WIP Wed - 4/10/13

April 10, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

It's been a week. And things were made. Ideas were gleaned with a few finishes, a couple of new projects and quite a bit of stepping back and taking stock. So here's my stock:

New:

Both the little iPod Nano and the cozy for it are new this week. Splurge, I know, but I have no doubt that both will get plenty of use in the very, very near future. Talked a bit more about it here.

Lately I've been looking for projects to diversify into, and I keep looking at these little pillows I have in my sewing studio which I made a couple of years ago, and you can see here. It seems a great way to use some of these coveted fabrics that I've had trouble making into quilts or placemats or other stuff. I definitely need to practice my FMQ (free-motion quilting), but I'm excited to do more of these little guys.

This combines both an "in progress" and a new project... the new part being a commission for a wedding gift. This was simply the initial all-in fabric pull – there will be edits going on before any cutting happens.

In Progress:

Trying to get a handle on organizing my scraps and making them more accessible for future use.

What? More pot holders? Unbelievable! Actually, these were two sets of blocks I already had pieced and just finally got around to quilting and getting the binding strips sewn on.

Completed:

BOM blocks for PMQG. I've decided to stick with the B/W with a hint of pinks, peach or orange for the ones I keep, and so far I've been cycling through the 3 colorway options (B/W/Pop; scrappy; ROYGBIV) for the donation blocks. I hope it's obvious which one this falls under.

So, all in all not a bad start to the month. I made the mistake of going back to see how many finished quilt tops I have that need to be quilted... it's kind of horrifying. So those little gems will be popping up from time to time without warning. But hopefully each one will seem new and exciting by the time it hits the list!

Gonna link up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wed. Thanks for stopping by!

WIP Wed - 3/20/13

March 20, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

So this week's works seem to be more paper-centric than fabric, but it's been a while since I've done a WIP Wed post. Also, I have an ulterior motive.

But first: my big WIP this past weekend (still in progress, I might add)

WIP Wed - 1/30/13

January 30, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

And the day keeps rolling around. We're only 4 weeks into this year and already I feel as though I'm getting way off track from my initial goals... but I think that's called being malleable.

The last week has been a roller coaster of developments and setbacks, but mostly developments. At least I hope that's how it works out.

My new projects this week are tied in with a potential venture. I've been in communication with the friend of a friend who is soon to open a shop here in Portland and wants to carry household items made by local artisans, as well as have someone sew items specifically for the shop. We're still ironing out which role I will be filling, but in the meantime I did get started on a couple of projects for him.

Some fancy-schmancy coasters that I'd be nervous to use EXCEPT with red wine!

And given the unexpected timing on that, plus the immediacy of it, I sadly have not gotten much else done this week. Oh, except working on my sample blocks for the Friends + Fabric 2 Bee, as February is my month as Queen Bee.

I wrote up a tutorial for the machine applique technique I've been using, found on this post: http://surroundedbyscraps.com/blog/2013/1/26/appliqu-circle-ish-tutorial-take-2, which had to be rewritten when I accidentally deleted the draft. So THAT took up some of my time, too. Not to mention taking over 100 process photos! Excessive, much??

The one other project I managed to get any work done on this week is the quilting of my icy-cool 60/30 diamond quilt. I'm about 75% finished with the quilting. Yay!

And finally I completed the Warm/Cool QAL wall-hanging!!! I haven't taken a full photo of it, yet, but managed to snap a quick shot in my living room before leaving for work this morning.

So, I guess as I take stock, it wasn't quite as unproductive a week as I first thought. And if all goes well with this new venture, I may be sharing fewer quilty projects in the coming weeks and instead broadening my grab bag.

So, it looks like I got a couple of new projects under way, made a little progress on one or two things, and managed to finish one quilt. And didn't touch my green scrappy top, the navy and beige HST quilt, my super-secret wall hanging nor did I make any progress on sandwiching or quilting any more quilt tops.

Linking up with Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced for WIP Wed!

WIP Wed. 1/23/13

January 23, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

Another week of sewing! Lots and lots of sewing. And a few other things in the wings. I feel I should mention the great positive commotion related to the upcoming Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day... it's been fun to see all the props people are giving their favorite shops. I've stayed in the wings on this one not wanting to unleash a potential conflict of interest, since I am employed by my favorite LQS, but it's great to see that Marie and her shop got lots of love on the blog hop this past week! Let's keep our fingers crossed that the love carries over into tomorrow and becomes a big shopping day!

Getting right to it, thank you Lee for continuing to host WIP Wednesday!

New

It's been a while since I've delved into my zipper bags of scraps to put one of THESE together. And doing it on my newest hand-me-down The Bernina Activa 240 - seems to be a little power house, let me tell you! And I have to admit it's kind of strange to be sewing in my basement again! I'm now spread out across half the city!

HST quilt-to-be. I have had the yardage for these guys piled up and set aside for about 2 years now. A project that I have wanted to do for my unofficial in-laws that somehow always got pushed back. You all know what I'm talking about, right?? But 2013 is the year, I tell ya!

This will be changed around, I am certain. If I even continue to pursue it. I talked a bit about this challenge in my previous post here. It's getting down to the wire and I should have been working on it when I got home from work yesterday, but the inspiration just wasn't there. What can I say?

Some Progress

Got this basted, but haven't begun quilting it. Which I need to do so that I can retrieve some of those pins in order to baste other projects!

I'm also nearly finished hand stitching the binding onto my warm/cool QAL wall hanging. I don't have any new photos of it, but I'll be sure to post a stellar one for next week's "Completed" category!

And that being said":

Completed

Two more sets of pot holders. That's all, nothing so exciting. Which leaves...

