WIP Wednesday and Dancing with the Stars

I have cut up my Kate Spain Terrain charm packs.  Loving the colors!  Using my Lazy Angle ruler, here is the quilt I am in the process of sewing together.

Seriously, the colors are so gorgeous!  I took this at night, even.  To me, the stars look like they are dancing.  Do you see the one block that is different than the others?  Well that was a cutting mistake turned into an opportunity.  See, I needed every charm square in the 4 packs to make this quilt.  The top two rows have been sewn together, the rest obviously not.  They are just kind of thrown on the design wall. This quilt is for my niece's birthday at the end of May.  She saw this quilt made with Kate Spain's Cuzco and Jessica's over at Sew Patched Up Simple Squares pattern and hinted that she would love a quilt like that.  Well, I couldn't find any Terrain layer cakes (they were gone on #thegreatfabricdestash before I could even think about typing in my email address) BUT I did get 4 charm packs!   Finding yardage still available was a challenge - I totally love challenges!

Another WIP that has nothing to do with quilting are these adorable little guys:

Our bluebirds are back!  They are raising their first clutch.  Yep, 5 hungry mouths to feed!  Not too worry, my husband keeps their feeder stocked with meal worms.

Linking up now WIP at Freshly Pieced being hosted this week by Laura of Quokka Quilts.  What quilty sewing goodness are you working on?

Sunday Stash #13 Diet No More

Now that my fabric diet is over, I have some lovely additions to my stash.  These were delivered to my door last week -  Tula Pink's Nest fabrics.  I found an online fabric store that actually has some in stock and they are actually priced at the usual going rate.  I love the coral and dark pink one so much, I am going to order some more.  Interestingly, this Tula Pink line is from Moda.

I also came home to find that this wonderful book had been delivered!

There are a few patterns in this one I'd like to make.  There is one that I will use my Tula Pink Nest layer cake with.  Excited!  Here is where you can get this book.

To finish my Acacia Vintage Quilt Revival quilt and my Craftsy Tula Pink Mystery quilt, I ordered more fabric.  I got that this week, too.  

Fox Field on the left and the middle and right fabrics are from the Acacia line.  Both are from Tula Pink.

The saying goes that whoever dies with the most fabric wins!  Well, I think there is a winner already. Or at least the bar has been set up so very high!  A local quilt shop has taken on the task of selling the fabric hoard stash of a woman who recently passed away.  When I went in the shop to look around, I found out that the shop had sold slightly under 10,000 yards of fabric (at $4.00 yard) and that was about HALF of what the woman had in her stash.  The money collected is being donated to the Maryland Children's Hospital, so a very worthy cause.  There were bundles sorted in piles of boxes, boxes and boxes to be dug through.  I found some great black and white fabrics.  And I also found these...

Yep, in the middle of a black and white fat quarter bundle were these two babies.  I love this fabric from the Architextures line!  

I also found some Liberty of London fabric.  When I was wrapping it around the comic board backer, I thought it looked so familiar.  And voile!  It is the same pattern as one of my favorite shirts; just different colors.

I also got two yards of this fabric.  It is a lawn or voile of some sort.  There is no name or identification on the selvage.  This will make a darling little girl dress.

Here's what I worked on yesterday and today:

Cut into my stash of Kate Spain's Terrain.  Gorgeous colors!  This will be a birthday gift to a very special person.

And ending with a picture of the best cat trap ever!

Linking up now with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash!  What's in your stash?

More 2nd Q Finishes!

I am excited to share some finishes!  Today is such a gorgeous day here, that I took some photos outside.  I am so loving this weather!  It has been a long, dark, dreary, cold winter here in Eastern NC. (Pretty much everywhere else, too.  Except maybe, Arizona where my daughter, SIL and grandkids live.)

Remember those Glimma blocks from my Glimma obsession days?  Here is where they ended up:

 Yes, in a hammock.  Seriously, in a table runner that will go on the coffee table in our family room.

When I bought my long arm machine (which I love!), I also purchased the computer to do perfect, digital patterns on quilts.  Love that!  Well worth the investment, especially when quilting quilts for hire.  But my own free motion quilting skills have gone downhill - not that they were that good to start with.  So I have made the commitment to only do free motion quilting on MY stuff.  I have a big case of FEAR about doing that but it is something I am going to push past.  So here is a close up of the pattern I did free hand on the runner.  Not perfect, but keeping it real.

Another close up.

 And a picture of the back.

 Here is a close up of the binding I did by machine.  Not my usual choice but that is another skill I need to work on.  Love the look of hand stitched binding but that is very time consuming.  After reading a few blogs that I follow, I tried using my dual feed feet that I have with my machine (Bernina 830LE), turning the foot pressure to a negative 10, (yes -10), and moving the needle position.  Going slow helped too.

The rest of the blocks ended up in here.  A nice sized table topper to go on our kitchen table.  (Where I used to sew before turning a guest room into my sewing room.)

A close up of how I quilted this one.  Point to point, loopy, straight (snort) line, and stitch in the ditch. Certainly not perfect!

The back.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Sew Lux Fabric Anniversary BOM kit that is finished!  This one will be hung in my sewing room that used to be a guest room!  The embroidery is from Urban Threads which is one of my most favorite places to get unique embroidery patterns.  Urban Threads even has some Tula Pink embroidery designs.

 Again, that is my own free motion quilting.  I did straight (hah!) line quilting, stitch in the ditch, swirls, and meandering on this one.  I used a 100% cotton batting and the shrinkage is higher than the other two which are a 70/30% blend.  I do like 100% cotton the best!

The backing is a fun line from Timeless Treasures and can be found at Hawthorne Threads.

Oh, and my one year blogging anniversary came and went in April.  I need to look back and count all my finishes!

Now, I am going to move my sewing machine out to the screened in patio and work on a Kate Spain Terrain (LOVE!) quilt for a very special person!  Hope you make your day a good one!