TGIFF

 

Today is my first day participating in TGIFF:  Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!  Wow, I love how that sounds!  Although I'm still at work (don't anybody tell on me!) I did start and finish a project this week.  It's really a small project but I'm counting it all the same.

My bed needed a girly touch to it.  A few months ago, we purchased a whole new bedroom set.  Hopefully one that will last us the rest of our lives.  I couldn't believe how long we struggled to find one that both of us would like.  But we did find one!  Well, I need to take a picture of it for you but right now...you know, I'm at work!  Anyways, our bedspread has geometric pattern so it really needed something girly on it so I made us some new pillowcases and I LOVE them. 

I found a great pillow tutorial on YouTube by Crafty Gemini.  There are only three seams to sew.  EASY PEASY!    I plan to make more.

Umbrella Paper Piecing

I really love how my first umbrella turned out:

I wasn't fast at piecing this together but I'm definitely improving on the skill part of piecing!  I hardly used my seam ripper.  It's teaching me patience too! It took me about 2 1/2 hours to put together!

I purchased this pattern from Kristy at Quiet Play who offers three varieties of this pattern.  Of course, I chose the easiest one to try first.  I'm not dumb!  I can't wait to make more of them so I can make something beautiful with them.  I guess living in the desert makes me wishful for more rain...hence my fascination with umbrellas.  Thanks Kristy, I really like your pattern!

Cat in the Hat Quilt

Today I finished my quilt, Cat in the Hat, for my niece.  She is expecting her first little one in two weeks.  It's a small quilt  (measures 25x28 inches) to use in strollers and cat seats (opps! I mean car seat!)   Of course, I want it to be the quilt her baby loves!  I embroidered the baby's name under Thing One and Thing Two to make it more personable.  I purchased this pattern from Sheila  on Etsy.

Work in Progress

It feels like I haven't been here much...

However, I have been a busy bee :)

I am still working on organizing my fabrics:

All the fabric is better organized except
for my scrap bin.

All my fabrics are folded so that I can
see what's in each bin.  

I added more fabrics to this.   

 I haven't yet had time to organize the fabric by color but plan to do it in the next couple of weeks.

These are projects that I'm currently working on:

Dogwood Blossom Quilt:

I'm embarrassed  to say this project is still ongoing.  I work on this quilt a small bit at a time.  I'm still really on step two, which is the hand embroidery part that I have worked on for a few months.  It's hard because there are so many projects that are much quicker to finish so I work on them instead of this one.

Stash Attack!

Since organizing my fabrics, I realized I had way too many scraps.  I hate the idea of throwing them away because I think most can be recycled into another project.  Since learning English Paper Piecing method, I decided to dedicate some of my stash to make small projects such as these placemats:

Star Blossom, English Paper Piecing (EPP):

This was a project from Rachel's Handstitched: Camp Pearl class that I took over the summer.  I'm finally getting around to this project.  She had offered instructions for 16 projects!  Too many for me to do during the summer months so now I'm trying to get to some of them.  I'm really enjoying this project.  She's planning to offer the class again in 2013 and I highly recommend it if you're wanting to learn several different types of hand stitching.  I found her instructions very thorough, offering interesting and diverse  projects.  You can be a beginner  or advanced sewer.  On her blog, Stitched in Color, she offers several free tutorials where you could get a feel for her style.  At first, I couldn't get the hang of EPP but now I can hardly put it down.  I love the portability of this style of hand stitching.  I can even take it to work, whip it out and work on it when it's slow.

The finished project should look like this:

(photo by Rachel: Stitched in color)

Crochet Reversible Baby Blanket:

I'm so close to having this project done! I just need to stitch two sides of the fabric to the yarn and I'll be done :)  I'm making this for my niece, Brittany. She's having her first baby (a boy who's being named Archer)  in two weeks.  Brittany is the first of my sibling's kids to have a baby so it's very exciting for us.  I'm gonna be a Great Auntie... it is just so hard for me to comprehend this.  Surely, I'm not that old!  Anyways, I purchased this pattern from Sheila on Etsy.  (I love Etsy!)

( I embroidered Archer's name under Thing1 and Thing 2)

I made the same blanket for a friend's first grandchild, Leo: 

So I've been busy and hopefully I'll be able to report more progress next week.  My husband, Zdenek, came home from visiting his family in Czech Republic on Thursday; I'm enjoying some much needed couple time together.  I love having weekends off from the hospital.  I can say that having this time off so me and Zdenek can be together more often has made me a happier person.  

Sew long for now.....Kim

A great Day..Fabric was Involved!

Just thought I would share a bit of my day...

1.) Organized some fabric:

I decided to store smaller pieces of fabric in this unused sweater keeper,
still have plenty of room for more!

Not sure this will work...fabric height too high  but at least organized!

2.)  Went for a pedicure:

I love the color Orange!

3.)  I had to go to Crate and Barrel warehouse to check out furniture that was suppose to be delivered tomorrow.  This is the third time they are trying to deliver inferior furniture.  Not sure what to do about this.

