WIPS: Uh Oh, A Whoops

The weather here has been beautiful the last couple of days. Warm, sunny and not too windy.  It's hard to stay in and sew when it's that nice, so I took a walk last night and was rewarded with this beauty as company. 

A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Even with the walk there was some time to make a bit more  progress on The First Amendment Quilt.  

The side borders are sewn on.  The top and bottom borders are ready to sew to the stars.  It wasn't till I was editing this photo that my "whoops" became clear.  The corner squares of the stars were supposed to be red, not the newsprint fabric.  

So I'll have to remake the 4 corner square blocks.  The "whoops" stars will probably get used on the back.  At least I caught it before the stars were attached to the top and bottom borders.  It won't take long to get back on track.  

Linking up with:
Lets Bee Social hosted by Sew Fresh Quilts
Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share hosted by Kokaquilts
Needle and Thread Thursday hosted by My Quilt Infatuation

January One Monthly Goal - The March to Graduation Finishes

It wasn't hard to decide what project to do for January's One Monthly Goal. 

The question was how much to try to get done?  I do not like to over commit on my projects, but considering that May is only 5 months away now and I have three quilts to finish by the middle of that month, pushing now is necessary in order to be ready for graduation.  So the plan is to get Bejeweled from where it is now,

to being shipped out the door for quilting.  There's only two columns of blocks left to be sewn together before the center of the quilt is assembled.  That leaves the top and bottom inner border and a final border to be cut and sewn on.  The backing will be scrappy left overs of the fabrics used in the blocks.  That will have to be assembled as well.  But I think it's all doable, January is a long month and other than DT's birthday, there's nothing likely to pull me out of the sewing room for a weekend.  

Bejeweled is number 1 on the quilt plan for this year, but I'm substituting it for my number 3 quilt for the purposes of Patchwork Times UFO-2017 Challenge.  I need to start and finish quilt #3, which is the First Amendment Quilt by May too, but it's just seems smarter to finish Bejeweled first as it's the closest to being done.  

Linking up with:
One Monthly Goal
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thrusday

WIPs: Progress and a Plan

It's the rainy season in Oklahoma.  We lucked out last night and all the nasty storms went south of us.  But we got hit with a doosy of a pop up thunderstorm just a bit ago.  The lighting and thunder were impressive.  According to the forecast, it's going to be intermittently stormy all day.  Today is also Drama Teen's last day of school before summer break.  After today, she'll be a senior in high school.  Wow, where did all those years go?   She'll be playing host to 3 other girls this afternoon for her annual "Last Day of School Watch TV and Veg" party.  Which means I'll be spending most of my evening in the sewing room.  Works for me. 

I've been in the sewing room most nights the last week so you'd think I'd have gotten more done on the Zombies quilt, but I only added one block to the collection up on the design wall. 

Zombies in Paris, self designed

The seam ripper spent a lot of time with that black and pink block, the framing strips got added in the wrong spots so they had to come off and be restitched in the right positions.  But there are two more blocks under construction at the sewing machine, so there will much more progress this week.   

Well maybe not.  Lea over Podunk Pretties has a sew along and linky party to go along with her latest tutorial, Back Porch Blooms.  I've been slowly re-organizing the sewing closet and last weekend came across a stash of red and blue 1930 reproduction fabrics bought many years ago for a BOM.  They'd be perfect for a project using that block.  This project is not on my 2016 Quilt Plan, but oh it's so tempting.  I gave in to temptation just enough to do some mock ups in EQ.  There's a very red version:

Flower Blocks are Back Porch Blooms by Lea Anne Brummett of Podunk Pretties
Quilt setting is self designed. 

  

And a very blue version:

Flower Blocks are Back Porch Blooms by Lea Anne Brummett of Podunk Pretties
Quilt setting is self designed. 

Lea showed off her butterfly blocks yesterday and I knew if I figured out how to add a few to my project, I'd be a goner.  So since we have a 3 day weekend and Allietare should make it to a finished flimsy stage before them, I'm going to dig out all the 1930 yardage and scraps to make one these quilts.  I'm leaning towards the blue one, but I have more red yardage.  Decisions, decisions!  

