Monday, November 29, 2010

Finished!!!




Oh man, they're so cute I can barely stand it! Pinking the edges wasn't my first idea but they looked so much skinnier turned & stitched I did a lot of seam ripping & I adore the finished product. Someone asked in the last comments about the selvage--that's just a lettered fabric scrap I had in my Christmas stash. The trim is some insanely fuzzy stuff I bought years ago to trim a hat or something, I don't know, it's moved with me a couple times :p I think it's time to bust out the Christmas decorations! I'm not adding names to them...we're not married & I don't want to jinx it, ya know? On to the pet stockings :)

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Design Wall Monday

Well, it's technically still Sunday here but I'm sleeping in tomorrow when J goes hunting at 4am! Another couple near-finishes this week, I've been chained to the machine. Excuse this photo on the dining room table but here's a top for Christmas, inspired by Diary of a Quilter's Retro Christmas Quilt (she has her pattern for sale, go check it out!). I'm not big on borders so I'm calling it a day, hoping to stack & quilt it next week. It's going on a bunk bed, should be plenty big enough.



And I'm about 20 hrs into this one & probably have 10 more to go...this is a charity quilt I'd love to finish completely this week so it can be donated to the fire company. I hope it makes them lots of money! This is a "magic" pinwheel quilt made with a homemade ruler. Some pinwheel sections are "proper" and others are just plain old scrappy. I like how my little sampler section went dead center, this was totally designed on the fly and I love it! I'm working on those little 2" square border strips right now (cut from the pinwheel scraps) & then it'll get another black border & then some more of the black, white & red prints. So much for me not being into borders, lol. I have a good amount of one print left for the binding/back. I need to get this larger, right now I'd call it crib size, it should be at least a decent "adult on the couch" size. This is as crazy scrappy as I get, it makes me smile, I think Bonnie Hunter would approve of my use of every little piece of fabric, I leader/ended it too :p I got a great deal on the fabric, it was a pre-packaged kit at AC Moore for a very simple patchwork quilt, $40 but I had a 50% off coupon. They're very nice quality, I added the reds and the black & white dots from my stash.



I'm tired! My studio is a shambles but I got a ton done this week and a few more checks off my list. Thanks for visiting!

Edited to add: after a night of no sleep I was up early in my freezing cold studio working on these :) J & I didn't have stockings, I'm actually planning these as a Christmas morning gift. We don't have any children in the house but I'll make little tiny ones for the critters too. I like the retro-ish fabrics, I used these to make a quilt for J's mom last year. Editing again--the stockings are done, click my blog title to see them :)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ahhhh!

J's coming home from a 5 day hunting trip today, I've really missed him (and how much he does around the house, apparently I'm a pig when left on my own, lol). I've got a ton of housework to knock out, nothing real serious but basic maintenance I ignored.

I'm in panic-mode about the impending holiday deadline. I finally came up with an idea for the 9 yr old boy quilt I promised, it's not the original plan but I'm into it now (with a lot more tiny pieces than I usually work with but what the heck, I love a challenge). The coffee table is covered with squares I cut last night watching a movie. I totally had a great idea using my Ikea cutting board from the kitchen with my rotary cutter, brilliance!! I didn't have to drag my 2x3 ft monster out of the sewing room & I could cut on my lap. We have 3 more cutting boards, this one won't be missed.

I didn't make much progress on J's landscape wall quilt...apparently this takes a real artist and I'm just a hack. I had grand plans of a little mountain scene with a pond & a black bear in the foreground. Ha! After all day yesterday back and forth to the dining room table where I had it laid out, snipping & gluing with a glue stick, digging in bins for more greens (sadly not a great variety), defending the whole mess from 2 lonely cats looking for their daddy, I think I have a start on it. Pinned everything, rolled it up and tossed it in a pile in my sewing room for tomorrow while he's at work. I hope it all comes together with lots of creative thread use. I still haven't figured out the many trees required...

I only need to make 4 more squares on my daughter's wonky log cabin top, the rest are still pinned to the wall. Need a clue on sashing but that's my easiest project, it *should* come together without much fuss.

Then I've got this Breast Cancer Awareness quilt in progress for a charity raffle...oh my. I'm well into it, all handsewing, what was I thinking, I hate hand work! I bought a new machine a few weeks ago, I'm thinking of using some of the cool decorative stitches to finish the thing so I can pass it on to the organizer and just be done with it. It's back burner at the moment with no deadline but I feel bad I started it and told her about it over a month ago.

And then I have no ideas whatsoever for a gift for my best friend. He's the cleanest, most spartan guy I ever met, I made him a quilt earlier in the year. And then there's J's mom, I made her a Christmas quilt last year (finished it right before we went out the door to her house, ugh). I may just show up with some yummy homemade dessert and some jellies I canned this summer. And present shopping? I have 4 kids, plus their 3 new brothers & sister, 3 of the quilts I'm making are for the group (one top complete last week), I bought one little stocking stuffer & knit 2 pairs of mittens. I need my real job to really pick up so I can go shopping for ?? Something, dang what do kids play with these days? The age range is pretty huge, I'm good with teenage girls & clothes, aside from that I'm clueless.

I'm flipping out for real, less than a month! I need 30 hrs a day for a couple wks, lol. How's everyone else doing?

