Yearly Archives: 2015

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So I've been doing this for a year now! It's a weird milestone in that it both feels like time has flown and that I've been doing this forever. I'm having such a great time and really enjoy interacting with my readers. Thank you all for being here. It wouldn't be nearly as fun without you!

This is my 127th blog post. I've decided I'll share a little of what I'm up to and some of my top posts. This month I've been teaching my son how to quilt. That's been super fun so far. I'm loving participating in mini swaps on Instagram. I'm trying to finish up some WIPs (ya know, so I can start some new projects!). Most importantly and excitedly I've been able to regularly work on my projects and I finished 11 quilts in the last year since starting the blog! For reference, my first 10 quilts took me over a decade. (gasp!) I'm excited by all the inspiration on Pinterest, Instagram and so many awesome blogs!

So what am I working on this week? I've cut out all my pieces for this fun rainbow inspired mini for the Rainbow Mini Swap on IG. Here's my palette.

My giant wonky star quilt is pinned and ready to quilt. (It's about time... it only took me 5 months to make the quilt sandwich!) It'll be awesome to knock it into the finished column next week.

And my newest quilt project: here's my Blogiversary Scrap Attack mini quilt top that I'll be giving away in my Grow Your Blog post this weekend in honor of my 1-year Blogiversary. Please come back Saturday night for your chance to win! (Pattern is Scrap Attack by Diane Bohn.)

Here are some of my most popular blog posts in the last year.

Top 5 Quilty posts

  1. ALYoF October Finish
  2. Bold Blooms: ALYoF December Finish
  3. Candy Shoppe in Natural Light
  4. Disney Mini Swap 2015
  5. July Goal Report: Frieda the Table Runner

Top 5 Non-Quilty posts

  1. The Secret Treasure Room
  2. Tangled in Yellow Yarn: Rapunzel Hair Tutorial
  3. The Girl Turns 2: A Bug Birthday Party
  4. End of Year Teacher Gifts
  5. The Boy's Party Shirt

Thank you again. If you're not already a follower, I'd love for you to join us. You can subscribe by email to the right (or below on mobile) or follow my blog on Bloglovin':

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Linking up to Needle & Thread Thursday.

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With the new year I started the new project of teaching my 4 1/2 year old son to quilt. He's making a simple one-block quilt with six rows of six blocks.

This week he pieced the last set of pairs together and then pieced the pairs all together into rows, so we ended the week with six pieced rows. The biggest problem we're having is getting him in a good position so he can see well and not lean his elbows on the edge of the table (which is stopping his hand from moving with the fabric).

Once he finished piecing the blacks into pairs, he used his planning picture (on the computer screen) to lay all the pieces out on the floor.

Then he pieced the three sections in each row together.

Here are the completed rows.

And we numbered some flowerhead pins so he could label the rows. (He loves pinmoors.)

I had planned to teach him to press the seams once he finished piecing the rows, but I decided I'm not sufficiently ready to do that. See, I press the seams open for ease of quilting so it's quite a picky job. Instead, I decided I'd let him help me iron my yardage and fat quarters that I needed to cut for one of my projects. He'll be able to help me finger press the seams open and watch me do that pressing job. In the end he did get his hands on the iron, and carefully pressed some of my purple fabric. (Now all the pieces for my Rainbow Mini Swap quilt are cut out! Yay!)

I realized since he is left-handed I needed to have him stand on the other side:

This week he also learned about the fancy stitches that the machine can do. (He was a little disappointed that he couldn't use these for piecing the blocks.) He can almost change the presser foot himself. I showed him how to thread the whole machine and he threaded the needle. He also did some measuring for fun.

For my related one-block project, I turned my pile of partially pieced blocks into a completed quilt top this week. My daughter's "pattern" is growing on me. From this:

To this:

If you're just joining us you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. :-)

Continue following along with Part 4.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.

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In 2014, I really got back into regular quilting and sewing. Much of my stash at the start of 2014 was pretty outdated and I was seeing so many great projects being made from newer, more colorful, bold, beautiful, modern fabrics! So naturally, I had to have some. I certainly spent some time doing some quality fabric shopping last year, but I also worked really hard to create my sewing space, prewash all my fabrics that I hadn't yet prewashed over the years (read as: a lot of fabric) as well as to get it organized, a la Jeni Baker's suggestions in her awesome "Art of Choosing" blog series.

I'm working my way through some old WIPs, sometimes with less than inspiring fabrics compared to my new stuff. Participating in mini quilt swaps on Instagram and a couple quilting bees has allowed me to start dipping into the new stuff, and I've started making piles of some of my newer fabrics so that once I'm allowed to start some new larger projects, I have a palette ready to go. ;-)

I have found in my shopping this year that I am a blender addict. The majority of my purchases this year have been tone-on-tone or white-on-color fabrics. I participated in the Stash Stack Club for a few months (turquoise, citron/lime, orange) which built up my stash in those areas. You'll see my gaps in the rainbow, namely pinks and true greens. I'd also like a few more reds to choose from.

Lots of blues... but many of those are a decade old (originally collected for a bed quilt I was going to make myself when I was single, and never even started) and slightly less than inspiring. I destashed some to a friend recently, but the blues could use some more work.

Neutrals (I clearly lean to greys over browns/tans):

These are holiday prints (Halloween and Hanukkah) and miscellaneous multicolored prints, including novelty:

Once I got the stash all organized it made it so easy for me to pull fabrics for projects, or potential projects in some cases. Yeah, I just like to play with my pretty fabrics. Here are a few of my current piles. I'm building this first pile for some future quilt project. I'm currently crushing on greens/turquoises/teals.

I have a sorely neglected WIP to make my 2.5 year old a cuddle quilt. These batiks will be the fish on her ocean quilt.

And these cute zebras and elephants will become a baby quilt. Still thinking on a pattern choice for them.

Any fabrics that are over a yard I have stored on my mini bolts (cut up foam poster board from the dollar store).

Three of those are slated to be backings on specific projects in my current to do list. A few others I'm intending to make children's clothing with. My son will probably use the turtle or octopuses for the backing on his quilt.

I'll have to show you my precuts and scraps in another post. All in all my stash is in much better shape than it started the year. The gaps that I'm currently shopping are:

  • white on black
  • red blenders
  • low volume (esp text fabrics)
  • non-blenders (stuff with more than one color in it!)

That said, I'm not in particular need of filling those gaps at the moment. I need to knock out some finishes before I start a fun new project. I'll be linking up to #sewmystash2015 on IG led my Leasa as I use some of what you see above throughout the year.

What's in your fabric stash?

Linking up to Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.