finish-a-long part 3...

Isn't he darling - a sewing machine's best friend! He is the newest addition to my steadily growing pincushion obsession. My FLiPS partner Kristen was reading my mind - he came with a box full of goodies, including another pinnie [or rather, pin sharpener as it was filled with sand]. Probably one of the best swaps I have ever been in. Though, I have been one lucky crafter as far as swaps go! It has been great playing along with Rhonda's Finish-A-Long! It's officially the third quarter and I wanted to share with you the creations I will [fingers crossed!] be finishing this time around.

1. Another quilt needs binding!! I can't wait to share more of this Kaffe Fassett pattern very soon, the next time you see it, it will have the binding and hanging sleeve attached. This will be in our forever-being-rennovated kitchen :) I have the perfect spot to hang it up!

2. The final installment in my little venture into the circus world is all cut out. The lion ringmaster needs stitched together and embellished. He will have to keep the unicorn, mouse, seal, monkey, and elephant in line :)

3. I have two funky pincushions that have been sitting on my sewing table for too long. All I can say is, be careful, pinterest inspiration can strike at any time.

4. Finally, last quarter I finished The Flock. This quarter I am hoping to whip up some of the coordinating pillows and pillowcases. Feels good to finally be using the fabric and pattern I bought so long ago for their intended purpose.

Now all that's left is to get down to the business of sewing! The weather is cooperating for a little craftiness, it has cooled off this week. Last week it was 104F outside with no air conditioning inside - the thought of sitting in my upstairs craft room made me break a sweat :)

hemishperes quilt...

I added another one to the needs-quilted pile! I started this quilt months ago, but lost a little momentum along the way. Following this tutorial over on cluck cluck sew, I used my handy dandy circle ruler with my rotary cutter.

This block goes together pretty quickly - there is alot of waste left over from trimming the excess fabric off the back of the quadrants. I'm not sure what to do with a million or so [not uniform] triangles.

I used up nearly all of my coveted bubbles in gray by Kaffe Fassett. I wanted to add on a border but couldn't find any additional yardage [that wasn't $20+/yard].

When I finished the individual blocks I was just not thrilled with the way they looked right next to one another. I am not sure if it was the fabrics I chose or what, it just looked too dark. Then a serendipitous moment, when I layed the blocks out on my sewing table I loved the off-white of the table separating the blocks. Enter Kona in bone... Sashing proved to be the perfect solution.

I would love to have it quilted with swirls in the circles and some kind of grid quilting or pebbles in the sashing. I have still not had any luck finding a machine quilter. Many of the quilters I have contacted don't do the free hand work and some I have emailed haven't responded at all! Do you have any recommendations for a quality quilter at a reasonable price??

currently under the needle...

I had this plan, a vision really, of a world where all my projects were completed... Then I woke up - after months of working steadily at my pile of ufos (unfinished objects) I feel like I am no closer to being done. So here is a new project that I started and is currently underway. Procrastination got the better of me with this round of the ORBC quilt along. I got to the 'pick out your fabric stage' and never moved forward. Then I was inspired by this post on cluck cluck sew. Isn't it great?!? I was instantly smitten with it. The material once meant for my ORBC quilt is now cut and on it's way to becoming something different - still with circles though! The fabric in the foreground is my inspiration, a favorite Kaffe Fassett that has been waiting for the 'perfect' project to come along.