Finish It Up Friday: Embroidery Success!

Howdy y'all, it's Friday once again and this time, I've got a finish to share! You may recall that my goal for the OMG March party was to learn some embroidery. I rented a book from the library with a lovely little kitty cat in it that was perfect for a starter project! I found an old embroidery hoop and embroidery floss in my craft supplies and snagged some Kona from my stash and got to work.

I absolutely loved doing this! I actually finished the cat on the chair in one sitting one afternoon. Then, a couple nights ago, I decided to add some lettering to it. I looked up fonts for ideas, but ended up winging it in the end. I love the rainbow words, it makes me smile every time I see it! :)

RAINBOW LOVE!

I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF at A Quarter Inch From the Edge, and (when the linky is available) OMG March Linkup!

WIP Wednesday: Back to the Basics

Happy Hump Day, y'all! Thank you so much for the well wishes, it really brightened my day to know I've got good vibes coming from my quilty friends. :) After the sewing fiasco that was last week (it involved 3 broken needles, more breaking thread, and a crying temper tantrum on my part), it suddenly hit me: I was not having fun. I was downright miserable, which has never happened while sewing. I sewed the last line of quilting, folded up the WIP, and turned my machine off. And even though there was plenty of time left in the day, I didn't even look at my machine! I took a day off and thankfully came to my senses! So much has been going on lately that I was viewing something I love as a job, which sucked the joy out of it. Rather than being fun, I was more focused on all the nagging things in my brain rather than the project in front of me. So I took a deep breath and decided I needed some simple sewing to bring my heart some joy.

I won this bundle from Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation!

I won this fabric last year and although it's darling, I didn't see me using it to make a quilt for myself. I decided it was time to make my first charity quilt! So I looked at my quilty bucket/to-do list for ideas and decided it was time to tackle HST's (half square triangles). I used a popular method to make two at a time (there are actually quite a few ways to make them!) and just cut my squares to fit my fabric and minimize waste. I chain pieced to my heart's content and, ya'll, it. was. Fabulous! As crazy as it sounds, I even enjoyed sitting down and trimming all those little wings off the corners of the triangles. :)

I threw them up on my design wall and played with them a little bit before settling on this layout. It's just enough chaos with a tad bit of order. I couldn't help but smile as I organized them; there's just something so soothing about playing with fabric.

Somebody is keeping this WIP warm! Lol.

Something as simple as this lifted my spirits and I'm ready to tackle the binding of the commission quilt I was working on! So close to the finish! :)

Little Black Cat and Elvis Check-In

Howdy guys, LBC and Elvis here! Just stopping by to check in for Mom! She's had a rough week and hasn't got to sew much, but when she did sew, lots of things kept going wrong. She's hoping to have a finish this week to share though, so we'll keep cheering her on to the finish! Have a great weekend!

4x7 Challenge - Week 2 Check-In

Howdy y'all, another week has come and gone! Can you believe we are halfway through February? I've been sewing selfish every day this week for the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs, but I don't feel like I have much to report on. I've played with my hexies a little bit, but no progress worth photographing. Most of my selfish sewing time has been spent quilting my Orange Peels! I'm almost halfway done and loving it! :)

This quilt makes me so happy :)

Lots and LOTS of pivoting and wrestling with this one!

I also spent some time playing with my stash and making plans for future quilts. If only I could make all the quilts I want to! That seems to be every quilters lament, right? I've got fabric pulled and at the ready for two baby quilts and a pattern picked out for one of them. I've got lists for future quilts on what needs done, what needs bought, and the like. So much possibility on the horizon, I'll try to share some of those plans this week!

It's been too long since LBC had a photo op on here! Lol

What has been most fun about this week, however, was a trip to Jo Ann's with my Mom. She has decided to make a quilt. That's right! SHE WANTS TO MAKE A QUILT!! I can't contain my excitement! She had me help her pick out some supplies and has already let me know I'll be coming over to help her. :) She has two sewing machines at the house, so she said I could bring a project over and make it a sewing date! I can't wait!!

Here's to another week of selfish sewing guys, hopefully I'll have a finish to unveil soon!

WIP Wednesday: It's The Quilting That Never Ends

Howdy y'all, happy Wednesday! I hope everybody is staying warm; if it's anything like my town, it has been absolutely freezing lately. We finally got our first 'real' snow of the season that stuck, with a crazy forecast for the weekend (18 inches of snow in KY? What is that madness?!). I've been splitting my evenings between huddling on the couch for warmth, mature adult leisure activities playing Lego Marvel Heroes with Mr. LBC, and quilting City Blocks. I have quilted. And quilted. And quilted. Oh, and quilted some more.

NEVER AGAIN.

If I ever start talking about pebbling large scale again, virtually smack the fire out of me and remind me of this. Remind me of how I've quilted for nearly a month and this SOB still isn't done. (If you haven't noticed, I might have been muttering bad words at this quilt for a while. Lol). And with such dense quilting, this most likely won't be a cuddler, but a hanger. So in that future sewing room that doesn't exist yet, I'll have to reserve some wall space for this because with all the time I've put in, it's going to be appreciated, dangit! :)

LBC just couldn't resist. :)

I've nearly finished quilting though! I've got one more teal section left to go, which is a walk in the park compared to the pebble sections. I wanted to finish it tonight, but I tweaked my back at work yesterday and it's been giving me fits. So it will have to sit for another night before the quilting is finally done!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and NTT!

