Sunday Stash: Retail Therapy

Happy Sunday y'all! Last weekend when I was feeling sick, I happened to stumble upon an ad on Facebook. It was advertising a big sale on Craftsy. I've never bought anything on Craftsy before this, mainly due to budget. But this sale was phenomenal! It took some narrowing down, but I finally decided on a quilt kit: Miss Kate's Turnover. This kit originally sold for $125 (!!!), but I snagged it for $46-ish dollars AFTER taxes and shipping. I couldn't believe it!

I've never bought a quilt kit before, so for some silly reason, I was really excited! When it came in the mail (as a side note, Craftsy has the most colorful, fun shipping envelopes ever. Lol), I was thrilled with all of the pretty fabrics. My pictures are a bit less vibrant than the actual fabric, but let me tell you, they're scrumptious. It actually took me a few days to take off the Moda ribbon, it was just too darn pretty to mess up! Hahaha

I'm not usually big on floral fabrics, especially big, obvious florals. But I love every single fabric in this kit. I can't wait to get started on this quilt and work with such awesome fabrics! And I like that this pattern looks like it has curves, but a closer look reveals that there aren't any. I do want to work on curves eventually, but it is sort of a relief that this won't be the quilt I do them on.

LBC sees the camera and can't help but get in a shot or two. ;)

What about you guys? Any fun fabric finds this week? I'd love to see/hear about them, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

WIP Wednesday: Starting Something New!

Happy Hump Day y'all! I am back to good health after a crummy weekend, thank the good Lord! I managed to get most of my materials cut for my new quilt even while sick, though it seemed to take forever. I only cut one or two bits at a time though, so that might be why. Lol.

I started out stoked to make some progress on this quilt and learn a new technique. And all that excitement led me here:

I was so embarrassed by this, I almost didn't share it!

Yeah. Rather than the gorgeous block demonstrated in the guidelines, I had a skewed tic-tac-toe board. I just sort of stared at it for a minute and thought, "What on earth am I doing?" After a quick breath, I looked back at the instructions and just studied the blocks on the quilt. I'm not one to pick up on patterns easy, but somehow I was able to visualize things a little better after just looking with intent.

So I started again, being more deliberate and focusing a bit harder on different aspects before. I managed to get one done and trimmed before heading to bed. I will say, I'm more proud of this one than my demented practice block! Hahahaha

Still not quite what I want, but soooooooo much better than the first try. Lol.

I'm hoping to save my practice block and match some seams a bit better as I move forward. Like usual, I'm on the fence about whether or not I can pull this off. I always have this self doubt with each quilt I make, it's hard to be confident with these things for some reason!

Also, I made a little more progress with my scrap vortex. I'm hoping to get some more blocks done this coming week so I can see some 'real' progress up on my design wall!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday! Have a good week y'all!

Driving the Struggle Bus This Week

Hey y'all. As dramatic as it sounds, I'm surprised I made it to Friday. Work has been absolute madness with being understaffed and completely booked up and life in general has been crazy. But enough about life, let's talk about quilting. On Thursday, I was able to run to Jo Ann's and get fabric for my next project, which meant I had to actually decide what I was making. I really liked the Snowball quilt that I showed in my last post, but I had to be realistic; I needed more time and more money to be able to gather all the fabrics it called for. Maybe in the future I'll get to do it, but not this time. My second favorite was the Fresh Cut quilt, the last in my post that didn't make it into Quilting Modern.

Check out Sew Katie Did for a look at all her awesome quilts!

Rather than go with the original colors, I swapped out for a more vibrant blue (Kona turquoise, I think?) and a bold red (Kona, but I can't remember what sadly.) I stuck with Kona white for the neutral. My Jo Ann's is a little sparse with stocking Kona's, but I'm happy with the colors I got. I also snagged some red and blue thread for quilting, a first for me! Before now, I've always quilted in white or gray. It's time to branch out and try new things though.

I've already started cutting some, but progress will be slow for a day or so. I woke up sick this morning, so I'm wrapped up in the Supernova and praying for the ickies to get the heck out of my body. Speaking of slow progress, I got some more work done on my Scrap Vortex block. I put them up on my design wall in hopes that they would brighten things up (and my orange peels kept falling off, so I retired them to my fabric bookcase for now).

