WHY? I need your help! (and a link party)

In weeks full of burocratic craziness, making things is what keeps me sane! :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - completed two April blocks, an one May block (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - two blocks done (see below)
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - no progress
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - shared on March 1st!!!
6. Project QUILTING - "Old times, good times" COMPLETED (see below)
7. En Provence QAL - no progress
8. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - no progress
9. 70273 Project - no progress
10. Book binding - two little notebook done (see below)
11. Twilters! Bee - March block done (see below)
12. MP pillow cover - done! it's my entry for Project QUILTING (see below)
13. MP hat - changed my mind... made a little pouch instead (see below)
14. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)

--

When the Challenge 6 of Project QUILTING was announced I had a hard TIME finding the inspiration :). I didn't want to interpret it litterally as I imagine many would and I always want to be different :) Well, time made me think about "old times"... "old times" "fun times"... and this means Disney! :) yes, from where I was able to read to waaaay after I started college, every week, I read the Topolino (an italian comics magazine with the adventure of Donal Duck, Mickey Mouse and their friends and family). That is why I made the following piece (inspired by recent books about Art History... aren't these duck Mona Lisa and Cezanne's duck model just so cute??)

"Old times, good times"

(38'' x 23'')

Now WHYYYYY??? WHY DID THAT HAPPEN???
Of course I refer to the red bleeding :( :( :(
I know why the bleeding happened, I forgot the color catcher, that is not my question...
My question is, WHY did only ONE fabric absorbed the red loose color?
I am a scientist so I want to know...

The two applique pieces are absolutely perfect, no change in color there. This could be because they have Heat'n'Bond on the back, which may change the physical properties of those fabric pieces.
Ok.. that makes sense...
What it DOESN'T make much sense to me is why the absorption pattern is not consistent.

You can see above that the ombre fabric absorbed all of the red color but right against the part where there is a lot of red, the light blue fabric didn't absorbe a thing! The backing fabric also didn't absorbe anything and it is not any more pink than when it started.
The ombre fabric is designer high-quality fabric...
The light blue fabric is designer high-quality fabric...
The backing fabric is big box store fabric...

So can someone help me understand this phenomenon?

By the way, I am not too sad about the bleeding because I was planning to applique flowers around the two Lady Ducks anyway, so no problem there... plus the slight pink tone of the background now makes it more integrated with the other colors of the piece :)

--
My last two Splendid Sampler blocks... my total count is 44 and I have a plan to put them in an interesting layout... more on this later next month

Block 98 and Block 91

--
My block for the Twilter's Bee swap

--

Two more little handmade notebook stitching the bookbinding :)

--
I was planning to make my mom a little knitted hat... then I tried to knit a head band... after 1 hour of knitting I remember that I highly dislike knitting :)

Then I found this video for a cute Accordion Pouch by Shabby Fabrics: it is sooooo easy, sooo fast and sooooo cute... Another Xmas present for 2017! :)

--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dress code (and a link party)

A difficult week, so only one project to show... but it's an important one for me.

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - Working on future blocks! (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - no progress
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - no progress
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - shared on March 1st!!!
6. Project QUILTING - Dress code COMPLETED (see below)
7. En Provence QAL - no progress
8. Bullet Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - no progress
9. 70273 Project - no progress
10. Book binding - no progress
11. Twilters! Bee - waiting for next month swap
12. MP pillow cover - no progress
13. MP hat - no progress

--

When the Challenge 5 of Project QUILTING was announced it immediately got my interest.
You can VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE at the following link!

"Well-dressed man"

When I was young I always loved a suit and a tie and I was used to wear them all the time even if it was not part of the "girl" dress code.
While growing up I then start seeing quite puzzling situations... Men with suit and tie were treated in a very different way than men dressed in other ways... and the people attitude was only a response to the suit, not the the real person wearing it...
My father was a manager of an hotel, but he also was helping with the plumming when needed... dressed as a plummer, people would treat him quite bad... dressed as a hotel manager, people would treat him with respect... and he was the same person, treating others with the same kind attitude...

