Christmas Table Topper

Last January when all the Christmas fabric was on sale I bought yardage to make two table toppers. My sister loves to bake and also enjoys sweets, so I used this Timeless Treasures fabric called Christmas Treats from their Holiday collection.
fabric in the center of her table topper and surrounded it with a Moda marble in red and a green polka dot fabric.
I used leftover red and green fabric to make a scrappy back.

Polka dot bindings always look so cute, so I used the green polka dot on this project.

I gave this to my sister for her birthday in May so that she could display it this holiday season.

Now it's time to start on the second table topper, which I am planning to make for myself. Although right now, I can't even think of what that fabric looks like.

WiP Wednesday...It's been a while

Lately I have been working on a wedding quilt for my cousin. Her wedding was about three weeks ago, and I am still not finished. I would love to show pictures of it, but Robin is nosy and would read this and see photos and then she would start hounding me more than she already has been. "Where is my quilt? When are you going to finish it? What's going on with that quilt you were supposed to give me at my bridal shower?" It just doesn't stop. ;)

This week I have been doing some sewing in the evenings and hand sewing at work, but my allergies are starting to do their thing, and I haven't been as productive as I would like to be.
I am happy to say that Sunday I will home and sewing all day. I don't have a single thing scheduled, I don't even plan to get out of my pajamas. So I will put most of my focus that day on working on Robin's wedding quilt (and getting caught up on ironing my laundry) and hopefully finishing a few other projects too.

The Austin Modern Quilt Guild is participating in a pincushion swap with some other guilds. In my closet the other day I found two blocks that were pieced using this tutorial from Completely Cauchy. I sewed the blocks together to make a pincushion and I like it. I'm not sure it will be my final pincushion to turn in for the swap, we'll see. This just needs pressing, stuffing and the bottom sewn shut.

pincushion

Last Christmas my sister gave this hook rug project to my brother. She had the hook rug about half way done and told him that she would finish it and return it to him. He had the choice of having her (by which I mean me, the sibling that owns a sewing machine and knows how to sew) finish it into a wall hanging or a pillow. He chose pillow and so I helped her sew some fabric on to it this weekend while we were visiting family in Fort Worth.

hook rug skull pillow

When I reorganized my studio a few months ago, I bought this basket and decided that I can keep as many scraps that can fit in this basket but not more than that. It is starting to overflow, so I plan to make more blocks like the scrappy pincushion blocks shown above. I really like the scrappy style of those blocks, I'm planning to try to make a few monochromatic blocks to see if I like that more than the "close your eyes and grab some fabric from the basket" method I used before.

basket of scraps

When Robin and I made this quilt for our grandma, I ended up with three string pieced blocks left over. I'll decide this weekend whether to make a fourth block and sew them together into a wall hanging, table topper or pillow, or if I should make these into three potholders. I may just keep this project for myself. I hardly even finish anything that I plan to keep for me and I love these colors.

extra blocks from Grandma's quilt

I am selling at a holiday show at the end of this month, so yesterday I pulled this mess out of my closet. Some of these need binding and a partner to be pinned to, and some of them may need to be photographed for my Etsy shop. I'd like to get binding on them this weekend so that I'll have plenty of hand sewing to keep me busy at work next week.

pot holder pile

And because a person can never have enough pot holder sets to sell, I have this great vegetable fabric basted and ready to be quilted for new pot holder sets. I'll be selling these in a three piece set with a decorative kitchen towel. I bought some fruit fabric too and will get it basted after this one is quilted and cut.

new pot holder fabric ready for quilting

There are so many more projects in my studio that are half way done or almost done or waiting to be started, but these are my main focus for now.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced today, you can visit her site to see what other people are working on this week.

Let the vacation begin!

Today is the first day of my week long vacation. I originally had plans to tell no one about my vacation and stay inside my house for nine days and do nothing but sew and listen to podcasts. But that is unrealistic, isn't it?

Last night I spent some time doing some cleaning that has been on my list for months. I organized my pantry.

I can see everything that is in my pantry and get to it without knocking other things over!

I cleared off my patio and threw away the old, dried out firewood that has been sitting out there for way too long. I still need to clean my chairs and pillows and hang my bird feeders. I may get a rug to put out there, and I also thought about hanging a large screen to block some of the afternoon sunlight. I feel like the big sliding glass doors let so much heat in to the apartment, and a screen could cut back on that somewhat.

boring, empty patio

I squared up the big, heavy T-shirt quilt that I am working on for a client and cut binding strips, but have not sewn them together yet.

