Halloween Hexies: A Finish

My backyard fence may be my new photo backdrop from now on, it holds quilts quite nicely! :)

Y'all, it has been far too long! Renovating and moving into the house took over, as well as the new adventure of selling some homemade goodies at craft shows! But I have been sewing for fun a little bit and finally got around to photographing those finishes! Today was dreary and windy and my camera batteries were dead, so I had to use my phone. But the show must go on, right?!

The texture on this one is wonderful!

I love everything about this atypical Halloween quilt. I learned how to piece Y-seams and it was actually fun! And those Cotton+Steel prints are adorable. The cats are my favorite, though I bet you already guessed that! :) I quilted spider webs, spiders, and loops all over --- so much fun!

This quilt is actually fairly small, more baby sized than lap sized. I only had a fat quarter of each fabric, so supplies limited me from making a more functional-to-me size. The backing is a skeleton print from Jo Ann's and it's supposed to be glow in the dark! The binding is the same as the backing.

I'm not sure where this quilt will end up. I love it, but I may end up offering it to sell because I don't see it getting a lot of use in my home. We'll have to wait and see! Thanks for reading y'all, stay tuned for my Postcard From Sweden finish next time!

Finish-A-Long: Quarter 2 Goals!

Shew, the second quarter of the year has begun! Which means it is time to start brainstorming and goal setting for the next 3 months! My fabric buying skidded to an impromptu stop earlier last quarter, but I still have fabric from my stash to work with so I'm going to keep sewing as much as the stash will let me! :) So here's my list, y'all. I'm placing my 'have to finish this quarter' goals first and the further down the list a goal is, the less pressing it is for it to be completed.

1.) Commission Baby Quilt

(Sorry, no picture yet!)

After finishing the Isabella Quilt, my Mom either took a picture or took the actual quilt to work and showed it off to her friends before popping it in the mail. Suddenly, everybody wants LBCQ to make them something! This order is for a quilt like the Isabella quilt with a different color palette. My client picked out the fabrics and after cutting them and laying them out, I didn't have a good feeling about it. My Mom came over and looked and agreed: it just wasn't working. So the fabric was sent back to my client to let her see and have the final say. If she likes it, I'll press forward. If not, some things will be swapped out before progress is made.

2.) Baby Tag Toy

So soft and fuzzy!

This is actually for the same person that wants the quilt I believe. They saw a cute little tag toy on Etsy and asked if I could make something similar. "Sure" was barely out of my mouth before most of the supplies showed up at my doorstep. I'm actually really looking forward to making this one, I think drafting a little pattern and trying something new will be fun!

3.) Charity Baby Quilt

You've seen a few peeks of this one lately. The top is all done and I'm hoping to possibly get started on piecing the backing today!

4.) Scrap Vortex Quilt

These blocks just keep coming back all the time, time to get them finished up!

I started these scrap vortex blocks a while back, back when Crazy Mom Quilts did a Quilt Along last year! I knew I wasn't going to make a whole quilt of these blocks, but I have a plan for how I want to do these. I think the Kona Coal is really going to make those scrappy blocks pop!

5.) Hexie Quilt

It's hard to tell that this fabric is white on white, but I think those hexies will look great against it. :)

These hexies are the product of a hurt back in February. I may have to make quite a few more before I can fiddle with the design in my head, but I have all the supplies (background and plenty of scraps for hexies!) to make this top come into existence. :)


6.) Alison Glass

I just want to hug this fabric all the time. The rainbow goodness is just fantastic!

You may remember that I got a fat quarter bundle of Alison Glass fabric for Christmas from my parents and I was absolutely over the moon about it! It sits proudly on my fabric shelf just waiting to be turned into a beauty. I actually have two pattern ideas in mind (and may be able to squeeze both of them out of this bundle!) but I haven't been able to get the Essex Linen I want for the first pattern. I'm still deciding on a background fabric for the second pattern, but until those fabrics magically find their way to my sewing room, this goal is a long loooooong shot. 

7.) Notched Baby Quilt

Seriously, check out that Notched tutoiral, the block is awesome!

I was a lucky blogger last year. I think I won 3 or 4 giveaways in all! One win was this bundle of solids that you may remember from a huge free block blog hop last summer. I have planned to make Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl's Notched Block using her free tutorial. I'm thinking I'll need more white fabric, but again, unless the fabric fairy pays me a visit, I may just get this one partially started.

Man, that seems like an overwhelming amount of goals, but I love having a game plan in place. And since there's no penalty for not meeting all the goals I set by the end of the quarter, there's no reason I can't shoot for the stars! :) I'm linking up with SloStudio for this quarter. Head on over and join the goal setting fun, there's plenty of chances to win some cool prizes and see some awesome projects! 

4x7 Challenge Complete!

Can y'all believe that February has come and gone?! What a blur! I started out strong with the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs, but I'll admit I fizzled out towards the end. I was still getting some sewing done, but none of it was selfish sewing. I got work on those baby quilt commissions I mentioned last week. I'm having fun getting back to FMQ loop-dee-doo's!

A few hearts thrown in for fun too! 

I did make some selfish sewing purchases lately though! Some lovely Kona Coal and this interesting white on white text print are hopefully going to help me finish two different projects. I can't wait to get started on them!

Remember those scrap vortex blocks?!

That white is going to be a great background for those hexies!

I'm sad to see the end of the 4x7 Challenge, but it was so fun to have some motivation to sew for myself this month!

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!

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!