Progress report

While I have probably only completed half of the tasks I set before myself , I am gaining ground (if you overlook that a new month of BOM's has just begun) hee hee he.

I completed a baby quilt for Brayden.  None too soon as he is set to arrive next Saturday, the 7th of September by C-section.  He will be by daughter's third to arrive that way and our first grandson!!!
I found these two adorable deer patterns over at Shape Moth and got to work on making a very simple quilt for our little dear.  I love love Joanna's patterns!!!

I got three of my Pile 'O Fabric Skillbuilder blocks done :

 'Broken Arrow'

'Diamond Carat'

'Pixelate'

I set to work on my July and August castle blocks that I am doing from Ula Lenz's castle BOM.  I started with the Princess castle and hated one of the colors I used.  Man I hate that!!!  

I had originally thought to use the light cream again that is on the left where the frogs are above the princesses in the tower but was afraid it might be too washed out so I went with the darker purple.  I really regretted that I opt to do that as it just didn't appear to be right.  I hate ripping it immediately apart so I set to work on the gnome castle instead.  I always like how it works out so I made the August block for it also.  Here is how it turned out.

I could tell from this castle that I was right that the dark purple of the princess castle needed replaced for sure so I set to ripping it apart, salvaging what I could and remaking the parts I needed to change.  Here is the corrected castle as it is today.

 Although it slowed down progress...it was worth the necessary time it took to switch the colors.  I couldn't convince the same frogs to move into the castle so now some dragons live precariously close to the princesses in the lower towers.  I believe they look rather jolly so I think the ladies shall having nothing to fear.

This brings my to do list to look like this now:

1. Pile O Fabric Skillbuilder blocks

• Phoenix
• Pixelate
• Saturn
• Candyland
• Broken Arrow
• Diamond Carat

    2.  July Castle Blocks

• Gnome Castle
• Surprise Castle
• re-do Fairy Princess Castle

    3.   August Castle Blocks

• Gnome Castle
• Surprise Castle
• Fairy Princess Castle

     4.   I need to finish my Forest QAL quilt binding and post it here prior
           to August 31st. 

     5.   Finish my Deer baby quilt by Sept 5th  baby due Sept 7th...cutting
           it close I know

     6.   Finish Brayden's name quilt that I started way before he had a name
           and have yet to complete.
Of course, I haven't got the courage to add my Sept BOM's to the list right yet as I want to just believe I am making progress for a while longer.  I know I can only fool myself for so long but hey it is only Sept 1st so I will bask in my ignorance a while longer.

In the meantime, a friend from work let me borrow her Go Baby for a while and will be using it to cut up some fabrics into an array of shapes and sizes.  She had about 12 dies to go with it and I can not say enough good things about how easy it is to use.

 Oh, yes that Hexagon block die is fantastic!!! It makes 2",3",and 5" hexagons quick as a wink.  I stacked my fabric 4 layers thick but I think it can do 6 or 7.  One of the dies is for 2" squares, I sure could have used it to cut my pixelate blocks , but will be able to get some of my squares for the Phoenix block cut with it.  I also have tons of fabrics that I want to use in a watercolor someday and can't wait to chop them into 2" squares. One of the dies makes 5" charm squares and another is for 3 1/2" squares.  She had dies for parellelgrams, chisels, and triangles...oh my I am having fun.  In just the few minutes I played with it on Friday night I cut out all this lickety split:

This was just a few minutes play time and no I am not getting paid to say any of this.  This is just me borrowing a friend's toy and loving it.  Santa may be getting me one of these for Christmas this year.  I have a Sixxix machine for die cutting paper and it really takes some work to get the lever to come down and put pressure on the die to cut the shape out.  Not so with the GO Baby!  It just cranks through the opening with no effort.  It took me longer to choose fabrics than to cut them out.  For me, the hardest part of starting a new project is cutting all the pieces.....
Dear Santa ,
I have been a very good girl this year!!!