WIPs.

So it's been a dog's age, I know, but I swear I've been busy. I've been motivated to make a good list of my WIPs by a friend who's looking to buy a handmade quilt for her daughter's birthday... so here's what I've been working on!

Granny squares quilt: I'm really proud of how this one has turned out thus far. I love the colors, because they're both outside of my comfort zone but make me very happy. The fabrics for the front are almost entirely from scrap packs I bought from Fabric Shoppe! The back includes some leftovers from the front, which is extra fun. (I think so, anyway!). Just have to baste, quilt, and bind this one.

Granny Squares Front

Granny Squares Back

"Cross-Hatch" quilt - started as a jelly roll race style quilt but didn't turn out as I intended, so I turned it into a bunch of strips that go in different directions. Sort of. Look at it and you'll get it, LOL. The first one is basted and ready for quilting. The backing is mostly teal flannel with a broad stripe of white across the middle.

CrossHatch, almost done!

I have a second one meant to be the same style, I just haven't gotten fabric to use for the sashing yet, so it's still in strips/squares.

CrossHatch, not yet assembled

Half Moon Modern Four-Patch: I love this one, I just don't really have a place for it in my house. There's gray sashing at the top, like you can see across the bottom. I don't have backing picked out for this one yet.

Half Moon Modern Four-Patch

Fruit Basket Sixteen-Patch: Fruit Basket? What? I don't know. There are fabrics with lemons and cherries on it, and I think maybe apples, too. More Fabric Shoppe scrap packs led me to this one. Not really my style, but I do like the way it looks (even if the sashing is admittedly uneven, as I now see). I don't have backing fabric picked out for this one, either.

Fruit Basket Sixteen-Patch

Rainbow Stripes: I really like this one. These are all charms I got from the bagillions of charm swaps I've been in, and I have at least enough of rainbow-colored charms to make up another quilt just like this. I'm thinking purple flannel for the back of this one. The white is flannel as well.

Rainbow Stripes Front

Dots-and-Stripes Stripes: These strips will make a quilt just like the Rainbow Stripes one, except there will be seven strips, so it will be a little wider. The strips will be alternating rows of polka dots and stripes. I also have another set of polka dot squares that will be made into yet ANOTHER quilt just like this one.

Dots and Stripes Strips

Cut squares: Okay, so admittedly I got a little carried away with the Fabric Shoppe scrap packs. A couple of the packs I got ended up with two pretty nice sets, one of boy prints and another of girl prints. I think the squares are 3" (I'm not at home so I can't measure, and it's been a while!). They're definitely smaller than charm squares. Not sure where I'm going with these, but I love the combinations. :)

Boy Squares

Girl Squares

Fat Quarter Sets: I've got a few sets of fat quarters from the same collections - the first and last were lucky winnings, the middle was a set I got on sale from Sew, Mama, Sew!'s sale section.

Lizzy House's Guising Collection

Jane Dixon's Primitiva Collection

Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods (also have a little more of this!)

Charm Squares: Okay, I promise, this is the last thing! I was part of a red-orange, green, and blue swap not too long ago. The squares I got back are 5" by 10". I don't know what my plans are for these, but we could come up with something, right?? ;)

ROGB 5x10 Bricks

Phew! I look way busy, huh? ;) I'll have to get my butt in gear and actually *finish* some of these things!

Matchy Matchy Polka Dotty Swap - Sign-Ups!

So I'm hosting my first swap! Sign ups start Friday, June 1, and will continue until we hit 28 spots full (whether that's 28 people or 4 really ambitious ones, it doesn't matter to me!). This unfortunately is open to US participants only. Please check out the swap Flickr group for more information!

SIGN UPS ARE FULL! Thank you so much to everyone who's signed up - can't wait to get everything going! If you missed out, do not despair - if this goes nice and easy it's likely I'll host another one again in the future (I'm thinking maybe stripes?? ;)

Tattoo photos

Really this post is nothing more than a dump of photos I've taken of my own leg. LOL. Can't wait - going back next Wednesday to get started on color!

Derek, from Victory Tattoo here in Chico, said I won the biggest bandage of the week award. No prize was awarded, unfortunately. You can check Derek out on Facebook, too.

It's me, so of course there's got to be a stack of fabric in a photo, right?? ;)

And one with a kitty, too! Hi, Molly!

Come back tomorrow for something else that's fun, too! ;)

Old Navy Sample Share - Shorts!

It is possible to have a crush on a website? Cuz I have a little bit of a crush on Crowdtap, a site that allows you to interact with brands, where you give them feedback on their products in exchange for free stuff and gift cards (I always redeem my points for Amazon cash!).