 So my only finish this week was deciding on my next project and buying supplies. Not much, but beggars can't be choosers, right? I hope everybody has a fun, healthy weekend, thanks for stoppin' by y'all.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Where to Next?

After finishing my Supernova, I took a few days of piddling around to recharge. I fiddled with my scrap vortex stuff, but I didn't start something else right away on purpose. As much as I love sewing and quilting, I don't want to burn myself out. I took some time to read and think about where to go to next.

I'm pretty new at quilting. Unlike some, I'm still trying to figure out where I am with it. Some are strictly modern, some are strictly traditional. I have a feeling I'm somewhere in between, though I do like modern designs a bit better I think. So I've been browsing through a couple of quilting books from the library (I had to resist checking out Quilting Modern again! Lol).

The first book is called Quilting Happiness. There are a lot of ideas about being happy with sewing, finding inspiration, and other creativity ideas. I checked it out more for the patterns, but it has still be a fun read. There are actually several patterns I like out of this one! These two are my favorites I think. :)

I really like this take on a star quilt! The varying sizes really sold me on this one, as well as that gorgeous quilting!

The thought of sewing curves sort of terrifies me, but that's sort of why I want to do it. Snowball quilts are really interesting and pretty, I'd love to tackle one after I buck up and go for it. :)

The second book is called Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe. I was actually excited to find this one because there were a few names I recognized right off the bat (Cluck Cluck Sew and Blue Elephant Stitches!) There were some pretty cool quilts in this one, but I narrowed down my current interest to these.

RAINBOW QUILT. Need I say more? Lol. I love colorful quilts! And I need to work on my HST game and get better at matching points. 

I could see this one as a rainbow quilt as well, but it feels a lot more controlled and contained than the craziness that is in the HST quilt. 

Check out Sew Katie Did to see all of the awesome quilts she makes!

And I also found a pattern from one of the author's of Quilting Modern. It was actually supposed to be in the book but was cut before publishing. When I saw it on Sew Katie Did's blog, I loved it right away, but I agreed with what she said: It's an odd shape. I would definitely add another column at the very least. And as luck would have it, she shared a link so that the pattern can be downloaded for FREE! Woooooohooooo! I could see this quilt in the original turquoise and orange, or I could see switching out the orange for a red maybe?

So what do you guys think? I'm still up in the air on where to head from here. I want to challenge yet enjoy myself. I want to have fun picking fabrics (even if it stresses me out sometimes). And most of all, I want a quilt that I'll love to snuggle under. :)

Finish It Up Friday: FINALLY!

OMG MOM, A NEW QUILT JUST FOR ME!?

Howdy y'all! As you can see, LBC is super excited for this one! ;) I was off on Thursday and, by some twist of fate, I essentially had a stay-cation at home. I stayed in my pajamas all day and sewed, taking breaks every once and a while to eat, stretch, and peruse the internet. It was amazing, but my back did not enjoy sitting in the sewing chair for so long!

I am really happy with my Supernova quilt. I feel like I could have done more with that outer ring of quilting, but overall I feel like it's a winner. :) That binding gave me fits like something awful, at one point I was growling at it and having what felt like a wrestling match (I work with animals all day long, growling should be expected I feel like. Lol). At the end of the day though, I love me a scrappy binding!

I ended up going with a simple backing, no piecing this time. I found a cute white on gray polka dot print and bought enough so that I just had to sew together two pieces, which was helpful. It's pretty forgiving of mistakes, which are abundant with this bit of loveliness. ;)

I was hoping to have a prettier photo shoot for this quilt, but after the binding was sewn on, the sun was long gone. So a quick photo shoot in the kitchen has to suffice for now! Hopefully I'll be able head out somewhere pretty and get a few more pics to share later!

As you can see, this quilt has already been LBC approved! In fact, he already claimed the Supernova as his nap and bath quilt long before it was done! I've lint rolled so much hair off of it; I could have made batting out of all the hair I feel like! Lol.