The hypocrisy of many people disturbed me a lot...
And recently I witnessed an extreme situation of the same hypocrisy...
and that's the inspiration of the piece below: "Dress code" (forgive the weird light... bad weather to take pictures :) )

Dress code 22''x32'' 

The piece represent the contrast between what we (in the western society) would drescribe as a well-dressed man and other men that are half naked, dressed with poor materials or just drapes...
If these men were just encountered in the streets I am sure that many of us would judge them very strongly (good or bad)...
Their "dress code" is accompained by their words...
On the right, the words of The 14th Dalai Lama and Mahatma Gandhi...
On the left, the words of the President of the United States.

Stitching the left side of the piece was very very hard... not just because it's dark fabric so I had to use tissue paper to trace the quotes... but my hands were shaking as I was disgusted by what I had to stitch. Luckily he is not very eloquent, so his quotes are pretty short.
The quotes on the right, instead, are long, beautiful and profound...

The quotes on the right are:
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."
"Many of our problems stem from attitudes like putting ourselves first at all costs."
"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

I won't report the quotes on the left because I have been reading them too many times already.

The piece is quilted, but I will add more details in the background to make the elements stand out a little better.

I will probably submit this piece for the Threads of Resistence exhibition.

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Struggling with time (and a link party)

Where did the time go?! These past few weeks have been quite crazy!!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - March block(s) ready (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - one block done (see below)
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - one block done (see below)
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - no progress
6. Project QUILTING - "We the Rainbow", project done (see below)
7. En Provence QAL - no progress
8. Bullet Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - no progress
9. 70273 Project - no progress
10. Book binding - three small notepad done (see below)
11. Twilters! Bee - completed first block

--

When the Challenge 4 of Project QUILTING was announced I immediately knew what it was going to be about for me... rainbow = colors = skin color = diversity = equality = inclusion = we the people!

So this is my piece for the challenge: it includes rainbow flags that celebrate equality and diversity and there is a gradient of many kind of skin colors, textures, tones, all walks of life... we the people!

(temporary title) We the Rainbow, 32''x21''

I have to be honest: I don't think my piece is "done".

It is complete, in the sense that it is stitched and quilted, so it qualifies for the challenge...but the piece is still talking to me... the piece wants to say more, but she needs more time to express her thoughts :)

This is where I struggle for these short timed challenges: while it's great to have the incentive of completing the piece, sometimes a piece need to percolate in your mind a little longer...

Especially a piece that I plan to submit for the Threads of Resistance exhibits... 

--

One more block for my Splendid Sampler (with selvages and batiks) journey!

Block 75 - Stitch Crazy

--
Anothe block for my Stephen King collection.

The Gunslinger - Book Cover - 5''x7.5''

--

The block I made as part of a Bee swap

"My Birds", Pattern by Tina

--

And last, but not least, I made few more stitched notebooks! I used some fancy cardstock and some graph paper and I think they turned out pretty nice!!

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Projects with special meaning (and a link party)

In this climate of hate and divisiveness... all my crafty projects need some extra meaning

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - February block(s) finished (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - no progress
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - no progress
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - no progress
6. Project QUILTING - Esse Quam Videri (see below)
7. En Provence QAL - no progress
8. Bullet Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - working every day on this
9. 70273 Project - two blocks done (see below)
10. Pussyhat project - my hat, which I proudly wear every day when I go to work! :)

--

Because in the recent history we had hate and it resulted in inhumane massacres of innocent people... some sent to death with two simple red Xs... 

"70,273 physically and mentally disabled people – men, women, teens, boys, and girls – were murdered by the Nazis. Though they never even laid eyes on the disabled person they were evaluating, the Nazi doctors read the medical files and, if from the words on the page, the person was deemed “unfit” or an “economic burden on society”, the doctor placed a red X at the bottom of the form. Three doctors were to read each medical file, and when two of them made a red X on the page, the disabled person’s fate was sealed. Most were murdered within 1-2 hours."

This is an extract from Jeanne's post about the 70273 project.

I have been making blocks for this project for a while, and this year I will make many more.

Because we shouldn't forget what happens when hate prevails.

Check this link if you want to contribute!!

--

On January 20th it was my fourth blogoversary! Usually it is a big day for me to celebrate what I did during the year, projects completed, lesson learned etc... I didn't feel like celebrating though...

However my crafty life has been full of projects, so I want to honor them with this video.

If you have never heard about the "1 Second Everyday" app, you should check it out!! It is amazing to watch back to my last year in this format. So much more dynamic than pictures of finished projects! I can really appreciate what I did every day and my many projects. Even if some are not features (because you really get only 1 second a day) it's still pretty cool I think!!

