married to a bmw

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!

Quilting

Farmer’s Wife quilt-along
Starry Eyed Quilt
Snapshots Quilt
Drunkard’s Path
String stash-buster quilt for the Scrap Attack quilt-along
Swoon Quilt (Hyperreal Garden, joining along with Swoon-Along)
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 (Lark)
Half-Square Triangle Block of the Month Quilt
Sparkle Punch Quilt
Oh My Stars! quilt-along
Quilt Along Wednesdays with the Free Motion Quilting Project

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...

Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along Re-dos

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Last week I redid a couple of blocks that I was unhappy with for my Farmer's Wife quilt.

First up was Block 29, Economy. I was really unhappy with how my first one turned out; it had way too much white and was really boring. I swapped the two colors per Amanda's suggestion, and the result was absolutely perfect. So much better!

I also redid Block 18, Century of Progress. I didn't like how the book laid it out to be non-symmetric, but now it is. Woohoo!

Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along, Blocks 24-30 (minus one)

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Another thing I worked on at the quilt retreat were some Farmer's Wife blocks. I was able to get six done:

Block 24, Country Path.

Block 25, Cups & Saucers.

Block 27, Darting Birds.

Block 28, Duck and Ducklings.

Block 29, Economy.

Block 30, End of Day.

And here are blocks 1-30 (minus block 26) all together. Looking good!

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Turns out I have a lot of works in progress (WIPs). And then I have a lot of planned but not started projects, projects I want to do but haven't planned, and projects I'm sure I want to do but I just don't know it yet. Haha! When my friend Amanda started writing WIP Wednesday posts, I knew I needed to join her to give myself some accountability in finishing the projects I've started before I begin new ones. So here is my first WIP Wednesday post!

New this week:

Drunkard's Path quilt

Quilts near completion:

Snapshots Quilt
New Wave Quilt

Quilts nowhere near completion:

Farmer's Wife Quilt
Strip Quilt
Starry-eyed Quilt

Miscellaneous projects:

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

I guess there are a lot here I haven't ever shown you all! I've got some pictures to take for next week!

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 0

New projects - 1

Currently in progress - 11

Quilt Retreat, Part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:31:00 +0000

I got to go on another quilt retreat last weekend. And, just like last time, it was pretty much awesome.

We worked...

and worked...

I mostly played with these...

for a Drunkard's Path quilt!

Aren't these scraps gorgeous? The fabric is Henna Garden by Sandi Henderson, and I am so in love with it.

Here are my blocks all sewn up. These curved blocks were hard for me, mostly because you can't go fast when you're sewing them. I guess I don't like taking my time. Haha! I used the Curve Master presser foot to sew these up (more on that later).

And here are all of us at the end of the weekend. Lots of fun projects, and a great variety of crafts! I did some straight line quilting on a top I've had for a while, and also did some Farmer's Wife blocks (post coming soon). I can't believe how fast the weekend went, and I can't wait to go back again!

A New Toy

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:46:00 +0000

I've got a new toy I've been playing with. My wonderful husband found it listed under the sports section of Craigslist for $10. It's a Kenmore 1249 from the 1980's, and it's in really great condition. It even came with bobbins, extra feet, and the original manual! The previous owner said she had trouble with the thread messing up, but after a good oiling and cleaning, I haven't had any trouble. I'm pretty excited about this machine; it's very similar to the machine my mom has had for just as long, and hers is still going strong. Hopefully this one will go another 30 years (or more)!

Cyber Monday Sale!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Today is Cyber Monday, one of my favorite days of the year, and I'm having a sale in my shop! Use the code CYBERMONDAY2011 to save 10% off everything in the shop. Happy shopping!

Reversible Table Runner

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:28:00 +0000

I finally finished the table runner I've been working on for over a month! The Thanksgiving side was done using the strippy runner tutorial by twiddletails. For a while I couldn't decide what color to quilt it with, but ended up going with a light green. Thank goodness I finally chose, because I finished it with just a few days to spare!

I used some Amy Butler dots for binding, and used this zig-zag binding tutorial from Stitched in Color. It was certainly faster than hand-stitching and seems to cover more mistakes than straight-stitching the binding on.

And for the other side... Halloween! This side is Cluck Cluck Sew's Summer Runner tutorial. I didn't get to use it in time for Halloween this year, but it will be waiting for me next year. I think it turned out really cute.

I'm entering my table runner in Rachel's Celebrate Color contest over at Stitched in Color. Head over to check out all of the amazing entries!