Supernova Friendship Block Swap Finish!

I’m beyond excited to have this one finished and off the sewing table. This was a real struggle to finish with sickness, holidays, other commitments and just feeling the funk of no interest of sewing. I chose to hand quilt the top and didn’t even have it marked out until the beginning of January. After some brainstorming with Gma Schnell I marked for a whole weekend in between other commitments and came away with a lot of work.

I’m pretty NEW to quilting if you have been following along. My first attempt was a lovey that my LO didn’t take to and now has become a doll quilt. My second was a jelly roll quilt and the third I pieced the top but had Gma Schnell finish the rest… Wait for it (dragging my feet) few or several months later I caught the bug after ahem* stalking a new friend on instagram and she sent me in a direction to make my first quilt piecing hst.  Let me just say it came together quickly but my seams weren’t consistent and I bought broadcloth on accident… sigh smh and even this one wasn’t finished by me.

Since then I have made 1 twin, 4 pillows, a very badly pieced mini for myself, a precut packaged vintage quilt (queen), a doll quilt, my first paper pieced mini, 3 mug rugs, 4 slightly smaller than lap quilts, 1 lap quilt, 2 minis for swaps, more bags and pouches than I’d like to count this morning, and in the midst of all that I joined this and made my first sort queen size (62″ square). Why am I listing all this well because mostly I need a reminder of the journey but also maybe to give other people the encouragement I needed to start this adventure. Its ok to start small, make mistakes, become a stalker… it all starts with the first step (well minus the stalker thing because that’s just creepy).

This was also my first quilt-a-long so it was nice to have a friend to work with to make it more fun and definitely someone to complain to about all the nitpicking things that drove me nuts. Christina and I have been thick as thieves back from college with a little lapse in between when I moved away for a bit. We are our own mini (itty bitty only 2) bee. And we try to get together about once a week, if not every other week to craft, eat, and just hang out. So each month if you remember we made each other a block plus an identical one to and then swapped. Then there was this big gap of nothing where we were supposed to be finishing the quilt to do our final post (being what you are reading) for a chance to win some awesome prizes. Hence when I also stopped blogging.

Ok enough already (I hear you) here is the final quilt:

It took me about a month to quilt on and off during naps and the wee hours of the night. Its been lovingly used since. Makes me feel like spring is around the corner.

Linking up one final time with Stephanie, Sandra and our judge Lee.

quilt: log cabin

I started this log cabin eons eons and eons ago. Ok ok maybe ages but probably in reality about twenty something weeks ago.

On a trip down to visit the Hubs family I drove out to Joann’s with Gma Doris and found some fabric, probably the first time I bought some without a focused plan in mind. I found a tutorial for log cabins in a Martha Stewart magazine. Then I went to Gma Doris’s “store” and she hooked me up with a bunch of different solids.

At this time I was very new to quilting and hadn’t made a quilt that wasn’t only strips or squares, so this was a big deal. I had plans to make it for my sister’s little girl even. I got so pumped and plugged in for a few days and then got burnt out after 5 blocks. I just wasn’t feeling it. It didn’t have exact measurements and I felt like I was making a lot of waste and not much headway.

Then months later I’m cleaning up and out my craft nook and I find the beauties all bagged up just begging to be loved again. One afternoon and late evening I finished up the remaining blocks, baste and set out to quilt in the morning.

Here is a few more pictures after picking it up again:

And here it is finished. I decided to use the machine to quilt and was only halfway pleased with the results. I had to seam rip a bunch but it’s finished.

quilt: basket weave fish mini

A lot had been happening here this past week… I have been diligently working on all my wip projects. I told myself I need to finish them up before starting on yet another project. So now with that said I need to catch up on my blog posts. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen the sneak peeks and the final pictures of the projects.

First up is my basket weave fish mini quilt. I wanted to use my new skills courtesy of Christina and make her something as a thank you. At first I kept it a secret but then spilled the beans when I needed a bit of input. I love how it looks and was sad to part with the little gem. I have yet to own my own hand quilted lovey! Here are a few pictures of he process and the end result:

Here she is!