Friday, April 29, 2011

Busy Morning!

 

Finally Friday!!!  I knocked out some projects this morning.  First up, I sewed & clipped this yesterday and bound & washed it this morning.  My first stab at chenille and I LOVE it!  I started cutting it with scissors but my hand was screaming in agony.  The seam ripper was way easier!

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Above, before washing.  Below, after washing, it measures 34x44.”  I’ve had that paw print flannel forever, the other layers are regular cotton in orange, white and a blue print hidden in there so both sides do kind of match, bound in navy.  It’s really soft & cuddly now, I’ve got to make some more.  Inspired by this nice lady’s blog post.

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And you’ve seen this one before…I started hand quilting it but had pucker issues so I ripped it all out this morning & used my machine.  Walking foot straight stitch around the inside of each 4-patch, machine tied in the middle of 4’s, stipple/loop FMQ in sashing, raw edge applique around flowers.

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Please excuse the “draped over my cutting table” photo…other surfaces were busy.  Still needs binding but I’d had enough by then!

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I took the dog for a ride in the car (ROFL, always an interesting trip), ran to Home Depot & planted 6 trays of seeds for the garden too.  I think it’s officially time for my weekend to begin!  Have a good one everyone!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Start of a new quilt?

 

I’m really not sure if I like this or not…

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I bought the coloring book a few weeks ago thinking I’d make a cute baby quilt with 9 animal blocks.  Hmm, maybe it’s just my lack of contrast with the 3 green prints I chose…or the horrible job I did zigzagging the edges…the raw edge butterflies came out ok, lol.

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While I was sewing that I got a call to come see where Little Bear was—he found a window that’s never open (hot & humid here, I don’t blame him!).  He never poses for pics, I was glad to get one!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

WIP Wednesday

 

After some extensive housework today (blah!) I got my top finished.  It’s umm, crazy, but should definitely brighten up the bedroom.

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‘Scuse the floor shot, dog bone, etc…Floor was just mopped so I figured what the heck.

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Closeup, I did some sloppy raw edge applique (fusible) so it’ll curl & fray after a wash.  The quilting will be the showcase but it’ll have to wait, I’m out of batting except ridiculously small scraps & this is a big quilt.  I have some turquoise and white ric rac, throwing around the idea of adding stems to the “flowers” but I’m not really a ric rac gal, probably won’t bother…Thanks for looking, I’m linking up with WIP Wed today.

Garden Stroll #1

 

I’m going to try to do this once a week all summer, we spend a lot of time in the garden & it’s neat to see how fast things grow.

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Ornamental crab apple

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Peonies (the ants love these, see them crawling on the buds?)

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The lilac is rather pale this year but the photo isn’t great as it’s awfully overcast this morning.

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Last renegade bloom on one of the two baby nectarine trees.

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Bambi & whole extended family has been munching on my day lilies (this is at the corner of my new flower garden bed but as the rest is just dirt I’ll spare you more photos until the newly planted seeds come up).

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These little violet/viola/whatever things are weeds here but they’re so delicate & pretty.  We’re having a banner dandelion crop too, lol…

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We’ve already picked some asparagus, these spears are ready too.

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Hydrangea starting to green up.

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Caught the first open azaleas.

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Warm spot along the house is hosting the first tomato experiment, just an early girl we got at the farmers market last weekend.

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2 wks in the ground for the broccoli & cabbage (transplants from the nursery).  I’m not walking out there, we’ve had a TON of rain the last few weeks.

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The onions look great!

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No clue what the pale pink blooming tree is right outside the back door.

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Even the pin oak is starting to leaf.

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More of my favorite “weeds.”

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We don’t have any daffodils or crocus so here’s the obligatory hosta pic!

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And the first of my personal favorites, my lilies are up!  This is a Black Bird, an Asiatic Lily.  I have 5 or 6 peeking up (some other varieties too) and need to hit the nursery for more soon.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

WIP Wednesday

 

Happy Birthday to me, lol.  I’m finally making a quilt for myself (well, I have one other in progress but it’ll be a long while). 

