Finally Finished: Lucky Quilt!

Okay, brace yourselves, folks: I have two finished projects to show you this week!

Things have been so crazy lately.  We bought a house and close in less than a month!  Kelby visited this weekend!  Nick's dad is visiting next week!  My mom and I started a yarn dyeing business!  Oh, and we're still going to our day jobs everyday!  Needless to say, time is at a premium, but everyone is busy so I have very little right to complain.  How are you?

Let's talk about my first finished project, my Thimble Blossoms Lucky quilt.  I don't think I ever blogged about these blocks, but I know I posted some pictures on Instagram and Flickr.  Basically, I won a one-yard bundle from Leah Duncan, celebrating the release of her first collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, Tule.  (She's about to debut her third, so it's about damn time that I finish this.)  I had also purchased a FQ bundle of the collection, and I knew I wanted to use it somehow in our home.  The colors are a bit saturated for Nick, as he is a wimp when it comes to color, so I decided to focus on the guest room instead of our bedroom.  I had also bought the Thimble Blossoms Lucky pattern and it was just sitting in my Google Drive, waiting for a match.  Thus, a quilt baby was born.

Did you know Nick hasn't touched either of his guitars in over four years?  Yet we're about to move them for the third time?  Now you know.

Again, I started this quilt last September.  Really.  It's all HSTs with sashing, so it isn't like the piecing is super intricate.  I just moved onto other things for some reason.  I started knitting, I focused on Christmas presents, and Lucky got tossed to the back of my sewing closet.

Let's not focus on the negative, though, okay?  It's a really pretty quilt and the colors are so happy.  I used all Art Gallery solids with the blocks.  I think I bought them all from Hawthorne Threads, but I'd be happy to figure out the names if anyone wants them!  I backed the quilt with a plain white sheet from Target: not only is this thrifty ($13.99 vs. five yards of quilting cotton) but it also makes the quilt super soft and luxe.  Because this quilt is for a bed and won't be stored in a cabinet or on a quilt ladder, I needed to make sure the quilt will withstand the use but also will drape right.  I think it looks pretty good for a sheet!

I quilted with the orange thread from the Thimble Blossoms Aurifil set--I can find out that number as well, if anyone wants it.  It matched the peach in Tule perfectly!  Again, this is a bed quilt, so I wanted it to be soft and snuggly.  I quilted about 2.5" on either side of one diagonal throughout the quilt.  I know my quilting is boring but it served a purpose and also went really fast!  I quilted and bound this in about three hours.  

My main reason for suddenly rushing on this was because Kelby visited this weekend!  I wanted the guest room to be as done as it's going to be, until we move and make a new guest room.  We had a blast--we visited the Mint museums, walked through the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, ate everywhere (including Tupelo Honey--my favorite!) and had so much fun together.  She got to meet Nick and the animals, who all loved her, especially the cats!  Schnoz loved her too, despite freaking her out by licking her knee.  He's kind of a weirdo.

Part of finishing the guest room was hanging new art--the "Yay Summer" print is by Emily McDowell and the other two prints are by Nan Lawson.   I have some of their prints picked out for our new house too.  When is it too soon to start buying things?!

Finally!  I just wanted to mention Kelby made beautiful yarn labels for us:

I took all new pictures of the yarn today, trying out a new background and showing off the labels.  Check it out!

So that's it!  Lucky quilt: Check!  Come back later this week for a new knitting project!

Halloween Sampler Week One

I've had a lot of time this weekend to just craft and do my own thing, which has been such a nice change!  We've had so much going on lately that I really missed my alone time.  I honestly need a lot of alone time as it is, so I feel off my game if I don't have time to recharge on the weekends.

This morning I was able to finish week one of my Halloween Spooky Sampler!  Sunday mornings are perfect for drinking chocolate chai lattes and stitching.  While I'm still out of gray floss, I didn't want to go into week two tomorrow knowing I hadn't finished week one.  Deadlines are important!

I love the detail in these patterns.  Also, how cute are the ghosts?!  You may notice my stitches are a bit off in that frame.  Somehow, everything shifted one row down and one column to the right.  I tried to fix what I could, but I didn't want to take the whole thing apart, so I think it looks okay.  If not, oh well, it's just cross-stitching!

I also worked on some Lucky blocks last night!  I sewed all my HSTs Friday night and pressed them yesterday, with enough time to sew a few together.  I'm really loving the contrast.  Tule has a pretty high contrast of bright and low-volume, so I think bringing them all together in a quilt will provide a great balance.  I'm hoping, anyway!  I'm using all Art Gallery Pure Elements as solids.  They're dreamy!  I can't remember if I've mentioned them, but you should really give them a whirl if you haven't.

