the color run 2014

just about two weeks ago, as mentioned in a weekend wips post, as well show in week 31 of my 365 project, i participated in my first 5k.  yep.  my coworker adrienne convinced me to sign up for the color run.  something with run in the title.  it wasn't bad at all.  actually, it was quite a bit of fun.  adrienne told me she planned to wear a tutu for the event, and so that week i made my own "no sew tutu" for the event.  despite "run" being in the title, i jogged a bit, but we mostly walked it.  i would absolutely do it again, and hope that next year we can get a bit bigger of a team.  just for fun :) now for the gloriously messy photos from the day!
looking fresh and clean didn't last too long at all. here's the comparison between the starting line and the finish line... no joke
what once was white, was now shades of blue, purple, green and more
my tutu retained quite a bit of color powder, that's for certain. but it did survive the wash as well. so now it's safe for storage for next year
i made a headband out of some of the hundreds of scraps i still have... for kicks, here is the before & after emily face comparison.
after the festivties and color throw, we ate brunch at pizza rock & visited one of our old operations managers at the new 5 story calfit right next door. we might have left a trail of powder, that's for sure.  when i got home, and after attempted to shower the color off (i was still blue for 2 days) i made sure to get the front & back of my shirt immortalized before i washed that beast.  gotta love the blotch on the back from where my backpack was!
now that the color run is over, adrienne is now trying to get me to do a half marathon with her in march. oy!  but seriously... i know back in april when i had my work out goal of every week day that month that i mentioned doing a half marathon in disneyland... but maybe this could be the first step towards that crazy idea.  we initially talked about doing the run to feed the hungry on thanksgiving, which is a 5k, so perhaps i'll get my regular work out going again once i'm home from colorado and get in shape from that and then go from there.  i'm a fast walker, so that helps a bit as well... ha.  so i guess we'll see if i feel comfortable with the idea of "running" 13.1 miles.  the plus side so far, is that it is in march, and not august.  that's it.

sewvivor sewalong - fun with flags

the first of four sewvivor sewalong posts is finally here!
when sew-vivor was announced, and the challenges were listed... i was at a loss when it came to nautical.  nothing inspired me.  i didn't want to do sailboats or anchors... because really... what would i do with said quilt after i was done with it?  (happy birthday, baby boy peterson 2.0 perhaps?)  i wandered fabric stores, hoping inspiration would strike... but nothing.  not until i saw a collection of fabric at beverley's titled "bartholo-meow's reef" and loved the subtle nautical-ness of it.  (really... i didn't notice the "meow" part of the title until after i had bought the fabric and went back to get the background print...  ha).  i saw the fabric, but had no clue what to do with it.  i thought hard over what nautical would come to mind, and all that i could think of was a nod to the big bang theory.  sheldon's fun with flags came to mind, so i took the idea and ran with it.  i came across this great tutorial from film in the fridge simply titled "scrappy triangles" that fit the vision perfectly.  let's start off with a little behind the scenes action.
first off, the fabric selection from bartholo-meow's reef.  i picked the prints that were more subtle, but would work well in a scrappy layout without being too busy.  initially i was trying to decide on one of the anchor prints or the other.  but after much surveying (including my sister saying she was useless because she doesn't quilt) it was decided on both anchors to be used, but in separate flags.  i don't think the brown fabric is from the same collection, but it was shelved with the fabric.  i was originally going to go with a solid white or blue, but i'm glad i stumbled across this wood looking fabric to use.  gives it more of a boat-like feel i guess.
i busted the top out quite quickly, and then had to figure out the back.  i almost used the white that i originally purchased for the front, but wasn't in love with it.  i went back to my room to see what i had and sitting on top of my final tub that has yet to be organized, i had a giant blue sheet that perfectly matched the light blue anchors.  i instagrammed a photo of the pinning process, and apparently people were impressed by my over kill of safety pins.  i have a fear of the back shifting... the more pins, the better?  it looks pretty crazy, that's for sure.  and now, on to the final detail photos!
from the original layout, i decided to keep all my flags pointing in the same direction and slightly off set every other row.  this resulted in some rows having 4 full flags, others having 3 flags and 2 halves.  i am quite pleased with the result of it!  to me, it looks like they are really hanging pennants in a row.
the quilting... i am SO THRILLED with this too.  i didn't want to ruin the individuality of each flag, but i also didn't want it to be too blah when you look at it.  i decided to stitch in the ditch around the outside of each flag, and then do a 1" cross hatch following the same angle inside the brown parts.  i am so glad i went with a solid quilting thread instead of the usual variegated threads that i use in my quilts.  it feels much crisper to me, and doesn't detract from the quilt in any way.
the binding i created from that same giant blue sheet i found in my room.  i cut off a few strips, sewed it together, and did the hand sewing in what felt like record time.  probably because it was such a tiny quilt in comparison to others i have done.  i almost didn't "tag" this quilt, because i didn't want to cover the quilting i'm so amazed i pulled off. but to keep with tradition, i placed the tag for this one in the top corner. since i have 10,000 of these tags, i might as well! (ok... maybe not 10,000... but the more i clean & organize my room, the more i find!)
and there you have it folks!
i am super pleased with this quilt.  it only has a few flaws i wish would go away, but that gives it that little bit of charm that most of my quilt have.  i plan to knock out my bag this upcoming week in colorado, so i hope to have that for you to see soon enough :)

