FNSI results and Giveaway Winner

Did you have a productive FNSI? Follow the link to see what other quilters were doing last night, I usually find some great blogs to follow!

Since it's the second half of the month, I worked on my current BOMs. I made a boot for Boot Bash BOM. I like this boot a lot but wish I would have used more blue. Blue outline stitching on the boot would have looked really nice. But I'm not about to change it!

Look at them all together!

I really love this quilt!

Next I cut the pieces and stitched this guy from Jewel in the Crown BOM:

This little bugger did not want to go together correctly. I had to rip stitches and starch the crap out it. Some of the squares have their points cut off, but otherwise, I'm happy!

And this Civil War block came together as a Leader and Ender:

I'm happy with my FNSI!

And now to choose a winner for my 100 followers Giveaway:

Margaret!

From

Check out Margaret's blog. She is having a Giveaway for her followers, too! She's giving away a darling Dresden block Clock. Congrats Margaret!

Thanks for Folllowing and Have a Quilty Weekend!

FNSI Results

It was a late Friday Night! After going out for drinks and pool with some co-workers, I didn't leave much time for FNSI.

Instead of quilting, like my original plan, I decided to work on my Jewel in the Crown BOM. This little block took me over an hour to complete, but I love how it's turned out!

I also completed three more Civil War blocks.

This block is a re-make. My first attempt finished too small and stretched out and just looked horrible. This second time around still didn't finish perfect, but it's much better! I don't think this block and I make a good team!

I really like how this one turned out.

And this one I finished a few days ago.

Altogether, not bad! I've got my eye on some quilting tomorrow though!

Thank Goodness it's FNSI!

Wow, August is flying!

I feel like I’m just running this month and not catching up on anything. I feel that way partly because of my massive Quilting To-Do List. The other part is the fact that our apartment lease is set to expire soon. It’s been a few weeks of: Let's buy a house. Let's stay in the apartment. Let's move to Timbuktoo. Let's live in an RV and travel. Let's become wine-making monks. Still going back and forth on that decision, and gathering paperwork, making budgets, and forecasting goals for each scenario is wearing us out.

That’s why I’m so happy that tomorrow is Friday Night Sew In! My husband already knows about this night. He already mentioned how bored he will be all by himself on Friday night. Sorry babe! My plan is to quilt some more feathers on my Rehab quilt. My goal for August is to quilt 50 feathers. So far I’ve done 1.

I haven’t been entirely derelict in my sewing though! I completed a Jewel in the Crown block:

This was really hard. I paper-pieced it. There were a lot of set-in seams that I didn’t think needed to be in the pattern. With a little bit of editing, those set-in seams could have been eliminated. But I was too pressed for time and did them anyway.

The second block this month requires the same. I decided to traditional-piece the second block, which will eliminate the set-in seams. I heard from other people who are doing this Block of the Month that the paper-pieced squares finish a little larger. I was trying to paper-piece the entire project, but I can’t take any more set-in seams this month!

I have more to show, but I’ll save those for later. In the meantime, go sign up for FNSI. We’ll have tons of fun!

Extraneous picture: My husband and I at Lake Tahoe. Isn't he handsome?

BTW, do you ever have to explain what FNSI is to people who don’t live on the internet? Example:

“Want to go to a bar on Friday night, Jen?”

“Can’t. I have plans. It’s FNSI.”

“What’s that?”

“Uh, a whole bunch of people on the internet stay home and sew. We are kind of sewing together but we are at our own homes.”

The next questions are always awkward: Do you know these people? Do you work on the same thing? Do you video chat? What’s the point? You would rather stay home to sew than hang out with me?

Awkward!

Decompressing

Hello Bloggers! I’ve missed you! Being away for 3 whole days really takes a toll on me, lol! We had a great camping trip: lots of ATV-riding, shooting, sunning, swimming, cooking, and eating! Lots and lots of eating, actually! Corn-on-the-cob cooked in an open fire, beef jerky, potato chips, watermelon, salmon…you name it; we pigged out on it! My mom decided to leave a day early, and like the lemmings we are, we all followed her.

Since I got home a day early, I decided it was only fair to go back to work a day early.

NOT!!

Haha, almost had you there! Of course I didn’t go to work. Instead I spent the day lounging around the house, doing a zillion loads of laundry from camping and playing in my sewing room! What a great way to end a vacation. I think I’ll try to end every vacation that way from now on. A quiet little decompression at my sewing machine.