No Progress/Quilt Tops awaiting quilting

If I could count, I could tell you how many more sets of pot holders are pieced and just need to be quilted and bound. I think 6.

Grey/blue Nubees quilt

Green/brown spiderweb quilt

Pink Elephants

Yellow/magenta Encapsulated

Russet 60/30 Diamonds

So, the final tally seems to be:

New: 3

Some Progress: 3

No Progress: 11

Completed: 2

Thanks again for sticking with me here! I'm excited to keep going and share some new things in the next couple of months - Stay Tuned!

WIP Wed - 1/16/13

January 16, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

I've actually had quite a productive week in the sewing studio. Yay. The renewed energy of the online bees certainly doesn't hurt, and even though it's not generally my way, list-making IS quite effective.

That said, here's a rundown of this past week's follies:

New

a sneak peek... featuring fabrics from Kaffe Fasset, Jay McCarroll, Anna Maria Horner and newcomer Alison Glass.

Can't show much more of this just yet, but I've got a new wall-hanging under way. And it's been a long time since I've worked specifically on a wall-hanging. But I've definitely been having fun working from an original pattern again. Will share more in a few weeks!

I guess you could say that I got pulled onto the Scrappy Trip Around the World bandwagon, if briefly! And I do have to say that the Quiltville tutorial really is great! Easy to follow, straight-forward, and tremendously efficient! I don't expect to be making a whole project from this, but I can certainly see why so many people have been enamored!

Bliss do. Good Stitches January block #1

And I spoke a bit about these in my previous post. Chris put up a little "tutorial" on our group page on Flickr for the Bliss Circle of do. Good Stitches.

In Progress

And after having it *literally* hanging around for who knows how long, I finally basted and started quilting this gem. It was just a matter of taking that first step... getting over the basting hesitation! Whew.

Quilting not-yet-happening (or on hold)... i.e. No Progress

Grey/blue Nubees quilt

Green/brown spiderweb quilt

Pink Elephants

Yellow/magenta Encapsulated

Both of the 60/30 diamond quilts

Completed

Design Camp 2 [Think Outside the Block] Jan. 2013 for Shelley

We're closing in on the last couple of months for Camp 2 in the Design Camp [Think Outside the Block] Improv Bee. This is a technique I'm certainly not afraid of, and one that is GREAT for using up the itty-bitty scraps that I invariably keep around. Thank you, Shelley, for finding this gem and letting us play willy-nilly!!

Last week I mentioned the stack of many pot holders on the docket... I've shaved a few more off of the "in progress" list, and then continued progress on a few others... Leaving (I think) 5 pairs yet to be quilted, 4 more pairs quilted but yet to be bound, and 2 or 3 more pairs completed. And the cycle continues.

So, this appears to be a pretty healthy list, no? I feel like I've forgotten something, but if I can't think of it, then you all certainly won't miss it! And the final tally is:

New: 3

In Progress: 9 out of 15 pot holder sets, plus 1

Completed: 3

Quilts awaiting quilting: 6

Linking up to WIP Wed. at Freshly Pieced and gonna check in with some of the other talliers out there!

WIP Wednesday

January 9, 2013 Linda Nussbaum

I gave this the ol' college try last year, and kept with it for a while. But I think I approached it unrealistically. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

So let's try a new start in this new year and see if we can keep each other on track. I promise to check in with other folks linking up at Freshly Pieced, and if there was a project that I mentioned at some point that piqued your interest and then you never heard about again, ASK me about it. Let's stay involved, okay?

Without further ado:

New

Bee Block #1 for the first month of the second round of Friends + Fabric {A Modern Stash Bee}, for Jessica {Euphoria...}.

I also started working on the January bee blocks for Shelley {Brookquilt} in the Design Camp 2 improv bee, but neglected to take any process photos just yet. However, if you follow the link to the group page you can get a hint at what we're doing for her - I LOVE her background colors, by the way!

In Progress

Pot holders to be... I've quilted about a third of these guys, and am currently working on bindings on them. I have about 5 more of the pairs sandwiched and ready to be quilted, while I need to get more Insul-Bright in order to finish them all.

Quilt tops awaiting quilting:

This is one of those things I'm going to try and keep reasonable. I'm considering also taking part in the Finish Along hosted this year by Leanne at She Can Quilt, in which case I'll be ticking away at these at a *hopefully* steady pace. For my nearly full semi-active list, visit this post I wrote last month, but for these purposes I'm approaching only what I have begun quilting and those that I truly intend to take a stab at in the near future. Gotta leave some UFOs in the background, right??

Icy cool 60/30 - still have to piece the backing, too!

One more of the simple, lattice crib quilts.

And then of course there're the bee quilts from last year...

My one foray into the Nubees block swap through flickr.

Backing for my Seams Perfect spider web quilt.

And Completed (I saved the best category for last):

My boyfriend thought this one was a bad omen for any house flies, so I call it The Demise of the Flies... soon to be making an appearance in my Etsy shop.

A terrible photo! This is one of 3 pairs of pot holders I've managed to bring to completion this week. Will share more photos in a separate post soon.

Phew! Did I say I was going to keep this list reasonable??? This is the trouble I get myself into. Anyone else feeling the rush of motivation brought on by a new calendar year?? How are you using that creative energy?

Tally for this week: (I'm going to need to figure out a new way of formatting this so I don't have these paragraph breaks with every new line... sorry for the odd look)

New: 2

In Progress: 12 out of 15 sets of pot holders

Completed: 5

Quilts awaiting quilting: 6

Now, linking up to Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday (it is still Wednesday, isn't it??)