A Lovely Year of Finishes

A Lovely Year of Finishes – March Goal Setting Party

17 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By

Holy Smokes, is it really March already?  Ok, here goes, time to set a goal…I am actually only going to have half the month to work on this because my hubby is finally getting his time off and we are going to go on VACATION for 2 weeks at the end of the month. Exciting but also a bit panic inducing because I have to figure out what I can finish in the allotted number of sewing days – which is only 15 ish (ish because we have doctors appointment and today I am spending my “sewing time” at the Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA!

So here goes, hoping I don’t fall on my face this month, I am putting it out for all to see that I am going to finish my Sew Intertwined Quilt. It needs borders, quilting and binding. Wish me luck – I’m gonna need it!

What do you have planned for your March Finish?

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below. Make sure you also link back here so other people can join in the fun!

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna’s, so there is no need to enter twice **

For those unsure of how to link up go check out our Q&A Page for A Lovely Year of Finishes – there are instructions on how to link up from a blog and from Flickr.

And let’s not forget the awesome prizes from our fantastic sponsors:

March Prizes Include:

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

2. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

3. All Dolled Up from Paper Pieces

4. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

5. $15.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

6, 7, & 8. 1 Pack of Aurifil Thread from Aurifil

8 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that post here and the wrap-up at the end of the month with a completed finish.



Ovulating Spiral Quilt Block Tutorial

11 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, tutorial / By

When I was working on my row for the stripper quilt entitled “Do Strippers Make More When They Ovulate” I was very inspired by the word ovulate and for some reasons I kept thinking of spirals. This is one of the blocks I designed for the row.

This block is fairly simple to assemble. You will need a 12.5″ square background fabric. Fusible web, I used Pellon Wonder Under 805, 12 scraps of fabric in varying sizes and I highly recommend the Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter (though you could draw your own templates).

All of my blocks start out as drawings, whether it be on quilting graph paper or in Electric Quilt 7. Due to all the circles in this block I used graph paper for my design and pretty much eyeballed everything. Here’s what I started with.

My next step was to use my Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter and cut paper circles. I started as small as you could cut and cut 12 circles making each one larger by 1/8″ (there are very easy to read grid marking for inches and metric readings on the compass). Next I took my 12.5″ quilting square ruler and laid out the circles so I could get an idea of my final layout before cutting into my scraps.

Next using my paper circles for a size comparison I cut squares that were ever so slightly larger than each circle from my fabric and the same size squares from the Pellon Wonder Under 805. Fuse the Wonder Under to the back side of your fabric and you are ready to cut your circles.

Next you will cut your fabric circles – it is very important that you fuse the fabric to the wonder under prior to cutting your circles. It will make cutting SO MUCH EASIER!

Remember, each circle will be ever so slightly larger than the last because you will be increasing the radius by 1/8″ of an inch each time.

Here is what your circles will look like after they are all cut out:

Remove the paper from the fusible web and lay your circles out on your background. This is when you want to perfect your layout, once you fuse them, you won’t be able to change the look of the block.

From here you can applique them circles down in any manner that you like. I decided to throw my Free Motion Quilting foot onto my machine and do a little thread painting of sorts. My block is definitely “raw edge applique”. I truly love how it turned out!

If you decide to make this block I would love to see a picture of it!

Don’t forget that as February is almost over it is time to link up your finish for this month! Head on over to this post to do so (and you can also see the rest of my stripper row too!) and make sure you check out Shanna’s beautiful finish over here.

February Finishes Party!

17 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By

Are we already at the end of the February…well sort of. There are still 7 days left to get those finishes completed!  I finished mine on the 16th and I have been waiting patiently for today to show you!

Row 3

The middle row was the original row for this quilt. Shanna made the bottom row, and the top row is my take on the theme “Do Strippers Make More When The Ovulate?”  I am so happy with this finish and really excited about next month!

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Time to show off your finishes!

Please link up your projects below, remember you can link up here OR over at Fiber of All Sorts, you do not need to link up on both blogs.

Make sure you grab a button from my sidebar to add to your post!

Shanna and I are so excited about this month! We have some great prizes from our amazing sponsors.  Remember, to be eligible for prizes you must have linked up to our goal setting party from the beginning of the month.

1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

2. $15.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

4. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

FatQuarterShop-165
5. Hex-A-Holic Handbook from Paper Pieces

6. Fat Quarter Bundle of Riley Blake Designs

6 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that post here and the wrap-up at the end of the month with a completed finish.

Need more information on this year long party?

Check out the details of 2013 ~ A lovely year of finishes found here or here.

 Also our flickr group there are lovely participants and some Q&A on it’s own page .



February A Lovely Year of Finishes – Mid Month Check In

8 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Stripper Quilt / By

Well it’s that time! The middle of the month, time to check in and show of your progress so far. This is a short month so it is going to be a short party, only 5 days – it is going run from the 15th of February until the 20th.

Here’s my progress to date. All my blocks for my row are done. I have to decide their layout and whether to sew them to Shanna’s row (how they are pictured now) or at the bottom under Shelley’s row.

Here are close ups of the last 2 blocks I made. The first I made loosely following a tutorial from Pile of Fabric on Improv Curves. It is a great tutorial and I just modified it for putting it at a diagonal in a quilt block.

The second block I designed and will hopefully be doing a tutorial for next week. I am calling it “Ovulating Spiral” in honor of the quilt it was designed for.

Time to show of your progress and don’t forget there are prizes on the line for those of you who finish their stated goal from the beginning of the month, you can read about them here.

Don’t forget you can link up here or over at Fiber of All Sorts, no need to link up twice. If you are having issues shoot me an email or a comment and I will happily help you out!



Valentine’s Day Winners

8 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Contemporary Cloth / By

Hi Everyone! Happy Valentine’s Day!  I will let you in on a little secret, I am actually not a big fan of Valentine’s Day, ever since I was a kid.  When I was little I got really sick on Valentine’s Day, I actually ended up in the hospital and ever since then I’ve just not been overly interested in the day. Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy to have Mr. SBD (thanks Katy for christening him that!) home, but I told him last night that if he hadn’t already done something, to not to. I am just so happy he is home and that is all I need.

Now on to the winners from the wonderful welcome home giveaway courtesy of Contemporary Cloth!

The winners are….

Cal and usairdoll

I will be emailing you both shortly! Congratulations!

I hope everyone will be back tomorrow! The mid month check in will be up for A Lovely Year of Finishes and I will be unveiling my fourth quilt block for my row!

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