WIP Wednesday: Granny Squares Quilt

When Jolene first showed her Granny Squares Block, I knew I wanted to make one, so when she posted her Granny Squares Quilt Block Tutorial, I had my fabric picked out within the hour!  Two weeks later, I cut the squares, and now more than a month later, my quilt top is finished and basted to a beautiful piece from the Hunky Dory Line I've been hoarding for the last few years.  I went a little smaller with mine {3 blocks across and 4 blocks down}, and this is going to be a gift for a friend of mine.

{If you haven't heard yet, this quilt design is all over the place right now. Want to see more? Check out some of the Scrap Attack photos on Flickr!}

All of the fabrics are from my stash, including the sashing. It's my new favorite, and of course I've only found it at one store. {Adornit's Pink Dazzled in Subtle Tan, originally purchased from Fabricworm and now seems to have dropped off the map :/ }  The color inspiration is from Josephine Kimberling's Just Dandy line...I won the FQ set on Fat Quarterly last year!

WIPs:
Granny Squares Quilt: Needs quilting and binding {no clue on the binding yet}

To Do:
Easter Dresses for the girls
Start Krista's quilt

Finishes:
New pillow cover for Della
Seat cover for Della's chair

A little post card from Arizona

Hello from super-sunny Arizona!  No really. We have had one "cloudy" day since we moved here. It is a-maz-ing.

After packing our entire house in less than two weeks, saying Goodbye to way-too-many friends, giving away quite a bit of my sewing stuff because it just wouldn't fit, driving 2,000 miles, moving into a beautiful new home, and getting settled in to a wonderful new city with an amazing new church family, I am finally breathing long enough to stop and say, "HI! I am still here."

The last two months have overflowed with transition and change, but I have a found a few minutes here and there to do some sewing (and a lot more think about it)!

Jolene's Granny Square quilt had me from the first glance, and I now have all my squares cut out and am slowing getting them sewn together.  This one lends itself perfectly to my schedule because even if I just have 15 minutes, I can get a few rows sewn together.  {I'm lucky if I get 15 though!}

I won some Echo fabric from Fresh Squeezed Fabric, and this is even more beautiful in person than all the photos I have seen.  I'm still trying to convince my hubby that we need to recover our {new} dining room chairs in this print :) I did sew up some placemat tops with this fabric, but because I got rid of quite a bit of my supplies when I moved, I'm still trying to bring myself to go buy some more batting so I can finish these up.  Until then, our table will just stay dirty. {mostly kidding!}

Most of what I have been doing though is laying out stacks of fabric for the projects I think I am going to do, only to distracted by one cute baby and a beautiful toddler. My biggest transition in this move has been staying home with them, and I love it. It is challenging, but I have been able to get to know my girls more than I ever did when I was working.  Sometimes it is a little mundane (like when I'm making peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the umpteenth day in a row), but I love honey, and it brings joy to my red head, so it's all worth it!

I finally get to tell you...

...we are moving!!  

We have spent the past year since Brandon's graduation not only enjoying having school out of the picture but also preparing to do what we know we are called to.  He is taking a position as an Associate Pastor in Arizona, and we could not be more excited! It has been pretty incredible to see some really specific prayers answered in the last few weeks, and I think that when we finally get a chance to sit down and breath, we will enjoy seeing how God worked in our lives over this past year.

So I am going to be packing up my sewing room tonight (with the possibility of a few tears!) and will not be doing much in that regard for at least the rest of the month. I will also not be on here much throughout the month, but feel free to check in any time via email! {irenedesign at ymail dot com}  

Along with moving a few states south and much closer to most of our family, I will also not be working full time any more!  I have loved my job, but I am really excited about this next phase of being able to focus more on my family and really settling into our church and city communities.  And true to my over-ambitious mind, I have about 10 different scenarios running through my head of how I can start my own business of some sort at some point.

So here is to a crazy year almost behind us and a year full of who-knows-what ahead!!

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Ornament

Monday I found out I would be going to a luncheon this coming Sunday that included an ornament exchange. I thought about heading out and buying one, but not being one to let things be simple, I decided to make one. I knew that last night would be my only chance to do so before Sunday.

