Finish It Up Friday: Saturday Edition!

Long time, no see y'all! I feel like I've been gone forever, but it's actually been around 2 weeks. I caught the end of the summer funk that seems to plague everybody around the time school starts. I was unlucky number three at work to get it! If I had gone to the doctor the first day I felt awful, I could have avoided a lot of pain and suffering, but if I'm anything, I'm stubborn. I refused to go to the doctor for several reasons, but in the end, I let Mr. LBC make me an appointment after 4 days of misery. After getting meds, a grilled cheese sandwich, and some much needed rest, I was back to basically functional in time for my weekend shift taking care of hospitalized animals at the clinic.

This past week I've been getting back to normal slowly, getting back to sewing in short spurts enough to get this finished! And not a moment too soon, the baby shower is today!! But I managed to get the binding on this baby quilt last night, so I had a little time to spare! ;) Speaking of binding, this binding went on smoother than any other I've done; in fact, I think it's the sharpest binding I've done so far! I ended up using flannel instead of cotton because I couldn't find the right shade of navy I wanted in the cottons that were available. I like how soft and cozy the flannel is though, I might make a habit of including it more often!

 I even remembered to put a little label on this one. Nothing fancy, but it's a start. :) I almost forgot about it, but I happened to see the fabric pen on my catch-all shelf as I was rounding my fourth corner! And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take a picture of the label during my photo session. *face palm*

 I even managed to make some burp cloths a la Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation's tutorial. I didn't follow it exactly, but it got the ball rolling for me. I even had time to snap pretty outside pics before wrapping it up!

What's funny is, my neighbor and her daughter came out as I was picking things up and getting ready to head back inside. As soon as she saw the quilt, she exclaimed, "Did you make that?!" After explaining I did, she and her daughter fawned over the quilt, going on about how lovely it was and what not. And they were shocked that I did the FMQ myself; they had never known somebody could do that on a domestic machine! The mother quilts some and she said she had always sent her quilts off to be quilted like that. I might have been steppin' a little lighter after they left, my quilting ego being thoroughly inflated after all their praise. LOL! I just loved that the mother was as thrilled as I was to find 'another quilter finally!'.

Happy Saturday y'all!

Progress Check!

Happy Sunday y'all! I've been buzzing along slowly with my work this week and just didn't have the time to document and blog it until now. I've got 3 different things to share, all in different states of progress.

The more I look at it, the more it grows on me.

The smoothest basting I've ever had, I couldn't believe it! Hahaha

I Spy Supernova dots!

First up is the baby quilt! Since you last saw it, I've got the top pieced and basted! It's not at the sewing table, ready to be quilted. I had leftover backing from my Supernova that seemed to fit the bill and I had juuuuuuust enough for this little quilt. If that doesn't say destiny, I don't know what does! Lol. I'm thinking some FMQ-ing on it, though I haven't decided 100% yet.

Next up is the primitive/Americana quilt I talked about previously. I also finished piecing it this week. I have to see if I have enough scraps to make a back or if I'll have to buy some backing for it. I'm not sure what kind of quilting to do on it, so suggestions are appreciated!

And lastly is something in the very beginning stages. Val over at Purple Boots and Pigtails is doing an awesome project. She is challenging the quilting community to help piece blocks for EVERY color of Kona fabric. That's right, EVERY SINGLE ONE! She wants to make all the blocks into a quilt and asked for everybody's help in accomplishing this goal (if you're interested in joining, just let Val know!). Check out some of the blocks she has made already here and here! I hadn't planned on participating at first; I've never took part in any sort of project like this before and, honestly, I wasn't sure how much it would cost to ship something all the way to Canada! Lol. But after a little talking, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and at least make a couple of blocks. I originally decided on Canary and Flame, but at the last moment, I saw Bluegrass was a color. Being a born and bred Bluegrass citizen (GO KENTUCKY!), I could NOT pass up the opportunity to let the Bluegrass State have a place to shine in this Canadian quilt. :)
                                          

So there you have it! Not a ton of progress, but enough to make me happy. :) If I get to feeling better, I'm hoping to get cracking on those Kona blocks this evening! Take care y'all!

A Contest By Stitched in Color: Almost Primary

Rachel over at Stitched in Color is having a fun contest that ends on August 18th! It's super simple and you have the chance to win some fabric too! You can bounce on over there to check it out, but I'll give a little summary of what's going on too.

If you've never checked out Stitched in Color, you really should. Rachel is a gifted quilter and a wonderful writer. With these mosaic contests, she really gives life to the colors with her words. For this contest, you simply make a mosaic of 9 fabrics from Lark Cottons. The theme for this contest is 'Almost Primary', meaning that the focus is on red, blue, and yellow. Rachel has linked up to a super easy mosaic maker on her blog (even I could do it, so it couldn't be that hard, right?! Lol). Just hop on over and click to get started! After you link you your mosaic to her blog, readers will end up picking 2 winners. If you're a lucky winner, you'll get a fat quarter bundle of the fabrics from your mosaic!

