Monday Momentum

When you get together with a group of crafty friends, do you find yourself as excited to talk about their inspirations and how they find time to fit their passions and hobbies into their "real" lives as you are to talk about the actual projects their working on?

Me too. With that in mind, I'm really excited to tell you about the Sew Slow Society. SewSlow isn't really about how slow or fast you sew but about finding time to fit in what matters, enjoy your journey and embrace your own pace.

As I've been posting here at ModernCozy and following all of your stories over the past few years,
I keep coming back to a single question time and time again -- "how does she do it all?" After thinking about it for some time, and finding that others are looking for the their own answer to that elusive question, I've decided to start Sew Slow Society as a way to perhaps find some of those answers. Over time, I hope it will be a place where other creative moms share how they find/make time to fit creativity into their lives.

Like most things, this journey will start with a single step -- writing my own experiences, as a conversation starter for a hopefully larger dialogue with you and other like-minded crafty people.

My Monday Momentum posts will be one of the first conversation starters at SewSlow, so I hope you'll join me there to continue the conversation.

Finish It Up Friday :: On a Roll

Happy Friday everyone! We are particularly happy around here today because after another round of being trapped by snow and ice we can finally get back out into the world (insert giant mama sigh of relief here). Snow days become a very different even when you have a small child FULL of energy to entertain and engage. While I could happily sit and sew for literally hours apparently watching me sew isn't that interesting - imagine that ;-)

So I have a hodge-podge of finishes this week, first up another jelly roll quilt. Are you guys sick of these yet? I hope not because I have a few more to get finished this year. What can I say, when I find something that works I stick with it! This is a belated Christmas present which wasn't finished because the recipient couldn't make it for the holiday so then it got pushed  off the "urgent" pile for a bit. But now I am happy to report that it's done. This was a jelly roll of The Morris Apprentice line that I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop. I backed it with some cozy chocolate brown flannel from Robert Kaufmann and now I wat to make every quilt back with flannel. So snuggly and good.

We found these giant 24" pillow forms at IKEA in the sale section a couple weekends ago for $5 each (score) so I busted out this giant print IKEA fabric that I'd been saving since 2008 (for pillow covers of course) and whipped up a couple envelope back pillow covers. Please tell me I'm not the only one who takes 6 years and 30 minutes to get a project done.

Finally a batch of Valentine's Day mug rugs that I quilted last year. LAST YEAR. All they needed was to have the binding attached (I made that last year too) so they were an embarrassingly quilt finish.

I think the best part of this fabric diet is that it is making me look at all the things I could be finishing with what I already have instead of constantly planning new things. I feel like I'm on a roll with getting things done and it feels great! Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a lovely day whatever your plans :-)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Monday Momentum

I read somewhere that faith is believing the unbelievable and it certainly feels true. Sometimes I believe I'll never get anything finished but I'm making a concerted effort this year to change what I believe. I'm trying to believe that I can accomplish my goals even if I can't see how right this moment. A large part of that for me is noticing when I am telling myself that "I can't" and then changing that story to an "I can". It's amazing what a difference the way you talk to yourself can make in what you believe and expect!

Finish It Up Friday :: School Auction Jelly Roll Quilt

We have many friends with kids at our local charter school so when I was asked about the possibility of donating something for their silent auction fundraiser I really wanted to help.

I searched my stash and found this project that I'd cut the strips for at least 2 years ago. I didn't even include it in my "to sew" post because it hadn't bubbled back up to the surface yet! But I thought this would be a great quilt to donate, good sized at about 52"x64"and colors that would work for Valentine's or Mother's Day if you were so inclined. I used the normal jelly roll quilt method but I featured one print and then matched six solids, plus another for the binding to the colors in the print. This would be a great way to stretch a precious yard! I love solids so I loved the combination.

All was from my stash except for one yard of Kona that I bought for binding - backing was a duvet cover from IKEA (also in my stash). I did some straight line quilting along the lines to keep it simple.

Taking pictures without an assistant can be quite a challenge but I think I did pretty well - tanks to the neighbors for the use of their fence ;-) So the quilt has been washed and delivered and I hope someone is as excited to get it as I was to make it.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Thanks for stoping by - hope your weekend is lovely!

