Have a Happy Labor Day

It has been one of those weeks when the anticipation of a long weekend seems to have worked against me and my little boy. We are exhausted after his third full week of school and ready for a little time home with my husband relaxing and not needing to do anything.

This week has been about finishing my Kitty Mini Quilt and the Sew Together Bag that will hold all the other goodies I'm sending to my partner. After this I am not doing any more swaps for 2014. I have a monthly subscription for the new Moda Basic Building Blocks quilt and want to devote more time to projects I should finish by the end of the year. I think my 2014 UFO October list will include a certain t-shirt quilt, a couple of kits that just need to be pieced, and at least two knitting items.

I am still mulling over the surface pattern design I want to create using what I learned two weeks back in Bonnie Christine's class on CreativeLive. See my previous post for links and more information but mostly I am probably a little too unfocused to actually commit to design even six prints right now but I still want to try.

Finally, I'll make this short and sweet ending with this yarn I dyed last weekend. I was working on a blanket I have had in my basket for months now and decided I wanted something with fall colors and in a fingering weight yarn so I could make a shawlette to wear when the weather starts to turn cold. Since I don't belive we are too far away from our first snowfall I want to have something fun and custom to be able to whip on in a second. I also ordered yarn for a more ambitious project that I will start probably in a month or so that will be for when the real cold comes in November.

KittyMiniSwap and Gracie Queen

It's blog post Friday, as promised and though there's not much, there is something.

I have been working on this mini quilt for the Kitty Mini Quilt Swap being hosted by Felice over at Sew ScatterBrained all week long. It was actually in the works last week and then I scrapped the whole concept direction and rerouted to these adorable flying geese. Now, as a secret swap I cannot name the intended recipient, though she has seemed receptive to the direction I am headed in, so I am pretty sure it will be a well received object.

Along with the quilt I have collected a pile of little goodies to include in the swap and may or may not have a SewTogether Bag to add for carrying all the goodness in. That will be next week's project and may remain a true secret.

The only other thing of note this week was I found a quilting frame that is not only a fit for my machine but is actually sold in tandem with my machine by the manufacturer. On three different sites I can find The Grace Company Gracie Queen and King quilting frames with my machine as the intended work horse, and I even so conveniently know of a shop that reps them that is, get this, a five minute drive down the road from my house. It's a match meant to be so I am now actively saving to be able to purchase the frame later this year or early next year. At $700 to $900 depending on bells and whistles it's not an enormous purchase but it's a far cry from the $10K tag on some long-arms. Added that I am not ready for a long-arm, the fold and store mid arm frame will be best for me.

Now I am off to working more on this mini and the extras for that swap. Figures I might be done by the end of August and it's not due to the USPS until the beginning of October!

Mini-Quilt Invasion

So after years of following blogs and reading blogs and hearing about blogs, it's time for my own.  And this first ever post is Mini-Quilts!  I have become addicted to Mini-Quilts; they are everywhere in my studio right now from the mini pictured below to a larger quilt that could probably count as a lap quilt [which I will review another time in a Scrappy Trip Along post].

It's just so fun to try new blocks or fabrics or quilting techniques, and have something that is done in an afternoon and not a week or month [or year].  This mini is from a stack of six inch squares sent to me by the fabulous @brooketyler2002 [IG]; do I know the designer? Nope.  Do I know the line? Nope. Is it super adorable and perfect for me since I live with two guys and blue is everyone's favorite color? Yes, yes, and oh you better believe it, yes! And the two guys are my husband and son... [geeze, people, clean minds!]

The construction of this is super easy too. Just cut 8, 6"x6" squares of patterned fabric, then cut those in 1/2 creating 16 rectangles. Next cut 7, 6"x6" squares of white and repeat the process so you have 14 rectangles. For the first and last rectangles, I cut one each blue and orange, 3"x6". Next arrange to your liking in four rows, alternating print and solid, and sew together with a 1/4" seam allowance. I alternated the direction I pressed the seams so that they nested together but you can press them open too. Sew the rows together and press those seams open. Quilt and bind to finish. See? Easy!

Also on the Mini-Quilt to do list is the monthly Fresh Mini Quilt Club from the fabulous Megan Bohr of Canoe Ridge Creations which has four quilts in it now.  I have some yummy fabric lined up for each of these!

So, as blog posts go I think this is a pretty good first one. Time to get back to this mini so that the binding can get on and it can get into the wash.  I love the freshly laundered feel of quilts, no matter how big or small!

Cheers!

All finished and ready to wash.