Sunday Stash: HOLY MOLEY!

Howdy y'all! I hope you guys had a fabulous Christmas, I know I did. :) Fate smiled upon me and let my patients be healthy enough to not need me over the holiday, so I had Christmas Eve evening and all of Christmas Day off to spend with family. I was extra blessed this year, thanks to my parents and in-laws. One particular present had me squealing and dancing when I opened it, much to the confusion of just about everybody in the room. My parents got me a fat quarter bundle of Alison Glass fabric!! :D

Rainbow yumminess

When they asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, I sent them a few links to some fabric I had been drooling over, one of them being this bundle of Alison Glass. I figured it would get passed over due to the price, but I put it in the list anyway with a note that fat quarters would be awesome, but fat eighths would be more practical due to price. My parents weren't feeling too practical it seems. LOL

I love the cool colors in this print.

I feel like I took this picture 10 different ways and all of them sucked. Apologies for the continued troubles with camera/pictures. :P

I see so many pretty projects in this fabric. I plan to use every last scrap! :) Thanks for stopping by y'all!

No Clever Title: Notebook Covers

This year for Christmas, I definitely set my sights lower. Although I love Christmas, I came into the season a bit more...down than usual. My husband has been out of work for 8 and a half months, so we decided to not do Christmas for ourselves this year. We deemed Elvis our Christmas present and left it at that. Underneath out tree is bare. It's a bit disheartening, but is a great reminder that Christmas isn't just about presents!

Love those whales! I'm thinking I'll fussy cut some of them from the scraps into some hexies.

As usual, I wanted to make sure the kids in the family at least got something from us since it's harder for a small child to understand. Last year I made them all quilts, but I knew that wasn't in the cards this year. Instead, I've made them little baggies with some candy and stickers, as well as a notebook with a special cover. I just bought composition notebooks from the dollar store and used fabric from my stash (some of it was fat quarters that had been on clearance, so double win!). I thought about trying to personalize them, but honestly, I just didn't have it in me. I wrote a little note on the inner flap that it was made with love and left it at that.

It's a little tough to tell, but those flaps are wrong side out!

I think these covers are quite darling, I hope the kids like them as well! I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest. The only issue I had was getting the inner flaps to face the right direction; I think two of mine had backwards flaps, but I left them since they didn't look too terrible.

For the moment, I think I'm not sewing until after Christmas. I've been doing some cross stitch which has been surprisingly fun. :) I'm also doodling some ideas as they pop into my head and planning the coming year. I already posted my goals post, now is just for me to decide how to get those goals accomplished! If I don't post again by Christmas, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! :)

Goals: A Very Wordy Post

Howdy y'all! It's hard to believe it's nearly Christmas, where has the time gone?! I was going to save this post until after Christmas, but my work schedule is crazy (I work the 22nd through the 31st without a day off). I've been in reflection mode for a while, especially about my quilting and this blog, and I finally compiled a list of things I want to remember throughout the coming year. Even better, Yvonne over at Quilting Jetgirl made an end of the year linky party to share your resolutions on! There's also the chance to win some awesome prizes, so check it out!

I'm sure I'll think of some more things that I want to do, but these are at the top of my list this year!

