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!