Sometimes missing a deadline is necessary... like when one is sewing at midnight before the last day of school and decides that staying up until 4am to finish would not be wise. Instead the kids and I delivered eight open wide zipper pouches (size small) a couple weeks after the end of the year.
Fabric choices were driven by what color zippers I had on hand. We ended up with a rainbow selection and chose fabrics accordingly. The orange pouch has a blue stripe on one side, simply because I was a bit short on the amount of orange fabric. One or two of the others were cut 1/2" to 1" narrower than the pattern for the same reason. Everything came from my stash. Yay!
I started last quarter with 30 items on my list. I finished 9 of them. (Woo hoo!) Then I added a few... okay, more than a few. My list is now longer than last quarter. Yikes! A few more swaps were added to the queue (I'm on a break for signing up for swaps for now... er, I just signed up for one more) and the kids just helped pick out fabric for some new clothes. I think July and August might be slow going for finishes, but once the end of August hits and the kids are both in school again, I should be able to knock off a bunch of these. Remember, my 2015 goal was to cut the WIP list in half (it started at 24). I sure have my work cut out for me! I'd like to get 12-15 of these done this quarter, including some larger finishes (as last quarter most of my finishes were mini quilts).
The WIPs (roughly in priority order)
The Purple Ninja Quilt. Quilt top complete, backing and label made, and handed off to long arm quilter.
2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... it's really time to dust this one off and get my oldest WIP off the list! My July goal is to finish making the blocks so I can reassess the design of the overall project. Eight blocks down, a bunch more to go.
Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt. I finished cutting all the sashing and have high hopes of finishing this in the next couple days. I'm thinking that's actually pretty unrealistic though.
Halloween Mini Swap. Due late August. Still formulating a final plan. Here are some of my top contenders from my stash.
Text Me Mini Swap. Due late August. Big plans for a texty, rainbow Dresden plate.
Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. The new one. Partners will be assigned soon. Due early October.
Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt.
Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern.
My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
Swoon Quilt (first two blocks cut out)
Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She spotted this baseball fabric on the shop hop. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son.
Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter.
Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. So far I've received 4 blocks in the mail, plus my first block. Aren't they fun!?
4th of July shop hop table runner. Low priority at this point since it's July 14th now. ;-)
Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. Here's my latest batch of new fabric from the Intrepid Thread block of the month.
Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016.
Bucket List (I haven't pulled fabric for these, but I can't stop thinking about them. However, I have no business starting more new projects! Edited to add even more!)
Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
I had seen some really adorable pin cushions on Instagram and Pinterest and had yet to try my hand at making one, so in February I signed up for the IG Pin Cushion Swap (#IGpincushionswap) to make my first pin cushion. My partner, Maja, lives in Croatia and she mentioned that she loves Disney, Smurfs & bright colors." I like to send extras along with my swaps and found a little set of Smurf figurines. That gave me the idea to make the actual pin cushion be a Smurf house.
I made it out of felt and went through a process of trial and error for what would work to make it the right shape. Since I do not enjoy sewing felt on the sewing machine, the whole project is hand sewn (oh, except for a little liner pouch to hold the crushed walnut shells). I don't typically hand sew, but I think it worked out well.
I started with a 8 1/2" circle. My first prototype had a base that I made by folding darts in the circle. The roof of the house is close to a semi-circle, as large as I could cut from a single 8 1/2" x 11" piece of felt. It didn't look like much at this stage, but I figured it would work and just hoped it would come out as cute in reality as it was in my head.
My second prototype base had less bulk because I cut Vs for the darts instead of folding the felt. Still a little wonky looking.
At this point I started the long journey of hand stitching. This meant the project could go on vacation with me for some car sewing. You can see how I cut my circle for the base of the house. Nothing is measured. It's all just eyeballed. So unlike me.
I purchased crushed walnut shells to put in the base of the pincushion and poly fill for the rest of it. Once I'd stitched the walls of the pin cushion I was concerned that my stitches might not have been perfect enough to keep the smallest crushed walnut dust inside, so I created a little pouch to hold the walnut shells. I slipped it into the base of the pin cushion before stuffing it with poly fill.
pouch holding crushed walnut shells
The finished pin cushion. It's a little giant. Maybe 8" tall and 6" across the base. ;-)
Here's the entire package I sent for the swap. Maja told me that it was "absolutely amazing and [she] only wants to use it as display." ;-) The best part is that she forgot that she mentioned Smurfs on her swap form so she was totally surprised. Win!
Here are the three pin cushions (and so many other goodies!) that I received from my partner, Jenipher. Aren’t they cute! The little ones are a bracelet and a ring pin cushion. That's right! Pin cushion jewelry!
