Anyone else starting to feel defeated?  I mean where did the year go, and why in the heck can't I stay committed to finishing up these darn projects.  I have certainly learned something this year while participating in the Finish Along.  The quarters that are successful are the ones in which I make a short doable list.  If I make a super long list, it just isn't going to happen, I give up and barely finish anything (like last quarter with one finish.)  That being said, this quarter is going to consist of a short list, something I can actually accomplish.  So here we go...

1.  Postage Stamp Quilt - This one is insanely close to finished, I have the binding stitched onto the quilt, I literally just have to hand stitch it on the back, and then I'm done.

2.  Bloom Bloom Pow Quilt - This quilt is quilted and trimmed, sitting awaiting for me to make binding and stitch it on.  That is it folks, it just needs binding.

3.  City Sampler Quilt - This quilt is sitting awaiting for me to quilt it, I really want to have this one done by Christmas, so hence it made the list this quarter.

4.  Christmas Quilt - This one is just blocks, but it sure would be nice to actually use this one this Christmas, and I'm thinking it will be fun to work on a Christmas quilt around the Christmas holidays, so we shall see how far I get.

That is it, short doable list!  As always, thank you Katy at The Littlest Thistle for hosting the Finish Along, it sure is nice to actually work towards my goals, whether I am successful or not, and I am appreciative of that!  Well that is it for today, wish me luck on my list!

My first finish of the third quarter.  Good grief, it took me three months to get this thing finished and framed, but just in time, because Autumn has arrived!  It is now proudly hung and displayed on my living room wall, I just love it!

This cross stitch pattern is by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, and is the Autumn Sampler.  Twenty-five little boxes of Kawaii autumn goodness. I started this cross stitch about a year ago, and worked on and off for the better part of the year.  Apparently I am a really slow stitcher, extremely slow.  I loved every bit of it though, and can't wait to get really working on my next cross stitch project.  I find they are perfect for car rider line in the afternoons.

My first official finish of the 2014 Finish Along hosted by Katy of The Littlest Thistle.  You can see my third quarter finish along list HERE.  I'm currently working on finishing up 2 more things from my list, so wish me luck, I really want to knock some quilts off my list.

Hello everyone!  Welcome to my stop on the Craft Buds Craft Book Month Blog Hop, whew, that was a mouthful!  I was thrilled when Lindsay asked me back this year, as this is one of my favorite yearly events.  Nothing better than actually using those craft books you have purchased that are just sitting and collecting dust.  Last year I made a handbag and apparently I can not stray from that theme, as this year I have made another handbag!  Oh I love it so!

I dug through my collection of books for a while before settling on Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook, written by Anna Maria Horner.  Have I ever mentioned that I am obsessed with her, like LOVE LOVE LOVE everything she creates and touches.  I can't wait to meet her next year at QuiltCon, hopefully I can muster up the courage to actually talk to her and not just stare at her like a freak.. Anyways, back to the point.  This book has so many lovely projects in it, it was really hard to pick just one, but in the end I settled on Star-Crossed Love found on pages 65-68.  You can see the project from the book below.  How cute is that and I really don't own many "dressy" clutches, so win, win.

One of the things I love about this book is the huge mixture of handwork projects, from cross stitch, needlework and crewel.  I chose this project because of time constraints, honestly I am a very slow stitcher, and thank goodness I did because I finished this project yesterday.  I literally stitched on this baby for well over a month, every evening, every car rider line, stitching and more stitching.  But I love it, so it was time well spent.

This project had a short list of supplies, crewel wool, metallic embroidery thread, Aida, backing fabric, a zipper, interfacing and lining fabric.  Easy enough!  I was able to find the crewel wool locally, along with everything else except for the right size Aida.  The pattern called for 11 count Aida, and all I could find in black was 14.  So I went with it.  Well if you are a stitcher, then you know that 14 is smaller than 11, 14 holes per inch vs. 11 holes per inch.  Thus the scale of my handbag changed immediately.  No big deal, I just had to stitch a lot more and I reduced the amount of threads I was using per pinwheel (I used 2 instead of 3.)  This stitch is called the Milanese Pinwheel, something I had never done before.  After two of them, I had the hang of it and didn't have to refer back to the book at all, just fun stitching all those pinwheels.  I chose crewel wool in jewel tones, just picked out what I liked and I am so pleased with the color scheme.