--
I heard about this project just few days ago (https://www.pussyhatproject.com/)... and I am not a fast knitter :)
However I spent the 20th making this project and thinking about all the wonderful contributions of women in the history of the world! I am not usually sharing picture of myself on social media... but I believe this is an important project.

Check more coverage about this project and all related events at

CNN coverage: Womens March, Instagram, Facebook

--

And last, but not least...

In this first week of the year I always like to participate into different events... and since I only have very limited time, I like to make pieces that fulfill multiple purposes.

So... this is my entry for Project Quilting (season 8).

I have to be honest and say that I didn't particularly liked this week theme... 

it is a block, it is a beautiful block, but it's just a single block so it looked very "limiting" in my mind as everybody will use the same block and make probably similar pieces...

or it could be a specific flower... but again, it felt too restrictive from my creative energy...

Then I thought... what if instead of the block or the flower I look at the words? 

Carolina... Lily... 

Carolina... Carolina... ehi there are two states in US that are Carolinas...

And US states have very inspiring state seals...

And I found the most relevant quotes in those seals

... Spes (Hope)

... Quis Separabit? (Who will separate us?)

... Dum Spiro Spero (I will have hope, until my last breath)

... Esse Quam Videri (To be, rather than to seem... or in today's world I would translate this as To Act rather than to Tweet)

and the Lily flower makes the perfect liberty pole

So here is my entry seal/coaster

Esse Quam Videri - 7''x7''

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Ten days of finishing (and a link party)

I have too many new projects going on and I let old projects go untouched for too long!
So I decided to start a "ten days of finishing project"

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - working on future blocks (cannot share details)
   but I released the third block of the QAL, the Backgammon board!
2. WGACA projects
1. Jane T - no progress
2. The SK project - no progress
3. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - assembled bargello base for backing
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - 2 blocks done! (see below)
4. Block Swap Adventure -  paused until April
5. American Quilt (previous known as Americana QAL) - no progress
6. Project Quilting (#6) - "Strings of Pi" done (see below)
7. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - paused, not liking where this is going :(
8. Splendid Sampler - Block 9 done (see below)
9. SECRET quilt 1 for exhibit - (FDJ) no progress
10. SECRET quilt 2 for exhibit - (Processing) no progress
11. Tablet tote - planned
12. Road Home Row-A-Long - planned what to make
13. 70273 Project - decided to join

The EverythingElse List:

1. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
2. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
3. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
4. As You Wish -  no progress
5. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
6. Memory quilt 2 - no progress

----
Before talking about the specific projects I worked on this week, I want to stop and look at my list of projects: it is growing too fast and my enthusiasm for new projects and blocks is taking away energy to finish old ones!

That's why I decided to start a "10 days of finishing" :)
Until the end of the month I WON'T make a single new block, a single new crochet block, nothing "new".
I am only allowed to make "finishing" steps: either joining blocks I already have, basting quilt tops I have, finishing backings, etc. I will pause my Splendid Sampler, my Mirror Mirror Afghan, Jane T, SK, everything that is far away from being finished and I will focus on project that I can complete or move to completion by the end of the month.

--

These are my latest blocks for Pat's and Jane's Splendid Sampler 

Block 8 (crochet version)

Block 9 (no crochet version)

To see all my blocks, check out My Sampler Journey page

This week I also received 2 wonderful donations from 2 generous people! Antoinette and Jeanne sent me a total of FIVE big ziplock bags FULL of selvages!!! Sooo much to play with! I need to find a better system to store and divide my selvages because now a generic box is not good enough :)

--

Early in the week I completed the last piece for the Project Quilting challenge (String of Pi).

You can read the full story of the piece as well as my thoughts about the PQ experience in this previous post.

--

Early this month I shared the third block for my Play with Me QAL

I am looking forward to see more boards shared by the people in the group! 

We have about 50 people playing along, it is so fun!!

If you didn't join, it's not too late!

Visit the QAL page for more details.

--

And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

I finally have something to show you!

Well... this was an early phase picture :)

Bargello with a cat

I had a lot of strips from an early donation and while I knew I wanted to use it to make a back (because I already have 3 or 4 tops done, so I need backs) I wanted something fun that was not just put them together as strips! Then I saw this super fun (and easy) QAL at Elm Street Quilts so I decided to join!

