Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Busy as a Bee

It's WIP Wednesday and I actually have some stuff to share..WOO! I've been making pretty good progress sewing lately (by my standards, anyway) and even though I've got a small handful of things going on, I feel like I've been in a pretty good groove of making progress on each of them. 

First off, I made my do.Good Stitches February Bee Blocks this weekend. This month was led by the lovely Sarah of Sarah Stitched and she chose the Triangle Play block, found here at Sew, Mama, Sew!  We were given free reign on colors which both excited me and stressed me out a tad, too many decisions! This block looked alot easier going into it...my first block involved LOTS of "reverse sewing" and a few choice words. I just could not get my points to match up or rows to line up straight.

Feb 1

I did finally manage to finish it and it turned out decent, but I ran out of white so couldn't finish my second right away (which honesly was probably for the best at that point...) In the meantime, it was suggested to me to try starching my pieces before sewing them together.  I've never used starch before but was planning on getting some anyway for my curves projects so I decided to give it a go and OH.MY.GOODNESS. Lets just say starch is my new BFF. It made a world of difference! Not only did the second one wind up looking better, but it made it a much more pleasant experience...

Feb 2


Feb

Looking at this picture, I just realized that I think because I had to skimp so much with the seem allowance to get my points to line up in the first one, the triangles seem to be a bit bigger than the ones in the second one...huh...well, they are off in the mail already so hopefully it won't be noticeable in the final quilt.

This week I've also gotten some work done on some curves projects:

Rainbow Road in progress

Rainbow Road table runner: This has been pretty fun to make.  I usually do not do solids, and I usually do not do total improv, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it! Okay okay so it's not really that daring, but it was a stretch for me and I'm glad I did it because what's the point in learning something new if you're not going to step outside your comfort zone?  The directions call for this to be squared off then bound, but I really like the curvy edges, and like I said I'm "throwing caution to the wind" so I'm going to attempt to bind it curvy...


Drunkards Paths

First try at a drunkards path!

Drunkards Path potholders: These were actually alot easier than I expected.  Rachel gave us directions to try to do these both with pins and without.  The without pins method was kind of blowing my mind so I did the first set with pins but then decided "aw what the heck, let's get crazy" and gave no pinning a go, and what do you know? It was not scarey at all!  I did the rest without which made these really quick to make.

progress...

I've also gotten to work on the next bag I had planned. This was supposed to be a Christmas present, which of course didn't happen, so I was going to try to make it for her birthday instead.  Her birthday is the 12th so I *should* make it in time, barring any unforeseen pattern issues/massive mistakes/laziness...yeah, we'll see...Anyway, notice anything about this one?? Yup...I *finally* learned from my mistakes and labeled the pieces! Aw, my mom would be so proud....

In addition to this stuff I've also got a few things sitting on my table waiting for their turn to be cut.. 
-Curves Projects: Orange Peel block, Slices floor mat, O'Christmas Tree mini and Retro Flowers quilt
-Modern Mini Challenge: I'm really hoping to enter this but need to decide quick. I've got a few ideas rattling around, but none have fully hatched yet so I'm not really sure if it'll happen in time.

So, what have you got going on?? How do find a groove to keep multiple things going on at once? Or are you a project monogamist and like to finish one thing before starting another?

4 comments:

  1. Lol I didn't even notice before on the picture of your Rainbow Road project that the front door is open. I'm assuming that's for added light? I do that too haha! My apartment has horrible lighting, and windows in only the bedrooms and the room where I sew, so if I need to take a picture anywhere else in the apartment, like when I made a table runner for my dining room, I open the door to make the picture not so dismal. Love it haha!

    Ps, you should totally disable word verification. It's so hard to tell what the darn words are. And I've never gotten any spam from not having em!

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    1. Haha yeah I have to open the door to take photos...the only window in the main room is at the back of the room and it doesn't get much afternoon sun.
      I didn't even know I had on word verification to be honest with you! I'll try to turn it off..blogger has been giving me fits lately so hopefully it will let me!

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  2. I haven't tried out the starch yet, but only because I haven't remembered to pick any up, yet. I've enjoyed the curves class projects, and learned a few things, too. I really am inspired by seeing what everyone else is making, too.

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  3. Love your rainbow road and pot holders. I'm hoping Rachel will run her curves class again as I really wanted to do it but just didn't have the time to commit to it right now.

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