• Make a quilt to give away. Now that I'm becoming more confident in my quiltmaking, I want to use it to give back. I have a stack of solids that I won a little while back and I plan to use them. If you follow Quilting Jetgirl, you probably saw her sampler quilts that she made using the same solids! I'm planning on using her free block tutorial as a basis for mine.  
• Try new things, with the main one being CURVES. I've been meaning to tackle curves for a while, but I keep putting it off for one reason or another. I've got a pattern in mind by SLOstudio that is supposed to be good for introducing yourself to sewing curves, so I'm determined to tackle them and at least see if they're something I want to keep trying.  I'd also like to attempt some paper piecing as well.
• I've had a pixel quilt on my mind for as nearly as long as I've had this blog. Candy Coated Quilts is actually the blog that really brought it to mind because I saw it from planning through finish. Again, I kept putting it off because it intimidated me, but after finishing the Legend of Zelda baby quilt for my boss, I feel like it's within my reach now. I've been doing some of the mathy/planning stuff, so I'm nearly ready to get that show on the road! 
• Finish some WIPs! City Blocks is still folded neatly on my fabric shelf with the fabric for backing close by. I've been wrestling with quilting ideas for months and I think it's time to just jump in and get it done. I also have my Orange Peels! I'm really close to having enough peels for a top I think, so I'll hopefully get that one pieced soon. I want to get those guys done so I can snuggle under them!  
• A quilt for Mr. LBC. He hasn't asked for one or hinted at wanting one; typically, he'll just steal whichever one I'm not using! :) I would really like to make him something special though. I've been tossing ideas around, mainly featuring A LOT of applique, but I'm not sold on anything yet. 
• Label, label, label! I've started this the past few months, so I've got a bit of a head start! I plan to label anything that comes out of my sewing room, whether it be a quilt, pouch, mini, etc. I really like labeling now that I started it, so this is something I'll be happy to continue. :)
• More consistency with blogging. When I first started blogging, I tried to post something 2-3 times per week and, honestly, it drove me crazy! I work 40+ hours a week and had other responsibilities that made it where I couldn't generate enough content for that many posts for very long and it made me feel like a failure. Although I don't want to get back to that sort of expectation, I would like to get more of a schedule or rhythm so that I don't go from posting 3 times in one week to being silent for nearly 3 weeks. My hope is to post at least 1 time per week, with a over achiever goal of posting twice per week. 
• Along with consistency with blogging, I'd like to clean up and update my blog a little bit. I am far from a computer whiz, but I plan to learn some and attempt to personalize my blog a bit, as well and make it easier to find things in my archives. 

I have other plans and goals as well, such as being more active and being more organized with my time, but these are my main focus in the sewing side of my life. What about you guys? What do you have planned to try/accomplish in the coming year? I'd love to hear!

I'm sure I'll be back before then, but just in case I'm not, have a very Merry Christmas, my quilty friends! :)

Don't Let the Cat Out of the Bag: A Pouch for Secret Santa

Howdy y'all! I told you I wasn't done with my crazy sewing yet! This post is less impressive than my quilt finish (if I had the time, I'd sew myself a trophy! LOL), but I am proud of it for different reasons.

Literally all the pens in my pocket plus my label making pen. Not enough energy to come up with good props. Lol.

My work hosts a Christmas party every year and part of the festivities is a Secret Santa gift exchange! I love surprises and giving gifts, so Secret Santa is right up my alley! To make it easier, everybody is supposed to list a few things they like to help out the person who draws their name. This year, the person I drew wasn't working the day we wrote down the clues, so all I had to work on was 'Cats'. Yes, that's right. Cats.

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur...happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr...

I decided on a pouch as a starting point fairly quickly. I've only made one pouch before, but I found this uber cute flannel with cats on it and before I knew it, I had the flannel and a zipper at the checkout of Jo Ann's. I found a basic tutorial here, but I definitely pulled from Svetlana's tutorial that I used in my first pouch. My first pouch (made wayyyyy back here) was a bit rough in construction, but it helped me think about how I wanted to improve. I knew I wanted to add zipper tabs (I used this tutorial as a guide and found it quite helpful) and I wanted to clean up the close on the lining. All those orange peel blocks paid off because I used the same ladder stitch to make that invisible finish! :)

I've never been prouder of stitches I can't even see!

I also added a neat-o little label on the inside. For some reason, it made my bag feel fancier, even if the label was hand written. :) When I set my two pouches side-by-side, I couldn't help but be proud of the improvement I saw. I don't like to brag, but I really feel like I'm growing in my sewing and quilting. It really made my day when my Mom was talking about my quilting and she talked about the differences she could see. I know she was comparing a quilt I made her in Janurary versus Missed Punchline finished recently, which was for her mother. And thing is, until she pointed it out, I hadn't noticed the differences!

One of a kind, LBCQ original!

Sorry for the rambling, but I know you guys will understand where I'm coming from! Hope you guys have an awesome week. If you're working on Christmas sewing, what are you making? How close are you to meeting your deadline?

Happy Sewing, y'all! :)

Finish it Up...Sunday? - Link Pixel Quilt

You read that right, y'all! I have a finish to share! I bought supplies one week ago and I managed to cut, piece, baste, quilt, bind, and label within that week, combined with a 41.5 hour work week, an evening of Christmas candy making, and a half day of Christmas shopping. I feel like Super Woman...kidding, I'm exhausted. Lol.

If you missed out on my first post, this baby quilt was a commission for my boss who wanted it before Christmas. This wouldn't have been difficult except she ordered it after the beginning of December. But no matter, a pixelated Link character was decided on and off I went! My boss also wanted the triforce (the 3 triangle symbol) in the quilt somehow, but I couldn't find room on the top for it. A little brainstorming led to the triforce taking over the back instead thanks to Heat N' Bond!

