WIP Wednesday: Deliver me from Distraction!

I know I'm not the only one with this problem. I've been so productive lately, but then new fabric shows up and I want to dump the old, tired, I'm-bored-with-you projects and play with the new shiny, pretty fabric.

For the record, I was not this way with boyfriends. Or shoes. I have shoes that are 15 years old that I love. And I've been married 11 years. So this is clearly just a fabric thing.

But here is a finish for you from my 3Q FAL list! I had a Love U jelly roll that I'd cut into 2.5" squares. I pieced them into fun nine patch blocks and made a baby quilt a while back for my sweet little girl. She's outgrown it, so I used the rest of the nine patch blocks to make a toddler-sized quilt.

I love that it isn't entirely girly with bright oranges, yellows, greens, blues and reds as well as pink.

I love these little snails, marching around in a circle (sort of).

And the owls make me smile. I didn't know I was such an owl person until recently. And little missy has an owl costume for Halloween. I love it!

Backed in the green butterfly and flower print, bound with the green dots. It's perfect. And I think she likes it!

As for WIPs, there are too many to count! So for today, here's what I'm doing:

Cutting the binding for my string quilt.

I don't know what it is, but I just don't like making binding. It's so tedious. I've got some Star Wars binding to make too.

Also on my list:

Cutting interfacing for my bags and sewing machine cover. I felt really ridiculous taking photos of interfacing. It's like photographing your underwear when you're doing laundry. Not exactly super glamorous. Well, maybe your underwear is fancier than mine. But let's stop talking about underwear. Here's the progress on the sewing machine cover, mat, pincushion, and thread catcher.

My WIP list is mostly about finishing things.

To Piece:
Quite Contrary quilt
PKM Dresden plate quilt
Cowgirl Saltwater Taffy quilt
Christmas string quilt
Lucy's Crab Shack triangle quilt

To Quilt:
Yellow and Orange string quilt
R2D2 quilt
3 Christmas quilts

To Avoid:
Halloween fabric (making bags in October)
Two FQ bundles of Apple of my Eye
Gypsy Girl FQ bundle that is arriving today (for a quilt for my daughter)

Linking up!

Fabric Tuesday: first finish of the week

And thus begins the parade of finishes. I'm so very happy to have these ones off my top shelf (and off my 3Q FAL list). It's getting pretty empty up there, which is such a great feeling!

This is one of two matching quilts. I bought at FQ bundle of L'Amour fabric a long while back and made it into two lap quilts. Two panels came with the bundle, so I pieced them into the backs.

More loopy meandering, with a few hearts thrown in there for practice.

My first bit of distractions came with the mail yesterday. Two packages, just for me.

I've got big plans for most of it. I bought that Madrona script fabric just because. Sometimes you just need to do that sort of thing, right? I'll be cutting that stack o' Lucy's Crab Shack into big triangles today.

The UPS arrived a day early with my Fat Quarter Shop package. I sorted it out into projects. First, my tree skirt. So very excited about this one. That would be Cherry Christmas there and I'm in love.

The binding for my string quilt, so the only excuse I have now is I need a place to baste it. I'm trying to find a time to go to my church and use the gym floor. We'll see how that works out.

Fabric for my daughter's dresses. Girl loves her purples. Cutting into these as soon as I'm done with a couple other cutting projects.

That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another finish. Guess this is what happens when you send your husband back to law school.

Oh, and linking up over at Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday. I'm loving the baby things I see over there. Don't have much need for them myself anymore. My baby is deciding to stop being a baby.

Little turkey! But she's cute, so I can't help but love her.

Have a great Tuesday - see you tomorrow!

Make-A-List Monday: Taking Names!

 Don't know 'bout the rest of you, but I'm not a huge fan of wildfires.

No, we don't have one here, but we're getting all the smoke. It reminds me of when I was living in SoCal and pregnant with my first. The fires were so bad that year that they shut down San Diego. Breathing was difficult. Just praying for those fighting all these fires. Praying for rain. Praying for safety. Not only do the firefighters have to deal with, well, fire, they also have to worry about things like snakes. Not my idea of fun.

Even with the poor air quality, this girl is on fire getting things done (okay, I couldn't help myself!).

What were my goals from last week?

Bind those two lap quilts.

Quilt and bind that Christmas quilt.

That was it? Really? I must still be in summer mode when making plans because I kicked some tail and took some names.

Not only did I get those lap quilts done, and the Christmas quilt done, I basted and started quilting this toddler quilt for my baby girl.

And I only barely got distracted by the arrival of some fun Halloween fabric. Distracted enough that I forgot to take a picture of the whole stack before I started sorting it. Sorry.

I'm making trick or treat bags using Ayumi's tutorial. But I'm forcing myself to wait until October to work on these. I've got other projects to finish first.

So, here's the list for this week:

• Finish toddler quilt.
• Get distracted by packages arriving in the mail.
• Cut and sew a Superman library bag for my littlest guy.
• Cut fabric, interfacing and fusible fleece for sewing machine cover and table mat.
• Cut more Lucy triangles (when fabric arrives).
• Sew up my project bags for the Sewing Buddy challenge.
• Cut out dresses for my oldest girl. Using this pattern, and I'm so excited for it.

I'll stop there. We'll see how far I get. You'll know I'm getting things done if you see me posting finishes every day this week. I have to blog my 3Q FAL finishes separately, so don't hate me for all those finishes that are forthcoming.

