It's been practically a year since I did any real quilting of any kind; last summer I got on to the bag making kick that I'm still in, and quilting kind of fell from my radar. I've been meaning to get back into it all, and so I joined up with the Doll Quilt Swap II project to get myself motivated.
Like normal, I was supposed to send this out yesterday, but I just finished the binding on it this evening. It took some extra time to do all of the hand sewing on this, but I really think it made a difference. I was really on the fence about just machine quilting and binding it, but I know my work looks better when I take the time to do the hand work.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to put any borders or sashing in, and in the end decided not to, mainly because I was running out of time. In the end, I'm really glad I decided to skip it. I think it would have been too broken up that way. Maybe it's me being lazy, too.
I was seriously happy with how the backing turned out. It worked perfectly to just use the small amount of color so that you could really see the quilting from the back. Part of me almost likes the back side better than the front side.
Off to the post office in the morning with it! I hope my swap partner likes it as much as I do. If not, I suppose she can send it back to me. I wouldn't complain!
Goodness! Hip To Piece Sqaures is now a toddler! Today is the 2nd birthday for this little concoction of mine. I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone for reading this silly thing--your comments and conversations have meant a lot to me over the past two years. When I started this, I never imagined reciving the constant support for the things I do, or getting to know all the people that I've met across the country and world. So THANK YOU ALL, for making this fun to do--hopefully for many more years to come!
It may be hard to believe, being that I've not written a word here in over a week, but I've actually been pretty productive lately.
This is my favorite project that I finshed last week. I've been inspired by other quilters who work in the small-scale for so long, and until recently I was stumped on what I wanted to try to make. For being my first attempt at something like this, I was very happy with what I finshed.
For now, my quilt is resting on one of my shelves, but if anyone is interested, "Wispy Lawn" is for sale at my Etsy shop.
Now that I'm officially finished with the ugly curtains (yay!) I'm able to get back to work on the things I like to do. First up (besides the few Christmas presents I'm working on and can't show right now) was to finish up the log cabin square that I started last week. I decided to go for a quick to finish project, and make a pillow.
Shortly into it though, I realized that I was actually far behind the times. These pillows at A Bird In The Hand are far superior to mine. So I know that I'm not being that unique or creative after seeing those, but it was a lot of fun to make, so I whipped up a smaller second one, too.
I really enjoyed making these, and there may be others like it on the way!
Here in Michigan it's been getting whiter all day long. At work this afternoon, all I could think about was coming home, putting on comfy clothes and quilting. After a week of sewing nothing but curtains (I'm so tired of curtains) I'm so eagar to get back to projects that I want to work on.
I started this quilt a few months ago. I got bored one night and just decided to start sewing squares together to see what I could come up with, and it ended up turning out. It was fun proving to myself that I actually could make something look good without a plan or a pattern.
Then the other night in a fit of curtain boredom, I decided to start working on this log cabin quilt block. I wanted to challenge myself to put together fabrics that I normally wouldn't have put together. I want to do something with the log cabin block to make it look less frumpy and country, and more modern and bold. I'm not done with this one yet, but hopefully after a couple more hours with it, I'll have something that I'm happy with.
And no matter where you are at tomorrow, and regardless of what country you're in, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. With all that I'm thankful this year, I really am so lucky to have the ablity to keep and write this weblog. Your visits and comments really do mean so much to me. Many good wishes to you all!
It's SO done! After a weekend and a few extra days of relaxing after our friend's wedding, I'm finally ready to show off the pictures of the latest wedding quilt. I've had a hard time not really talking about this quilt much over the last year (since it took so much work to make!). It came down to the wire (yep, I'm a procrastinator!) but I finished it up last Thursday night and had it ready to pass along to them on Friday at their rehearsal dinner.
I did mangage to squeeze in a photo shoot before I packaged it up!
It's amazing how different it looks to me when it's open and not right in front of my face. I really didn't get the full effect until I had it all done and could look at it from far away.
