Catching Up

The past few weeks have been very busy, both at work and at home.  As a result, sewing has taken a real hit. My sewing desk is such a mess that I took a photo of it.  Things just continue to be tossed on it and not dealt with.

There's like 20 different projects just stacked up!

On the plus side, I am only working on things I am interested in and excited about right now, so I think they will all come along.  (Oh, and this morning after I took that photo, I organized my sewing space!) Hopefully I will be able to check most items off my 100 day hustle list.

I still haven't posted a recap from my quilt guild's show back in late September, and honestly my photos of it aren't that great.  I didn't get any ribbons, but this week I got back the judges comments from the show, and my landscape quilt got +'s in all categories! The only critical note the judge had was that my batting was too poofy (I used leftover dream puff).  This really pumped me up, because that quilt was a really challenge and branch into a new direction for me, and it sounds like it's a direction I should try again.

Last weekend my mom and I attended PIQF.

Here we are in front of the first place innovative, if I recall correctly. About 3/4 of my photos can out blurry, so for much better recaps of the show I recommend checking out Quilt Inspiration and The Quilt Show.

It was a fun, busy day, and I still haven't gotten around to really sorting through the patterns and products that I collected through the day. The including a really cute mini rotary mat (I think it will be great for trimming during paper piecing) a LOT of patterns, and a few sizes of twister templates. Fabric prices were at a premium, so I only bought a few pieces that I needed for a specific project.

This weekend I was finally able to sit down at my machine again and make progress on some things.

I finished off the November block for my guild's block of the month, and got the instructions typed up. It is based of the Layer Cake quilt along from Moose on the Porch quilts, but I changed the November block a bit because I didn't like that the original block used 5 layer cake squares (and had a lot of unused fabric from those squares).  I changed it so it now only uses 4 squares.

Here is the finished block.  One thing I have done on both the October and November blocks is not pay attention to the print on the fabric when doing my cutting.  On here I don't care a ton that the stripes are going all over, but it drives me nuts that I didn't cut those diamonds along the proper grain.

I have also been progressing on my "for fun" monthly project of the "O is for owl" wallhanging.

When I last posted, I had been having fun doing my first "scrappy" project, piecing together the sky background from all of the dark blue fabrics in my stash.

Since then I have finished the top! I always enjoy testing out colors, although it involves tossing pieces of fabric everywhere and generally making a mess.

 Here I was trying fabrics for the tree branch and leaves.

This is testing the owl colors along with the others.  I love how all these shades look together!

 Here are the owls. A little eerie looking until they will get their button eyes.  The little guy is supposed to be a lighter version of the big guy.

And here is the assembled top! I think it's pretty cute and I'm looking forward to quilting it....eventually.


The last item I have news on is my little EPP side projects.  I have finished my first hexagon! Below is the back and front.

I have no rush on finishing this project or even really a plan for it.  It's just really convenient to have a little baggie on hand sewing work available to take with me wherever I go for when I'm bored. :)

I've also made progress on some Christmas projects, but probably won't post about them until after they are opened. I have been debating about Christmas gifts for work colleagues.  I was going to make toiletry bags but my mom pointed out that I shouldn't be spending a lot of money on work gifts and it can start to feel like an obligation and a chore and the costs can balloon. The toiletry bags don't cost too much, but they do each include a zipper.  Last year I made coasters for work colleagues, which definitely cost less. So now I dunno if I'm doing too much and if I should find something scaled down. Any ideas?

Okay, back to sewing. :)