After the pinwheels were complete, I then took the metallic embroidery thread (I chose silver) and I stitched a running stitch behind and around every single pinwheel.  For some odd reason I thought this was going to be the easy quick part, well I was wrong, it took just as long or longer than the pinwheels.  But I have to say the effect was worth it, It shines!

Once the stitching was complete, all I had to do was make a pouch!  That was so easy, I sewed this thing up in 30 minutes, which was really nice compared to the hours and hours of hand stitching.  I found a black on black velvet like motif on a denim like substrate to use as the backing, it feels great.  I bought a "fashion" zipper from JoAnn's, which had metal teeth which is more durable than the plastic ones.  I used an older Laura Gunn print on the interior simply because I like it and felt like it added a little pizazz to the finished product.

Upon completion, my finished clutch measures 7" x 9" and is the perfect size for date night!  I had almost a whole skein of the metallic silver left over, so I made a simple tassel to hook onto the zipper pull.  Voila, finished!  I created a little slideshow below to show the various stages of the project, it is neat to remember the pinwheels before the metallic thread was added.  I can not wait to have an event where I can actually use this thing, I am really proud of it.

Now that I have dusted off my craft book, it is time for you to dust off yours!  You have the whole month of September to create something and enter it over at Craft Buds.  All details can be found below if you click on that little square button.  Thanks for joining me today on my stop of the blog hop!  Now go create something!

Sorry for the radio silence around here, I've been busy to say the least.  I'm sure you have already heard, but if you haven't, I didn't make it past the first round of Sewvivor.  Yep, I got the boot.  Yes, I was disappointed, I mean really disappointed, and may have moped around for a few days.  But, I am happy to say that life goes on, I'm over it and steady sewing!  Actually doing a LOT of secret sewing that I can't share for a while, so that is why I've been absent.  I do want to thank all my followers and friends, because I did receive over 200 votes for my little bag, and I'm really proud of that and I have all of you to thank for that!

Now let me talk about some of that secret sewing for a moment, one of the things I've been working on will be shared next week as part of the Craft Book Month Blog Hop, hosted by Craft Buds, I'll be here next Thursday showing off my Craft Book creation!  I'm not done with that project yet, so I better get stitching, and I may or may not have shown off a sneaky peak over on my Instagram account.

All of the Craft Book Month information is below, and it really is a great event that encourages you to pull out those craft books you bought and USE THEM.  And no, this is not limited to quilting/sewing.  Do you have a great canning recipe book?  Preserve some food, enter to win.  Knit or crochet something, enter to win.  Easy peasy!  The prizes were announced today, which are really awesome, so there is no excuse not to create something, enter and hopefully win!

I'll be back next week, enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

Hi, Marci from Marci Girl Designs here and I want to start by saying, yes, I know that the second challenge is the bag challenge, not the first, but I couldn't help myself and Rach said we could make anything.  When it was time to decide what I was making, I just couldn't move past "bag" so in the end I went with it.  Simply put, I thought a Nautical bag would be so cool.

The bag idea really started to take shape when I was looking through old pins on Pinterest and was inspired by this bag found HERE.  If you click through, there is a tutorial on how to make that bag, but I didn't use that tutorial at all and just did my own thing based solely on the simple design.  I dug through my amazingly large collection of nautical prints and chose a simple blue with white rope, Windham Fabrics, "Catch of the Day" by Pela Studio.  I then added a coordinating blue Kona solid and a 100% linen that I had in my stash.

I cut random sized strips for each colorway, and serged the edges of the linen to prevent fraying in the future.  I sewed together long strips of each print and in essence created a new "fabric" piece.  I drafted my own purse shape, roughly 13" x 17" with rounded bottom corners.  I decided on the angle I wanted, and then cut out my pieces based on my drafted pattern. This was actually really difficult for me, and involved a lot more time than I was originally hoping.  Those angles get me every time!