I put a patch on the back like I have for the last three quilts I've done. It looks about the same as the others!
I realized when I got home that my camera did not take very good pictures of Laura and Steve opening their quilt in the dark restaurant. So here's the best I can do for now though:
It's such a big relief to have it done. Enjoy it, Laura and Steve! :)
With only a week to spare, I'm once again finding myself in the situation of stressing out about finishing a quilt for a wedding (Anyone remember my rants from last July?). For this one, I'm close to having half of the binding on, and two more borders of quiltling left.
For so long I've been putting this project off--it's been too hot this summer, other projects were more important, going back to work--and now I'm worried that I waited too long. People keep telling me it's not a big deal--that even if it's not finished, I can give it to them after the wedding, but I really, really don't want to do that. I'm so close, but I have so much to do the next few days (and I recently started knitting a pair of socks, and that's way more fun right now than flipping out about a quilt being finished).
I'm coming to the conclusing that I love working on big projects until right before I'm finished with it. Stupid, isn't it?
With just over a week to go before I go back to work, I'm starting to notice that I'm in a little bit of a frenzy to get as much quilting as possible done before next Wednesday. To most people, that would probably mean working on the projects that I've already started and committed myself to (like finishing Laura and Steve's wedding quilt, basting the Modern Quilt-Along Quilt, making a final decision on which Denyse Schmidt pattern I'm going to do for the quilt along) but apparently, I just can't do that. Instead I decided that I wanted to try something else, without a patten. I came up with this:
I'm really happy with what they're turning out like. No two blocks are the same yet, which I think is good. I figure I'll make as many blocks as I can until I either run out of the fabric, or I have enough to make a quilt. I'm thinking I'll also add a cream colored muslin sashing between the blocks. We'll see.
I said I was making more! This one is also a bandana I found (cool bandanas, aren't they?) and I quilted it in spirals. Here's a little bit better of a look at that:
Sometimes it's important for me to take a break from my bigger projects and do something I can get done in a few hours. I'm ready to get back to my other projects now.
Gosh, I love bags! I picked up a patchwork bandana today, and decided that I'd make it into a new lunch bag for work. It only took me a few hours and for a first try, I'm pretty pleased with it. (I love projects that only take a few hours to do!) I have collected a few other bandanas (not the patchwork kind like this one though) so I think I'll make some more. Maybe my sewing skills will get better with the next one.
My Wedding Spectaularrr Quilt ended up with a 3rd place ribbon at our fair. I was pretty disappointed, honestly. We thought my quilt was much better than the 2nd place winner (the one above mine). There was very little actual quiling on it, and I thought my stitches looked a lot cleaner. I'm not even really sure if they're judged by a quilter though. Oh well. It's not what I had hoped for, but at least I won a ribbon.
(Special note: I came in 3rd and 4th in the hand-quilted, pieced division. There were only 4 quilts entered into that category!)
Yeeeehaw! My quilts are going to smell like swine by the end of next week. It'll be worth it if I win the top prize of 7 bucks. I could almost buy an elephant ear with that on the midway.
Here's what I took in: I entered my only completed queen-size quilt finshed to date: Wedding Stars, aka, Wedding Spectacularrrrr (you've really got to roll your "r's" when you say it though or it just won't come out right). It was a gift to my sister-in-law and her new husband just over a year ago.
I also ended up entering the first quilt I made that was finished in 2002. I hadn't planned on using my second entry since the other wedding quilt that I'm still finishing (I'm getting close!) isn't done yet. I didn't want to waste the quarter that I paid to enter a second quilt (yes, I'm cheap). From far away it doesn't look too bad:
But when you get up close to it, you can really tell that I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn't read a book, talked my quilting Granny, looked anything up online.... nothing. I remember when I put it on the floor to baste my quilt sandwich, my mom was standing there and her comment was, "It looks nice, but it kinda looks like an elephant sat on it." The thing doesn't even come close to being squared up. And when I started to quilt it (I hand quilted this one too) I had no idea that you could just pull the knot through the fabric and slip it into the batting....noo. I wiggled my arm all the way up to the middle and started my needle between the quilt sandwich. I got a book about 5 squares into it and suddenly realized, "oh! That's how I do it."