This morning I planned to go to the gym for their bootcamp class, but my wrist is hurting a lot. I have an old sprain that bothers me sometimes and on the Fourth of July my cousins and I played tetherball. Sometimes I get so involved in something that is a lot of fun, and I forget to be careful not to aggravate these kinds of injuries. So I have decided to wrap my wrist, skip the class, make some tea and sit down to write a short post.

I do have some fun things planned for this week:
Saturday - I am getting a manicure, then going to my grandpa's 90th birthday party in Rockne. My family is expecting over 400 people to be there for his celebration and Robin and I made a quilt to give him, we each pieced one side, similar to my grandma's birthday quilt.

sneak peak of Grandpa's quilt, blog post coming soon

Sunday - I have the morning and afternoon to sew and to work on Robin's wedding paper system (it is almost time to mail invitations out!), I need to get a few things from Ikea, and then I am headed to Texas Old Town for my cousin Judith's wedding. I am making these place mats for the wedding gift and will have them ready by the time they get back from their honeymoon.

Judith's citrus place mats

Monday - first personal training session at the nearby powerlifting and bodybuilding gym, Big Tex Gym. (did you know that I was a powerlifter in high school?) Then bootcamp at Austin Self Defense if the morning workout hasn't taken me out completely.

Tuesday - physical and donation at the plasma bank, lunch with friends, and an afternoon with my stepson Xavier. I am planning to go visit fellow local art vendors, Ian and Megan of Plaid Pigeon. They sell adorable potted plants, and they are going to put some succulents in to some pots that I have on my fireplace hearth. I also have a handyman coming over to hang some shelves in my sewing studio and try to fix my washing machine.

image by Plaid Pigeon

Wednesday - sewing! Lots of sewing planned for today, including sewing some pillow cover samples for a class that I will be teaching in August at the amazing fabric store, Remnants:fiber[culture], and then bootcamp in the evening.

I have plenty of sewing projects to keep me busy

Thursday - another plasma donation. Plasma saves lives and I am using the money that I make donating to save for a new car. More sewing, I also have things to do around the house like cleaning, organizing, sanding and staining my antique chair, updating my Etsy sites and editing photos for this blog. And there is an Austin Modern Quilt Guild meeting in the evening, we will be voting on new officers and announcing committee members.
Friday - I'd like to spend some time painting, I have so many blank canvases on the walls of my studio and it would be great to take some new work to First Thursday next month. More sewing and cleaning up around the house, in the evening I will drive up to Fort Worth to spend the weekend with my dad's side of the family.
Saturday - My aunt says we are going to the Peach Festival in Weatherford. I don't know anything more about that. Hopefully I will feel like getting some sewing done when we get back to the house.
Sunday - Sewing and visiting with the family, then driving back home in the evening to get ready for the work week.

I already know that I probably won't accomplish as much as I hope to, but I'm going to do my best. I work such long hours during the week and my commute to work is about an hour each way, so I have gotten behind in sewing projects, household tasks and my online commitments like blogging and keeping my Etsy shop updated. I'm using this vacation time to work on all of this and try to get back to a place where I feel like I am no longer drowning in my to do list.

Have a great week at work!

W.i.P. Wednesday, real progress for once

Well, I am disappointed that I haven't posted anything here in over a month. But there are tons of projects going on right now, and I will try to update you on what is happening. Today I am piecing this T-shirt quilt together. I am hoping to get it pieced and ready for quilting by this Saturday, which may mean an all-nighter Friday night.

T-shirt quilt, commission piece

I bought some Thangles and tried out my 1.25 inch template. I have a few good half square triangles, and a few that weren't lined up so well. I like the template, I just need more practice using them.

I finally cut the pieces for the two picnic blankets that I will be making for two sets of twins that I need birthday gifts for. I am using this adorable Michael Miller Backyard Baby collection. I cut out squares for the top of the blanket, and folded and put away all of my extra fabric.
I am happy to report that I finally finished ironing, folding and organizing my entire fabric stash! The only thing I have left to do is fold my larger amounts of yardage around some mini cardboard bolts that I ordered from Amazon.

