Snow Covered City Blocks: A Finish

Happy Friday, y'all! It's been a while, but I actually have a finish to share on a Friday! Like most of the east coast, I've been getting pulverized with snow today.

The view from my living room window earlier in the day. I wish I had stuck a ruler in the snow!

I've shoveled the patio and walk 3 or 4 times already today and it's still coming down out there. Thankfully, I didn't have to go into work today so I had time to put the finishing touches on City Blocks!

I even managed to hop outside and get a few pictures outside before it got dark! I didn't have much room to work (I shoveled and got the quilt outside, only to find that it was nearly covered again!) I tried to hang City Blocks on the fence, but ended up just putting it on the massive pile of snow I made. Elvis enjoyed running through it a little before I took these pictures. :)

 Dat quilting though! I wish I had a way to photograph it better, but this is as good as I could do!

And of course, I had to add a label! I thought about making something special, but in the end, I decided to just go simple.

So glad to have this one finished! This one is surprisingly liked around the house; it's already been cuddled with! Linking up with Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts!

This is one of my goals for the 2016 Finish Along - First Quarter!

A Finish is a Finish, No Matter How Small

Howdy y'all and happy Friday! I hope you're doing well! I've got a little finish to share this week. You may remember my mini Supernova that I made while playing around a while back. Well today it was finished!

I couldn't help but show how tall it is compared to the First Born machine. :)

I had plans for some dense quilting with this little guy, but absolutely hated it once I got started. After ripping it out, I did two lines of quilting, outlining the main shape. One line was in blue and one was in yellow, which is hard to see in my pics (still no replacement camera *sad face*). This binding kicks some serious butt and is my best to date I believe! As you can see, Baby 'Nova is a little less than 3.5 inches tall and wide! I've been in a bit of a rut this week, so I'm glad to break out and have some fun with this mini mini! Hope you have a good weekend y'all, happy sewing!

Getting tiny!

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and TGIFF!

WIP Wednesday: City Blocks Quilt Top Progress

Howdy y'all, hope your Wednesday is going well! I spent all day helping my Dad remodel a bathroom, so I'm worn out. But I do have some quick progress to share, even if it isn't as much as I'd like!

 I've got one column stitched together and almost have the second one ready to stitch together. I'm so close yet so far away from getting this top together. I've been piddling around with some other stuff as well, I'll be posting about it soon! I'm getting back to work on it after posting this, can't wait! Have a good one y'all!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday: Progress, Progress, Progress!

Happy Hump Day y'all, hope your day is going well! Today is the first day in forever that it hasn't rained (yet!), so I'm loving this sunshine even if I'm stuck inside at work all day. I've made some serious progress over the last week that I'm so excited to share!

First up is my newest quilt start. I've been toying with a name, which is always the hardest part for me to decide. I think these blocks look like a street map of a downtown area, so I was toying with something like 'City Blocks'. Any suggestions for names are welcome, leave them in the comments below! :)

Also, I managed to save the embarrassing block that was my first attempt at this new technique. It's far from perfect, like all the others, but I think it looks so much better than what it was. I'm so glad all the effort wasn't wasted!

There are four smaller blocks to each bigger block and I have two bigger blocks done so far. Just chuggin' along... :)

Next up is scrap vortex blocks! I worked on these a couple days this week and manage to get some bigger slabs put together! I've said it before, but these are such a blast to work on, I love it. I dug even further into my fabric and came up with some more cute novelty prints (that octopus had to be included at least once!).

Overall, I've had a blast sewing this week. I've barely used my seam ripper and I've been getting off work early enough to actually get settled in and sew before it's time to head to bed. Hopefully the rest of the week keeps playing the same tune!

Linking up with NTT after I get off work this evening!

Finish It Up Friday: Sleepy Supernova Top

As I type this, it's nearly midnight on Thursday night. I had a CE dinner (continuing education) after work today, so I wasn't home until around 9pm. After catching up with the hubs and chasing the cat off the couch because he kept trying to eat the blinds, I snuck upstairs, already tired before my work even began. Despite being tired, I settled in fairly quickly and was enjoying myself as I sang along to my music (rather badly, I might add. Lol). The clock struck 11:30 as I pressed my last seam and got to appreciate my Supernova top in all its glory. :)

I don't know about y'all, but KY is pretty dark at 11:30pm. Also, I don't have many places I can lay a quilt top this size out flat in my apartment and get a picture of it. This meant my pictures are kind of craptastic not quite as good as I'd like. But I managed to clear off the bedroom floor and lay things flat and snap a few pictures. At one point, I just held the camera above my head in an effort to get a picture of the entire top. I even kicked a pile of unfolded laundry into a pile so I could stand on it. Hahahaha!