365.2014 - week 32

donner mine music camp week 2's quilt raffle prize - musical pinwheels

let the influx of new posts begin!
you saw the triangle musical quilt a little bit ago, and now it's time for week 2's quilt!  i had done this same quilt for last year's donation raffle, and since we still had bits and pieces left over, pulled another one together for week 2 this year.  it was fairly easy to pull together, and since i only had to make 3 more pinwheels, it happened like magic.
i switched up the quilting a bit this time around. last year my grandma just did a basic cross hatch all over, and so i broke it down to being different for the two different blocks. if it was a pinwheel block, i did a stitch in the ditch. for the printed blocks, i did a cross hatch within that block. both blocks were outlines around to frame the quilting. the border was also stitched in the ditch, and then once that was complete it was on to the binding.
as you can see, i didn't even bother removing cat fur...  but there you have it.
two musical quilts off to new homes, and a music camp who benefited from these generous, supportive individuals who send their kids off to camp.  until next year, donner mine!

weekend wips

insert random photo of tawny scrawny cat that has been showing up in our yard every so often.
why?  because i realized last night i had zero in progress photos ready to share with this post.
onward with the past week of crafting!
baby girl quilt:
this quilt is SO CLOSE to being done... but i've been so focused on churning things out with the sewing machine that i really haven't sat down and "relaxed" to do hand sewing on the couch.  i knocked a good chunk out last week, and could probably churn this out this week.  the goal will be wednesday, since thursday will be the last day i could deliver it before heading outta here.  the sooner, the better though.  i'm sure i have a slew of dvr shows i could watch.
room extravaganza:
failed to really work on.
i rolled a few more fabric pieces on to boards, but still have yet to really dive in to getting the final tub of fabric dealt with... as well as the rest of the room chaos.  chaos is probably an understatement...
sewvivor:
i suppose since i'm trying to knock out two projects before i leave friday morning, i'll break this down in to two parts as well.
challenge one: nautical
this past week i really knocked out this quilt.  and now its just down to the final parts.  i cut and pieced triangles on tuesday, and then got a few rows connected together on thursday.  finished the top on friday and knocked out all the quilting on saturday.  the binding is attatched and is 3/4th of the way done, so i forsee it getting done tomorrow.  which is perfectly perfect.
challenge two: bag
i purchased the fabric for this on monday, made sure i had all the bits and pieces i needed when we did a joann's run again on saturday, and once the binding gets finished, this will be next up.  worst case scenario, this one comes to colorado with me.  oh bummer.  something to sew with my equally crafty cousin.  rumor has it she has dual sewing machines at the moment.  win win for all parties.
quilt block swap:
we just got assigned partners this weekend, and here's an idea of the blocks i'll be making for my groups
group member's own pattern (waiting on pattern for this one)
quilter's choice paper pieced pattern (never paper pieced before, so this should be exciting...)
split 9 patch
double aster
garden fence
home town, state, country theme block (this will be an interesting one to decide)
cat block
ribbon star
and for kicks, here's the choice for what i'll be getting:
broken herringbone
each of these i have to make 3 blocks of, and then will receive 3 of my own blocks from each of them in return.  i haven't done a swap in years, so it should be interesting!  send outs don't have to happen until october, so that's a plus.  once i get through sewvivor, it will all be easy simple crafting from there.  which will come in handy when school is back in action.  ugh.  and that's just two weeks from today.  where did the summer go?  oh well...
happy monday everyone :)

