What a week! (and a link party)

What a wonderful week! So many things to share!!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
2. Summer Solstice QAL - no progress
3. Minion QAL - COMPLETED! and in use (see below)
4. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
5. Hello Block Swap - cut up one of the blocks 
6. Splendid Sampler - no progress
7. Secret event (January 2017) - "coloring" started
8. Secret event (February 2017) - few more blocks done, but cannot share yet :)
9. Secret event (August 2017) - no progress
10. Secret event (Feb-Oct 2017)  - worked more on the design!!
11. Xmas decorations - completed four (see below)
12. Bullet Journaling - working on this every day!
13. Sew Together bag - two bags done! (see below)
14. Tote bag - almost done, more on this next week

The EverythingElse List:

1. 70273 Project - no progress
2. Jane T - no progress
3. The SK project - one block done (see below)
4. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
5. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
6. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
7. As You Wish -  no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - no progress

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One little block, cover of a Stephen King book!
The pattern will be shared in Fandom in Stitches eventually, but if you want it, just leave me a comment with your contact info

The Waste Lands

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Patty (elmstreetquilts) is hosting a fun event (Bag It) to encourage people to share any bag they make for chances to win great prizes and to inspire each other (Bag it, entry page)!!

I have few bag presents on my list for Xmas so I thought to start it early. And since I think we should also make presents for ourselves, I decided to make 2 Sew Together Bags.

I used some denim fabric from a recent Quilty Box...

Lesson learned: never use denim fabric for this kind of project :)

The denim is easy to sew... in one layer... in two layers... in three layers... but folding on folds on folds (which happens on the sides of this bag) it is pretty insane :)

What I learned, however, is that if I move manually the needle of my machine, I can stitch a huge pile of layers without breaking the needle! Maybe some stitches are skipped, but if the seamline goes on, it is all good for me!

I made one bag all denim, one half denim half normal cotton. 

Both were challenging but fun in the end!! Now mine is full of my bullet journal supplies!! :)

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I completed four Xmas tree decorations. I will include these in Xmas cards that I send around so everyone will have a little handmade gift to keep. They are cross stitched with glow in the dark thread. And the little tab is a modafabric ribbon (the one wrapping bundles) :) I don't throw away anything here!! :)

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and FINALLY, I completed the quilting, added the binding (two colors binding, following Susan's tutorial). After washing it, the quilt is sooooo soft and scrunchy because I have high loft batting!!!

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Last, but not least, I was finally able to reveal my piece for the Art with Fabric Blog hop!

And the entire week, we had amazing artists sharing their pieces too!!

Check out the page of the event for links to each of these AMAZING quilts!!

It was a fantastic event, full of inspiration, tips, tricks, suggestions, and works of art that are very unconventional and unique.

While the presented pieces are exceptional, the running of the hop was not that smooth... it was stressful mainly because of the lack/delay in communication of many people that initially committed and then dropped out. I don't want to stress to much about it, and I learned few lessons that I will implement in the next event :)
But I wrote a "poem" to explain you all what went on behind the scenes :)
My English poetry is not that wonderful, but you may understand the message :)
Events are fictional... Numbers and timings are real :)

"AND THEN THERE WERE FEW"
(inspired by "And then there were none" :) )

148 little emails went out to invite
quilters to share their arts delight

The message was sent out well in advance
five months to account for any circumstance

78 were under a silence spell
neither yes or no they were able to tell

... and then there were 70...

34 declined to join the event
to follow along they would be content

... and then there were 36...

A week full of posts I started to fill
counting on 6 artists each day sharing their skill

Biweekly reminders I kept sending out
and some people unfortunately had to drop out.
Some got captured by monsters at sea,
some had to climb a tall bean tree.
Others came to the rescue and joined instead
enthusiastic to share their skill with the thread.

... and then there were 29...

Now for each day artists are fewer
but 5 in each post will sure please a viewer!

Email reminders were sent closer together
and the schedule was made public altogether!
Enthusiastic response from many viewers
who expected to admire art from fantastic sewers.

As deadlines approached we start losing more
some eaten up by a big crab on shore
another said "bye" and vanished in thin air
another had to go and feed a mean bear.

... and then there were 25...

The deadline was passed, and some were still mute
My emails became like a painful sore tooth!
With few explanation we lost more creators
maybe they got kidnapped by bad alligators!

... and then there were 20...

This is the final line up I brought,
at least is what I candidly thought!

2 more haven't spoken to me in while
and neither put up their post on time.

... and then there were 18...

Eighteen is a good number... if it wasn't the case
that I had days with very few people to praise.
I could have planned for a more balanced event.

This cute little poem is my kind way to vent :)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up