I'm sewing again!

I thought I was going to have a lot of extra time this summer to work on projects.

Yah, right.

Moving has hogged some of my time, as well as plain laziness or resting, depending on who you ask. But I am enjoying working through everything. Purging is good. Yes. And with it, I am working on cleaning and scanning all of my paper binders for teaching.

That's what I am facing, yes. Though most of those have been scanned already. Finished up the last of the ones I have right now today. I will probably have some more, but right now, everything is scanned. And so, I celebrated!

So, this is a test run of a my color your block swap that I am doing. The final colors will be tan, orange, teal, and dark grey/black. But the test square is for my black and white quilt. The pattern is Starry Skyline, found here.

And this is my contribution for a black and white swap. Yay!

And here is the one going into my quilt! Slightly, slightly different, but still I like that factor of it. I like the disappearing 9 patch. It was good to after the square above. While I love it, it was frustrating and a pain in the but. Maybe, if I did the center swirl going different ways in multiple squares, that would be helpful. There were a lot of seams being ripped apart while I was working on it. But, I finished it! Whee!

I am still working on finishing up my quilting projects. I have to tear out some seams from my friend's quilt. The back got all ripply. Not fun, but such is life. But now is bed time, so I should get going.

Blargh

Hey there,

So, today really doesn't have much of anything, be it that I had a weekend-long wedding I was at and a day's worth of suffering  through the flu/food poisoning/allergic reaction or whatnot. I finally made it in to work today, which I am starting to think is no small feat. One hour in and all I have been doing is sitting and I'm about ready to nap. This might be a shorter day than normal for me, but at least I showed up. That's my biggest concern, that I don't get in to work because I only work part time during the summer so every hour counts.

But, even besides getting sick, the weekend was wonderful. One of my good friends got married at a beautiful and wonderful ceremony and then we all got to hang out and have lots of fun.

As for quilting and such, I have mostly been working on my Auction quilts. I think I will only have one for this auction, but I feel that is perfectly fine due to the fact that the other quilt I had been thinking about doing for the auction is less of an art quilt and more of a very fun, goofy, tee shirt quilt. Unfortuantely, there are not any pictures right now. I did get my second (and last) borders finished up, so as soon as they are attached, basting, quilting, and binding must be done and then I am done! So optimistic, aren't I?

And that doesn't even begin to list out all of the other quilts I have going. Maybe one day, I will have my footer be an update of where I am on all my quilts or digital copy of my quilt board. I think that might be something for a future post.

Also this last week, I delved into the world of designing my own paper piecing quilts. I really need to learn how to make big pieces first, because I have quite a few pieces for my blocks (try like 15 different small sections on one. I can't remember on the other). I just need to keep practicing. But that really was for my modification of PoD pattern. I'm adding and modifying quite a bit, but that's part of the fun!

Also, I am starting to think through the process of making a Firefly Quilt Along quilt. Not one of those light up bug quilts, though I have a love for them as well, but one based on the ended-before-its-time, one-season-long TV show Firefly. It might also have some pieces of the movie Serenity as well, just because, well, it would be a good idea... We'll see. I'll keep you up to date on that as things progress.

And it's Monday again... How did that happen?

***I wrote this at work. While at work, I referenced pictures on my phone. I then proceeded to leave my phone at work. Yep. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.***

***Edit #2: I decided to go back to work and get my phone. Now there are pictures.***

While I was on Spring Break, I just got caught up with what was going on. Well, that and sleeping. I love breaks when I can sleep as much or as little as I want and whenever I want. But the downside is I don't post. Such is life. There was a lot of adventures that were had and a lot of sewing that was done. Even some cleaning too!

Tuesday I went with some "family" (I call them family. They are all but) to Moody Gardens in Galveston. It was a lot of fun. I realized I'm finally at the place in life where I don't care if I look like a little kid or not, I am going to oooh and aaah over everything, point at stuff, and get excited. I took lots of pictures (just haven't uploaded them yet), made smash pennies to commemorate the trip, and even brought home a friend.

His name is Porter after my favorite seal at the exhibit. I know, I'm a dork. But he is just so soft, and the real Porter had such a wonderful story.

Thursday was quite the adventure as well. I handled the most cash I ever had handled to buy a car by myself (mostly) for the first time. E and I drove to Houston where we met her dad and the owner of the Jeep I ended up buying. So nerve wracking. Long story short, I had to buy a car before today (which successfully happened), which ended up happening! It has its own little quirks, but overall, she is a better rig than the one I lost.

And then came the cleaning. I have been considering taking in one of the international students at my school for the summer (which means I would lose my craft storage room), and for that to happen, I need to get my house in good condition (I am not the most organized person in the world). It is slow going, but I am starting to see the makings of a clean house! Yay!

Cleaning necessitated a trip to the dollar store (which is quite dangerous), which means I acquired quite a bit of smaller storage items, as well as some stuff to spruce up the place.

And of course, I have been sewing! Yay for sewing! I'm actually surprised that the end of this quilt is coming together as quickly as it has been. It is my first 2.5" square quilt. I started collecting these a little over six months ago due to Mary of The Curious Quilter running a PSQ swap that I stumbled upon. It was really cool, I learned lots of things, and then I became hooked!

This is what I have assembled so far

And these are what I have been working on

Hopefully they will be finished here soon so I can start on the hand stitching of the backs and then bind it. The end is in sight! How wonderful.

Last, I have been receiving swaps! So exciting. Saturday, my dog went bazerk at the postman when he came to drop off my goodies. I received five bandannas and five Easter eggs! So exciting. My offerings for these are either waiting in my mail crate or are already in the mail.

And then today, when I came home, I had more packages in the mail! Lots of green for the day!

To sum it up, lots of swapping and lots of quilting happening, which is really exciting. I didn't get around to working on the projects I had actually planned on completing, but I'm okay with that. I still have some other aspects I need to finish on one of my gift quilts before it can be finished, but I feel like it will be finished fairly soon as well. At least, that's what I hope!