Tokyo Subway Quilt

So this is what I have decided to do with my charms that I got from the  Color Wheel Charm Swap at From the Blue Chair. I know all of you are probably already following her, but if you have not been to her blog get on over there! She just finished an amazing quilt top with her charms and it's really beautiful. She is hosting a Monster Charm Swap starting March 1st and I would love to get in on that one! So I have decided to do the Tokyo Subway Quilt from Oh Fransson! by Elizabeth Hartman. I love her blog and her book is awesome. I'm really excited because she is going to be at QUILTCON doing some workshops. Her next book comes out this year and I can't wait!

I have been in love with this quilt since I started reading blogs. I had originally decided that I would cut all the pieces out and then start working on the quilt. I am doing so many things and have my hand in so many projects, that I decided to do one block at a time. 

I got all the pieces cut (2X2") and laid them all out. 

Then stacked each row from left to right.

I'm a tad irritated that I didn't take a picture right after getting them all sewn together. I decided I wanted them to lay a little flatter and sprayed starch and then pressed again. I had a little wrinkling thing going on after that :( You only really learn by your mistakes anyways, right? So here is block #1.  I'm sure by the time I get to to block # 26 I will be a pro at it. 

I'm linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations Sew Modern Monday

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

I have been graciously given the Liebster blog Award by From Pixels to Patchwork and Mama Loves Quilts. I feel very honored, because both of these ladies are very talented and I love reading their blogs. If you haven't been to their blogs yet, please pop on over and have a little look see. 

 

The Liebster award goed to a deserving blog that has less than 200 followers. Now that I've been awarded the Liebster, it is my privilege to pass the award onto five other bloggers. My picks go to: 

A Quilters Table- I had to add Debbie even though she is just over 200

followers. It's really is amazing how much she is able to get done and how lovely it

all looks. Such an inspiration and such a sweetie.

Mommy For Reals- Danny has only been blogging for a short time, but is already making a presence in the blogging community. She loves what she does and it shows in all her work. 

The Charming Needle- I don't know if Josée has 200 followers or not, but she deserves some recognition for her awesome work. I love looking at her blog, it is so inspiring.  

Quiet Play- I love popping over to see what Kristy is up to. She is so sweet and

I really love all her work. Check out how cute the Lil Fox Bag  is.

She is very talented!

Craft Couture By T.C.- Tanya has a lovely blog full of all kinds of fun things. 

She makes some of the cutest little pouches. I loved her little embroidered  princess, she is so sweet. 

You guys rock!! 

It's Been A While!

I have not been on vacation and I have not abandoned ship. I have been taking care of some sickly babies!! For the past few weeks it has been tough. My youngest some how picked up the dreaded pink eye, an ear infection and some horrible wheezing in his chest. He had to take eye drops three times a day. Have you ever tried to give a three year old eye drops? It was like trying to put a dress on a wild boar! It took both my honey and I to hold him down and quickly drop them in. So he had to have that, antibiotics to clear up the ear infection and breathing treatments every day for ten days. It was not fun, oh did I forget to mention that both my husband and myself were delighted to find out that we both got pink eye as well!!! I have never had it and don't ever want it again. Some how my oldest didn't get it, praise the Lord! He did however get a little under the weather during all this. I hope I haven't put you to sleep with my excitement, but that has been my life for the past few weeks. 

Now onto some fun things and boy do I have some fun things to share! I bought my plane ticket yesterday for the Sewing Summit!!!

I'm going with several of the ladies from our 

Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild. We are super excited!!

Also I'm sure you have heard about Quilt Con.

 I'm so excited that it's going to be in Austin, TX. We can actually drive to this one! It's going to be awesome. It's next February so you have plenty of time to plan for it. 

I was able to get a few of my Farmers blocks done yesterday. 

This is Block #8 Bouquet

I need to get some better lighting. The dark triangles are a really pretty purple.

This is Block #9 Box

 I thought, this one will be so easy blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, I couldn't get my points to match up and it ended up all wonky and misshapen. I must have somehow stretched the bias edges or something, I don't know. I wanted to show it anyways, but I will be redoing it tomorrow.

Next we have Block #10 Bowtie

And lastly we have #11 Broken Dishes 

This one was a lot of fun to do!

I really love doing the Farmer's Wife Quilt and can't wait to do more. Sorry for such a long post and I hope you are all having a fabulous day!

Craftsy BOM FEB

So the first block for February is the Balkan Puzzle Block. If you haven't checked Craftsy out yet, you will love it. They have all sorts of classes for really great prices and the classes look high def. So the great news is that this block of the month is free and is done by the lovely Amy Gibson over at Stitchery Dickory Dock. 

This month is all about Half Square Triangles and she shows two different methods. This method is called the Magic Half Square Triangle. It was so much fun! I wrote down the direction and some how doubled the pattern. It was so funny, I kept thinking this is going to be a huge block haha.

