Tales of a Sewing Helper (and a link party)

Significant progress this week... but I can share very little since most of them are secret :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - issue with September tutorial, I'm working on an idea to cover for the issue
2. Block Swap Adventure - received partner info, need to pick a pattern
3. Tiny Quilt Challenge (American Made Brand) - top almost finished (cannot share)
   closing on Sept 15, need to spend some time on this!!!
4. Charity quilts - next bargello top dooooone (see below)
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress
6. Zipper pouches - paused for a while
7. Americana QAL - paused until Sept
8. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
9. Halloween Haunts 2015 - great progress (cannot share)

The EverythingElse List:

1. the SK project - no progress
2. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
3. the Ender project - no progress
4. Embroidery calendar - no progress
5. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
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. B quilt - no progress

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Ok, enough with the lists mommy, let's just show people who really is the one that works hard to get things done around here!!!

Ok, I think the design looks pretty cool! 

Let me check if you put all the colors in the right place...

Oh, this job is pretty tiring. 

I will sleep on it and I will get back to you with my feedback...

Now that I am rested, I think this design is good... 

However... I think it's a little too traditional, you need a modern spin!

I gave it a spin!! Now it looks modern!

What? You think you may have hard time sewing this design?

Well, that's ok, I still love you even if you don't appreciate my artistic contribution.

Ok, stitch the original design then!

Final layout: Modern Bargello :)

Dimension: 40'' x 40''

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Sneak peeks of my Tiny Quilt Challenge and the Halloween Haunts projects! :)

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And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts, and I would love your help!! Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

Cynthia sent me this wonderful donation! And I already planned the next baby quilt to feature some of those cute panels, so stay tuned for more baby quilts! Thanks Cynthia!!!

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Three finishes and a new secret project!

Great progress this week... projects getting off the list and new coming in! :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - paused until September
2. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
3. Block Swap Adventure - paused until September
4. the SK project - no progress
5. Tiny Quilt Challenge (American Made Brand) - no progress - closing on Sept 15, need to spend some time on this!!!
6. Zipper pouches - paused for a while
7. the Ender project - no progress
8. Geese project - doooooone (see below)!!
   This is my project for August, A Lovely Year of Finishes
9. Americana QAL - August block done (see below)
10. the 31000 Xs project - good progress (see below)
11. Ravenclaw Mug Rug - dooone and delivered (see below)
12. Halloween Haunts 2015 - new project, blog hop - piece designed (cannot share yet)

The EverythingElse List:

1. Embroidery calendar - no progress
2. Charity quilts - next bargello designed
3. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  dooooone (see below)
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. B quilt - no progress

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This summer, I mentored a student and help her prepare and present her first poster! It was a fun and rewarding experience, and the last day I learned that she is a big fan of Harry Potter (and that she belongs to the Ravenclaw house). So, of course, I made her a little mug rug as a memory of this experience!

Patterns available on Fandom In Stitches, Harry Potter

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Deana (over at dodmystery.blogspot.com) is hosting 2 QALs and I joined the Americana QAL! I am not making Deana's row quilt, but this is August installment of the Americana QAL for me!

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I finally found a way to use the 10'' block I designed for the College Days Blog Hop!

Since I started cross stitching and since I bought my floss organizer, I wanted a project bag big enough to hold it, padded enough to avoid it's "spiky" things to poke me (or my sewing assistant) in case we sit on it. Other requirements were that it must have a zipper (I don't like when things fall out of my bags) and it must be simple to make. All requirements were met when I saw this video tutorial by A Fate So Twisted and I realized that I had some left over heavy interfacing from my beach bag.

I slightly change the width of the body piece (from 15'' to 13'') and this perfectly accommodates my 10'' block! For the other side of the bag (since it's going to be mainly a cross stitching project bag) I used the cross stitching project I planned to frame: this bag is a much better use of that!!