Linking up this week with 
Let's be Social over at So Fresh Quilts
WIPs on Wednesday over at Esther's Quilt Blog
Needle and Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation 

Let's Book It Challenge - January Progress

It's been one of those weeks.  My work days were just a bit longer as I had to drive into the big city for a conference this week.  Leaving the house at 6:30 AM and not getting home till 6:30 PM makes for a very long day.  I've been spending some time up in the sewing room each evening, but haven't really had time to read, much less write a blog post this week.  But today Sharon over at Vrooman's Quilts says it's time to blog about your Let's Book It Project for January. 

Let's Book It is all about actually making something from all the books, magazines or patterns we all collect.  This pattern has been my leaders and enders project for the last two years.  After finishing up all the 4.5" sub units in December, January has been spent stitching them into huge 20.5" blocks.  

Poinsettias
By Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue
of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine

There are 9 of these big blocks in the quilt, so I'm a third of the way done with those.  But then there will be the pieced sashing to finish before I can start sewing the blocks together.  I'm having fun building these big blocks.  Though I'm running out of design wall space to show them off.  Hopefully Poinsettias will be finished before we get to Christmas this year.  It would be nice to have a new Let's Book it Project, even nicer to have a finish.  

There's more eye candy posted over at Vrooman's Quilts.  

WIPS - Lots of Yellow with a touch of Blue

Drama Teen is going to be disappointed this morning.  We had freezing fog and rain last night, so she was hoping for a day out of school.  No such luck, the roads are dry. But we apparently have another opportunity for nasty weather tonight.  She may get her wish for a snow day tomorrow. 

The colder weather has meant there's not much to do but stay indoors, so it's perfect stitching weather.  Over the weekend the last border was pieced and stitched to the McCall's Mystery Quilt.  It's outgrown the design wall, so it took me a couple of days to get it photographed.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

The bright blue border does a lot to balance out all the bright yellow in the center of the quilt.  The focus fabric looks better in person, the pink just swamps the blocks in the photographs.  But overall I like how it turned out.  

The finished flimsy is half of my One Monthly Goal for January.  The other half of the goal is to get the back pieced.  That's been started but hit a snag when I realized there wasn't enough of the focus fabric to make a complete backing.  There's not enough left over of any of the other fabrics to use on the back, I have enough blue or yellow to make a binding (actually it's a bit iffy on the yellow).  After a search through the stash, I came up with a pale pink that looks good with the focus fabric.  It's been in the stash for at least 10 years, so it's on the cutting table waiting to be ironed.  I should be able to get the back pieced by the end of the weekend.  It feels nice to be on top of this month's goal.  

Linking up with 
Let's be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

WIPs - Making Progress

It's been a weird week.  There was this very fast moving virus that invaded suddenly Sunday evening.  Fever, chills and body aches were it's signature.  But after a good's night sleep (from 8 PM to 1:30 PM the next day), I was almost good as new.  Though not a lot of weekend stitching got done.  I was too busy putting on flannel shirts, sweaters, blankets while asking everyone else in the house if the furnace was really working to get much real sewing done.  However there is a bit of progress to report.  The top border for the McCall's Mystery quilt is assembled and pinned to the rest of the top, so it just needs to be stitched.  But that's not very photo worthy, so here's a shot of the Allietare blocks up on the design wall. 

Allietare
 Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

I just realized that one of the 4 patches is turned wrong in one of the Star Blocks.  I'll have to fix that next time I'm up in the sewing room.  You can get a better sense of how the blocks are going to work together with the addition of two more red star blocks. I'm happy with my color selections, now I just have to get all the blocks made (without turning any more 4 patches).   

Progress was also made on figuring out the paper piecing directions for Vintage Dresses.  The skirt for the first dress is complete.

Vintage Dresses by Charise Randell

The bodices are a lot more fiddly, so starting with the skirt seemed to be the best option.  Two of the 7 bodice pieces have been completed, but they by themselves weren't really very photogenic. I'm hoping to have one completed dress for the RSC post on Saturday. 

So that's the progress on my WIPs this week.  Not as much as I'd like, but still there was progress.  You can see more WIPs over at

Esther's Quilting Blog
Sew Fresh Quilts
Freshly Pieced
My Quilt Infatuation

WIPS - Other Uses for Rotary Cutters and Cutting Tables

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a progress report on my WIPs.  It's been harder the last few weeks to find time to sew during the week.  With the holidays coming up, other things have required more attention.  This week especially.  We are hosting Thanksgiving this year with My Guy's family.  That's meant spending some time doing deep cleaning in a few areas of the house.  So there hasn't been much stitching going on this week.  