Like I said, the contest ends on August 18th, so be sure to make a mosaic soon for your chance to win! I'm getting mine (shown below) in now, fingers crossed I get lucky enough to win! :)

WIP Wednesday: A Baby on the Way (Not Mine!)

I adore this print, it's hilarious! Lol.

Howdy y'all and Happy Hump Day! Like my title says, there is a baby on the way in my life, but it isn't mine. A coworker of mine is expecting to have a little girl in the beginning of November and her baby shower is fast approaching. This is the first time I've been around somebody who is pregnant from the very beginning. Her and her husband had been trying since around the time I started working with her; our entire workplace was cheering her on and consoling her as test after test was negative. We kept her light on her feet and smiling through the hard times until the day she finally got the positive test. :) We've ridden a roller coaster of pregnancy with her and it's been something else. Our part time doctor used his ultrasound machine and it was the first time I had seen anything like it...a baby, an ACTUAL BABY! Moving and dancing around on the screen!

I swear this picture wasn't blurry when I took it. :P

I knew from the start that I wanted to make her a quilt for her baby. She had admired a quilt I made for a Christmas swap and I didn't forget it. :) Her and her husband are big-time outdoors people, so I knew I wanted to go with that theme. What I discovered is that those types of fabrics are predominantly 'boy' themed. I did find some flowers to add though, so it still passes as girly, right? Hahaha.

A first for this quilt is that my husband actually helped me pick out some of the fabric. We were in a rush and stopped at Jo Ann's (which I hate having to do, rushing makes me anxious). It surprised me that he helped pull some fabric and seemed to enjoy it! After we got home though, I realized that we had nothing but busy patterns! I forgot solids or blender fabrics! I did manage to find a light gray in my stash and a dark grey polka dot fat quarter that seemed to fit the bill.

I found this pattern on Pinterest and figured it would be good to show off those bigger prints. It's a bit busy, but I kind of like baby quilts to be busy; it gives those little eyes so much to look at! The baby shower is at the end of August, so I needed something fairly easy to put together, but still fun and cute. :)

Throwback Thursday: My First Selfish Quilting

Foxy, bright patchwork. YES.

As I sat down to work on some sewing in hopes of finishing something for tomorrow (expect a late post!), I checked up on Blogger quickly before settling in. That's when I saw Jenn at A Quarter Inch From the Edge started Throwback Thursday today! It's a link up to bring up those old quilts that you made back before blogging, to give them a chance to shine despite being around for a while.

I would not have picked these fabrics to go together in a collection, but I love them all together. Funny how that works, right?

 HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?! I looked outside, only to see that daylight was gone...of course. I had planned on snapping outside pictures of my quilt for weeks and, wouldn't you know it, I didn't remember until the day of posting! I purposefully chose this quilt as my first TBT post for a couple of reasons. First, the other nominees are in other homes and I can't get better pictures than the few I had taken before gifting them. Second, this quilt is absolutely LOVED in our home. Before the Supernova came along, there was bickering over who got the quilt and who was stuck with a store bought blanket when we were lounging in the living room.

I adore the quilting on this, I've never been prouder of my FMQ!

But the biggest reason I chose this quilt is that it was my first bout of selfish quilting. I had made half a dozen quilts before this one and none of them stayed with me. They went to others in my family, which I don't regret at all. :) I stalled out on this quilt when all that was left was the binding and it sat unfinished for quite a while (at least a month, maybe more.) Finally bucking up and sewing the binding on got me back on my feet after a rough spell and got me back to sewing. This is the quilt I have snuggled under, cried under when I was sick, and laughed with Little Black Cat as he rooted around it as we tried it out right after I finished it.

SO. MANY. FOXES!

I got these fabrics as a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads back in late December/early January. It was actually my first 'designer' fabric purchase; I was so excited to get them in the mail!  The fox fabric on the back is from Jo Ann's, you might recognize that foxy face from my scrappy qayg pouch and scrap vortex slabs! I'm pretty sure that red polka dot binding is from Jo Ann's as well. :)

An asymmetrical pieced backing, no surprise there, right? ;)

This quilt is riddled with mistakes. A lot of my squares don't match up; I remember I was learning how to use my rotary cutter so no surprises there. Hahaha! There are puckers on the back and a small one on the front. The binding is kind of kinky in spots too (does anybody else have that issue where it gets kind of ripple-y?). You know what though? I wouldn't change a thing. :)

So what about you guys? Do you have any quilts that came along before your quilt blogs? If you do, why not show it off and link up at A Quarter Inch From the Edge?! Thanks for stopping by y'all! :)