WIP Wednesday

Well I can say that I finally have a finish for the new year!

Yep my best friend's Baby quilt id done and delivered! I learned a lot and can't wait for the baby to be born now. The Pattern is "All Framed Up" you can find it in the Moda Bakeshop.

I also finally got my fabric in for the Skill Builder BOM

Lots of blues greens and some purple thrown in. The Kona Charcoal on the bottom is the backing fabric for the quilt. I picked these colors because my walls in my room are green and the floor is blue. This starts up on the 17th so if you haven't registered to do it, it's completely free, just click on the banner on my sidebar to sign up!

I also started the very long road of doing a Farmer's Wife quilt. I cut the fabric for the first block and haven't had time to do much else.

Sorry for the colors my camera's batteries are dying and for some reason my iPhone has been taking some really blurry photos. I have no clue what fabric line they are from other than they are reproduction Civil War fabrics. This quilt will be going to my mom and dad when it's done.

Also remember this? I finally sat down and attached it to my Necchi and found out that it fits!!! I was exstatic that it fit. My sister said it was quite funny to watch as I tried to figure out how to install it on my machine. I think I might do a tutorial on how to install it as I wasn't sure and there was no instructions.

WIP Stats for 2013:
Finishes:1
WIP: 3

Please head over to Lee's and check out what everyone else is doing!

First finish of the year!!!

I finished my best friend's baby quilt and gave it to her last saturday. She really loves it and a lot of people admired it! So warning post is very picture heavy for me.

I started off back in October when I had been told it was a girl to find a pattern for the quilt. Well finally I was crusing through Moda's Bakeshop when I came across "All Framed Up". I fell in love with the pattern and started looking for fabric when I saw a giveaway for Happy Ever After by Riley Blake and decided it was perfect. One quick order from Etsy and I was in business.

The first photo I posted was the completed center block with the applique. This was my first time doing it and I was a little terrified that I would really screw it up.

Then came a day of cutting and pinning as I got to work finally before Christmas trying to burn the midnight oil as January 12, 2013 was coming up fast.

I got them all sewed up and pressed the next day.

Then came the layout as blocks where cut and sewn more to remind myself how this was all suppose to look like.

Almost done with the top! Just had to attach the slashing, I also learned that I need to be more precise when sewing and pressing.

The top done with very wavy edges. This is why you need to make sure that you do a scant 1/4th seam and press well.

Working on quilting diagonal lines across the quilt. Ouch! This is where the first time I stab my finger with a butterfly pin needing a bandaid happened.

Showing off the one direction quilting and the beautiful backing fabric I found. I sill am in wonder how i lucked out on fabric that had pink Giraffes on it.

Then came two furious days of adding the binding with only two days to go I was able to finish attaching the binding and label. I also poked my left thumb twice! Needing two separate band aids on two separate days. The binding is Kona Cotton Carnation.

Then when I came home the next day I raced outside while the sun was out and snapped pictures of the finished quilt for the best photos of it.

Precious came over to help when the wind picked up to keep the quilt on the ground.

My first ever label and of course the permanent marker ran a bit in the wash. Still I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.

Friday Goals Checkup

Well I'm typing this still waiting for my calender year to change here, I've decided to post my goals for the new year.

1. Start An Etsy Shop. No progress right now as School is back in session and I've been busy.

2. Finish my best friend's baby quilt done.  I will post the final pictures and all tomorrow night as I am giving it to her then.

3. Finish my sister's quilt. No progress.

4. Keep up with the Skill Builder Block of the Month and work on my skills as a quilter. Kona Card has come in and I have ordered fabric. Now I am just waiting for that fabric to come in and for it to officially start.

5. Learn FMQ well. I hope to get the darning foot connected to my Necchi and play around with it soon.

6. Start and finish the Farmer's Wife Quilt. This is looking to be what I plan on doing Sunday while watching football. I have the book and the fabric I just need to print out the templates and get to work.

7. Make a bookshelf lap quilt for my work. I need to sit down with graph paper and make a pattern for myself to follow. Then I'm going to raid my meager stash and figure out what fabrics I am using.

8. Learn more crochet stitches to improve my skills. Other than a bunch of pinning on Pinterest no progress.

9. Post more.

WIP Wednesday Rule Number 1

Rule Number One of Quilting/Sewing: Never get blood on the fabric. Hence why I should probably either by stock in Band-Aid or find some quilter's gloves soon. I've been stabbed three times by needles or pins as I work on my best friends baby quilt, all in the left thumb at that.

So I've actually gotten really far on the quilt. The Pattern is All Framed Up found on the Moda Bakeshop here. The Fabric for the squares is mostly Happy Ever After by Riley Blake along with at least a square of Lucy's Crab shack and some Gypsy Caravan used in the Applique.

I started and Finished the quilting:

(Lovely picture of the dining room table) I used the technique of using painters tape to keep my straight line quilting straight and even. Though I will say if you do this take note: By normal Painters tape and even then expect it to move and not stick. It got a little frustrating on large parts of the quilt as the tape would move and refuse to stick.

