4x7 Sewing Challenge - Week 3 Update

Howdy y'all, hope your weekend treated you well! We've finished the third week of the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs! I didn't sew selfishly every day this week, but I've gotten so much done that I don't actually mind. :) As you saw, I finished 'Peels of Patience' last week, which I'm absolutely thrilled with! It's had some cuddle times and I just catch myself looking at it on the quilt ladder when I'm not using it, it's just so colorful.

Within the last week or so, I was commissioned with not one, but two baby quilts! My MIL asked me to make one for a friend of her's and my Mom asked me to make one for a family member. Both are for girls and both are full of pink. Though I hate pink, I do have to say I like what I'm working with. Here's a sneak peek, I'm hoping to get some blog posts together later this week!

Gloomy days make for crummy picture. :P

This quilt is so happy and bright in real life!

What has been most amusing this week, however, has been when I haven't been sewing. I started walking my Mom through the quilting process this week. It's been hilarious and fun and I've loved it! She's so unsure and panicky at times (I had to make the one cut in her fabric she needed because she was too afraid), but she's having fun! It cracked me up when she was watching me draw out some quilty math in my notebook and she said it was the spitting image of how my Dad approaches his home improvement work. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree it seems! :)

So all in all, I may not have sewn selfishly everyday, but it's been another pretty stellar week. If I can get my hands on some Kona this week, you may be seeing those hexies from week 1 make an encore appearance!

Peels of Patience: A Finish!

That's right folks, I finished my Orange Peels! Y'all have been seeing these blocks since I started blogging and they are finally completed! :) All the orange peels are appliqued onto the background squares by hand using the freezer paper method. I used this tutorial that Amanda Jean shared over on Crazy Mom Quilts when she made her orange peel quilt. After that, I machine pieced the blocks together into a top.

THE TEXTURE!

I almost did the quilting with with my free motion foot, but decided at the last minute to use my walking foot/zigzag foot. I figured I could get straighter lines and be more consistent, but would have to pivot that quilt at every single corner. It was a pain in the booty, but I'm glad I stuck with my decision! The light gray thread I used just blends into those low volume squares, you almost can't see the quilting unless the light catches it! For the binding, I decided to take a note out of Scrapmaster and The Running Thimble's book and go low volume. I'm loving those little dots! :)

This isn't a very big quilt, but it's the perfect size for a car ride or to cover my lap while blogging or sewing on the couch.

And of course, a simple label. I decided to call it 'Peels of Patience' because the majority of the time I was sewing orange peels was in waiting rooms or waiting on other people. These peels saw many doctor offices, at least one emergency room, and several other places.

The backing really shows off the quilting, I love it!

I'm so glad to get this one finished and ready for some cuddles, though it will be weird to not have it to work on anymore. I'll just have to find another project for waiting rooms I guess!
Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF! Also, this was my goal for OMG February! :) Also also, this was one of my goals for the 2016 Finish Along - First Quarter!

This quilt makes me so happy! :)

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!

OMG February: Orange You Glad I'm Finishing?

 I was so proud of my two blog posts this week that I nearly forgot about the One Monthly Goal linkup over at Red Letter Quilts! If you're like me and are a little late to the party, there's still time (I believe the linky closes on Sunday).

Dear ol' Orange Peels. :)

I batted a couple of ideas around, but finally settled on one that I've wanted to finish for a long time: My Orange Peels. I got the backing back in January after winning the Throwback Thursday giveaway. Once again, I managed to botch color matching over the internet, but I still love the print and, as I told myself, it's just a quilt back. I can hear some of you banging out harsh rebuttals to that statement, but that's what I tell myself sometimes after killing myself to make the top.

I swear it wasn't that brown when I ordered it! Lol.

I just finished basting this one tonight (my back is aching but my heart is happy, so it balances out, right?), so my goal for February is to quilt, bind, and label it! These blocks were the first WIP Wednesday I ever posted on my blog (and it looks like I started them last January, so this has been a year in the making!). Here's to a finish! 

Throwback and Looking Forward

Howdy y'all, I've got a double post for you today! First up, I have an oldie but goodie to share for Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge. This is a continuation of 'quilts I made the kiddos for Christmas'. This one is the third I will have shared, called the Garrett quilt for my little cousin that received it. He is quite the pirate, so I knew right away that it had to involve pirates and all things ocean.

This one is quite busy also (this was before I learned about using neutrals and blenders to keep things calmed down), but it's just so fun! And I remember I loved doing this FMQ. I was shooting for ocean waves and I feel like this simple and quick design was spot on.

And I love this backing fabric! I randomly find bits of it in my scrap bins and it always makes me smile. :)

I've been a scrappy binder since the beginning! Those bits of red really pop!

After looking back, it only seems fitting to look forward now! I'm sure many of you are getting sick of reading everybody's goals and resolutions for the coming year, but I'm here to add another! (I'm actually one of those people who loves reading those posts, anybody else like that?) One thing I wanted to do this year was be more active with goal setting, so here's what I have planned for the next 3 months thanks to the Finish-A-Long link up, which you can see here!

My biggest goal is to get City Blocks completely finished - quilted, bound, and labeled! I've already started quilting it, so this one is on its way to being completed.

Next up is my Orange Peels! I just ordered some fabric for a backing thanks to a gift certificate I won on a linky party. I also snagged some Aurifil thread to try out, which excites me to no end! My plans for the Orange Peels is the same as City Blocks - completely finish her up!

My final goal was a bit harder because I wasn't totally sure where I wanted to go after these 2 WIP's, but I think I know what I want to do. I've got my Scrap Vortex blocks back up on the design wall and I want to do something fun with them. I don't want to make an entire quilt out of just scrappy blocks (not yet at least!), but I do want to make a quilt top out of the ones I have. So my goal is to get them pieced into a top, then finished up like all the rest!

I've made more since this picture was taken, but forgot to take a picture!

Three quilts in three months is quite ambitious for me, but I'm shooting for the moon since there isn't a penalty for not completing all my goals in the time limit. After all, if there is something left to do, there's always next quarter to wrap things up! :)

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!