Frogs, and Turtles, and Birds, Oh My!

Almost all caught up with the Elephant Parade Quilt Along! Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts has designed this cute quilt and I couldn't help but gather fabric and join.

So cute!

The frog block came together pretty quickly...Just need eyes on this guy!

Blind ribbit

The turtle went together just as quickly...except something was wrong...

What's with all the extra fabric on the top piece?

I kept looking and looking and couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. I was JUST about to trim down the block so the top piece fit the bottom...when I moved something to grab my rotary cutter and saw the tail section. Phew! Disaster averted!

Sooo much better! :)

I got the frog and turtle put together in one Maggie nap (45 minutes). Yay, me!

I tackled the birds the after I put Maggie down for the night. I thought I was being careful with the instructions, but clearly something went wrong.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna fix these guys. I have to ponder that and let you know later.

Lorna posted the instructions for the flowers on Sunday, so that is what I will be working on this week. Check those out here. Linking up with the Let's Bee Social linky party!

More to come,

Baby Elephants!

These are the baby elephants from Sew Fresh Quilt's Elephant Parade. I have been running behind with this quilt along, and honestly, I didn't think that I would get these little guys done in time for today's link ups. Working late into last night and finishing this morning, these babies turned out so cute!

They are NOT perfect. There are some wonky bits. I think that it gives them character!  :)

I continued to group my cut pieces together for each block. I like how this organizes all the bits and I am not constantly looking for pieces.

For the left-facing babies

The Good

I feel that, overall, my piecing was much better with these little guys.

They look good from a distance, don't they?

A little closer...

This seam makes me happy!

The Bad

I'm not a perfect piecer and that is okay. I ended up with some pieced sections that looked a little curved...weird!

A little wonky in places

The Ugly

Sometimes, my seams are waaaay off. I'm not really sure why. Possible reasons: inaccurate cutting, fatique (just go to bed, already!), sewing on a diagonal (I don't seem to do this well), and , of course, a combination of all three!

A little left side wonk

Yikes!!

Anyway, Mamas and babies are done.  Moving on to the frog, turtle and birds. I think I can get these done for next week. Then I'll be almost caught up! YAY, me!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social by Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP Wednesday by Freshly Pieced.

More to come,

Mama Elephants - Done!

I am so impressed with myself!  :) I have finished the large elephant from the Elephant Parade Quilt Along from Sew Fresh Quilts. I am calling them the mama elephants.

I started with this:

Pieces for mama elephants picked out and waiting...

And ended up with this:

5 Mama elephants waiting for their babies

I am finding this to be a real learning experience. I have been really careful with cutting and piecing, and my blocks have come put pretty good. A few of things worth noting are,

1) When the instructions call for you to do something different than you normally do, say for example, pressing seams open instead of to the dark, pay extra attention to make sure you do. I had to go back and repress a few seams when I realized that I had pressed them incorrectly. As I got to putting together the sections of the block, I was glad that I went back and repressed.

2) If piecing multiple blocks at the same time, and there is a directional difference...PAY ATTENTION!!  As you can see above, all my mama elephants are facing the same direction. I realized that issue after I had pieced together the far left section of the block. I didn't want to pick everything out, so they will stay that way, but lesson learned.

All left facing trunks.Oops!

3) Finger pressing before using your iron can help prevent some burnt fingers. There were a couple of close calls, but no burns.

4) I am not a very fast piecer...And that is okay. It took me about 3 hours and 10 minutes to go from pieces sorted to finished block. That seems slow to me. Maybe it is not...I really don't have anything to compare it to.

Mama Elephant

Next up, the babies! Today, I am linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday and Sew Fresh Quilts for the Let's Bee Social Linky Party.

More to come,

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting...

Huge exciting night at my house last night! Maggie went down when we got home from book club and I went downstairs to finish cutting for the Elephant Parade blocks. I am behind on this quilt along, but persevering nonetheless. 

Last week, I tackled cutting up the off-white fabric I purchased from my LQS. It is a Northcott ColorWorks Premium Solid, but I'm not sure what colour number it is. Looking from the swatches on the website, it may be a 9000-11 or 9000-14. I'll find out the next time I'm there...if I remember to bring a swatch to match.

All done! Er...not quite.

Here's how I label...I think I need smaller stickies!

One HUGE mistake I made was not labelling the strips early enough. I started hacking cross-cutting my sashing strips into block pieces and got through 3 sashing strips before I realized it. OOPS! I have a little bit of off-white yardage left, so I think I'll cut new sashing strips and grab some more yardage if I need it. Would you buy and/or cut new strips? Or use the cut ones?

Needless to say, I was very careful when cutting the colour fabric last night. It took me about 3 hours to cut the remaining fabrics. Here is the result.

Can you see the blocks aching to be put together?

So glad that's done. Now I can get to putting blocks together, and perhaps get a little caught up to the quilt along. This week is week 3, which is an adorable frog. Check out the instructions at Sew Fresh Quilts. I'll post updates as I muddle my way through.

More to come,