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!

WIP Wednesday: Starting Something New!

Happy Hump Day y'all! I am back to good health after a crummy weekend, thank the good Lord! I managed to get most of my materials cut for my new quilt even while sick, though it seemed to take forever. I only cut one or two bits at a time though, so that might be why. Lol.

I started out stoked to make some progress on this quilt and learn a new technique. And all that excitement led me here:

I was so embarrassed by this, I almost didn't share it!

Yeah. Rather than the gorgeous block demonstrated in the guidelines, I had a skewed tic-tac-toe board. I just sort of stared at it for a minute and thought, "What on earth am I doing?" After a quick breath, I looked back at the instructions and just studied the blocks on the quilt. I'm not one to pick up on patterns easy, but somehow I was able to visualize things a little better after just looking with intent.

So I started again, being more deliberate and focusing a bit harder on different aspects before. I managed to get one done and trimmed before heading to bed. I will say, I'm more proud of this one than my demented practice block! Hahahaha

Still not quite what I want, but soooooooo much better than the first try. Lol.

I'm hoping to save my practice block and match some seams a bit better as I move forward. Like usual, I'm on the fence about whether or not I can pull this off. I always have this self doubt with each quilt I make, it's hard to be confident with these things for some reason!

Also, I made a little more progress with my scrap vortex. I'm hoping to get some more blocks done this coming week so I can see some 'real' progress up on my design wall!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday! Have a good week y'all!

WIP Wednesday: The Home Stretch

Hump Day once again, y'all! I'm sure you guys are tired of seeing/reading about my Supernova quilt. That's one of the curses of working on the same quilt until it's done before starting a new one. :P I'm loving working on it though! I've had a blast every step of the way (except basting, of course. YUCK!). I really like improv piecing and I'm looking forward to a lot more of it in my quilting future. So quilting this beast has actually been fun! I was worried about wrestling it all over the place and what not, but it has been surprisingly cooperative (knock on wood, I'm still not done! Lol).

So here's a sneak peek of a little bit of the FMQ I've done. I've never done swirl-thingy-majigs, but after a quick Pinterest search, I was zooming through them! You can tell when my hands got shaky, especially on the blue parts, but overall, I'm happy with the results. :)

I did sort of start a new quilt this week though! I've jumped on the bandwagon for the Scrap Vortex along over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I wasn't feeling the best the other day, but I reallllllllly wanted to sew some. I didn't feel like I had the energy or the focus to quilt on the Supernova, so I just started grabbing scraps out of my bins and sewing them together. I made a nice little pile in no time at all! I don't have enough scraps to make a whole quilt (at least I don't think I do), but I can make it a work in progress and keep adding as I make more scraps. :)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Finish It Up Friday: Scrappy Pouch!

TGIF y'all! For the first time in forever (any Frozen fans out there?), I get the ENTIRE weekend off! I plan to use that lovely time off for sewing and reading since the weather is supposed to be less than superb in my neck of the woods. Despite that, I stayed up late Thursday night to finish this pouch for today! I used this tutorial to use the slab I showed you guys from Wednesday.
 I ended up adding some more to it to make it taller because I was a bit of a dum-dum and bought too big of a zipper. Derp!

I found another little bird in my scrap bin!

I was also a bit lazy and didn't pin or baste my zipper in place before sewing because my pins were downstairs and I was tired of tromping up and down the stairs getting this-n-that. And, surprisingly, I don't think it looks too bad. I could have gotten a bit closer to the zipper teeth, but I was worried about hitting the teeth and destroying my only zipper. I also trimmed a little off the ends of my zipper thinking it would reduce bulk, but it actually made it sit kind of funny afterwards. Lesson for the books when I make another one!

Aren't those polka dots darling?!

I knew exactly what I wanted to use for the lining of this colorful bag! I wanted it to look like a rainbow puked on it, inside and out, so these cute dots were the perfect choice for me. It was a fat quarter I picked up at...well...Walmart. Do quilt bloggers buy fabric from Walmart? Most of the bloggers I follow seem to be online shoppers or buy from their LQS. My budget isn't quite up to that standard yet. When I saw this little fat quarter, I couldn't pass it up, it was just too darn happy!

One last shot with a little pitcher I made in a college ceramics class. It helped the pouch catch the kitchen light juuuuuuust right I feel like. It made that blue zipper pop too! So what about you, any fun plans for this weekend?

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

WIP Wednesday: One Lonely Arrow

After finishing up my quilt last week, I had to accept a sad fact...I don't have enough fabric to make a complete quilt anymore. However, my birthday fell on Sunday, so I got some money from my lovely Dad for my own shenanigans. So I'm hoping for a trip to Jo Ann's come Saturday! Until then, a smaller project would have to hold me over. :)

I took a gander at my overstuffed Pinterest boards (it's truly an abomination how much time I spend on there. Hahaha!), trying to decide what seemed fun to make. I love the look of scrappy feathers, but since I don't have a printer and wasn't feeling up to drafting up my own pattern pieces before my weekend kennel shift, I decided on an arrow instead! I stumbled across this tutorial and figured I would give it a whirl! It seemed simple enough, so I drug out my fabric and got started.

Tip #1 for myself if I, or you, do this in the future: Don't be stingy with your fabric! I tried to make a shorter pieced section to cut from and, of course, it turned up too short and I had to start over. Thankfully, I had enough fabric to retry without having to substitute anything, so no harm, no foul. :) Also, between both tries, I have a lovely little stack of scraps to work with!

This was my first time making flying geese (is it a flying goose if it's only one??). I didn't have time to look up proper techniques, so I just sort of winged it. I feel like I do that far too often, but it seemed to work out well this time! I'm hoping to add to this some and turn it into a pillow, which is something I've actually not done before. So what do you guys make when you need to/have to make a smaller project? I'd love to hear about it! Happy Hump Day y'all!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! 

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