Even though there's been no stitching, I did use the rotary cutter and my cutting table last night.  Our dining room set is almost 30 years old and the chairs are starting to show it. 

We use these chairs pretty much every day so it's not a big surprise that they are starting to show some wear. I've been wanting to recover them for a few months now, but My Guy and I couldn't agree on a fabric. But with family coming, we really needed to do something about the cushions that were ripping at the front. So last night Drama Teen and I went to Hobby Lobby to look.  Before we left, I was suggesting we look for brown or dark blue.  My Guy said he wanted beige again, as close as possible to what's on the chairs now. That's not what we came home with. 

We started out looking at the beige offerings, but they were either not the right weight or not in the right price range (I thought quilting fabric was expensive, it's been a while since I've had to buy home decorating fabric.)  Drama Teen picked out this gray with silver and gold.  It's a good neutral, it's not beige, it fits in with the rest of the house pretty well and it was on the lower end of the price scale, so it wasn't hard to convince me.  My Guy didn't like the fabric when I pulled it out of the bag once we got it home.  I talked him into letting me recover just one of the cushions.  I've learned over the years through discussing my quilt ideas with him that he cannot visualize how a fabric will look in the finished project.  After looking at the first finished chair he decided he liked it well enough to let me do the rest.  So though the chairs don't look brand new, they no longer look like thrift store finds.  

I did get in a few minutes in the sewing room earlier in the week.  All the pieces of the McCall's Mystery quilt got laid out on the design wall and I started sewing together the first couple of rows.  

This one may just make it to the finished flimsy stage before the end of the year and will likely be my first finish for 2016. My last finish for 2015 will be Back to Square One.  The binding is all made. Now I need to come up with a name for that one and make the label before I can start stitching down the binding.  

That's my progress for the week.  I'm linking up with

WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

WOW:  WIPS on Wednesday over at Esther's Quilt Blog

Wishing everyone in the United States a very happy Thanksgiving.

WIPs - Schedules Make a Difference

It's been two weeks since my last works in progress post.  That surprised me till I realized that October hasn't been a great month for spending time in the sewing room.  Typically the concentrated sewing time happens on the weekends, but due to numerous factors, the weekends haven't been very productive.  Plus as darkness is descending earlier this time of year, it's been harder to keep the energy level up later in the evening and I end up going to sleep in the recliner rather than making it up the stairs at the end of the evening.  So I conducted an experiment starting on Monday.  Rather than spending the early evening reading blogs and responding to emails, I've been heading up the stairs after dinner and my evening chores are done.  That's definitely made a difference the last two nights and there's been more progress in the sewing room.  We'll see if I can keep that up once time change is here.  Then it will be dark when I leave work.  I'm definitely not looking forward to that.  

There has been progress.  Only one block needs to be finished to be caught up with the Midnight Mystery quilt. 

Midnight Mystery Quilt From Meadow Mist Designs

The last block is at the sewing machine with just one more black strip to sew down.  

Another Wonky Star for the QOV block drive at Alycia Quilts is up on the design wall.  

Wonky Star Block:  QOV Block Drive sponsored by Alycia Quilts (tutorial is here) 

There are two more at the sewing machine in various stages of assembly.  I'm not sure how many of these I'll make.  The goal is to make as many as possible by October 31st.  These are due to Alycia by November 11th.  

Lastly, I'm almost caught up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for September.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The last orange block is almost assembled and two of the brown blocks for October are in progress.  Hopefully I'll be caught up on these by the end of the month, so I can get started on November's color at the start of the month.  

The change in my evening schedule seems to have made a difference.  I made some other changes in my work flow in the sewing room and those are helping too.  Now if I can just figure out how to not nod off when reading blogs and answering emails after my sewing time, I'll be in good shape.  

Linking up with WIP Wednesday, WIPS on Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

WIPs - Bordering on Another Finish

It's been slow, but steady progress in the sewing room.  Most of my stitching time comes on the weekends, but I do manage a few minutes here and there during the week to pin and then stitch a few seams.  I spent a few minutes to cut the strips for the next round of borders for Back to Square One.  The log cabin/star borders are all assembled and attached. 

