WIP Wednedsay

I seem to have lost my sewing mojo. I don't know what has happened. I decided I was going to sew last night. I didn't have anything planned when I got home, and I was going to feed the kids dinner and put the little one to bed and then sew away. My husband had dinner going and I was cleaning out the 3 folders of school stuff that come home EVERY day. The power flickered. A minute later it flickered again. Then it was out. Thankfully dinner was just about finished. We tried to go have a picnic dinner, but the mosquitos tried to carry off the baby. Who can blame them...he has the juiciest legs! We ended up eating in the semi-dark kitchen.

While we were eating, we decided that we would go to CVS. I had to get a couple of things and who wants to chase kids in the dark? We went to CVS and got what we needed (and maybe some candy), and drove back to our neighborhood to see if the lights were on. Nope. The whole neighborhood was dark. We took that as a sign that we should go get some ice cream! Dairy Queen here we come. My daughter didn't know where we were going and kept asking what we were doing. After a family treat of lemonade, an Oreo blizzard, and a strawberry sundae, we decided that the little one needed to go to bed.

After we put the baby to bed, my daughter and I got the candles all lit, and I talked her into reading a few chapters of the Little House on the Prairie book we've been reading. I made it seem really great that we didn't have power, just like Laura didn't. Genius mother, I am. Just as we were finishing up, the power came back on. Hurray! Determined to keep my goal of sewing something, I decided to make some of the Skill Builder Sampler blocks I'm behind on.



I've done string blocks before and I love them. I am thinking of adding a whole quilt of them to my to do list...

My house improv block. Kinda blah.

I also tried the paper piecing block and messed it all up. FAIL! I'll try again. I have plans for sewing again tonight. I think if the power is off for 3 hours again, I may just give up!

Click over to Freshly Pieced and see what's linked up!

Back at it!

I've been sewing away, trying to get some unfinished projects into the finished pile! I have a couple of finished to show you this week!

First, I'm all caught up with the Skill Builder Sampler. I finished 2 blocks last night, but I had done the rest weeks ago. I switched purses and kept forgetting to grab my camera, so I never posted about them!


Breaking Out.
 I hate flying geese. I said it. I don't like making them and I don't particularly like how they look. Now I know.

Bow Ties.
I liked this block. Easy and you can do a million different layouts with them.

Virginia Star.
I like this block even though my points aren't perfect. It's the flying geese again.
Ohio Star.
Half square triangles are pretty easy. I don't love the orange in this block, but my points were spot on!
Double Star.
My points are TERRIBLE. Something was off on my piecing from the beginning of this block, but I like it anyway.
The hardest part of this quilt along is deciding on what fabrics to use. I keep putting them all up on the design wall to see which colors I need more (or less!) of.

WIP Wednesday 07/27/2011

We have been sick at my house...again. I'm pretty sure that the baby brought home some horrible cold germs from the pediatrician's office that were spread around to everyone else! Before I got sick, I did manage to get almost all caught up with my quilt alongs.


The Skill Builder Sampler is coming right along. I was missing the instructions for one week, but I'm going to go back and do it.

The most recent block is the Arizona. I really like how it all came together, but I am tired of HST for a while. I'm working on another quilt top of them and I've had enough for a while!

I went ahead and made up 3 more of my embroidery 101 blocks. I LOVE they way they all look together. I'm very excited about the way this is working out. I was a little unsure about my fabric choices at first, but I really like them now.

I also completed two more of the Farmer's Wife blocks. I like both of them, but the pink and orange points didn't match very good in the middle. I think I'm going to undo it and try again! I am having a really hard time getting the pieces accurately cut for these blocks. I think I'm going to have to just trace the templates and then use the scissors to cut the pieces. I've been using laminated templates and trying to rotary cut them with the help of a ruler, but I think there is too much slippage. The blocks come together so easily, but if the pieces are exactly right, they don't look great. Any suggestions from anyone who's working on this?
I've also been slowly working on the quilting for the plus quilt. I can only do a little bit at a time before I get so frustrated that I have to stop!

Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on over at Freshly Pieced!

Skill Builder Sampler #3

The third block in the Skill Builder Sampler is the churn dash. I really like this block, but not really my version. I hope that when it's put with all the other block it will be a little more lively!