RATZ Swap - Received

Soooo cute! Look what I received last night??

What cute packaging!!

And here it is - picture is almost true to life. I'm going to be wearing this instead of my work badge, you better believe it! Thanks Chickenfoot!

Woah - where has a month gone?

Holy cow! Where have I been this last month? I tell you what, I'm not even sure sometimes. What I can say is that I have gained some new work responsibilities (yay!) which I'm not really being compensated for (boo) but is a good resume builder. But even though I haven't been blogging, I have been sewing. So here's a fast catch up:

I finished mailed and participated in my first ever swap - the RATZ (Rapid And Tiny Zaka) swap! They accept everyone, but the Mama's aren't doing a swap this month. :'( Here is my Zaka Name Tag - for Ingrid! To see a better picture, and all the other stuff I sent, check out Ingrid's flikr account. The only sadness - I haven't received my own nametag! I'm excited to receive it soon, I hope.

After my frustration with the string quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids, I decided to use the fabric and try something a little different.  I love the Wiggly Whimsy quilt from Ruby Blue Quilting studio on Moda Bake Shop. 

Instead of using charm squares, I used the Cuzco by Kate Spain I bought for the string quilt, and some extra charms I had lying about. The quilt is all cool colors which looks awesome against the bright white.

And so far, its going well and simply! Just need to finalize the layout and sew the strips together. Note that it's only 5 strips wide (instead of 7) to be baby quilt size rather than lap quilt size - so I have a left over block for the back!  Now the real question - how should I quilt it? I was thinking of long wiggly/wavy lines.

Also this month, I ate this awesome thing at a local restaurant - way to expensive but delicious; it's a new take on mozzarella sticks!

In other life related news, I'm starting the process of house hunting! I'm not sure whether to be excited or terrified, but it's about time I settle down in a more permanent way. More to come on this front!

Enjoy the day - hope your weather is better than ours ;)

Cell Phone Wallets

So I found this fun tutorial while cruising around various links in Flickr; it's supposed to be for Christmas gifts, but I just had to try it when I found it! Check it out here.

Once I realized that instead of putting a notepad in the right pocket, I can fit 2 different cell phones... well. I'm making one for each of my female coworkers for work and home cells.

Here are the first 2:

The front...

The backs...

Inside of the apple one - my boyfriend pointed out that an iPhone should go in the left pocket, and asked if it was intentional! ...obviously not.

And the inside of the linen. I gotta say, I  can't decide which one I like more. The apple one is so bright and colorful, but how cute is this applique? In real life, the background of the appliqued creatures are very close to the color of linen. My first try at machine applique btw, which I think went pretty well. What do you guys think?

I have to make atleast 2 more, possibly three- I have one other coworker, want to send one for Dana in her care package, and maybe even one for me! I also worked on organizing my fabric this weekend; what colors should I make the remaining wallets?

Linking on Fabric Tuesday (Quilt Story) and WIP Wednesday (I have two more to make, after all!) (Freshly Pieced).

WIP Wednesday: String Quilt and Charm Swap

First the pretty pictures- I finished cutting my charms for the Christmas Charm Swap! Check it out:

from these fabrics:

Super cute right? They are Cherry Christmas: Advent Christmas Washing Line by Aneela Hoey for Moda Fabrics and Nordic Holiday by Michael Miller. The Nordic holiday cut up surprisingly well.

I used BacanThenEggs tutorial on cutting charms in 10 cuts - once thought about it, it worked great and went really fast. The folding seems complicated but once you pick up your fabric and fold it, it's fairly obvious. Also, they're actually the right size!

Now to the less pretty... I've been working on my first ever paper pieced string block quilt for the 100 Quilts for Kids QAL - the 20 inch blocks. ... At first I hated it. Than I added white strips to the other half of the block and was ok with it, emotionally prepared to not "love" it like I did the first quilt. The white stripes would add a nice diamond pattern in at the center and look kind of cool. The lines are a little wonky, it kept wrinkling up with the paper and I couldnt get the top fabric to keep from moving away from the bottom fabric (gah??? why??)...

Obviously I haven't trimmed it down yet. I was totally ... "ok" with how it looked. So I tore the paper out... to find...

Several of the strips were only attached to the paper. See the hole between the green and gray in the top left? there, by the bottom right navy, the right of middle dark blue... several places. So I'm not gonna lie, after struggling with this one block for the better part of 3 days, I cried. I tried to fix it but managed to wrinkle it and in some places make it worse. 

My boyfriend says "Maybe the paper thing isn't for you". I think he may be right. I'm fairly certain this is how UFO's are made. So tonight I'm going to take it out of the corner where I threw it at the end of the night, fold it up and stick it in my closet. Than I'm going to make a different quilt for kids. Maybe one without... paper. ..or so many straight lines. 

100 Quilts for Kids QAL, Christmas Charm Swap, etc

Alright - today's post is going to be extremely picture heavy. But it's beautiful fabric- so I don't think anyone will complain.

My first stack of half-quarters from the Stash Builder club by PinkCastle. Gorgeous, huh? I love the pinks!!

Awesome fabric from FatQuarter Shop for my Christmas charm swap! Cutting into it this weekend. I got a yard and a half each - so I can have a little extra!

