Mark your calendars....

I'm planning to participate in BOTH the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day AND the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop over the next few weeks!!

Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day starts December 3rd and runs the whole week! Last giveaway day I won prizes from 2 different blogs! That's pretty exciting for someone who never wins contests.

The Quilting Gallery 5th Anniversary Blog Hop Party starts December 9th and runs the rest of the week.

Anyone else planning to participate? Any ideas on what to do for the giveaway? Anyone going to spend all day every day of those weeks entering all of the giveaways? I will!

Holiday Happenings

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone! I have been on the road and visiting family, so yesterday was the first day that I got any sewing done since this weekend!

I was lucky enough to email Danny at just the right moment and filled an open spot in the Stash Bee in Hive 4! This month's Hive Mama was Jess of sewcraftyjess and she requested these fun string type blocks. They are so easy to make and GREAT stash buster blocks! I even had some blue and orange striped fabric that fits in perfectly.

Did you guess what my secret project was? If you guessed the Harry Potter Project of Doom, you would be correct! My sister did guess correctly and she loves her blocks! I am more than halfway done with all of the blocks already. 

The general consensus is that Hedwig the Owl is my mom and sister's favorite block so far. Off to paper piece some more until I have to leave to go back to Park Ranger Boyfriend's tonight!

WIP Wednesday: Stitch by Stitch

I have not been very productive as of late, which is rather depressing. I did hem a pair of pants for a lab mate, but even that was done somewhat jank-ily.

The one thing that I have been working on (finally!) is the hand quilting on Park Ranger Boyfriend's Civil War quilt. It's going slowly, because there really isn't another way to hand quilt, is there? Maybe its just me?

Either way, slow progress is better than zero progress. I made up this handy dandy little picture-tracker-thingy in MS Powerpoint to show what I've gotten done. I'm very proud of myself. Until I realize how little I have done at this point. Yikes.

And in other news, less than one week until I get to go to see Park Ranger Boyfriend and from there GO HOME!!! Hoooooooooray. This girl needs a break.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Just Keep Stitching

On Friday I received the fabric that I won from The Quilting Lodge and now I can't wait to find a pattern to use it with!

Yesterday, after feeling icky and watching Scrubs all afternoon, I took the plunge and started the hand quilting on Park Ranger Boyfriend's Civil War quilt:

I'm going to try to stitch on it at least a half hour every day so I can actually get it done before Christmas!

Here's to a few more hours of weekend left!

100 Day Hustle Update: Halfway There!

We are halfway through the 100 Day Hustle Hosted by Kelsey of Kelsey Sews! I am so excited how many things on my list that have been completed in this short amount of time! And to make it even more exciting, there are PRIZES involved!

1. Twist of Lime Quilt: Binding
COMPLETED: September 26th and entered in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival and nominated in the Bed Quilt category!!!

2. Argyle Quilt: Finish all the blocks, put the top together, quilt myself, binding
As of October 15th: All blocks are done, picked up the setting fabric, need to start sewing into rows.

3. Snowflake quilt: Sew on hanging sleeve
COMPLETED: October 27th and hung up in my dining room!

4. Civil War quilt: hand quilt and bind
As of October 23rd: backing, batting, and top are layered and ready to hand quilt!

5. Christmas tree skirt to gift: everything
COMPLETED: October 21st, other than putting ties on it (didn't think of that until after it was done! Oops!)

6. Olympic Rail Fence: Quilt and bind
COMPLETED: October 25th and given to a sweet snuggly little boy!

7. Baby Quilt(s) for friends: Everything -- Need to make two of them
As of October 25th, patterns sort of picked out, have charm squares from swap, might actually need to make another one... TBA

8. Blitzen Jelly Roll Christmas Quilt with Basket Case Pattern: Everything
As of October 17th: started to cut some of the solid white background fabric squares

9. Shoe Quilt: quilting and binding
No progress

Check out what everybody else has gotten done in the last 50 days!

Pin Cushion

Last week, I made this pin cushion using a scaled down version of the flying geese in a circle:

It's kind of large, but now my loose pins have a home.

I also received the two sets of charm squares from the What Was I Thinking? Swap. I keep going through them all and sorting and resorting them into different piles.

Really great days

While I don't have any sewing progress to show, its been a great few days!

Friday was the first day that the sun came out since...well, I'm not sure when. Park Ranger Boyfriend came to visit this weekend and we were lazy bums all weekend. Lots of watching Community, eating everything (CRAB RAVIOLI!!!), and general shenanigans.

Saturday morning I found out that I won the $50 gift certificate to The Quilting Lodge via the giveaway at SewBittersweet Designs! I was in SHOCK! And very excited! I picked out these fabrics from the Botanica collection from Timeless Treasures (plus a little bit of the olive green marble) as my "prize":

Thank you to Vicki at The Quilting Lodge for sponsoring this giveaway!

I got the email today that I am one of the five finalists for the "Bed Quilt" category for the Blogger's Quilt Festival! I was in even more shock! So thanks to EVERYONE for voting for me during the nomination round! And now if you want to vote my quilt all the way to the top (of the bed quilt category, that is) go here and vote for your favorite in each category!

Hopefully I'll have some actual sewing progress later in the week!

Its... November?

It's Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts and I decided to join in today after a few months' hiatus!

October has been spent working on finishing the projects on my 100 Day Hustle List!

1. Small Scrappy Flying Geese in a Circle

2. Finished Iced Stars Wall hanging

3. Baby Quilt for Little Tod

4. Argyle Quilt in progress

5. Finished Christmas Tree Skirt to gift

6. October/November Nubees blocks

In other news, the nomination phase of the Bloggers' Quilt Festival has started! Get your list of favorites and vote, vote, vote! (Mine is #164!!!) Vote for the viewers' choice here, and for the categories here!

Happy November 1st!