 Back to Square One by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here)

With the addition of the last round of borders, it's now too big for the design wall.  The purple fabric looks almost black in this photo, I just couldn't get the lighting right to get the true color. The quilt is actually much brighter in real life.   All that's left is a narrow purple border followed by a dark blue border.  Borders always take longer than I think they will, so it will probably be the end of next week before this one is finished.  

Progress continues on the Square in a Square blocks for the Midnight Mystery quilt.  I should have all those blocks finished in time to start on October's clue when it is issued.  I still need to trim up the Layer Cake Quilt Along project and make the binding so I can finish it.  I did come up with a better another name for that project, I'll share that when the quilt is finished. The current plan is to get  Back to Square One sent out for quilting before finishing off the Layer Cake project.  That's assuming I have backing fabric for BTSO. So locating the backing fabric I think is in the stash also goes on the to do list.  

Linking up with WIP Wednesday, WIPS on Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

WIPs - Midnight Twinkle Stars

Yesterday was rainy and last night stormy.  It was perfect for spending some time in sewing room, but not so hot for a long bike ride.  That had been My Guy's plan for his day off, while I spent mine in the sewing room.  It didn't seem fair that my plans worked, but his didn't.  So the afternoon plans got shifted a bit. We ate lunch together, ran a few errands and just generally hung out together most of the afternoon. 

I did get some time in the sewing room after dinner.  One more Twinkle Star block made it to the design wall. 

 Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Just one more black star to finish sewing together and I can move on to orange the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for September. The Twinkle Stars have been a fun project for the RSC.  It's going to be hard to find a block as fun as these for next year's project.  

I've also been chipping away at the square in a square blocks which are this month's clue for the Midnight Mystery Quilt.

Midnight Mystery Quilt From Meadow Mist Designs

I may be sorry for the placement of the black and red tulip fabric.  I probably should have taken a peak at the final project, but I so wanted to do this as a mystery.  Hopefully it will look fine when all the blocks are put together.  

I've also been inching along on the binding for Grand Illusion this week. I'm hoping to have that quilt done by the end of the weekend. Two more star blocks are up on the design wall for Back to Square One, just two more to complete and it will be time to piece the next border. Poinsettias has been my Leader and Enders project for the last year. 

By Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine

I've completed all of the Unit 2, Unit 5 and Unit 6 blocks.  I only need 4 more of Unit 4 and about 10 more of Unit 1 and Unit 3.  This one may make it to a finished flimsy stage by the end of the year.  

So that's the 5 WIPs I'm currently working on.  You can check out more works in progress over at WIPs on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

WIPS - Block Progress

Just two more days and those of us in the United States have a three day holiday weekend.  Hopefully that means that it should start to get less hectic at work as the week goes on as people are likely to take Friday off and make it a four day weekend.  I can't, as my boss scheduled a staff meeting for Friday.  

I did a lot in the sewing room over the weekend, but it's been slow since the work week started.  I've made pretty good progress on the star blocks for the Back to Square One quilt. 

Back to Square One by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here)

I've added four more blocks.  Just five more blocks and I'll be ready to start assembling the next round of borders.  

That's it for my WIP progress this week.  You can see lots of other progress over at WIPs on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

WIPS - Old is New Again

The Layer Cake Quilt Along project is on it's way to Trudy for quilting.  Since that one is out the door, but Grand Illusion hasn't come back from being quilted yet, I needed to pull another UFO off the pile.  Drama Teen and I wanted to do something nice for the family that hosted us in Florida last June.  Of course, for me the easiest thing to do is make someone a quilt.  One of my UFOs fit the bill, so Back to Square One is up on the design wall.  

UFO: Back to Square One by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here)

The colors and style of this quilt go really well with the decor in their living room.  Plus it will be big enough for everyone to fit under.  So it will be a nice cuddle quilt for when it gets a bit cool next winter.

After checking out all the stuff in the project box, I found that all the log cabin blocks for the next border were completed but only 3 star blocks.  

So just 9 more are needed for the next round of borders.  After starting on star block number 4, I remembered why this project got put away, the star blocks take forever to make it seems.  But I want this one done, so I'll just have to power through what's left.   

I've also been working on the flying geese for the Midnight Mystery Quilt Along.  

All 36 are finished.  So I'm ready for step 2 when it comes out in September.  

Linking up with WIPS on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.    Check out all three to see the latest WIPs in blogland.  