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I started this yesterday with not much of a plan in mind, I just had lots of extra orange fabric on hand.  Unfortunately I don’t have enough of the turquoise to continue without a trip to the store.  I have half of the top pieced & started cutting my fusible appliques.  They’re just randomly laid on top so you can see the neat poppies (& zinnias, etc) fabric I found last week.  It was such a wild color combination I had to try it.  My BF asked if I’d suddenly become a Dolphins fan, lol.  All the patchwork is random & on point 5” finished squares.  It’ll be approximately twin size which is plenty big enough for me (who makes those measurements anyway?  Twin fits fine on my full size bed, I layer them over a bigger quilt that covers the mattress sides & box spring).  It’s bigger than I normally make & I’m sure I’ll be cursing as I quilt it but I can’t wait for that part.  I’m going to start with straight line quilting along both sides of the seams (with my trusty walking foot), then raw edge applique the circles & finish up filling in the solid squares with a variety of circle FMQ.  It’ll be one of my most heavily quilted ones yet.  I hope it comes out, I’m a little freaked by the patchwork by itself, it’s LOUD!  Thanks for stopping by, happy quilting!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

How long has it been?

 

Since I posted?  Wow, it’s been crazy busy here!  I do have a few finishes.  I had to return the broken walking foot, the new one is much better.  Sadly most of this was quilted with the first one so it’s not perfect (stitch length varies, straight lines not so straight, lol).  I still love it, it should wash up nice.

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I backed it with more of the great orange tie dye and bound it in a solid, more rust colored orange.  I can’t remember the name of the charm pack I started with but I blogged it a while back.  It wasn’t my favorite line on first glance but I adore the finished quilt.

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This was a super un-traditional/modern/whatever wedding wall hanging quilt I made on commission.  I can’t get a true color shot of this to save my life.  It’s lime green & fuschia (yep, weird, those are the wedding colors).  I had issues with the embroidery…I’m so glad she liked it because I had to rip it out and do it again and was about to start over with a fabric marker.

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It has a ton of tiny pieces I drew & used raw edge applique (fusible).  The walking foot totally ROCKS for quilting these!  Lots of thread changes but I’m pretty happy with it and I have extra flowers & swirls that just didn’t fit in to use on a future project. 

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And a little yarn fun, this is my first ever string bag.  I started with the standard Lily pattern & abandoned it for the top edge & strap (I’m not good at crochet instructions, I was impressed I got as far as I did).  It only took me 2 days but I still haven’t woven in the tails, nor did I appropriately line up the color change when I switched balls but I like it just fine.

That’s it for today, thanks for stopping by!

 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Design Wall Monday, April 4

 

Another finish, inspired by Oh Fransson’s pattern “New Wave.”  I finally bit the bullet & bought a walking foot (gosh, took me long enough!).  I think there’s a learning curve to this thing, my lines aren’t the straightest, but it’s definitely an improvement & sped up the process considerably.  Maybe there’s hope for the big pile of tops I have waiting to quilt!

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I’m calling this the “Edgy Baby Quilt” because I used some interesting novelty prints, several of which aren’t babyish at all.  Had some minor issues binding the points, I did make bias binding but I couldn’t quite miter all the turns neatly.  It measures (approx) 34x43.”

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Some of my favorite fabrics.

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And I finally used one of my silk screened & embellished labels.  Next time I’ll try printing directly on the backing fabric so I don’t have to hand sew the thing on.  Fun pattern, I’ll definitely make this again!

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Almost finished with the quilting on this one too!  Love the turquoise with orange.  I need to go exchange my walking foot this morning, something’s not right with it, I’m having to drag the quilt through to keep a consistent stitch length.

I’m linking up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday, happy sewing everyone!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Finally Friday!

 

It’s been a slow blog week for me!  I finished a big project at work & joined the gym, my new addiction.  There’s a group of us who go around noon every day and I’m always the first to arrive.  Yesterday I did 9 miles (combined on several machines) and went back last night for an hour cycling/spinning class that kicked my butt!  It turned into a painful 20 mile day.  I was considering skipping today but it’ll be too easy to slip into that rut if I do so I’m trying to get my act together & the kinks worked out.  Knowing I can catch part of the Phillies first game at the gym helps, we’re so ready for some baseball!  I had 30 lbs to lose, thanks to bf’s awesome cooking skills over the last year + and I’m down 6 already.

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This morning’s project is to stack & pin this top and really get something put together for a wall quilt I promised someone (still in the design phase, I think I finally have a plan that’ll work for that).  Have a great weekend!