ALYOF June

Well, I *did* hit the mark and finish my June goal.  It was to finish my mini for the Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt swap.

Not only did I finish, but I got word yesterday that it made it to its final destination, into the hands of the lovely Julie from Distant Pickles!



I had a lot of fun making this one.  I was testing a paper piecing pattern for Jess from The Elven Garden.  She's amazing, too!  (Rumor has it that there may be a giveaway in the near future for a copy of the pattern for that Roundabout Block.)  I'm certainly NOT a paper piecing whiz.  My seam ripper is always handy, and I always make sure to pick fabric I have enough extra of to redo.  (The one exception being my Feather #2 quilt and I had a couple of times where I had to "make it work" when I flubbed some cutting.  Note to self:  Make sure your piece is COMPLETELY flat BEFORE you rotary cut the extra bits off.

Anywho, I handquilted some on this one.  I also stuffed the box full of goodies for Julie.  See, she, like many, had had some traumatic swap experiences in the past.  I'm still waiting for mine to come.  I've got my eye on a couple I think might be mine, but I've really got no idea.  Excited none the less.

How did you do?  Did you make your goal?  Any cool swaps you've been a part of?  Oh, which reminds me, I'm interested in joining (but maybe not RUNNING) a birthday swap.  Anyone know of any openings?

I've got a blog coming....and possibly a giveaway some time this week...

I've not been posting because I'm frantically finishing projects (see me over on IG for pics) and my Macbook was on the fritz.
Jury is still out on whether or not it's truly ok.
Anyhoo....
More items now done:
5 clutches
Feathers #2
Squares and Stripes quilt (Geek version)
brown alpaca sweater
tutti frutti socks

 My last ditch efforts will include:
getting my Hexy MF ready to send out to the long armer
finishing a Wellspring quilt
finishing a quilt that's a belated Mother's Day gift for my mom
making my Sidekick bag
putting a crochet edge on a pink sweater

I'm looking forward to "real" time off in July.
Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I'll try to do a picture heavy post by Wed!

Some finishes...

which I'll share on IG.  Unfortunately, my macbook may have been fried when my power went off. It isn't reading the charger as being plugged in or charging.  It's going to the tech people tomorrow.

So...no pics until I have my computer back.

I finished Starlight #1 and my Penny Patch this weekend, as well as making a top/pattern testing for the ever so lovely Jess over at The Elven Garden.  I'll be giving that quilt to Wellspring Living as a guild quilt for their house.

Up this week:
finishing the 5 metal clasp clutches for a wedding.  I've got the linings done and the shells (all but one) assembled.  Tomorrow I'm trying to finish them and glue them in.

handquilting my Schnitzel & Boo swap quilt (and binding it)

working on some Tula blocks

Heal circle blocks

June blocks for my Gypsy Wife

There might be more....school's out!  (Though I do have to do some tech training this week.)

June ALYOF goal

I don't have a lot to write about...I'm tired.  One more day of school.

I'm planning on a ton of sewing once school is out.
But, the only goal I'm going to set is to finish my Schnitzel and Boo mini swap.
It's going to get mailed out in a couple of weeks.
I am going to do some handquilting.


I'll try to blog more later.
Linking up...

May ALYOF done!

I had set as a goal quilting and finishing the red/purple quilt.

I have to say, I didn't really enjoy this one.  I don't think my machine likes the YLI variegated I used to quilt it.  I quilted the lines close-ish together and it took FOREVER.  Y'all, I don't know how folks do the matchstick quilting.  I'd cry.

Anywho, it was nice today and my hubs helped me take a daytime pic!




A close up:



I think this one may be destined for charity.  It started out for me, but I can't keep a quilt at this point unless it's an uber fave.  This one really wasn't after all that quilting angst.

Today, I got the binding on my Starlight #1.  It's close to done.  I just want to add a little more perle quilting.  I got sucked into my Brickless shawl #2.  I'm on the 5 out of 6 repeats.  It gets slower toward the end.  (More stitches.)

I'm trying to finish up a bit of stuff because I have three charity quilts coming up.  Two for Wellspring (one of which will also involve pattern testing) and one for Heal circle!

Hey, look!  I'm blogging again!  Linking up!

Been working...

on evals mostly.

But I took out time to sew this weekend.
Gonna sew some more tomorrow.  The plan is to bind  Starlight #1.  I have it hand quilted and the binding made.  I have two other quilts basted.  Mom's Quite Contrary and the Penny Patch quilt.  I might even get to quilting on both a bit.  I also plan on working on the clutches for my soon to be cousin in law.

Starlight #1, waiting for binding:


I have my red/purple done for the ALYOF, but I haven't gotten decent pics yet.

Which leads me to the crummy pics I took tonight.

I finished my installment on the Crazy and Twisted quilt that was mine to work on.  I have one more coming my way.  This one is done early!  I'm going to mail it off Tues.



I finally got to work on my Gypsy wife.  I'm 3 months behind in the QAL.
Here are May's blocks:



It's actually mostly red, purple, chartreuse, and some yellow.  I could not get it to photograph decently.

I'm going to go knit a bit before crashing.


Linking up to Sewjo Saturday over at gogokim's.
and to the Gypsy Wife QAL, hosted this month over with Daisy at antstosugar!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Economy blocks

It's one of my favorite times of year.  I've been sucked into turbo mode at school, so I almost missed throwing my hat in.  There is a ton of eye candy over at Amy's.


I picked one to enter into the hand quilting category.  I used a ton of perle on this one.  I love hand  quilting with perle.  Just found a brand new brand of needle that I'm using now for perle.  I'll have a review of that up in June.



Anyway, this quilt came about from seeing all the Economy blocks pop up all over IG.  I'm a sucker sheep at times, so I had to make them.  I cut into my hoarded AMH Field Study, which is almost gone now save for a few scraps.  (Love love love the blue leopard print, wish I had a bolt)

I mixed in some Kona I had.  I find I keep coming back to the purple/tangerine combo.  My husband calls this my trailer park quilt.  I've already warned him that he can expect a lot of leopard prints when I'm a senior citizen.  It's backed in magenta flannel, so it's been put up until cold weather comes back.  I even got pics during our one of two snow storms in Atlanta.



I might even have to make another Economy block quilt this summer.  I'll add it to my already insane to do list...which apparently is how I roll.  If you're visiting from Amy's, please consider becoming a follower.  I'm three short of a goal to have a giveaway.