February's Block of the Month and more

I hope everyone is having a wonderful month.  My sewing machine has been humming away.  I finished my block of the month.   These blocks are very tedious and time consuming, but they are absolutely beautiful in my opinion.

You can see in the picture below just how tiny most of those pieces are.

 I finally added the binding and a hanging sleeve to my Circles of Hope quilt.  I'm not sure what part of life got in my way of finishing this, but I know it was in a bag for well over a year maybe 2.  Now I need to decide just where I want to hang it.

I have also made a couple of pillow cases this month and am trying to decide which quilt top I am going to pull out of the bag to finish up next.  

Good bye June

Wow, what a hectic month it was.  I barely finished my goals for the month, but I managed to get them all done.  I had my doubts last Thursday when my machine started acting up.  It started with a broken darning/free motion quilting foot that had cracked and my needle went through part of the foot.   That led to the cracked bobbin case, which led to the timing being messed up on my machine.  When it rains it pours.  I picked up my machine on Thursday from the repair shop.   I'm happy it is fixed and I was able to finish everything up.

 The lighting here today hasn't been the best for taking pictures.  The is the top all quilted, even though you can't see any of the quilting.

Here is the back to prove it is really quilted.  I did a variety of different free motion techniques and some 1/4" edging with my walking foot.

I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It is not perfect by any means, but it is my quilt and I have to live with it.

My other 2 goals for the month were to finish up my mystery quilt clues for May and June and I did.

For May, we ended up with these pretty little chevron strips.

And for June We have 20 of these blocks.

Now I want to know what happened to June.  It was gone in a flash!  Tomorrow is July 1st which means my kids have 35 days before they go back to school, and of course then I have to go back to work as well.

June Goals

Yes, I said goals as in more than one.  I actually have 3 goals for this month.  They are all pretty big goals, but if I can get the kids to cooperate I think it is totally possible.

Goal #1 is to get the quilting finished on my Circles of Hope quilt.  Yes, I had this same goal back in September 2013, but wasn't decided on how I was going to do the quilting.  I think I have a plan now.

Goal #2

I started a Mystery quilt last month and didn't get my May clue completed due to working and being thoroughly exhausted.  I have 304 HST's to get squared up and sewn together.

Goal #3

This goal sort of goes along with #2, but it is the June Mystery Quilt clue/step that I want to have finished up by the end of the month or at least very close to being done.

Here are the fabrics I have chosen for the mystery quilt.  I know the brown kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, but if you look close in the print it is there and I wanted to pull that out a bit.    I will  post pictures as I make progress on the the quilt.

I'm linking up to the ALYoF monthly party over at Sew Bittersweet Designs.   

Circles of Hope, ALYF August goal

This month I am digging into a project that I started at least a year ago.  I have all my pieces cut and had sewn at least 2 blocks together before I got caught up with a bunch of other projects and want to makes.  My goal for August is to only finish the top.

The pattern I am doing is called Circle of Hope.

Here are the first 2 blocks that I had done.  It was my first time sewing curves in the quilting world.  I will say I am going to take the top one apart and see if I can get it back together without the puckers.

My sweet little minions start school on Wednesday so I will have a few uninterrupted hours each day to sew. I am going to enjoy every minute of it for at least a week and then I am going to buckle down and after just over 5 years of being a stay at home mom I plan to go back to work in the real world. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

WIP Wednesday

Wow! This week is flying by for me.  If you are visiting from Freshly Pieced, welcome, and please take a look around. Yesterday was my first time doing anything sewing related since Thursday last week when I literally threw together a quick purse since I was still carrying my spring purse.

Today, I'm working on finishing up the quilting on my Secret Santa swap gift.  I have had fun making it and have one more decision to make on it before I call it good and ship it off to its new home.

My son wants to be Mario from Mario Bro's. for Halloween, so I figured I would make the overall's portion of his costume.  I have the fabric, all I need to do is find a pattern or a good picture to follow to whip them up.

The Sew Intertwined quilt and my Christmas quilt are still awaiting quilting.

I also need template plastic or something and make my templates for the Circle of hope quilt I hope to get done in time to give my mother for Christmas.  If I don't get it done, then I have to figure out what in the world to get her and I will then keep the Circle of hope quilt for myself.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  I had to pick up my son from school because he is ill, so I'm guessing I won't get much of anything done today.