WIP Wednesday: The 'What Was I Thinking' Commission

Happy Wednesday y'all, though it's nearly gone by now! I've been working away all day, most of it at the clinic, then running errands with Mr. LBC, then upstairs to my sewing machine and this project when we got home. I started this on Sunday and basically every spare minute has been devoted to working on this. "Why?" you may be asking, when I've never been one to rush like this (except with the Supernova!). That's because I'm crazy! Hahaha

Who doesn't love an LBC glamour shot? LOL

My boss asked if I could make a baby quilt for somebody in her family before Christmas. It was already after Thanksgiving but I foolishly said YES! The parents of baby are big Legend of Zelda fans, so my boss requested something along those lines. She liked the pixel quilts she saw on Pinterest, so I found a design we both liked and started crunching numbers. I'm not a fan of math, but at least quilty math leads to sewing!

I bought a delicious stack of solids at Jo Ann's. Sadly, I couldn't get all Kona like I wanted, but time was of the essence and I needed fabric NOW! I started cutting 2.5 inch squares when I got home and laid them out on the floor since my design wall is occupied at the moment. What a battle it's been keeping Elvis and LBC out of the craft room and off the squares! Lol. I just finished sewing all the individual rows tonight, so next is ironing all those seams open and then sewing all the rows together into a top.

Being supervised. Lol. I was being as quiet as I could so I could lay out squares in peace. ;)

I'm sure plenty of people have thought of this, but I felt so smart when I came up with this idea for transporting squares from my 'design floor' to my sewing machine. I used an old cookie sheet, ruined by an old roommate but I couldn't bare to toss it out. I found it among my craft stuff not long before starting this project! I just put a row at a time on the cookie sheet and worked my way through them like words on a page, top left to right, moving down the pan. They helped me keep my chain pieced bits straight as I worked.

One row at a time fit perfectly on this little pan!

And the pan fit quite nicely beside my sewing machine!

Though I'm enjoying making this quilt, I can tell I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to meet such a tight deadline. I need to smack my optimistic side next time! Lol.

For those of you thinking LBC is an angel, this is the face he made when I told him to get off the squares. Lol. I came in to find piles of squares strung across the room the next morning and LBC sitting in his chair looking smug. Hahaha

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and NTT!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey guys, LBC here for Mom once again! Elvis and I just wanted to stop by and wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving! Mom doesn't have to work this year (YAY!), so we plan on having tons of fun today! Mom's also hoping that there are some good Black Friday sales online for fabric, she wants to get some new projects planned for the upcoming year. If you know of some fun deals, let her know in the comments so she can spend more time playing and less time searching! :)

Have a safe and happy holiday everybody!
Little Black Cat and Elvis

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!

A Cat With a Keyboard?

Hey guys, LBC here! I noticed Mom hadn't updated in a while, so I figured I would help her out! She's been working hard, but still getting a little sewing time in here and there, I promise! She keeps laying out little hexagons in the floor; I assumed she wanted me to lay on them and toss them around, but she didn't seem too pleased with my help! She's been quilting some on her Primitive/Americana quilt too. I've been guarding it while it's on the table, can't have anything happening while she's away! She told me she hopes to share a little finish tomorrow, so come back tomorrow evening and check it out!

Little Black Cat :)

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!

Snapshot Sunday

 

Little Black Cat has been cheering me on as I work on Supernova blocks lately. :)

 Happy Sunday y'all!

Can One Person Make a Difference?

Happy Monday y'all! I worked the weekend, so today is technically the beginning of my weekend which is why I'm so peppy! My goal was to not get too wordy on this blog, but this post required a little story time for me to get to my point, so please bear with me.

Back in February when my neck of the woods was being pummeled by snow, I was snuggled up in bed in our spare bedroom. I was nice and toasty, most likely with a full belly, watching the snow fall. I remember being so glad that I wasn't outside again; I had stayed outside after getting off work one night to shovel our cars out of the snow drifts. And then I got thinking about the people who didn't have a warm bed to snuggle into like I did. Or a roof over their head to protect them from the below-zero temperatures and blizzards. I felt enormously thankful, but also, kind of sad. And then I wondered if I could do anything to change that?

Little Black Cat was in a photobombing mood today, so all of the pictures have him in it. :)

Since graduating from college, I've been plagued by the thought of I'm just one person, what can I do to change anything? I laid there a little bit, rolling all this around in my head. I couldn't shake the nagging feeling in my mind or my heart that I couldn't just let the issue drop. And that's when it hit me. Maybe I could make a little difference? And so I jumped out of bed and scrambled for the computer, researching (aka Pinterest-surfing) and came to my answer. I could craft a difference!

Just a few of the scarves I have ready to donate.

So I started that night. I made baby hats for the NICU and started a scarf that would hopefully keep somebody less fortunate warm in the blistering cold. I made a goal to make things all year long to go towards different charitable causes because, let's be honest, my yarn stash is *deep breath* too big. I try to make at least 1 baby hat a week, but if I'm settled in for the evening, I can crank out a few depending on what size I make! I've been using this free pattern. After I make quite a few, I'm planning to give them to one of the hospitals in my area if they will accept them. If not, there are organizations I can mail them to. So no matter what, I can do some sort of good and make a small difference hopefully. :)


What about y'all? Do you craft for charities? If so, what do craft and for who? I would love to hear about it!

-Jennifer