When There's Too Many to Count

I'm not sure how I got myself into this. I always promised myself I wouldn't have more than one project at a time. Always said I wouldn't be that girl with the stack of WIP's and UFO's begging for completion. How did I get here?

It all started with my quilting struggles. My machine and I are just not getting along, and as a result I have this quilt pinned and waiting. I do a little work on it here and there but it's slow and go.

To distract myself, and avoid having to quilt the big one, I started working on another project. I got all the way to the binding, but ran out of labels and needed to make new ones.

In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to start another top. Why not? I'll finish it up quickly because it's a baby quilt. But I had no backing fabric for it yet, so when I finished it I couldn't prepare it for quilting.

But I had all these scraps left from the baby quilt top. There's something about all those little triangles that call to me. I can't throw them away, but they can be so difficult to work with. I figured if it was going to happen, it needed to happen right away. So I put this little top together pretty quickly. It needs to be just a little bigger so I need to find a border fabric, and of course have no backing yet.

And then figured I'd keep going with the baby theme and whip together this alphabet quilt that's been sitting in my to-do pile for a while. I actually have backing read to go for this one, but I really wanted to finish the binding on the second project so I could get it off my table.

I figured it was time to return to the labels project. I printed the labels and pulled out the ribbon, but needed a dry iron to make them and my iron had water/steam in it.

It only seemed rational to use that steam rather than dump it to dry the iron. I decided to cut up some fabric for another quilt I want to start.

I suppose this is evidence that I've been getting things done. But it's slow and scattered now that school is out for summer. There have been times I've started a project and the kiddos need to distract themselves so I can finish up what I'm working on. It doesn't always work that smoothly though, and more often than not I'm abandoning my work to play with them and returning at night to put everything away.

That's okay. It will all get done someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later. :)

More Scrap Projects

In my pursuit work thru my scrap box, I made a few more little bags. These are scraps from a set of quilts I made for a friend with twin girls. I wanted to make the quilts similar, but not exact so one was in purple shades and the other was in pink shades from a fabric line from Me and My Sisters Designs. I named them Sassy and Spicy and pictures can be found in the Finished Projects link. I love them!

First I made 4 little bags; 2 in pink and 2 in purple.  The borders were actually already sewn onto the floral fabrics, so they were ready to go. I used leftover fabric in my stash for the interior lining of the bags as well. I wanted to keep the quilting simple, so I sewed lines to create dimension and depth.

The zippers were a little tricky. The bags are so small that it was a little tough to get them sewn in properly. I learned a lot about angle, fold, and manipulating fabrics to get them to go where you want.

Once these were completed, I finished a couple bigger bags with the same fabrics. Same thing, the borders were already on the floral fabrics making it a lot easier for me.

I used the same interior fabric from my stash and used a similar simple quilting pattern again. The zipper was once again a little tricky, but I had my technique down but the time I got to them and it went much smoother.

They turned out pretty darn cute! They are perfect for organizing all sorts of things like quilting chalk tools and markers, small toys and hair ties (you can tell what my daily like looks like), or organizing toiletries during travel, etc. All sorts of different jobs. I actually use them to help organize all the hearing gear I need to carry when my daughter travels with me. I love little bags. Such a great way to organize all those little things. I've put these on my Etsy site as well; come on by and see what's new in the shop.

So now I'm trying to decide what my next scrap project should be. Can you tell I've been on a little scrap kick? It's one of those things you don't need to buy new materials for, and can really clean up the sewing room. Win-Win!

I'm linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation and Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish Friday. Feels good to get something to the finish line. Now let's go see what others were able to accomplish this week.

Block Buster 8 - BOM 2

The second month of the BlockBusters BOM and I am in love. My two favorite colors in the world are pink and blue. Well, last month we had blue and this month...

Is that not the most beautiful, vibrant rendition of pink you've ever seen!?! It's so bright, so rich! I could just eat it up!

