Gettin' Foxy

As I mentioned in Sunday Stash a few weeks ago, I've been working on a new disappearing nine patch project that I've dubbed "Foxy" after the main inspiration fabric.

I followed the tutorial over at Cluck Cluck Sew for my D9P, but here's some photos to give you an idea of how it works.  I went with 5" squares, but I suppose you could pick whatever size worked best for you.

1) Create nine-patch blocks

2) In this case, you make 11 blocks

3) The scary part - you cut your big blocks into quarters.  This leaves you with 44 smaller blocks.

4) Reassemble your small blocks, 6 across by 7 down for your quilt!

I tried not to mess with the layout too much, but I wanted the colors/whites at least somewhat evenly distributed.  Even with all my efforts, I have still found places I should have shuffled some more.  Oh well, hopefully the recipients won't notice.

You notice I said "recipients" in the plural?  That's the best part about Foxy - I bought enough fabric to make two quilts - maybe Foxy and Foxier? :)

One quilt on the wall, and one still in squares!

Bathroom updates

Two steps closer to a semi updated master bathroom!

First up, and relatively simple, was swapping out the former master bathroom faucets for the slightly cooler/funner faucets that used to be in the upstairs hall bath.  Best part?  This was a free upgrade!

Before - former faucet with icky acrylic handles.

After - slightly more fun/updated faucet.

The lighting situation has also been dealt with.  There was a very boring, very dated, very GOLD light fixture in the bathroom previously.  It took a little patching, sanding and painting after the old fixture was removed, but now we've got new, swanky fixtures!

Before - ugh.

In progress - already an improvement!

After - much better!

The finish on the light fixture turned out to be a lot darker than the rest of the metal in the bathroom, but at least it's not gold!  One step at a time, right?

ALYOF - September goal complete!

Finishing my Quesy quilt was my September goal for ALYOF.  I also had some extra motivation, as the link-up for the Purge finishers over at Stitched in Color ends this Wednesday as well.  So I busted my hump to knock this one out.  I did the back (all pieced from stash) last weekend, and then basted, quilted and bound it yesterday (and I'm paying for it today - man, am I sore - quilting should count as an upper body workout!).

Quesy - the front

Quesy - the back

I did simple, straight-line quilting over the top, going diagonally through each 4-patch.  I added to the scrappy look by using four different thread colors for the quilting - teal, apple green, light blue and a buttery yellow.  It went pretty smoothly, other than ripping out 8 lines of the yellow because I neglected to check the tension on the underside...won't make that mistake again!  At least it was a loose tension problem, which made it pitifully easy to rip out.

Teal and yellow quilting

Attempted artistic shot :)

I also used pieces of leftover binding to use up some additional scraps, in addition to piecing more (yellow) binding from a strip I had in stash/scraps.

One corner, five fabrics worth of binding.

Obligatory rolled quilt shot.

I think I've got a recipient in mind for this crazy, Quesy quilt - it's my first finished Christmas present for 2014!  It was also one of my fastest finishes to date (still a few months, but that's pretty good for a mostly weekend quilter).

Linking up with the other Purgers, other ALYOF September finishers, and weekend Whoopers!

Sunday Stash #23 - Ikea fun!

I've wanted this fabric since I first spotted this tutorial for a dry erase coloring place mat.  I have a a few littles in my life that I like to make fun presents for, and this seemed like a good one.  There are a lot of different "scenes" to keep it interesting.

Ikea TIDNY fabric

The problem was, I live in Louisville, KY and the closest Ikea to me is in Cincinnati, OH.  It's only about an hour and forty-five minutes away, but that's a little too far to just drive up and buy some fabric (because of course, it's only available in store).  However, a couple weekends ago my brother- and sister-in-law were headed to Ikea anyway, so I asked them to pick me up two yards.  (I also asked about the Britten Nummer line, but they didn't have any in-store.)

Super cute scenes for coloring!

In hind site, two yards was probably too much, as this is home decor weight and extra-wide width.  I see a LOT of place mats in my future - maybe one for home and one for travel for each kid?  :)

Penny for size comparison.

Linking up with Sunday Stash!

