Catching Up

Wow, it's been an entire month - oops!  To be honest though I really don't have a whole lot to report on the crafty front anyway.    Things have been uber busy at work and at home, with a string of illnesses, so my sewing machine has been sadly neglected.

But, I did finally get some sunny weather where the husband and I were both home so I got some decent pictures of my finished AMH Innocent Crush quilt.  It's been the resident couch quilt for weeks now so it's nice to finally get it blogged!

I quilted it in straight lines, 1/4 inch away from each seam.  It took forever and some of the lines where I didn't have a seam to follow are distinctly wonky, but I really like the effect.  The varying grid-like pattern is especially cool on the back.

The binding probably isn't the print I would have picked (this was a kit), but it is pretty and frames the quilt nicely.

Finally, I have actually been working - slowly - on a new project.  I've been making wonky log cabins from the Malka layer cake that I won.  I used a tutorial from From the Blue Chair.  It's a kind of slice and dice method and doesn't waste a lot of fabric, which I like.  Plus, my OCF self is not good with being purposely wonky, so...baby steps.  I've finally finished all the blocks, but this will give you the general effect.

Now I just need to get some sewing time again, and maybe I'll have more to report.  Happy Sewing!

Fun Things

This past week has been a really fun one, although not terribly productive on the quilting front.

We had our Triad MQG meeting, which I missed last month, and I was so excited to be back with our fabulous group of ladies.  For this month we did a travel pillow swap.  My partner, Colleen, loves all things DS Quilts and the ever-popular red/aqua color combo.  So I picked a bunch of red/aqua prints from the various DS Quilts prints at Joann's, and did a simple flying geese pattern.

The front is quilted with a basic zig zag that follows the geese, and the back is a simple stipple.

And it even has a zipper!  They aren't nearly as hard as they seem.

My partner loved it - yay!!  And, I love the cute, bright pillow I got from my other partner (maker?), Angie! See, it's even already nice and wrinkled from getting use in my sewing chair.

Also, even though I didn't get a lot of quilty stuff done, I did finally make peace with my serger!  I've already made a somewhat bizarre-looking practice shirt for my son that was sewed almost entirely on the serger.  It really is great for knits.

And now for one of the best parts of my week - I won this awesome A Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky layer cake from Marmalade Fabrics from a giveaway over at Film in the Fridge.  Wow, talk about luck!  This was a great giveaway that I never expected to win, so wahoo!!  Now I just have to figure out what to do with it, so many possibilities!

Quilt Tops & Serger Struggles

These last few weeks have been pretty productive for me – which is rare but a nice surprise!  Of course, my share of the laundry and housework is another story altogether…

I just finished 2 quilt tops, and am completely in love with them both.  I also have another one just waiting to be cut, but I think I need to get a handle on these first.

First up is a fat quarter quilt from Anna Maria Horner’s Innocent Crush line (at least I think it’s all Innocent Crush).  This came from a kit that included a pattern, 16 fat quarters, backing, and binding that I got for a ridiculous deal last weekend.  I normally don’t like quilt kits, but due to the awesome price and the fact that my husband said he liked the fabrics, I jumped on this one.

The pattern is “Just ‘Tween Us Girls” by Carlene Westberg Designs.  I followed the cutting instructions and one of the layout options, but changed the block construction a little.  The pattern called for the different widths to be randomly sewn together.  Oops!  I have to say my Type A self likes the slightly more orderly look.

The backing will be the light purple print with the flowers.

The second is a longtime WIP.  I made the 6 inch bowtie blocks from Kona Coal and scraps a few months ago, and let the stack just sit.  I wasn’t sure how to lay it out until I saw this one that had a similar vibe.  I didn’t see hers before I picked my colors, but it was a happy coincidence.

The only problem I have now is that I’m wishing it was a little bit bigger to fit our king-sized bed.  The top measures 73 x 85 unfinished, so that’s a no go.  But, I’m out of most of the scraps I used for the top, and I can’t come up with a good way to make it bigger except maybe borders?  Times like this are when I wish we had a guest bedroom, just so I could display quilts!

In other much less interesting news, I’ve finally gotten my awesome Christmas present out of the box, a Brother serger.  It gets rave reviews online and I am really excited about it – except that I can’t get it to stitch correctly!  The right needle thread (1 of 4) makes giant loops like it has no tension, no matter what I do.  And that’s supposed to be the easy part to thread.  I should have known it was too good to be true when I had no trouble threading it the first time.  I’m probably doing something very obviously wrong.  My sweet hubby bought me a serger book to go with it, and I got some real serger thread today to use instead of the weird stuff that came preloaded.  Hopefully research and nice thread will give me the upper hand over my new nemesis!

Photobombers!! (Or, why I take my pics outside, alone!)

Valentine's Day Mini Quilt

    I always say I'm not really into Valentine's Day, but really I think I like it as much as the next girl.  After all, if I never got anything, even something really little, I would be so disappointed!  So even though I can admit that I do like to celebrate it, even on a small scale, I really don't decorate for it.  Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving,  Easter, and even Fourth of July I get, but Valentine's Day?  I'm a little weirded out by the retailers trying to convince us that it's the next Christmas in terms of decorating.
    My crazy rambling aside, since I started sewing I am slowly starting to get the appeal of Valentine's Day crafts. I love pink and white together, that's really my excuse.  So this year, after waffling about maybe making a quilt with V-day colors, I lucked out and saw this easy tutorial at asquaredw and just had to make it.  I have plenty of red and pink scraps for this, and from cutting to binding it only took 2 evenings to do.

