FNSI - A Little Progress

For more info or to join in, visit Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts

 

Yesterday evening really got away from me, but I did find some quiet time this morning to get a bit of sewing done. Not a lot of progress this time, but a little is a little!!

Last month I spent much of my Friday night cutting all the gray and the white fabric up, but that work set me up to just get right into sewing this month, so 'Yea, Me'!!

I ended up with 6 more squares done all in the gray fabric...

 

And here are the three colors I have worked on so far....

Next time I need to decide on what fabric will come next or if I will just stick with the three blocks I have. I have a fabric that has the green, blue and gray in it, however it isn't as bold of a print as the others and I think it might get lost in the design. I'm thinking it'll make a good binding and backing for this quilt though, so it won't get wasted. I will need to do a little shopping and see if I can find anything else that I like:)

Friday Night Sew In

For this FNSI, I decided to work on a quilt I had started as a 'Block-a-Day' project his past spring. If I had kept up with actually making a block each day, it would have been done by the end of June or July (I can't remember when the end of the project was). However I didn't even come close to keeping up. The furthest I got was 5 of the green blocks:) So I decided to pull that back out and give it another go.

Here is where I started

Last night was a case of the 2 steps forward- 3 steps back when it came to sewing.  I had some of the blue fabric cut and got started on that, but then ran out of small white squares. So I cut out more big and small white squares and decided to go ahead and cut the grey squares as well. Then I realized that I did the points on the blue squares in the wrong order from how I did the green ones. I want them to match up, so I started over. Then I decided I was done for the night!! I did a bit more sewing this morning and I'm feeling much better now:)

Where I left off

I ended up with 5 green blocks and 5 blue blocks and enough grey and white squares to make lots and lots of blocks:) Next time I'll be ready to really get something done!!!

 

I did have fun with this and I'm planning on joining in on the next FNSI.

End of Week Plans

The last few weeks before school starts have gone by so fast!!! I am usually looking forward to summer coming to an end and getting to my favorite season of Autumn. This year, though, I'm trying to savor every last min of our summer break:)

We had actually planned to start back to school this week, on Monday. However a quick text from some friends saying that they were planning a trip to a pool on Monday quickly changed our plans. Yesterday we also helped out at a local soup kitchen which was nice. It was my first time and I was amazed at how organized they were. We are now going to try and fit one more trip to a pool we've never been to before we get started on school next Monday:)

I also have an exciting crafty weekend coming up!!! Friday is....

I haven't participated in this in several months and I'm really excited to get back to work on some quilting:)

Then, over the weekend is the...

I've not participated in this for a while either, so I should be nice and busy this weekend with lots of fun crafty project:) That is the perfect kind of weekend!!!

What do you have planned for your weekend? Hope you are able to fit in something that makes you smile:)
 

Friday Night Stitch In

It's been quite a while since I've done a FNSI!! And I had the perfect project to work on for it this time:) Unfortunately, our whole family came down with a cold this week and for dd and I it just won't leave!! So I had great hopes for Friday night, and I did get some done, just not what I had hoped.

I started a 'Block-a-Day' project that I found over at '52 Quilts' blog. I'm going to have to do something along the lines of '7 blocks-a-week' kind of thing instead of a block each day since I have to get my sewing machine out and set up and then put back away each time I use it, but that should still be easy enough to keep up with:)

So this is what I got done on Friday...

 

I did lots of cutting, although it doesn't really look like it. I'm not sure how anyone could possibly have sat down and cut ALL the blocks for this quilt at one time!! It just about drove me nuts to sit down and cut enough for 5-6 blocks at one time:)

 

 

 Another pic of the blocks I cut along with the other fabric that will be part of this quilt. I love these colors together. I may need to find another blue, gray and green so I have a bit more variety in the fabrics.

 

I got enough done to finish up 2 blocks, but I haven't sewn them together yet. I think I need a 3.5 in square so I can even these up a bit before sewing them together. I hope to get into town tomorrow and see if I can find one. Until then, I'll just keep working on getting them to this point. I'm pretty happy with the results as I've never done triangles before. The tutorial on '52 Quilts in 52 Weeks' blog is super easy to understand and follow, which made doing this much nicer for me. It only took me ruining about 6 different squares before I figured it out:) That's pretty good for me!!