Just look at that puckering and stinky hand quilting! On the up side, it does have a four-leaf clover fabric in it that could look like a 4-H logo. I'm hoping to win some of the judges over that way.
My Denyse Schmidt Quilts book arrived in the mail yesterday and I found this on page 172:
I am so flattered! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Denyse!
I had a few people tell me it was in there, but it was still so cool to actually see it there, in print! Now I'm in the process of showing everyone who's even remotly willing to look at it. (Most people already know I'm crazy, so if I start flapping a book at them while jumping up and down, they're usually not too weirded out anymore...)
What do you do on a 90 degree day? I make quilts, of course. I didn't know I could work up such a sweat using my sewing machine. Today is better though; it's much cooler and the breeze is nice. (I'm no longer trying to cool the entire house with one wee window air conditioner.) I've been working on this for the last few days:
Sorry for the bad picture. I tried and that was the best I could get. The top is almost done but I've pretty much wiped out the last of my white fabric and will need to get more before I can finish it. I do have a question for the more knowlegable quilters though: Can I technically call this a charm quilt? There's no two pieces of print fabrics the same in it, despite the white. I didn't know. The machine piecing is going well though. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with it now. I'd like to try tackling machine quilting too, but I think I'm going to need to get a walking foot before I hit that.
Today's big project is to add a hanging device to Wedding Spectacularrr (last summer's quilting drama). I'm taking it to the fair on Friday (to be judged along side of the cows and pigs) and I think it needs to be able to be hung. We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling that I'm not up to fair standards though--like my friend Steve told me, there's no way I'll win since there's no chickens, sheep or 4-H logos appliqued anywhere (everywhere) on it! County Fair Pride!
I'm reconsidering my decision on doing the Eclipse quilt for the Modern Quilt-Along. I just don't think it's going to work. Once my book gets here I'm going to rethink the project a bit.
Off to have lunch with my birthday husband!
I've started another new quilt (this is in addition to my Modern Quilt-Along Quilt). I have my reasons though. I'm planning on machine piecing the Eclipse quilt, and most (like 99%) of the piecing I do is by hand. And since the Eclipse quilt has curved piecing (which I don't mind doing by hand) I felt like I needed to at least get the sewing machine out and practice. So this new project is a practice quilt. I got the idea from Hillary's awsome coin quilt, and so far, this is what I have put together:
The dog was in the spot where I was going to take the picture at. I'm actually really excited about this quilt, because another part of the reason for making it is to put this really pretty fabric I've had for several years to use:
It reminds me of a Monet painting! Just so far, nothing has really made me want to use it yet. I was really moving on it this afternoon, but I had to stop when the sun was reflecting off my sewing machine into my eyes like a blinding laser. That made sewing not as much fun really.
But as I've been working on this, I've been re-thinking my color choices for the Eclipse project. I was feeling really set on the red, pink, orange and yellow combination, but I just don't think it's going to work. I think I can probably leave in yellow and maybe pink, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding fabric that would really work for red and orange. I don't really want to have a pink and yellow quilt either (too girly for my taste). It's not that I don't like the colors in the original pattern, it's just that I'd like to do something different with it.
And if these projects weren't enough, I know I'm going to have to start more new projects as soon as I'm able to order this:
I can't wait to get my copy! Exciting!
Say Hi To Eddie!
I'm happy to say, I have finally created a softie to submit to A Month of Softies. I've been wanting to do this for months, and I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I'm really pleased with my first attempt.
Now on to quilting! I've been trying to decide on my color scheme for my Eclipse quilt, and I think I've decided on red, pink, yellow and orange. Here's Fun Quilt's version first:
Here's some of the fabrics I have pulled up so far:
I'm just not sure how I'm going to work this though. I want this project to be as much about making the right fabric choices as the quality of my quilting. I think my fabric is really going to be lacking in the lighter hues, especially in the reds and oranges. Does anyone have any good tips for me, or would be willing to do some fabric swaping for some of those lighter colors? Let me know.
