket that has been long neglected!  I am just going to machine bind it, so this shouldn't take me much time to finish off once I sit down to do it.

I also finished up another block for the Virtual Quilting Bee at Diary of a Quilter.  This one is called "Going Dutch".

WiP's - 

2 finishes - Improv pillow and 2 plain pillow covers

Worked on: 

*Toy Story Blanket - All sewn, just need to finish clipping the seams.

*Baby Boy quilt - binding MOSTLY applied

*Discovered old baby blanket - binding made

 Not worked on:

Upcycyled Tees - 1 of 3 sewn

Denim Rag Quilt - not worked on

New WiPs (or WiPs pulled off the back burner!) -

None this week

2013 BOM's & Bees -

*Sister's 10 BOM blocks - Caught up!!

Virtual Quilting Bee blocks - 1 finished, 2 behind

Applique Quilt -  March fused but not appliqued, April & May blocks not started

Linking up over @ Freshly Pieced

WiP Wednesday - Blocks and a Baby Quilt

I finished the last of my March blocks this past week, and while these two blocks look like they should belong in the same quilt, they are actually for two different QAL's!

The one below (called Origami Star) is the second block in the Virtual Quilting Bee hosted by Amy at Diary of a Quilter. (You can see my first block HERE.) 

 

This one has been especially fun because I am doing it with two of my sisters - one in Tennessee, and one in Utah.  We have been texting photos and Facetiming each other all week as we have been finishing up our blocks.  It's the closest thing to actually sitting in the same room sewing together!

 

 

This one is the March block for the Sister's Ten BOM hosted by AnneMarie over at Gen X Quilters.

 

I'm finishing this one a little late in the month mainly because I wasn't thrilled with the design, and just didn't know how I wanted to do it. I spent a lot of time pulling fabrics an trying out different combos until I came up with this, and, as usually happens, in the end I loved it!

 

This one is called "School Girl's Puzzle".

 

 

 

I also finished the top of the quilt for my nephew, due late next month. 

 

 

 

To be totally caught up for March, I have to finish my applique block for the month. I have it all fused to the square, but haven't started appliqueing yet.

 

And my Love baby quilt is still only partially quilted. I started having problems with my machine again about 2/3rds of the way through. I am going to take my machine in soon...but until I do, I'm afraid the quilt will have to wait.

 

WiP's -

Sister's 10 March block - done

 

Virtual Quilting Bee block - done

 

Applique Quilt March block - fused but not appliqued

 

Baby Boy quilt - top done

 

Love baby quilt - not worked on 

 

Linking up @

Some Blocks

I haven't posted in awhile for a bunch of various reasons, but I am back today with a few blocks I have finished in the meantime.

 

I joined the Virtual Quilting Bee over at Diary of a Quilter.  My sister, who lives clear across the country from me, wants to learn to quilt, and when I saw this I thought it would be a great way for her to learn.  Amy has a lot of great beginning quilting posts and tutorials on her blog that I can direct my sister to, and with me doing to QAL with her (AND the awesomeness of Facetime!), I can answer any other more specific questions she might have.  Plus, the fact that she is coming out for an extended visit this summer doesn't hurt.  We should be about half way through our blocks by then, and we can work on them for a bit together.

 

Anyway, here is the first block, which was posted last Friday.

 

The next two are the applique BOM I am doing from my LQS.  It is a pattern by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.

 

I wanted to try my hand at applique to see if I liked doing it.  And so far, I do!  It is definitely time consuming - each block has been taking me about 4-5 days to finish - but it is fairly easy.

 

The top one is the January block, and the one below is the February block.  I am doing a machine buttonhole stitch for my applique, and while I definitely did a far better job on the February block than the January block, I still have MUCH room for improvement.  All those curves and sharp points are killers!

 

However, by the time I am done with this quilt, I will probably be an appliqueing expert! (One can hope, anyway...)