365.2014 - week 31

weekend wips

another week of works in progress...  much of it was devoted to the music camp quilt, but it was absolute progress in that market, considering it had to be done by friday at the latest.  and yet, other things were still able to get done!
unfortunately i really don't have any individual photos for each segment, but anyways.  here we goooooo...
music camp donation quilts:
done, sent off and finished for the year.
i thought i would get some hand sewing done earlier on in the week so it could be sent up wednesday, but it just didn't happen.  i finished it late wednesday night (thanks to my dance class being cancelled for the evening) and then thursday sewed on the tag and photographed it.  sent it on it's way friday, and it was on to a new home.
moral of the story:  i will totally try and start these a little sooner next year.  i think i remember crunching to get them done last year, and that just makes for no fun with crafting.
baby girl quilt:
last week i knocked out the strips in one day, and this past week i continued forward and got the squares cut, chopped to triangled, resewed together, and then trimmed down.  originally i had a different pattern in mind, but it just wasn't working for me.  as of last night, the quilting was finished, and awaits binding.  that seems to be a common theme.  waiting on binding.  sounds like the title for my autobiography or something.  once the binding is a done deal, it's off to my aunt to deliver it to the recipient.  whoot!
room extravaganza:
i rolled 3 tubs worth of fabric on to comic book boards on monday, and that's pretty much as far as i got.  on the plus side, i only have one more tub of fabric to roll!  well... i know there is hidden fabric out in the living room to deal with as well.  ugh.  it's been quite a lull in productivity for this, but things are gradually getting back in motion.  i've got just under two weeks now until i leave for a week, and then school starts...  perhaps i should try and get something in motion...  yargh.
the color run:
a coworker of mine got me to sign up for the color run, which we participated in this past saturday.  it was my first 5k (or anything with the word "run" in it that i willingly signed up for) and it was a blast.  sure, i did a lot of walking, but there was a smidge of jogging that i did too.  it was quite a bit of fun.  how this fits in with the weeked wips is that i made a no sew tutu for the event.  knocked that sucker out in a day or so.  i'll have a post on that soon, once i get all my phone photos organized from it :)
sewvivor:
in case you missed the edit to last week's weekend wips, i was not selected to be one of the top 16 for this season of sewvivor.  i'm a little bummed, but will still push onward and keep my happy crafting going.  i still plan to do the challenges, which the first two i need to knock out in the next two weeks before i go to colorado on the 15th (bought my first ever plane ticket for my first ever flight!) to ensure that i have my crafts done and entered for the sew-along portion of the competition.  all crafting will not cease while out of state, but i would like to have the sewvivor projects moving right along.
craftster swaps:
i took the plunge and signed up for my first craftster swap since 2009.  especially so since i've really gotten the quilting bug, but don't always want to have to make a finished product right away.  so i signed up for a quilt block swap, where i get assigned a group and make 3 or 4 of each of their blocks in exchange for them to make 3 or 4 of mine.  this will probably end up being the project that i work on in colorado, so that will be fun and small to do instead of heaving a beastly project with me on a plane.