Alisha - Tula Pink 10" Swap

I think I have an addiction to swaps as of late... I decided to join yet another but... It's Tula Pink so how could I resist! I have to admit that I was completely bummed to find out that I had already missed rounds 1-3 and all the great fabrics to go along with. However, I made it just in the nick of time for round 4 and 5 (which happen to be combined!).

Apparently the group has been searching for participants to finish the round (gasp!). I joined yesterday and was able to pick my fabrics with relative ease. The great thing about the swap is they are trying to not to duplicate any fabrics as they progress through all the different fabric lines. They do this by keeping detailed lists by line so it's fairly easy to identify what is and is not already taken.

I ended up selecting 1 fabric from Parisville and 1 from The Birds and The Bees. Here are my pretties:

If you want more information you can find it here, which is Mama Spark's blog (the host). I hope to see you over there!

 

 

Alisha - Bee Blocks

I've been a busy girl carrying 12 credits this term, t-ball started for both kids, cub scout leading and sewing. Some days I wonder how exactly I'll get it all done but by the end of the week it all seems to come together. This week I've been finishing bee blocks like a mad woman and managed to complete 9 blocks.

This block I made from the book Modern Blocks, Piece of the Garden is featured on pages 134-135. The fabrics were provided by the bee hostess, Laural of the Modern Blocks Bee.

Then, as I announced earlier, I joined the Granny Block Bee which was already underway so I had to go about catching myself up!

Here are blocks for CTNHTX, she was co-hostess in February an requested blocks in fall colors:

 

Blocks for Kelli (The Stitch Fairy) our other hostess for February, she requested that the inner 5 piece be of the same color range and the outter ring of another.

Blocks for Tessophia, she was the co-hostess for March and she requested blocks in reds, pinks and aqua (a girl after my own heart!). She also asked that we include a couple extra 2.5" blocks in prints from the blocks so she could use them for sashing:

Last but not least blocks for Ledgett, she requested bright blocks with black included somewhere within the block:

This week was very trying for me with a trip to the dentist, a fight with the bank about a tax document and a letter that I was being verified by the college for my financial aid. Thankfully, I had a few unexpected packages show up which really changed the coarse of the whole week for me! I used to swap with the ladies in the ACALF swap but it has become dormant, lucky I found MFSG! We swap 4 fat quarters, chocolate if we choose and a notion item.

My partner was findingsweetland and she sent me this lovely package! We agreed to not send candy but an extra fat quarter instead. I gave her a list of my favorite and she tried so hard (and succeeded) in covering al the bases!

Here you can see the package broken down:

She included prints from Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Lotta Jansdotter and a true blue print (I'm short on blue in my stash for some reason). Not to mention the extra scraps, the thread and a really nice card! I can't thank you enough Jayme!


 And if that wasn't enough I got another package in he mail from the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap. If you remember I sent a really fun camping/critter inspired needlebook but I was unaware who my partner was. I waited (rather impatiently!) for my package to arrive and boy was a surprised it had to come all the way from New Zealand! I got this fun little fabric basket/bag from Seven Stitches with a load of fun polka dotty scraps and really fun flavored chocolate from a local shop (chili lime)!

Thank you so much ladies you truly made my day!

 

Alisha - Granny Gone Wild Swap - Round 2

After a small hiatus and a couple posts geared toward gauging interest in another granny square block I decided to bring back the Granny Gone Wild swap! That's right folks, granny is at it again! This round we've had a great turn out and blocks are starting to show up in my mail box (my favorite part!).

I think, during the coarse of the last granny square swap, I made 16 blocks and this round I managed to churn out 20 blocks! What am I going to do with 36 granny square blocks you might ask. To which I would reply, good question!

Here are the blocks I have finished (I might squeeze a few more in before the due date). There are a few I'm in love with which might not make it out of the house for the swap (sorry!).

Do I have the granny block making disease? Probably but that'll be our little secret. Did I mention I recently joined an all Granny Square Bee?! I know, I just posted I was getting away from bees but it was granny squares, I had to do it! Besides what am I going to do with all of these if I don't join the bee?