And since my kitchen is still taking up the majority of my life lately, (it's so cool to see everything starting to look like a real kitchen!) here's another look at the same wall that I showed in the last post. We have cabinets, a microwave, and a fridge that isn't in the living room anymore! It's so exciting!
There's been a lot of inspiring talk about modern quilting going on lately! I'm longing for a copy of The Modern Quilt Workshop: Patterns, Techniques, and Designs From the FunQuilts Studio by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. It just seems that with this book and the soon to be released book by Denyse Schmidt, that there will finally be some better reference for people who are interested in more than just traditional quilt design.
I'm so inspired by many of these contemporary quilters. Of course I love to look at Denyse Schmidt's and the Fun Quilt's designs for possible new ideas. I also love the simplicity of Lori Mason's quilts, and the idea of using textiles like linen and wool to replace ordinary cotton.
Lori Mason's--Signal, linen
I also recently discovered BeBeBold Quilts, based in Australia. They do a little more traditional design, but varied with modern elements. Some look like they could have been made in 1900, or last week--awsome.
I have to show off the goodies I got today in the mail! Brit (from Running Stitch) sent me this package today:
For our book trade, Brit sent one of the Elm Creek Quilts books, The Quilter's Legacy. I've not read any of them yet, but I'm very excited to check it out! Also in my package: a yummy candle, a very yummy loaf of zuchini bread (which I'm currently mowing down on) wrapped in a fabric tape measure! I'm going to have to work out these trades more often! Thanks Brit! :)
I (like many things around here lately) took a little break from working on quilting the wedding quilt the past few weeks. I was starting to feel burned out on it so I decided to give it a rest. Then, this week when I started to feel motivated to start it again, it got hot and muggy and not great for working on. Luckly, I live in Michigan, and the weather never stays the same for longer than a few days. I have big plans for big work while it's cooler.
I really should plan my quilting better--only piece tops in the spring and summer, when you don't have to hold a giant piece of cotton on your lap, and quilt in the fall and winter, when it's nice to have a giant piece of cotton draped over you!
In the meantime, I've been working on a piecing project:
The pattern is technically called the "mini" bow-tie quilt, and it really is pretty tiny to piece. Each one of the blocks (with 4 bow ties in it) is about 5 inches square. I like piecing small projects and I figure, even if this project takes me years to do, it's still one of those quilts that you can take with you in your bag and bring out whenever you're stuck somewhere without anything else to do.
Okay, here's a question. Last Thursday was my birthday, and my in-laws gave me a new quilting book. Unfortunatly, I already own it, and it's not returnable. Here's what I'm thinking though: If anyone is interested in trading me either a book, fabric, or just goodies of any kind, I'd be willing to give away my book. It's the Encyclopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns. If you're interested, let me know and maybe we can work out a trade.
I wish I had some new, exciting work to show you all about, but recently I've just been out of it. Between feeling lousy from allergies, having crappy weather bum me out, and realizing today is my 2 year anniversary of graduating from college and still not doing what I had planned on doing, I've not gotten much of anything done. I'm hoping to have the rest of the Wedding Quilt done by the end of May (mainly so I don't have to work on it during the summer months in a house with no air conditioning!) and I had thought that I'd have no problem with that timeline, but everytime I sit down to quilt lately, I'm just not able to get much done. It's making me feel so lazy--I hate it!
We have started a major project in the house though. We began working on our kitchen renovation, and it already looks different. The previous owners of the house loved wood panneling, even in the kitchen. Two of the four walls were panneled, along with the cabinets. We took down all of the panneling on the walls (not on the cabinets, since those are all just going to come down in one big piece) and Ben took down the drywall on one wall. We're replacing drywall on both of the walls that will have cabinets on them in the final project. It's been a huge mess though--our stove is sitting in the middle of the kitchen, there's dust everywhere, wires haning out of an unfinished wall, and scummy, dirty walls that they hung panneling over without cleaning first--yuck!
