ALYOF April (finishes)

Just a little over two days from now and it will be May!  That means it is time for another re ~ cap of this months goals/finishes.

Finish Goals:
Make the OOO Rah Wallet ~ Sew the rows together and quilt my row along quilt top

Firs up the OOO Rah Wallet

Although I have finished making my wallet,it is the only one made. (but I am still counting it as a finish)  The reason,with all of the fabrics/layers in this wallet it was almost impossible for me to sew through all of them!  The final top stitching around the outside of the wallet,not going to happen with my machine,even with a brand new leather needle!

Can you see how the corners are not uniform?  Even though I used the tip/trick from the pattern,with all of the bulk I was not able to get them any better than this :(  Even with all of the issues with this I really do like the pattern,and think with a couple of tweaks,it might turn out better.  So I am not giving up or ditching the pattern just yet...

My row quilt,this is how it looked at the beginning of the month.

Here it is today!  Where is the star row,you ask?  Well I decided to put it on the back side of the quilt :)

Not sure if you can see the quilting in this shot?  My first ever FMQ Stippling!

The Gravy:

Table topper/mat from a mini charm pack of Noteworthy.

A few key fobs...more coming up later

Triple zip pouch with my Kokopelli/southwestern prints.

Playing with shapes baby quilt.

Modern Mirrors quilt.

A tablet keeper,which an ipad would fit in perfectly,I plan to alter the pattern and make attempt to make some different sizes.  This was made with a mini charm pack of Tapestry and Kona Sand for the solid.

A look at the inside,this stripe fabric is not my first choice,but since I am trying to use fabrics from my stash...  The spline was made with squares I made from the triangles cut off to make the larger squares.  Sorry I don't have an ipad,so can't show you how it fits.

Last but most certainly not least is a stuffy,whose pattern has been patiently waiting on one of my pinterest boards :)  You can find the pattern here,if you want to make one of your own!  This one will be heading over to Hopeful Threads blog for the monthly project.  This month it was for foster kids,and even though I really wanted to participate,I did not commit,because I was not sure if time would permit.

Whew!  It has been a busy month!  Off to see what else I can accomplish before it is over.  Have a great week,hope to post mid week again :)

Linking up over at Melissa's Linky Party

Yarn Bombing & a Quilt finish

With all the Bad,Sad,depressing news lately...  I thought you all might like to see a "good Bombing"

Have you ever seen/experienced a "Yarn Bombing"?  Until a couple years ago,I had not even heard of the term.  At the time I was reading an article in the local paper,about some vandals that had stolen the artists yarn from the statue,in the park she had yarn bombed.

The local elementary school is just a stones throw from our house,the other night while driving to the grocery store I asked Mr. P. "what is all that on the playground fence"?  It was to dark to see clearly,we decided it was flowers.  The next day after work I went to check it out in the light of day.  It was so nice to see a "good bombing"  and in my own neighborhood too :)  It has been about a week,since I first noticed this work of art,and so far it is still there!

This is the quilt that was in progress that I mentioned on Sunday's post.

Here it is all finished!  This evening after dinner the quilt and I went to the Steam Plant for a photo shoot :)  The pattern is called Modern Mirrors,it is from the book Modern Basics,by Amy Ellis.

The full size called for 28 blocks,so the two extra I made went on the back side of the quilt.  The light grey print has birds all over,the yellow at the top is a dotty print.  Since Mr. P. didn't go with me I had to flip the top over the cement wall and then tuck a bit in behind the fence,and snap my shots quickly.  As usual it is windy today,at least it was only about 10 15 mph,instead of the gusts of 50 - 60 we had the last couple days.

Since I was right there I thought you might like to see the tree a local artist donated to the steam plant.  We used to have another one up on "S" Mt. until it was taken down because of vandalism :(

Last night I was able to FMQ all the rows on my quilt :)  Sorry no photos yet,but as soon as the rows are all sewn together!

Have a great rest of your week ;))

Playing with shapes

This past week was a particularly busy one around here (in the sewing room).  As you probably noticed the lack of posting...  Sorry to say it is probably going to be only a couple times a week for the next 6-8 weeks,while I continue to gear up for the farmers market this summer.  Hope you Sweet "Patch" readers understand and stick in there with me :)

Remember when I posted about these rulers ?  Well,the time finally came for me to sit down and have a play date with the circle rulers!  What a fun date it was too,as I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

This quilt started out as the squares with the baby wild animals(in my stash for around 5 years now) then I looked through my stash of Kona Solids to find some for the frames around the squares.  The background prints for the circles are from a fat quarter bundle I stole picked up while on my meet up with Melissa last summer (from her favorite LQS) it was $19.00 for 18 fat quarters!

I used a zig zag stitch to applique the circles to the background fabric,for the quilting I just FMQed squares around the squares and circles around the circles,fun,fun,fun!  This one finishes out at 40ish x 42ish.

The backside is a pretty striped fabric and a green print both also from my stash :)  For this quilt I decided to try a no binding edge,and am very happy with how it turned out.  Although this is the first time using this on a regular quilt,I have used it before when making quillows.  (haven't made one of those in a long time)

There is another quilt in progress,almost finished that I will be using this technique on also.  Hoping to show you that by mid week...