My Heat N' Bond gave me fits for this quilt, I'm not sure what was up with it. :P

I actually really liked getting to do a pixel quilt. I have big plans for a pixel quilt in the future and this was a great way to practice. I'm happy with my improvement in matching seams; I used to be terrible at it and I'm beginning to match more often than not now! Besides matching seams, the biggest challenge was how to quilt it. I feel like pixel quilts are all about the piecing and the picture it makes, so I didn't want the quilting to distract from that. I ended up opting for straight line quilting on the diagonal and I'm pleased with it.

I would have preferred a light gray thread, but beggars can't be choosers (especially on a deadline!)

I also added a label, which is a habit I'm glad I'm picking up. My boss only requested the baby's name and birthdate, opting out of a special message. I also included my blog name. I almost put my actual name, but I figured if the quilt isn't for family, it's made by LBCQ. What about you? Do you label quilts? And if so, do you use your real name or a brand/blog name?

As I said in the beginning, I'm wiped after making this quilt. I was up late more than one night (my latest was 1:30 am!) but I'm proud of what I've created. This is getting taken to work with me tomorrow for delivery! You'd think I'd be ready for a break now, but the sewing chaos has just begun! Be expecting more updates this week!

Thanks for stopping by y'all!

WIP Wednesday: The 'What Was I Thinking' Commission

Happy Wednesday y'all, though it's nearly gone by now! I've been working away all day, most of it at the clinic, then running errands with Mr. LBC, then upstairs to my sewing machine and this project when we got home. I started this on Sunday and basically every spare minute has been devoted to working on this. "Why?" you may be asking, when I've never been one to rush like this (except with the Supernova!). That's because I'm crazy! Hahaha

Who doesn't love an LBC glamour shot? LOL

My boss asked if I could make a baby quilt for somebody in her family before Christmas. It was already after Thanksgiving but I foolishly said YES! The parents of baby are big Legend of Zelda fans, so my boss requested something along those lines. She liked the pixel quilts she saw on Pinterest, so I found a design we both liked and started crunching numbers. I'm not a fan of math, but at least quilty math leads to sewing!

I bought a delicious stack of solids at Jo Ann's. Sadly, I couldn't get all Kona like I wanted, but time was of the essence and I needed fabric NOW! I started cutting 2.5 inch squares when I got home and laid them out on the floor since my design wall is occupied at the moment. What a battle it's been keeping Elvis and LBC out of the craft room and off the squares! Lol. I just finished sewing all the individual rows tonight, so next is ironing all those seams open and then sewing all the rows together into a top.

Being supervised. Lol. I was being as quiet as I could so I could lay out squares in peace. ;)

I'm sure plenty of people have thought of this, but I felt so smart when I came up with this idea for transporting squares from my 'design floor' to my sewing machine. I used an old cookie sheet, ruined by an old roommate but I couldn't bare to toss it out. I found it among my craft stuff not long before starting this project! I just put a row at a time on the cookie sheet and worked my way through them like words on a page, top left to right, moving down the pan. They helped me keep my chain pieced bits straight as I worked.

One row at a time fit perfectly on this little pan!

And the pan fit quite nicely beside my sewing machine!

Though I'm enjoying making this quilt, I can tell I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to meet such a tight deadline. I need to smack my optimistic side next time! Lol.

For those of you thinking LBC is an angel, this is the face he made when I told him to get off the squares. Lol. I came in to find piles of squares strung across the room the next morning and LBC sitting in his chair looking smug. Hahaha

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and NTT!

Throwback Thursday: Pretty in Pink

It's the time of the month again, y'all! That's right, it's Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge! This month is Christmas themed and though I don't have a Christmas quilt, I have a quilt that was a Christmas present to share!

Until I was 16 years old, I was the baby of the family. Then along came Ms. Ella, a cousin! What a learning experience it was for me to suddenly be sharing the spotlight with a little baby. Moody teenage me got jealous pretty often, though I never admitted to anybody. Growing up some changed that though and I love this little girl to bits. :)

It's hard to tell, but those pink-on-pink polka dots are glittery! :D

I shared before that for last Christmas, I got the hairbrained idea to make all the kids in the family a quilt for Christmas. Ms. Layla's was shared a little while back here, and this was the second one. When I asked Ella's mom for her favorite color, it was an overwhelming PINK! Pink makes me nauseous, but I took one for the team and came home with a stack of pink fabric and got cracking. Although Ella is still pretty young (still in single digits), I wanted this one to be a little bit grown up so that it would be fitting for years.