I finished my Jewel in the Crown BOM block for July. I mostly like this block, except the dot fabric and the pink blend too well together. And I messed up on my paper piecing. I started in the wrong place. There was a lot of cutting and pasting and finagling and crossing my fingers and holding my breath to get the pieces to look right. Luckily, I’m very experienced in covering up mistakes, so it looks fine!

Then I finished my Boot Bash BOM for April. I was afraid it would be too much purple, but it looks really cute in person. The small, dark purple pieces were cut from a Crown Royal bag. I added some pink stitching to it. Now I’m only 3 months behind. I need to get cracking on these!

Any plans for the weekend? I am playing in the Friday Night Sew In ! Woo-Hooo! I’ll also be linking up at the UFO Weekend Party at Pigtales and Quilts and will be working on a UFO. That’s two chances to win on Friday night! Great motivation to convince you to stay home and work on a UFO. I pulled a new UFO out last night, but don’t know if I’m ready to dive in quilting it just yet. I guess you will see tomorrow!

Today is FNSI!

I’m so excited. This week I’ve been working on catching up on my Jewel in the Crown BOMs. I did Block 2

And Block 5

I am now officially caught up! Yay! Just in time too, because I think Reeze is going to be releasing two blocks per month pretty soon. I am totally loving this quilt. It’s so much easier to sew when you follow Reeze’s instructions! I am hoping she will post instructions to the setting triangles soon so we can start on those. I need to buy more batiks too, because I am running out!

That means I am caught up on half of my BOM projects. I’m still behind in the Civil War quilt along, although there is no stress. This week coming up I’ll work on catching up on my Boot Bash BOM.

Tonight, though, I will be quilting on my Bliss Quilt. I really love this quilt. I made it to take to work so it fits perfectly on my lap without making it look like I’m sleeping on the job. I have my thread picked out, a rough idea of what I am going to quilt and my quilt sandwich. I brought it to work today so I can let it my quilting plan germinate in my head. Hopefully by tonight it will sprout a fully-grown plan!

So get your comfy shorts on, pour yourself a glass of wine and let’s sew together!

My Own Worst Enemy

Since the FMQ Challenge has ended, I have focused on catching up on my BOM's. I had a list of 12 in January. Some I actually tried and abandoned. Others never got past the "maybe" stage. Now I have 5 actual BOM's that are active. Two others are still in the dreaming stage; I may get around to them this year!

This week and on the week-end I really knuckled down and got some Jewel in the Crown blocks done. I am paper-piecing all these blocks.

Do you ever feel like YOU are your own worst enemy? I sure do! I print out the foundation and then think: "Oh, that's weird. Why did she draw all these as seperate pieces. That's silly! I will skip a few steps by taping all these pieces of paper together." Did I stop to think that Reeze Hanson is a very talented and experienced pattern designer and she knows more than I do? No! I just went ahead and taped all those pieces together. Then I struggled over five days to work on one block. Argh.

I had to put this block down several times. It was emotionally exhausting. But lesson learned! One thing about me as a person: I always try to take the morale of the story. I try to learn from my mistakes. It's something I'm very conscious about.

Unfortunatley, I had already taped another block together. This one looked much easier so I just jumped right in.

I'm laughing at myself right now. One good thing that came out of this: I got pretty good at mitering corners! Silly me.

This one I think should have more contrast. But oh well! Today I printed and (didn't tape!) prepped the other two blocks. Two more and I will be caught up! I'm running low on batiks so...I'm hitting the fabric store today! Yay! The real one, not Joann's (sorry Joann! Love you!). I haven't been in so long, it will be nice to visit again!

Black, White, and Batik all over

I was a busy sewer this week-end! Even though my little brother came to stay with us for the week-end, I still managed to squeeze in about 8 hours worth of sewing on Saturday. Which is good, because Friday and Sunday were big busts.

I put together the first three blocks of Black and White Delight. The pattern calls for black, white, and a different accent color for each block. I decided to stick with black, white, and green. Luckily, I had just bought a large stack of green fat quarters at Joann’s, so I was ready to go!

January

February (I didn’t think I’d like this one. But I love it in real life!)

March (oops, just realized I put a piece in wrong. I’ll have to fix that!)

I need some more black and whites. I see another trip to Joann’s in my future!

I also paper-pieced the first block of Jewels in the Crown BOM. I love paper-piecing! Everything turns out so perfect. I just hate the waste that goes along with it. I'll have to get more batiks too! Don't you love these colors?!