Finish Along - Q1 Results!

At the beginning of the year I stumbled across the 2012 Finish-A-Long hosted over at Quilter in the Gap. Like every other quilter, I'm developing quite the mountain of WIPs, so anything that would help motivate me to get them finished is definitely appreciated!

I posted my goals for the quarter here, listing SIX projects that I thought I could complete. Only four "counted" because two weren't actual WIPs but just to-dos - which is fine, because they didn't get done anyway. Of the four that were eligible, I managed to finish three of them! Woohoo!

Of course, I've only blogged about two of them, because I am the worst blogger on the planet (okay, not really)... so I've only got two to link up right now, until I go home and photo the third one. Whoops.

(((PRETEND THAT THERE IS CONTENT ABOUT THAT QUILT HERE!)))

;)

Non-sewing WIP - Project House

The last time I posted anything about our house project was after we bought the shed on Veteran's Day last November. I promise we've been making progress since then, and I even have photographic evidence of such! ;)

We've been a bit scatter-brained about it - our back bathroom is partially painted, but it also needs more drywall work. Our guest bedroom has had the carpet torn out (good riddance!) and had the window replaced, and today Jeff spent the day smoothing out the awful texture. Over the last month, our electrician-contractor-fellow has been out a few times to fix some light switches and to install these lovelies:

A new mirror, new light over the mirror, and new bathroom sink / sink cabinet! Hooray! The old crap was SO ugly, and the sink was covered in stains from all the paint projects, they definitely needed to go.

We also managed to pick a color for the bathroom - a mint green color, chosen only because the gallon of paint was $3 on the clearance rack at Lowe's, haha! For the back bathroom, we picked a light blue color that for some reason looks green, so I'm not-so-secretly hoping that this mint green will look blue when it gets on the wall! We're hoping to have the shower tiled (with white tiles) sometime in April, and the floor as well (though we haven't picked a color for that yet - we'll probably wait to see how the paint looks once it's on the wall).

I also have plants! They look so great. The sunflower in the back is mostly dead now, though, unfortunately. The thing on the left was a clearance plant from Lowe's; the jade plant in the middle was a gift from Jeff's grandmother (so I *definitely* can't let it die! - it's gotten a ton bigger than when she gave it to me, though) and the plant on the right was some other random thing from Lowe's. It's added a bunch of new leaf-things since I got it, so I must be doing something right. I love succulents!

Any home improvement projects going on at your place? Or pretty flowers? I'll try to post some more flowers in the next few days, as I'm hoping to work in the garden a bunch this weekend if the weather holds out!

Congratulations are in order!

Well that latest blog hop definitely set a record here for my little corner of the interwebs. 192 comments means 192 entries on my Pezzy Prints giveaway! Probably twice as many as I've received ever. The consensus really seemed to be that these charms would be great for placemats and table runners and pillows, or also the children's quilt that I tried to make that just didn't work out for my poor little brain.

I'm also a handful of folks over 100 followers now, so I'm really hopeful that I can continue being entertaining.

Now, what you all want to know - who won!

#38 was Cindy, who blogs at Quilt Doodle Designs! I will be e-mailing Cindy shortly and will choose a back-up winner if I don't hear from her by Monday. Cindy said she'd make a table runner and placemats, and hopefully she'll share them on her blog if she does!

Thank you again to everyone who has entered. Have a fantastic weekend!

Update on Paper Piecing

English paper piecing, which I have started recently as something to do while wasting away in front of watching television, has been pretty darn successful so far! I've decided that the first thing I'm going to turn my hexies into is a pretty cover for my sewing machine (I currently use the hard shell case it came in).

I've started piecing them together, mostly hoping that I've done it right because I lost interest in reading / following the directions (which really ends up being the problem with most of my sewing projects-gone-awry).

First they turned into this clump. As usual, Molly MUST be involved with every project I take on. (Side note, I'm currently reading Jeanne Walls's Half-Broke Horses and it is just as good as The Glass Castle was!)

And then they turned into this! I've added a bunch more since I took this photo, so imagine it a little bigger, but I'm really enjoying it! I love having something simple to work on while sitting around with hubs, and I look forward to making myself a cute little pouch so that I can take them with me! Hooray!

Have you tried English Paper Piecing? What did you make with yours? It seems like they'd also make good coasters... Hmm....

