Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Howdy y'all! Long time, no see! It feels good to sit down and actually write a blog post after a hectic 2 weeks. I've been getting sewing done here and there, and I'll have some progress to share soon. I'll even have a finish for next Friday!

After about nine months of no luck, I had the luckiest week ever and won not one, not two, but THREE giveaways! Two of them were through the Orphan Block drive that ran recently. I'm so excited to receive these WIP's and work towards finishing them up!

First up are Polaroid blocks! You know I love a good novelty print, so these are right up my alley! There are so many little treasures in this pile I received from Jayne over at Twiggy and Opal. When I needed a bit of a break from another project, I pulled these out and took a few measurements, then whipped up a stack to add to them!

Next are these paper pieced blocks from Red Letter Quilts. Aren't these the coolest! They remind me of my great-grandmother's kitchen with their retro colors and vibe. Heidi is the sweetest and even sent along all the patterns and some extra fabric as well to help finish these up! I'm hoping to whip them into something for my own kitchen, which is embarrassingly bare.

And last but not least, I won The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters from Adrienne over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts.

I had heard about this improv reference book a little bit, mainly from Rachel over at Stitched in Color. At first, I wondered how much I would actually like this book because some improv quilts are just... meh to me. I recognize the hard work and skill it takes to make them, but they aren't something I would want to make (I'm sure we've all felt that way about at least 1 quilt in our life!). But a quick flipping through the pages told me I'm DEFINITELY going to enjoy this book. There are so many different skills and ideas, this one is going to be a source of inspiration for a long time. I'll review it more when I actually get to make a project using it later on!

SO, how has your luck been with giveaways this year? I'm glad my dry spell finally ended! Happy sewing this weekend, y'all! :)

The Magic Continues: More Harry Potter Paper Piecing!

Howdy y'all, just stopping by to check in! I've been sewing quite a bit lately, but nothing really worth sharing I feel like. Today has been a pajama day, drinking hot tea and hiding from the cool weather that has descended. That means lots of sewing, thank goodness! I finished up another block for the HP Project of Doom and figured I would share my progress since last time. I really like having this long term project to work on. It keeps me on my toes if I need a challenge, but doesn't demand to be worked on when I'm not feeling up to it. Plus, it's a perfect use of my stash and scraps, which is how all my sewing has to be for now.

First up, a grindylow! This is the block I'm most proud of so far! If you follow me on Twitter, you already saw this one, which I shared as soon as I finish because I was in complete awe. Lol. I'm planning to make this guy look like he's in a jar and set him on top of a little cabinet beside the  bookcase.

Next up, a crystal ball. I don't think I would be one for Divination if I went to Hogwarts, but it does make a lovely knick knack for the bookcase. :)

What Harry Potter project would be complete without Harry's glasses?! I'm really proud of getting all those little pieces to line up as well as they did!

Although I already have a candle, I couldn't resist making the little blue flame that Hermione can carry around in a jam jar. I really liked piecing the little flame, something about it was so soothing. :)

And lastly, the block I just finished this evening, is a mortar and pestle, along with a jar of some mystery substance. Remember the little cabinet I just mentioned? I envision it as a little apothecary cabinet with plenty of jars and what-not, so I needed a mortar and pestle! :)

All these patterns are available for free at Fandom in Stitches - check out the Harry Potter Bookcase page, along with the regular Harry Potter patterns. There are a ton to choose from!

WIP Wednesday: Do You Believe in Magic...And Pink?

Howdy y'all! I hope your week is going well. I had intentions to blog about these two WIP's sooner, but sewing time trumps blogging time any day these days. But I finally made myself take pictures and sit down to write out a post and I'm so glad I did. I'm excited to share what I've been stitching lately!

First up, some simple squares. If you've been around here long, you know pink is not my color. It never has been, even since I was younger! But on one of those bad days, I saw some leftover fabric from different baby quilts and decided I needed to cut some squares. So I sliced and diced as many as I pleased, then I put a dent in my gray fabrics as well.

I love those little love birds! :)

Before I knew it, I had a mess of squares! I chainpieced a storm and now I've got rows of pink and gray ready to be joined together. I actually made enough that I should have 2 little baby quilts in the end! It's funny how bad days made fun quilts. :)

Every Harry Potter quilt needs a Golden Snitch!

