Finished It Friday!

Whoo, you guys are probably getting sick of checking the page and realizing there's nothing new, eh?

Julie's computer is on the fritz, and I was in the wild outdoors for a whole week, pretending I was a pioneer. Yep. For real. See? Here's the kid in his mountain man attire, ha!

In quilting news, I did finish my Bent Rainbows Quilt. It took me a while to like it. I think it's a combo of the fact that there's so much white in the front and the fact that I used all solids that makes it... not a fave. But Kid loves it and so does the husband, so I guess it's a keeper!

I actually REALLY like the back. I love how the quilting shows up, and it's way more appealing to me than the front!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday!

Perfectly Content

A hot drink and sweet treat

A new sewing project

And a few Friends

What's making you happy this Saturday night?

Wintery WIP Wednesday!

Looking for the Rainbow Layer Cake Swap? Click here!


Except it's so not wintery 'round these parts.

I've been out of the blogging game for a bit, but I'm getting back. Lee's WIP Wednesday posts are always a good motivator!

Right now, I only have one technical WIP to show off. I have a gigantic list of USOs (un-started objects, of course), but I've been working on a few small projects that seem to wrap up quickly.

My big WIP?

My rainbow quilt!
I went from a big stack of yummy charm squares, cut from yardage:



To a layered pinwheel quilt top:




My inspiration for this quilt was SewCraftyJess's doll quilt found here. Do you see those lovely curves? I do believe she used drunkard's path blocks for hers, but I'm being a bit lazier and doing a modified cathedral curve. What does that mean? It means all those "half square triangles" are not half square triangles. They're full charm squares of the color, with a white charm square, folded and pressed diagonally on top of them. What?! I found this idea here... check it out!

I'm currently piecing the back, but the plan is to baste it, and then curve all of those folded white edges back and stitch them down, just like a cathedral window curve is peeled back. It should create a nice curve and give a bit of motion to the pinwheels, right? Plus, by machine stitching the curves, they'll act as my quilting. I plan to bind in black.

I'm also doing up some mini quilts for my sewing room.  We've been doing a lot of stuff around the house lately, and I spent six hours Sunday going through fabric in my sewing room. I threw out three bags full of... stuff. Paper. Patterns and templates that I'd traced on card stock and didn't need. Bits of binding that were too short to be useful. Teensy scraps. Jars. Old notebooks. Y'all would have cried. But it's so clean and fresh in here and I feel like I can create again! Oh, and I ordered 19 yards of fabric yesterday to make up for all that's missing.

My first mini is finished, and it's with some yummy Heather Ross fishies! Love love love these fishies, and Julie was kind enough to send me some! I have plans for a few more. Just wait.




Don't forget about the Rainbow Layer Cake Swap - still have open slots!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Fancy Some Cake?

Swap is now full!

Because I can't get enough of swaps and Bree is totally in love with rainbows (ok, I may be a bit in love with rainbows too)

We're announcing the Rainbow Layer Cake Swap!

Rainbow charm swaps are always a big hit in the blogiverse. I've been a member of one and really enjoyed the swap and the awesome charms I received. But I found myself wanting and needing some pieces larger than the 5" square. Bree would just love to get her hands on some rainbow-y goodness. Have I mentioned yet that she loves rainbows?

Anyway, here's the plan:

-20 participants, each will be assigned two colors

-Each participant buys two 1.5 yard cuts of fabric (for a total of 3 yards)

-Each 1.5 yard cut gets cut into 10" squares for a total of 20 squares per fabric cut or 40 squares per person

-Quilt shop quality fabrics only, no fabrics from JoAnn, Walmart, etc. 
-No solids or batiks, we're looking for tone-on-tone fabrics in the color you're assigned. We'll go into more detail in the welcome email.

-Mail your squares to me along with a self addressed postage paid flat rate envelope

-Deadline to mail your squares to me will be March 1st. 

-Upload an image of your fabric selections to the Distant Pickles Flickr group so there aren't any duplicates. 

-International people are welcome to join, I will have to bill you for postage through paypal and your mailing deadline will be Feb. 15th. You may have your fabric shipped directly to me and I will cut it for you if you'd like. 

So how do you sign up?

Easy, just email us at

distantpickles@yahoo.com

If you have a particular color you'd like to be assigned, let us know in your sign up email and we will try to accomodate you. 

Bree and I are participating too so the first 18 emails we receive are in and will receive an email from us with more specific instructions and the mailing address for where they will need to send their squares.

If we get enough interest we will gladly set up more than one group.

So, are you in?

Word of the Year

Ok, I don't normally do things like this. I don't make big goals, I don't do resolutions, and I've never done a word for the year. But I've been feeling lately like I need something to work towards, something to keep me grounded. 

My word comes from a woman who knew me a total of about 2 minutes before instructing me to do it.

Breathe.

That's right, breathe.

I tend to get myself worked up and over little things. It happens so fast and so easy. 

Last night for example. Bug got into the tub of sugar. Not only did she get into the tub of sugar, but she poured it all over Moose's highchair tray while he was in it. When I found them they were both covered head to toe in sugar, eating it, pouring it, throwing it all over the kitchen. 

My response? To get onto Bug and tell her she was a bad girl. Dad's response? To laugh and whip out the camera and capture the moment. 

I should be enjoying these moments, looking at them as funny and something to laugh about later.

When it comes to crafting there's no exception. I am a bit of perfectionist. That seam doesn't line up perfectly? Rip it and do it again! I accidentally nip a piece of fabric? I tense up, throw down the scissors and stomp around the room for a few minutes. I know this all makes me sound like a bear, I'm not, really. I just let myself get worked up! 

I also over commit and then procrastinate and stress myself out trying to finish things up before a deadline. I like to say I work best under pressure, but in reality it just causes a lot of stress and heartache, fear that I'll let someone down.

The woman who told me to breathe? The shop owner of my local yarn store. I walked in with my very first knitting project on needles and proceeded to ask her a million questions. 

"Am I doing this right?"

"How do I fix this stitch?"

"Why is my knitting so tight?"
"Am I using the right needles?"

"Is this yarn ok?"

"Just Breathe" she said.

So, my word for the year is Breathe. I'm going to remind myself of this whenever something minor happens, something that's not worth raising my blood pressure over. 

I'd like to say I'm going to commit to less but I've already committed to round 2 of the For the Love of Solids Swap, the I-Spy Charm Swap, Pay it Forward 2012 and one quilt along. And it's only January 9th. Oh, and Bree and I are cooking up a little swap of our own. So instead of committing to less I'm just going to try to not procrastinate.

I'm also going to slow things down a bit. WIP Wednesday will still continue, but instead of listing every little thing I have going on I'll just focus on what I'm working on at that particular moment. Then maybe blogging that post won't stress me out too! lol 

I'm going to work on what I want to work on whenever I feel like working on it, and I'm not going to feel bad if a particular project sits for more than a month or two. I'll get to it eventually, and it will make the finish feel that much sweeter.