Alisha - Modern Scrappy Bits Swap

I had another goal this month but I've already completed it (go figure)! It seems recently I've been shying away from quilting bees and have started really taking advantage of swaps. It's hard for me to know what my homework load will be like from term to term so swaps have been a great outlet for my creativity.

With that said, I joined a group on flickr aptly named Modern Scrappy Bits Swap and was assigned a partner who wanted a needle book made for them. She also posted that she enjoyed camping with her family and little woodland creatures so I got to work on some ideas. My first stop was Pinterest (duh!) where I found some marvelous ideas for needle books but I finally decided on my favorite (and what I think is the most functional).

I started digging in my stash but already had an idea for fabrics. I don't usually buy a lot of fabric with animals on it but I fell in love with a line by Riley Blake and happen to have a fat quarter bundle in addition to several "extra" fat quarters.

Aren't these fun? Once I posted on flickr I received many comments and thankfully one of them was from my partner (did I mention this was a secret swap?) so I knew I was golden. Since I'd already done research on a needle book tutorial I was set. You can find the tutorial I used here, it was super straight forward. I was surprised it took me less than an hour to put this together  I figured this would be a multiday process (I have issues sewing anything that isn't a quilt.. lol).

Anyway, without further ado I present to you a camping and furry woodland creature inspired needle book!

This last picture shows the stack of scraps that are going along with the needle book. I included some of the scraps from the needle book incase my partner wanted to add them to another project. This will go off in the mail shortly and I can't wait for her to see it!

Ashley- IPad messenger bag!

     Alisha some time ago sent me a pattern and some fabric to make her an IPad bag and well I suck at patterns. I slao don't have everything yet for it still and it's been 6 months I would say so i thought that I would make a bag kind of like the one she wanted to see if I could make one on my own that she would like and then I could make it with the supplies I already had laying around. So I picked some super cute fabric that I loved and just dove right in. This is what I came up with.

     This will have plenty for anything you might need. I'm thinking this will be the bag that comes with me when Melody and I fly home at the end of April. Hopefully Alisha likes it and I can FINALLY get her bag done and to her. Oh and if you'd like a full tutorial for this bag please comment and let me know and I can do another with full instructions. I just want to make sure there's interest first :)

Alisha - A Lovely Year of Finishes - March Goal

So here we are in March, already! I'm in the throws of my "senior" year of college and the 400 level classes that go along with it. This doesn't weaken my resolve to keep trucking with my finishes, if anything it strengths it. It's a matter of time management and sanity, right? With that in mind I wasn't sure how much sewing I would actually be able to do since the term just started and I'm still getting acquainted with the work load so I chose something that was already half finished.

Remember this quilt top I finished awhile ago? (I know what you're thinking, which one? Bare with me) This was part of a AMH QAL and unfortunately I wasn't able to complete my quilting on time and thus didn't end up finishing.

 

I really love this quilt and have a ton of time invested in cutting all the pieces and piecing the top! It's only right that I finish it and let it bask in all of it's glory. Below is the picture of my progress to date, I still have about half the quilting to do and I'll need to make the binding and attach it by the end of the month.

I'm starting to remember why I put this quilt away - it is SO heavy! I'm sure my arms will be aching after shoving this under the throat of my little machine about a zillion times but it'll be so worth it. Here's to another great finish for me!

Ashley - Easy storage for your fat quarters :)

     Ok so my love and I are setting up the guest room to really act as my craft room now. I need the extra room with the blog and with us deciding to start an embroidery business. ( these poor guys are so overcharged at the sewing shops here around posts and they don't even offer overnight services which a lot of guys need since they told some things last minute). Well I am having to come up with places for everything to go and I'm having a hard time because well our guest room isn't the biggest room and I have SO MUCH craft stuff that we are having to get creative lol. That's why I'm so psyched that my husband came up with this supe simple solution for fat quarter storage.

 

     An old CD rack has a new use! I was just about to throw this CD rack out now, but now it has a nice useful purpose and fits all my fat quarters. I can't buy anymore quarters until I use a few haha ecause I've reached it's capacity but hey it works right? Just thought I would share. Enjoy the weekend!