First Ornament Swap!

Ok, I signed up to do my first swap about a month ago, it was a Christmas swap.

I forgot to take pictures of the ornament I made for Katie (oops...I do that a lot actually).  But she is awesome and put pictures of it up on my her blog you can see it here. I haven't been posting a lot lately because its finals week at App State which means I've lost my mind and haven't been able to find it.


But today I got my swap present!  I got an cute ornament, post card, and a bar of Godiva chocolate.  It was the perfect thing to arrive today. It really cheered me up after my Calculus with business applications Final.

Owl and Chocolate!

The cutest owl ever,
She did an awesome job making something that I love!

I haven't finished all my Christmas presents yet but I will have by Friday before I go home for break.   And maybe by Christmas I'll be able to find my mind again! And after Christmas I'll put up pictures of the gifts I made this year! 

 Remember only 11 more Crafting days until Christmas, Don't waste them!

WIP Wednesday

Well there aren't anymore official Works in Progress Wednesday until after the holidays but here's the unofficial scoop on whats going on in my dorm room....

I have dad's quilt top done I followed That girl...that quilt's  Chasing chevrons quilt-a-long
I went a little crazy this weekend and made 60 blocks in a day and a half....then the next day sewed them to rows and yesterday completed the quilt top.

However when I laid the blocks out in the design that Mrs. Jennifer at That girl...that quilt gave us, it just didn't look right with the colors I chose.  So I took the other option and made my own layout, now i'm done with that and just have to quilt it.

The five colors i'm using on my TV tray turned ironing board

The original layout, I've seen others in this layout but mine was just too random to pull off a random pattern as well.

My fancy-smancy layout...

Yay! the quilt top finished...its supposed to a throw but it would actually fit a twin bed perfectly.

I didn't have enough space in my room to layout the quilt top for pictures, so I took it to the third floor lobby
...right as a cop comes walking around the corner to investigate the room
 that always has the funny smelling smoke coming out of it... but that's Appalachian 

So since I decided I didn't want to baste and quilt the Chasing Chevrons quilt last night, I got working on another present.

its another binder cover with wonky blocks....

A wonderful tutorial for these blocks can be found at Sew We Quilt, currently my favorite quilting blog

Binder cover top is done now it just needs to be quilted

So I have gotten so work done this week...but i realized last night my Christmas ornament swap needs to be sent out on Friday, so that my next project will be getting that done and sent out!  

I will leave ya'll with this as we realize how close Christmas is actually getting.....

W.I.P Wednesday

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

It was the first real snow of the semester on campus yesterday so I had to share some of my pictures! Isn't it just beautiful?

The pretty berries on the bush in front of my dorm

We put A's on the top of our trees up here!

I love this picture of the river stream on campus
and you can still see the bell tower in the back ground.

Anyways to the quilt-y stuff!

Works in Progress

Finished projects...ummm... yeah about that....    

I finished the list of what i'm gonna make for everyone...does that count?  I started on my Christmas ornaments, my dad's Christmas quilt, and more Christmas embroidery. And since I've had no finishes everything from last week is still on the table. 

Wow I really need to get serious about Christmas. 

And for more quilt-y inspiration....

check out

Back in Boone...with a Christmas Tree!

My Tree! white with blue lights just like my grandmothers used to be.
I made the topper last night i'm going to do something prettier for it later on.

So I took a break from posting while I was home for thanksgiving. It was a really great week I got to spend some good time with my family. Thanksgiving was great. I did do the crazy black Friday shopping with my sisters and cousins. We started at midnight and went until 7 am Friday morning. I did get some good deals but for the most part we did it more for the experience than anything else. Sunday was my oldest sister's birthday she turned 30. For her birthday part of her present I gave her a fabric covered canvas that I embroidered her new motto onto, and a couple of other things.

the design for it I made it on paint

However, my shopping on Saturday was all about saving. My mother and I went shopping at Joann's (it may be called Joann, but I'm spelling the way I say it).  I got soooo much fabric it was fantastic. Then we went to our local quilt shop in Fayetteville, its called Quilt N'Tiques, for small business Saturday. The ladies who work there are so nice. They don't carry the type of fabric I'm usually into (they mostly carry civil war reprints) but they did have some very pretty fat quarters. And they had a sale on old quilt magazines, patterns, and books. I went through and picked out some that were interesting, my mom bought them for my stocking! Oh and I did a little cyber Monday shopping at Missouri Star Quilt Co. I am stocked up for Christmas, it's great! 

I finally got the fabric to start on the quilt I'm making for my father for christmas. it is The chasing chevrons quilt a long from that girl...that quilt. And so I have gotten all half square triangles made and four blocks out of sixty done.

          

I chose a red and grey theme so that hopefully it'll be pretty and guy-ish.

Oh, and I also got an iron from my mom! So now I don't have to use my flat iron on anything for my hair! Super exciting times. and it looks like I'm in a snow-globe when I look outside my window!

Just for Fun

Going Home for Thanksgiving!

Its been a busy weekend.  Yesterday for my Women in American Society class we had to attend a cultural event.  It was at the Hickory Ridge living history museum.  It turned out to be pretty cool experience. I really wanted to take some pictures to post on here but my phone which is the only camera I have, was broken.  We got to make beeswax candles and corn husk dolls. I also tried rabbit, which was ok. It really does taste like chicken.  But other than that we got to see them making nails and stuff in the blacksmiths shop, shoot muskets, throw tomahawk, and try to start a fire using flint. It was an entertaining afternoon.