Ready for the next step!

I am going to make the "Queen" version (36'') and I will need to make it bigger with some kind of border, but I really like when others are putting together an easy design and I just need to follow along! :)

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

It's never too late for some Pi (and my thoughts on Project Quilting)

Before presenting you the latest piece for the Project Quilting challenge, let me start by saying that I enjoyed these PQ challenges but I am also a little disappointed by the overall experience. If you want to know why you have to read below :)

So let's start with my entry for the last Challenge of Project Quilting

"Strings of Pi"

(inspired by the work of Martin Krzywinski)

size: 20'' x 20''

VOTE here: I am number 2 :)

(Project 6: 2016 Finish-Along, from the list in this post)

For this challenge we had to include one monkey wrench block and one flying geese block.
As usual I decided to make this challenge more personal and I decided to honor Pi as 3/14 was Pi day. I was planning to release it that day, but it took me longer than planned to make... oh well, it's never too late to celebrate Pi!! :)

So I built the entire piece as a monkey wrench in black with white accents, I wrote the first 220 digits of Pi on the white sections and I put a rainbow colored circle of geese in the center.
Inside of this circle is where the fun started!!! :)
I wrote the same 220 digits with thread lines connecting 10 sections (representing the digits from 0 to 9). So I started on the section for the 3 (underlined) and then I stitched an arch to go to the section of the 1, then a second arch to go to the section for the 4 and so on until I stitched all the written digits!
I used a fun Aurifil variegated 50 wt thread, and that creates a beautiful movement!
I will take better pictures of this piece when I have time, but for now this will have to do! :)

--

And now some reflections...
These are just my personal thoughts, and I am sharing them with the hope of finding what you, my dearest reader, think about it! Sharing is very important to me and I really like to hear what others think!

So Project Quilting is a series of challenges that are meant to be inspirational and fun!  After they release the theme of the challenge, we have just a week to make a finished project (from inception to finishing). Every week that we enter a piece for the challenge we are entered into a hat to win one of the amazing prizes from sponsors.

In addition to the theme chosen by them, I decided to add an extra "theme" for myself: the piece should be inspired by a "traditional" art piece (painting, drawing, etc) AND I cannot buy new fabric for these projects.

After 6 challenges this is my collection!

Quilted art pieces inspired by the work of 

Kandinsky, Matisse, Ancient Egypt, 

Walt Disney, Dali and Krzywinski

Now... let me split my thoughts in Good and Sad :)

The Good:

• Having one single week and one specific theme may seem intimidating and stressful, but it's actually very liberating because it made me much more focused and I completed several projects, which is always a great boost for my creativity
• Sponsors and prizes are great! I won more than one random prize! So goodies are always a good incentive
• Having small projects and no particular rules to make them allowed me to try things I never tried before! And I fell in love with several of them (if you want links for tutorials on these techniques, just comment below... I saved them somewhere and I can find them for you)!
• facing instead of binding (for art pieces): done in my Dali inspired piece (looooove this)
• binding with same color as last border: done in Matisse inspired piece (don't like this look)
• binding by folding under: done on my Kandinsky inspired piece (this is ok, but it's cumbersome and not too clean)
• envelope turn: done on my Egyptian inspired piece (this is ok, but not my favorite)
• elmer's glue as basting glue: done on my Pi piece, just on the back (loooove this)
• use facing as hanging sleeve: done on my Dali inspired piece (looove this)
• regular hanging sleeve: done on my Matisse inspired piece (it's ok, now I know how to do it)
• squares pointing down and not on the corners (loooove this, as it takes 2 hand stitches and it accommodates rods longer or shorter than the actual piece)
• raw edge applique: done on several pieces (really like, because I can use any shape)
• thread painting: done on my Disney inspired piece (challenging but fun for small pieces)

The Sad:

• my pieces received consistently very very few votes... several times way less than pieces done by the hostesses and marked as "DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS" :) It's not that I think my pieces are wonderful, but in early challenges we had the chance to vote for six or seven projects... and some of them looked good but way less elaborate than mine... however I felt that people didn't really got my piece nor they were interested in reading their story... which brings me to the next point
• even if I was not expecting  to win viewer’s choice, I was expecting to make new connections with people! I was expecting people to comment and interact with me, read the story of the piece, the inspiration, etc. Instead I very very rarely got any comment... not even by the people hosting the event. While I understand that life is busy for everyone, I posted both on my blog, on their FlickR group and in their FB group... these platforms allow for very quick comments, so not receiving those, and not getting click though their own linky made me very sad.