Plus I used leftover fabric from Pumpkin's play mat, which decorates the floor of our living room... in this way my project bag will match the home decor ;)

Height: 12'', width (top): 11'', boxed bottom: 3''x 9''

Project for Q3 finish-along (full list of Q3 projects here)!

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The Geese project is complete! Well the label is missing, but that's the only thing missing ;)

Size: 23'' x 23 ''

I bought the geese panel on Etsy and I designed the panel on the right myself on Spoonflower. The top is applique (patterns I created from a picture). I really love how it turned out, and I think the recipient will really like it, with all the inspirational and positive quotes!!

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This is the Cross Stitch month for my Stretch Your Skills series, so am working on a biiiiiiig project. I decided to approach this pattern one "page" at the time, completing the same three colors everywhere, and then moving on to other colors. I don't know if that' how people approach cross stitching pattern, but it makes sense in my mind, so that's how I do it :)

Week 1 (left), Week 2 (right)... one more page done and the third already marked!!

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And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts, and I would love your help!! Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

SYS 2015 - What's crossing your mind?

Earlier this month Lisa shared a cute tutorial for a fun pincushion with Pascal from Tangled :).
You can find the tutorial on the SYS2015 page!

Are YOU enjoying making this pincushion? Share your creations below!!

I want to share with you this other cross stitching project I made recently: these patterns can be integrated into bigger projects and add that great accent that makes the piece really special!

(right) my first ever cross stitch project from a kit!

Project for Q3 finish-along (full list of Q3 projects here)!

(left) I reproduced the cross stitch pattern on a smaller aida (14 counts instead of 11) and added as the perfect accent for my Dresden wall hanging!!

I am extremely happy that Lisa unleashed my passion for cross stitching! It's such a portable and quiet art form and it creates the cutest little projects!!!

Remember that in this link party only projects belonging to the SYS2015 series should be added 

(I reserve the right to delete any non compliant link). 

This link party will be open all year long and you can add as many finished projects as you want! 

The same link party will be shown on the SYS2015 page.

Each link will give you a chance to win one of the monthly prizes.

This month, in order to be eligible for prizes, you are asked to make a cross stitched pincushion!

I encourage you to use Lisa's pattern, but if that is "not your thing", any other character or any other design from anywhere else will qualify as an entry!! As long as it's a finished pincushion!

You can still link up blocks and projects from the Foundation Paper Piecing, Quilting, Crochet, Pixel Quilt and Fabric Postcard tutorials!!

For rules about what will be accepted in those cases, please refer to this previous post (Tutorial 1), this other post (Tutorial 2), this other post (Tutorial 3), this other post (Tutorial 4), this other post (Tutorial 5) and this other post (Tutorial 6).

This month prize is offered by Lisa and is:

A cross stitch kit ("The Canterbury Fairy, Flower Fairies kit)! 

I will draw a winner (using random.org) on September 3rd between all the new entries in the link party. 

International participants are welcome!!

--

An InLinkz Link-up

Can you help me for a good cause? (and a link party)

Not much progress on old projects, because new ones rolled in (and if you can help with one, that would be nice) :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - paused until September
2. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
3. Block Swap Adventure - blocks done (see below)
4. the SK project - no progress
5. Tiny Quilt Challenge (American Made Brand) - no progress - closing on Sept 15, need to spend some time on this!!!
6. Zipper pouches - paused for a while
7. the Ender project - no progress
8. Geese project - assembled panel, need to work on the applique!!
   This is my project for August, A Lovely Year of Finishes
9. Americana QAL - no progress
10. the 31000 Xs project - good progress (see below)
11. Ravenclaw Mug Rug - new project - first block done (see below)

The EverythingElse List:

1. Embroidery calendar - no progress
2. Charity quilts - new projects, here I need your help (see below)
3. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. B quilt - no progress

--
This summer, I mentored a student and help her prepare and present her first poster! It was a fun and rewarding experience, and the last day I learned that she is a big fan of Harry Potter (and that she belongs to the Ravenclaw house). So, of course, I will make her a little mug rug as a memory of this experience! This is the first block.