Once the front and back chevron pieces were sewn together, I then fused Pellon SF-101 to the backs of each piece for added stability.  I then added a 100% cotton batting to the back (creating three layers) and pin basted it.  I sewed around the edges, a scant 1/8" to hold all the layers together, which was especially helpful when it came time to construct the bag.

I decided to hand quilt with a lovely dark blue pearl cotton in large chunky stitches on the linen only, 1/4" away from the edges.  All of the hand quilting was done while my family was on vacation for a week (ironically at the beach) smack in the middle of this challenge.  I then used the rest of our vacation to stress about where this project was headed.

Upon getting home, I quickly went back to work.  At first I thought I would raw edge applique something nautical on the bag, but I couldn't figure out what and felt stuck.  I'm not sure how the idea came to me, but I remembered I had a book, Scandinavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman, and in it was this darling project quilt that incorporated a "nautical" poem that was free motion quilted onto the quilt.  That project in the book was called the "Once I Caught a Fish Quilt."  Hmm, I wondered if there was any way this would work with my design?  Well amazingly, it did!  It fit just perfectly, so I used a black thread and free motion quilted the poem on the front and back.

One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let go again.

Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on the right.

I was pleasantly pleased how well it turned out and honestly much easier than I expected.  I did all of the quilting on my old Project Runway Brother, with a generic free motion quilting foot and regular old Coats and Clark thread.  I brought all the thread tails to the back of the "quilt" and tied them all off and trimmed all the threads. Now that the quilting was finished it was time to turn it into a bag!

I made my own (kinda large) piping with the linen fabric, basted it onto the front, and then sewed the front and back together along the sides and bottom.  I found a really neat cotton webbing (that I felt looked really nautical and matched amazingly well) and decided for short handles after debating between short and long for quite some time.  I basted them to the bag and slipped on one D-ring on each handle before doing so.  I used the same blue with white rope fabric print for the lining and finished up the bag.  The top of the bag, which looks like I used bias tape to finish, is actually the lining made a tad bit longer than the bag, wrapped around the front creating that look.  I top stitched in the ditch around the whole bag, thus holding the lining on the inside and then stitched the handles down to the very top of the bag, creating a nice little channel that the d-rings were seated into.

I knew at this point that the bag needed a little something else, to make it just "pop," but I wasn't sure what.  Then i randomly remembered this little kit that came with one of my old issues of Mollie Makes.  I pulled out the kit, which I had not made yet, and realized it would be perfect for this bag, though the fabric that came with the kit wasn't perfect for this particular project.  So I dug through some red 5" charms that I had, picked 3 that I really liked and used the instructions and some of the kit materials to make this three little fish key-chain.  The kit and instructions were included in Mollie Makes Issue 29, and the project was named "Sardine Keyring" by Zoe Patching.  Isn't it the cutest!  I just love it, and so do my kids, who have now requested I make them a ton of fish (without the strings!)  I clipped the key-chain onto the front side d-ring and called the bag complete!  What do you think?  I just adore it!

Now that my first challenge project was complete, I had the task of photographing it!  You see, I live in South Louisiana and honestly there aren't a ton of beaches (or at least pretty ones) anywhere near me.  More like swamps and bayous, so I went with it!  I loaded up the family, drove to a nearby canoe launch that is adjacent to the Vermillion River and took a ton of photos.  Not feeling 100% about the first round, we went exploring and ended up in a State Park in Abbeville, Louisiana, the Palmetto Island State Park.  We had never been to this State Park, and were pleasantly surprised by what we found.  I finished taking my photos at the boat launch and later at the pond, and then the rest of the day was spent playing with the family.  We hiked, played on the playground and the best part, the splash pad, which was awesome and huge by the way.

