Scientists at work!

Twelve little scientists are newly installed in their labs, and already hard at work!  Next up will be installing a little sashing for privacy.  Wouldn't want their research getting contaminated!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Georgia and Gen Con

Traveling for most of July didn't leave me with much time to sew, but it did help me grab a couple of new states to add to my 50 states collection!  I added the big flowers on the left from Georgia and the puzzle pieces on the right from Indiana.

It proved rather difficult to get to a fabric store in Indiana, as my husband and I were in Indianapolis for Gen Con.  Gen Con was attended by over 61,000 people this year.  That meant we were were trying to secure resources like cars and hotel rooms at the same time as a lot of other people, and our reservations kept being given away to someone else!

But we persevered and, despite all of the scheduling snafus, thoroughly enjoyed our trip.

Even though Gen Con is a gaming convention, most of the events I signed up for were crafty!  I started with a couple of classes on knitting and embroidery, then moved on to some more unusual classes like ribbon embroidery and scale chain-mail.  The chain mail class was by far my favorite, and has a high probability of turning into another hobby!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Maine Quilt Show

This past week I saved up all my quilting time in order to go the the Maine quilt show in Augusta!

Five new greens!

It was a great time!  There were so many gorgeous quilts to peruse and vendors around all four sides of this huge room.  I did a decent job of avoiding all the pretty temptation though.  Only three pieces of fabric came home with me that weren't for a project already in progress!

In addition to a mountain panel, a bouquet of batik flowers, and some small smiling whales... I added five new evergreen fat quarters to my growing Christmas collection.  This set will eventually attract some tan and gold to become my very first holiday wall hanging!




But the real reason I went to the show was because the Gammill dealer for the region was there (and Augusta is a lot closer than the closest showroom!)  My interest in a long arm has been growing and it's time to find opportunities to try some of the brands I am considering.

The table was set a little low for me, so I had a little trouble seeing my stitches past the top of the machine at first.  Then they stopped the computerized head on the other half of the table, which gave me some space to play in, I slowed down (and crouched a little) and I was able to guide the machine into stitching a vine that I'm pretty proud of!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Atoms and Oranges - First Look

July has been crazy!  I've been here, there, and everywhere it seems.  But ever so slowly I've been stitching along, and now I have all the pieces needed to make my twelve blocks (some trimming required).

First row trimmed... and flipped apparently!

Of course the second I had enough pieces made, I had to peek at a block!  Perfect!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Fussy Cutting Critters

I put the rainbows aside after finishing the second round of blocks in order to start work on the Scientist baby quilt.  I've been calling this one Atoms and Oranges.  (I may be a dork, but I think it's cute!)

First I cut out some squares and marked them for HST creation.






Then I set to fussy cutting pieces from the Lab Animal fabric.

I made a frame out of a small piece of cardboard to help me find the blocks I wanted.  Then I applied a little masking tape to keep the frame right where it belonged, and before I knew it, I had 11 cute little critters (and 1 block of lab equipment) to build my quilt!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Rainbow Sneak Peak

I worked on making blocks this week, adding a few stitches every morning before work.  That was a nice way to start the day! And when the last block was made, I couldn't resist laying the blocks out to peek at how it's going to look.  I love how it's turning out!

In other news, I could really use a design wall, because this is the most I could get a picture of!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and WiP Wednesday.

Rainbow Work and a Fabric Pull

There has been progress on several different fronts this week.  The remaining fabric for the second round of rainbow blocks has been cut, and the pile of finished blocks is slowly growing again.

There is a new baby quilt taking shape here as well.  I had a pretty good selection in my stash, but there were still a few fabrics that needed to be purchased: some flannel for the back and a white for sashing.

Flannel was easy to find and the colors in this piece match so closely to the focus fabric that you'd think they were produced together!  On the other hand, it seems white on whites are hard to find around here.  It took three fabric stores to find a place that carried any, but it all worked out well in the end.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on this quilt.  It's been a while since I've had a good hand quilting project in the works, and that's a shame!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.