Quick Update

Howdy strangers...feels like it's been a while since I've posted anything! It's been pretty busy around here, we've been cleaning out the house preparing for and having a yard sale, working on some projects around the house and all that fun stuff, but I have managed to squeeze a little sewing in here and there.  I have been a bad little blogger and not taken too many pictures of stuff as it's been in progress, so please forgive me, but here is what I do have to show for myself!!

Firstly, I finished the top to my first baby quilt (ok, I actually finished this about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to sharing it...)

I figured out why I was having trouble with my layout...it's called "Jess can't add", lol. It ended up working out pretty much as I had planned thankfully. Now I've just got to decide how to quilt it...I want to make it fun, but also simple and something that will wind up nice and soft.  I'm thinking making some zig zags in the big strips, and maybe some fun little shapes in the little squares? Hm. We shall see...right now it's sitting patiently all folded up on my sewing table waiting for it's turn to be finished. 

Next I've been working on my Retro Flowers quilt...It's coming along nicely, I am a wee bit behind schedule on the QAL, but I think I'll be able to catch up. I've got 3 blocks done so far, 6 more to go. Then I have to decide on the sashing...

I've also been working on my project for my mini-swap with Rebecca, my Modern She Made swap, and my blocks for this months do.Good Stitches...these three are this week's priorities and will hopefully be if not finished then at least pretty far along by the end of the week.  It's been hard to devote a lot of time to sewing during the week...by the time I get home from work and get everything around the house down, my feet are starting to get pretty swollen and since I've yet to figure out a way to comfortably put my feet up while sewing, I've had to keep my sewing sessions pretty short lately which is REALLY slowing me down! Ugh! 

Anyway, back to work for me while I still have the energy.  Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Liebster Blog!!!

Not much has been going on around here this week, chugging along on a few of my projects but hubby was actually home this week (yay!) so not a whole lot that is worthy of being shown has gotten done. However, my week was totally made when my friend Diane at from blank pages passed along the Liebster Blog award to me! She is one of my newer blog friends and I absolutely adore her and to top it off she is talented to boot, so I was shocked and honored that she chose me to be one of her recipients :-)

I've only been blogging for a few months now, and I'm still trying to find my niche in this great big blogging world, but I love the community and being able to share my stories as I go (albeit only with about 9 people right now...maybe I can get to 10 by the end of the month and we'll have a party??).  I am very thankful to my small following for bearing with me through my awkward ramblings...without you, I'd still be talking to me self!! lol

So, what is the Liebster award, you may be asking? Well let me tell you....

The Liebster award (German for favorite) is for bloggers with 200 followers or less. As a recipient of the award, you have the chance to thank and link back to the blogger who gave it to you as well as pass it along to five other deserving blogs.

Now here's the rules: 

Liebster Conventions:
1. Thank your award presenter on your blog and link back to him/her.
2. Copy and paste the award to your blog.
3. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that you think deserve to be recognized.
4. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Have faith that your followers will spread the love too! 

My 5 2 blogs that I am awarding this to are:

1)  Habibti at Home- Sarah was my first blogging friend. We both started our blogs right around the same time and are in similar stages in our lives, so it has been fun to chat with her. She's quite the talented quilter and also shares on her blog about the fun travels she takes, so I like to try to live vicariously through her ;-)

2)  Tickle and Hide- Jodi is simply amazing! She makes some truly beautiful quilts and children's clothing, not to mention she is super sweet.  

A few of the blogs I follow and love have already received the award, hence my breaking of the rules and only awarding it to 2, but in case you do not know them already, you should definitely still check them out- Sew Festive and as previously mentioned from blank pages. 

Again, many thanks Diane for spreading the love! :) 

W.I.P. Wednesday: A Week of Firsts

So this week I've put my daring pants on and have jumped into a few new things:

Firstly, Rebecca at Sew Festive Handmade has been trying to convince me of the fun-ness of swaps...I am a bit hesitant to join one, so I've been picking her brain on these, asking her all kinds of crazy questions to try to make up my mind.  Well, she is super, and not only answered all my questions, but also offered to do a mini swap with just to two of us so I could get a feel for swapping! With a bit of trepidation, I agreed, and made my first inspiration mosaic. I am going to make her a pouch, and she is going to make me a mini. I've already started playing with a few ideas, one is a new-to-me technique and I am really digging it so far but it needs some adjustments before I settle on it. I cannot preview it since I don't want to ruin the surprise for her, but I think it's going to turn out pretty fun!

I was going to see how our mini-swap went before joining a regular swap, but then I saw this: Modern She Made Swap.  I told my self I better not, since I have a few projects on the horizon that I'd actually like to get done, but then decided to just jump in...because by the time I finish all this other stuff, I probably will be about to pop and will not want to join one then.  So now's as good a time as any....right?! I'm still a little nervous, but hopefully it will be fun and I will not totally suck at it. If you are interested, I believe there is still space!

Ok, so on to the actual sewing...I've been talking about my Retro Flowers quilt for a while now (which is my FIRST quilt!), and wouldn't you know it, Bianca at Sweet Diesel Designs and Megan of City Stitches went and decided to start a Quilt-A-Long for Retro Flowers! This was obviously a sign, so I've joined in on that too...my first QAL!! I've gotten started with just my first block this week to see how I could manage the curves.  Turns out, not too shabby!

I did mess this one up a little...apparently I cut wrong when squaring so this did not line up. I do not know why I still pieced the two halves together, because now that's just even more seam ripping for me if I want to fix it...ugh.  Oh well, happy to say the rest went fairly well and I'm ready to move forward with the rest of them. I'm only doing 9 blocks, so hopefully it won't take me too long...

Check this out, I'm even chain piecing the curves like a pro!! Haha

I've also started on my FIRST baby quilt!! I bought a bunch of fabric with no real plan in mind to make just a small quilt that can be used to play with on the floor or cuddle with in the rocking chair...my friend Sarah at Habibti At Home has also just made her baby it's first quilt, and I was really inspired by it and knew I wanted to do something fun and simple like she did.  I almost flat out stole her design, but settled on something a little different.  I've got two layouts I need to choose from:

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Layout A

Layout B

Yeah I know, not much difference...Layout A would have sashing in between each of the 6 inch blocks, while Layout B would have sashing only at the ends of the rows of 6 inch blocks.  I was not planning on any sashing on those rows originally, but due to some measuring errors I'm having to adjust a bit (the long strip of the owls should have been cut to be 42" long, but I cut in the wrong direction and they wound be being about 34"...ugh). I think I'm leaning towards B just to keep it simple...thoughts or other ideas??? Another thought I had was to just add in the 6th 6 inch block on each row as originally planned, and it will just be cut off a bit...hm. 

Anyway, I'm really excited about all these firsts! I'm just hoping I can stick with it all and get everything done. So what have you all got going on this week? Anyone else joining this swap or QAL??

Today I'm linking up with W.I.P Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!