February is at a close and March is marching in....

 This weeks has been a very busy busy painting week.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I still did some quilting.  I have two blocks left on my cat on the farm hand sewn quilt...

See that top corner?  That's the two left.  It's a queen and it's scary how big it is, and all that hand sewing.

I finished the one below for donation.  A Scrap sew along from Meadow Mist.  Her pattern called Looking Glass.  Extremely forgiving and extremely easy to do.  I used all my 5" blocks but you can also use your 2 1/2 strips to make it.  Came together in less than 4 weeks.  So easy to make and so colorful.  Thank you Cheryl.  This link takes you to the blog post of the re release of this quilt.  

I am donating it to the Women's Shelter place that my quilt guild sponsors.  Thus the poem below:

GENERAL INFORMATION

🗓 Kickoff Date: Thursday, January 22nd
⏳ Duration: 7 weeks, wrapping up on March 12th.
🎉 Final Parade: Come here for the party.  People had a choice of 4 different patterns to try.  You did have to buy your pattern but it was on sale really cheap so that was great.
🚫 No Prizes—Just Fun: This is all about using what we have & enjoying the process.  And I did enjoy it.  Now I have a pattern for making a real quick quilt for a baby.
📝 Scrap Busting Posts: There were tips posted on fabric organization, scrap-busting ideas, and sewing techniques throughout the sew along.
🔹 The Challenge: Try to create your entire quilt—top, binding, and backing—using only fabric from your stash! No new fabric purchases needed.  And I didn't buy any except for the backing that I bought for a different quilt, found it wasn't right, so now I used it for this one.

The quilt parade is at this link at the end.  Come take a peak.

Then there was the painting which I went crazy on.  Take a look.  They're in order of when I painted them.

and my favorite.  I absolutely love the colors....  Getting better don't you think?

That was a  busy 2 weeks  lol.  How's your quilting and art coming along?

Couldn’t wait for the pullover hoodie

 I couldn’t wait for the Riley Blake quilt a long for a pull over hoodie you make out of a quilt.  You get the template here, then pin the pattern they send you when you sign up onto your quilt, cut, and start sewing.  But I didn’t want to cut up one of my quilts so instead I used my left over blocks to make it.

I cut out on quilting cotton the pattern, then spray glued it to some batting, cut the batting around the cotton pattern, and then used Quilt-as-you-go with my extra blocks.

Sorry about the bad picture.  Below are two pieces that I did using that style.  

The quilt as you go style.  Below the top of the neck part is not done, that’s the batting.  I just kept on adding squares and blocks.

I did a solid piece for the front pocket.  You can see some hsts that I sewed together to make a bigger block then added.

The pattern is lovely and easy to do.  I wasn’t sure if there was a hem built into it so I made a big size.  It was simple to make just a little hard with the hoodie to cross and so many layers.  I recommend you use polyester thread for that.   I quilted the back then the front pieces, and the hoodie, and left the arms and cuffs for another day (the next day to be precise, I loved doing this).

The arms went in easily.  Find the center of the sleeve and mark it to match the seam of the front and back piece.  Do yourself a favor and do the bias around the hoodie right away before you attach it and the sleeves, before sewing the sleeve closed.  I biased all the seams so that reinforced my stitches and will make it easier to wash.  It is after all a quilt and will get softer with use and washing. 😃. Make sure you stitch around the front square of your hoodie to reinforce that as well.  It’s thick.

Loved the cuffs.  It helps for people like me who have very large arms.  

The sleeves look great.  Did the blocks in the center then a solid for around it, cuffs ere 2 1/2 “ squares.

And the final results I love.  It’s a little big on me but that’s ok.  It’s so comfy.

Love it!

Catching up

 This month's goal was completed, thank goodness, because I was tired of doing the same thing over and over again.  It doesn't help that you happen to be ADHD, and can't stand doing the same thing over and over again since September.  The quilt turned out fantastic, and it was my goal to finish it this month, so I'm pleased with both but boy!!!!  Was it a chore.  So see for yourself.

Look at all those squares....

And how did I quilt it you asked????   By going through each 2 1/2 inch square.  All the quilting made it very heavy, and it was suppose to be a light quilt, so it didn't exactly work out that way, but it was still time consuming.