Sunday Stash #22 - more doggies :)

Apparently I have a weakness for doggie fabric.  Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) spotlighted this fabric in her weekly roundup last Sunday, and I restrained myself for a whole day before buying some.  I made my purchase from Starlit Quilts' Etsy shop:

The top is the Dog Park print from Here Boy! (also available in a lime green, red or black background) and the bottom is the multicolor bones print from the same line.  Cute, huh?  I went with half a yard of each.

AND I got a little surprise from the shop!

A Candy pack of LOL (cute and girly) and a pen with a stylo tip!  Love me some (unexpected and therefore even better) freebies!  The service was also pretty quick and the shipping seemed reasonable ($5 for my envelope).  The item prices were also competitive ($2.25 for a quarter yard, $30 for jelly rolls and layer cakes).

No plans for any of this stuff as of yet.

Linking up with the other Sunday Stashers!  Also wishing the fabulous Ms. Molli a happy 2nd blogiversary!

Sunday Stash #21 - Foxy

A while back I found this adorable fox (and owl, but the fox is cuter) print in the remnant section at JoAnn's.

I pulled these fabrics from my stash before I decided on a plan.  The dark teal is from JoAnn's, the teal circles are Zen Chic, the swirly teal is from Kristel (WIP girl), the orange is Chicopee (I think), the green is Kona Taragon, the white (actually a white on white print) was given to me and the brown is from JoAnn's.

After having them sitting on my sewing room floor for a while, the idea of a disappearing nine-patch quilt came to me.  I knew I'd need more fabric, so took my Foxy print to my LQS and went huntin'.  I thought I had enough teal, so I focused on brown and orange/red.

From left to right my FQ are: Geometric Red from Bobbins and Bits, Chirp Chirp Leaves in Sunset from momo, Tonal Orange from Bobbins and Bits, Fan Leaf from Soho Chic, Marble Bittersweet from Soho Chic, Brownie Shades and Avant Garden in Dot Earth.

Here's my whole bundle!  I'm gonna try and finish up Quesy before I get started cutting on this one.

Linking up with the other Sunday Stashers!

Purge progress #2 - finishing the top

I somehow found myself Purging Along with Rachel over at Stitched in Color.  My first step was to make 168 four-patch blocks.  I then tossed them up on the design wall, moved a few around to try and balance light and dark...and hated it.  At first.

But never fear, it's grown on me!  It even has a name - the Quesy Quilt (kind of after the Scrap Vomit phase from a while back).  I also have some favorite blocks...is that wrong, to like some more than others? :)

I'm in the process of sewing the blocks together and am realizing Quesy isn't going to be very big.  And since I don't know that I can give it away, I decided to use borders to make it bigger (because I'm kind of tired of four-patches), plus we're supposed to be purging, right?

I have enough of this weird pink snakeskin to make a 3" inner border, but that's not much bigger.  So I started pulling larger pieces to make a thicker outer border.  The olive-y one was given to me, the middle one is Joel Dewberry Tartan from Notting Hill and the right one is from JoAnn's.  What do you think?

It might be pushing it, but I think finishing this Quesy guy up is going to be my September goal for ALYOF!

Also linking up with the other Purgers!

ALYOF - August goal complete!

My August goal for ALYOF was to finish my Ed Emberly Doggies quilt.  It's definitely finished, but I hit a slight washing snag.  I made the mistake of washing it with another quilt and the other quilt bled (it was Valor, and I'm not ready to talk about it yet :-/), so while the whites (strangely) seem to be fine, the backing has some faint pink sploches and the white doggies and the white in the green print have a slight pinkish hue.  I'm going to try washing it again in Retayne to see if I can get some of the pink out.  Only problem is the Retayne bottle says it shouldn't be used in an HE machine, so I'm going to have to do it in a tub.  Ugh.

Anyway, here's some snaps:

Over the railing, whole-quilt shot :)

Quilted around each seam with light grey thread.

Backed with the grey cow print, bound in red Moda Marbles.

Wish me luck with my Retayne washing!

Linking up with the Whoop-ers and the ALYOF August Finishers!

Sunday Stash #20 - Wishes for charity

I found this little jelly roll on clearance at Southern Fabric and decided to purchase it in anticipation of a charity quilt sew-in with the Louisville Modern Quilt Guild.  I figured Wishes (especially when they're on sale!) would make a good quilt for anyone who would be on the receiving end of a charity quilt, right?  Especially when they're such pretty Wishes!