The latest Sample Share I got to participate in was for Old Navy's shorts collection. I got coupons to go with a friend of mine to try out any shorts we wanted (shorts being anything that is too short to cover my stupid looking knees).

I think between the two of us we tried on most of the different pairs! The first ones I tried were the Printed Canvas Shorts, which were super cute (unfortunately you can't see HOW super cute they were, since I'm a terrible photographer - trust me, there was a neat print on them!). I didn't like the way they were SO short - I really wish that Old Navy offered patterns like these on their longer shorts, though. Probably the best part of the photograph is that you can at least sort of see how high on my leg my tattoo "WIP" comes - a little bit above my knee! Love it!!

Our Old Navy was recently remodeled, and these fun labels were in the dressing room - I just wish that the middle one said "Try It On!" or something like that, so I would definitely-for-sure remember which pieces I hadn't tried yet!

Anyway, the shorts on the left are the Perfect Khaki Shorts (5" inseam) and the ones on the right are the Ultimate Bermudas with stretch, which I wasn't able to find on their website. The problem with both pairs was that the legs were too tight on me in my regular size, but when I went up a size, the waist was WAY too big.

Because of that little bit of disproportionality, I ended up choosing the Relaxed Chino Shorts (9 1/2" inseam) in Rifle Gray.

I like them because, as you can juuuust barely see, they have buttons at the waist. These buttons go with little tabs that remind me of the tabs on my BDU pants from the Air Force - you can make the waist just a little bit smaller with them! Hooray! Unfortunately, I still had to go up a size for my thunder thighs I mean powerful legs to fit properly...and as such, will have to adjust the positions of the buttons. Oh well - better that than legs that are suffocating, right??

My friend (who's apparently pretty camera shy!) had similar thoughts about most of the shorts. She liked the chinos I got, but she's a bit shorter than me so they were way too long on her! She picked the Cuffed Twill Shorts (7" inseam) in Tree Frog - she liked the length, the front accent pockets, and the fun color!

Overall - definitely a fun afternoon! It was a great break from work, as we hit up the nearby KFC for chicken afterwards. Delish!

Thank you so much, Crowdtap, for another great pair of summer shorts from Old Navy! Click the Crowdtap link to sign up and you too could have a chance at free stuff! ;)

WIP Wednesday

Well I've been horribly neglectful, yet again, of my readers. Things have been crazy - the end of every school year always is, even though all I do is help my husband get through graduate school. The good news is, though, that it's over and done with for a few months... or at least the part where he actually goes to class is. There's always something going on with his experiment, or figuring out how many and which classes he'll be teaching and all of that... and throw in the remodeling that'll be starting up again pretty soon and we'll be just as busy, but in different ways.

Anywho, it's WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and I'm linking up for the first time in what seems like ages! Despite Jeff's being busy I've had plenty of time to work on various projects... and this morning I actually remembered to snap (poorly lit, very amateur-ish) photos of them, so here we go!

In northern California it gets ridiculously hot. Like, 100+ degrees for days at a time, and all you want to do is sit in a vat of ice cubes naked.

But at least it isn't humid, like back home, where you have that "just got out of the shower" feeling ALL DAY LONG.

I also have a friend, who has an ADORABLE little girl who just turned four. Last summer I made some simple skirts for her. She was visiting her mama here at work the other day, and I asked her if she'd like me to make some more, since it's juuuust starting to get toasty in the afternoons. She requested dogs, cats, and a horse. Well, the only request I could fulfill with my stash was dogs, but hopefully the monkeys will do! These are almost done - just have to have her try them on to make sure the waists are the right size, then finish closing the waistband.

I've been drowning in squares recently. As I think i've mentioned before, I love the "Surprise in My Mailbox" stash builder bundles from Fabric Shoppe - I've ordered, uh, more than I care to admit from her, and the surprises have always been pleasant! Excluding the red, which is some Kona I was lucky enough to score from the Joann remnant bin, all the fabrics in this quilt came from those surprises. I just finished adding the borders to this quilt top within the last couple of weeks. (Should've taken some close ups - sorry!).

More squares - these time of the granny variety! I absolutely LOVE this block and have at least two more of these quilts planned. These squares also came from my Fabric Shop bundles. I have to pick a border color for it, still, but I've ordered "leaves in blue" from the Fruit Slice collection for the back - I think it will be a nice complement to the front.

Here's a close-up of the front. I love the sorta retro feel it has to it! I'm definitely looking forward to finishing this one, though I'm not entirely sure where it's going to end up yet!