The day ended at the pond, where I finished my final pictures and right as we were about to leave (the kids had been throwing rocks into the pond,) guess who showed up?  A five foot alligator!  Yikes, time to go! So I included this final shot to show "proof" of our alligator.  If you look to the right of the bag, there is a "line" in the water, there it is, head just out of the water swimming by!  No sir, I did not like that, and neither did my kids who were now freaked out!  I guess that is just some of the hazards to living in South Louisiana!

It was so fun and challenging participating in the first round of Sewvivor.  I really felt like I stretched myself with this project, trying new techniques and trying to think out of the box.  I traveled to new places, created a project I was really proud of and am just so honored to have been chosen as a participant in this really cool contest.  Now I need your help, 50% of the voting process is done by you guys!  So I would really appreciate it if you would click through HERE and vote for my project, which is PROJECT #8.  I really want to keep playing and if you liked what I created, please take a moment to go vote for me!  Thank you guys for supporting me so much and especially to my blog followers throughout the years, I truly appreciate you all!

Quickly popping in today, on a Sunday to let you know my amazing news (if you haven't already heard!)  I made it into the Sewvivor Top 16, you can see my audition piece HERE!  Woo hoo!  I am beyond thrilled ya'll, like crazy excited!  I wanted to blog earlier, but was on vacation for a week smack in the middle of the first challenge, so all of my time has been seriously devoted to vacation, crazy mad sewing and getting ready for school to start next week!  Can I say BUSY BUSY!  Whew deep breath!

Rach at Family Ever After (the host of Sewvivor,) featured a Getting to Know the 16 Sewvivor Contestants blog post last week and if you get a chance, hop over there and you can read a short biography of yours truly along with the other 15 contestants.  Tomorrow is the first challenge reveal, the theme was Nautical, so I'll be back tomorrow with a really long blog post about my first project!  I will need all of your help to continue on in this sewing competition, so join me tomorrow for all the details on how to vote and to see my first project!  Wish me luck!

One of the really fun perks of being a member of the Modern Quilt Guild is the fabric challenges.  I was always so jealous of the members participating in these challenges, so as soon as the MQG offered individual memberships I jumped on the chance and thankfully we were given the opportunity to play along too.  In February of this year the Micheal Miller Fabric Challenge was announced and we got a sneak peak of the fabric, Petal Pinwheels.  All participants were sent 6 fat eighths of this fabric line and were given the freedom to create whatever we wanted, just so long as it was quilted.

I wasn't really sure what I would create, but I knew that I have enjoyed working with triangles lately, so I decided to create my own thing and see where it ended up.  I started the four triangles in the quilt with the same size center and then cut strips of varying widths and created a "wonky" effect.  I kept sewing rounds until I was at a size I was happy with (all four are different sizes) and on the last round I added in the extra little triangle for a special little touch.  I decided on a simple white background, and in the end I think it made a perfect sized baby quilt.

I pin basted this quilt (I used a 100% cotton Pellon batting) and then chose to quilt it in straight lines, using my walking foot.  I picked one of the lines in each of the triangles and just quilted straight along that line continuing to the edge of the quilt.  I just continued this method until the majority of the quilt was quilted and there weren't too many big spaces that were un-quilted.  Once the majority of the quilt was finished, I then decided to add in some tight lines of quilting that measure roughly 1/4" apart, you can see examples of this above and below.  It really created a neat texture to the quilt.  It was quilted with a 40 weight white Aurifil thread on my Juki TL-2010.

I bound the quilt in a Micheal Miller Dumb Dot print and for a little extra touch, I added in four specially made prairie points to the two sides of the quilt.  These are sewn into the binding, but are totally free and since it is a baby quilt, it adds a little something for baby to play with, chew on, you know the normal baby stuff.

The backing of the quilt is a Heather Ross, Briar Rose print that I felt was a perfect match for this baby quilt.  So bright and sunny, a happy print.  The finished quilt measures 41" x 42" and I washed and machine dried the quilt, so the photos here today are of a washed and ready to gift baby quilt.