Patterns by Jennifer, Harry Potter, Ravenclaw Crest

--

The main panel of the Geese project is assembled! Not much work here, but better than nothing ;)

I bought the geese panel on Etsy and I designed the panel on the right myself on Spoonflower. I really like the fact that I could use all kind of font, sizes, alignment, etc. I would not be able to make it so clean using embroidery... plus it would have taken me forever ;) So a fat quarter from Spoonflower is a little pricey, but for a small project like this it's worth it! 

--

This is the Cross Stitch month for my Stretch Your Skills series, so I started my next biiig project... I want to still keep it a secret, but can you guess what it is? Color "palette" and first section partially done :)

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These are the blocks for my August partner in the Block Swap Adventure.

 Flutterby pattern and Jacob's ladder

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And last, but not least, this is why I would love your help!!

I found out about this project, organized by Francel, to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter.  You can find out more information about her quilt drive here.  The shelter has about 600 children there!!!  The current drive is looking for baby (40x40") and toddler (40x60") quilts and after that she will move to bigger quilts. After talking to her, I decided I could not NOT help!! :)

So I decided to make some quilts! As a start, I decided I will make 3 baby quilts, then few toddlers ones. And you can help me here!! Do you have some orphan blocks sitting in your sewing room for years? Or fabric that you bought and then you don't like any more? A strip in a jelly roll that didn't fit your project? A left over scrap that you don't know how to use? A couple of charm squares left from a project? An ugly fabric that was donated to you and you don't know how to use? Some HST that you cut the wrong size? If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! I have some material, but I don't have a big stash and you all know how much fabric is needed to make quilts ;) So, if you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

This is the first quilt top I made

Size: about 40''x40''

This is my first quilt using jelly rolls, and it shows what I like and what I "don't like" about them.

- What I like: they are precut (so ready for strip piecing) and they create a nice variegated look without too much effort. I actually used strips from 3 rolls, because I am not a "fabric line" kind of girl. But it was very easy to get a coherent look for the Bargello part.

- What I "don't like": the variety of the pieces in the roll means that if you use up one strip and you don't quite cover the area you planned, you have to use another color to finish up! This is what happened with the border: I wanted to test the BasiX ruler that I got in my Quilty Box, and I really liked the zig zag effect. Unfortunately one set of strip was not quite enough to even go all the way on one side!! So I had to assemble the remaining scraps in "weird" ways to get enough fabric to cover the corner. It actually creates a very funky and modern look IMHO... it breaks the regularity of the border. So it all worked out for the best... but still, that's something to consider, if you want more coherence (and you are not following a pattern ;) ). Also the two solid borders don't have the "exact" color I was looking for, but they work anyway.

This was also my first time trying the Bargello technique! I started with a super basic design just to test the technique... it's very simple... super simple... actually so simple that is borderline boring for me :) luckily it was a small quilt... and my sewing assistant helped me keep it fun (tugging strips and rolling on the pieced ones :) )

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

SYS 2015 - New prize announced

Earlier this month Lisa shared a cute tutorial for a fun pincushion with Pascal from Tangled :).
You can find the tutorial on the SYS2015 page!

Are YOU enjoying making this pincushion? Share your creations below!!

I shared my version in the tutorial! Project for Q3 finish-along (full list of Q3 projects here)!

Remember that in this link party only projects belonging to the SYS2015 series should be added 

(I reserve the right to delete any non compliant link). 

This link party will be open all year long and you can add as many finished projects as you want! 

The same link party will be shown on the SYS2015 page.

Each link will give you a chance to win one of the monthly prizes.

This month, in order to be eligible for prizes, you are asked to make a cross stitched pincushion!

I encourage you to use Lisa's pattern, but if that is "not your thing", any other character or any other design from anywhere else will qualify as an entry!! As long as it's a finished pincushion!