I love the pieced backing and the quilting. I straight lined around the patchwork sections, then did the big zigzagging through the white areas. I'm not sure why I chose that but I have to pat my past-self on the back for that one! Lol. I didn't mark or anything, so it's certainly not perfect. But I worked harder on this quilting than any of the others and it worked out. :) Also like Ms. Layla's quilt, I appliqued Ella's name on it to give it a personal touch. This was before I started labeling my quilts, so I guess my brain wanted it to be labeled somehow!

I absolutely love this pattern, there's so many possibilities! I think I saw something similar to this on Pinterest originally, but I didn't have a specific pattern to follow. I just decided on the size of square I wanted and built up from there.

Thanks for reading y'all! Have an awesome Thursday and don't forget to check out TBT at Jenn's blog, there's always lots of fun entries to check out and there's a chance to win a prize!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey guys, LBC here for Mom once again! Elvis and I just wanted to stop by and wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving! Mom doesn't have to work this year (YAY!), so we plan on having tons of fun today! Mom's also hoping that there are some good Black Friday sales online for fabric, she wants to get some new projects planned for the upcoming year. If you know of some fun deals, let her know in the comments so she can spend more time playing and less time searching! :)

Have a safe and happy holiday everybody!
Little Black Cat and Elvis

A Finish is a Finish, No Matter How Small

Howdy y'all and happy Friday! I hope you're doing well! I've got a little finish to share this week. You may remember my mini Supernova that I made while playing around a while back. Well today it was finished!

I couldn't help but show how tall it is compared to the First Born machine. :)

I had plans for some dense quilting with this little guy, but absolutely hated it once I got started. After ripping it out, I did two lines of quilting, outlining the main shape. One line was in blue and one was in yellow, which is hard to see in my pics (still no replacement camera *sad face*). This binding kicks some serious butt and is my best to date I believe! As you can see, Baby 'Nova is a little less than 3.5 inches tall and wide! I've been in a bit of a rut this week, so I'm glad to break out and have some fun with this mini mini! Hope you have a good weekend y'all, happy sewing!

Getting tiny!

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and TGIFF!

On the Design Wall: Orange Peels!

Howdy y'all, hope your Thursday is going well! I delivered Missed Punchline last week at my grandma and grandpa's 60th anniversary party. To my surprise, she absolutely loved it. :) She couldn't believe I was giving it to her and everybody was talking about how pretty/nice/etc. it was. She wrapped up in it when she got in the car to go home, so I say that it's a success!

After finishing Missed Punchline, I couldn't decide what to do next. I knew I should piece my backing for City Blocks, it's been sitting on the WIP pile for too long. But the onset of cold weather just made me want to curl up on the couch, not trek upstairs to the spare room where I keep my sewing machine. Passing through one day, I looked at my design wall and saw my Orange Peel blocks waiting patiently and decided to get my supplies out. I hadn't had an appointment in a while, so they've been sitting stagnant for a little while (here's the last time you saw them!).

I really need to consider a bigger design wall. Lol

So for the past week or so, I've been snuggling under my Supernova and stitching like crazy on orange peel blocks. I absolutely LOVE where these blocks are headed, it's such a fun design so far! Depending on the night, I've made anywhere from one to nine blocks in a night. I'm a slow hand stitcher, but I like to settle in nice and cozy and relax with it. I get to watch my favorite Youtubers and sew, what could be better? :)

Hope you guys have had a good week, we're almost to the weekend! A quick note: My camera broke before taking these pictures, so you may notice a change in the quality of my photos. I'm not sure when a replacement camera will make it into my hands, so please bear with me! And also, a mandatory picture of my favorite fur-boys. :)

Not quite best friends, but we can get close to each other without war breaking out. :)

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday!

Throwback Thursday on a Saturday: The Beginning

It's that time of the month again! That's right, Jenn @ Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting another link up for Throwback Thursday!

I've talked about this crazy little mess before here, but I didn't share any pictures. It's quite a travesty, but it still holds a bit of charm for me. Points are decapitated more often than not. I had no guidance on how to make a binding, so I just winged it (seems I've had that mindset from the beginning! Lol). I didn't know you could machine quilt either when I made this, so I rushed a crappy hand quilting job to be done within the time period I was given.

