Pencil Pouches

 Happy Sunday night! I won these beautiful reproduction fabrics from Martingale over on Instagram and they arrived yesterday. There are 22 fat quarters and I also have a book on the way. 

I did some stash enhancement myself this week too--I bought all of these black and white half yards and some blues for my Denver Broncos Football Quilt I want to make before the next football season begins in September. I still need to get a few more blues before I can start that one.

This month's RSC17 color has been red, so I whipped up a couple of Medallion Log Cabin Blocks in red yesterday. I also worked on some other UFO blocks for a charity quilt.

It is nearly April and we only have seven more weeks of school left, but we have not had our Spring Break yet. It is the first week in April and I am looking forward to sleeping in and sewing. Meanwhile, I need to make my end of the year gifts for my fifth graders. This year I decided to make personalized pencil pouches. I hit a fat quarter sale at Joann's a couple of weeks ago and bought a bunch at $1 each. Then, I ordered 9 inch zippers from Zipit Zippers on Etsy. I highly recommend them--they have great prices and color selection as well as speedy and inexpensive shipping!

 I spent this afternoon making some of the pencil pouches. This was my prototype. I cut my fabrics 5.5 x 10.5 inches

I managed to make 8 Personalized Pencil Pouches this afternoon. They are pretty quick and easy to make which is good because I have 21 more to go! I will put a couple of mechanical pencils and some candy in them and have a nice gift for each of my fifth graders when our year is over. Well, I hope to get some more of these pencil pouches done before next weekend. Have a great week!

OMG March Done = H2H

 Happy Spring from Western Colorado! I know it is not officially spring, but our weather the last week has indicated it has definitely arrived--we have been in the mid-70's. It has been lovely and we have enjoyed it with grilling, being outside, and cruising with the top down. 

It has been more of a challenge to stay in the sewing room with this fabulous weather. I did manage to finish quilting this Medallion Log Cabin. I made this top back in 2015 and then it has languished in the to be quilted pile...I pulled it out of the pile and made finishing it my OMG for March.
http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/03/one-monthly-goal-march-finish-link-up.html

I had actually been thinking about keeping this one for myself, but I have changed my mind. A beautiful third grader from one of my schools lost her short battle with stage 4 brain cancer on March 10th and I think I will donate it in her memory to Happy Chemo as part of the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2017 organized by Sarah:

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/p/hands2help_11.html

 Here is an up close picture of my quilting. I used the wavy stitch on my Pfaff and just used the medallion blocks as my guide. I actually created a tutorial for making these blocks and you can find it here: http://tanyaquiltsinco.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrappy-2015.html

Since I have fallen in love with minky as a backing, I backed it with this pearl grey minky. I did check with Happy Chemo and minky is fine for them. It is 54 inches square and would be perfect for bringing along during chemo treatments. I didn't mind snuggling under it last night and this morning as I stitched the binding down. Here is a link for other inspirational hand work:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/03/slow-sunday-stitching_19.html

 Happy mail arrived yesterday. This large pile includes 60 fat quarters and 4 yards of white on white from Connecting Threads. I am collecting oranges for a couple of projects and I could not pass up some other fat quarter bundles that were less than a dollar per fat quarter. As a stash quilter, fabric bargains are essential for my stash to get replenished.

Carole posted the latest clue for the Scrap Dance Two Step Mystery and I am all done with my 4.5 inch half square triangles. Here is a link to that:

https://frommycarolinahome.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/scrap-dance-two-step-march/

I am headed back into my sewing room to dig into another UFO--I have plenty to choose from. Have a great week!

Spring Forward

 I have been dreading the time change because I hate losing a whole hour, but it staying late longer is nice. I finally washed my Rainbow Curved Log Cabin Baby Quilt.

 It got nice and crinkly and it did not seem to matter that the backing is minky. This will go into my baby quilt stash ready to be gifted.

 Because I liked the baby quilt so much, I already started to make more blocks for another quilt and for my RSC17 challenge. I am thinking a lap-sized version this time.

 The color for RSC17 March is red. Here are all my red blocks so far...

 This quilt is my OMG challenge for March and it was an RSC15 project. I pinned it this morning and I am nearly done with my machine quilting. I just need to dig into my stash for a good binding.

Here is the quilting on the minky backing.

My embroidering for retirement quilts continues and I will soon be putting everyone's blocks together for one of the retirement quilts. Here is a link to more handwork:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/03/spring-forward.html

March OMG Goal

Happy March! I have been hesitant to set any quilting goals after my epic failure on my quilting goals for 2016, but I need to get some of my UFOs done. I am joining Elm Street Quilts for the One Monthly Goal (OMG) link up for March. I want to finish this top--machine quilting and binding. Here is the link:

http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/03/one-monthly-goal-march-goal-link-up.html

I just got back from buying a grey minky for a backing fabric, so hopefully I will successfully meet this goal.

While I was in Denver, my Connecting Threads order arrived with some of these fabrics. I also picked up a couple of the oranges while in Denver. I am collecting oranges for two upcoming projects.

My order included all of these threads. I usually wait for one of Connecting Thread's annual sales, but I was completely out of white and the $2.74 full price is still a great deal.

I had a good time in Denver--I got a little shopping in, got my hair cut and colored, ate Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish, spent time in the hot tub, ate amazing sushi, and went dancing. This picture is from the sushi bar. My friend and college roommate, Lauren, is in the leopard print. I am in the coral and Melissa and Michelle are the sisters in white.  It was very fun night!

Have a great week!