And next is a long term project that I am so excited to have started! I stumbled across the Harry Potter Project of Doom Quilt Along on Fandom In Stitches. Like most people, I absolutely LOVE Harry Potter and I love the idea of an HP themed bookcase! This quilt combined those ideas into an awesome and personalized quilt. The quilt along is long over, but the patterns are still together and full of so much potential. Even better, the Facebook group is still hopping with quilters posting their progress and cheering each other on daily!

A candle for the night time reading that is sure to occur. ;)

I was on the fence about starting because 'What if I need more fabric?!' After pining for a couple of weeks, I decided to take to the stash! It isn't big, but I've got quite a bit of fabric and plenty of scraps. With a bit of quilty ingenuity, I decided to make this a scrappy quilt and have fun exploring the gems I can find hidden amongst the piles. :) 

Colorful books - a nice easy block to get the wheels turning!

And oh, the fun I've had! Rather than follow the quilt along week-by-week, I decided to pick and choose which blocks to work on as I go. I've got four blocks finished and the fifth one is nearly completed as well!

I knew I had to make a quill from that zebra fabric! And the C+S arrow fabric looks like a broomstick a little bit. :)

Happy Wednesday y'all! I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts!

Double Trouble: Two Finishes for the Price of One!

Howdy y'all! Hope this weekend is treating you well! Today, I have not one, but TWO finishes to share with you. I finished binding these two minis last night and despite the forecast for rain, the sun stayed out for me to get them photographed. :)

Double the minis, double the fun!

These two minis are my first two tries at paper piecing and what fun I've had! I love having a new skill in my quilting tool belt, it opens up so many more doors. I definitely got acquainted with my seam ripper, but I never felt overwhelmed figuring these out.

All I can think about is bumblebees when I look at this. Lol.

The first one is the pattern from SloStudio that I shared with y'all last week. I ended up quilting around the edges of the black areas with black thread - I didn't want to distract from the piecing I worked so hard on!

And it was fate to have that black binding because I found a leftover piece of black binding from something I sewed for my Mom. It looks sharp and frames it so well!

Why hello there, Little Mermaid!

Next is my pride and joy. I found the pattern for The Warsaw Mermaid on Craftsy a while back and saved it despite it being a paper piecing pattern. Some day is what I thought as I filed it away. Well some day ended up being this week! As I was going through my fabric, I noticed that I had the perfect colors for a Little Mermaid and I remembered this pattern.

"NOW! RIGHT NOW!"

I absolutely adore her hair!

So I scrambled to print the pattern and get started. On this one, I took a note out of Jenn @ A Quarter Inch From the Edge's book and colored the pattern pieces according to what fabric went where. It was such an easy thing to do, but such a lifesaver!

This one sat and marinated for a little as I tried to figure out what to bind it with. Nothing fit. I was afraid of ruining my hard work with a crappy binding job. Then, yesterday evening, it hit me - I didn't need a binding! I found this tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts and finished it via the birthing method. It's not quite as neat as I wanted, but for a first try, I'm happy with it. :)

A happy little pair to add to the wall of minis!

I already have plans to make some more mermaids (there are a couple of little girls in my family that LOVE Ariel), so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them before Christmas time!

I was playing with my camera and LBC was cooperative for once! :)

Learning Something New!

Howdy y'all! I'm so excited to share what I've learned this past week!

You guessed it!

PAPER PIECING!!

That's right, I learned paper piecing and, even more shocking, I didn't hate it! I was actually a bit scared to try it out. I've read so many horror stories of how confusing and stressful it is and how people spend more time with their seam ripper than anything else. The funny thing is, none of those things happened. I barely had to use my seam ripper! I thought ahead and used solids so there wasn't a 'wrong side' of the fabric to fool with as I learned my basics.

Such pretty little points, makes my heart sing...

I used a free pattern from a blogger I follow, SLOstudio. She has some paper piecing patterns for free on her Craftsy page, you should check them out! I chose this one because it didn't seem too scary but was still interesting. I looked up a couple of videos on Youtube and decided to just dig in and give it a whirl.

Hello world!

And before I knew it, I had a finished block! I celebrated and continued on each evening until I had 4 blocks ready to be sewn together. They aren't perfect by any means, but I couldn't be happier with my first attempt at paper piecing.

I plan to get this one quilted soon, but I have no idea what to do with the quilting. Any suggestions?

I told LBC he needed a picture for the blog so he showed me his good side! :)

Thanks for reading, Happy Hump Day, y'all!