WIPs and Stuff

It's been a little while since I've shared something quilty here, so I thought I would let you all know what I'm in the middle of.  Things have slowed down quite a bit around here now that the boys only nap a couple of times a week.  Urgh.  But I have been making things.  I've had a few Etsy orders, which is great - it just means less time for quilts.  :)

First of all, I've been making lots of progress on my Christmas quilt.  I pulled all the leftovers from the front and pieced them together into blocks.  From there I asked my Instagram friends for advice (by the way, I'm on IG now!  You can find me here:  tiffsewinsomethin).



On of them recommended that I sew them into presents.  Turns out that will fit perfectly with the front, so that's what I did!  I spray basted this quilt and I am a TOTAL convert - love spray basting.  The secret is to iron it to set the adhesive.  And you can even do that while your quilt is still tacked to the floor!



By the way - here is the top of the Christmas quilt.  Now I'm about half way through stitching in the ditch for every block.  I don't think I'm going to do any fancy quilting on this one.  I want it soft.

I also got an order for three custom made Rummy Royal/Tripoley mats and have been plugging away at those:

And then there are my bee blocks.  All of these were on time, I just haven't gotten around to posting about them yet here.

July's block was for Sandra.  She just finished her quilt and it is AMAZING!  Check it out HERE.


August was Brittney's month.  She's making an ABC quilt using the Spell it with Moda patterns.


And September's block is for Jaime.  She's making a pixelated quilt, so this block doesn't look like much right now, but her finished quilt is going to be phenomenal!

I also spent some time making these custom hot pads for my shop.  My sister-in-law's parents just bought a cabin (and it's GORGEOUS - we were lucky enough to visit last weekend) and she ordered some new hot pads to match the new decor. 

 You've seen those hot pads with the two pockets for your fingers, right?  Well - my SIL's mom wanted something with a strap instead.  Something that is easier to slip your hand in quickly.  Genius, isn't it?  I'm surprised I haven't seen more like these before.  I should make a whole bunch for myself...

Linking up with Lee:

ABC Book Sneak Peak

Hi Friends!
I just wanted to drop in and show you a couple sneak peaks of the new quiet book I am working on.  I just need to take a few more pictures and fix a few of the pages, then it will be ready to post!

This was my July goal for ALOYF (mine was link #25), so I wanted to get a quick post up to show that I met my goal, even if it was just under the wire...

More coming soon, plus a quilt finish!

Linking up!

WIP: Building Fun and Broken Herringbone

I finished a new quilt top!  This one is from the Building Fun pattern by Geta Grama.  I used some Textured Basics by Patty Young that I won in a giveaway awhile back.  I love the colors, and I'm glad the stripes aren't quite as distracting as I anticipated them to be.  It was fun to make a quilt from a pattern, with all the math and stuff done for me.  (Although I DID have to do some figuring when it came time to cut everything.)  Now I just need to quilt it.  Although I'm tempted to do something fancy and customized for each block, I'm thinking I'll do some stippling.  It's been awhile since I've done some simple, relaxing meandering.  I'm looking forward to it.

This was my goal for June's ALYOF.  (My goal setting post can be found HERE.  Mine was entry #51.)

I've also been working on another quilt, which is also almost ready for quilting.  May was my month for Do.Good Stitches (FIRST TIME!  WAHOO!) and I chose the Broken Herringbone block.  It was so fun to receive all my little packages in the mail and I was so excited when the last one finally arrived!  Here they are all lined up in color order:

I've got a really fun plan for these.  Hopefully it works out the way I've imagined it in my head...

I debated for awhile which of these two quilts I should commit to for my July ALYOF goal.  In the end, I decided to push myself.  I think I can finish these two quilts soon because I'm motivated.  However, I've got a new quiet book in the works for my shop that desperately needs attention.  It's going to be awesome (and big), and I've just got to finish it.  So my goal for July is to finish my ABC quiet book.  Everything is cut out, now I just need to do lots of ironing and stitching. 

Linking up:

A Few Goals

I didn't quite meet my goal for last month's ALYOF link up, or the Finish Along Q1 link up.  I was SOOOO close, though!  My goal was to finish quilting my After the Storm quilt, and I had a few setbacks (Etsy orders, ripping out lots of quilting), but I won't go into that now.  Luckily, this should make my April goal easy because this quilt is still at the very top of my list.

For April, my plan is to FINISH "After the Storm."  Yay!