This originally just sat on my bookcase, but after I moved out of my parents' house, it became a mat for my sewing machine. It kept my machine from bouncing around when we had a glass topped desk and now makes it easy to slide it around on the card table I use. When I made this, I never realized it was laying the groundwork for where I am now! It's funny how things work out! There's still a little bit of time to link up with Jenn for Throwback Thursday (it ends tomorrow night!), so hop on over and share some of your quilty past with us! 

Missed Punchline: A Finished Quilt

I almost called this quilt 'Blank Spaces' but realized that Taylor Swift has a song or album or something by that name. And I like T. Swizz and all, but I just couldn't do it. I mulled over the name of this quilt for a while, knowing what I wanted to convey but not quite able to find the right combination of words to do so. And after all that, I left the name off the label. In fact, only you guys will know the name because I won't tell anybody in my family its title.

I decided to name this quilt 'Missed Punchline', not so much for the quilt but for the recipient. I touched lightly on the motivation behind this quilt here, but looking back, I was frustratingly vague and for that I apologize. I wasn't ready to lay my cards on the table then, but now I am.

This quilt is for my grandmother. We've never had the best relationship and for a long time, that really bothered me. As I grew up and became an 'adult', I came to terms with it and for the most part, I didn't let it bother me. Though it started slowly, my grandmother has been in a decline for about a year or so. Nobody in my family has told me specifically, but my grandmother has dementia or Alzheimer's (or are they the same thing? I need to educate myself on this more). And even though she has hurt me countless times in the past, my heart hurts for her in the most awful way. I can't imagine the frustration, confusion, and fear of slowly losing myself and not knowing while everybody around me seems to know exactly what is going on. That is where the name of this quilt came from. Sometimes when I'm with my grandmother, she will look around at everything, completely clueless but too afraid to say that she doesn't understand. It's like she's missed the punchline of a joke but just laughs along because everybody else is.

The quilt began out of necessity but I hated it early on. Every time I looked at it, it just made me mad. There were times I would just scowl at the blocks or the top, fuming at it for no reason. But as I worked my way through, it was sort of like I was letting go of all that stuff that was making me angry. The quilting especially was a favorite of mine. I'm not one for straight line quilting, but no other quilting was acceptable in my mind. And despite one wonky corner, this is the best quilt binding I've had I think. The label was like the cherry on top. I sat in the floor and stitched it on by hand, savoring every little stitch. By the time I was finished, this quilt made me smile in the most comforting way.

It's funny, this is my favorite picture of the whole shoot!

Though it isn't my style at all, I like this quilt. I like the snuggly flannel backing, the scrappy binding, and the fact that I remembered to put a label on it. I hope my grandmother likes it. I made it kind of small because she's a little lady and isn't the strongest, so I wanted her to be able to carry it around the nursing home if she gets cold (which she always is). I'm hoping to overcome my fear and go visit her this week with my mom. I want to give this quilt to her sooner rather than later, and I want to be the one to give it to her. She forgets me sometimes, but when she does remember me, I want it to be good things.

I feel so serious after typing all that, yikes! I promise I am smiling, especially after pestering everybody in the house with my latest finish. I made Mr. LBC and Elvis wear it like a cape, and LBC got a little snuggle with it before I hung it on my quilt ladder for safe keeping. I'm not sure what to do next, I have a few options to choose from. We'll just have to wait and see! Happy Sunday y'all!

Finish It Up Friday: Mini Mini #2

Howdy y'all! Friday is here! Today, I was supposed to be sharing the primitive quilt and its new binding since my sewing machine is all better. But plans change. When I sat down to sew, for some reason, the last thing I wanted to do was work on a binding. The pull of a finished quilt wasn't strong enough to overcome this random dread. So I did what seemed best: I played!

I've had several mini mini ideas bouncing in my head since I heard about them. I immediately imagined the Supernova pattern from Quilting Modern in the miniature! I knew I couldn't make blocks small enough to make an entire Supernova in a mini mini, but I wanted to give it a whirl! This isn't quite what I wanted, but it's a start and I had so much fun with it. I didn't touch my ruler once; I just cut and stitched without abandon and it was relaxing. I was sad to see the clock ticking down to the last few minutes of my sewing time when I started putting the little 'blocks' together.

