Thursday, September 26, 2013

Happy Selfish Sewing Week!

Don't you hate when life gets in the way of... well everything else? Most importantly, quilting!

That's whats been happening with me over the past few weeks, and as insult to injury, my washing machine broke on Tuesday flooding out our hallway and bathroom ahhhhh! My future FIL is here and it's nice to have him as he's from Los Angeles so we only see him a few times a year.

It's selfish sewing week and my machine isn't even plugged in!
I had these great plans of making our guest quilt for the wedding this week, but that hasn't started yet. At least I picked out the fabric!


I also made some progress on my buttons quilt. I'm half way there, woo!
                                   



This quilt came together so easily. I'm sure I could finish the whole thing in a few hours, maybe I'll work on it today!


What are you working on???

Quilt on,
Hoppi

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

WIP Wednesday: Sharing stories

I am so incredibly proud to say that I've inspired others to spread awareness for childhood cancer!

Head over to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to read Sarah's beautiful story about Savannah.






For my post card swap I sent a card made by my cousin Vanessa and a post card that I created to mirror Vanessa's drawing.









I sent these cards to a lovely woman named Wendy in the UK. She shared Ness's story with the rest of our group to bring awareness to our whole group! It makes me feel really good knowing that I inspired these women to bring awareness to those around them!


So my major WIP this week is my Buttons baby quilt. I've started FMQ on the quilt but hit a wall. I got so frustrated working on it this morning I had to walk away.



My thread keeps doing this, shredding. What gives? I read online that I need to re-thread the machine, so I did about 20 times. Then I read it's the tension, but my tension is fine. So then I tried cleaning and oiling the machine, and you're not going to believe it, that made it worse. What the heck????
Well once my frustration blows over I hope to finish this by Friday. 




















WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced


Today I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Quilt on,
Hoppi



Monday, September 9, 2013

How to FMQ a button...

Today I'll be starting with an incredibly upsetting fact about childhood cancer. Everyday about 250 children pass away from cancer. 91,250 lose their life to the disease every year. September is childhood cancer awareness month, do your part to spread awareness to at least one person this month! 



This afternoon I bordered and basted my buttons baby quilt. I am so in love with this quilt and I can't wait to sell it to a family who can adore it as much as I do! 


 Look at the high loft on that baby (quilt)!
... someone used my fabric shears to cut paper. I have a feeling it wasn't Madison (our dog). 






So here is my dilemma. I will be FMQing the quilt with the pattern shown here. However, do I double up on the flower petals or leave them as single petals? What would you do? I think the single petals look cleaner, but the double petals give me a little more wiggle room to get around the quilt.




Happy Monday! Today I'm linking up with Stitch by Stitch!
stitch by stitch





Quilt on,
Hoppi

Friday, September 6, 2013

FMQ Friday: EYL and buttons!

All of my posts this month will start off with the point that September is childhood cancer awareness month. Each day I'm sharing a new fact about pediatric cancer. About 720 children will be diagnosed with cancer today, that equals about 263,000 newly diagnosed children each year. If you're new to my blog, or haven't checked in at all yet this month, please head over to PCFLV's 30 days, 30 stories and read all the stories, Vanessa is my cousin.



Fall seems to be in full swing here in Eastern Pennsylvania, and I'm loving every minute of it! There's something about opening the windows, drinking spiced tea, listening to Explosions in the Sky, and quilting in fall. To me, this season is the most magical of all. I do love all the seasons, which would probably explain why I haven't left Pennsylvania yet, but I must admit autumn is my favorite. The smells, the colors, and the weather. I find it all so inspiring, which is probably why I want to quilt every spare second I have!



    I want to start off today with my Whoop Whoop of the week! This button quilt top that I started around 9 last night. I can't wait to border it and get it on the machine. I am oh so in love with this quilt, and I think I'm going to be really sad when the time comes to let go of it!

I've been FMQing quite a bit this week. I finished up the 'breath' section of my Express Your Love quilt! My goal is to have this quilt done by October 19th as I am having a Silpada party for my future mother in law at my home. I want to be able to hang it on my wall and be proud!
















What have you all been working on this week? Enjoy the weekend!

Today I'm linking up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday and Sarah's Can I get a Whoop Whoop over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Quilt on,
Hoppi



Thursday, September 5, 2013

Button, button, who's got the button!?



To begin, September is still Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, so here's your fact of the day: one in 330 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they're 20. I'm willing to bet there's more than 330 children in your local school district.



I don't know if I've mentioned on the blog but I'm part of a FMQ Post Card swap on facebook. I swap a post card each month with another quilter somewhere around the globe! It's super fun. Our 'leader' posted a challenge today: "So here is your CHALLENGE for the month of SEPTEMBER----do a message on here of ONE thing you are behind with and THAT is your challenge...get it done. Simples."

My initial response was hell yeah, challenge accepted! You know what I'm really behind on? Go ahead, give it a guess...

...that's right, opening the Hoppi Quilt Shop. It's time. This is long, long over due. I need to grow a pair, get over my fears and just do it. 

The one thing that I will be sharing with the group is my button quilt, so I got started on it right away. 



The fabric was a precut layer cake... and oh so tasty. I laid it out around 9:15 and finished piecing and ironing around 10:00. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 







I plan on bordering it in a robins egg blue color and FMQ in a dark pinkish thread I have on hand. 




