WiP Wednesday ~ Pixelated Angel

Only 1 square done today :( You'd think, having been awoken at 4:30 am, I'd have gotten more done. Unfortunately, no, that's not how my life works. I think the phone rang every single time I sat down at the sewing machine. Oh, well. 100 more pieces closer to finished; it'll get there.



Lookie what came in the mail for me today! A box of pretties I won from Granma's Charms. She's been destashing & cleaning up her sewing room. Looks like she'll be holding another giveaway in the near future :)


Washed 2 finished quilts today. Am I the only one convinced that they'll disintegrate into rags the minute they hit the water? I'm sure (every time) I'm going to pull a shredded, thready, destroyed quilt out of the washer/dryer. Both quilts made it through just fine, I think it's just a paranoid fear of mine.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WiP Wednesday.

Some Giveaways & A Few Interesting Links

Giveaways
~ Happy Quilting is having a giveaway to celebrate the Grand Opening of The Intrepid Thread's new Website. Up for grabs is a FQ Bundle of Pat Bravo's Poetica, ends 3/11
~ Stitched in Color is hosting a giveaway for 12 ounce Studio Scrap Pack & A FQ Bundle. Sponsored by JAQS fabrics, winner drawn 3/9 (& also, check out the shop, good prices)
~ Enter to win a copy of Bed Runners & More at Spun Sugar Quilts, ends 3/10
~ Samelia's Mom is having a giveaway for a charm pack of Vintage Modern, ends 3/16
~ Confessions of a Fabric Addict is passing on the Passing It On box, winner announced 3/9
~ We Love Quilting March Giveaway is 50 FQ, ends 3/31 (I assume)


Interesting Links
~ Bonnie Hunter has a tip for getting the stinky out of fabric.
~ Piecemeal Quilts is hosting an Ironworks* Quilt Along

~ Patchouli Moon Studio has a tutorial for making cute little books.
~ Stitched in Color is having a Festival of Scrappiness linky party, March 26-28. Any quilt top finished in 2012 and made mostly from scraps is welcome to take part. There will be prizes :)
~ Quilting Gallery (you should check out that blog, seriously) is hosting a blog hop with giveaways, March 16-23

~ Sew Many Ways... has a tutorial for making an ironing board out of an old table. So need to do this :)
~ Have something crafty you'd like to share? Quilting by the River has a Linky Party Tuesdays :)

~ Or link up at SewHappyGeek's Manic Monday Linky
~ Or even Sew Many Ways... Sew Darn Crafty linky :)
~ Finish up a project in March? Add it to the linky at Such a Sew and Sew A Stitch In Time: March Finishes Linky Party


That's all for now :)

Pixelated :)

I was going to save this til the top was all done, but....OMG! FACE!!! She has a face! Yes, I'm excited. I was concerned that even at 1" square, the face wouldn't show well. It does, yay!

(& obviously, this is not the the Green X quilt. I added a row to it, & the more I add, the more the pattern disappears. So I put it up for now. I'll finish it someday. )

Bea...Bea...Hey, Bea....

A Few Giveaways

~ Annie's Ruby Slippers is having a giveaway for 5 Fat Quarters, ends 3/19
~ Sew Happy Geek is also giving away 5 FQ, ends 3/8
~ Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop is having a giveaway for a 14 piece Breeze Fat Quarter Bundle, ends 3/7
~ $200 Visa GC at A Mom's Take, ends 3/26

My New Machine & This Week's Plans

Sewing machine shopping yesterday. You'd think that would be fun, but with a cranky 6 year old & an even crankier 18 year old along for the ride, not so much. 150 mile round trip, 6 or 7 stops, & I ended up with the sewing machine I originally wanted in the first place. Yeah, it's a beast :) And $50 off, so bonus. Total pass for The Husband for the next week or so, since it was his birthday. Yuppers, gotta love a man that will take you sewing machine shopping on his birthday




















I'm pretty happy with this machine. It's heavy duty, & I *think* even I won't be able to destroy this one for a while ;) I wish the throat were bigger (it's actually a bit smaller than my old one) but I'm pretty sure I can still muscle most of my quilts through there. The other ones I looked at all looked like children's toys; no thank you.



















Gonna spend most of this week working on the Green X Quilt. 8 squares down, 40 to go. I've actually thought of a better way to do this, & likely will use the massive quantity of blue fabric I have in a similarly constructed quilt.




















I hope to be done with this top by the end of this week. Shouldn't be that hard, if I don't get distracted ;) Hopefully I'll also have time to work on the corner blocks for The Pink Quilt, too. Gonna do a Lady of the Lake Feathered Star block, a Bargello & Round the World blocks, & a Lone Star block, all at about 15".

And I haven't forgotten your quilt, Bea. It's next on the to-do list; I just needed a break from those one inch squares.

Hertford County Cub Quilt Done

I'm a little bit, let's say, particular.



So the quilt I've been trying to finish off this past week has got me feeling a bit stressed.

























At first, I tried to do the right thing. I pulled stitches, I remeasured. My seam ripper got a work-out.

















The I gave up being picky, & decided I could make a few adjustments & make things line up properly.















I developed a case of Quilter's Tourettes,


























but I finished the top.



I wasn't thrilled with it, so I sat it aside for a while :( Trying to finish up UFO's before starting anymore, so I pulled this out last week & started on the quilting & binding. Well, it's finished. It's a disaster, but it IS finished.
This is a simple pattern, using basic techniques. I ought to be able to do this, no worries. However, this is the 3rd (!) time I've tried to make it. The first 2 attempts ended up in the trash halfway through. I began to wonder if the Universe was trying to teach me something. And this is what I came up with :

Sometimes, no matter how precisely we plan or how hard we try, things don't always fit together the way they should. But if we push on through to the end, we may just end up with something functional. It might not be perfect, it might not even be pretty, but it will warm someone's life just the same.



Linking this up to Richard Quilts Link A Finish Friday & Such A Sew & Sew A Stitch In Time: March Finishes Linky Party.

Some Giveaways :)

~ SewCalGal is giving away a copy of the novel Sonoma Rose. She'll choose a winner next Friday (3/2)
~ Hilachas is celebrating her Birthday – Ready For Spring with a giveaway. You could win 5 FQs & a travel sewing kit. ends 3/2
~ Enter to win one of 3 copies of back to Charm School from Confessions of a Fabric Addict, ends 2/29
~ My Sister Made Me Do It is giving away a Fat Quarter Bundle of Tweet by Timeless Treasures. ends 3/1
~ The Jolly Jabber is giving away a Parson Gray’s Designer Select Fat Quarter Bundle. ends 2/28
~ Lots of Quilty type goodies being given away over at Lily Pad Quilting. Enter quickly, winner announced Monday

One for the Bin

I love this type of quilt. It's a great way to use up all of those odd-off fabrics that seem to accumulate when you sew & quilt. I have some upholstery samples in this one, some prints that were flawed, even some craft panel instruction pieces ;)
It *may* be that this quilt was started about 14 months ago. It *may* be that it only needed the binding on one side put on to be finished (ahem). It also very well *may* be true that I am easily distracted. Oh, well, it's done now.

Turns out when I did my accounting of projects the other day, I forgot 2. A tooth fairy doll, which will hopefully be done at some point before my daughter gets all of her adult teeth, & The Pink Quilt. Yeah, how in the world did I forget The Pink Quilt?

Linking to Richard Quilts: Link A Finish Friday & Such A Sew & Sew February Finishes, because, hey, 2 finishes in one week for me? Totally brag-worthy :)