For additional entries you can enter any cross stitching project that you completed after August 1st!

You can still link up blocks and projects from the Foundation Paper Piecing, Quilting, Crochet, Pixel Quilt and Fabric Postcard tutorials!!

For rules about what will be accepted in those cases, please refer to this previous post (Tutorial 1), this other post (Tutorial 2), this other post (Tutorial 3), this other post (Tutorial 4), this other post (Tutorial 5) and this other post (Tutorial 6).

This month prize is offered by Lisa and is:

A cross stitch kit ("The Canterbury Fairy, Flower Fairies kit)! 

I will draw a winner (using random.org) on September 3rd between all the new entries in the link party. 

International participants are welcome!!

--

An InLinkz Link-up

Teal Mini Swap 2015: I will join, how about you?

The wonderful Beth (EvaPaige Quilt Designs) is hosting a Mini Swap with a pretty powerful goal:
"kick ovarian cancer to the curb and run it over with the car"!

The basic information for this swap is as follows:
"Participants are asked to pay a nominal fee when registering (fee used to submit a donation for Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and to handle the cost of running the swap). Participants are then sent the name of their swap partner along with a small piece of the focus fabric, to be used somewhere in the mini quilt they are to make for their partner, which they are responsible for making and sending by 9/30/15. This year participants can choose to make either a mug rug (up to 10" square) or a mini quilt (up to 18" square)."

This are just few details about the swap.

Beth posted all the rules and information about how this fun event will work in a  FAQ post
at http://evapaigequiltdesigns.blogspot.com/2015/07/its-almost-here.html.

To join the fun and see what everybody is up to you are encouraged to join the Teal Mini Swap FB group.

To register you can use the following link:
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=an5iokhab&oeidk=a07ebcc4rsq594addb6

So will you join the fun? I certainly will!

Long week, but productive Saturday (and a link party)

I had a long and tiring week at work, but Saturday I was able to complete few projects! 

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - paused until September
2. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
3. Block Swap Adventure - arranged next blocks with my Aug partner
4. the SK project - no progress
5. Tiny Quilt Challenge (American Made Brand) - no progress
6. Zipper pouches - first big bag done! (see below)
7. the Ender project - no progress
8. Geese project - printed pattern, received fabric, ready to sew
   This is my project for A Lovely Year of Finishes
9. Cross stitch scene - doooooone (see below)
10. Americana QAL - got the next partner
11. the 31000 Xs project - started!! more on this next week :)

The EverythingElse List:

1. Embroidery calendar - no progress
2. Animal blocks for charity quilts - paused for a while
3. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - no progress
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - final 2 letters done (see below)
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. B quilt - no progress

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A busy week at work, meant little time and energy for sewing... but I managed to complete the last two letters I need for my Happy Halloween wall hanging!

Patterns by Jennifer, Harry Potter's Alphabet

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A busy Saturday made up for a unproductive week! I finished my first full size Sew Together Bag (by Michelle). I made few of the smaller version by Elizabeth (Mini Sew Together Bag) last month.

You can see the difference between the larger version and the smaller. They are all very cool and I will make more!!

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This is the Cross Stitch month for my Stretch Your Skills series, so I picked up this old project and finished it

Cross stitching project, from a kit

Project for Q3 finish-along (full list of Q3 projects here)!

I will just frame it and call it done!

I learned a loooot of things with this project. I bought this kit ages ago, when I still didn't know anything about cross stitching... so these are the things I learned...

There are 2 kind of basic material: aida and stamped fabric. I thought that this, being stamped, with all the X printed on the fabric, would be the easiest for me. I was wrong :) Since the fabric is normal fabric, I had to use a sharper needle, which meant a lot of more finger stabbing :) plus I had to use the hoop (which with a stiffer aida I don't need). Plus since the X are printed, they need to be bigger than the small stitches on the aida, which makes for a cute X look, but not that tight and smooth as working on a 14 count aida.

