married to a bmw

February-a-long

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:47:00 +0000

I finally got my quilt-along blocks done last weekend. It felt like I was behind, when in reality it was only the middle of the month, so I don't know where I got that from. Either way, I'm glad to have them done because they are some pretty cool blocks.

HST Block, February, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

First up is the February block for the HST quilt-along. Let me just say that HSTs have grown on me over the last few months, and I'm really enjoying this quilt-along.

Craftsy BOM, February, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Much to my delight, the theme for February for the Craftsy BOM is HSTs! Woohoo! The first block is called the Balkan Puzzle block. Pretty cool, no?

Craftsy BOM, February, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

The second block is a chunky chevron block. I'm really loving the bright orange in this block!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:11:00 +0000

I finally got to sit down and do some sewing last weekend, so I have some things to show you this week! I got some quilt-along blocks done as well, but in an attempt to avoid making this the longest post ever, I'll write about those separately. Here's some of what I did this week:

Projects started:

None!

Projects completed:

February Cottage, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

February Cottage cross-stitch

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Swoon Block 3, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Swoon Quilt*
String Quilt*
Farmer's Wife Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1

New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 10
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

TAST, Weeks 4-6

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:14:00 +0000

I got a little behind on my TAST stitching, so here are three weeks worth at once!

TAST, Weeks 4-6, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Week 4 was the Cretan stitch, shown on the left. It's very similar to the feather stitch of week 3. Week 5 was the herringbone stitch, which I really loved. I can see this being a great border stitch. Week 6 was the chevron stitch, which was also fun to stitch.

TAST Progress, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Here's my progress from the last six weeks. Two more and I'll have the first circle done!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:41:00 +0000

It's been a pretty busy week, so all I really got done was another swoon block. Hopefully this next week will be more productive!

Swoon, Block 2, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Projects started:

None!

Projects completed:

None!

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Swoon Quilt*
String Quilt
Farmer's Wife Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

February Cottage cross-stitch
Wizard cross-stitch
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 0

New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 11
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

Hoop Travel Bags

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Hoop Travel Bags, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

I have a lot of cross-stitch and embroidery on my goal list for this year. A few of them are monthly stitch-alongs, so I decided I needed something to keep my projects in long-term as I'm switching between them frequently. So, as I often do, I copied Amanda's awesome idea of making some hoop travel bags. The pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, who also happens to be the creator of the Dessert of the Month Club stitch-along that I'm also doing. The bags are the perfect size for your hoop and stitching accessories. Plus I got to use some cool colored zippers, so that was definitely exciting!

Hoop Travel Bag, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

My first, and probably favorite, bag is made from some Michael Miller's Citron Grey and Amy Butler's Lark. I'm usually not good at pairing together fabrics from different lines, but this was an easy match, and I love how well they go together.

Hoop Travel Bag, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

My second bag is made from two prints from Liz Scott's Sugar Pop.

Hoop Travel Bag, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

My third bag is made from Robert Kaufman's Metro Living and a flannel print I bought at Joann's a very long time ago. I held on to it because I loved it SO much, but I could never find the right use for it. This bag turned out to be its perfect project!

I still have a few other hoop travel bag ideas that involve hexagons and cross-stitch on the actual bag, but those are going to take me longer to get to. These are perfect for using right now, and I love them!

What do you use to carry your hand-sewing projects in?

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:13:00 +0000

Happy February everyone! After my mostly tragic start to my swoon quilt last week, I decided to start over with some new fabrics. I really am not in love with that block, so Hyperreal Garden is going to wait for a different project... I'm switching over to Ruby for Swoon!

Swoon, Block 1, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Isn't this so much better? Lee over at Freshly Pieced commented last week that these blocks seem to work best when the prints have a strong contrast between each other and the background fabric, and she was definitely right. I've paired fat quarters together keeping this in mind, so hopefully the rest of my blocks will be just as pretty!

Projects started:

None!

Projects completed:

Hoop Travel Bags, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Hoop Travel Bags (post coming soon!)