I don't know what it is about this quilt that excites me so much. Is it the color scheme? Honestly, I don't think I would pick these colors on any regular occasion. Is it the pattern of the fabrics? I'm not even a huge fan of buttons!! So I don't know what it is, but something about this quilt just does it for me!










I'm considering selling it as a baby quilt. I also considered sewing on actual buttons and making it a small lap quilt. Which would you rather see me do? Please let me know in the comments! 

Quilt on,
Hoppi


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

WIP Wednesday: EYL is off the wall!!!!

*Update* I'm putting this at the top because it is incredibly important. I can't believe I forgot to add this to my post today. Again, September is childhood cancer awareness month. Let's put some perspective as to why childhood cancer needs so much awareness. Congress approves each year how much funding is spent on cancer research and allocates which cancers receive how much money. In 2009 $5.6 billion was spent on cancer research. About $180 million was allocated to pediatric cancer research while $572.6 million was allocated to breast cancer research in the same year. Since I missed yesterday's fact, lets talk about survival rate, something no one wants to talk about when it comes to pediatric cancer. Survival means 5 years or more after remission. Breast cancer, which receives almost 5 times the funding, has a 93% survival rate according to the American Cancer Society. Pediatric cancer has an 80% survival rate according to the American Childhood Cancer Organization. Just think about how insane that is. Certainly breast cancer needs awareness, too, but what I'm trying to point out is that childhood cancer is not getting the awareness and the funds for research that it needs.

I know that was a lot of information to take in, and I'm sorry for giving it to you all at once but it's incredibly important to spread this information!
I will be posting one fact a day from now on. The reason I missed yesterday is because I was in the ER again, that story I will save for another day. Moving on...

 Look at what was on my machine today... Express Your Love. Wow, it felt great to get back on this quilt. My first art quilt.


I only finished one tiny section doing echoing, but it still felt so great to get back on this quilt. 




I feel like the blue really adds a nice pop of color, good choice, me! 


I walk away for 2 minutes and she's already on the quilt!


I feel like my list of WIP's is about two miles long.  So let me lay it out for you. 

Personal stuff:
  1. EYL: keep trucking on the FMQ
  2. Pinwheels and Elephants table runner: Finish up the border and quilt that sucker out
  3. Orange bed quilt: The top and back have been pieced for months, I just need to go about basting and quilting it some how! 


Stuff for the Hoppi Quilt Shop:

  1. More wine totes
  2. Buttons Lap quilt: so far I've just cut it
  3. Two other quilts: fabric is cut... that's all!
  4. Ombre Lap quilt: lol... that should tell you enough. I got the fabric, so I guess that's a start







And then there's this adorable fabric I bought myself in March. 



Seriously... what do you do with fabric this cute? I don't even want to cut it because it's so cute. Cho kawaii desu ne? (it's so cute, isn't it? oh yeah, there was that time where I minored in Japanese and studied abroad in Japan, surprise!)





















As far as wedding Wednesday's, they'll start up again soon. Very soon I will be starting the DIY stuff for the wedding.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Today I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. You absolutely have to head over there today and read the guest post by Molli Sparkles. Holy hilarious fabulousness... so much good. Go read it, now, you won't regret it!

Quilt on,
Hoppi

Monday, September 2, 2013

WIP/Finish Monday/ Pediatric Cancer Awareness month

Did you know that childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under 15? Scary, huh? People don't want to talk about it, they only want to think "that could never happen to me, my child is so healthy." Until it happens to you, like it happened to my family.
September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, so each day this month I will be sharing with you a fact about Pediatric Cancer.

For more information about my amazing cousin, Vanessa, and other incredibly brave children affected by cancer check out the PCFLV 30 Days, 30 Stories.


Now on to quilts and my absence. I don't want to make this public to alarm anyone or to get sympathy, I just want to put this out there so you all know. I am sick, with what we're not quite sure. I was in the hospital this week with symptoms of a stroke, and this is not the first time that this has happened. I am going to be a-ok, however, in order to get ANY answers about my condition I need health insurance first. How ridiculous is that? I need an MRI, MRA and a consult with a neurologist, but until I get health insurance they won't even schedule the appointments with me. The hospital said I needed to get all this done in a week. Does this make you as angry as it makes me? This could be a very serious condition, and I won't know until I get a job that offers me health insurance, which could be months from now! I just don't understand how messed up our health system is.

On to some more positive things.















Happy spirals and happy ferns, two wine totes that I FINALLY finished for the quilt shop (wine not included)!






I've also decided to take Express Your Love off the wall and put it back on my machine. I am SO excited about this. I can't wait to finish it, though that may not be for a few more months.

I also have two more WIPs in the works, as I've assembled two quilt tops for the shop. Once I get a little extra money I will purchase the backing and binding for these quilts!

It's something about the fall weather that makes me SUPER motivated to quilt!

I will post more pictures of the quilt tops and more wine totes that I'm assembling this week!

As far as my training goes I did take about a week off, but will be starting back up again today!

How are you all spending your labor day?
Quilt on,
Hoppi
stitch by stitch
Today I'm linking up with stitch by stitch.

I'm also linking up with Can I get a Whoop Whoop over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Sarah is celebrating a milestone of 900 followers with an awesome give away, go check it out!