4.)  Picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop.  It was been there 3 weeks!  I know! You feel my pain.  Well, don't  feel too sorry for me, I have another machine so I have been sewing!  I have a Janome Jem Platinum  760  that  I purchased when I decided to learn quilting about 5 years ago.  It's considered a three-quarter's machine.  SMALL!   The machine that was sick was my Janome Memory Craft 6600.  The tension was broken and needed repaired desperately.  I was putting tape on the tension dial to keep in one place!  So finally, I broke down and took it in.  Well, it was an expensive repair...see the repair ticket!  That's right, $123.00 Big Bucks!  I hope after this repair that I can make better stitches!  I kept blaming bad stitching on my sick machine...what if it's me that's the problem????  Of course, not!

5.)  Fabric......Right next to the repair shop is a fabric shop. I was drawn to it just like a moth to a flame!  I bought a five fat quarter bundle last week at this shop.   I fell in love with this fabric.  It's Laura Gunn, Garden Wall collection.  The store ran out of the floral print :(  I asked the owner if she could get more and she is going to call and see tomorrow.  I was afraid that she wouldnt 't be able to so I went on line and found a fat quarter bundle on Etsy  from sewlovefabrics!  I was so excited that she had it; I bought it on the spot.  I also purchased a couple other fat quarters.  Wow.  I said I wouldn't buy more fabric this month because of the repair bill...do you think my husband will notice???   No worries...he loves me!  I'll cook him something nice ;)

(Picture by sewlovefabrics)

While at the store today, I picked up a Thanksgiving Charm pack and a yard of Laura Gunn's Orange Painters Canvas:

I plan to sew a table runner using the X and O quilting pattern found at the Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Well, as you can see, I had a full day....;)  

P.S.  I think I might need to go to a fabric anonymous meeting....

I am a Winner!!!

Yesterday while working, I  quickly was looking through my emails and guess what!!!  I received an email from Kristy at Quiet Play.  She's the lady behind this blog hop:

And guess what????

I WON!!!

It made me smile for the rest of the day (actually I'm still smiling!).  That's not always easy when you work in a hospital!  

I won a $20 gift certificate for  Sew Lux Fabrics and Gifts!  I can't wait to go shopping ;)  Thanks Sew Lux for  being a sponsor of  Kristy's PPP blog hop.

Her blog has many post all about  paper piecing.  I actually used her tutorial on paper piecing for one of my first paper piecing projects called The Red Herring. 

Thanks Kristy for my new addiction!  It's so hard to stop at just one project.  Now I'm cruising the web for PP projects and it's all her fault!!!

Also this week: 

This week is the start of my new work schedule at the hospital.  I'm very excited.  First of all, I will have week ends off with my husband.  Other than vacation days, we haven't spent much time together because he travels for work during the week and I have worked week-ends for a long time.  Well, not any more!!!  I have worked 6am to at least 6pm (usually 7 or 8pm) for so long that my body thinks it's normal to be up at 4:30AM.  My new work hours are from 9:30AM to 10:00PM...no longer do I need to be up before the roosters!  This feels strange to me right now but I'm sure my body will get use to a new wake up time real fast.  Well since I have a new work schedule, I decided I need to rearrange my home schedule as well.  I now have Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday off.  I have decided to make Wednesday about home.  I'll clean, do laundry, do errands and try to do my shopping all on this day.  On Thursday,  I'll make it my day to enjoy whatever I want.  Which means SEWING ALL DAY!!!  Sounds pretty awesome to me!  Saturday and Sunday I want to devote to Zdenek.  I am working on some outings for us.  I can't wait.    If he has to do any work on these days then I can devote some time to sewing.  I really don't know how this will be for us but I'm sure it will be awesome.

Since it's Wednesday today; my day of cleaning...I decided I would  incorporate some of that cleaning time to making my sewing studio (really a room but studio sounds much grander!)  much more organized.  I'm starting with my awful sewing stash mess....

Everyday for the next week, I will take a basket of disorganized fabric and turn it into a working stash.  I don't even know what fabrics I have because of my lack of organization.  Here's the beginning of my fabric organized:

Now, I need to purchase some small bins so my fabric isn't lost and disorganized.  I also want to organize by color scheme.  I'll post a pic of my success when it happens!

Thanks for stopping by and happy sewing to all....

I Did It!!!! Finished my Halloween Kitty in time!

I stayed up tonight to finish this!!!  I can enter Quiet Play's Paper Piecing Blog Hop!!!

My finished project.....made in one day!  Doesn't look like much work for one day but trust me...took me several hours.  I love paper piecing.....I just need to do more of it.  Since I'm new to it...I end up using my seam ripper more than I care to.  But practice makes perfect so I'll keep trying.

Sorry about the quality of my pics.  My honey who is on holiday with his family in Europe  has my camera so I'm left with just the camera on my iPad.  Not the best quality but does show off my finished project!

My first try at Paper Piecing a Halloween Kitty

I was trying to beat the deadline for Quiet Play's Paper Piecing Blog Hop....I didn't succeed but that doesn't mean I wasn't successful!  So what if what I thought would take me a couple hours took me several hours and this is what I have to show for my time!

I really thought I picked an easy project!  Well, maybe for someone who has more experience than me.  Maybe simple for someone who can look at the pattern and go from there!  That wouldn't be me.  I didn't even know this might be more advance for my level of experience.  I am really proud of myself for not giving up...even after having a seam ripper in my hands more time than not.  Even though I don't have a finished project, I am proud I tried.  I will work on this project on Wednesday and share my success.  I found this pattern at Artisania, Sonja was gracious to give quilters a free pattern.  Thanks Sonja!