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Swoon Quilt*
String Quilt*
Farmer's Wife Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

February Cottage cross-stitch
Wizard cross-stitch
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1

New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 11
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

Gardening 2011 Results

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +0000

2011 Harvest, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Overall, our gardening year went pretty well. Not everything went as expected (squash vine borers and a record-breaking hot summer), but we still got a pretty good harvest. It's pretty clear what plants worked best for us:

Peas, 1.37 lb
Green Beans, 10.29 lb
4 Squash, 0.97 lb
43 Cucumbers, 15.2 lb
62 Tomatoes, 13.01 lb
21 Bell Peppers
25 Carrots
3 Jalapenos

I've got a bunch of seeds started for the spring already since our average last frost date is less than 8 weeks away. Hopefully we'll have a cooler summer in 2012!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:26:00 +0000

I started a new project this week - my swoon quilt! I got a fat quarter set of Pat Bravo's Hyperreal Garden a while back for my birthday with this quilt in mind... but now I'm starting to second guess that decision. There are a few directional prints in this line, and that doesn't appear to work to well for this quilt. Here's my first block:

Swoon Block #1, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

I'm leaning towards switching to something different in my stash that doesn't have directional prints, or at least has enough non-directional prints to use in the quilt. What do you guys think?

I also started and completed some January blocks for two quilt-alongs. First up is the January HST quilt-along block:

HST Block, January, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

I think this might be my most favorite block ever that I've made. I really love it! I'm using DS Quilts Sugar Creek for this quilt along with some Kona Snow.

I also made the two January blocks for the Craftsy Block of the Month (BOM) quilt-along:

Craftsy BOM, January, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

They were definitely fun and easy to make. The prints are from Amy Butler's Lark line, with more Kona Snow (notice a trend?). I'm looking forward to next month for both of these quilt-alongs.

Projects started:

Swoon Quilt*
February Cottage cross-stitch*

Projects completed:

January Cottage, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

January Cottage cross-stitch

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

String Quilt
Farmer's Wife Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery
Hoop travel bags (3)

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1

New projects - 2

Currently in progress - 12
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

Growing in the garden

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:04:00 +0000

Lettuce, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Spinach, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Cauliflower, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Broccoli, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

Onions, a photo by jenniferworthen on Flickr.

I've already harvested (and eaten) the cauliflower. I learned that once the florets start to separate, it's ready. I roasted the cauliflower in olive oil with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. It was pretty good! The onions are going to take a while by the looks of them. Everything else is getting pretty close to being ready!

January Cottage Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Here's my progress on my January cottage for the Cottage Stitch-Along. This pattern is a bit bigger than I expected (ok, a lot bigger than I expected). It's not a problem, but for some reason it was smaller in my head. I really like it though, more with every stitch. It's definitely one of the cutest patterns I've ever stitched.

And now a question for all of the stitchers out there. What do you do with your extra fabric hanging around your hoop? I've always used a hair clip from middle school (haha!), but it seems like there must be a better way to keep that extra fabric under control. I don't like it flopping around and getting in the way. What do you use to corral your extra fabric?

TAST Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The stitch for week 3 of TAST is the feather stitch. This stitch is very similar to the buttonhole stitch, and is a whole lot of fun to do! This section of the color wheel is red and red-orange. Go color wheels!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:46:00 +0000

I made some good progress on my scrap attack quilt this week, and it's starting to look pretty awesome! There's some cross-stitch progress this week as well. Cross-stitch is perfect for when you're tired and don't want to keep getting up between the sewing machine and ironing board. :)

Projects started:

January Cottage cross-stitch
January Dessert of the Month cross-stitch

Projects completed:

January Dessert of the Month cross-stitch

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

String Quilt*
Farmer's Wife Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery
Hoop travel bags (3)

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1

New projects - 2

Currently in progress - 11
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

January Dessert of the Month

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:49:00 +0000

I'm participating in the Dessert of the Month club at The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. This month's dessert is a champagne truffle. Isn't it adorable? It was very fast to make as well. It only took me about an hour from start to finish. I'm looking forward to seeing what next month's dessert is!

TAST Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:41:00 +0000

The stitch for week 2 of TAST was the buttonhole stitch. I used three threads on the smaller stitch and two on the larger one. The three-thread stitch isn't quite straight on the bottom, so I think using only two threads is better for the buttonhole stitch on this fabric.