Also, it's time to share my goals for the Finish Along, Quarter 2.  I know I am not going to reach all of these goals, but I want to have all my current projects out there, even though most of them are just fabric stacks (with a plan) at the moment.  Here they are:

1.  Finish "After the Storm."  I don't want to give too much away before the big reveal (hopefully in a few weeks), but here are some sneak peaks at the quilting (obviously no cleaning fairies were disturbed in the taking of these pictures...):

2. Finish "Deck the Halls."  The top is finished, and the back has been started.

3.  Make my twin toddler bed quilts.  I'm using "Cruizer Blvd" and I'm planning to make one Jungle Path quilt and one Broken Herringbone quilt.

4.  Building Fun quilt.  I bought THIS pattern on sale from Geta Grama (check it out, it's SO cute!) a few weeks ago and after much debate, I finally settled on this stack of fabric from my stash (actually, I won this in a giveaway.  Thanks, LethargicLass!).  I've been wanting to make this quilt FOREVER, so I'm excited.  I think I'll probably list it in my shop when it's finished.

5.  Secret project for one of my family members.  I don't want to give anything away, but here's a hint:

6.  I'm not sure, but I think I want to make another Hello Sun set for my MIL.  We'll see what happens.

7.  I got these charm packs for Christmas and I intend to turn them into another Puff Quilt, probably for the shop if nobody around me has a baby girl anytime soon.  :)

8.  I think I might turn these charms into a raggy puff quilt too.  Or maybe I'll make one from the chevron flannels.

9.  My Etsy shop is in need of a few more bib sets and I plan to use some of these fabrics to make a few more.

10.  I'm also planning on making a Letters Quiet book.  I've got it all planned out, the patterns, printed, and a pile of supplies.  I don't have a picture of it, but here's one of my Shapes book in progress:

11.  I also got this Jelly Roll for Christmas and it needs to become a quilt.  I'm thinking something with stacked coins, maybe.  

Edited 4/9/14:
12.  I highly doubt that I will finish this one before the quarter is over, but I'm going to add it to the list so I don't forget about it.
I've been wanting to make a sampler quilt for a long time now.  We just scored a new King sized bed and I'm thinking we need a new quilt for it!  I'm thinking of using some of my stash of Oakshotts:

Or maybe mix in a few of these Simple Color cuts I picked up on sale the other day:

The hubby doesn't want any girly colors, and he also doesn't seem to like bright rainbow colors like I do.  I'm thinking lots of blue and green will keep him happy (with a pop of something else, just for fun).  I'm thinking I'll probably do Faith's Solstice Stars, or Lee's Summer Sampler.  I'll pair them with lots and lots of negative space, probably in Gray.



Whew!  That's all I can think of for now.  Here's to a productive quarter!

Just one more...

One more post about my "After the Storm" quilt.  And then you won't see it again until it is FINISHED!  :)

The "top" is done!  I use the term loosely, because the sections aren't actually sewn together yet.  I'm using one of Ann Peterson's methods for quilting large quilts, sort of like QAYG (quilt as you go).  So these are the best shots I could get of my finished "top."  I was forced to take these in the basement - the only spot I could find that was big enough for the whole thing.  Wanna see?  Okay.

The swivel chair is there for size comparison.

And here's an idea of what the back will look like.  I've been collecting solids from the remnant bin at Joann's and this is what I ended up with.  Sorry for the wrinkles.  It wasn't worth it to iron them all just to fold them all back up again for the closet.

Time to quilt!

ALYOF: After the Storm progress

Okay, so this is going to be a boring post (particularly for those who are tired of hearing about my After the Storm quilt), sorry about that.  But I've got to share with you that I finished piecing the LAST block for my After the Storm quilt!  Now all that's left is to sew the borders up, baste, and quilt!  Oh, and bind (obviously).  The end is in sight - no more paper piecing on this bad baby.  So far I have paper pieced 381 units.  Holy cow, that sounds like a lot.  Thank heavens for chain piecing.  :)

 

Anyway.  My ALYOF goal for February was to finish all of these blocks, and I did!  I've even started putting the borders together.  (!!!)

Before

After

To keep this thing moving along, my goal for March is to have all of the 9 sections quilted (since it's going to be king sized, I'm using a sort of quilt-as-you-go method).  (Hopefully that counts as only one goal.)  It's a lofty goal, but I'm going to do my best to reach it.
 In case you are new here, you can get a glimpse of what the quilt will look like HERE.

My February goal setting post is HERE.  My entry was #63.

In other news, I've been making bee blocks and bridal shower gifts (more on those later) and I'm working on a few new quiet books for my shop.  I'm almost done with those too, so hopefully I can share them (and finally LIST them) soon!  Oh, and I've been happily plugging away on my Quilty Stitches Sampler Along, I'm on block three now.  :)

Linking up with Lee:

And Shanna/Melissa: