Fresh Cut : Piece of Cake 3 Quilt

Fresh Cut by Basic Grey for Moda is here!  I have been waiting for this collection since the moment I saw it when our rep emailed us links of upcoming collections.  The pinks, the aquas, the greens, the florals ... pretty much all of it!  I love it!  

One of the great things about this collection is that there are some great low volumes and stashbuilders in this one in addition to all the beautiful floral prints.  We ordered our favorites for the shop.

There is a little sew along kicking off this week on Instagram with Camille's Piece of Cake 3 pattern. This is a quick and easy pattern that lets the fabric shine ... so I couldn't resist despite having several projects going on already...

I've got it all cut out and some of it glue basted and am ready to sew if I can find some time in the evenings after work this week!  :-)

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Diamonds in the Rough Quilt : In Progress

The Mixologie collection from Studio M for Moda hit our doorstep last week and I had to play with the blues from this collection ... perfect navy and light blues mixed with gray.

I started a variation of the Delectable Mountain quilt with this bundle.  I think the geometric prints are so fun and could handle something a little more angular ...

You can find a great tutorial for this block here at Quiltville.  My version has slightly different cutting and layout which you can see below.

For my blocks, I started with 9" squares and cut them in half on the diagonal and sewed them to white background to make HST blocks.  I trimmed the HSTs to 8.25" square and then cut three 2.75" wide strips from each block.  Then mixed them up and sewed them all back together.  (Make sure you cut your blocks in different directions - refer to the tutorial linked above.  Half of them need to be a "downhill" and half of them need to be an "uphill" block.)

I'll share more about my layout next week. :-)

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Gene Pool Quilt : Rowing Right Along

At the end of the year, I started the Gene Pool quilt by Jen Kingwell.  I started with a few scrap bags from Fig Tree collections and quickly realized I was short on fabric to make this big enough.  (I had to downsize the pattern slightly based on the width of strips I was starting with ...)

I put out a call to my IG friends and several offered to help by sending fabric to help me finish so this was on hold for a bit while I waited on some fabric to wing its way around the world. (Quilters really are some of the best people I think.)

Anyway, I've been plugging away at this a little bit each weekend and so far I love how its turning out!  Here's where I am at the moment ...

I still have several rows to finish and have found that assembling these in pairs of rows has worked out great for me. (I have a few pinned on top of each other in the middle in this photo.)  I think I am about 2/3 of the way finished with this one.  :-)

This pattern is really pretty easy and is really fun to play with your layout of prints and colors.  It's really a great jelly roll-friendly pattern!

I'll keep you posted on this one as I go.

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Lazy Sunday QAL : Piecing

It's Sunday and that means its time for another Lazy Sunday QAL update. :)

I've managed to get all of my blocks cut and made this week.  I must say that this is the perfect project when things are a little crazy because its such easy sewing!  There are no fussy pieces, templates or points to match, so you can start and stop as you need to.

And with chain piecing, you can easily get these blocks knocked out in about 20 minutes a day over the course of the week.   If you've been following me on Instagram, you've probably seen me working on these a little at a time over several days.  I didn't even use pins. Easy peasy.  Truly!

Actually the sewing is so laid back, I even managed to rotate my blocks the wrong way!  Fortunately, I don't think it will make a huge difference in the overall design.

I'm excited to throw these on the design wall this week and stitch them all together.

Just like last week, I've pulled a winner from Instagram.  This week, the winner is cdketchie!  She's well ahead of me and was posting a layout this weekend.

Congrats, cdketchie!  We'll be in touch so you can choose your next May Chappell pattern.  :-)

If you haven't started yet, grab a layer cake and join the fun!  You can even make it with fat quarters and you can certainly catch up quick!  :-)

Don't forget to tag your progress this week on Instagram with #lazysundayqal and #isewwithsewlux.

I will see you next week with my finished quilt top!

Happy Sewing!  :-)

WIP Wednesday : Preppy Swoon

Just a preppy swoon block to share with you today.  Pink, green, and fun.  I love it!  What are you working on this week?

Happy Sewing!  :-)

In Progress : 16 Patch

What's stitchin' y'all?

I managed spend quite a bit of time stitching this past weekend and I must say it was pretty glorious to spend several hours stitching away at my leisure.

I got to hang out Saturday morning with my friend Sarah of Stitching & Bacon and we nerded out about fabric and quilts over coffee.  Super fun to talk fabric with her as many of my "real life friends" aren't quilters. She was telling me about her 16-patches and how fun and fast they were, so the decision was made!  Of course, I had to make one too.

Then when the mail came that afternoon and I saw the new HGTV magazine, I was inspired by the color combo on the front.

I had intended to go with pink, aqua, red and B&W low volume, but ended up nixing the red.

What do you think?  I whipped out 12 blocks in an evening and pieced the 30 x 40 baby quilt together rather quickly.

I did start quilting this on Sunday, but due to a tension issue, have since picked the quilting out.  Ugh.  I really think a different backing would be better too, so I have a feeling I will be unbasting and rebasting at some point this week.  I'll keep you posted!

Happy Sewing!  :-)

WIP : Weekender Bag

Happy Friday y'all!  :-)  Do you ever have one of those days at work where all you can think about is what you'd rather be sewing?  It just makes meetings so much longer.  :-)

After going to Sew South and tacking the duffle bag and also admiring my roommate's super fun Weekender bag, I came back ready to take it on.