Isn't that yellow awful?!? It smelled so very, very badly when the panneling revealed those walls. It's going to be a long couple of months, while we wait and piece the kitchen together ourselves. We're looking forward to what all of our hard work gets us, but ugh--it's not the greatest now!
I just realized it's Hip To Piece Square's birthday today! I've somehow made it a year talking about not much more than just quilts and quilting. Are you guys still really still interested in reading about this stuff?? Anyway, here's to another year of quilt talk! I can't tell you how much fun it's been for me to keep this up--I've loved getting to know quilters and crafters from all across the country. You all make writing this blog a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who's read for the past year, and I look forward to talking to all of you who haven't posted yet--I love hearing what people think of what I'm doing and what people are doing in their own art.
A quick post otherwise: this past week I took a little break from quilting one day to make my friend, Kate, a little gift. I used wool felt (which I think is just the most fun stuff ever) and put together a little pouch.
It seems like everyone is making these pouches lately, and I thought I try one for myself. I have to say, that little zipper is kinda tricky! I hand stiched it in, and it seemed alright to do. Hopefully it won't fall apart on her once she gets it though.
And if you aren't on the recieving end of a wedding quilt by me, click on to see the quilting in progress!
I started quilting this week, and although I've been happy with the quilting pattern, I'm not so happy about the quality of my stitches. They're not even, they're not always straight, and I just don't think that I'm doing that well on them. But okay for me, they look okay in this picture:
Maybe I'm just being too picky. Good news though, I'm right on schedule with its progress. I'm hoping to have it finished by the start of June, because I'd like to enter it in the fair (begin strumming your banjos and roll up your coveralls!) at the end of July. Mmm... I'm sure our friends will love getting a quilt that smells like pigs, carnies, and elephant ears all at once!
I decided to wear my quilter geek flag proudly this weekend and went to a quilt show. I have to admit, I really had a lot of fun. Most of the quilts were really traditional with the traditional quilting colors, but there were a few unique ones in the mix too. Overall, I think my favorite though was this one though:
It's just a small part of it, but the pattern was amazing! On first look it just looks like a "t," with angled edges, but each of the t's were hand pieced with 36 individual strips, probably no more than 1/4 inch wide. It was really very cool. Plus it was one of the few quilts hand pieced and quilted there. The handquilters were really pretty underrepresented, which made me pretty bummed. I was hoping to see more of that.
As far as my own quilting goes, I'm hoping to start quilting the wedding quilt today. I basted the quilt together last night, so as soon as I can get the quilting pattern mapped out on part of it, I'll get to work. As soon as there's something to show, I'll post a picture!
So the computer fix wasn't a big deal, but unfortunatly, I've been really sick since Sunday, and today is my first day back up and around. I tried to go back to work yesterday but I only made it through half the day before giving up and coming back home to go to bed. Today, though, was my day. So stop yelling at me people! I have quilts to tell you about now....sheesh!
After I was finally feeling well enough to do more than sip on Vernors and watch more than 15 minutes of tv at a time without falling asleep, I finished up my bright square quilt top.
I had a lot of trouble taking a good picture of it this afternoon in my house. I really, really like how it turned out though! As soon as I have some extra quilting money, I'm going to go ahead and order the Disco Dot fabric for the backing. It's been so much fun for me to do--it was quick and easy to piece, and the bright colors are interesting to work with. I'm glad this one's getting ready to quilt.
After I finished up that top I moved on to the stack of 30's reproduction fabric that's been sitting on my desk for awhile now:
I've been collecting the reproduction prints for awhile now, (that's not my whole pile) and I hadn't been able to come up with a good pattern for them. During my days on the couch though, I decided to go with a bow-tie pattern. I think my first block turned out pretty well too:
And of course, the top of the wedding quilt is finished! Super YAY! I really surprised myself with how fast the top came together afterall. When I started it, I thought that I might have been working on it for years before it all came together. If you're not someone who isn't allowed to see pictures of it, click on the link!