And as for what these stitches are going to become? Everyone was right - it's a color wheel! I can't wait to see it progress. It's going to be awesome!

do. Good Stitches Bee Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

One of my sewing goals for 2012 is to participate in a quilting bee. I signed up for the charity bee do. Good Stitches at the end of last year, and I was accepted into the Imagine circle which happens to be run by the lovely Amanda. Our circle will be donating our quilts to Threading Hope!

Our first month's blocks are sawtooth stars made from red, pink, white, and a little bit of accent gray. I happen to have plenty of scraps in these colors, so I didn't need to dig into my stash for these blocks. Woohoo!

This first block ended up nothing like I originally planned, but in a good way! This was one of those times where I kept messing up the cutting and sewing and had to go to plan b, and then c, and then... well, you get the idea. It was an accident that the inner star is white instead of pink, but I think it looks pretty awesome anyway.

I wanted to do some interlocking stars like in this Sparkle Punch quilt, so my second block has three little scrappy interlocking stars. Check out the other blocks from the bee here!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:23:00 +0000

I started a couple of new projects this week, and made some major progress on my cross-stitch! Hopefully I'll be able to get some work done on some of these unfinished quilts this weekend.

Projects started:

January do. Good. Stitches bee blocks
Hoop travel bags (3)*

Projects completed:

January do. Good. Stitches bee blocks (post coming soon)

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Farmer's Wife Quilt
Strip Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch* - finally finished the main stitching. Now on to the back stitching!
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1

New projects - 2

Currently in progress - 10
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

TAST Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:23:00 +0000

One of my sewing adventures for 2012 is the Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST) stitch-along. I'm still pretty new to the world of embroidery, so this is going to be a great way to learn 52 new stitches. I'm going to turn these practice stitches into something totally cool as well that I am SO excited about.

Last week's stitch was the fly stitch. It's very easy to make and looks neat as well.

And here's a hint as to what I'm going to turn all of these practice stitches into. Any guesses?

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

I don't have any finished projects this week; I worked on my cross-stitch nearly nonstop! Vacation certainly helped me make a lot of progress on it.

Projects completed: none!

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Farmer's Wife Quilt
Strip Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch*
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 0

New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 9
*Progress made

What's on your WIP list this week? Head over to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday to link up and see what everyone else is working on!

2012 Sewing Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Can you believe that 2011 is almost over? I certainly can't. Writing my WIP Wednesday posts has inspired me to make a list of what I'd like to sew next year. There are a lot more projects on my wish list, but I know I'll never have time to make them all, so these are the ones that I want to do the most. Many of these projects are already started and on my WIP Wednesday posts, so the list really isn't as long as it looks. I hope. Haha!

Quilts

Farmer’s Wife quilt-along
Starry Eyed Quilt
Snapshots Quilt
Drunkard’s Path
String stash-buster quilt
Swoon Quilt (Hyperreal)
Christmas quilt, pattern undecided (Flurry)
Dresden plate quilt (may turn into a pillow or mini quilt instead of full quilt)
Retro Flowers Quilt
Craftsy Block of the Month Quilt
Half-Square Triangle Block of the Month Quilt
Sparkle Punch Quilt
Oh My Stars! Quilt

Sewing

Travel laundry bags
Hoop travel bags (2), with the following for the front of each bag

Paper-pieced hexagons
Cross-stitch (Whistle While You Work, see below)

Serger cover
Weekender bag
Christmas stockings, pattern undecided
Project with selvages (spools or books maybe?)
Amy Butler wide leg lounge pants (2)

Cross-stitch

Wizard
The Cottage monthly stitch-along
Dessert of the Month Club
Whistle While You Work
Lizzie Kate Seasons Alphabets (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter)

Embroidery

Take A Stitch Tuesday weekly stitch-along
Flower sampler
Daisychain ABC Sampler
Make It Do

Community

Participate in a quilting bee - Imagine group at do. Good Stitches
Dallas Quilt Celebration, Dallas, March 9-11
International Quilt Festival, Houston, November 1-4
Sewing Summit, Salt Lake City, October 11-13 (if money and time off allow)