This will also count for my NewFo project this month. Hopefully I'll have quite a bit more done by the end of the month so I'll have more to show off:)

July's Friday Night Sew In

http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/p/friday-night-sew-in-fnsi.html

This month the Friday Night Sew In is being hosted by Sugar Lane Quilts  and I am super excited to see this Sew-Along come back!!! My goal this month was to get my quilt top finished and I DID!!!  I started out with the quilt top looking like this...

 

4 strips already sewn together, 16 more to go. I started early yesterday as I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to get this done and not be stressed about it. If you've read my FNSI posts before you'll know that I'm not super friendly with a sewing machine. Short periods at a time keeps me happy:)

However in the middle of the day I realized that I need to go into town. We were out of bottled water (our water is icky and our purifier needs a new filter, so bottled water for right now), and we were out of cat food. I trip into town is never a quick thing, so 3 hours later we were finally home.

 

 This meant that I was up much later than I would have been to get this done. BUT, I did get it done!!! I am super happy with how it looks and I can't wait to have it all the way quilted and finished so I can have it on my bed!!!

 

Here is a close up of the fabrics I used in this quilt. I'm planning on using the blue flower as my backing and binding as it is my favorite print of them all:)

 

Next month my goal will be to have the backing pinned on and maybe get the quilting done. I'm planning to machine quilt a simple diagonal line through all the blocks. Nothing fancy, but maybe if I keep it simple this quilt will actually get done!!! 

FNSI - May 2013

http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/



I am super happy with my progress this month!! I finally got all the squares cut out and all the rows sewn. The rows aren't all sewn together, but that will be my goal for next month.

 

 Here it all is and you can have a good look at the different fabrics I choose for this quilt. Patriotic colors, but not necessarily patriotic fabrics, except maybe that red star one:) I'm really looking forward to having this one finished up!!

 

Okay, now that my Friday (into Saturday) Night Sew In is all finished up and blogged about, I am going to enjoy some stitching time. The family all went to visit the in-laws so I have a bit of time left to myself, so I think I'll also watch a movie on Netflix as well:) 

Lots of sewing and stitching this weekend!!!

This weekend welcomes not one, but two different SALs!!! The first is for tonight (or today if you cheat a bit and get a head start:).

 

 

http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/

Heidi over at www.handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com hosts this SAL. You just sew on any project on the 3rd Friday of the month and post about it the next day. My progress post for this will be tomorrow.

And the next is for the whole weekend.

 

This one is hosted by Joyce over at Random Ramblings. This is a fun one where we stitch as much as is humanly possible for the whole weekend and post our progress on Monday:) It's been so long since I've stitched just for me that I'm not sure what I want to work on this weekend!! I need to go through my pile of WIPs and see what calls out to me:)

 

Anyone is welcome to join in on either (or both) of these, so click on a button to visit the blogs and then get started sewing and/or stitching!!!

 

Monday will be our last day of school here, it should have been today but we took off yesterday for my birthday, so we will need to finish up on Monday. Then the summer break begins!!! Looking forward to focusing on stitching and sewing and even housework as that has really gotten away from me!! Dd has lots of things planned as well, so I guess we will be doing lots of running around too:)

March FNSI

This is my Friday Night Sew In post, hosted by Handmade by Heidi. Of course, I'm a few days late posting this:) I am still working on my patchwork quilt that I've been working on for a little over a year now. So I'm not super into sewing, but I really do want to get this done at some point this year.

 

 As you can see, the kitty doesn't mind my using 'his' table at all!! He didn't even wiggle when I was throwing rows of fabric on him:)

 

The last time I worked on this I had 7 1/2 rows done. The 1/2 was because I needed to cut more squares of two different fabrics. So I did that earlier in the week so it wouldn't take time away from sewing. I got 5 more rows done this Friday, so up to 12 1/2, and this time the 1/2 was because I ran out of one of the fabrics all together!! YIKES!! Thankfully I found some more in town, so I'm good now:) Since I couldn't form more rows I decided I would sew some of the rows together and I was able to get 4 of them sewn together. I'm really excited now that it is starting to take shape and I can start to really see what it will look like once it's done:) And yes, the cat wanted in this pic too.