I'd like to mention that we've also had a beautiful weekend here in Charlotte--we've had breezy days in the 70s, perfect for opening windows and eating outside!  I love fall so much.

What have you been stitching this weekend?

WIP...Thursday?

I really did think about posting this WIP Wednesday on Wednesday...you know, when it's supposed to be...but I have a giveaway winner to announce!  What's one more day?  My WIPs certainly weren't going anywhere.

So, without further ado...Amy is our winner!  BUT, Sara at Knotty Gnome was the only other person to enter, so I'm going to send you both something!  If you two awesome ladies could email me your addresses, I'll get everything sent out to you!  (My email address is in my About page.)

So what unfinished projects do I have laying around?

First is my Spooky Halloween Sampler from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery!  You'll notice I ran out of gray floss before finishing the frame, so that's cool.  It didn't stop me from working on week one!  I'm working on it one color at a time.  That just seems to make more sense to me than doing it frame by frame, plus it's a little bit more organized that way.

Tule quilt, I promise I'll be there soon!  These have sadly sat on my sewing table for a week, just waiting for more love.  I have everything cut out except my white 5" squares.  It's been a busy week!  In addition to cross-stitching, turning 26, and having guests, we also went to see the National for the third time since we started dating.

We saw them at the Fillmore uptown, and it was an awesome and terrible show.  Awesome--it's the National; Matt walked right next to us during Mr. November; they always kill it; it was a different setlist than the other two shows we've seen.  Terrible--standing room only; I'm old and can't stand that long; after the opener about fifteen people pushed themselves in front of me, obviously not realizing I'm 5'4"; the guy next to me smelled so gross and had no problem dancing out his problems.

I'm not a fun concertgoer as it is, even when conditions are perfect, so if I sound cranky, that's why.  Oh well!  It was a great show though, and I hope to see them again soon.  We've gone every year except 2012, when they didn't tour anywhere near us.  They're a Nick and Emily tradition!

Congrats again ladies!  I hope everyone's week is going well!

Weekend Crafting

I know it's only Labor Day afternoon, but I think my major craft projects for the weekend are done.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot done, because Nick's dad was visiting for a few days, limiting my time in the sewing room; fortunately, I still had time to sew!  And I picked up a new hobby along the way!

Yesterday I bought this purse from Target.  I've talked about this before, how I'm not really a bag lady, and I tend to use the same purses and bags until they literally fall apart.  My parents bought me the purse I use now two years ago for my birthday, and it is still in really good shape, despite being my go-to bag.  But something about this little guy called my name--maybe it was the fox?  Or the color?--and I stuck it in the cart.  Of course, this meant that my red wallet, which matches my current purse, would have to be replaced.

I bought the Straight Stitch Society Have it All wallet pattern last spring but never used it.  I don't know why not--it's so easy!  I cut it out and sewed it in about two hours, minus a break to run to Joann for fasteners (where are my fasteners?!).

I used two prints from Koi by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud9.  I also bought the It's a Plus print in voile, intending to make this scarf.  I'm wondering if it might be too much?  I love infinity scarves, and I love voile, but is it appropriate for fall?  What do you guys think?

Two things I screwed up: I banged on the spool of thread (following Dritz's directions!) too hard when securing the fastener, so the pearl side is shatterd; and my accordion pocket isn't centered.  It doesn't really affect anything, it just bothers my OCD...but not enough to fix it.

The new hobby I picked up is cross-stitching!  And dare I say it, I like it more than embroidery!  My sewing buddy Elizabeth cross-stitches and has mentioned her Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery samplers a few times (I'm familiar with the Pumpkins and love their designs.  I'm a slave to cute).  I finally decided to cave and subscribe to a sampler!  I signed up for the Halloween sampler, which starts next week on the 9th.  However, it wasn't until this weekend that I picked up supplies, as floss was $.25 at Joann and I had crazy coupons.  (Side note: did you know you can't combine coupons at Joann anymore?  This is madness.)

Before diving into the sampler border, which I need to start on!, I stitched up a cute lil' guy to frame and hang for the season:

I have one other fall-related pattern to stitch as well!  But I should probably get going on that sampler...

Finally, Elizabeth again had a great idea and suggested I make a quilt for our guest room using the new line by Leah Duncan, Tule.  I love Leah's work and bought her first line, Maya, last year.  I am also in love with her prints and asked for a couple from my brother for my birthday.  I wanted to originally buy the prints for the guest room, but wasn't sure how to tie it all in, until Elizabeth suggested the quilt!  I have it all planned out, and purchased seven coordinating solids to accompany the 20 prints in the line:

The solids should be here tomorrow, so I'll need to slice those up as well.  I'm really excited about it!  There's something about a new project, using materials you love.  It's hard to concentrate on anything else!

How was your labor day?  What'd you sew?