A sneak peak for you ;)

The last shapes I played with this past week!  This is also in progress,so you will just have to wait to see what it actually becomes ;)

As for my goals:  no progress yet on the Ooo Rah wallet,but it will be worked on this week.  Also,my row quilt is sewn into strips and the batting spray basted  to them,now to start the quilting...

This afternoon when going to our room to get a load of laundry this is what I found.  A sleeping kitty using my pj's for a pillow :)

Have a great week!

Stitching Zips

On my last trip to the thrift store,zippers were tops on my list,the first store was a bust.  The second store had the jackpot tho!

Believe it or not there are there are 23 zippers in the photo above!  At 45 cents a piece they were a steal.

The center zippy pouch was the first one,after making it I decided that they would be much better if they were lined on the inside.  So for the rest of them,I folded the fabric wrong sides together before stitching the zippers to the fabric  If you would like to make some of these for yourself or the kiddos,you can find the Tutorial Here on the Zip It blog.

Although there was not time Friday evening to work on raising barns 3 & 4,I did get to them on Saturday afternoon/evening.

You had to know that sooner or later there would be a green barn,right? ;)  The quilt on the side of this one is called Mosaic 24,and is from my quilt Block Tool purchased from Joann's during a clearance sale.  It is handy,because it has cutting instructions for several different sizes of quilt blocks.

All of my barns so far.

Since I was playing with zippers yesterday,this Triple Zip Pouch that has been on my list for a while was just the obvious next project.  Besides,I need a new pouch for spring/summer!

These prints were picked up last year when we were in Taos for our Anniversary weekend.  I have been hoarding them and petting them,waiting for the right project to use them in :)  In case you did not know I Love southwestern prints,and Kokopelli is my favorite!

No need to carry a pouch for my sunglasses now,they will fit in the center zip!

Also managed to sew the rows together for my row quilt this weekend,now to get it quilted.

Purple,charming...

Recently,I commented over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting to say that I would love to join Cindy's Rainbow Charm Swap.  Then was disappointed when she emailed to say the swap was already full :(  So on the waiting list my name went...

A couple days later another email arrived to say,someone had dropped out,so I had a spot!  When color assignments were given I received the color purple.

After a lot of searching online,I found a sale!  So was able to pick up some Metro Living for $6.99 a yard :)  They were also having a weekend sale of 30% off,so I also picked up a little something I have been drooling over since first seeing it...(will share that in another post)

This month over at STash Bee we were asked to make an improv tree block,which I had issues with...  Finally this evening I was able to get it right. :)  The tree and branches are made with Kona Glacier,and the background is Kona Pomegranate.

Something that has been on my list for a long time is a casserole dish carrier,all it needs to be finished is for the ties to be hand sewn on.

This one is kind of scrappy,since there was not enough of the blue fabric left in my stash.  It took me two evenings after work to complete it.  Of course I didn't have any quilted fabric,so had to quilt it before cutting out and sewing the pieces together.

Lastly a few key rings made using scraps.  Started cutting out the pieces for barns # 3 and 4,so am hoping to get those done tomorrow evening.

Sew,whats up?

Here it is Sunday evening again,another weekend is fading into the sunset.  Around here it was pretty productive,in spite of all the running around Mr. P. insisted I do with him.  He is a happy camper gardner this evening,as he planted onions today.  Now we are crossing our fingers that the plastic we rigged over them keeps off the frost.

I took advantage of the trip we took to the town to the north of us,where we picked up the smallish  rototiller he needed for the raised beds.  We stopped at the LQS there...

because there were a couple things I needed.  While there he picked out some fabric for a new pillow case.  The yellow/gold I pulled from my stash to break up the intense print a bit.  It received his stamp of approval,so last night he gave it a test run.

For the Farmers Market,I have to send in 7 photos with my application.  This is the first project I decided on,not that what I already have wouldn't do,but since I really want them to approve my app...  I started out with a mini-charm pack of Noteworthy,and some medium grey Kona.

I know this is skipping around a bit but,check out the mini ironing board Mr. P. helped me to make this weekend!  It was super easy,and now there is no jumping up every time I need to press a seam :)

Of course it is not so great for those larger pressing needs,but hey,that is what the big ironing boards are for right?  At least now,it is only taking up most of my sewing room when I really need it,the rest of the time it will be stowed behind the door.

You can't tell this is my favorite new toy can you? ;)  Okay back to my project,when making the blocks for the table topper there were all these little corners. (pictured above)  I really did not want to throw them away,and my scrap baskets are overflowing already.  So,I decided to use them,even though it took me quite a bit longer to actually finish the topper.

The sun was super bright when I took the photos,so it is hard to see the quilting :(  I sewed 1/4 inch in all around the inside of each grey piece.

The backside,here you can see the quilting a lot better.  A few of the scraps were used on this side,the rest of them were incorporated into the binding.

A close-up of the binding for you,which was attached using a zig-zag stitch.  Now to make a decision on the name of this one!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and found time to sew!