Brutal Honesty {October 2017}

I can't believe it's October already! Let's get down to business and go through this list.

These were my goals for September:

Here are my goals for September:
1. Make and complete my projects with September deadlines
     a. Benartex Amanda Murphy Hop project - Done!
     b. Fat Quarter Shop project - Done!
2. Finish Stash Bee Star Quilt - Not quite finished but lots of progress!
3. Start October Island Batik Ambassador project - First post here!

Not a lot of progress was made on the other WIPs, unfortunately:

1. Farmer's Wife Quilt (RSC 2016 project) -- My mom picked this quilt up from the long arm quilter and I'll have it back the next time I see her!

2. Traveling Quilt Bee (2016) -- With my sister for her to add on at her convenience.

3. Coast to Coast Bee -- Still trying to make a border decision.

4. Stash Bee Star quilt -- I done quite a bit of quilting on this and will have an update post ready for Friday!

5. Top Spin leaders and enders -- I have 40 blocks done and only 8 to go!

6. Meadow Mystery QAL -- Ready to quilt once my Star Quilt is done - just need piece and press the backing!

7. Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- No progress

8. Summer on the Coast Quilt -- No progress

9. Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress

10. Sew Kitschy Blocks -- No progress

11. Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress

12. Mini Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress

13. Happy Houses blocks -- My September blocks are done and my October houses will be pink. I will need to make one more house in each color to get to 48 blocks.

14. Birthstone blocks -- No progress

15. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- Since my September project was done the first week of the month! My October project is already started and you can see the first post here.

16. Gathering Mystery Quilt with Cora's Quilts -- Taken to the long arm quilter. Can't wait to see it!

17. Magnolia Mystery QAL -- Done with my September "assignment" and ready for the October edition when I get back from vacation.

18 and 19. Blue in Bloom quilts -- Both tops are done and ready to be quilted once I finish some other projects with earlier deadlines. I bought a backing for the blue quilt over the weekend, so I now have backings for both!

New projects:

I started a new scrappy leader and ender project that is going to be a secret for the time being since it is a gift. It should be quick start to finish.

Here are my goals for October:

1. Finish Stash Bee Star Quilt
2. Finish October IBA project
3. Start quilting Meadow Mystery Quilt
4. Put together Top Spin top

Happy Wednesday!

Faceted Friendship Star {Introduction}

It's been a while since I posted about my Island Batik Ambassador projects since my September blog hop date was at the beginning of the month! I took that little break to get started on my October project early as well as to try to work on some works in progress.

This month's theme is creative borders and binding. While a lot of modern quilts forego a border, some quilts do benefit from a border or multiple borders. On the other hand, modern quilts probably show a wider range of creative bindings than traditional quilts! In the end, it's all about making the right decision for your quilt.

My project for this month has actually been tentatively designed and planned since the summer when our Faceted Churn Dash pattern was released! It seemed only fitting to design a "sister quilt" to it and decided on a Friendship Star for my version.

I have tentatively decided on a border -- pieced of course -- but that will be saved for a later post! For this project, I am using a 2.5" strip set in Northern Woods -- a brand new line that is premiering at Quilt Market soon and arriving in shops in December/January! I decided that using this precut was perfect for a quilt where I need to make 120 HSTs from 2.5" squares!

Because the coordinates are a little on the dark side for my design, I decided to use one of the other fabrics from my Island Batik Ambassador box for the background and then use the two coordinates for my backing and binding. Here are all of my background pieces for the center of my quilt.

Because these strip sets have two of each fabric, I only needed to cut into one of each color!

There was a whole lotta chain piecing going on!

These are 2.5 inch squares used to make 2 inch HSTs, so they are quite small!

Lots of trimming later, these are half of the HSTs that I needed to make the large triangle units.

The small triangle units are made up of three background/focus fabric HSTs and three focus/focus HSTs.

Sewn up into rows, and then the rows into my units!

I have all eight of these now made for my quilt! Next up, making the 9-patch HSTs, made up of all HSTs and using those to make the large triangle units and the center of my block.

Get all three Faceted collection patterns on Payhip:

Faceted Churn Dash

Faceted Friendship Star

Faceted Ohio Star

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Sharing at Main Crush Monday and Linky Tuesday.