The picture is pretty bad--the only flat space in my house big enough to take a picture of it is our bed, so ignore the pillows. I'm debating on new details for it: number of borders, and border colors, quilting pattern, and backing fabric color. If anyone has any brilliant ideas or suggestions about what they think would look great with it, leave me some comments. I'm open to good ideas to help me get started. Hopefully a trip to the fabric store will help determine the border and backing points. I'm not as concerned about the quilting of it just yet--it'll probably be a little while before I get to that anyway.
I need a nap now. That was a lot of work.
Yep. And I feel like I've done very little the past several weeks besides getting my quilt on. It's not like I haven't had anything to say either--I've just been quilting. A lot.
I'm finally on the last six blocks of Laura and Steve's Wedding Quilt. I've been feeling like I've really been hauling on it recently--it seems like it's taken me no time at all, until I look back and realize that in fact, I've been working on it for what is actually forever. I have been trying to really get the piecing finished up soon though--we're expecting to start a major renovation in our kitchen, hopefully starting at the end of this month, and I'm not sure how much work I'll be getting done on it when we start that project. No new pictures of it at this point though--it still all looks the same to me. I'll post a shot of it again when I get the entire top pieced. It's too hard trying to hide the pictures from those people who are not allowed to see it at this point!
Unexpectedly to me, I've also gotten a ton of work done on my Bright Squares Quilt that I started about two or three weekends ago.
Despite being a smaller quilt, I have almost the whole top finished! I'm about seven blocks away from having it all finished, but most of those blocks have actually been started. Hopefully another week or two, and I'll be able to start piecing those blocks together. I'd like to have it finished soon so that I can order the fabric that I love for the back of it:
And finally, after seeing all of the really cute pincushions at Wee Wonderfuls, I decided that I had to make one too. This one is for a friend in my Crafty Girls group (that I'm headed off to shortly). For being my first one, I thought it turned out pretty cool!
Last week I was browsing though quilting things on eBay, and I found something that I thought was totally cool! I'm not usually much of an eBay shopper--I tend to get bored looking through it--but I was pumped when I found a set of 10 Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks. They came yesterday in the mail--an exciting Valentine's Day arrival! The prints look like the fabric is from the late 30's or 40's. I'm not that good with identifing dates of fabric, so if anyone could give me a better idea about it, let me know.
Parts of the flowers have been hand pieced, while some pieces in the same block were sewn on a machine. And while the fabric itself is in pretty good wear, there are a couple of stains on the blocks that I'd like to try to take out, if it's possible to do, without destroying the fabric. If there's no way to do that, it's not too big of a deal. It just shows its age that way. Does anyone have any good tips for that?
Despite all of that excitement, I have been progressing with my wedding quilt for our friends. I have two full rows pieced together. Yay! Only three more left to go! (I'm never going to get it finished!!!) But I have made a promise to Steve (one half of the wedding quilt's recipients) that from now on, I'll hide the pictures of the quilt. (He wants to be surprised!) So anyone who isn't getting my quilt as a gift--click on!
I so know that Laura is still reading this (she's the other half of the quilt's recipients!!) I need to press the seams to get it to lay flat, but otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how my work looks after only two rows. I'm more pleased with my color choices now that I can see all four of the dimond shapes. Now if I could just get the rest of the top put together! It's taking such a long time!
I'm not allowing myself to do anymore knitting for awhile. When I start knitting something, it's the only thing I do...ever. I finished my poncho this past weekend, and when I brought it to my crafty girls group this week, people were amazed that I had it done already. THAT'S BECAUSE I'VE DONE NOTHING ELSE SINCE I STARTED IT! I'm not fast, I just have no life. But it is finished, and it's nice to wear around the house.
