In Other Book News...and Some Slow Stitching...

This morning before work I finished reading this book...I love that it was loosely based on two women who I had never heard of who really did make a difference in the world.  If you are looking for a good book to fall into this one will grab you. 

I am working today and so no sewing til tonight, trying to make up hours since I will be missing four days of work to go to Bonnie's lectures and workshops.  So lucky I have a job that often is looking for people to work on the weekends so I can pick and choose to work then! 

I hope your day involves more sewing than mine! I did bring my second elephant embroidery with me (which is barely started) in the hopes that I can eventually have another pillow like this to gift, because I couldn't bear to part with the first one!

Progress...

 Started off my day watching the Packers win and working on the Skillbuilder BOM Diamond Carat block which I had started handsewing a long time ago!  I got the center done and the outer fabric cut--still need to sew it on though.

 Then I finally got my pillow sewn up for my embroidery elephant.

 Love the backing fabric I found at Etc.

 I also sewed up six burp pads for future gift giving.

 After a trip to JoAnn's for pom pom fringe I hand sewed it on while watching "Once Upon a Time" and I love, LOVE, love how it turned out.  I basically totally copied Danny though mine is centered and has pom poms all around.  Thanks for the great idea Danny--and for teaching me how to do it!

 I was still in the mood to sew a bit, so I sewed my Jack in the Box BOM blocks into rows.  I have two blocks left (and I didn't make grey this month..so I may go ahead and make four more blocks before the end of the year so that I can add one more row.  I also have pinwheels for a border.  I didn't want to add sashing around all the blocks but may see what it looks like with sashing between the rows..or sashing, pinwheels, sashing, between the rows.  For now, it is back in the box as is but I do consider it progress on the Rainbow BOM!

Bag Swapping and Swoon Marking

Today was the PHXMQG meeting and had a bag swap.  Eighteen of the thirty or so people who made it to the meeting participated in the swap.  There were lots of cute bags and I got the one below made by Jen, she even put her label on the inside which was a sweet touch and I will always remember who I got it from!  

 My elephant has finally made it onto some blue background fabric...next step is figuring out what backing fabric I am going to use!   We will be sharing our embellishment challenge in October and this is what I plan to bring, if I can get it done.  Totally copying Danny but I LOVED her pillow.  Not sure that I will be keeping it, I have someone in mind to gift it to.

 I got the binding on this yesterday (and also on my mom's Halloween quilt that I haven't hauled outside for photographs) and in the process I sewed through my finger!  Seriously, through the nail and out through the back--it bled on both sides.  Luckily it didn't hit the bone and hopefully it will heal right up.  What a dork, but I guess it had to happen sometime!

 I also FINALLY sewed up a Swoon block for the Swoonalong2013!!!!  I really love this block even more in person than I do in pictures.  It is huge, 24 inches which is the biggest block I have ever sewn I think.  Tonight Kathy and I watched "Orange is the New Black" and I marked and pinned the other eight blocks that we have cut.  Tomorrow I am sewing with Becky and I am hoping to make progress on this quilt (set aside Lazy Sunday which was what I planned to work on because this quilt it calling to me!).

Oh What the Heck!

 So since I am still awake I decided to just put this little quilt together...pic is cropped so the edges look a bit lopsided, but they are the same size in reality.  Gotta work on the cropping skills!

 I also washed my elephant earlier and it is drying before I cut it out and turn it into a pillow.

And here are the flowers from my love that I got randomly after work yesterday.  They are beautiful!  Well guess since today is already tomorrow I better try to fall asleep!

Sewing on a Week Night AGAIN!

I have had more free time during the week for a few weeks (been working more on the weekends due to some schedule changes, ugh!) but it has made for a nice change.  Next week is a bit more work during the week and the week after that is full tilt again so sewing on weeknights may not be happening as often as I would like soon but for now I am enjoying it!  Tonight Kathy and I watched the first four episodes of "Graceland" which we liked while sewing away.  I started out with making myself a pillowcase to match my Picnic quilt since I will be bringing that on our road trip to Wisconsin (because I need a quilt!) and wanted my pillowcase to match.  Kathy laughed at me, but that is how I roll!

 I have been steadily working on the 35th Ave. "block" of the month.  We were to do the first half of these SIXTEEN blocks last month and the second half this month.  Seriously, I thought a BOM was "A" block of the month!  I am happy to report that since I was alerted to the size problems Kathy had, I managed to get mine to come out to the right size!

 Last night I organized my old cross stitch floss.  I have had most of this for 26 years!  I learned counted cross stitch when I was pregnant with my oldest and enjoyed it nightly for years, til one day I must have gotten too busy with school or something and I put it all away and never really got back to it.  Now that I am embroidering I am happy that some of this floss will get used!  Kathy also used to do cross stitch so we have  tons more, but she stored hers in bags so as time goes on it will get wound into this box.

 Here is a close up of the elephant from a few days ago.

 Older picture, but in case you forgot this is what the elephant looks like :)

Happy Stitching Friday!

 Today I had the day off work and I did a bunch of cleaning and organizing (mostly of papers, patterns, etc.) in my quilting studio.  Then I decided I should make a few bags because I want some fun zip up bags for various projects that will go with me to Wisconsin when we go the end of July.  I did the blue one first and wasn't happy with the fact that I had too little blue on the bottom and too much flower on the top (leave it to me to try to adjust a pattern--I need to just stick to what is out there!) so I then made the second one.  I put the zipper in backwards on that one and after I noticed it continued to finish it thinking it would be functional and not THAT noticeable.  I wanted the dimples to be the lining so it had to go that way...well umm a zipper doesn't function from the outside if it is on wrong (in case you are not as dumb as I!) so after mulling it over and realizing I did not happen to have another PERFECT colored zipper to just start over with, I took the zipper off and put it back on correctly.  I am amazed that I was able to do that without taking the entire bag apart.  Yay me.  Loving my peachy octopus bag now!

 I then thought I should get to some "real" sewing and started to work on clue three of the Lazy Sunday Bonnie Hunter mystery.  I can't tell you what a humdinger of a clue this one.  I had already put together the four pink star blocks (and have 20 similar blocks to do that don't have the green in them still!) so today I marked all the hst lines and sewed 78 tiny blocks with the diagonal one way and 78 more with the diagonal the other way.  I have been cutting this quilt myself (imagine that) but Kathy helped me cut more because I was about half short from when I just cut til I got sick of it!  So in the tote above are the pieces for the twenty blocks and that will be up next so I can be done with these!

Kathy is also ahead of me on the log cabin blocks for 35th Ave. Kaleidescope of Kolor...she had some seam allowance issues (due to getting the machine serviced, the guy reset things and she didn't think to double check needle position!).  She added an extra strip on all sides so now they are slightly bigger than needed so it is all good.  She also cut my strips so I need to get to those soon too!

I have also finally been working on my embroidered elephant that I started at the PHXMQG last month.  One of our members Danny taught a class based on a pillow she had done for show and tell at a previous meeting.  Lots of us fell in love with it and needed our very own elephant!  I barely got started in the class (but learned about a half a dozen stitches) and didn't find any time to get going on it all month.  Then at our most recent meeting several people had brought their elephants in progress and that got me all excited all over again so finally,  I am really enjoying it and thinking about what I will embroider next.  I volunteered (along with twenty or so other folks) to do some embroidery for Jane over at http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/ with her thread.  It came in the mail and has me thinking...I even ordered two books (I am a sucker for books!) to inspire me further--but first the elephant.