4x7 Sewing Challenge - Week 1 Update!

It's hard to believe we are already 1 week into February! It has absolutely flown by! It's been a flurry of doctor's appointments, physical therapy, and birthday and Super Bowl parties for me, but I've managed to have selfish sewing time everyday this week and have kept up with the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs.

Every day except 1 day was spent playing with these hexies! I love how colorful they are in my little fox bucket. I've got an idea floating in my head for a quilt, though it's not your typical grandmother's garden or hexie quilt. I just don't think I have the patience for one of those yet! Lol. I also basted my Orange Peels one of those days, so it was a double dose of goodness. :)

The one day I didn't do any work with hexies, I tidied up my sewing space and stash, pulling out some fabrics I could use for hexies as well as some fabric for future projects. Getting it out into view will help me think of some design ideas I think! All in all, a good week of selfish sewing in my book!

February Goal: 4x7 Challenge

Howdy y'all! It's nearly impossible to believe that it's already February, but here we are on the first! I don't have many plans for this month as I'm still playing things by ear with my back. One thing I for sure want to take part in is Berry Barn Designs 4x7 challenge. There are only 2 guidelines to this challenge: Sew daily and sew some for yourself. I have plans for other things, but I want to make it a goal to work on my EPP hexies a little every day. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all, but my brain needs needle and thread now more than ever.

The jar is almost full now, I'm just too tired to take a picture. :P

I'm hoping to get back to my machine this week to work on a present for Mr. LBC's birthday, but we'll wait and see. What about you guys? Any goals for this coming month?

WIP Wednesday: Life Throws a Curveball

Short and sweet today, ya'll. I had planned on having my Orange Peels basted and quilting started, but the universe had other plans. Remember that twinge in my back I mentioned last week? Well, that grew into ripping-my-face-off-I-think-I'm-dying pain by yesterday (I'm wearing my drama queen dunce cap after re-reading that line). I went into work, my boss took one look at me and handed me a worker's comp paper. Thing is, no doctors around here will see you until you've gone to the emergency room. I hate going to the emergency room for things that I don't consider emergencies, but I suffered through a day of work before heading to the ER. Long story short, they said it's only a strained back. I'm supposed to follow up with my doctor soon, especially if things worsen. I've had 2 of the worsening symptoms today, but I'm trying to stay optimistic that things are just getting a little worse before they get better.

So as you can imagine, crawling in the floor for basting isn't happening right now. Instead, I grabbed my bag (which I just filled with my favorite fabrics out of the stash and EPP supplies a couple of days ago) and did some EPP while I took Mr. LBC to the doctor (it's a neverending cycle, I swear.) I've made about half a jar of hexies and despite the pain, they make me smile. If these hands couldn't stay busy, I'm not sure what I'd do for sanity right now!

Have a happy week y'all, hoping yours is going better than mine!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday

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! :)

Finish It Up Friday: Getting on the Ball

Hey y'all, hope your Friday is going well! As you probably guessed from my absence, things have been pretty busy on my end. I've piddled around with some little things, but no huge amount of progress to share sadly. I do that this little ditty to share though!

Though I've been playing with hexies, I saw a little pentagon ball in All Points Patchwork and I immediately wanted one of my own! I figured I could use it as a pin cushion...or a ball to pelt my husband with if he misbehaved! Lol. I love the scrappiness of it, it makes me smile whenever I look at it. :)

What am I going to do when I run out of these adorable foxes in my scrap bin?!

I also finished this little cross stitch logo for Mr. LBC for our anniversary. He asked if I could make a case for his newest toy, so it will probably get worked into it somehow. Just another project to add to the list, right? :)

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and NTT!

Doing the Unthinkable...

It all started with a trip to the library. Mr. LBC and I ran there after work last week and only had 10 minutes before close. I wasn't feeling up to searching out a bunch of books (I already have a stack to read on my dresser), so I perused the New Arrivals like I usually do when I'm not on a mission. And that's when I spotted this little beauty.

http://allpointspatchwork.com/

I had seen this pop up once or twice in the blogosphere and I have to say, I almost slipped it back on the shelf, after all hand sewing isn't my thing...but the photography is soooo pretty! I figured if anything, it would be some eye candy when I had a few minutes to burn. I ended up curling up with it when I got home and read it cover to cover, thoroughly convinced that English Paper Piecing (EPP) was something I absolutely needed in my life. Like, now.

So I did what anybody would do when they have a budget but want to start something new: I cut templates out of cereal boxes (Mr. LBC doesn't quite know that I used his boxes yet! LOL), found a decrepit disaster of a project that needed dismembered, and I got to work!

I started with simple hexies just to see how it felt. That seems to be the most popular shape out there, so I figured there would be plenty of help if I needed it. I even attempted to fussy cut little kitty faces on the hexies, though there wasn't quite enough room to get their little ears on them. :( As silly as it sounds, I kind of liked basting the fabric around the template. I'm not sure why, but it was the funnest part of it all for me! Yes, I am going on record as saying I liked a form of basting! Shocker, I know!

Anyway, I made this little booger. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I think it's a good start to my EPP career. So what about you guys? Do you do EPP or hand quilting? Or are you strictly a machine quilter for now?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!