Monday, November 22, 2010

Design Wall Monday

Sports another near-finish, I just need to stitch down the binding (backing wraps to front so it's easy). This thing weighs a TON! One of my daughters has a "bisquit quilt" that her great-grandma made when she was born, it took her 8 months to hand sew it. This one is thanks to a tutorial from HoneyBear Lane and only took 2 days, though I totally measured wrong for the borders so I couldn't do the cute miters without recutting them or adding an ugly seam so I did the math & went another direction. I also forgot to turn the borders into puffs because I was so mad at myself for the miscut so I added the batting after they were attached to the top with spray adhesive, skipped the border muslin & went on to the next step. I think it came out pretty good. I machine tacked the intersection of every puff, quilted down one of the stripes in each border strip & did a little stitch in the ditch at the corners. There's lots of flannel in this puppy which I prewashed but I hope nothing shrinks funny after the fact, there's just so much going on with this one. I'll deliver it next week to the new mama-to-be :)





Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Something New

I got side tracked from my baby quilt (though there are a dozen more puffs done now). I had to try this craft your own ruler twisted pinwheel thing I saw on Quilting Board. My ruler is a little wonky but all I had was a hacksaw I rummaged up in the garage to cut it with. No loss there, I hated this particular ruler & rarely used it. Hand dyed scraps from my bin that I didn't even iron until AFTER I sewed it all together twice, lol. Love this technique and it'd be super easy if I had any charm packs.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Design Wall Monday

Sigh, it took me all day...I started with something different last night for a new baby gift quilt, this morning I realized it wasn't going to work, bought more fabric & started over. This is all I have done...I hadn't done HST's in so long I had to look it up. Now I know why I so rarely do triangle anything, they take soooo long. This will become a Puff Quilt ala Honey Bear Lane's nice tutorial. One of my daughters had a puff quilt her great grandma made but it was done by hand, I like this method much better :)




I'm hoping to get this done quickly & delivered on Thursday (they won't all be HST's, thank goodness). Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to swing by Judy's for more Design Wall Monday posts!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Finished Top!

Whew, this was a lot of work. Each square requires 20 pins...and normally I don't use any pins when I piece. I'm debating a simple border but for now, that's a great big check off my holiday sewing list. I need to pick up some batting so I can finish it up before I'm sewing at the last minute like most years. This is the 4th or 5th time I've done this pattern, one of these days I need to attempt "real" curves.





Excuse the ugly curtains and towel hanging on the wall...my boyfriend's idea of decorating :p

A Productive Day

I spent most of the day working on a birthday/Christmas quilt for a great little guy (pesky holiday birthday, I better figure out which it's for!). I got another pile of squares done last night but it was too late for a pic. Here's my mid-afternoon layout. I went with Kona ash for the neutral...I usually don't cave to a trend...I'm not sure if I approve or not, though it'll surely look clean longer than stark white, right? Hmm, I really don't like the gray, the "new black" my rear :p


And I finished a few more pink wonky log cabin squares for another gift quilt. Had a little helper soaking up the sun on my cutting table ;)


Puppy dog woke me before 4am and now I'm wide awake, guess I'll get back to quilting!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Some past quilts

Some of these are 3-4 years ago but haven't been shared. I have many pics on an older computer that's not cooperating, hopefully I'll be able to rescue them someday.

I didn't get a finished pic of this top but it came out gorgeous! I can't remember whose pattern (perhaps Bonnie Hunter?). I believe it's named Strip Twist and I know I assembled it wrong (oops!) but I just went with it. This was gifted last fall to my boyfriend's brother's new baby boy & mom told me a few weeks ago when we visited how much she loves it :)



This was a birthday gift for one of my tween daughter's best friends. My daughter drew the horses and I did a lot of swearing with all the applique but I think it came out ok and it was very well received :) I had an inspiration pic from somewhere online to guide me, I wish I'd saved her name/site to properly credit her idea!



This top is still just a top. I'd love to finish it for my own bed but it's got weird vibes...I made it right before I separated from my ex-husband and now I'm not sure I want to sleep with it every night no matter how much I love it, lol...



This got finished & gifted but I only have a pic of the top. Experiment with black & white & some pretty hot pink & Heather Ross fabric (I still have a good amount of that I'm hoarding). Given to a friend's baby girl. I LOVE this style quilt and am planning another for a Christmas gift.



I wish I had a pic of this after quilting (my first free motion, I used a variegated thread). This crazy cat quilt was for one of my daughters.



I made 2 of these Bargellos for a friend's twin boys! The quilts were nearly identical, I used some hand dyed FQ's, some batiks & a variety of kids prints that I thought fit her personality. I tied instead of quilting them and they're backed with a plush white flannel with rainbow dots.


And I believe it was Judy who asked recently about our favorite quilt we've made. It's hard to choose but this is one of my favs, for another of my daughters. I had a bunch of triangles cut & just played until I liked the arrangement. It's backed with a pretty satin that was a bear to work with but so worth it in the end.


Before I overload blogger I better get to work! I'll share more pics another time. Thanks for visiting :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Design Wall Monday

This is my first design wall post. I don't even have a wall, these squares are for a Christmas quilt for one of my daughters (pinned on my sewing room wall quilt). I think 6 more...but I'm not sure about sashing or anything yet.



And a (really bad photo) finish, I started this little quilted fall table runner 2 months ago. I was working on it the night my best friend called and told me he'd been in a horrible motorcycle accident. I had to do the binding twice and it's still not perfect but I like it and I hope he does too, I'll deliver it tomorrow.




Back to work before I run out of steam!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Knit along progress

I haven't gotten very far on my toe up 2 socks at once...a little too much work & running around and not enough "parked on the couch" time. This is some sport weight wool from Knitpicks that I dyed a few weeks ago. I'm knitting along with Judy


And part of the blame for the poor knitting is the learning curve on my new machine, she's got a few quirks but this is by far the nicest machine I've ever owned & I got a heck of a deal.



Back to work!