Last year, Kristie at OCD made some really cool ornaments with fabric and an embroidery hoop, so I took a cue from her and went that route.  {I didn't see this until looking for links this morning, but here is a tutorial she wrote!}

Since this was my first, I kept it really simple.  I think the background fabric is a Heather Ross scrap, but I could be totally wrong! {I got it in a scrap swap with Sara.} I used double sided fusible interfacing to attach the the flags before doing my "embroidery", but next time I will try a glue stick or my spray basting because it didn't really stick.  I hesitate to call this embroidery because I was totally guessing on what to do, but I really like how this came out!

I used a 3" wooden embroidery hoop which is a great size for an ornament. {Anyone know if there is such a thing as a 3.5" hoop?  I couldn't find any, but that would truly be the perfect size.}

Since this is the only sewing I'll be doing this week and probably my only blog post {although I do have a finished quilt to show!}, I will be linking up with Amy's Sew & Tell on Friday.

Winner!

I had Della pull a name for the Scraptastic Giveaway over the weekend, and she picked Bellgirl!  I've sent you an email to get your mailing address so I can ship those to you.

Thanks to everyone for entering and sharing your ideas of how to store scraps.  It sounds like I am not alone in being only semi organized! I sort my small bits by color in clear plastic bins, and larger pieces and fat quarters go into a clear, plastic "dresser" of sorts.

New Wave Quilt and a clean machine

{If you're looking for the giveaway, it's over here.}

My mom has been oogling over my quilts all year, and she recently left me a comment wondering when she was going to get one.  I actually started her quilt back in June because I didn't know what my sewing life would look like post Baby 2, so it was hard for me to keep it a secret this long!  Her birthday was last weekend, and I finally truly finished the quilt with a label, a Priority Mail box, and a birthday card, and now it sits in its true home on her sofa.

Most of the fabrics I used were pieces left from other projects or pieces I bought for projects with my mom in mind that I never actually made! That blue and green are her favorite colors just makes sense given that my mom is someone who really encourages life in its many forms--whether in her own children {now all grown}, the children she teaches, her other family members, her church, or her garden.

From the first time I saw Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave quilt pattern, I knew I wanted to use it, and it seemed perfect for these fabrics.  I was right. I love this pattern.

The quilt came dangerously close to not making it to my mom because both my husband and daughter really liked it, but equality won out in the end since we already have three quilts and she had none!

In other news, I cleaned out my sewing machine.  When I took off the cover, I gasped. Out loud.  It was that bad.  See?! Yeah, it has never been like that before. I am was fairly good about cleaning this regularly, but I think I'll blame it on the quilt batting I have been running through my machine lately.

Holy lint balls, Batman!

I am linking up with Amy's Sew and Tell!

WIP Wednesday!

Progress is slowing down quite a bit around here in terms of actual projects, but I did get my sewing room cleaned and organized enough to have some sweet pieces to add to my giveaway this week.

I also {nearly} completed the quilting on my Small Plates quilt. There are a few areas where the fabric was dragging and I need to go back and pick out the stitches and re-do them.  I've been procrastinating on that though {see point one above}.

Beth came over this weekend for a little craft night.  I made one earring.  That's right. Not one pair. Just one earring. Obviously I'm making great progress! You should see what Beth is doing. She is pretty classy.

Oh, and of course I did manage to make a mini quilt for Amy's Mini Quilt Challenge and it is now hanging up in my kitchen!  I have to admit I smile every time I go by it. I love the colors and am really happy with how it turned out {even though it is completely different from the original plan I had drafted on graph paper.}  Next time I'll be referring to Kate's new tutorial for her Garden Windows blocks before moving on the the rest of my design!

Issue 7 of Fat Quarterly is waiting for me to finish reading. It's all about color, and so far what I have read and seen in there is so good.

Coming up this week:
Finish the Small Plates quilt. This one is not optional.
Finish the Violet Top. {What's that? You don't know about this one? Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting to take photos to include here!}
That's it.  No, really. I doubt there will be time for anything else, but if there is, I have an Amy Butler Birdie Sling I would love to make, some fabrics I pulled last night after reading Issue 7 that would make a great mini quilt or pillow, or 2 large quilts that are ready to be started, so I am not lacking in the ideas department as usual!

I'm linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!