This is the corn husk doll that I made

Ok so I also said that I would post about projects that i'm excited about starting.

Funky pot holders- a chance to try out some new block ideas

Coasters- more embroidery practice or based solely on the quilting design

Pencil roll up- Christmas presents anybody?

A manly laptop sleeve- a very big challenge

The chevron quilt along- I need to get the background fabric so I can start making my blocks.

And The  ornament swap i'm signed up for- need to get some supplies and get started

So these are a few of the projects I want to start working on the wonderful thing is this list is constantly increasing!
Oh yeah and I got my bus ticket so I'm heading home for Thanksgiving! I'll have a whole week home!

WIP Wednesday

Hi Everybody!
Its that time of the week again, Works in Progress Wednesday.

Works in Progress (that haven't made any progress)

The Sunkissed 16-patch ( on hold until after christmas)

Mug Cozy

This week I'm working on a little Christmas Embroidery! 

I downloaded this pack of patterns from BigB!

Oh and this isn't my embroidery this is the picture from her etsy shop.
I would put a picture of mine but it would just be a piece of fabric with some blue lines on it. It isn't even in the hoop yet.

I'm also working on this binder cover and i'm super excited because I made it using some of the charm packs I sorted Last week.

All I have left now to do on it is to add the pockets on the inside so it'll hold the binder and the binding

One finish I made this week is a gameboy ds sleeve with a snap on holder for the little game cartridges 

I tried to make it boyish which was really hard cause I buy "pretty" fabric.

The edges aren't perfect on my zippered pouch. But over all i'm really happy with how it turned out.

Ok, so this post seems really really long so tomorrow I'll tell everyone what projects i'm looking forward to starting soon if now this week. 

And look for more inspiring posts on

An unexpected letter and New Fabric Friday

So after my blog post yesterday, which yes was kinda whiney, I got a letter from home in the mail today! And with it a little money.  So what's a girl to do with it? That's right I got on the Appalcart and took the orange route straight to my local quilt shop! *The Appalcart is the bus system in Boone for Appalachian students and locals goes all over the place* Once there I saw they were having a sale on their fat quarters. So I got 4 new fat quarters. And they also sell grab bags of fabric that is normally their remnants, a nice mix of fabrics, a yard or so of fabric for 3 dollars. Sadly they didn't have those today, but they did have a bag of one and a half inch wide strips, and its guaranteed to be a yard and a half of fabric for 3 dollars. There were 38 strips in the bag, so I feel like I got a very interesting honey bun for 3 dollars. Needless to say I'm extremely excited and can't wait to use them.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

The bag of Strips

The fabric strips laid out from the bag, I was pleased with how pretty they were. 

My new fat quarters, these are Soooo Pretty

My fat quarters and the strips rolled up like a honey bun

 

So this is one of the fat quarters, I got it because it was 1.25 and extremely interesting....
But i'm not sure if I love it or hate it.

Anyways, its been a pretty good day, a New Fabric Friday!

Did anybody else get any new fabric recently that they're excited about?

Whoo this is getting hard

Ok, so I moved to Boone for college this fall. When I did this I no longer had a job and haven't gotten a new one yet (not for lack of trying). So I no longer have money to spend on new fabric like I used to. I'm starting to go through withdrawals, I go window shopping on online fabric shops planning what I would buy if I could. Its kinda pitiful but as a quilter I feel its the natural impulse to increase my stash. Anyways...the reason this was brought to my mind today was that it had been such a long time since I've bought fabric from the Fat quarter shop that they sent me a coupon to encourage me to come back. I read this email in the middle of class and honestly laughed out loud. The professor was talking about how to determine how much life insurance we should buy when we get older, so me laughing wasn't the best move ever. Oh well, he didn't say anything, so I got away this time.....

And a pic of my fun time from today

Its so pretty, its turning out so well. I guess its my Try New Thing Thursday!

W.i.P wednesday

Alrighty it is my first WIP Wednesday, Yay!

This is a pretty good week I only have a couple projects that i'm currently working on...

My sixteen patch quilt flimsy which is almost complete! I just got all the blocks complete and the flimsy sewn together this weekend. When it gets to the quilting point, this will be the first one that i hand quilt.

This is another of the Christmas Projects however it is currently unfinished (a mug cozy in need of a button).

This isn't really a project but it was my fun task of the day. I took most of my charm packs (I am the queen of charm packs by the way) and sorted them by colors so that maybe I will be more liberal in my use of them. It was fun going through all the packs and seeing the different patterns.

And while this isn't a quilting project I do have a WIP for a couple of my classes, so I'm gonna go now to work on them! Yay and check out more WIP Wednesday posts on

Getting Started on Christmas

So, this is something I know I oughta be ashamed to admit, but I just started working on this season's Christmas presents last night. I know this means that i will now be finishing up these

gifts December 24. But I do have a plan of what I'm making for everybody so maybe I can make it go quicker.

I have finished my first gift of the season! This is a Journal Cover for any spiral notebook. The idea was inspired by Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom's tutorial on Moda Bake Shop.

So at first I wasn't sure what design I wanted to do for the Journal cover so I just played around with a couple of charm squares until I got the block I wanted for the center.

So, I currently do not have an iron... for the rest of the project I used my flat iron to press the seams. I don't recommend it.

This was the block I decided to applique on the cover.

The inside cover, with flaps to keep the notebook in

The front and back of the cover

And the finished Journal Cover!

I'm happy with the finished project and its a good start on my Christmas gifts.

:)

Oh and in other news I got a 97 on my paper for my Women in American History class! Yay