Here it is all quilted:

I only quilted diagonally in one direction because A) I was afraid that if I went the other way it would be to stiff for a baby blanket and B) I had two spools of the pink variegated thread by Meltzer and I had used an entire one on the front and was freaking out that the second one wouldn't be enough. It was also late Saturday night when I found this out and the LQS was closed. I still like the one direction though.

Picture of the back:

The Backing fabric is Spring Fling by David Walker for Free Spirit. I bought the fabric at my LQS back in November loving the colors, and thinking it would be great. Fast forward to December when I met up with my friend again to do Dinner and she told me that she wanted to have the theme of Giraffes for the nursery and I was jumping for joy.

I have refused to show her any pictures of her quilt, she doesn't even know what fabric I'm using. I've attached the binding by machine and am in the process of hand-stitching it down. All and all I should have it done and washed to present to her on Saturday for the Baby shower. Yes I do feel like I've taken on a lot.

I'm also jumping for joy as my Kona Cottons Color Card has come in! I've placed my order for the fabric for the skill builder BOM and am just waiting on it to come in. I've also printed out the first templates for my Farmer's Wife Quilt but will not be touching that until later.

2013 WIP Stats:
Finishes: 0
WIP: 3
Please click on the banner and head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

Friday Goals Checkup.

Since I've listed my goals for the year I decided that every friday I would repost them with photos of what's going on with my goals, add new ones and ultimately keep trying to be a better blogger. New Goals will be Underlined.



1. Start An Etsy Shop. No progress as of now. I worked extra hours this week and have been utterly exhausted when I come home. I need to sit down and start up a spread sheet for expenses, and other non crafty things to make sure my shop is a success.

2. Finish my best friend's baby quilt done. Nothing has changed since Wednesday, which you can read about here. I plan on buckling down tomorrow and getting the quilting done and the binding cut. I would also like to thank everyone who's says they like the colors or have given me advice on the wavy borders.

3. Finish my sister's quilt. This is going to haunt me for a while. I haven't actually sewn anything on it since about October/November. I plan on starting up the hand stitching again if I don't just FMQ the borders and do the blocks by hand.

4. Keep up with the Skill Builder Block of the Month and work on my skills as a quilter. I'm waiting on my Kona Color Card to come in. Once that comes in I get to stare at colors trying to decide which ones to use. I also have a deadline here, as the first block is coming out on the 17th of this month.

5. Learn FMQ well. First step: Getting the darning foot and praying it fits my machine. As I have a Necchi I can't just go anywhere and find a darning foot I'm hoping the one I bought will work out well.

(Please Note that this is not a sponsored post I'm just showing what I am trying out, to help others who have a Necchi like i do.)

6. Start and finish the Farmer's Wife Quilt.
Book:

Fabric:

I got these lovely Civil War reproduction fabric from www.timelesscalico.etsy.com. Lindy was great at answering my questions and shipping the fabric.

7. Make a bookshelf lap quilt for my work. It's always cold in our office starting in fall and moving through spring. Since I work in a library I thought it would be a good idea to do a quilt that looks like a bookshelf.

8.Learn more crochet stitches to improve my skills. I've been looking at pinterest links but nothing else.

9. Post more. Two post in a week is a new record for me!

10. Post this list every friday with the updates as I add more goals and complete the one's stated here.

First WIP of 2013

Well Since it's a new year and all my finishes go to zero but unfortunately everything else still stays the same. I do have more progress on my best friends baby quilt.

Here's the layout I finally decided on and snapped a picture to keep it all the same. I did this all on the 31st as I had the afternoon off. From there it slowly progressed:

This is where I stopped with my back hurting. So close yet so far from being a completed top. I've found that my cutting isn't precise as I need it to be and I have some really waving borders because of it.

Here's the finished top. I really like how it came together and all. I've gotten it sandwiched and have started the quilting on it but didn't finish. Tomorrow's the normal work day so I'm thinking it will take me a couple of days to quilt this completely.

WIP Stats for 2013:
Finishes:0
WIP: 2
Linking up with Lee as usual. Please click on the WIP Wednesday banner and go check out what everyone else has been doing!

2013 Goals

Well I'm typing this still waiting for my calender year to change here, I've decided to post my goals for the new year.

1. Start An Etsy Shop. This will probably stake a while as I'm still reading up about what I need to do and start making items to sell.

2. Finish my best friend's baby quilt done. I've got a lot of it sewn together but the quilt top is not done yet. My back started hurting so I stopped for the night.

3. Finish my sister's quilt. My mom has been helping sew it by hand as she isn't working right now becuase she is a teacher on break. I still am so in the weeds here.

4. Keep up with the Skill Builder Block of the Month and work on my skills as a quilter. This is a quilt as you go Block of the Month , which I've never done and also done for free motion quilting.

5. Learn FMQ well. I've order hopefully (keep your fingers crossed) the correct foot for my Necchi Sewing machine. If it works I will definately be posting about it.

6. Start and finish the Farmer's Wife Quilt. I've got the book and just need to make the templates and start working on it.

7. Learn more crochet stitches to improve my skills

8. Post more. Even though I usually only have time to quilt on the weekends I need to try and eek out more time.

9. Post this list every friday with the updates as I add more goals and complete the one's stated here.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and stay safe!