Finish it up Friday!

I've been crazy busy finishing a lot of nearly-done projects, and here's the one that actually made it all the way done this week! :)

I started this baby quilt before Baby O was born... so maybe about May? I fell in love with this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, and generally love all of her animal patterns. It was super easy to make, and I love that fact that a baby size only takes 10 jelly roll strips. Bye bye random jelly roll leftovers! :)

The quilting is done by my pal and local longarmer, Sylvie! I just said "something woodsy" and she went with this, love it! <3 p="">

I'm all about using up flannel scraps for backings. I don't often sew with my flannel scrap stash, so this is the best way for me to use them. 

My Disaster Zone

As the name of this blog implies, I'm a bit chaotic. Organized chaos maybe? Everything has a place, but that place looks crazy to people that aren't me. ;)

Here's a glimpse into what my sewing room typically looks like.

Working on my king size postage stamp quilt that has been 3 years in the making, lol. The cardboard box has scrap vortex pieces. I swear I have more scraps that actually pieces of fabric now.

I started hanging my completed tops of projects in various stages. Keeps them out of the way to start new things. ;)

That's one scrap bin under the table - sorted by colouring groupings (warm, cool, neutral) until I make specific fabric bins for them all. 

And this is where I keep my books, selvages, batting bits, bundles & flannels. It's overflowing so I either need to get another one of these units or just use my flannel/batting up. :) I did that a bit, so it does look a little better now. 

I am just really happy to have this space to sew. Before we bought our home, we rented a two bedroom townhouse. We shared the spare room as a gaming/sewing center. One half was sewing and the other was the computer zone, but it was pretty apparent that my quilting stuff was taking over the whole space. Whoops! 

Now to get somewhat organized. ;)

Pat Sloan's 2016 Mystery BOM

I love block of the month quilts! I did my first one in 2014 with my local group of quilters, and it was a blast! The group has done one a year since, but I wasn't sold on participating in last year's quilt.

This year I've decided to take on Pat Sloan's 2016 Secret Garden mystery BOM! I've done the first two blocks and love it so far! I went with teal yardage that I had leftover from my making a queen size flower girl quilt for a friend. It's pretty much going to be scrappy but with teal/turquoise as the main attraction. Gold/yellow is going to my secondary colour, and white will be the "background" fabric. The white will be the only one consistent with the fabric number from the pattern so we'll see how it goes. :) I thought about adding pink but it doesn't really work.

January's block: DC Botanical Gardens

February's block: Killarney National Park

I like how the colours pull from the center block nicely. It's like the fireflies are coming out of the jar. :) 

All together! 

The Splendid Sampler: A journey to new techniques!

This year I've committed to yet another quit-along group, and it is the Splendid Sampler hosted by Pat Sloan & Jane Davidson!

It's 100 blocks in a year (2 per week), each with something a little new or challenging for the quilters. We're currently on block #3 by Melissa Corry, and I have to say it's been really fun so far! I've never participated a quit-along so huge - seriously, the facebook group was over 15,000 people in it! So my newsfeed has been bombarded with hundreds of quilt blocks daily but I love it. To be honest, before this, facebook was just a place to see info-graphics with zero fact-checking shared or "share this & get good fortune!" so the quilt change in pace is great. ;)

The blocks are only 6.5", so some are pretty tiny. Thanks to the farm girl vintage blocks I've been working on, I do have some practice with that, haha. I've never used starch or best press, so I think that might be something to try for the next block to make it even better! I'm going to commit to trying the new techniques and using new tools to help improve my piecing. There's always room to grow. :)

I went with my Glamping fat quarter bundle (which was 14) and supplemented with some stash and traded my mother-in-law for some more pinks/blues/yellows. I'm still about 10 short of the 30-35 that we should have, but I can at least get started on it with this amount and throw in some more as we go.

Anywho, on to the blocks I've done!

Block #1 Hearts A Flutter - this one called for needle-turn applique. I'll be honest, I didn't follow that because I had no clue what it was. So I found an easier variation through the sampler site that had the interfacing sewn on and turned inside out to fuse it together. I did the blanket stitch by hand and had to remind myself how to do that. It's been forever!

Block #2 Wings - Overall I like how it turned out but I was kind of mad at myself for accidentally reversing the row placements. It was just too small for me to unpick, so I left it and improvised with the embroidery on the butterflies. Instead of pointing in, they are flying in a circle. :)

Block #3 Lots of Love - Love this design! There's a mini quilt to match it so I may just have to try that out for the future swap partner, :) It didn't end up perfectly square, but oh well!

And all my blocks thus far with the cathedral window pincushion! I haven't tried cathedral windows yet so that was also a learning experience, Not too bad actually! I thought it would be way worse, haha. 

Welcome!

Hi there! My name is Emma and I am a quilt addict, officially. I began this intense "hobby" (more like obsession) in the fall of 2012 right after I married my honeybuns. I've been hooked ever since! I am a chronic scrap hoarder to the point where the floor of my sewing room is barely visible most days. I'm a firm believer in "no scrap left behind". Anything larger than 1" square is kept, sorted (sometimes), and used. It's been nearly 4 years, and I figured it's about time to jump on board the blog train. I hope to join in on more quilt-alongs and post progress here, keep my projects in this picture-filled record, as well hopefully make some friends along the way. :) Speaking of which, time to go sew the mystery quilt-a-long from Pat Sloan! Cheers, Emma