It's so tiny and wonderful, I can't wait to put it on my wall once it's finished. :) Hope you've had a productive week, sewing or otherwise!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF!

I'm Back!!

Howdy y'all! So the sewing machine is back from the doctor today! YAY! I've been piddling with some hand sewing during my absence, but nothing worth sharing yet. Things have been exciting around here though despite a lack of quilty progress! If you've hung around this blog for a little while, you've probably gathered that our house is Mr. LBC and myself, along with LBC himself. A couple days after the sewing machine headed to the doctor, we had a new face join our family!

Hello world! My name's Elvis!

I work at a vet clinic and this fella came in as a recently adopted dog. He was nice to everybody, but he and I kicked it off right away. He spent about a week with the clinic before heading to his new home and, honestly, I was sad to see him go. But so is the life of a Vet Assistant! Imagine my surprise when I went into work a couple days later and he was there again! I thought something was wrong with him, but it turned out that the family's other dog didn't warm up to him like they wanted and they weren't willing to work on it more. So he was brought back to the clinic and put up for adoption again.

Sunning by the back door is the perfect time for a photo shoot!

Everybody assumed I would snatch him right up, but I didn't. My husband has been out of work so I was worried about being able to afford a dog, especially one of his size (50 pounds!). So I prayed about it. I just asked for a sign that he was meant to come home with us. And every financial obstacle that cropped up was taken care of somehow. So I took a leap of faith and brought him home.

LBC's face when he heard he was getting a new brother...and that his new brother was a dog!

It's been a major adjustment having Elvis with us, but Mr. LBC and I love him to death. LBC is still warming up to him, but at least he's not hissing and smacking the bejesus out of him anymore! Lol. I've been chasing him around like a toddler, trying to keep him from eating stray socks and couch cushions when we look away for a minute. In fact, I just grabbed a cotton swab out of his mouth right after I wrote that! Lol. 

I put my sewing machine through a few paces to finish quilting the quilt I was working on prior to the doctor's appointment and guys, the First Born is purring like a kitten! It's like a brand new machine and I'm in love all over again! :)

Glad to be back, I missed sewing and getting to talk with you guys! Happy Tuesday y'all! :)

Sad News...

I had plans to have a finished quilt ready to share early this week. I was quilting up a storm on Thursday, only to notice First Born (the nickname I gave my sewing machine, because it's like my first born child. Lol) wasn't acting quite right. It makes a few funny noises every now and then, but they go away within a row or so typically, so I don't worry. But this was different. If felt like things were sticking, not wanting to sew as smoothly as it should. At one point, I put the pedal to the floor and it was maybe going half speed. I finished my row and turned it off. And sighed.

Poor First Born... :(

The last thing I wanted or needed was my dear First Born to be unwell. I'm off later in the week, so I'm going to see how much a sewing machine doctor is going to cost. If I have the money, First Born will be fixed up right away, if not...well...I have two other machines in my possession that I'm going to try and get working. One is a newer Singer that was having issues from the time it as given to me (my MIL bought it at a yard sale where the previous owner swore it worked just fine. Yeah. Right.). The other is an old Singer I scored at a swap meet. I've never hooked it up, but it's a beauty. This might be just the right time to try it out for some piecing. I have a feeling quilting is going to have to be put on hold, but I'm hoping to have a replacement good enough for piecing so I can keep creating. If all else fails, I have my Orange Peels from long ago still in progress and EPP to keep me company, so I'll have something quilty to keep me company!

Have a good week y'all, hug your sewing machines!

Throwback Thursday: The First Baby Quilt

Howdy y'all, it's that time again! Jenn over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting Throwback Thursday, so it's time to dig into the past and see what we can find! Just a disclaimer, the pictures are less than superb! They were taken with a phone back before I started blogging!

Dear. Lord. Lol

When Jenn started TBT, she encouraged us to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. This quilt, for the most part, falls into the latter 2 categories I feel like. Despite that, I still smile when I think about this quilt. Mr. LBC and I got married last year (our 1 year anniversary was this past Sunday!) and for some reason, my newlywed brain thought it was a good idea to make all the kids in the family a quilt for Christmas...still not sure how that sounded like a good idea! Lol.