What's on your list this week? Do you have little ones heading back to school? We started our lessons last Monday and are in a pretty good routine. I'm tweaking it as I go along (isn't that how life works?), but I'm liking our schedule.

Have a fantastic and productive week!

WIP Wednesday: scraptastic day!

My Christmas quilt is quilted (meandering loopy stitch, but I like how it turned out) and I'm binding both the Valentine's quilts tomorrow. So Friday will be a big Friday finish.

Today, I'm playing with scrappy aqua and yellow squares. I'm working on my sewing machine cover and accessories for my Sewing Buddy Challenge. I've got a month to go, and I'm just waiting for all the other things to come in the mail. It's going to be a fun mail day soon. I'll have to take pictures of my haul for sure.

See you on Friday!

Make-A-List Monday: I get to quilt!

I've never thought of myself as much of a liar, and I swear I'm not. I mean, not really. Oh sure, I might fib here and there, but it's not a habit.

So I'm confessing that I lied about doing prep work. Sort of. I ran out of prep work I could do. All my projects need something else (something I need to buy), so I have to wait.

So I got back to quilting. I've quilted two small lap quilts that were on my 3Q FAL list. I'll be binding both of them this week.

And I basted this baby last night. She's a monster, but I'm excited to get it done.

Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder. I made this quilt top last summer (I know, I know) and I want to make another one now! The real question is - how to machine quilt it? I'm a little tired of my loopy meandering, but I don't want to straight-line it. Circles? It's a Christmas quilt, so flowers won't work. Sigh. Wish I had a long-arm.

So the prep work will return once I have my new supplies in hand. But for now, I've got to get some more work done on that monster of a list I made for the third quarter. It's half over, and I'm not halfway through my list!

Have a great week!

p.s. Thoughts on a Christmas I-spy charm swap? I'm thinking of hosting one.

Prep Work

I'm a food show junkie. Fortunately, I don't have cable, so I can't indulge very often. But I do whenever I'm at my mom's house.

Have you ever noticed how the chef/cook/awesome person has everything already measured out in bowls and ready to go? Did you know there was a special name for that?

Mise en place. Everything in it's place. So you don't discover halfway through a recipe that you don't have garlic. Or salt. Or eggs. It's unbelievably smart.

I do this in the kitchen. Years of training in professional kitchens taught me this.

So why, oh why do I not do this in my sewing room all the time? I think it's hardest when I'm figuring things out on my own, rather than following a pattern. Still, it bugs me when I want to finish something, or work on something, and I don't have enough of the something. Drives. me. batty.

And so you will not be seeing any finished items this week. Or next week. I'm doing prep work. So I can sit down and sew and KNOW that I've got everything I need to finish several projects before I have to prep again.

Lucky me, there's a sale on batting next week at JoAnn's. And I get to place a couple of orders for fabric.

And by the by, did anyone else notice that August is almost over? You won't hear me crying over it either. I'm a spring/fall girl. And I do love winter and summer, just ready for the hot weather to go away.

Have a fabulous weekend. Here's a picture for you, so this post isn't completely pictureless. I've noticed that the super cool people have "summer feet" pictures on Facebook and blogs. Well, you won't find me kicking back by the pool, or in a hammock, or on a lake. Nope. These are my summer feet.

This baby girl of mine is taking her first steps, but she'll grab your leg if you stop for a second. And she gets me every time. But I love her, and I love it. So that's my "summer feet" shot.

And we checked this book out at the library. I'm buying a copy. The illustrations are lovely. The story is lovely. I'm a sucker for children's books about quilts. I might just do a blog post of my favorites.

Make-A-List Monday, er, Tuesday

Since I'm still buried in laundry from our trip, I figured you'd be forgiving if I was a day late on this post. If you aren't forgiving, go ahead and try to tell me about how mad you are. I can't hear much under all this laundry.

I thought I'd get more done on my stitchery last week. I spent 11+ hours in the car after all. But between keeping kids fed and entertained, let alone keeping the decibel level tolerable, I wasn't able to pull it out as much as I would have liked.

So I'm still working on stitchery #4 - The Apothecary. I like this one. I especially like the jars in the windows and the sign out front: "Lost Small Dog - Call Dorothy." Cracks me up.

And I'm also getting started on my Sewing Buddy project. My buddy and I won third place the last challenge, and we're doing our best this time around. It's all about color, and we've chosen these colors for our projects.

I'm going to make a scrappy sewing machine cover, table mat and maybe a wall quilt if I can get to it. She's making some kitchen accessories and an apron. I can't wait to see what she ends up making. It's going to be gorgeous!

Hope your week is awesome - I'm getting organized and busy. School starts up next week, so this girl has some lesson planning to do.

Friday Finish: The Bubble & Brew

Seriously love this one. Could these stitcheries be any cuter?

I love their wonkiness. I love that little kitty sitting there. I love the gnarly trees. Love the "fly thru."

And while I'm not a coffee drinker myself, I'm starting to dream of caramel apples, pumpkin bars and my awesome minestrone soup.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'm in love with her orange quilt and more in love with that sweet grandbaby of hers. Try and watch that video without getting a big grin on your face. It's not possible!

Friday finish: the early morning edition

Rolling pins Christmas quilt, made using a Riley Blake Candy Christmas fat quarter bundle, and used the Me and My Sister Rolling Pins pattern.