The pattern was friendly enough, although it was very similar to last months block, which I talked about here. I wanted to make sure this one came out a little different and capitalized on the color variation within the cut. I started with the lightest in the center and worked out from there. I also tried to make a square-in-a-square kind of look with square cornerstones. My points didn't line up wonderfully, but that's okay. Makes it unique and it still accomplished my goals.

Now I am ready to see what next months color is going to be. We are actually going to get 2 next month and not meet in July. Should be twice the fun.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Let's go see what everyone else has been working on.

Mothers Day Makeup Bag

I was thumbing thru Pinterest looking for Mothers Day present ideas and came across a little squared off makeup bag. It was super cute and I have been on a small-bag kick. I thought I could fill it with something to give to my Mom.

Of course, true to my form I modified it a bit and worked with the fabric pieces I had rather than cutting new measurements. It created more of a rectangle than a square, but I like it. It sits on a table nicely; no worries about it tipping over and breaking makeup compacts. There's also good room for even larger compacts like blush and powder.

I finished the one end of the zipper because it wasn't quite long enough for the bag. The other end I was able to leave raw and just sew into the seam of the bag. Less work, and nice finished look.

I filled it with kisses for my Mom; she deserves a ton of kisses from us. And now she has a bag she can use for other things, not just makeup. She could use it for quilting/sewing tools, or pencils/small paper pads for notes, etc. It's the perfect size.

And who can resist those colors. I am just in love with the rainbow colors. This is leftover fabric from  my Rainbow of my Own Quilt. It was already cut into the rectangles so I am using it like that to make the little bags. The bottom red fabric is leftovers from my sister's Where's the Plug BOM Quilt. They match wonderfully.

The second one I had an idea pop into my head that it would be nice to have a handle on one end. I quickly fashioned one together and slid it into the seam before sewing them shut. It's pretty handy. I wish I'd thought of it before so I could have done it on both.

The inside in lined with the backing leftovers of the Rainbow of my Own Quilt. All leftovers! Used everything from the stash. Another stash/scrap buster! Love that I'm finding things to do with them. I hate to see them sitting in a box waiting for an "assignment".

I just got more zippers in the mail, so I am excited to finish some other small bags that have been on the waiting list. I also need to finish my BOM for this month. I've got a lot to do this week, I hope I can get it all done...and maybe even a little more.

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday on My Quilt Infatuation. Come on by and see what everyone's working on.

Alaskan Lights Quilt

I've blogged about this a couple times, and I finally got it done! This has been such an awesome project! And it was not easy to photograph because it was really hard to get the colors to pop the way they do in real life.

Last year a friend who travels often, gave me a panel of alaskan animals and a yard of coordinating marbled fabric. In the last couple of months the northern lights have been showcased on the news and I thought of the fabric. How perfect would that be!

I cut out the panel and then needed to decide what to do with the marbled fabric to break it up. I came up with the modified bear paw pattern that would allow me to have a solid square in the center, showing off more of the marbled fabric.

One of my fave blocks! Love how the colors glow out of the fabric.

I got some help from my DH to figure out the measurements and got to work. I LOVE how the block pattern came out. It shows off the amazing fabric beautifully, it looks like an alaskan-inspired pattern with the bear paw, and the black fabric makes it also look like the northern lights at night.

The backing is actually a fabric I've had in my stash for years.  It has been waiting to back the perfect quilt, and it seems I found that perfect quilt. It matches the theme wonderfully, as well as the colors. The joke is that I used about 3 yards to complete this backing and I still have at least 2 yards left. I guess I over-purchased, but now I have enough for another backing.

It felt like the best quilting pattern was a thin, long meander. I only quilted on the pattern fabric, not on the black, to uphold the movement of the marbled fabric. I also used a variegated blue thread. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but I'm super happy with the results! I finished it off with a hand-binding.

The best part was that I used just about every scrap of the fabric, and you can't even tell where I had to do some patchwork to complete the border because of the pattern. Awesome! I love this finish! It is my hanging prominently on my display wall when you walk in the door. I love it so much.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finished Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Come on by and see what everyone has been working on.