Reflecting on the sad and the good, I can conclude that probably the community around this event is just not "my tribe". I think it's very important to realize that everybody have their own aesthetic and no one can like everything or please everyone. So the disappointing may just be of me trying to fit in a collective where I am not meant to fit... nothing bad here, just life!

Do I regret to have participated this year? Absolutely NOT!
Did I learned a lot from the experience? YES!!
Will I participate next year? I don't know... I will evaluate this next year!

Two quotes that summarize this experience:

1. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take (Wayne Gretzky)
2. If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid (Albert Einstein)

Edited To Add: I received many comments on this post (THANKS) however many of them are from no-reply bloggers :( if I don't have a direct way to reply to your comment (your email) I will reply here on the blog, but you may not read it if you don't come back :( so if you want to make sure I interact with you, leave me a way to get in touch by writing your email address!! I appreciate everyone's comment! 

Sewing, crocheting, designing and planning (and a link party)

Sewing and crocheting at full speed!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - few more hours to turn the PP block. (see below)
   The next pattern is ready and will be shared on Monday!! 
2. WGACA projects
1. Jane T - paused until completion of other two
2. The SK project - one block done (see below)
3. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - 2 blocks done (see below)
4. Block Swap Adventure -  waiting for March partner assignment
5. American Quilt (previous known as Americana QAL) - no progress
6. Project Quilting (#5) - done! (see below)
7. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - paused, not liking where this is going :(
8. Splendid Sampler - block 4 and 5 done (see below)
9. SECRET quilt for exhibit - FDJ planning started (see below)

The EverythingElse List:

1. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
2. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
3. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
4. As You Wish -  no progress
5. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
6. Memory quilt 2 - no progress

----

Pat and Jane announced the Splendid Sampler and can I not join such a fun project? Of course not!! :)

But I had to find my twists to make my journey different than anyone else's.

Block 4

Block 5 (with the two crochet ones too)

To see all my blocks, check out My Sampler Journey page

Block 6 is out but I think I will slow down with this project because 2 blocks a week is a lot, considering that I have to make my own "fabric" with selvages first and that I want to crochet some of them as well. I may see if Block 7 (released tomorrow) is easier and start with that for next week.

I am really enjoying this project but it is taking over my (sewing) life! :) :)

--

(Project 5: 2016 Finish-Along, from the list in this post)

Speaking of projects taking over my (sewing) life...

Another challenge of Project Quilting (Through the Eyes of a Child) was released last week and this is the piece I put together.

"MOOOM! Look, I colored Mickey"

8'' x 6.5''

I loved Mickey Mouse (Topolino) when I was a child... I cannot remember a time when I didn't have a Topolino comic book to read every day... from kinder-garden school to college :)

So my piece is a reproduction of a classic "drawing" from when I was little. And I put it on the fridge because where else would my mom display my art, right??

I am really pleased about how it turned out! I learned a lot about thread coloring since this is my first time (hence the wrinkly look).

About PQ challenges... I will have some reflections on this next week, since that is going to be the last challenge for the year... I have mixed feelings about the experience... but more on this next week :)

--

Second project from my WGACA list  (to read more about this concept, read this previous post) was completed. I recently completed a page for this, and I realized that the initially empty page slows down my progress. I better get some progress on all three of the projects so the ball will get going!

Stephen King - Salem's Lot

Book cover

(Pattern available soon)

I am happy that I broke free from my own rules of making the book cover with paper piecing! I don't particularly like the process of raw edge applique, but I really like the result and the fact that requires much less time designing them!!

--

Early last month I shared the second block for my Play with Me QAL

Look at all the different color combinations that people used in their game boards! So exciting!!!

If you didn't join, it's not too late!

Visit the QAL page for more details.

--

I had an idea for a project for a long time... and now I think it could fit this exhibit so I will actually get the project out of my head and down to fabric.

The piece will be entered in special exhibit, Modern Quilts: Redesigning Tradition.