    For the quilting I did a single straight line to trace each heart, and then a small stipple in the white spaces.  I think it makes the hearts pop nicely.

   I really like it!  My only problem now is trying to figure out how to hang it.  I've never made a hanging sleeve so I'm hoping to come up with something...uh...creative (jerry-rigged). 

    So now I guess I can no longer say that I'm the equivalent of a Valentine's Day Ebenezer Scrooge!

Weekend Wrap-Up

    Ever have one of those weekends that was so nice, it makes Monday extra painful?  Or maybe that's every Monday?  Either way, it was a good weekend.  I did a little sewing, a little shopping, and a lot of hanging out with my boys.

First, I finished up the top for the Made in Cherry quilt.  At 80" square, thing is huge!  This was the best picture I could get.  Maybe when it's quilted I can get some good pics, although how/if I'm going to quilt it myself is another problem.

    My husband earned some major brownie points on Saturday.  We went to a nearby fiber arts quilt show/vendor event.  Not a lot of stuff that was my style (which the pocketbook appreciated), but I loved seeing the variety of vendors and quilting styles.  The next place was closer to home and a lot more dangerous to the bank account: Karen Gray Designs.  She was having another one of her famous sales.  I only left with a couple of bundles and could have definitely gotten more!

    From Karen Gray: a 1/2 yard bundle of Nicey Jane, and a quilt kit of Anna Maria Horner.  I never buy kits, but this one was such a steal and very pretty.  

    From the quilt show: some yardage of Fandango and Michael Miller, a triangle ruler, Machingers gloves, and a really cute growth chart for E.

    I did also manage to get some nice sewing time - during the daytime, what a luxury! - thanks to my son's 3 hour nap on Sunday.  Woot!

     First up is a drawstring bag for E to hold cars and toys when we go out.  The lining is duck cloth so it's super sturdy, and he's all about dragons so I used a random print for the outside.  I used the fabulous tutorial from In Color Order, except that I only used 1 string strip and made it a little longer.

    I've been wanting to practice making clothes, and I picked up this dinosaur print several months ago with that in mind.  E even picked it out.  The pattern is the Easy Linen Shirt from Sewing for Boys.  It's a little crazy, but he loves it.  The hubs and I decided that if we take him anywhere scientific, like a museum, he has the perfect shirt to wear! 

    Now back to the usual manic Monday!

Green Posh Quilt

   I am really excited to have finished my new quilt.  It's just for me, with no thought to who it's for, what others like, how it matches the house, etc.  (Although I'm apparently not that rebellious, it matches our home colors really well).  This is the Posh pattern, a free pattern from Moda.  The pattern uses a small print for the background, but I used a pretty solid green, Kona Tarragon, as well as a couple of matching solids.

     I just love how quilts look after they've crinkled up from the dryer!

    Inspired by all the focus on free motion quilting lately in blog land, I decided to follow the loopy lines on the flannel I used as backing for the quilt (which I love almost as much as the front) instead of stippling.  I loooove the feel of flannel backing, it makes quilts extra snuggly.

   I also stepped a little outside my comfort zone and used a printed binding.  Told you I was a rebel! ;)  I usually use a matching solid for binding, but I think the bright contrasting print really adds to this one due to all the solids.

    This was a really quick pattern, and the whole quilt took me only a few weeks from start to finish, with lots of breaks in between.  Not too bad, that's 2 finishes for 2012!

    And now, a cautionary tale of the danger of lunch hour + coupon + wandering.  Earlier this week I had a 30% off total purchase for Joann's, and they were showing Kona cottons at 40% off online, which would have been less than $4 a yard.  So I went on my lunch break with the intention of stocking up.  Instead, come to find out the sale was online only, and the coupon is only good in-store.  Booo!!  But I still needed a few notions and other odds and ends, so I decided to wander aimlessly around the store.  Besides some notions and fusible web, I left the store with this stack of randomness:

    A yard of flannel and some black tone-on-tone from the remnant bin, a DS quilt print, a knit for some serger practice, a couple of yards of Alexander Henry, and Star Wars.  They were all on sale - unlike my original, probably much more useful fabric goals - but hey, it's Star Wars! And Alexander Henry!  The Star Wars stuff was picked over or I so would have bought more.  The only bad thing, I really do need some more Kona.

Happy Sewing!

WIP Wednesday

    I'm excited about this WIP Wednesday, since I actually made some progress this week!

    First up, I'm doing the Made In Cherry Quilt Along over at pins and bobbins.  I'm using Joel Dewberry Heirloom and Kona Berry for the background.  I have all the squares and triangles cut, and I'm getting really excited about this one!  I love QALs, it's so fun to see how differently people interpret patterns.

    Next up, the Triad Modern Quilt Guild is doing a travel pillow swap for February.  After much debate (I am a classic over-thinker), I think I've settled on this for the front.  This was my first foray into flying geese, they are way easier than I thought!  It's made with a different prints from Denyse Schmidt's lines at Joann's.  Now I just have to decide on quilting, any edging, backing, and how to close it.

    Finally, I am sooooo relieved to have all my blocks completed for my crazy scrap quilt, whose working title is what-was-i-thinking-holy-HST...or something.  

    Not one fabric is repeated (I guess I have more fabric than I thought!), and although I fell out of love with this thing big time while piecing it, I'm getting back to loving it.  Now I'm just trying to decide if I like it with or without sashing.  It seems a little spastic without the sashing, but maybe that's a good thing?

    Here's to another productive week!