So far, I've done the side pockets. I did some fussy cutting with a few pieces for the centers of the pockets.  And then I had to put it aside to work on some other things.  I hope to quilt some more panels this weekend.  I am headed to California for a conference with some of my students next week and had hoped to have it finished by then, but I don't think its going to happen.  Probably best not to rush it anyway.

Have any of you ever made the Weekender?  Any tips to share?

Hope you had a great day!  I'm off to do some of that sewing ...

Happy Sewing! :-)

Granny's Closet

Hi friends!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  It was rainy here and the mister said something about earning double points in his video game this weekend ... all that added up to just more sewing time for me!  :-)

Despite having about a dozen projects I should've been working on, I ended up making 9 granny's square blocks and another Scrappy Trip Along block!  I blame the sudden desire to make little granny's entirely on Clara!

For my grannies, I used some 2.5" inch squares that I cut from the Millie's Closet panel.  The panel squares are 6" so it was easy to trim them down and get lots of different prints from a fairly small piece of fabric.

It's pretty basic for these smaller granny squares (just one ring around the middle, instead of 2 rings).  I started with a basic 9 patch.

Then I added half square triangles (cut from 3" squares) to the sides.  I like to use a larger square for the triangles so I have a little more room for trimming them down.

Then trimmed them down (0.25" from the points).

My blocks finished at 6.25" square. It's too dark to take pictures of all of them now, but I did even get the rows sashed together!

That's all for now.  What have you been making this weekend?

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Superwoman no more ...

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!  :-)

Well, I am not superwoman.  I realized last night when we got home well after 9 pm that I just wasn't going to make it.  Oh well ... This one is basted and ready to be finished ...

... on December 26th!  :-)  For now, I will just enjoy the holiday ...

Happy (last minute) Sewing! :-)

Better Under Pressure ...

Hi again ... world's best procrastinator here to share my latest last minute project!  LOL

I've been hemmin' and hawin' about what to make and today it was time to just go for it.  I have two-and-a-half of five projects I'd really like to complete by Christmas done, but we'll see how much I can get done tomorrow!  This is the biggest one in progress ...

My Joy charm pack put to good use after several sketches for the design.

All the blocks are now pieced.  Just have to run over to the shop to get more fabric in the morning - need sashing and borders and backing.

Anyone else crazy enough to try and crank out a quilt between now and Christmas!?  I will just keep telling myself that I just work better under pressure.

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Weekend Sewing

Been doing a little sewing this weekend ... not too much since we traveled to a wedding out of town yesterday.  I have several friends expecting little ones soon, so I am on a mad dash to finish up some little quilts.

Fortunately, Jennie's Car Seat Quilt pattern is pretty quick to make.  Started a Bungle Jungle version ....

Finished the top today and then got all the pieces cut to a Vintage Modern version as well.  Hope to baste tomorrow.

What did you work on this weekend?

Happy Sewing!  :-)

In Progress

Loving how my Design Challenge project is coming out....

Finishing tomorrow so be on the lookout for a tutorial next week.

Happy Sewing!  :-)

WIP Wednesday: Chevrons

Hey y'all!  How's your week going?

Now that I have finished the FSU quilt and can "officially" make "whatever I want" (LOL) I've started lots of different things.  The first thing I made was a little chevron quilt and I thought I'd share a sneak of it...

I just need to hand stitch the binding down and it will be all set. :-)

This chevron quilt uses strips instead of half square triangles.  (I'm too lazy sometimes to want to match all the points and deal with the bias edges.)  And its only about 2 yards of fabric total for this one - all these are from my stash, actually.

Would any of y'all be interested in a tutorial for this one?

Don't forget to take a guess at my other WIP (comment on this post).  I'll choose a winner tonight and post tomorrow.

Happy Sewing!  :-)

WIP Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, y'all!  I sure am whipped after a long day of freshmen orientation at work yesterday ... but I am really here to tell you about a new work-in-progress WIP I have going on this week. :-)

Now that I am free to "sew whatever I want" with the FSU quilt done, I got to work on some fun things I've had waiting in the wings for way to long ... including a Anne bag from Clover & Violet.

I wanted to use a bigger print for the body of the bag and decided to go with a large bouquet print from the Flora line.  This fabric is just so pretty.  :-)  Since I didn't have pieces to guide my quilting, I grabbed a ruler and a FriXion pen and marked a grid on the fabric.

For the top band, I used a coordinating Flora print and made some ruffles by pulling the threads.
I had actually bought a ruffler foot some time ago when a store was closing.  I pulled it out for this project and was disappointed to realize that the shank on the foot doesn't fit my machine.  :-(  But ruffling by hand wasn't that bad.

Here's the shell of the bag all ready for the lining to be added.  I think its looking really good so far and the pattern is really easy to follow.  :-)

Hope you are having a wonderful week so far!

Happy Sewing!  :-)

Brights

Hi everyone!  Hope your week is off to a great start!

I recently joined the Modernista Homemade Swap on Flickr and apparently my partner needed some direction about my colors.  The first room we're sewing for is our sewing room/space, so I took some pictures of things in my space ...

... and mentioned that my partner probably can't go wrong if she uses bright colors!  :-)  Hope I didn't confuse her more.

Speaking of bright colors, I started some new blocks this weekend with a new flying geese ruler.  I had so much fun with my test block, I cut everything I needed for 15 more and have them waiting in the wings (couldn't resist the pun, sorry!) to sew as I get time.  (Not that I needed a new WIP or anything, right Rhonda?!)

What are you working on?

Happy Sewing! :-)