ALYOF--April finish

Whew! I squeaked in under the wire. Me and my perfectionistic attitude always somehow worked well with a tiny bit of pressure from a deadline. Even if it's a self-imposed deadline!

Here is my finished goal:

My Hugs & Kisses quilt top!

Oh dear. The lighting in the basement hallway doesn't do it justice, with nighttime, and my back was up against the wall with no more room, so I didn't get the quilt top completely in the camera frame.

I wanted to press it, but I used the air-soluble purple ink pen to mark the seamlines down the sashes to match with, and I'm afraid of setting the purple ink into the white fabric with the iron.

Statistics:

--Pieces of Hope 10" stacker by Riley Blake. Autism and Autism Speaks-themed fabric.

--Kona White solid background

--pieced with White Gutermann 100% polyester.

--approximately 53x66" unfinished

--pattern: Hugs & Kisses by Quilt in a Day

Linking up again with Sew Bittersweet Designs A Lovely Year of Finishes

http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/?p=4747

Boys

Proof that I have little boys.

Little J wanted to help me drive the sewing machine this morning, as I'm trying to put the rest of the x's and oh's together and finish the quilt top. That meant, he wanted to push "the gas pedal" with his own foot. It's a little tricky, and I gotta keep my hands out of the way as I guide the fabric, because he can't keep a consistent speed and can't or won't stop right away when I say "stop".

When he decided he was finished helping, he ran off and forgot his toy and his "treasure map" that he drew for me (which happens to be the cardboard insert from a package of bias tape).

He wants to know what this button does, or that gadget on the sewing machine does what, and wants to do it right then (this time it was the bobbin winder).

Last night, I caught some of my boys on a photo while playing.

In other news, Quiltmaker Magazine posted my block that I shared on their Facebook page! I thought it was appropriate to share my version of one of the 100 Blocks during the 100 Blocks blog tour!

Going hopping

with Quiltmaker Magazine's blog: Quilty Pleasures. The new issue of 100 Blocks comes out next week, and QM is having a blog tour of the block designers all this week. There's lots of giveaways going on. It's always fun for me to meet the designers, hear their inspiration for their blocks, and see color and layout variations.

so let's go!

http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2014/04/100-blocks-blog-tour-day-2

Easter treat--Hearts and More

Oh goodie!

The mail came today, and the quilting Easter Bunny came late. I got a treat!

Sue Pelland sent me a complete set of her new Hearts and More templates! My creative wheels are turning and it will be a lot of fun learning to use them!

This afternoon, it took three tries to get the baby to stay napping....the third try involved the baby swing in the sewing room!

I laid the Hugs n Kisses pieces down on the hallway floor outside my sewing room and started shuffling. (Oh boy, I think I need a design wall!)

Here's the layout I decided on.

I got the picture taken, centers pinned, rows and columns stacked and labeled, and cleaned up, before the baby woke up.

Speaking of....the baby just woke up again, so I'm off.

Week's review

Hi there,

This is a review of the last two weeks!

Last week, I got the hearts pieced and sewn together for the center of the Hugs n Kisses quilt. Here's a sneak peek:

This week, I'm piecing all the x and oh units with the stitch-n-flip method. More than 80 charm squares + more than 160- 2 1/2" background squares + making bonus HST = a lot of assembly line piecing and pressing !

I hope to finish the stitch-n-flip tonight!

I also had to starch and press more background fabric, because I cut up all I had pressed. The sashes still need to be cut!

Linking up with SewJo Saturday!

http://gogokim.blogspot.com/2014/04/sewjo-saturday-6.html?m=1

Public Service Announcement: Change Passwords!

According to the news today, there were some security problems when several websites used a security patch update.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/11/heartbleed-vulnerability-prompts-need-to-monitor-web-use-dhs-says/

Everyone should change their passwords IMMEDIATELY for programs such as Facebook, Google (Blogger too), Etsy, WordPress, Yahoo (including Flickr), Instagram.

For a handy table list to go over, to see if any of the websites you use are affected:

http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bug-websites-affected/

They are advising: if the chart says unclear, might be affected, or yes, change your password immediately.

April goals

Hi!

Linking up with Sew Bittersweet Designs to post my goal for April!

Primary goal:

Complete the teacher gift quilt tops.

I'm using the Pieces of Hope layer cake and Hugs n Kisses by Quilt in a Day, and the bonus HST blocks from the Autism Swoon quilt.

Whee--I'm cutting into a layer cake! Yum!

Secondary goals:

1--Depending on how many and how the teacher gift quilts stack up, I'll probably just make fabric bucket bags with the autism fabric for the techs/aides.

2-- Cut all the patches/pieces for the rest of the blocks for the baby's star sampler.

Autism Awareness Day

My son has autism, so this is my light.

Yesterday, I started cutting up the Pieces of Hope layer cake that I've been saving. Pieces of Hope by Riley Blake is an autism-themed fabric line. Lots of stripes, dots, puzzle pieces, and words of inspiration to describe autism. Each purchase of the fabric donates money to Autism Speaks, the national organization for autism awareness and research.

This layer cake is going towards teacher gifts for my son's teacher and aides.