Finish it up Friday returns!

Welcome to finish it up Friday! It's good to be back to this business of finishing. I need the accountability, as we saw earlier this week. I so appreciate those of you who have chimed in expressing your excitement about this. That helps so much. Thank you!

I do want to run a tidy little linky party, so I decided to set a few guidelines.

Finish it up Friday is for the purpose of encouraging each other as we work toward finishing up our WIPs and UFOs. I will keep the linky open for 24 hours from posting time each week. This is not a place to advertise a giveaway, your latest tutorial or a new pattern for sale. I'd like to keep this as non-commercial as possible. Thank you in advance for respecting those parameters.

For my finish this week I'm happy to share my drano quilt top! I finished piecing the top last night at 9pm or so. 12 days, 1715 pieces, countless hours sewing, and fabrics too numerous to mention. It felt like a marathon sewing event!

I (kinda) got obsessed with this project. Then I got burned out sewing all those pieces together. I even dreamed about this quilt. (not sure if that is good or bad?) I forced myself to push through and finish the top. For some reason I had this inkling that if I set it aside I might never return to it...and I can't afford another WIP at this point! I'm glad I persevered. I can (and I have) just sat and stared at it with a huge grin on my face. I love the magic of a scrappy quilt, you know???

Now, I'm so ready to sew something else! :)

How about you? Do you have a finish to share? Please link up here with your finish and then go cheer on others in their finishes as well. Thanks for joining me!

Happy Friday to you!

works in progress

I think I need a good dose of finish it up Friday. How about you?

(there are at least 9 more works in progress not represented here. no wonder I'm feeling frantic these days!)

I plan to start the linky party back up this Friday (about 10am central time). For obvious reasons. :)

Also, I hear that leaving comments has been a huge pain because of the word verification, so I'm turning it off for a bit....we shall see how that goes.

Hope you are having a great Wednesday!

drano quilt progress

This is about all that I've worked on in the past week, quilt wise. I only (ha!) need to make 14 more alternate blocks, then I can sew it all up. Making a twin size quilt out of two inch squares is intense! But, it's using up plenty of scraps...ugly and pretty...so it's totally worth it.

The best thing is....it's actually looking pretty good! I had my doubts.

Happy Monday to you!

drano quilt

I have a scrap addiction. It's getting worse, not better! I intended to spend some time stash busting, but I guess that's going to have to wait.

My all time favorite scrap size is the 2.5" square. (With ticker tape pieces coming in a close second.) I have a box that is overflowing with pretty squares. Then I have a separate box of ugly squares that I couldn't bear to part with. Now Moda started making candy...which is pretty much cuteness defined. I have several of those cuties from market.

All those squares can't sit around here forever. So, I started another quilt.

It's deliciously scrappy. All those squares (and more!) are going into this quilt.

The inspiration quilt has been a favorite of mine for a good long time.

A few years ago Katie hosted a quilt along based on Melanie's quilt.
(You can find the instructions on her tutorials page.)

This quilt will have a little of everything in it.
I sure hope it works!

really random Friday

My friend Cindy hosts a really random Thursday link up each week. Isn't that a fun idea? I never seem to hit it on the right day. So, rather than try again next week, I'm chiming in a day late and posting on Friday. (You should check out her super cute selvage box, too.)

Are you ready for some random???

There are still a few spots open for my Scrap Management workshop in November retreat in Fort Collins, CO. This is our 4th year doing a retreat!! Tara and I are working on plans to make it the best one yet. The quilt shown above (my long division quilt) will be one of the prizes this year! You can read more information about the retreat and how to sign up here.

My friend Stephanie wrote up a wonderful review of Sunday Morning Quilts (thanks Stephanie!) and is giving away a copy of the book. If you don't have a copy of the book yet and you want to throw your name in the hat, go check out her post here!

Just this afternoon I finished the tiny stippling on this quilt. I'm so excited I could do a little jig! It WAS well worth it. Now, to pick the perfect binding....

After making about 200 quilts, most of them with warm and natural or warm and white as batting, I'm ready to try something new. (Can you imagine!?!?) I bought a package of Quilter's Dream batting a few weeks ago to try it out. I used it in my most recent quilt and so far I LOVE it. I'm planning on doing a side by side comparison of Quilter's Dream vs. Warm and white after I do a bit more testing. You know...washing, drying and using the quilt a bit.

I did a bit more hand stitching on my tiny liberty quilt and now it's just. right. That's making me so happy!

And last but not least, I'm going to Jacquie's trunk show in Minneapolis tonight. I can't wait! I hope I remember my camera. :)

Happy Friday to you!

working smarter, not harder

After moving all my stuff down to the basement I had a fresh look at all my unfinished projects. It was a bit frightening. For that reason, among others, I decided to put two WIPs in one. This is my pieced chopsticks quilt. On the backside is my 'on the edge' quilt. They fit together really well, color and design wise. I only needed to add one strip to the other side to make it work. Now I only need half the batting! Sweet!