Well...probably my FAVORITE WIP that I've started over the last month has been...my own leg? Yes indeed. I have been thinking of this tattoo for a while now, and finally went to see Derek, the owner of Victory Tattoo here in Chico, to get the process started. Two hours for the outline, and probably two more sessions after that (one for leaves, the final for flowers) to get the whole thing done. It continues up around the outside of my knee and ends a few inches up my thigh. :)

What my new ink means, though, is that I need to be able to show it off, right? So in addition to making skirts for my friend's girl, I've made a couple for myself! (Okay, well, one so far, but I have a bunch more cut out). I thought this was a great way to use this yard of Echo, and I like how the stripes I added down either side give it a bit of a sporty feel, like a tennis skirt without any of the exercise/running/sweating. ;)

And there you have it! A long catch-up catch-all kind of post for WIP Wednesday. What have YOU been working on??

Winner!

Well, I had all of two folks enter to win the traveling stash, and random number generator thinger picked #2, so I'll be contacting Kim in just a moment for her address! Hooray, Kim!

In other news - have you heard of the Fugly Fabric Party? No? WHY NOT!? It's pretty awesome. I'll be offering up some fugly fabric here on the 8th of May, and this time, you'll have the chance not only to win a fugly from me but also some definitely NOT fugly fabric from the link party's sponsor, Prints to Polka Dots! Stop by Lucy's blog at Charm About You for more details - then go dig through your stash to find stuff to swap! :)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Traveling Stash Giveaway!

So I love getting mail. Who doesn't!? I've been in a TON of swaps lately, whether in big groups for charm squares or in smaller diads (love that word) for FQ/charm pack swaps - I swapped some Heather Ross Mendocino that I knew would be more appreciated elsewhere for a charm pack of Hullabaloo, and sent a Pezzy FQ all the way to England (Hi Cheraldine!) in exchange for a different FQ (for what it's worth, when you're doing the customs form, a FQ of fabric in an envelope weighs 2.1 oz. I guessed 2 ounces, so that was pretty darn good!

When I'm not bothering my local postal workers, I HAVE been sewing, honest! I've finished up all 18 granny squares I had cut, and now they live in a nice stack that looks something like this:

Someday Instagram really needs to release an iPad version so my quick photos turn out better! Anyway...who makes 18 blocks for a quilt? What the heck, right? I'll need to find a couple more fabrics that go along with the theme so that I can get to an even 20 for a 4x5 layout. My squares started at 3.5", so the squares are huge! I'm excited to get this one finished. I think it might end up for sale someplace - probably at my office. I have a coworker with some college-aged daughters, maybe she'll buy it for them. ;)

Now, onto some bigger, potentially more-comment-generating news? I won a traveling stash! Are you familiar with that? Basically it's a medium flat rate box stuffed full of things that other quilters/sewists didn't want anymore - patterns, orphan blocks, templates, notions, and, of course, fabric!

Admittedly the fabric in this box isn't the best - it's Joann quality, including what I added. But on the plus side, there is a variety of sizes - what was in it was yardage, and I added a bunch of FQs and FQ-ish pieces - and there are a ton of patterns! This is a great box if you're into appliqued patterns, books, and the like.

Here's what was in it that I took out:

Some yardage in basic colors, a book, and a magazine. It was interesting to look through the book - of Mennonite Quilts -  and see ones that look awful familiar - there's a photo in there of a quilt that looks similar to the Made in Cherry QAL. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose! ;)

So after I took out my bits, here's what was left:

Like I said, a TON of patterns - this box is HEAVY with books! All those big pieces are pretty good sized chunks of yardage. There are also some orphan blocks, charm squares, a package of labels, and a wrist pincushion thingermabob.

 And this last one is what I added - a whole smattering of various fat quarters, a couple orphan blocks of my own, a dresden plate template (still in packaging, I think it came in a set of FQs I picked up someplace...?). I'll probably also throw in a couple MORE patterns!

Sooooo....wanna win the stash?

The rules are as follows:

RULES:
-Be an active blogger.
-Post about receiving and the giveaway on your blog in a timely manner.
-You may take anything you like from the box. Just replace every item with comparable items equal to the amount taken.
-Ship the box to the next person in a reasonable amount of time.
-Due to the amount of postage shipping is only within the USA.
-Add your name/blog address to the log so we can keep track of where it's been - and find some fun new blogs to follow in the process!

So, that's it! Leave me a comment and I'll draw a name on Friday morning. Unfortunately, this is US-only - sorry. :( If you could comment about suggestions for what to do when you don't plan a project, um, at all, and end up with a weird number of blocks (18, maybe??), that'd be even better.

Good luck, everyone! :)