WIPs - A Little Progress

It certainly seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote my last WIP update.  Since Drama Teen went back to school,  the days are more full.  She needs help with homework and there's been two quick shopping expeditions to pick up special school supplies for her classes.  Hopefully we'll settle back into the school year routine soon. 

My back is finally starting to feel better.  I'm behind on my blog reading because sitting has been uncomfortable.  Likewise, the stitching has been a bit slow this last week.  I did finish off the last of the red Twinkle Star blocks. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

These 6 blocks will certainly brighten up this project.  I didn't put them up with all the other blocks because the back for this month's UFO, the Layer Cake Quilt Along project, pretty much covers the big design wall. 

The Midnight Mystery project is the other WIP in progress.  I managed to double the size of the flock of flying geese over the last week.  

Just 20 more left to stitch up.  

That's all my progress for this week.  You can find more WIPs over at Freshly Pieced, Esther's Blog, and My Quilt Infatuation.  

WIPS - Something New

Wow, it's Wednesday already.  Drama Teen goes back to school tomorrow, maybe.  She was at school all day yesterday helping her Journalism teacher move into her room in the new addition, which DT says really isn't finished yet.  Some the rooms still don't have any desks and they were still working on the wiring.  The school system is supposed to text blast us if school can't start on Thursday. It's not a problem for us since DT has long been able to stay home on her own, but a number of parents who have younger kids will not be happy with the delay. 

 I've managed to do something to my back, so there hasn't been a lot of sewing this week.  I have finished up a couple of Twinkle Stars since last week. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Just one more red block to finish, then I can move onto making a few black stars as this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

There is a new WIP up on the design wall, Midnight Mystery. 

This month's clue is to make 34 flying geese.  I've got a ways to go on those yet.  Here's the fabrics I'm using for this mystery.

All but the tone on tone red have been in the stash for a while.  So I'm using this project to move some of the older stash out, so my newer stuff still will actually fit on the shelves.

What's your latest WIP?  You can find more WIPs over at Esther's Quilt Blog. On Thursday, there's Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.  

WIPS - Back to the Stars

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my works in progress (WIPs).  Work deadlines and a two week vacation will do that to you.  It was really nice to get back into the sewing room last weekend and play with some fabric.  Being out of pocket most of June meant that I didn't finish the teal twinkle stars for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Only three of the six blocks for planned for June are up on the design wall.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The star points on the first star look black, but are really a very dark red-violet.  They just didn't photograph that way.  The last three stars will be teal with teal star points.  Hopefully I can get the last three done and then start on this month's color which is red. 

You can check out more WIPS over at:

WIPs on Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
and Needle and Thread Thursday

WIPS - Twinkle Stars Under Cloudy Skys

It's been one of the rainiest springs we've had in a long time.  Tropical Depression Bill is scheduled to reach us this evening.   We aren't expected to get the highest rainfall amounts here, but it won't take much to push the river that runs through town over it's banks.  We live on high ground so flooding isn't a worry for us.  But if the river gets high enough, it will flood the roads that cross the center of town and the main highway out of town.  Hopefully it won't get that bad.  

With all the rain you'd expect a lot of progress in the sewing room.  Not so much.  Between report deadlines at work and a pretty icky migraine that started late in the weekend, there hasn't been a lot of progress.  I did finish off all the green Twinkle Star blocks last week.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Before the green blocks got put away, I pulled out all the other blocks and played a little on the design wall. 

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite scrap projects.  I've made a start on the teal blocks, the color I'm doing as this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color as I've already used light blue.    

Due to some upcoming work and family commitments, there won't be much stitching going on around here.  So there won't be much to post about over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, I'll still have some time to follow up on what every one else has been up too.

I'm linking up with WIPs on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday, and Needle and Thread Thursday.  Check them all out to see lots and lots of eye candy.  

WIPs - Slow Green Growth

It's hard to believe it's already June, the half way point in the year.  I've limited my efforts to just 4 WIPs so far in 2015.  One of those is finished, but I still haven't gotten the photos taken.  Grand Illusion lacks just one block, four sashing blocks and the borders.  I've been playing in EQ trying to come up with borders that will tie that quilt together, but not be as busy as the border Bonnie designed to go with it. So far I've come up with a couple of options.  

Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

My working images aren't perfect, but this approach at least gives me a quick visual to decide if I like the direction or not without taking all the time to create blocks and sashing in EQ.  I'm leaning towards the blue and white border on the left at the moment.  

Most of my sewing room time has been focused on Grand Illusion because I'm ready to get it off the design wall.  Consequently, there hasn't been a lot of progress on the Twinkle Star Blocks. I've only finished one block in the last week.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The last of the green Twinkle Star blocks are in various stages of construction over by the sewing machine.  I should have all 6 done by the weekend.  Then it will be time to select the teal fabrics for this month's stars.  

For more works in progress, check out Esther's Quilt Blog, Freshly Pieced and My Quilt Infatuation.  

WIPs - Switching Gears for a Finish

The last few weeks I've been showing my progress on the Twinkle Star blocks.  No progress on that front this week because the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler came back from being quilted last week.  The binding has been made for several days, but it's not been attached because the quilt needs a label. To finish the label the quilt needed a name.  I put some possible names on Monday's Design Wall post.  The thought was to stick with a name containing "rainbow" or something the referred to the rainbow of colors.  Some of the favorites from the comments included Scrappy Skittles, Cuddle the Rainbow, Color Splash and using the abbreviations of some chemical elements that produce unique colors in a chemical flame test (Cu, Cd, Co, C).  DT wasn't thrilled with any of those choices (she's claimed this quilt as her couch cuddle quilt).  She suggested rather than limit the colors to just a few, why not name the quilt "Flame Test" as the range of elements in the periodic table produce a rainbow of colors when subjected to a flame.  

Drama Teen took chemistry this year and is really considering pursuing a chemistry degree in college, so I bowed to her wish and named the quilt Flame Test.  Now that the name was decided on, I could have fun coming up with the label.  

It's definitely a bit geeky, but Drama Teen loves it.  She and I spent a lot of time bonding over chemistry this last school year while I was making the quilt, so the name will bring back a lot of memories for both of us.  

Unfortunately with the holiday weekend and my quilt naming diversion, nothing else got done on the other WIPs in the sewing room.  But that's OK, it won't be long before I have my first finish for 2015. 

You can check out other WIPs over at Esther's Quilt Blog, Freshly Pieced and My Quilt Infatuation.   

WIPs - Moving Right Along

It's a bit soggy here at Life in Pieces, inside and out unfortunately.  The upstairs  air conditioner condensate drainage line backed up on Sunday and resulted in a small leak over my bathroom vanity.  At first glance I was afraid we'd lost shingles in the strong storms that passed through Saturday night.  Having gone through the nightmare of trying to get a roof fixed after the high winds last Labor Day weekend, a plugged drain line is a bit easier to get fixed. 

It seems the longer days have spurred my sewing mojo and my sewing machine no longer sits alone in the evenings.  Sometimes I don't get much more than 15 minutes to play, but even just 15 minutes of work every night can lead to a lot of progress.  I finished up all of the purple stars which were last month's goal for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and have made a good start on this month's green ones.  Before the purple stars were stored with the previous blocks, I had to put them all back up on the design wall. 

 Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

These blocks are quickly becoming one of my favorite projects.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to sash the blocks with corner stones.  But that won't be for a few more months after a few more colors are added.  

I'm running a bit late this morning, so I need to go get ready for work.  This week I'm linking up over at Esther's Quilts, Freshly Pieced and with My Quilt Infatuation.  There's a lot going on at those three blogs, check them out.  

WIPs - Catching Up

I'm finally starting to get back into a routine again. The three day weekend really helped me to get back on track in the sewing room after my week away on a business trip.    Said business trip and the project associated with it "helped" me get way behind on this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  I finally finished all of March's yellow blocks on Monday. 

These Twinkle Star blocks have been such fun to make.  After admiring the yellow blocks for a bit, I couldn't resist putting all the finished blocks up on the design wall.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Some of the yellow stars get lost when they are added in with the other blocks.  Those may need to be redone, but I'll wait till all the blocks are done before I make a final decision on that.  Otherwise, I'm happy with how it's looking.  

April's rainbow challenge color is purple.  All the fabric is picked out for those blocks, but none are finished as yet.  I'm hoping to have those done by Saturday so I'll be all caught up and ready to work on the green blocks for May. 

Check out all the other WIPs over at  Freshly Pieced, Esther's Quilt Blog and My Quilt Infatuation.