Unfortunately, I've now discovered I won't be able to attend the sew-in Guild meeting in Setpember, so Wishes and I will have to participate on our own time.  I'm thinking the Awesome Lap Quilt is going to be my pattern, so this will be the Awesome Wishes quilt!

Linking up with the other Sunday Stash-ers!

Purge progress

Rachel (from over at Stitched in Color) has challenged folks to a Purge - {The Purge} actually.  I decided to participate because my box of 2.5" squares was taunting me.  That's really all the scrap management I've got going on at the moment: I either cut 2.5" strips or 2.5" squares.  Smaller pieces get tossed (I know, I know) and larger pieces stay in a bin all tossed together.  I don't really have much stash, so my purging involved putting my scraps to use.

I've been collecting ideas for 2.5" squares on Pinterest, but wasn't overly excited until I saw Rachel post a four-patch picture.  Bingo!

I started with my 2.5" square bin.

I matched pairs, and then matched pairs to pairs and sewed them together.

And ended up with four patches like this!

From what I've got so far I'll have 154 four-patches - enough to make a child-size quilt.  But I've got the 2.5" strip drawer, too.  And for those, I'm thinking of a Trip Around the World quilt.  The instructions for the Trip quilt call for 16" strips, and some of my strips are much longer, meaning I'll have more 2.5" squares from trimming those down to size.  So I may have to put my four-patches aside until I can get to trimming. 

Drawer o' strips

Never a shortage of projects-in-process in the sewing room!

Linking up with the other Purgers!

Sunday Stash #19 - Sparkle-icious goodness!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be the winner of some lovely fabrics courtesy of Ms. Molli Sparkles!  The postal services of our respective countries didn't let us down, and here's my rainbow of fat quarters:

Warms

Cools

I think the dark blue with starbursts is my favorite.  No plan for these pretties at the moment, so into the stash they go!

Linking up with the other Sunday Stashers!  And thanks again, Molli!

Big Bang Theory pillow

My husband found this fabric when we went into JoAnn's and requested a pillow out of it.  Pretty simple request, and here it is:

I actually had to cut twice, because I didn't pay attention the first time and I didn't get all four characters on the front piece.

The back was cut from a fat quarter, done envelope style. 

I added black piping to "fancy" it up a bit and called it a day.  I probably should have cut the pieces a little larger, as the case is pretty tight around the pillow form, but since it's just for my couch I'm calling it fine and done.

Linking up with the Whoop Whoopers!

This little guy was one of my Quarter 3 Finish Along goals!  Here's the post with all my goals listed.

ALYOF - August Goal

How's this for blogger slacking: you complete your July goal, and even write a post, but forget to do the actual link-up!  Guess part of my August goal should be to actually remember the final step, huh?

My ALYOF goal this month is going to be to finish my Doggies quilt.  So far I've got the rows pieced, but they still need to be sewn together.  Here's how it's looking so far:

The overwhelming vote was to go orange :)

And here's a shot of the backing fabric I picked out.  This from Oink A Doodle Moo, and I got it on clearance at my LQS.  I kind of wish they had it in another color, but clearance section shoppers can't be choosers :)

I've also got some red for the binding.  Hopefully it'll make for a sweet little boy quilt.

Linking up with the ALYOF August goal setters!

ALYOF - July goal complete!

I got my Michael Miller Challenge quilt all done!  And even in good time too, cuz the deadline isn't until the 25th!  Without further ado, here's Petals in the Snow:

front

back

As I mentioned in my goal-setting post, the name came about for three reasons:
1) the background is a combo of solid Kona Snow and Michael Miller Pindots in Snow
2) the name of the fabric line is Petal Pinwheels
3) I went with snowball blocks

This is my favorite photo of this quilt!

I machine quilted it in straight lines with my walking foot, outlining the diamond "petals."  Since the petals are not quilted, they kind of poof out a bit, which is a nice touch I think.  This is my fanciest (haha) quilting to date and I'm pretty proud of it!

The backing is Tile Pile (from the Petal Pinwheels line) in multi and the binding is Cotton Couture in Seafoam.  I machine sewed the binding on - really because I'm lazy and don't like hand stitching, but also for sturdiness.

This quilt has a home with a good friend who is expecting her first baby - another gender surprise!

I'll be linking up with the other ALYOF July finishers when the time comes.