I cannot tell you more for now... except that the plan is on paper (and on my computer) so now I just need to get going!! :)

--

And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

I haven't made any concrete progress here, but I pulled some fabric out and I am ready to assemble some strips into quilt backings! At least I have a plan now!! :)

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Again very productive week! (and a link party)

Today it is a long one! So much fun this week!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - everyone is having fun with PP (see below)
2. WGACA projects
1. Jane T - 2 blocks done (see below)
2. The SK project - 1 block done (see below)
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - 2 blocks done (see below)
3. Block Swap Adventure -  paused until March
4. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
5. American Quilt (previous known as Americana QAL) - no progress
6. Project Quilting (#4) - done (see below)
7. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL (Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles Mystery 2016) - paused, not liking where this is going :(
8. Splendid Sampler - first block(s) done (see below)

The EverythingElse List:

1. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
2. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
3. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
4. As You Wish -  no progress
5. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
6. Memory quilt 2 - no progress

----

Pat and Jane announced the Splendid Sampler and can I not join such a fun project? Of course not!! :)

But I had to find my twists to make my journey different than anyone else's.

Block 1

Fabric block pattern available at thesplendidsampler.com

I will make my blocks using selvages (on black background, idea from Riel Nason quilt) and I will use the same designs for crochet blocks for my "Mirror Mirror Afghan".

I will share all my blocks in the dedicated page "My Sampler Journey" so that I can post picture even in the middle of the week and I won't forget what I do :)

--

The crochet afghan is one of my three WGACA projects (to read more about this concept, read this previous post).

For the second project I designed and stitched a Stephen King's book cover

No pattern for my version of 11/22/63 book cover, 

because I just found some cool fabric and sliced it as needed :)

And the third project in the WGACA is my own Jane T: I completed two more blocks!

And this is the progress on the final layout

21 blocks done!!

--
Speaking of the WGACA project, I want to report the great success of the idea (to read more about this concept, read this previous post).

This is how the first page looked after was completely filled:

The fact that I had this piece of paper hanging next to my mirror and that I saw it every day multiple times a day it is the reason why I had the brilliant idea of using the Splendid Sampler designs in my Crochet Afghan project! If I didn't have that project on my wall (physically) for so long, I wouldn't have had that idea. So even some progress steps seem minor (like only making 10 crochet rows), it is still progress and it keeps the project running.

Since I completed that page, I decided to reassess the list of project and replace the Mirror Mirror Afghan (that now doesn't need push motivation, since it's up and running) with another project that needs a push (Quilts 4 Francel, the charity donation quilts). By the end of this page I will for sure have made great progress there and I will be so happy about it.

If you struggle with some UFO, give the WGACA approach and ideas a try... you may surprise yourself about how good it works :)

--
One "spur of the moment" project was my new ID holder. I had a plastic thing that holds my work id but the badge doesn't slide in smoothly and corners started peeling off. The solution? Make myself a nice, colorful and practical ID holder with some Tula Pink Fabric!!

I was inspired by this tutorial by Brooke at Killer B, but I didn't really follow it, as I had solid fabric on the back and I had velcro and a ribbon. So basically it is completely different, but still I was inspired by the tutorial and it is so easy that is good to link to it ;)

--
For the Block Swap Adventure I receive my January block from Michell and I made some extra postage stamp blocks for our block lotto

--

Early this month I shared the second block for my Play with Me QAL

Look at all the different color combinations that people will use in their game boards!

If you didn't join, it's not too late!

Visit the QAL page for more details.

--

(Project 4: 2016 Finish-Along, from the list in this post)

The forth challenge of Project Quilting (season 7) was launched last week and I jumped right in.

As mentioned before, I have a double challenge for myself: follow the theme of the PQ challenge ("Need a Vacation") and have a piece inspired by a "conventional" art piece (painting, sculpture, architecture, ...).

Let me introduce you...

Size: 21'' x 21''

"Vacation from reality".

Inspired by "Elephants" by Salvador Dali.

If you want to vote for me (number 21 ;)) after Sunday 2 CST or any of the others follow THIS LINK.

I really like the weird shapes and general compositions of Salvador Dali and Vacation to me means a nice sunset. I think I combined the two in an effective way with some applique, quilting and thread sketching.

Speaking of art and quilts... do you want to join a blog hop?

Read all the info in this previous post

--

And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

Still no progress here... so sad... but as mentioned above, now this is in my WGACA list so I will for sure make progress in the next month on this!!! :)

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up