So....I was feeling all smug and smart. Then I decided to stipple it all over, but using a small stipple. (I put the quarter in this photo for scale.) That's not micro stippling or anything, but it's probably about a third of the size of my usual stipple. I love it, but I'm not feeling so smug anymore. This is gonna take awhile.

I keep telling myself, 'this will be worth it' over and over...and I will continue to remind myself that...as long as it takes. :)

in for repair

A few weeks ago my daughter brought her birdie quilt to me, crying. She was sad that the birds were starting to come off. I assured her that I could fix it and proceeded to set it aside. I finally fixed it today while she was at school. Of course it took me all of 15 minutes! I left her a little note along with the repaired quilt on her bed to surprise her. I was half listening to see what her reaction would be and I wasn't disappointed in the least. I heard her happily say, "hey, birdies, it's nice to see ya' again." Oh. My. Lands. Isn't that precious????

I think it's fantastic that she has loved the quilt so much that it needed repair. That's just the way it should be!

switching things up

Over the weekend we decided to do some shuffling in our house. My middle son is getting his own room for the first time ever. It's very exciting! But to do that I'm giving up my craft room. My new space will be in the basement. We joke that at least our basement will finally get used now. Joking aside...it's so true!

This week's task will be settling in and making sense of all my crap stuff! I hope it only takes a week. That's probably wishful thinking!

I've got lots of stuff that still needs to find a home....either here or elsewhere. I so need to purge!

I've found a home for some of my stuff already. My long term goal is to be able to fit most if not all of my supplies in this closet. (Are you laughing along with me yet?)

I can see some painting in my future, too. Those blue walls have to go...along with the brass sconces. I'm not sure how it's all going to come together yet, but I'm looking forward to a cozy new work space. Hopefully sooner rather than later...because I have a lot of fabric to sew up! :)

Happy Monday to you!

appreciating hand made

In our household things are rarely done half way. A big production? Yep, that's familiar territory, for sure. So, when my son (who is 12 today) asked for a 3 foot by 3 foot pillow/reading cushion for his birthday I didn't bat an eyelash. You can't blame him...my husband would outfit our stir crazy popcorn popper with a strobe light if he had his way about it....the kid comes by it honestly!

Anyway, I made the pillow out of decorator fabric I bought years ago for a mere $1.29/yard. Sweet! I had JUST enough left for the pillow.

To stuff it I used this uber soft and uber lofty poly batting that a friend passed on to me last winter sometime. It works great as filler, but not so great as batting. (too bad!). I used a TON of it in this pillow. I'm glad that I could use it on this project AND I have a bit more room in my basement. :)

It. Is. HUGE. And I can't stop giggling about it. My son is gonna love it!

I can't just leave it as is. No way! I'm also going to make a quilted pillow cover for it. (why, naturally, right?) I'm excited that I pulled these fabrics from my stash rather than the scrap bins! (See this post.) They will match his bed quilt nicely. Oh, man, I love grey and orange together!!!

For his cake he requested a home made carrot cake with home made frosting. (That's my boy!) It was the perfect excuse to use my new-ish kitchen aid mixer (LOVE) that has been sitting idle as we pursue a healthy lifestyle. It was so fun to bake something special for him today!

I'm reveling in the fact that my son appreciates hand made stuff. Even at his age. Yes, I know I have to enjoy it while it lasts. But he sure knows how to make his mama's day.

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Thanks so much for all your comments on yesterday's post. I love it when you all chime in and continue the conversation, and I loved reading your thoughts on the subject. Another thing that makes my day!

Have a great weekend!

conflicted

I love using scraps, there is no doubt about it. In fact, there is nothing I enjoy more (quilt wise) than sitting down with a pile of scraps and making something pretty, something useful out of them.

But I'm conflicted.

While whittling my scraps down to bits I have plenty of time to think about all the pretty and "new" fabric that I have and want to use. I would love to get around to it before gets old and out of date...or before I don't like the fabric anymore. Do you think they have a class out there somewhere that teaches you how to cut into your new stuff? :)

I've got such problems, don't I? Too much pretty fabric and not enough time to use it.

first day of school

Well, today is the first full day of school for these little ones.
I'm so ready for this! (Much more than I was last year.) No tears today.
I'm looking forward to the fresh start and the structure that comes with the beginning of the school year. Waking up at 6 something everyday, on the other hand, is going to take some getting used to!
(Just for the record...these kids are as normal as can be. My son didn't want his photo taken at all, much less with his sister. His sister on the other hand wanted a photo of them hugging. You just gotta laugh....)

And this guy....he started middle school (middle school!!!) yesterday. He turns 12 (!!!) on Friday.
Yikes. Big week.
There may be a few tears before the week is through after all.

winners!

The winners of the hello sunshine fat quarter bundles are Brenda and Karen.
The winner of the Liberty scrap pack and fat eighth is Sabrina S.
Thanks to all of you who played along!