And now, since I'm no longer letting myself start any new knitting projects, I've actually gotten some work finished on my new wedding quilt. Today I sewed three finished blocks together. That was a big accomplishment. For months, I only had one actual block completly done. Now I can start to see just what the top is really going to look like:
It needs to be ironed pretty bad right now, but I'd like to wait and do that when I get a strip of six blocks done before I do that work. I'm real pleased with how it's starting to look. Now if I can just get a lot of work finished with it this weekend when we're on our 12 hour trip to North Carolina. As long as it doesn't make me carsick, I should do pretty well!
I've been spending a lot of my free time working on projects, but lately, none of it's been my quilting. I'll get to that in just a bit. First though, I figured since I've been so stalled out my quilting, I'd at least profile some of the work that I could be doing instead. Shortly after I started the Wedding Spectaularrr quilt almost two years ago, I decided that I wanted to make myself a quilt in the same pattern, but in different colors. I got several stars done, but after I started piecing the top of Wedding Spectaularrr together, I put it away, and I haven't worked on it much since.
As usual, it's one of those projects that just doesn't get attention because it doesn't have priority over the quilts that are going to be gifts. I stopped working on this one, because I needed to devote all of my attention to finishing Wedding Spectaularrr. But until I get an extra moment for quilting, it sits in a basket, waiting for me to get bored with whatever else I'm working on for the minute.
In the meantime though, I've been knitting. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I really don't like knitting that much, but there's something about it that makes me need to do it. It's not that I hate it, and don't have fun with it, but it's not nearly as fun as quilting is to me. But despite that statement, I've been busy. Last week I threw together this:
I found the pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn website. They actually have some pretty good patterns there. I thought this one was really simple--I finished it in only a couple of hours, and that's pretty good for me.
And then finally, although I had started (and intended to finish) a knitted poncho a few weeks ago, I abandoned it and started a new one in better colors.
I'm not giving up on this one now, and it's also partially to blame on why I've not done any quilting yet this week. Ben and I are driving to North Carolina for a friend's wedding reception (in simpler terms, it's a hog roast) and I'd like to wear it to that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it actually turns out!
(I had started to write this as just a comment to all the responses that I got to yesterday's post, but I started to ramble so much that I thought I needed a new entry for it.)
Power to my fellow handquilters! I honestly figured that people would just told me to pull out my machine and give up my handwork completly. And it's not like I'm even considering giving up my handwork--I love it too much to give up--it's just that I guess that I look around at other quilters and the quanity of work they're doing. I feel like if I start any more projects, it'll be years before I have any of them finished. It took me over a year to make "Wedding Spectaularrr" from beginning to end, and to me, that feels like an eternity. Sometimes I just wish I could churn out more projects (that are still up to my quality standards) more quickly and effeciently. I also think I listen to people who have no idea what goes into making a quilt too much, and hear "Why put so much work into it, when you could just finish it up in a few days with a machine." I have to go back to what I really feel though, and say that hand quilting is a true art form. No one would scoff at the work an artest does to make a painting; why should I stand for someone to tell me to take all the art out of what I do? I just think a lot of times people can't appreciate all the work that goes into a quilt because they have no idea what actually goes into making one.
So in conclusion: I'm not giving up hand piecing and quilting, but I may try to do more piecing work from time to time on the machine. I'm still not convinced on machine quilting though--to me it looks far better (and gets that great wrinkle look) when quilted by hand. It is also nice to know that I'm not complely in the minority in quilting; although I don't have too many people my age (I'll be 24 in April, for those who wanted to know) quilting in my area, the Internet (as always) has shown me there are others like me out there. Oooh, I love the Internet! : )
I've been thinking of a lot of new quilting projects that I'd like to start in the near future, and although I'm thrilled that I'm actually coming up with new ideas, I'm so frustrated to think of how long it would take me to get through any of them. It's making me seriously reconsider just how dedicated I am to the art of hand piecing and quilting my projects. To me, handwork is just so uncommon, especially in quilters my age (okay, let's be honest, there's not a lot of quilters my age anyway) that I feel that I'm somewhat obligated to keep up my policy on it. To me, it just feels so much more complete when it's finished by hand. I'm torn on the issue, and I know so many people would tell me to just suck it up and use the machine, but I'm so attached to my needle, thread, thimble and quilting hoop. I know I could get double the work done that way though.