That was one of my accomplishments this month.  But after that I decided to catch up on two BOMs that I said I would not join this year.  But I couldn't resist.  So I joined two different BOMs.  One is from my favorite place FatQuarter and the Jolly Jabber.  It's called the Sewcialite 2 and it's very busy.  It's almost two every week. You can look at the free blocks on the FatQuarter cite.  Take a look but don't get mixed up with the Sewcialite 1 that was done a year ago and it's still free for all.  They're a terrific find, with a final quilt that could fit a queen size bed with an addition of an edge of 3 inches around.  I'm excited about this one because I'm using only scraps (yes I'm still trying to get rid of all my scraps and there is still a good amount of them).  There are 16 to do and I have 6 more to catch up.  This weekend I did 5 more for my addition of 10.  I'm loving the look of it and thinking of doing the setting blocks all in solids to catch all my colors or do it in a busy flower print (which I have as well).  We'll see when it's done.  You can also choose some of the Sewcialite 1 blocks instead to finish it off.  Take a look for yourself at one of the links that I put up above.  Here are the blocks I've completed.

This next one is from Riley Blake.  It's the RBD block challenge.  You can look at this years or from last years.  They're free and the patterns really test you so you learn along the way.  I bought fabric from Fabricland for this one because I wanted bright colors, I'm two behind on this one, and they come out every two weeks, so you have to be quick when doing this, but truthfully, I just love the looks of this one.  And it helps when your colors all match.  I am two blocks behind in this one and one of the blocks is really very hard, so I'm not looking forward to one with all HSTs the size of 2".  But the top right one is that one so I'm feeling that I can handle it.

I also promised myself something else this year.  I promised to paint a picture a month and I'm being generous or kind to myself by making the first picture over 3 months because of the size of it.  Take a look.  It's over 4 feet high and wide.  My husband and I love Arizona and he's been after me to paint a picture of the red rocks there.  I just started, and I showed it to my mother who is an excellent professional painter.  She told me that the sand was too dark, the rocks to the right were slanted, and to fade the clouds and rocks in the front.  We talked about putting a haze on it, and that's what I worked on this weekend.  My husband got into the act as well and told me to lighten the sand, that it didn't look real, but he loved the rocks in the front.  I know, the picture doesn't do it justice but you'll find that the next one I completed does.  

Here are the changes, you can see them.  Cliffs or rocks are more into the background.  The sand is lighter, and clouds are fainter so they're more in the background.  I quite like the changes

This has been a very busy weekend but one that is completely satisfying.  I'm happy with all that I've accomplished.  Still have a ways to go, but it's looking good.

So to summarize this weekend:

• painting fixed and ready for next step
• did 4 blocks in the RBD
• did 4 blocks in the Sewcialite 2 BOM
• spent 30 minutes cleaning the are.

Next to do:

• cacti on the bottom
• 2 more RBD BOMs to catch up
• 6 more Sewcialite blocks to catch up
• Complete my flamingo door for our anniversary reminder (It's in June).
• And this week it's the next number from the American Quilting Society's next goal.

I'm excited!!!  

I'm happy with it.

 Getting lots of help from my quilting partner.  Can you see him testing out this quilt at the back of my couch???  We've worked hard so he's taking a break.....

 Caught up on my Quilt Doodle Garden Quilt.  There's still time to join, and as usual Cindy is designing something absolutely Gorgeous.  Haven't missed a single one of her BOMs, each is so special and makes a great gift for a special friend.  January and February is below, and one is a double block together with not one but two appliques (I button stitched them).  Loving the design!!

Did the forth block for SewFresh's Harry Potter's QAL.  The blocks can be huge like I'm doing (21 inches) or smaller for a lap (10 x 10 blocks).  I'm finding the huge ones so simple to do.  See previous post for the last ones.  This one is still free, so join us.  It makes a queen size quilt.

 Been working on getting my sewing/painting/everything room cleaned up a bit, because I can't take it anymore!!  :)  So one of the problems is my scrap bin which means all of my scrap materials is in a giant laundry bag... So I'm doing a string quilt to get that down.  The blocks are 12 inches each.  And so far I have 16 of them.  Still have tons of scraps but the actual quilt is shocking me...  Loving the colors and the triangles.  Now looking at making it 8 blocks by 8 blocks and just doing horizontal and vertical strips around the edge when completed.  Seriously, this will be great color when done and on my queen size bed.

And how does my room look now?  The first picture is the before, the next is the after...

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 This corner is still very messy, but it's projects that I have to complete.  The material in the corner is all organized for backing and for the neutral colors to complete with 4 projects in bags waiting to be sewing.  As for the books - all patterns and books as well as quilt patterns I've completed.  There's also some painting books in there, and to the top right you'll see paints.  Still working on this.

So it's been a very busy couple of days, with both sewing and quilting.  When I'm done two more quilts (just quilting them) it will be cleaner.

Back to work with family day over.  Have a great week.