Also in my plans for the beginning of next year is a fabric diet. I have all of the fabric and patterns (minus the Retro Flower pattern) for everything above, minus possibly a few backings. So with the exception of backing and sashing fabric when absolutely necessary, some Flea Market Fancy when it comes out, and a possibly little shopping at the Dallas Quilt Celebration, I won't be buying any new fabric for the first three months of the year. If I find something I want, I'll add it to my wish list and see if I still want it when the diet is over. And if all of those exceptions line up in March, I'll move month three of the diet to April instead so that I really have three entire months with no fabric shopping. I have more than enough fabric to keep me occupied until then!

CVS 2011 Results

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

You may have noticed I haven't been posting about trips to CVS for a while now. I actually have only gone to CVS three times since my last post in July. I had a few frustrating experiences at my local store that I didn't want to get into here, but it frustrated me and really affected how much I wanted to go. But enough about what I didn't buy, let's get on to what I did buy!

YTP OOP: $110.26
YTD Savings: $608.62
YTD eBay sales: $31.59

This means my net cost of everything above was only $78.67! Definitely not as good as last year (savings rate of 84.7%), but it's still pretty awesome. The jury is still out as to if I'm going to get back into shopping at CVS; our stockpile is nearly empty, so there's a good chance I'll be starting up again soon!

2011 Quilts

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:16:00 +0000

New Wave Quilt; Pinwheel Quilt; Baby Hexagon Quilt;
Adult Hexagon Quilt; Christmas Quilt

I really enjoy end of the year wrap-ups. It's nice to look back and see what you've accomplished. These are the quilts I made in 2011. It felt like I made more, but that's probably because I have another four that I've started and haven't finished yet. And out of these five, only one was for me! All of the in-progess ones are for me as well; I guess at some point this year I figured out that I need to make stuff for myself too! Here's to 2012, filled with lots of new quilts!

New Wave Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Hurray for another finished quilt! This one I started around six months ago, so it didn't take me as long as the last one. :) The pattern is New Wave Quilt by Oh, Fransson! I used prints from Anthology's Folk Life line (purchased at Fabric Fascination) and Kona Snow for the sashing and border. It turned out bright and fun. I did't want to lose any of the print, so I added extra sashing at the top and bottom of the pattern. The binding is a solid dark blue from my stash.

This quilt was begging for straight line quilting, so I listened to it. I followed the waves with straight lines on both sides, similar to my zig-zag quilt.

For the back, I didn't have enough print, so I got creative and put together what I had with more Kona Snow. I really like how the two prints cancel each other out in the middle and become white. Definitely one of my favorite backs that I've made.

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:34:00 +0000

I've got some finishes this week for WIP Wednesday. Woohoo!

Projects completed:

Napkins
Mom's Christmas quilt
New Wave Quilt (post coming soon)

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt*

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Farmer's Wife Quilt
Strip Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt
Drunkard's Path Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

Wizard cross-stitch*
Tote Bag
Paper-pieced hexagons
Flower embroidery

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 3

New projects - 0

Currently in progress - 9
*Progress made

Christmas Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

You may remember a Christmas quilt that I started for my mom two years ago. No? I hardly remember either. Haha! The good news is... it's done!

I had the top and back done for a while, but couldn't decide how to quilt it. It's a bit large (71" x 83"), so I definitely didn't want to use my machine, and the local quilt shop that I used a long-arm machine at before closed. To speed up the process, and to make up for taking so long, I ended up taking it to a local quilter who did a really awesome Christmas pantograph on it; it has candy canes, reindeer, and Christmas trees. Can you see the candy cane in the bottom right? It's seriously awesome.

And the log cabin blocks that I started with didn't go to waste. I put them on the back of the quilt so they could still be enjoyed. I don't think I'm going to try a log cabin quilt again for a very, very, very long time. Merry Christmas Mom!

Cauliflower

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:31:00 +0000

I found an adorable tiny head of cauliflower in the garden yesterday. It's only about one inch in diameter, and I have no idea how long until it's ready, but I'm super excited. My first cauliflower! My fingers are crossed for the broccoli to follow...