February Cupboard

Well hello February! I must say you sort of snuck up on me after a rather busy January but I'm happy to see you :-) I wasn't ready to get rid of all the sparkly things just yet so yes, there are still a few leftovers from December but I figure until it's really truly spring I can get away with them.

A new mini, kind of like my Liberty mini from January. I wanted sweet colors without being saccharine and I think this totally fits the bill. Made with all scraps from my overflowing scrap bins!

Yarn wreath made by yours truly with some arrangement advice from my dear husband. You can find about a million felt flower tutorials on pinterest if you're curious. Mouse was bought from etsy - can't remember/find which shop but this one looks similar and is super cute. Pink cupcake stand is from the awesome Jeanette of Vessels and Wares on etsy. I promise you need one (or ten) of these stands in your life! She even customizes them with names for birthdays - how cute is that?

Sweet be mine heart from Melissa who has since sadly closed her etsy shop BUT you can find the tutorial for this very project on sew mama sew here.

Close-up of our fancy flower - Harper helped me make this from cut up toilet paper tubes. Sliced into about 1 1/2" rings and then stapled together, this was a quick and fun project for a housebound afternoon. BUT painting them was a colossal pain, we used acrylic paint and sponge brushes...never again! If we make these again I'll spray paint them for sure. A little less kid friendly but oh so much better for mommy's sanity ;-)

Monday Momentum

Faith for me is continuing to act as if something is true whether I know it is or not, and realizing that I can choose to believe anyway.

One example from last week: I decided to get three mini quilts finished - two were already pieced and ready to be quilted, one I wanted to use for my February cupboard. The upside was that these were all tiny projects, completely do-able to me when I set my intention for the week on Sunday. Then when I had some time to sew I hemmed and hawed for a bit, I didn't really feel like finishing those quilts. I had no idea how to quilt them (always a weakness of mine) I probably wouldn't get them finished anyway. So much negative self talk - ugh. Then I realized that I was full of doubt and fear and I decided to just jump in to the quilting without over-thinking it and to believe that I was going to have the time to get them done.

And I did.

Here's to a week with more faith than fear!
Thanks for stopping by :-)

Finish It Up Friday :: Many mini's

Whew. What a week people, what a week. Colds, snowmaggedon (you may have heard on the news, we got some snow here in Atlanta) and NO internet for most of the week. Blerg. So let's focus on the positive shall we? I felt like I finished a LOT! Small things but still, things I can now cross off the massive list I shared last week.

First up, this AMH baby quilt, which I am unabashedly in love with. You could also use it quite nicely as a wall hanging ;-)

I used Hand Drawn Garden and Loulouthi for this and went with quilting that framed the center flower instead of cutting through it.

It's finished at 38" square and I've listed it here in my etsy shop. I'm going to be listing a few more baby quilts as I finish them in the new few weeks (like my optimism? ;-)

 IKEA numbers fabric for the backing - love this "text" type fabric.

 Also love the texture the quilting gave it.

Mini for February and please note I did NOT give in to my fabric cravings and buy more Liberty to make more Liberty mini's even though I REALLY wanted to. 15"x18" Shot of the new February cupboard up next week!

Part of the fun of these mini's for me has been trying new things with the quilting. The actual quilting is my least favorite part so I'm trying to make it more fun and less stressful. So far, so good. This time I used a wavy stitch pattern on my machine that I've never used before and I quite liked it.

 Rainbow mini based on the scrappy trip around the world pattern - finished at 15" square.

 Fancy pants quilting that I would only ever do on something 15" square ;-)

And finally a flying geese mini made with some Malka Dubrawsky fabric that I just love. I bought a very subtle batik (which I never ever sew with) that seemed to really complement the hand-dyed look of the focus fabrics. This one is 14.5"x18"

I wasn't sure about the across-the-geese type quilting but I went for it and in the end I loved it.

Feeling good about surviving the week AND crossing some things off my list! Hope you survived your week too and here's to a good weekend for us all :-)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.