I ♥ a Sew In!

I do so love a Sew In! Our lovely little guild, Maritime Modern Quilt Guild, holds them monthly. ☺ It always seems like such a long time between the November and January Sew Ins! Last night, I spent some quality time in the studio packing my bags. It makes it so much easier to get out the door in the morning!

We've got a lot of new members on the roster for 2017 and quite a few came to their first Sew In today. It was great to see so many new faces. I arrived with no less than 6 projects in mind. One doesn't want to run out when they have 7 hours of uninterrupted sewing on the schedule! First up was my mini for the MQG Mini Quilt Swap. My partner likes rainbow... I hope she likes this interpretation!

 

When I arrived, it was layered and ready to quilt. By lunch time, I had it quilted, bound, and ready to hand stitch!

Next up, turning this pile of scraps into a mini mini quilt for a special young lady having a rough go. Way back when, she used to draw little giraffes on the bottom of the quizzes she wrote in my class. When I found this little scrap in the bins, I knew I could make a little something for her.

 

When one mixes in a little Kona, Carolyn Friedlander Crosshatch and Lizzie House Mini Pearl Bracelets, it just has to work! Another project ready for hand stitching the binding by day's end!

We took a little break mid-afternoon for a round of LCR with fat quarters as the prizes. For the first time ever, I walked away with the kitty. There are definitely some treasures in there!

Then on to a little project I've taken on for 2017... The Garden Snail-Along. It's an Instagram thing (yes, I've succumbed). Just one wee little snail a week. But I decided to work ahead a little so I wouldn't be up against a deadline in the coming weeks! If you're interested, the pattern is available on Craftsy from Pen and Paper Patterns. Here are the deets on the Snail Along over at Gnome Angel!

I couldn't possibly have this many uninterrupted sewing hours and not make a little something for DT. They got a fun play kitchen for Christmas (more on that in another post) and have been obsessed with making eggs in their wee frying pan.

GT had the pleasure of sharing in her grandmother's birthday dinner of lobsters a few weeks ago. She's now very interested in "lobbers." So much so that she's asked for them for supper a number of nights. I spent the last hour of Sew In working away on this wee critter. I bought the pattern this week from Gulf Coast Cottage on Etsy. Honestly, given enough time and patience, I would consider making every pattern they have. So stinkin' cute!

I'm linking up today with a new to me link-up, Show Off Saturday! Pop on over and see what others are making this week-end!

J


P.S Please excuse the slightly blurry pics. Even though I packed the night before, I managed to pack my camera with without an SD card! Duh!

Friday Finish - It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas! I know, I know. Christmas is long over.

With all the holiday shenanigans, I didn't get a chance to share this one with you. I ordered the awesome Naughty & Nice fat quarter bundle from Pile O' Fabric way back in August of 2015 and just knew I couldn't let it gather dust in my stash. So I got to working on a Christmas quilt in December 2015, knowing there wasn't much chance I'd get it done for the upcoming holidays. But I did get it done just in time for Christmas 2016!

The pattern is Cluck Cluck Sew's Squares and Strips Bed Quilt. It's a free tutorial and I give it a full and unreserved thumbs up! I'm working on some similar blocks with my hoarde of low volume squares.

 

Those are honest to goodness Canadian snowflakes blurring up these pics. We had no snow over the holidays and this quilt absolutely REQUIRED snow for its photoshoot. Demanding, huh?

I toyed with the idea of an all over free motion pattern with a Christmas motif. In the end, I decided that straight line quilting would let those lovely prints have the attention they deserved. I used a cheerful kelly green... a departure from my usual white or grey!

The Kona Nautical binding (with the wee-est pop of Kona Cardinal on one edge) makes me very happy!

I'm darned pleased with myself over this back. I matched the prints pretty much perfectly. It takes a whole lot of looking to see the seam!

The Deets  
Title: C+S Christmas Squares & Strips
Size: 64 by 88 inches
Fabric Used: Naughty & Nice FQ Bundle
Konas Used: Candy Green, Cardinal, Grasshopper, Ice Frappe, Nautical 

Quilting: Straight line quilting in kelly green
Binding: Kona Nautical

Backing: Cotton + Steel Notes to Santa in Multi

Favourite Part(s): Snuggling under this quilt during the Christmas season and knowing that it will be part of our Christmases for many years to come

 

I'm linking up today (for the first time in a long, long while) with TGIFF @ Busy Hands Quilts, as well as with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts. I can't call this my first finish of 2017, but I'm hoping it won't be too long until I have that to share!

J

P.S. Many thanks as always to my quilt holder, Ms. K.V. She never seems to mind my quilty foolishness, even if it means climbing up on stone walls in snow storms!

Mini Mini Monday - Hoppin' along!

Try not to faint. Two posts in three days. I'm getting back into the groove!

I know I've said it before, but I do love making mini minis. They come together so quickly and I can quilt them with greater density than I ever have time to with larger quilts. This time, I went for a Polaroid block (we all know how much I love those!) and I cut into some very special fabric: the House of Hoppington bundle that I won at Glamp Stitchalot!

Back in November, it was Julia from Jada's Quilting Adventures turn to be Birthday Queen in our 2016 Birthday Bonus Club. I just knew I had to add a little something special into her squishy envelope. And since she was my roomie at Glamp, it seemed right to use this fabric!

Those little white lines are meant to be the hopping lines of those wee bunnies. I'm linking up today with Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts . Whee.... back to link-ups!

J

Long time, no see...

It's 2017. How the heck did that happen? I can't believe that it's been a solid two months and change since I last posted. I shan't go into all the gory details (yawn....so boring). Suffice it to say that a return to full-time teaching in addition to a fair amount of solo parenting doesn't leave much time or energy for sewing or blogging about it.

Here and there, I've managed some sewing and quilting. Much of it Christmas related and/or for Double Trouble. BT needed a little something to perk up his white oxford and jeans for the Christmas season and I managed to convince Himself that ties are super cute. A bow-tie would have been pushing it too far!

I used this quick little tutorial from Sharing the Wealth and added length as recommended by Kelsey @ Vanilla Joy. I see more ties in BT's future!

BT also needed some new Christmas comfy pants. No, GT isn't being left out. She's rockin' BT's ones from last year. I can't let that C+S Washi flannel go to waste. They're way cuter in person. Here's hoping we manage a family pic one of these days!

These pants mimic the ones I made for Himself last year (he said not to waste expensive flannel on him!) and used this tutorial from Sew Jereli. Now that BT has grown out of the biggest size of Big Butt Baby Pants ☹, I had to find a new go-to pattern. I'm pretty sure this is it!

For more than a decade, I've stored my classroom participation tokens in a Ziploc bag. Seriously. It's a case of the cobbler's children going barefoot! When I headed back to the classroom this year, I decided I needed something a little fancier. The In Color Order Drawstring Bag did the trick. I do so love this pattern and that print is just right for my classroom!

Miss K is practically an adult now, but I know she likes to colour occasionally. So I made her a little coloured pencil roll for Christmas. I also made a few to donate to the Halifax Shoebox Project. I wish I'd taken a pic or two first!

How right is that Cotton+Steel pencil print? I've got to make something for myself out of that one of these days! And a little Netorious and Kona Emerald rounded out the interior.

So there we are, dear readers. Proof that I've not dropped off the planet or given up sewing. I make no promises, but I'm hoping to be here more regularly in the coming months! Hope you'll be along for the ride!

J