I have an Etsy custom order for a pair of these pot holders. They need binding and then they will be ready to ship.

I participated in a color wheel swap with the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. I received 56 five inch squares (I think) and I decided to quarter them in to two and a half inch squares. I have four stacks of 108 squares and I will be piecing them together in to a postage stamp quilt.
There were four fabrics in the swap that I decided to remove from the layout, I replaced them with similar color fabrics from my stash.

squares for a postage stamp quilt

four fabrics removed from the color wheel swap

Over the long weekend I spent a lot of time organizing my fabric stash and my works in progress. I got this T-shirt from the Austin Modern Quilt Guild and decided to piece it in to a wall hanging for my studio. I added a border of scrappy orange fabrics that I won as part of a giveaway on Jen Carlton Bailey's blog, BettyCrockerAss.
I took a little break from cleaning and organizing to piece this top together, I added a teal border outside of the orange border, I sandwiched it with batting and an orange backing fabric. It is waiting to be quilted now.

This fabric comes from a sample quilt that I was going to make for Remnants: Fiber [Culture]. I made a mistake in the piecing and just bought the fabric from the store instead. I don't know exactly how this will turn out but I have some fabric pieced together and I will just continue in that direction.

Parson Gray, Curious Nature collection

Here is the drawstring bag that I have had sitting on my table for months and months. I am making four of them, the outside section is finally pieced for one of the bags. I found the tutorial on the amazing blog, Freshly Pieced.

drawstring Lego bag

In April I spent an afternoon visiting and sewing with two girls that I used to take care of full time. Grace decided to make a scottie dog pillow (very frustrating, I will post pictures later) and Faith decided to make this purse. We didn't finish either project in April, their attention spans don't allow them to sew for five hours and I lost my helpers to a video of Tangled. I finished Faith's purse strap over the weekend.

Buttercup Purse

inside of the bag

I am making a set of place mats to give my cousin as a wedding gift in July. I found the pattern in the Spring 2012 issue of Stitch. They are going to be round and look like slices of lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit. I have everything cut out except for half of the tear drop shapes.

citrus place mats

I am making this hounds tooth quilt as a gift for my sister's birthday. I bought the pattern from V and Co. I took a break from this quilt because I ran out of fabric and had order more of the Kona Robin's Egg online. However, this weekend, I uncovered a yard of each of these blues under a stack of stuff in my studio. I am glad to find the fabric that I originally bought so that the colors will match but I am frustrated that I bought another four yards of fabric that I don't really need. I'll use it eventually, but it also is annoying that I have so many projects going on right now that I can't keep track of where all of my supplies are.

hounds tooth quilt

Yesterday, I also made these blocks for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild block swap that is going on right now. I got behind in turning in my blocks, I am almost caught up now so that I can turn in blocks at the June meeting.

Thanks for visiting, I am linking up with the blog, Freshly Pieced.

A quilt for a sailor

Robin and I have been working hard on a quilt for her brother (my cousin) Ron. He is in the Navy and is on his way home from his latest deployment to Afghanistan. He has been deployed seven times to different parts of the world, including Somalia and multiple trips to Afghanistan.

Our grandma made him a Milky Way quilt (friendship stars and four patches) in shades of blue as a high school graduation gift. He took that quilt with him on every deployment until the year that it was stolen from him on the ship.  It was very sad to hear that the quilt our grandma worked so hard on was gone. She is getting older and can't make a new quilt for him, so Robin and I decided to make one.

I found a more modern way to layout friendship stars on the wonderful blog, Fresh Lemons Quilts. We chose three batik fabrics, two black and one blue, and used Kona Medium Gray for the negative space and quilt back. We added in my scraps of the beautiful Alexander Henry Regent Skull. I used it to back this quilt for my brother, and we used almost every bit of what remained in my stash for Ron's quilt.
We spent a few weeks sewing together many, many half square triangles and then spent hours and hours squaring them up. We laid the quilt out on my studio floor last Sunday, it took quite a while. It felt like a game of Tetris, trying to figure out where everything fit and make sure that all of our points were facing the right way. 

