Three projects finished, a prize (and a link party)

A week full of finishes, and few of them can be shared!! ;)

The Ongoing List:

1. the SK project - no progress
2. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - no progress, needs quilting!!
3. SYS2015 future projects - next project done! cannot yet share but sooo fun!
4. Embroidery calendar - 4 numbers done (see below)
5. Color of the Year challenge - no progress, needs quilting!!
   (this will be my March project for a Lovely Year of Finishes)
6. J wall hanging - dooooone! (cannot share)
7. HST pillow - doooone (see below)
8. Squirrel Pot Holder - dooooone (see below)
9. Mug Rug Swap - decided on pattern

The EverythingElse List:

1. Animal blocks for charity quilts - no progress
2. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - no progress
3. Reversible sewing machine cover -  no progress
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging -  no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion -  no progress
9. D wall hanging -  no progress
10. B quilt -  no progress
11. Memory quilt 2 - no progress.

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The HST big pillow is done, washed and all nicely wrinkled!

Big HST pillow, 28'' x 28''

I really like the how the quilting looks like (even if on the back side there are some big puckers... but it's the inside of a pillow, that will never be seen... so I didn't fix it ;) )

The geometric design of the quilting is pretty cool... it's not very visible on the front because I used black thread on black. Next time I may use grey, just to make it pop.

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My mom really like squirrels and her birthday is approaching... so I thought that two pot-holders with squirrels would make a perfect gift! I really like how they turned out, I played with the orientation of the border to get a different vertical/horizontal effect. I will use the same fabric for another wall hanging in the future, and I wanted to see which effect I like best... and I don't know, I like both of them!! I may actually do the other binding on the bias with a 45 degrees angles ;)

Squirrel pot holders (8''x8'') pattern by Amy @ During Quiet Time

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I finished few numbers for my embroidery calendar... I still don't know if they will "work" because it was pretty hard to stitch the elastic in place so some of them are not perfectly centered... and I don't know if that will affect how they hang to the background... I will finish my first 8 numbers and then test them. Stay tuned for more details ;)

Embroidery calendar

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And as a last note: a friend told me that "wins come in three" and she was right!! Last week I won a giveaway from Jennifer @ Sewhooked and this is what I won!

Project and pattern by Jennifer @ Sewhooked

Isn't this amazing!! 

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What are YOU going to link?

An InLinkz Link-up

I need YOUR help! (and a link party)

Again a lot of "top" finished and now it's time for me to get into quilting them!
I need your help and suggestions on few things!!
Please read at the end of the post ;) any comment is welcome!!

The Ongoing List:

1. the SK project - 3 blocks done (two very special) (see below)
2. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - no progress, needs quilting!!
3. SYS2015 future projects - no progress
4. Embroidery calendar - some numbers done (see below)
5. Color of the Year challenge - no progress, needs quilting!!
   (this will be my March project for a Lovely Year of Finishes)
6. J wall hanging - top done, needs quilting (cannot share)
7. HST pillow - no progress, needs quilting!!
8. Block Swap Adventure - blocks done (see below)
9. Squirrel Pot Holder - printed patterns

The EverythingElse List:

1. Animal blocks for charity quilts - no progress
2. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - no progress
3. Reversible sewing machine cover -  no progress
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging -  no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion -  no progress
9. D wall hanging -  no progress
10. B quilt -  no progress
11. Memory quilt 2 - no progress.

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My Block Swap Adventure partner requested a block in orange and she picked a block made of HST (immense joy... sarcasm...)! :) yes, I said last week that I don't like HSTs because I find them boring to make... and here I am making some more! The universe wants me to change my mind and like them :) well... while I still don't like to make them, I am pleased with the result

(the background fabric looks much more pink than in real life... 

I don't know what happened to the picture ;) )

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I was finally able to start the front pieces of the Embroidery calendar. I decided that I am doing a lot of embroidery already, so the numbers could instead be done with my sewing machine, using colorful thread that I have been sitting there for a while. 1 and 2 were done with my regular foot, just going slowly... the other numbers were done with in free motion. I do like how they turned out... however I had some issues while stitching, that's why I asked your help below :)

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One new quote for my SK project comes from "Under the Dome" (opening line).

Then I wanted to honor March as being Women's month and we all know that behind every great king there is an amazing queen ;) and SK wife (Tabitha) happens to be a writer as well, so I decided to pick the only book by Tabitha King that I read (The Trap) and stitch both the book cover and a quote from it. However, since this quote need to be "different" than all others by Stephen, I decided to pick the last sentence of the book (instead of the opening line) for Tabitha's book :)

I am really pleased about how they turned out... even if I must say that the titles in those book covers are pretty small and end up being a little wonky. But I love them, so that's all that matter ;)

You can find the patterns on my The SK Project page.

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And now for the questions...

1. buying fabric online: how do you know that the fabric you see online is what you want? I bought some fabric recently and while some was great, in some the color was not as I expected (and if you know the white/gold/blue/black story, you know what I mean). My experience was not that bad (the red in the fabric was not as red as I wanted it) but still it won't work well with others. And another important thing is that while some prints looked great on the screen, their scale is way too big for the project I was planning to use it for... so they won't be wasted (of course) but again they won't be useful for the project I bought it for.
   So... do you have any advice on how to buy fabric online and don't have unexpected surprise when you actually see the fabric in person?
2. free motion quilting/thread painting: as you may have seen above, I stitched some numbers using colorful thread and my free motion foot. While the first line of stitching was ok (and even the second one was fine) when I start stitching the third/fourth time in the same region the piece start getting stuck, making horrible knots/nests on the back and causing me to "color outside the line" trying to unstuck the piece. While I don't care much about how the back looks (because it's going to be covered anyway) I was wondering if there is any strategy to avoid those issues. I was using only two layers of fabric, no batting, but in another project (with the regular quilt sandwich) I had similar issues.
   So... any advice on how to tackle this problem?
3. machine quilting gloves: I have been using quilting gloves for a while when I do FMQ and their plastic tips got pretty dirty. I wash them in cold water as written on the package, but they didn't come out great (more clean than before, but still the plastic tips are pretty brownish).
   So... how do you clean them? do you use them for a certain amount of time and then throw them away? or is there some special product/technique to make them bright white as new?

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What are YOU going to link?

An InLinkz Link-up