March Goal: Penny Lane Quilt

I don't know about you, but I have a ton of projects that I have started but not yet finished. My good friend Melissa over at Sewbittersweet Designs is hosting this fun linky party she calls a lovely year of finishes where each month you set a goal to finish up one of those pesky projects that are sitting around begging to be finished. 

Anyway for this month my goal is to finally piece my penny lane star quilt top. It's a quilt featuring this awesome paper pieced block from 627 handworks that are in jewel tones with low volume backgrounds. My lovely friends that are part of the inspire circle for the do.good.stitches bee were kind enough to send in some of these beautiful blocks.

I'd love to sandwich it and quilt it, but I'm trying to be realistic given the fact that I have midterms and papers due this month, so the goal is really just to assemble the quilt top.  I have a few more star blocks to paper piece and then I can finally get this top pieced! 

What projects are on your to do list for the month?

WIP: City Sampler Quilt

I've been working on a quilt from Tula Pink's City Sampler Book for about six months now. Awhile back I made a mini quilt featuring some of my favorite blocks from the book, but I decided I needed to make an entire quilt. On somewhat of a whim I purchased a half eighth bundle of full moon lagoon and have decided to pair it with solids for my blocks.

This is the first time I've made a project out of one fabric line instead of mixing and matching some of my favorite individual fabrics. So far I'm liking how it is turning out - and I'm loving the fact that this line contains almost all of the colors of the rainbow.

As of today I have 36 blocks done.

I figure that's not that bad considering the only time I have to work on it is during the monthly Tula Pink sit and sew meetings at my local quilt shop. I am pretty excited with my progress and am hoping that with my new goal to focus on what makes me happy I'll have more time to devote to this project...who knows maybe I'll finish it up before the end of 2014!

Have you made a city sampler quilt? Or do you have a project that has/will take you forever and a day to complete? If so perhaps you should join me as I try to finish it up this year - finishing one quilt in a year seems like a totally obtainable goal, and I know you (we) can do it! Who knows, if enough people express interest perhaps I'll even offer a prize of some sort.

Sew Sew Modern 4

I participated for the first time in the Sew Sew Modern Swap on flickr. I really liked the idea of putting together a nice package of goodies for someone else  - especially because who doesn't like getting packages in the mail? When I got assigned my partner, I felt like I hit the jackpot because Shanna is super awesome and I knew immediately what I wanted to make for her. She finally got my package the other day so I can show you guys what I made.

For my large item I made a Supertote with 2 quilted patchwork pockets featuring some of her favorite designers in a deep pink, purple, and mustard yellow color scheme. The lining is a yellow Tula Pink print, and I used Kona burgundy for the piping & interior pockets. I really enjoyed making this bag and made a few alterations to the pattern, including adding some stiffer interfacing so it would be able to hold a lot more stuff, and keep it's shape when standing up.

For the smaller item I created a linen zip pouch that I stuffed full of scraps from the project.

Of course, I couldn't help but add a few other small items to round out my package, including a copy of one of my favorite quilting books by Angela Walters, some fun notecards, and the best chapstick known to mankind. In the end I wished I could have kept the bag (and entire package, really) for myself, but that's a sign of a good swap package, I think.

Happy 2014 (a few months late)

Happy February, belated Valentine's Day, belated New Years, Christmas, etc.

Life around here has been hectic and I've been forced to focus more on my grad school studies & spending time with my family than spending quality time with my sewing machine. I've been taking a double load of classes every semester in an effort to finish grad school as fast as humanly possible...which has taken up quite a lot of time in the day during which I usually would be sewing. This little break from sewing has made me think about what really matters in life. I've been loving the chance I've had the past few months to soak up some quality time with my husband while he has the time on the weekends and evenings. Since residency will start soon, I have to take advantage of all the free time possible! We've managed to get away from everything for a little while -- whether it was to the sunny beaches of Florida or the ski slopes of West Virginia and just enjoy being together.

I am a huge goal setter, and I get into the whole New Years Resolution thing. However, this year I am trying to take it slow, and just live in the moment, so I tried to restrain my resolution/goal setting tendencies back in January. So while there are tons of things I would like to get accomplished this year I have decided to just focus on being happy and making memories. So if as I sit down to my sewing machine to finally finish a project and my husband randomly asks if I want to go camping, the answer will be yes and sewing will get put on hold. With that said, however, sewing does make me extremely happy and I foresee much more time spent in my studio in the near future.

Before I step foot in my studio today though, I think I will venture outside and play in the snow.

So, what makes you happy?