WIPs With Friends

I did an amazing amount of sewing this past weekend!

 YAY for lazy weekends.  

Am I right?

As I may have stated previously, I set up a spread sheet with

 monthly goals between myself and some of my friends.  

I have finished most of my February goals!  

Woo Hoo!  

Here we go.

One of the goals was to make 2 of the blocks from the Year of Scrappy Triangles. 

 I decided to make them starting with the first pattern.  

I have an old WIP that needs borders so these will turn into the borders for that quilt.

I managed to finish the Chubby Chicks quilt top!!!  

That has been in a box for a very long time!

When I opened the box and started on it again, 

everything was cut out and only the chicks were fused.

This is such a darling quilt.  

Couldn't you see this using Bonnie and Camille fabrics??

Since I am *trying* to sew from my stash I found this beautiful vintage sheet to use for the back.

I had one chick and one pinwheel left over, so I made another of each.  

I decided to make a pillow out of these left overs. 

 I wanted to add rick rack.  

I tired yellow, green and orange (it's the colors I had) and I was so not sure. 

 I ended up taking a picture of each and ended up liking the orange so much better!  

This is the project I was trying to quilt that Cole was "helping" me with.  

In case you are wondering, I used some Grabaroos gloves to do both the outlining and the quilting.  They make BOTH of these things so much easier! 

 You can find them here.  

They are amazing!

I need to trim it and make the envelope back next. 

 I will measure the quilt backing and hope to be able to use the same fabric for the back of the pillow.  I will follow Amanda Jean's directions for making the envelope back.

I will be linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Now it is your turn. 

 PLEASE link up what you are working on, or something you have finished.  

It may be any project not just restricted to quilts.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Chubby Chick Quilt Progress

I have been working very hard to get all the blocks made for this quilt.  

I had everything all cut out from MANY years ago 

when I made one with the church group I was a part of.  

Theirs got finished, D'oh!

I had this entire quilt all cut out and the chicks were fused.  

I just realized last night that everything had to be cut down though.  

So after I sewed my HST it was time to trim them up.  The size they needed to be was 3.5".

I got out my trusty Bloc-Loc 3.5" ruler and had a trimming fest!  

That set of rulers was the BEST thing I ever invested in!  

Also, the turning mat.  

Such a help when trimming HST.

Of course the other indispensable helper thing is Hallie!  

She doesn't come in the sewing room as much now that the boys are around.  

Cole, especially, likes to tease her and she does NOT appreciate his efforts!  

Just like a boy, right? (or just like MY son, I guess). 

 So I carried her upstairs, put her on my table and closed the door.  

She settled in quite nicely!

After trimming all my HST units I decided that my chicks needed to have eyes.  

I Googled how to make a Colonial knot and decided to give it a try.  

I loved the eye placement on this chick.

I couldn't resist laying out a few with some of the pinwheels I finished.  This is going to be so darned cute!  The chicks can be made using charm squares.  Wouldn't this be darling made with a Bonnie and Camille charm pack and either aqua or red pinwheels?  I think little cat faces would be cute too.  Might need to design that!

So my WIPs are continuing to progress.  

I think having the goal chart with my friends is definitely helping motivate me.

Have a great weekend.

We are getting dumped on by a HUGE winter storm, so maybe I can stay in and sew?

That's my plan anyway, LOL.

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

As I look back over the past month, not one person has linked up with what they are working on.  

Is anyone even interested in doing this or should I just forget posting this each week?  

I decided to start working on one of my February goals. 

 I pulled out the Chubby Chicks stuff I had started. 

 It seems I was not as far along as I had hoped. 

 I had all the chicks fused and everything cut out, but nothing sewn.

  So last night I outlined over half of the chick blocks.  

As I was working on them I remembered how much I like them.  

Currently, they are blind.

I need to decide how I want to make eyes.

I could satin stitch the eyes, but that's not very likely.

I could use buttons, but also unlikely since this quilt would be for a child.

So that leaves making French knots.

Which I might do using some Perle cotton.

Someone else suggested a Colonial knot which I had no idea the difference.  

So I looked it up on You Tube.

  THIS is a great tutorial on how to make a Colonial knot. 

 Which, if I use Perle cotton, will probably be a good choice. 

 I just need to get some black Perle cotton.

I will link this up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Please link up what you are working on here using the linky button.

Also, let me know if any of you want me to continue to do this as a link up.

Happy Stitching

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Quilty Goals For The Year and Month

I work with some wonderful women that I also sew with. 

 There are 3 of them.  

Usually, once a year we actually gather at one of the houses and sew together.  

Mostly we just talk about sewing and fabric throughout each day. 

 It's a nice perk of my work.  

We seem to often be talking about how we have so much we *want* to do and never seem to *actually* get all of those things done. 

 So THIS year I decided to make a google doc and have each of us put our yearly goals in it.  

Then I got to thinking that it would be even better to break it down by month.  

Plus the added bonus of getting to achieve smaller, more attainable things.  

So I put in February.  

We all had to list the things we want to try to do this month.  

We change the color on the font when we finish something on the list. 

 I will be linking this post up with the One Monthly Goal post over at Elm Street Quilts too.

Here is my list:

Put top together for one of these

JR QAL, strip quilt or Chubby Chicks

Bind and label Mermaid, Unicorn and T baby quilts

Sew 2 scrappy Triangle blocks

Bee Blocks for February

Sew 1 OW block

As you can see, I was able to finish my bee blocks for February and 

sew one more Ocean Waves block.  

We had to make flowers for our bee blocks.

This is block 19/36 of my Ocean Waves blocks.

So as you can also see I have put these in blue to denote that they are finished.

For my One Monthly Goal I am going to use the put the 

Jelly Roll/Strip/Chubby Chick quilt top together.  

Not all three, just one of the three.  

It kind of depends on which one I can put my hands on first, LOL. 

I am thinking that Chubby Chicks would be fun, since 

there seem to be so many babies around as of late.

I think the chicks are all finished.  I need to find the box and check.

So on to getting stuff done!

I am pretty competitive so this should be fun.

I did tell them there would be prizes, so one of them needs to win this month!

How do you handle being productive?

~XOP~