do. Good Stitches

 I finished up my blocks for April for the Peace Circle of do. Good Stitches.

The tutorial for this block is from Elizabeth's blog Don't Call Me Betsy.

I'm so happy to be part of this circle.  It was really fun to get to learn to make a new block, and then to only have to make 2 blocks, not a whole quilt!  I'll get them in the mail to Katie this week, and will be waiting to see how she puts all of our squares together and quilts them.

My month to do the planning and quilting is August, and I can't wait -- I have lots of ideas for what type of quilt to make -- picking just one will be difficult!

 Linking up to Megan's blog here:

Works in Progress Wednesday

I finished my biggest, most challenging work in progress this week --

organizing and cleaning my sewing space!

What a project!

Things really got out of control when I went digging through all my scraps to organize colors for the Bottled Rainbows Quilt Along.  But it was probably in need of cleaning even before that.  It's a small space, which functions as my sewing room, our office, and guest bedroom.  It has been (but will no longer be!) a dumping ground for everything that doesn't have it's own space. 

Organizing this bookshelf took awhile!

But I love how it looks, how everything is in sight and easy to find.

(I moved the books that used to live here to the living room a few years ago.)

In this corner I added some hooks,

and stashed small things on this little antique shelf.

The red color doesn't fit this room well,

so it will likely get a coat of spray paint when the weather warms up.

My embroidery hoops are all from thrift stores and antique sales.

The bags hold knitting projects in various stages of completion.

(The door to the closet will remain closed - it's still a little messy in there!)

I owe a HUGE thank you to Rachel for coming up with this Bottled Rainbows idea.
I love the way the scraps look in my Grandma's old canning jars.
More about the colorful string quilt here.

My sewing table, purchased at an antique sale.  It folds up when we have guests.
For big quilting projects, I move the sewing machine to the dining room table.

The empty space behind the sewing machine
is reserved for my Bottled Rainbows quilt.

 The day bed has a trundle hidden underneath, which is great for guests, but takes up nearly all the floor space when it is pulled out.  The daybed also serves as my design wall, and is a cozy space to curl up and finish binding a quilt while watching movies.

The kitchen counter often becomes a mini ironing/trimming station -
there just isn't room for this in my sewing space!

It feels SO GOOD to have this done!

Now it's back to work on other things, like Lee's Supernova Quilt Along:

and this pillow top for our kitchen bench:

More Bottled Rainbow blocks, ready to go!

and a top secret project that I've been working on -- birthday gifts for my friend's twin girls who are turning five this month.  Other projects have taken a back burner to this one!

Linking up to:

Pretty Little Pouch Swap

I decided to join in on the Pretty Little Pouch Swap on Flickr.
Here is the mosaic I made for inspiration:

This was my first try at making a mosaic of photos.

I used bighugelabs.com -- and it was easy!

The pouch swap sign up is open until April 7th,

to sign up click here.

Lexi's Room

Have you seen this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew for Sprocket Pillows?
As soon as I saw these pillows, I couldn't wait to make one (or 2)!


I have a bunch of Kona solids left over from the Bottled Rainbows Quilt Along, and this was the perfect little project to use some of it! 


This tutorial is so nicely done.  Great photos and instructions.


I couldn't get the templates to print to the right size, though, so I just used my 30 degree triangle ruler, and cut 7 1/2 inch wedges.

Inspiration for the pillow, Lexi's rug
(from Land of Nod a few years ago)

Lexi's Reading Nook

Balloons on the back side

The chair in Lexi's room is an old chair my parents had in our living room when I was growing up.  It's super comfy!  I had planned to have it recovered, but the yellow (probably was known as harvest gold, or something like that in the 70's!) actually fits in ok in this Rainbow Lover's bedroom.


The quilt on the back of the chair was made by my lovely and talented friend Amber, as a baby gift.  The sheep (aka Marshmallow) is from this tutorial at Purl Bee.  The girls and I are planning to make a few more of these for Easter gifts -- it's a super fun, easy, and kid friendly project (I just use fleece or soft minky fabric instead of wool, as the tutorial suggests!).

Of course, Holly needed one, too!

Linking up to:

Works in Progress Wednesday

Yes, that's snow in the background.  We still have lots.

I thought I would take one last picture outside in the snow,

before the rest of it melts.

Even though we're all pretty sick of winter,

I love how photos look with snow in the background, so crisp and white!

I've been working on bottled rainbows all week.

I decided to make them a little smaller (these measure 10 3/4 inches square),

because I already had a stack of batting cut into 11 inch squares,

for a project I started several years ago.

(It's amazing what you find when you clean out your sewing space!)

This project is going to be a wall hanging for my sewing space,

so I don't want it to get too big.  

Still working on these rainbow scrap pennant blocks, too.

I haven't made any more, but I did FMQ the white portions in a small meandering design.  These are a bit of work to piece together, but quilting them is fun.

I'll need A LOT more, though -- as this is headed for a quilt for Lexi's bed.

She LOVES rainbows.

My biggest work in progress has been cleaning up and organizing my sewing space.  Here's a sneak peak of some progress:

I had this crazy idea that in order to completely organize everything,

I needed more pincushions.

It would be IMPOSSIBLE to organize my pins without new pincushions, right?!

These are Heather Bailey's Square Deal pincushions, free pattern found here.

Making these was a bit frustrating.

The button drove me nuts -- I used a "no tools" kit for this, which made me see very clearly that I do need a button making tool -- I'm assuming these exist?!

And trying to pull ribbon through the center of the pincushion was a crazy idea,

even with a pliers and "some patient wiggling" as the pattern suggests.

But anyway, I'm happy to have them done,

and I think they look pretty cute on the shelf.

Hopefully I'll finish up the re-organization tomorrow!

 I've made very little progress this week on my double hourglass (hand quilting)
or the paper pieced goldfish in bags.
But once I get the sewing space done, it's back to work on these WIPs!

Have fun checking out other WIPs here:

Tumbler Quilt

I finished up what I'm calling my Tumbler quilt this weekend.  I used Amanda Jean's pattern (or "recipe") at Moda Bake Shop.  This is a great pattern, easy to piece, fun to put together, and it was fun to quilt, too.  I originally had planned on doing straight line quilting, but then changed my mind and tried wavy line quilting.  I love it!

 

Most of the time I don't have the energy left to make a pieced back for my quilts, I usually just get lazy and use one fabric, maybe two, or a sheet that I found on clearance somewhere.  But this time I decided to throw some coordinating fabric together and I love how it came together.  It's so much more interesting than a plain back!

Mode Bake Shop is having a monthly contest in March for quilts made using charm packs, so this one is perfect to enter!  I used 4 charm packs from Moda's Wee Woodland line, plus a few pieces from my stash to make the quilt just a bit bigger.



Linking up to:

Check out all the creative projects at Megan's Blog!

Vacation Photos

Amazing and Beautiful!

On the balcony of our hotel room (see the ocean in the background?!)

Hawaiian ladies

Holly at the black sand beach

Hapuna Beach

The pool at our hotel

Ready for Sunset Watching

Hanging out at the airport with a new friend they met at the pool!

Lexi with her "masterpiece," a picture for her teacher

Letters and leaves, for the bugs who may visit our balcony

It's hard to return from vacation . . . . 

we had so much fun enjoying the warm water,

the sunny weather,

and spending our days together.