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!

FNSI results! And beautiful flowers!

Hello, lovelies!

It's a muggy Saturday here, and my sewing room is becoming a guest room for a couple days, so Friday Night Sew-In was my last chance at the machine for a few days!

But before I share my results, I want to point you in the direction of an artist friend of mine: Tracie Thompson in Minneapolis. I love pretty much everything she does! Case in point, her watercolor flower sketches:


Aren't they cheerful? I'm thinking I may need at least one of these lovely watercolors for my sewing room! Unless one of y'all get to them first--Tracie has good prices, and she'll ship all over. (She does pet portraits, too--OMG SO ADORABLE--I encourage you to check her blog out! Each picture takes you to Tracie's blog, where you can also see the flowers in much better detail.)

And now for FNSI results! I got two blocks done last night (one for the layer cake QAL and one for the jelly-roll Quilt of Valor, and as always, click for bigger):




And behind the cut, more pictures--I've gotten a lot done this week!

Friday Night Sew-In Tonight!

Hello, lovelies!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday--I certainly am! It's beautiful outside, and my house is clean(er than it used to be), and it's been a delightful Zoe-and-Mom day. I'm looking forward to doing some sewing tonight!


Care to join us?

Friday Night Sew-In: Finally, some sewing!

Hello, everybody!

You'd probably figured the minstrel had wandered off, and indeed, I got lost under a pile of grading and have only recently managed to find my way back into my sewing room! Just in time to participate in this month's Friday Night Sew-In.

I started out with this, on Friday afternoon:

Friday Night Sew-In: Results!

Friday night was sew-in! And I managed to get that much closer to finished with my Sliced Coins quilt!

I got the back pieced together, with every last scrap I had:



And I got it basted! I ran out of pins in the last corner, so a little bit is basted with basting spray.





This little quilt even gave me its name while I was working: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"



Now I'm debating how to quilt it--I'm wanting to do some free-motion, but I'm not sure if I want to try stippling or what. I was at the Rock River Modern Quilt Guild meeting today (what fun ladies!) and I saw some wonderful loopy quilting that I liked a lot.

Ideas and suggestions are welcome! :)

FNSI Results and Sliced Coin Quilt-Along Fabric, Yay!

Hello, lovelies!

I may be a little bit insane, but being in the middle of a GIANT (for me; it's twin-size) quilt makes me want to start in on smaller projects. And I have smaller projects in the works, but I simply couldn't resist signing up for Elizabeth D.'s Sliced Coins Quilt-Along, especially when I saw she's posting instructions for a baby-sized quilt. That's not that big! I can handle that, right? *g*

So today I bought some fabric. I think Heather Mulder Peterson is fast becoming one of my favorite designers:




And I spent last night sewing! So here's the January Friday Night Sew-In results:

(And I just realized I can link this to WIP Wednesday! Yay! Go check them out!)

Sneaking in

Because I'm very excited to be doing this:



I may even start during this!



Although I really should work on finishing up the Tweetygigs before I start in on some coin-slicing. Hee.

Friday Night Sew-In: November

This month's sew-in was really quite successful! Yesterday my daughter and I went to pick up Dad's Sawblades from the long-arm quilter, so last night's task was to prep the binding and sew it on the front. Thank goodness for the big sewing table my dad made for me--it really helped me manage all that fabric!

Now it's ready for the handsewing, which I'll do on the long holiday car trip:



And a close-up of the quilting, which may disappear a little into the flannel once the quilt is washed:



It is so soft, and will be very warm, I think. I think Dad will have to be careful that my mom doesn't swipe it!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm so excited to have something to link on Fabric Tuesday!!

Friday Night Sew-In: Results!

OK, so the results of my first Friday Night Sew-In aren't exactly overwhelming, but I conquered some blocks for my hand-pieced spring sampler wallhanging that have been intimidating me: Flying geese.



[Also, a note: Piecing by hand can be impeded by A) having Hugh Jackman on the TV, doing distracting things like leaping onto helicopters, being half-naked, and blowing things up, and B) two cats, who insist upon sitting directly in one's lap, which is also one's workspace.]

And here's the progress on the spring wallhanging, 20 of the 25 blocks are finished:



It's slow going, but I find that I thoroughly enjoy the process of hand-piecing, especially when I can do it while watching movies or talking with my husband or while we're traveling to places where I can't pack along my sewing machine. For the fall wallhanging I have a flying-geese all-batik quilt planned, and I'm tempted to hand-piece that one, too.

I imagine the next FNSI will involve the sewing machine--I really need to get going on my daughter's Tweetygigs, because she's going to be growing out of her toddler bed soon...

Friday Night Sew-In

I'm joining really, really late, but: FRIDAY NIGHT SEW-IN!!



My plan? I'm hoping to tackle flying geese. I've never made flying geese, ever.

*GASP*

The spring sampler quilt--the one I'm using to learn hand-piecing--has flying geese blocks. I don't know why I've been so reluctant to try to tackle them, but I have: I've got 20 of my 25 blocks finished, and haven't touched the flying geese yet. Here's hoping!

Pictures coming soon...