I'm stoked with how things turned out with this top! I was nervous from the start with my fabric choices, but this turned out just perfect in my eyes, which is what matters most, right? :) I need backing fabric and batting, so I'm not sure when this lovely will get quilted. If I can find a good coupon, I might drop by Jo Ann's soon since I've got a gift card burnin' a hole in my pocket. ;)

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish It Up Friday, and TGIFF!

WIP Wednesday: Supernova Progress!

 Hump Day once again, y'all! I'm so happy to announce that all the Supernova blocks have been pieced! I don't know how it happened, but I was finding little snippets everyday where I could sneak off to my sewing space for a while and piece...and piece...and piece some more! By the time this gets posted, the top should already be partially done and will hopefully be finished by the end of the week.*ETA: I actually got a few columns sewn together before I took progress pictures, so you get a teeny-tiny sneak peek if you can overlook my filthy floor. :P

I had all the squares stacked up so nice and pretty, everything organized just right...then I started piecing the top and it looks like a hurricane blew through and knocked them everywhere! I barely tidied them up before snapping this picture, but I wish I had vacuumed all those stray threads and scraps out of the floor! Lol.Even my seat cushion ended up in the floor, though I'm not entirely sure how...

Thanks for stopping by y'all, have a great week! Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Not a Finish Friday, But There's Eye Candy!

Howdy y'all! No finish here today, but I have some progress and some eye candy! First off, I finished some of the improv squares for my Supernova quilt. After working on this for a couple of days, I'm more confident with my fabric. It's looking better now that it's coming together I feel like! I think I might be a quarter to a third of the way done now, but I'm not sure. The instructions are upstairs and I'm too tired to trek up there to double check. *hides under lazy quilt*

I'm having fun with this stitch and flip technique! It's so fun to just put fabric together and sew, not worrying about precision or rules. I just make sure I have the right colors in the right corners and let 'er rip! Once I got into a groove, I had a little assembly line going for my squares. :)

And onto the eye candy! A squishy bag of happiness arrived in the mail today and I literally squealed for joy when my husband threw it at me. I don't buy much fabric online, usually because of prices and because I'm still not too confident in matching colors on a screen. But Connecting Threads has a nice sale section and I might have fallen in love with the mermaid fabric. I immediately knew it needed to be made into a quilt for a little girl ASAP. Granted, I don't have a little girl to make a quilt for, but I knew it would find a home if I made it. :) So into my cart went the mermaids, narwhals, and seahorses, joined by that yellow print that reminds me of sand dollars.

How could I say no to the cutest little duo ever?

Then I found the Cotton and Steel. I've never actually bought Cotton and Steel fabric before, but I've been crushing on it so hard, I couldn't resist. The third fabric over (the navy with multi-colored fronds) isn't C+S, but I tossed it in there anyway. I like the print and it was dirt cheap on a really good sale. I'm behind the party with the arrow fabric, but better late than never, right? Hahaha. I also tossed some of the little critters in there too, aren't they darling?

I just want to squeeze their little cheeks!

I've never been one to save selvages, but Jenn over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge is a selvage saver and has made some cool stuff with them! So I snapped a quick pic of the ones that were actually cool. I love the C+S one about leaping. :)

Have an awesome weekend y'all, thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday

Happy Monday y'all! I wasn't sure what to use for my first post, so I thought I would share a mini quilt that I finished not-too-long ago. This is my first try at improv piecing and I absolutely loved it! I got to channel one of my blogging favorites, Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, and dig into my growing scrap bins. It was a blast finding the perfect scraps and fitting them together like a puzzle.

Though it may seem silly, I'm especially proud of my mitered corners. I've made 8 or 9 projects and worked to get pretty corners on my binding and have never had much success. I worked so SO hard to change that with this project. I'm not one to brag, but man those are some sharp looking corners! ;)

I chose to make the word 'Hope' to remind myself that there's always something to hope for, even if it's in the middle of a crazy mixed up mess! :) I'm hoping to improve on photographing my projects, so please don't judge too harshly on this hastily snapped picture. Until next time, have a good day y'all!

-Jennifer