During the quilting process, I decided upon the name of this quilt, The Bermuda Triangle Quilt, for two main reasons.  First, the colors are exactly what I think of when I think of Bermuda.  And second, the triangles are all wonky just like the Bermuda Triangle!  I thought I was clever at the time, not so sure now! HA!

Thank you Michael Miller for supplying the fabric, and thank you to the Modern Quilt Guild for hosting these really fun challenges.  I feel like I learned a lot during this process, and it was really fun designing my own quilt.

Finally, I have my triangle quilt photographed and ready to show off!  I finished this one over a month ago, but couldn't bribe anyone to help me take the pictures and finally my husband agreed.  You would think I was asking for a kidney.  Good grief.  This quilt was started as part of The Triangle Quilt along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  i joined in around mid-March, and followed along pretty well, except when it came time for the final link up.  I didn't have my binding finished, I missed the deadline by one day.  Thankfully, Paula held a special late-finishers link up, and that is what I will be linking up to today.

This quilt was made with the fabric line, Indian Summer by Sarah Watson for Art Gallery fabrics.  I love this line, it is just "so me!"  I added in various solids and the peach that I used for the "background" was one of the cross-hatching prints from Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line of fabrics.  I designed a very distinct pattern for my triangles, the smaller measuring around 5" and the large triangles measuring around 10".  You can read more about the process HERE.  The finished quilt measures 40" x 48" a wall hanging that I will hang in my living room.

I decided early on that I wanted to straight line quilt this one, but I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted the lines to go.  In the end I decided on a "large arrow" quilt pattern and then radiating the lines from there.  I used my Juki TL-2010 with the walking foot and a 40 weight white Aurifil (and a 100% cotton Pellon batting.)  The lines are quilted in a pattern, 2 at 3/4" apart, then a 1/2" space.  The 1/2" space falls in the center of the "arrow" triangles.  I am happy with the simple quilting, it highlights the triangles but doesn't distract.

I decided to do a matched angled binding per the tutorial found at A Quilter's Table, HERE.  Even though this technique really isn't hard (and creates a fantastic look) I struggled so much with this technique.  I swear I worked on the binding longer than I did the whole quilt process.  In the end I had messed up so much, I only had enough fabric to match the top and bottoms, and just bound the sides with the Architextures print.  I did carry around the matched binding on the bottom corners, which you can see above, and I am really happy that I did, I love that little detail.

Once again, I used my trusty Heather Ross Crafty Chloe from Hancock Fabrics print as the backing.  I love that print and wished I had bought more, as now I'm running low.  I also am thrilled with quilts that can use a single cut of fabric for the backing, so simple and makes the whole process so much easier.

This quilt is so soft and has such a nice hand to it, thanks to the Art Gallery prints.  Honestly my kids have been playing with it for the last month, so it might be time to wash it before I hang it up, which I am really eager to do, being that the "Indian Summer" is almost upon us!  Thanks to Paula for hosting such a fun quilt along!

I auditioned for Sew-vivor Season 2 last year, and sadly wasn't chosen, but it worked out well because something else came up and I wouldn't have been a very good competitor.  Well this year, Rachel of Family Ever After announced that Season 3 would be dedicated to Quilting!  How perfect is that, I am really into quilting, in case you didn't know.  It is kinda what I live and breathe these days.  I had to give some thought to my audition piece, and after considering it for a while, I decided to enter my Cosmic Burst quilt.  If you are a blog follower, then you saw this finished quilt a few months ago, and if you want to read all the details, you can find that blog post HERE.

This is one of my favorite quilts to date and it currently hangs proudly in my living room, actually the first thing you see when you walk in my house.  My favorite precious fabrics, a wonderful pattern, I just love every single thing about it, and I hope you do too!

I would really love to be chosen as a finalist for this Season of Sew-vivor!  I just think it will be so fun to compete in a friendly atmosphere that I know the online quilt community to be.  Make sure to head over to the Family Ever After blog to see the other auditions, there are just so many fabulous entries, I'm so glad I'm not a judge!  Thank you Rachel for hosting another Season and for all the hard work you put into these competitions.