Jolly Bar Jazz {Shortcut Quilt with the Fat Quarter Shop!}

I am so excited to be a part of the latest hop for the Fat Quarter Shop's Shortcut Quilt Series! Jolly Bar Jazz is a fun twin sized quit made from two Jolly Bars and yardage.

For my version of this quilt, I chose the newest Christmas line from Basic Grey - Berry Merry.

Instead of using traditional 40" yardage for my background, I used a grey 108" wide backing fabric in the Basic Grey Hits the Spot pattern for my background. I had a little bit of trouble initially cutting from such a large piece of fabric, but in a little bit had no problem at all! I used the red version of the same fabric for my backing and binding.

I pulled out the lightest prints for my block centers and separated the rest of the fabric for the corner units (Block A) and the side units (block B).

To make Block A, you sew strips to your Jolly Bar and then trim to a 6.5" square.

The rest of the piecing is just straight seams! Isn't the spotted yardage a fun background? This quilt top went together so fast! As for the quilting, I did large curls over the entire quilt.

As mentioned above, I used the backing for the binding.

My finished quilt is full of Christmas cheer!

Check out the video from Kimberly! The original quilt and kit available from FQS is featured in Creekside by Sheri and Chelsi. The pattern itself, though, is F-R-E-E! Click here to get the PDF!

I'm very excited to give away TWO Jolly Bars of Berry Merry to one lucky winner -- just add in the background of your choice to make your own Jolly Bar Jazz quilt!

Each person can enter up to three times:
1. Visit the Fat Quarter Shop and browse the Jolly Bars in stock -- leave me a comment with which ones you would use to make your own version of this quilt!
2. Followers get a bonus entry - if you follow me (Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, whatever) tell me how you follow in a second comment. Not a follower? You can also earn a second entry by sharing on social media in whatever way you chose.

Rules:
1. One prize = two jolly bars, shipped worldwide.
2. Maximum of two entries per person; I must have some way to contact you for you to be able to win.
3. Random Number Generator used to determine the winner.
4. Giveaway will close at midnight on October 2nd and winner announced shortly thereafter.

Update: the giveaway is now closed and the winner is KUpton!

Don't forget to check out all of the other bloggers participating in this hop!

Linking up with Finished or Not and Finish it up Friday!

Top Spin {Over the Hill}

It's official -- my Top Spin quilt is over the hill! It's made it to 40 blocks!

I took a break from my other projects (since I'm already done with all of my deadlines for this month!) and made sixteen more Top Spin blocks (pattern here). That brings my block total up to 40 blocks of the 48 blocks that I need to make for a twin sized quilt.

Knowing how many more blocks I need to make, I took stock of my small and medium HSTs. I am all set on small HSTs for the quilt (I have two extra) but I will need to make four more medium HSTs. I have exactly enough large squares cut to make the final eight HSTs for the final eight blocks (unless something is miscut or not large enough.)

Looking through my stash, I have two two-yard cuts in similar colors that I'll be able to use for the backing. I will likely have to add in a little something to get the backing to be big enough for a 72" x 96" quilt but that should be a relatively easy task.

This also means that I'm just about to the end of my leader and ender project! I am going to have to consider what I'd like to start as a leader and ender project or which of my WIPs would work to be a leader and ender project.

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Oh Scrap!

Tangerine Trail {RSC September 2017}

This weekend was a "Sew-in weekend" for me (other than my normal weekend chores) since my husband had to work both days. I have lots of progress to show you this week, including a finished quilt (!!!) on Friday AND a giveaway.

The first thing I worked on this weekend was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. I had actually cut out the "sidings" for my orange houses all the way back in July when I needed to use orange strips in my Stash Bee blocks. I still needed to cut the rest of the blocks. I've gotten to the point where I've memorized the cutting directions!

Here are my three orange blocks:

This brings my block total up to 38! I think that I will need to go back through and make one more block in each color to bring my total up to 48 for a 72" x 96" twin sized quilt. Next month is our last month with a color theme for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and it will be pink, I think, since we haven't made pink blocks yet.

I'm also excited to share about a finish that I had a little part in! My sister's best friend from birth is getting married in November and my mom, sister, and I worked furiously in secret to make blocks for a quilt! Amanda did all of the cutting, we each sewed about one-third of the blocks (I did the darker green ones!), and my mom quilted it. The pattern is Ombre Gems by Quilty Love.

Have a wonderful day!

Sharing at Oh Scrap, Linky Tuesday, and Scrap Happy Saturday!