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

First Finish of the New Year: Orange Peel Quilt Top!

Happy Friday Saturday, y'all! I've got my first finish of the New Year to share! The Orange Peels are now a top/flimsy and off the design wall! Yipee! I wanted it to be bigger but I'm happy with the cozy lap size that I've ended up with.

 I've learned a lot after piecing this, but the biggest thing I want to remember is to make my background squares bigger next time and trim them down once the applique is done. You can see on quite a few blocks that points were chopped off (or dangerously close to it!) and as I was piecing, I realized my error. Despite that, I'm still loving it. :)

I still need to iron this one before I do anything else. It was just too late to bother with that by the time I finished! Lol

I'm just proud of myself for hand sewing all those orange peels, I never thought I would hand sew much of anything when I first started sewing! I machine pieced the squares together though because my sanity could not take that much hand sewing. Lol. I have plans to machine quilt it, it's just a matter of getting some backing material, which may take some time. In the mean time, I'm most likely going to be working on City Blocks! I've been mulling over quilting ideas and while I baste,
I'm sure the right one will snuggle with my brain. :)

Low Volume + Scrappy makes my heart smile

Also, I know I link up to her a lot, but the ever-fabulous Jenn @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge has deemed her year, The Year of the Stash. Many have followed up with her (here for example), making their own rules and guidelines for the coming year to keep our fabric stashes from expanding further. Although I feel my stash is pretty small, I'm joining in for the practical aspect that Jenn highlights in her manifesto. New fabric can be purchased, but it needs to be purchased with purpose, not just on a whim. I don't typically buy fabric willy-nilly anymore due to the money aspect, but I want to join along to put it in writing that my fabric purchases this year must have a plan/job in mind before they come into my home.

I hope everybody had a safe New Year! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by! :)

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!

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!

Work in Progress Wednesday

HUMP DAAAYYYY! (Yes, I'm one of those people!) Hope your Wednesday finds you well! On my design wall this week is a project you will probably see on more than one WIP Wednesday. After seeing so many beautiful orange peel quilts, with the kicker being the bold colors on low volume version at Crazy Mom Quilts, I decided to give it a whirl. I started this a while back (think January), but it's a nice project to have on hand when I have an appointment to go to or I just want to snuggle into the couch and not venture upstairs into my sewing space.

I'm not much for hand sewing. I just don't have the patience for it, but I love the look of hand sewn orange peels. So I looked up the freezer paper method and pulled different techniques from several sources before embarking on what is sure to be a looooooooong project. As you can see, these peels are far from perfect, but I am proud of the progress I can see as I make more of them. Most of these fabrics are fat quarters I picked up at Jo Ann's (I got into the habit of picking up one or two fat quarters nearly every time I visited, so I accumulated enough to start this project without much fuss.)

I'm not sure how big I will make this. At times, I want it to be enormous! And other times, I'm fed up with it and debate on making it a pillow. Hahaha. We'll just see where the fabric leads me. :)
Linking up with Freshly Pieced!

-Jennifer