You need 2 5.5" squares to make four half square triangles. For this block you need two contrasting fabrics. I used a blue with white background and a yellow with white background. You need a total of 16 half square triangles. So that's two of each color. Sew right sides together with a scant 1/4" all the way around the block.  They also have coarse materials and direction you can print out over at Craftsy.   

Then after you set the seams, take it over to your cutting surface and  with your ruler cut diagonally from one corner to the other.

Then without moving your fabric, turn your ruler and cut diagonally on the other corners. 

Set your seams and press. I pressed all the seams to the dark, but I found that when I was turning them to make the balkan puzzle the seams were both going the same direction. So I had to re-press in order to make the seams lock. No biggie. Don't forget to clip your dog ear and be careful they all have bias edges. 

So here is the layout for the Balkan Puzzle. 

So I sewed the block in strips from left to right and then sewed the top two strips together and then the bottom two strips together. Then I joined the two halves together. Make sure each strip's seams are all going one direction and the next strip's seams are going the opposite direction. ETC. 

I loved this block!! It was a lot of fun to put together. 

Now Amy was right you have to be careful when putting this block together. It's not called the Balkan puzzle for no reason. I sewed the wrong side. I opened it up and thought that doesn't look right HAHA. I really like this block as well, but I decided to rip it out and do it right. 

That looks better :)

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story  

 Pop over and have a look around. There are some great projects posted. You might meet some new friends as well.

I hope your guys are having a wonderful Valentine's day! 

Japanese X and + Blocks Finished!

Finally I got my blocks all done and can get them to the post.

 I feel like I finally got the hang of these guys yesterday.

Drawing the diagonal line on the little squares and sewing on that line, I always seemed off. Then I figured out something that helped me. I'm sure a lot of you know this already, but I just figured it out :)

Here is my square with the two small squares ready to be sewn.

 I put the tip of the little square by my needle and made sure it was in the center of the presser foot.

 

 Then I lined up the bottom tip of the little square (on my extension sewing table) on the line in between the 1/4' marks.

You can see the marks better in this picture.

I let the feed dogs do the work and just slowly moved it up. For me it was so much faster and a whole lot easier. Every time I tried using my ruler with the pen I always seem off. I'm sure with practice I will get better at that, but if I can eliminate a step and sew faster then YAY! 

So here are the ones I completed yesterday.

Post Office here I come! I hope you guys are having a wonderful day! I'm linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations for Sew Modern Monday.

Amazing Giveaway!!

Over at Lily's Quilts she is hosting a fantastic giveaway!!

A Colourbox of Oakshott shot cottons. 100 Fat Eights to be exact. How fun is that? And it's open to everyone!! YAY!! So go check it out and sign up, don't delay!!

This day of farming made me CRAZY!

So this week I had my hands in a million different projects and had every intention of doing my two blocks for the week. I underestimated the tiny weeny triangles :( They took me forever to cut out and were a stink to put together. I love the blue fabric, but it kept giving me trouble! Every time I would start sewing it would just shove down into the throat plate of my machine. It was very irritating to say the least. 

Without further ado here is Block # 7 Birds in the Air

So I think all things considered it turned out ok. I will try to do 3 blocks this week in order to catch up. 

A Fabulous Embroidery Sew Along

 Earlier I blogged about wanting to join in this Princess Sew Along by Lilipopo. Like I have said before her patterns and designs are very charming and so much fun. She is graciously giving this pattern to those who are joining in her sew along. If you like to embroider or like embroidery at  all then pop on over to her blog. 

 She sent me the pattern and I transferred it to my fabric. Time for some stitching. This princess is so whimsical and reminds me of some fairytale stories I used to read when I was a little. 

Here she is!

I also picked up a new book this morning. I have one of her others which I love. I'm excited to look through it and I'll give a review on it soon :) 

 I hope everyone is having a lovely Thursday!

Craftsy Block of the Month

I was a little behind on the Craftsy Block of the Month which started  in January. It's done by the fabulous Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock and it's free. So last night while the boys were getting ready for the "BIG GAME" I was cutting and sewing up my blocks.

The Asterisk Block

The Wonky Pound Sign

The top fabric is pretty true to the purple it is and the bottom fabric is more green.

The colors kept changing with every picture. So weird!

This is photo happy, so be warned! 

:)

The Asterisk Block

Here is the final block.

I think it turner out pretty good! 

The pink fabric has dark and light variations which look a little wrinkly on the picture.

The Wonky Pound Sign Block

Here is the final block. I love the way it turned out as well! 

See now the fabric looks blue. It's Technicolor :)

There was a lot of sewing and slashing with these blocks. If you haven't checked out Craftsy yet, pop over and check it out. They have all kinds of classes and are adding more every day it seems.  If you join in on this block of the month, let me know I want to see what your blocks look like. 
I'm linking up with
 Canoe Ridge Creations  

and 

Clover and Violet

Go check out what everyone's working on.