Laying out all the stars

During the week I pieced together a few sections of the quilt, and Robin made the last half square triangles and star centers that we needed to complete the top and add a few stars to the back of the quilt.

a small section that I completed during the week

On Friday night Robin came over to my house around 10 p.m. (after I finished babysitting for a friend) and we started sewing. I continued piecing the top together and she put together two clumps of stars for the back of the quilt and finished the quilt back with Kona Medium Gray.

Stars on the back of the quilt

We like to listen to a podcast or a stand up comedy special while we sew and here is a list of everything we listened to Friday night.

Paul Mooney: It's the End of the World
Paul Mooney: Analyzing White America
Brian Regan: The Epitome of Hyperbole
Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale
Nick Swardson: Seriously, Who Farted?
John Pinette: I'm Starvin'
The Hangover
Daniel Tosh: Happy Thoughts

If that seems like a lot to listen to in one night, that is because we sewed this quilt until 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning! There was no time for sleep, we showered and gathered up our things and headed off to start the quilting process.

I'm quilting this with straight lines on the long arm machine.

We pay by the hour to rent time on a long arm quilting machine at a woman's house. She is there to help us thread the machine, help us fix any mistakes and answer any questions we have. But we are getting better at figuring out how to fix our own mistakes and help each other get the quilting finished.

partially quilted

Robin and I decided to quilt this with straight lines. The spaces between the lines vary in width, from a half inch (Robin's favorite) to an inch and a half. I like the dense quilting too, but it makes the process take longer.
I had the job of quilting and Robin was there to tie off my threads and pin down some rebellious seams that weren't ironed completely flat.

The quilt back

I wish I had more of this Regent Skull fabric

I am linking up to this fun festival on Canoe Ridge Creations.

W.i.P Wednesday 12, making slow progress

I have so many things going on in my life right now that I find it difficult to work on my many quilting and sewing projects. I did manage to get a few things done this week, so I'll show you what I have been working on.

I joined a Color Wheel Swap within the Austin Modern Quilt Guild, and I chose to contribute the green and blue-green colorway. These are my two fabrics, I cut 56 five inch squares out of the green fabric, now I just need to cut out my blue-green squares and I will be ready to trade these for 112 squares of different fabrics that represent the entire color wheel. I am thinking about cutting the squares even smaller and making a postage stamp quilt, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Color Wheel Swap

Some progress has been made on this secret quilt for a family member. I still don't have any blocks sewn together, but I put some more of these strips together and I should be ready to cut them soon.

gift for a family member

My family is participating in The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event on April 27th. Our team name is Goertz Family Ties, so I am appliqueing ties to t-shirts and they will say Goertz on the back. I added a button to my blog; if you want to make a donation to our team to help the American Cancer Society beat cancer and create more birthdays, click the button on the top right of this page and donate to our team. Thanks for your support!

Goertz Family Ties, team t-shirts for Relay for Life

There is a new fabric store open in Austin and I agreed to make a sample quilt to hang in the shop. These are my fabrics and the pattern, now I just have to get started on it. 

Sample quilt for Remnants: Fiber [Culture]

The Kickstarter widget on the right side of my blog provides you with an opportunity to support this new fabric store in the Austin area. Click on the widget to learn more about Jessica and her plans for the store. She needs more help reaching her fundraising goal!

This is the quilt that Robin and I are working on together. This is for a family member who is on tour in Afghanistan with the Navy right now. These are three and a half inch half square triangles, I am really excited to see it progress and start becoming an actual quilt top rather than a bunch of pieces of fabric.
Can you see my Alexander Henry Regent Skull there in the middle? Oh, how I wish we had more of this for the quilt, I pulled every little piece that I had in my stash, and I hope that it will be enough for the quilt. We searched all over the internet and in stores around town, but haven't been able to find any of this popular fabric for sale.

another gift for a family member

Part of Relay for Life is a Silent Auction. It is being held on Sunday, April 1st at Playland Skate Center in Austin from 5:30-8:30 p.m. There will be many great items to bid on in the auction, including this University of Texas at Austin quilt that Robin and I made with our cousin Sarah. It is 64 by 50 inches and has a dense, all over meander quilting pattern in burnt orange thread.

UT donation quilt

I am also working with the Austin Modern Quilt Guild to finish up a quilt that our members made for the silent auction. I am sewing the binding down this week, and I will post pictures of that soon.

I am linking up with Freshly Pieced and Lily's Quilts today.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to follow my blog and check back soon to see what I am working on!