This little baby quilt was for my cousin's daughter who had just been born that summer. I...I know I said I liked busy baby quilts, but this one still burns my eyes a little bit where it's so bright and loud! LOL. When I made it though, I was so proud despite its mistakes. This was definitely a quilt only a baby could love. ;)

Before blogging, this was my signature picture of every quilt I made for some reason. Lol. It shows off the binding issues quite nicely. Bahahaha

This was full of firsts for me! First quilt I made after being married, first try at FMQ (oh, how terrified I was!) first time with applique. I'm still ridiculously proud of the name block with the little birds on it! It still had the usual issues (DARN BINDING TROUBLES!), so I was nervous to hand Layla's mom the bag for her to help her open it. I remember holding my breath as they pulled it out, everybody oohhhing and aaahhing. But I didn't breath until little Layla looked down at the quilt, let out a happy squeal and started smiling. When that happened, I finally finally took a breath of relief!

That font and those birds! I think this is my favorite applique so far!

I legit thought about cropping my head out of this. Lol. But I look so happy, I want to share. :)

Gawh, what a trip down memory lane... :) The link up is open over on Jenn's blog, be sure to add to the fun of looking back at our earlier quilting ventures! Thanks for reading!

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

I've been noticing here and there that mini quilts are really a big thing in the quilting community. I don't have an Instagram, but apparently mini minis are all the rage right now! Even smaller than a mini, some of these are just a few inches square which is mind boggling. So when Kitty over at Night Quilter posted about a swap on Instagram, I ooohhhhed and aaahhhhed with the best of them, deciding that I would have to make at least one to grace my wall. Then the unthinkable happened.

Somebody was being a sleepy grouch during this photo session. Lol

I don't know why it is, but I get starstruck pretty easily in the blogosphere. There are people who have a ton of followers, who are extraordinarily talented, who are well known pattern designers, and some of them even work for/with companies and fabric producers. I know most quilters aren't famous by society's standards, but to me, these people are famous! The first time a blogger that I followed commented on my blog, I nearly jumped up and down on my couch and immediately told my best friend the good news! Lol.

I feel like I'm citing my sources for a research paper, except with a picture!

So when Kitty emailed me asking if I wanted to swap mini minis, I basically lost my mind with glee! I couldn't believe that somebody as awesome and talented as her wanted to take the time to swap with little ol' me! I tried to keep the gushing to a minimum as I accepted, though I'm not sure how successful I was. Lol. She told me some of her likes, but in the end, she gave me free reign because she wanted a 'piece of my style' on her wall. How. Awesome. Is. She?!

My little wee rainbow

If you follow Night Quilter, you know she is all about rainbow and color wheels. And she does some pretty paper piecing as well! So as I laid in bed that night, I started brainstorming. I wanted this to be a totally awesome piece of work that I would be proud to mail to her! And though I just started with EPP, I decided to design an EPP mini mini that I guess is original since I didn't use a pattern or inspiration picture? After having a vague idea of what I wanted, I sat in the floor with all my fabric and sorted through it until I found the colors I wanted. I took a note out of Jenn at A Quarter Inch From the Edge's book and laid them out in a literal color wheel in the floor to make sure things flowed well!

Easiest. Basting. EVER.

And after that, I drew out my design on graph paper, shooting for ~4 inches square as my final product, but I wasn't too hung up if it was bigger or smaller. I was so psyched by my progress that I made templates and basted everything Saturday night, staying up late. Sunday after church, I curled up in the floor again and started stitching everything together. It was so fun to see it come together so quickly, so I just kept chugging along and the next thing I knew, it was quilted and a binding was ready to be put on!

My ol' girl looks enormous next to this mini mini!

The binding was the worst part of this entire project, hands down. I wanted a skinny binding, so that may have been the problem. It was just so finicky and my corners weren't cooperating well. Overall, I think it's okay, but I'm not completely satisfied with it sadly.

It looks all lopsided in this pic, I swear it's not like that!

The title of this mini mini, Putting Your Best Foot Forward, was inspired by the backing fabric. These Cotton and Steel Viewfinders are pretty well known I feel like, but I hadn't actually sat down and read the titles of all the viewfinders. As I was going through my fabric looking for rainbow colors, I stopped to read them and it just seemed fitting. I was working so hard to put my best foot forward with this project! The quilting even emphasized it afterwards, such a happy coincidence! 

Guess who woke up and decided to be a model? ;)

I'm really liking this mini mini business! I'm definitely going to be making more of these in the future. I also think it's going to be a great way to try out new ideas or revisit old ones. So what about you? Are you going to jump onto the mini mini bandwagon? Or are these just too tiny for your tastes? Let me know! :)