Christmas presents almost completed (and a linky party)

In this past week where most of the time was spent on cooking, tidying, cleaning and eating, I managed to get several things done!!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Hello Block Swap - paused until 2017
2. The SK project - no progress
3. Secret event (January 2017) - no progress
4. Secret event (February 2017) - no progress
5. Secret event (August 2017) - no progress
6. Secret event (Jan-Nov 2017)  - no progress
7. Xmas decorations - 8 started
8. Bullet Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - working on this every day! 
9. Pillow covers for Xmas - 8 done (see below)
10. Xmas stockings - 4 halfway done
11. En Provence (Bonnie Hunter's mystery QAL) - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. Splendid Sampler - no progress
2. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
3. Summer Solstice QAL - no progress
4. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
5. 70273 Project - sent them out, no new ones
6. Jane T - no progress
7. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
8. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
9. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
10. As You Wish -  no progress
11. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
12. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
13. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - no progress

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Working on Xmas presents,  most of the people in my list are going to get a pair of pillow cases!

Hot dog pillow cases!

I struggle finding in my stash the big cuts that this project require! Each pillow case uses approximately 1 yard of fabric, so I have to get creative sometimes. On the good side, I can use up prints and colors that I wouldn't use otherwise and make more space in my stash for new purchases :)

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Another small Xmas present is this fabric box 

It has the exact size of a weekly pill dispenser, because I think that it is good to be cheerful when you need to take daily medications :)

I made good progress in several other presents, but they are not quite done yet... however I plan to get them ready by the end of the weekend and this will be the first year that I complete all my presents before december begins!! And all thanks to the Bullet Journal/Quilter planner!! But more on this on December 1st! :)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Good progress (and a link party)

Another good week with good progress!!

The Ongoing List:

1. the SK project - 1 block done + several designed and ready to go (see below)
2. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - last block done! (see below)
3. SYS2015 future projects - a great finished object (see below)
4. Embroidery calendar - started cutting several scraps for the backs!
5. Color of the Year challenge - top done!
   (this will be my March project for a Lovely Year of Finishes)
6. New project - J wall hanging - gathered fabric

The EverythingElse List:

1. Animal blocks for charity quilts - more blocks done (see below)
2. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - 1 block done (see below)
3. Reversible sewing machine cover - 4/8 blocks done
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag - 1 block done
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - printed 1 pattern, picked fabric!
6. As You Wish - 8/16 blocks done
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging - 13/32 blocks done
8. Crazy optical illusion - 1 "row" done
9. D wall hanging - collected some fabric and some ideas
10. B quilt - to be designed
11. Memory quilt 2 - no progress.

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I shared this fabric box made with Syndrome block earlier this week in this post.
But seriously, how can I not repost this fun sequence of picture I took of my sewing budding using the scraps box as new place to hide?? She is too cute, sorry for reposting!! ;)

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The variation of week 7 of Project of Doom 2015 was to cool to miss! So I had fun making this block with scraps of green for the plant, and fun prints for the book. The block will go to Jennifer for Linus.

Another block, designed by Jennifer, is my last block for my wall hanging Tea towel challenge/PPV!!

Now only two pieced border are missing and then it will be done!!

Pattern by Jennifer @ Sewhooked

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The top for my mini for the Color of the Year challenge is done. Cannot share yet, but this will be my March project for a Lovely Year of Finishes.

Sneak peek.

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Speaking about charity quilts, I am working on collecting animal blocks and while I was struggling finding patterns that I liked, a light bulb turned on in my brain: many Disney/Cartoon characters are animals and FiS is full of those patterns!! DUH :)

In my defense I should say that I consider cartoon characters just people of different sizes and colors ;) so that's why I didn't realize I could use some patterns from FiS for my animal quilts ;)

Anyway... these are the first two I picked: a fish (YES, I know!!! she is not just a fish!!! she is Dory!!) and a sheep (because the year of the sheep just started) :)

Pattern by Lilja

Pattern by Jessica

As usual, I was allowed to use only one main fabric and the rest had to be from my scraps bin... which is why the green background is variegated and pieced :) but it worked out great I think!!

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And finally a new block for my SK project is ready.

Opening line of "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon",

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

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And now what are YOU going to link?

An InLinkz Link-up

SYS 2015 - First month giveaway ending soon (and my FO)

Hello everyone!!

Finally I am ready to share the finished project I made with the wonderful block that Janeen designed for the series (You can find the pattern for Syndrome from the Incredibles and the tutorial on the SYS2015 page!)

So what did I use the block for? A fabric box!!

A fabric box for all my scraps, because, let's face it, I have a "scraps syndrome" ;)

For the box I used this tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman (found on sewmamasew).
I just followed the general instructions, adapting the box to use 12 inches blocks some new and some old. I used some orphan blocks from the inside and those resulted as wonderful quilting practice pieces! I used 5 blocks for the outside, and 5 for the inside! This is the perfect way of using up blocks that you don't care about too much... or use completely different styles for the two sides so that you have a reversible box that can decorate your sewing room in different ways according to your mood or the season!!

Of course that big fabric box has already put to good use (full of my plastic bags of scraps divided by colors) and it is a great incentive to use them up. Now that the cheerful box is in a prominent place in my sewing room, scraps are at more easy reach and that makes me want to use them more!!

Syndrome block, designed by Janeen @ quiltartdesigns. (available here)

Letter blocks, designed by Jennifer @ sewhooked (available here)

So if you are not into the "pillow" finish of the Syndrome block, why don't you give the fabric box finish a try? Oh, the tutorial calls for heavy interface, but I didn't have any so I used some fusible fleece and normal batting: the box is not so rigid, but it keeps it shape anyway :) probably it's not stackable, but I was not planning to make more than one box, at least for now!

Oh, and the fabric box may have additional uses... as you can see below
(click on the picture to read what Pumpkin thinks about it ;) )

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You have one more week to link up your block and finished project for a chance to win the prize offered by Janeen (one of her e-books of your choice)! These wonderful collections contain from 10 to 16 patterns of a certain theme of blocks: there are animals, stars, Christmas, Halloween, etc.!

I will draw a random winner on March 4th between all the entries in the link party. Janeen will then email the PDF after the winner pick the pattern collection she or he likes!

Remember that in this link party only projects belonging to the SYS2015 series should be added 

(I reserve the right to delete any non compliant link). 

This link party will be open all year long and you can add as many finished projects as you want! 

The same link party will be shown on the SYS2015 page.

Each link will give you a chance to win one of the monthly prizes.

An InLinkz Link-up