 

Dd and I have decided to take this week as spring break, so I'm hoping to get lots of projects done and posted!!! 

Friday Night Sew In

 

Not to be confused with my Finish It Friday:)

 

Heidi at Handmade by Heidi has been doing this Friday Night Sew-In for a while. I started joining in off and on about a year ago, but haven't participated for several months. I thought this would be a good time for me to work on a couple of my sewing projects off my '52 in 52' goals list. I am wanting to get a quilt done for us, a couple smaller quilts to give away and a couple dolls or teddy bears to give away at some point this year. So I decided, since it was already started I would work on the quilt for us. Actually this was a project that I had originally started with my first 'Friday Night Sew-In' post:)

 

 

I started out with 4 rows already sewn up. This project probably hasn't been touched for over 6 months now:) I don't know how many times I've mentioned my high frustration levels while machine sewing, but it just isn't one of my favorite things. I did have some sweets by my side to help with the process, and I limited myself to 10-20 min sections of time, which seemed to help quite a bit.

 

I ended up with 7 1/2 rows, so I almost doubled my previous progress. The only reason I stopped there is that I needed to cut more fabric. So my plan is to have lots more fabric already cut and ready to go before the next Friday Night Sew-In - which will be March 22nd. Maybe I can double my progress again:)

Friday Night sew-in Progress and pics

I actually did it!! I sat down with my sewing machine and only thought of throwing it out the window once or twice:) I can't blame the sewing machine. I have a older model Bernina, pretty close to the exact model my High School sewing classes had, which I love because at least I know how to use it!! Not that I can remember that far back very well, LOL. And it is a pretty simple machine, I'm sure it does more than I know or could figure out, or would ever use, but the basic forward and backward is very easy to do:) This isn't actually MY machine, as I'm borrowing it from my mother-in-law, but I've been 'borrowing' it from her for almost 10 years now.

I started sewing mid-day, figuring that I would get more done and be less frustrated if I spread out the work through-out the day. The first thing I worked on is a pattern for one of my cross stitch projects. This is from 'With Thy Needle and Thread' called Hoppin Along Sampler. I finished stitching this one around the beginning of Dec and had wanted to sew it up into this cute little bunny right away, but didn't get to it. I got the bunny body done, it's eyes and nose sewn up and the ears sewn together and cut out and was about ready to scream, so I put it nicely away before someone got hurt!!! :)

Before... After... I went and bought what I needed for the wiskers today but forgot to pick up the ribbon I will need for around her neck, so I'll still need to get that. I also don't have any blush for the insides of the ears or the cheeks, but I'm sure I'll find someone who does.

After a little break and searching for a little chocolate, I got out my patchwork quilt that I started just before Christmas. I had two rows of 15 squares done before... And after a little work and two chocolates later, I now have 4 rows of 15 squares each:) I would have worked on this a little longer, but I needed to cut out some more squares, and my stitching was calling my name, so I worked on that for a bit. All in all I think I had a very seccessful first sewing night and am excited to do this again next week!!!

I should also have stitchy finish to show off later this week that will probably become my sewing project for next Friday in order to sew it up into a pin cushion:)

Friday Night Sew In

Not sure what I'm thinking with joining in on something else, but this may just be what I need to get some sewing (non-cross-stitch) projects finished. I'm one who will start a sewing project, but I quickly get frustrated with it and then give up. I have a cross stitch project right now that needs sewn into a bunny (the stitching part is done, now the sewing machine part needs to happen:), and a small quilt that I started that I'd like to get done as well. We will see:) This starts this Friday, 1/21/11, and if you would like to sign up go to .... http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-friday-night-sew-in-signups.html

Should have pics on Saturday to show what I worked on Friday evening/night!!!