WIP - A bunch of new projects

If you haven't yet entered my Pezzy Prints giveaway, check it out here! 

Winner will be chosen on 3/23. 

I finished up Sara's Star quilt, so what was the next logical step? Starting a few more projects, of course. At the rate I start projects, I'm going to have 4,302 WIPs by the end of the year but only 12 finishes. Oops.

Anyway, at some point a few weeks ago I put together a bundle of girly prints - flowery things that are all manner of pinks, and some stripes, and that sort of thing - and decided to cut squares from them. It then came to me to make sort-of-4-patch blocks out of them. This is what I've got so far:

There are definitely way more than enough to make two (if not three!) children's sized quilts out of, as I'm planning on putting white sashing between the blocks. I think these would all end up for sale.

I then decided it would be a good idea to do the same thing with my two charm packs of Half Moon Modern and two packs of white Bella Solids:

(Pardon my terrible photography skills! I tend to take photos before work, with the intention of blogging at lunch time...and then I don't. Aww.). Anyway, I think I'm going to pick one of the solid colors (possibly the teal?) from the line to use for sashing, and use all the blocks in the same quilt. Not sure where this one will end up, either.

Then I've started ANOTHER project, out of slightly-smaller-than-charm-square sized squares that I got from a couple of swaps I participated in. It was my first swap, and as much as I appreciate the bargains I can find at Joann for fabrics for myself, I also very much understand why swap mammas say NO to those for their swaps. Anyway, I'm making 16-patches out of them:

 14 out of the 22 blocks have turned out properly, like this (they're still in two sets of eight squares each)

While the other eight have turned out like this! I have no idea where or how they went wrong; I just know I have a bunch of seam ripping to do! Boo! Since my parents are now coming for Christmas, I think these blocks, combined with a cream-colored sashing (tentatively, anyway) will end up being their Christmas present. I think I can handle that sort of schedule!

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In other news - WOW. I joined up with the St. Patty's day giveaway blog hop and have been amazed at the results. 174 comments SO FAR, *and* I now have 100 followers! Whoa! Thank you, all of you, for all the comments. I've defintely read every one, even though I've been overwhelmed and haven't replied to them all. I'll definitely do another giveaway sometime soon for hitting that milestone, probably at the end of April, for my birthday.

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Lastly, if you're as addicted to charm swaps as I've become, there's another one going on over at Adventures in obsessive crafting. Deanna's looking for folks interested in swapping rainbow charms, and she (and I!) would love if it you joined up!

Finish - Sara's Wedding Quilt

If you haven't entered my giveaway, please click here - win some Pezzy charms for yourself (ends 3/23). 

Alrightyroo, I finished another quilt! Hooray!? Isn't it a great feeling?

It's a big giant star, with some red borders added on either end to make it a bit less square. Sara, its recipient, got married at the beginning of February and said that she and her hubs like dark colors. I'm terrible with surprises, so she's already seen it on Facebook and likes it. Yay!

 I quilted it on diagonal lines and really like the way it turned out. I look forward to doing pretty much the exact same thing with the other quilt top that came out of the project, except maybe with yellow instead of red. Any thoughts?

 Clearly I'm not the best quilt model...

As my arms get tired quickly. Thanks to hubby, though, for being my photographer!

Time to get lucky! (har har)

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered!

Who doesn't love giveaways? I know this girl loves 'em. I've decided to link up with the Quilter's Blog Hop Party to give some stuff away - yay! In honor of my 200th post happening just the other day, and it being St. Patty's Day and all, when everyone and their uncle says they're Irish and drinks too much, well, here's a giveaway for you:

Not one, but TWO charm packs of Pezzy Print will go to ONE lucky winner! One word of warning - I *did* open them, as I had a project in mind but in the end it didn't pan out. They're all there, they're all in one piece, they're just not wrapped up fancy like a proper, fresh-from-the-cutting board (?) charm pack.

To enter to win, leave a comment below. Could be anything - your plans for the charms, how you plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, something about your heritage...whatever you feel like typing. :) Following is appreciated, but not required. Sorry, no international winners.

Check this here link on Saturday, the 17th, for a list of all the hoppers so that you can enter to win (and hopefully get lucky!) as many times as possible. Wink wink, nudge nudge.