And despite the fact that the X are printed, they had all the same color, which required me to use my "washable markers" technique to transfer sections of coloring to the fabric (so it didn't save me much time).

Finally, because I could see the X but there were not preexiting holes, some of the X are less uniform than others. I don't see those problems in the final piece, it's still pretty cute! But it's something to consider for my future projects.

About the colors... I assumed that floss in a kit was sorted and neatly packaged... I was wrong again!! The thread was all in this big blob and it was pretty hard to distinguish some colors that looked soooooo similar to each other (light grey, very light grey, pearl grey, ...). So some sections may actually have a "wrong" color, but since they are so similar, the overall design doesn't suffer from it.

However I learned that it's best for me to buy just the pattern and then buy the floss separately so I can sort it and store it in a nice way!

I already started my next project... a secret for now (and probably for a long time, given the size)... I will call it 31000 Xs because that's the size of the project. I am very excited to work on it and I've already started sorting the floss and marking the pattern. More on this next week!!

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And finally these are the blocks I received from my June partner in the Block Swap Adventure.

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

SYS 2015 - Tutorial 7, Cross Stitch!

Let's give our sewing machine a little summer break!

The seventh tutorial of the series is brought you by the wonderful Lisa (SquirrelyStitcher, Superfunhappystitch).

Isn't this the cutest pincushion you've ever seen???

The pdf (links below) contains detailed instructions on how to create that beautiful piece!!

Click here to download Tutorial!

The link up for SYS2015 is still open for your Syndrome blocks, FPP projects, free motion quilting/tangle stitches pieces, crochet projects, pixel quilts and fabric postcards!

Next week there will be more details on what to link to win our monthly prizes...

And speaking of prizes...

For the third time in there were no new entries since last month, so no winners for my bag of scraps :(
I'm very sad to see that there is not much participation... but I go on and I have high hopes for the future months!! :)

--
All the information about the series (as well as all the previously published tutorials) will be available at the SYS 2015 page.

If you have any question about the series, don't hesitate to contact me via email or add a comment here on my blog (and if you want an answer, make sure you are not a no-reply blogger!).

So now let's go and Stretch Our Skills!!! :)

Until next time
Happy stitching!!

One finish a week, not bad (and a link party)

At this pace, I may be able to get many of the 10 projects I planned to finish this quarter done! 

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - paused until September
2. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
3. D wall hanging - dooooooone (see below)
4. Block Swap Adventure - done July (see below)
5. the SK project - no progress
6. Tiny Quilt Challenge (American Made Brand) - no progress
7. Zipper pouches - cut 1 pouch pieces, ready to start assembly
8. the Ender project - no progress
9. Geese project - printed pattern, received fabric, ready to sew
   This is my project for A Lovely Year of Finishes
10. Cross stitch scene - half way done
11. Americana QAL - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. Embroidery calendar - no progress
2. Animal blocks for charity quilts - paused for a while
3. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - 3 blocks done (see below)
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - printed next 2 patterns
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. B quilt - no progress

--
I finished the wall hanging I will gift to my dad to decorate our house in the mountains (which is the piece in the middle).

Dimension: 24'' x 25''

Patterns: Topsy-Turvy Tree (by Jennifer Ofenstein), Sleeping Cat by Maureen,
Cow face by Piecemeal Quilts, all other animal blocks from the book "A Quilter's Ark"
Project for Q3 finish-along (full list of Q3 projects here)!

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I made few block to be donated to Jennifer for her Linus quilts. They are super easy and fast to make!

Patterns by Jennifer, Harry Potter's POD-2015 QAL

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This is the project for August, Lovely Year Of Finishes. It's going to be a wall hanging: I have the panel, I have the Spoonflower fabric I created, I have the pieces that I will applique above the panel... now it's time to start sewing!! :)

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And finally these are the blocks I made for my June partner in the Block Swap Adventure. I hope she likes them!

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up