It's Back: FNSI

The Friday Night Sew-In is TONIGHT, yay!


I'm a little on the late side, but I'm in! I'm going to try and get some real headway on my sampler quilts: Either sewing the sashing for the Quilt of Valor, or getting all the corners on the sashing for the Dream On quilt. Decisions, decisions...

There's still time to sign up and come sew tonight!

Kindle madness!

Ahoy!

So I gifted my mom with a new Kindle for her birthday, back in December, and after playing with it while we were visiting over the holidays, we decided we needed one, too. I really like reading on it -- it's very easy on the eyes! (Although the instant gratification of purchasing books over the wifi can be dangerous, indeed!)

And of course I want to carry it with me, so I needed to make a case. And then I needed to make one for Mom, too! (Click each picture to make it bigger, with much more detail...)


I used this tutorial at the Sometimes Crafter, and I had to adapt the size for the new Kindles. To get the shape for the flap, I printed the template and used the highly scientific method of folding and scrunching the paper (and growling at it) until it was big enough, since I didn't have access to a photocopier to shrink the template. *g*

For our Kindle case (the first two pictures), I used some leftover Origins jelly roll strips and the lining is one of my daughter's flannel receiving blankets -- I really like the way the flannel is so soft on the Kindle.

I decided that the first case was a little big, so I made Mom's rainbow case smaller, although the next one should be a hair bigger. The rainbow is from a Kona brights charm pack, and the gray is Bella stone. And I had a much longer rainbow than I needed, so I used the leftover to make a mug rug to match!

Linking with:

WIP Wednesday and the Finish-a-Long

Good morning!

I've been on impromptu hiatus for so long I surprised even myself, but I'm glad to have a WIP Wednesday to help get back into the swing of things! And even better, this can also serve as my linky post for the first quarter of Rhonda's Finish-a-Long Party, which is a great idea! I encourage y'all to link up, if you've got a WIP or two in your closet that's making you anxious...

So, what do I want to finish in the next couple months? How about this:


This is going to be a Quilt of Valor--I've got all 12 blocks sewn, and now it's on to the sashing and borders!

And I'd also like to get this one to its person:


I just finished the last block for this, too--this is my Layer Cake QAL quilt (with two substitutions), and the sashing is a bit more fancy for this one, so that's the next step.

The next major finish-it goal, and this one's going to cheer up our living room:


The Kaleidoscope quilt! I know the picture is from August, but that is honestly the last time it got looked at--it's ready to baste and quilt, and I'm nervous about free-motioning it myself but I'm also rather looking forward to it as I know I can only get better from where I am!

And the last thing to finish:


The all-by-hand spring wallhanging! So far the quilting is going swimmingly, especially now that I have my glider chair in a location with excellent light and I can quilt very comfortably. It would be fabulous to have the spring wallhanging up during springtime!

And don't forget to link up with Lee's WIP Wednesday and check out the other fabulous in-progress projects...

The WsIP stats:
New projects: 0
Completed projects: 0
In progress: 9

Happy New Year and a belated giveaway announcement

Hello, lovelies!

It's been many moons since I even logged on--suffice to say my semester got away from me and my sewing room got a bit dusty--but now that the semester's over I can breathe again and I'm back! I have a very belated congratulations to my giveaway winners, A.J. Dub for the hexagons and Lesly for the Luna FQs! Hooray, and thanks for stopping by my giveaway post!

I *do* have some progress to report: This past week, I've been clipping along on my hand-quilting and have gotten closer to finishing the two sampler quilts I've got going. To wit:


Block 11 for the Quilt of Valor. I'll be so excited to get this done!




And blocks 10 and 11 for the Layer Cake Quilt-Along quilt! Block 10 is the second block I decided to substitute, and the pattern is Love in a Mist from Modify Tradition. I love, love, love how this block turned out, but I wouldn't want to make a whole quilt of them, because hot diggety, that was a lot of HSTs for one block. ARGH.

The sashing fabric for the Dream On quilt is a solid orange--which to me feels rather bold!--so I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks put together.

As for the new year: I would like to finish the major quilts I've got in my queue: The two sampler quilts, my kaleidoscope quilt (which I need to baste and then I'm going to free-motion it myself: intimidating), and the queen-sized quilt for our bed. I have a couple of kits that I'm keen to get to, finally, and I'd like to get the seasonal wallhangings actually on the wall this year!

So we'll see how that goes...