And here is my order of Christmas fabric with a fun charm pack - Momo Mushroom Animals - and my Cuzco Moda Jelly Roll (by Kate Spain). 

How cute is that?? Look at that bear! Look at it. And the apples have EYES!

...which would be creepy if they weren't so cute.

Also purchased from the same store, Cuzco by Kate Spain for my 100 Quilts for Kids QAL; so beautiful it hurts! My current favorite layout potential for these paper pieced string blocks is this:

but it only came with two strips of orange! What is a girl to do?

This is organized by the amount of fabric per color I have, with yellows, oranges and grays on the edges. Don't like it nearly as much (note the white strip in the middle represents a strip of white fabric).

And here it is in color order. So pretty... Le sigh. I guess I'll figure it out this weekend!

On a side note, I ordered the charm pack and Cuzco jelly roll from Quilt Taffy on Etsy. This is a completely unpaid endorsement: the prices are great, I was able to bundle packages to reduce shipping, and my fabric was shipped immediately! So few people had the Cuzco line, and they had it for a fair price. Great job, Quilt Taffy! 

Join Swim, Bike, Quilt's 100 Quilts for Kids QAL!

Finish: Paint Chip Quilt! She's a beaut!

It's done, and it's gorgeous if I do say so myself. Now, tons of glamour shots.

Pretty in the sun, huh? That is a completely unaltered photo! (except cropping).

The back - wrinkly but fun. I love the squares! It's subtle but I think it worked out.

Notice that I used the "cheater" binding - left an inch and a half all the way around the edge on the backing, then folded and top stitched. Despite some inconsistent width in some areas, I actually love the medium gray on the white - it makes a clear border, but doesn't distract from the colors!

A close up of some of the quilting- see the colored thread?

It is an awkward size - about 28" wide by 60" long. Not a hugely useful size (a little narrow for a lap quilt) but lovely to look at if I do say so myself. I'm so glad to have finished my first quilt, and more importantly that I'm happy with the end result!

This week is going to be great - my mail has been delivered with the jelly roll I'm using for the 100 quilts for kids QAL and my first half yard full bundle from the stash stack club (Pink Castle) has arrived!!! Pictures to come, buttons below.

I am also linking to several linky groups.

Paint Chips, Bobbin Busting, and Care Package 1

Another week, another post. It's been a bit stressful this week - work is exhausting. As a friendly reminder to everyone, please back up all your important documents on a regular basis! My heart goes out this week to a woman whose harddrive crashed...

Anyhow, my Paint Chip quilt is going rather well... mostly.

Okay so some days are better than others. The major problem at this point is that I find myself repeatedly and unintentionally sewing wrinkles into the back of the quilt. When they are bad, I rip it out and do it again. Lately, though, I am just letting it be. It's killing me, but it is going to happen. I'm realizing that choosing to back the quilt in a solid light color will point out every wrinkle, over sewn square, and crooked line. I am working on being okay with it- sewing as an outlet cannot be about perfection for me.

So here's how the back is looking so far:

I have 8 multicolored squares quilted, and four to go. I'm doing roughly one square per "paint chip" (set of three vertical colors).It does look pretty cool, although in this picture you can clearly see what I mean about sewing in the wrinkles. Here's a close up of the red square (top right of above pic).

Kind of cool, right? And it looks cool on the front too - little pillows of color. I'm starting to get really excited about finishing it and washing it.

So now that we've got the ugly (unfinished) stuff out of the way, lets talk about what else I've been working on! In the process of sewing all these different colored squares in my paint chip quilt, my lack of bobbins is becoming a problem. I now have a bad habit of "stacking" the thread on the same bobbin - anyone else do this?

This bobbin has 3 colors - black, salmon (eww) and blue - on it. Later, I used it again for green. So I started thinking about projects that would get rid of unwanted bobbin thread that I may not have a matching color (such as the salmon - this bobbin was one my mom had used and came "pre-filled" by her when I inherited it). Last week, when I made my first pouch, I realized that much of it was constructed without the obvious bobbin thread showing. Perfect! Now all I needed was a reason to make a pouch.

Enter my best friend Dana, who is moving to New York in two weeks and thought my pouch was super cute! She told me she wanted one, only bigger. I hope this delivers:

Dana is an avid knitter so I made sure it was big enough to hold a skein (or two) of yarn. On the outside is Stitch Organic by Betz White, and the interior is Apple of My Eye by The Quilted Fish. Some of those polka dots are white apples! It's adorable. Also attached is a selvage zipper pull; Apple of My Eye seems perfect, since Dana is my best friend and moving to the Big Apple!

I also made a pencil case/DPN (double pointed needle) holder to go with it (and to empty my bobbins). Made from some leftover Good Fortune by Kate Spain.

And then I got to thinking - I like making things for friends. Maybe this will be her going away present, but once she arrives in New York I will start sending her care packages of various fun stuff and crafts. She loved the idea, and I fully expect to receive knit goods and NYC souvenirs in return!

And the last update (which you may have noticed by the slight change in scenery in these pictures) is that I have moved my sewing machine to my sweety's place. So far, he is coping with me being over a little more often (I think he likes it - he keeps making me brownies! a good sign).

Linking to Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday.

Have a great week!