things i need to get better about

Taking pictures for the blog!

My internet and cable were out all weekend (thanks to a certain asshole new neighbor who decided to unhook my line and plug his in, in the box outside) and my dresden plates are done, you'd think I would've taken a picture right?  Nope.  Still trying to decide on the background fabric, I think I've decided on a super pale grey, now, just to find the right one!  I just don't want the pale grey to absorb the grey in the Ruby plates.  I auditioned Kona Tarragon, great for Bliss, terrible for Ruby, a butter yellow quilters solid from JoAnn, ick on both Ruby and Bliss, decided against pink for Ruby and Tarragon for Bliss, to me it looked like a nauseous mess.  Kona Bone, too beige, Kona White, may still have a chance, as much as I want to get away from using white or cream as a solid I think it may be perfect for this project.  Going to order some 1/2 yards of grey's from Kona and see how it goes.  

Also, I've noticed pretty much ZERO interest in my UFO challenge, but I've also seen quite a few others out there in bloggy land, I'll still be posting on mine to hold myself accountable for the massive pile of WIPs but I'm going to introduce a new WIP at the beginning of the month I want to tackle, post a couple updates during the month and show you how things ended up at the end of the month for that particular WIP.  

I've been wanting to show you a project I finished sometime at the end of last year but I'm waiting for a good day to get outside and take photos of it, winter in Chicago doesn't always cooperate!  

dresden plates

Here are only some of my finished dresden plates.  All the Bliss ones have been completed and I'm taking a break from working on the Ruby ones.  In case you're wondering, I got 12 complete plates with some leftover petals from 2 charm packs.

stack of completed plates

so pretty!

I'm really excited to see this come together!  The hard part is trying to find a suitable color for the background that matches both Bliss and Ruby, right now I'm kinda leaning toward Kona Bone, but still unsure of it since it's an off white and Bliss and Ruby have stark whites.  I'm going to stop at a mega JoAnn later today to try and find a match.

UFO Challenge 2012--week 2

How's it going out there?  I know this is late but I ended up working Friday (which is my typical day off) so I wasn't able to post.  I don't have any pictures to show you this week but I do have 5 completed plates!  I just have to decide on a background color and I'll bring them to work with me to get the plates stitched to the backgrounds.  I also got the Ruby petals stitched into groups of two, now just to press those and get crankin'.

Farmer's Wife

I have 3 new blocks to show you!  One has been done for a LONG time the others I just finished.  I realize that Century of Progress isn't right but oh well, I'm not fixing it :p

#18 Century of Progress

#13 Buckwheat

#16 Calico Puzzle

I also got this is the mail today!!!!

I'm so excited!!!!  I can't wait for the Twiddletails BOM to start :D :D

Happy stitching!

UFO Challenge Week 1

It's the first official week of the UFO challenge!  How'd you do?  I've been working on my Dresden Plate and discovered that my math was off and I ended up having to cut 2 more charm packs to get my required # of blocks.  Whoops.  So it's now Bliss and Ruby!  Should be cute right??  

The box on the right is the Bliss.  Currently they're stitched into groups of 4 wedges, Ruby wedges are on the left and currently just single wedges.  I managed to cut, stitch, flip, and press all those Ruby wedges in one day, took me MONTHS (no joke) to do the Bliss wedges.  My goal for next week is to have the plates completed.  

I did have one question come up with regards to finishes.  If you finish a top one month and finish quilting it another month does that count as one finish or two?  I'm going to count that as TWO finishes!  Good luck to all participating!  Be sure to link up your progress and grab the button code in the right side bar!

Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

Wouldn't be nice to be prolific enough to have Fat Quarter Shop want you to design your own FQ bundle to be sold on their site?  You have a chance to design your own bundle and if you're chosen you could win a WHOLE HALF YARD SET of the 15 fabrics you choose!  12 prints and 3 solids! 

To enter to go Quokka Quilts and follow these simple rules:

1. Go to Fat Quarter Shop and choose 12 coordinating prints and 3 solids from their selection.  

2. There are 2 ways to enter, a) create a blog entry about your set of fabrics; b) if you don't have a blog upload them to a site where they can be seen in one link - eg picasa, flickr, etc.  You MUST include pictures of your fabrics.  You can 'borrow' these from the FQS website.  A photo collage would be VERY helpful to the judges  ;) 

3. Go back to Quokka Quilts and post your entry no later than January 15. 

Here is my bundle!

I love seeing combinations of purples, oranges, and yellows, which is SO not me because I'm not really a purple person.  I tossed in the grey dots from the Ruby line to kinda act as a 4th solid.  I love how super tiny the dots are!  Go create your bundle and enter!

Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!  

I'm not going to make any resolutions this year because I never keep them.  From my 2011 list I only managed to get 3 out of the 11 things done I had listed.  Better than nothing I suppose!  And my 8 finishes?  Uh, yea, only managed 2.  

I just want 2012 to be the best it can be.  2011 wasn't terrible to me but it went by entirely too fast.  One of my last accomplishments of 2011, which is also one I'm very proud of, is that I became a preceptor at work.  This means I get to work one on one with paramedics new to the system and essentially give them the green light (or red light) to be in the system.  It's mainly fresh out of school medics so I get to throw a bit of teaching in there which I love.  Here's hoping I can keep climbing the ladder!  

One thing I've been wanting to do lately is to have a project I can bring to work to work on.  I have started a crocheted granny square afghan.  I chose red, pink, green, turquoise, and white to work with, it's a TV project, I work on it while watching TV or a movie.  No rush to get that one done, it's just a busy handwork project.  I thought about bringing that to work but it would mean bringing at least 3 skeins of yarn, no bueno!  So, I ordered a Dear Jane book.  I also joined a DJ BOM from Twiddletails.  Two-hundred twenty five patterns.  If I can get one done each shift it'll take me 75 shifts to finish it.  Now, the BOM club is 23 months, starts in February, so obviously I won't be getting all my fabric at once, it'll be 2014 before it's even close to completion.  So, that'll mean even on a busy, run like crazy day, I'll still have other days to finish it.  I'm not counting this as a UFO since I haven't started it yet and because I haven't given up on it, yet.  I'll be adding the DJ chart to my blog soon so you can see my progress.  

On the DJ note, I'm also becoming very, very interested in working on more time consuming quilts rather than quick finishes.  And something totally unlike me, I'd love to do a Mariner's Compass in Batiks.  Yes, I said Batiks!  I guess that's my 2012 goal, step outside the box.  You know what?  I kinda like that!  

In preparation for my UFO challenge I've listed the UFOs I want to finish in my sidebar.  Hopefully I'll get to cross them off one by one this year, that would be SO exciting!  There is one listed in my sidebar I'm ready to trade away.  It would even include the backing and binding.  Still thinking about that.  I'd love to have you join up so you can share your progress!