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish It Up Friday! Thanks for stopping by, have a good one y'all! :D

WIP Wednesday: The Home Stretch

Hump Day once again, y'all! I'm sure you guys are tired of seeing/reading about my Supernova quilt. That's one of the curses of working on the same quilt until it's done before starting a new one. :P I'm loving working on it though! I've had a blast every step of the way (except basting, of course. YUCK!). I really like improv piecing and I'm looking forward to a lot more of it in my quilting future. So quilting this beast has actually been fun! I was worried about wrestling it all over the place and what not, but it has been surprisingly cooperative (knock on wood, I'm still not done! Lol).

So here's a sneak peek of a little bit of the FMQ I've done. I've never done swirl-thingy-majigs, but after a quick Pinterest search, I was zooming through them! You can tell when my hands got shaky, especially on the blue parts, but overall, I'm happy with the results. :)

I did sort of start a new quilt this week though! I've jumped on the bandwagon for the Scrap Vortex along over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I wasn't feeling the best the other day, but I reallllllllly wanted to sew some. I didn't feel like I had the energy or the focus to quilt on the Supernova, so I just started grabbing scraps out of my bins and sewing them together. I made a nice little pile in no time at all! I don't have enough scraps to make a whole quilt (at least I don't think I do), but I can make it a work in progress and keep adding as I make more scraps. :)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Finish It Up Friday: A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That...

Happy Friday y'all! I'm glad to see the end of this week, it's been a bit crazy around these parts! I've got several things to share today, so buckle up for the ride!

A little wee basket

First off, I made a little QAYG basket earlier this week before I got the supplies to continue with my Supernova quilt. I just dug through the scraps from making the top and just cut and pieced some squares. I used this tutorial as a guide, but of course I didn't follow it close so it ended up a little wonky. Lessons learned, I assure you. :) I've decided to toss my basting pins in it as I'm quilting since I didn't have a real container for them before.

Next up, a picture I thought was kind of funny. My little fold out table is being completely swallowed by the Supernova!! I've got my first 'round' of quilting done, starting in the center and radiating outward. I'm not sure what to do for the next layer, but I've got a full shift at work tomorrow and a high school graduation to sit through, so I'll hopefully have some time to ruminate over some ideas.

And last is sort of a finish. When I pull in to my apartment complex, I have to pass by the mailboxes and the dumpster area. I glanced over and, lo and behold, I saw this shelf sitting by the dumpster. A perfectly good bookshelf just being tossed out, it's madness! I parked and tossed my stuff on the kitchen table before running off to get my latest find. A quick wipe down with some pledge and this shelf was as good as new! I've stacked all of my fabric on it, amongst other things. As you can see by the chaos, I've essentially tossed all the Supernova fabric and backing leftovers, as well as my most recent fabric purchases, on top.  I'm not sure how I'll organize it, but it gets most everything out of the floor, which I'm thankful for. :)

That gawky Christmas box is holding all my Supernova scraps until I'm ready to sort them into the proper baskets!

If you stuck around this long, thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! Hopefully I'll get some major quilting done on Supernova by this time next week! Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wedneday: Supah-Nova

LBC wasn't too thrilled that I woke him up while snapping this pic on my lunch today

Howdy y'all, hope your week is going well. Mine is being particularly tiring, but I'm hanging on for Friday! I managed to get a backing and batting on Monday, so basting is in process. I think I like just about every aspect of making a quilt...but I absolutely LOATHE basting. My husband was watching me as I was basically rolling around the living room floor, muttering at my quilt over how much I hated basting it. And to make that hatred even stronger, I got around halfway done and checked the back. Guess what I found?? A big, dumb crease. Right. Smack. In. The. MIDDLE! *deep breath* I had to undo a huge section of pins and re-pin it again. I'm about 2/3rds of the way done, so hopefully my back and neck can hang on long enough for me to finish it up tonight so I can get back to the sewing machine!

Btw, has anybody dropped by Crazy Mom Quilts and seen that she's hosting a Scrap Vortex-along?! I don't have enough scraps to make a whole quilt, but I think I'm going to go along for the ride and see what I can do. What about you guys??

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!