And quilters, if you've got some downtime in the next two days you may be interested in contributing a block to Marta's Tsunami Quilt. She'll be putting together a wall hanging made from sent in blocks to sell on E-bay with the proceeds going to UNICEF. If you're interested though, act fast--the deadline is February 15th. You can get all the information at Tsunami Quilt 2005.
I had been thinking last week about how much fun I have when my friends that quilt or knit meet up and do our things together. Maybe it was part inspiration from the Stitch 'n Bitch Nation book that Ben gave me for Christmas, and maybe it's a little of just wanting to see my friends more often, but starting tonight we have a crafty girls group. We decided that it wasn't going to be just a quilt or knit-specific group, since most of us do more than one of them. I'm excited though for everyone to get here--it should be a lot of fun.
I am finding it frustrating though, that it never seems that I'm able to get a project done lately. I guess it's that I've started things that all take more than just a couple of days to finish (and in some cases, no less than months). But I have been busy. I started knitting a poncho (not really because I wanted a poncho, but more because I'm trying to learn how to actually use patterns to knit... it's not going extremely well right now). I doubt I'll use it for much more than around the house wear when I finish it.
I've also been trying to get through as much the wedding quilt for our friends Laura and Steve. The blocks are getting bigger, and when you lay them out, you can start to see what the pattern is going to look like:
It's making me itchy to finish the rest of the blocks so that I can sew the whole thing together. But hand piecing 30 blocks with 81 squares in each takes up a lot of time. It'll be worth it in the end though. Here's still what's left to be sewn together:
And with all of that going on, I finally got some pictures from the Wedding Spectacularrr quilt printed up, and I'm working on scrapbooking them in my quilt book. I'm not a huge fan of scrapbooking, and it kinda drives me crazy since it takes so long to make one page nice, but I figure that I worked so hard on the quilt, I might as well take the time to make a history of it.
Happy New Year! I figured it's about time to update, or people are going to think that I've either vanished or stopped quilting. It's neither actually.
**New development #1! I finally gave my Granny her quilt! We finally made it up to see her late last week. I couldn't believe how nervous I was about giving it away though. I think I'm intimidated by the fact that she's been quilting for longer than I, and my work isn't up to her quality. That's just me being a nutcase though. She loved it, and said she can't wait to take it to her quilting group this spring. I was just happy to finally give it to her. It felt like I waited so long for it.
**New development #2! I'm a tard. I didn't take any pictures of the scarves I knit for my sister, my sister-in-law, and the student that I work with. I was in such a rush at the end to get them finished and wrapped, that I completly forgot to take pictures. That's half the reason why I haven't had anything to write about for the past several weeks. That was all I was doing, and then I didn't have anything to show for it. I felt stupid on that one.
**New development #3! As for my crappy Christmas cards, I only sent out 10 of them. The rest of them looked like worse crap than the less crappy ones did. I'm not making cards next year.
**New development #4! I'm finally making headway with Laura and Steve's wedding quilt. The end result will be this:
It's a Jinny Beyer pattern, called "Cross Walk." I'm pretty much sticking to the colors that are used in that photo, but in mine, there's more contrast between the green, blue, teal and purple. Now that I'm done with Christmas presents, I've been working on it every chance I get. As soon as I get a few more blocks together, I'll post a new picture.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday! Here's to many new and completed projects in 2005!
I'm glad we're not driving up north tomorrow. It's nasty out here. I'm trying to debate if I should even make a 20 minute drive to my Weight Watchers meeting tonight (yes, that's right, I'm a fatty-fatty-boom-ba-lattie) or stay on the couch and curl up under a blanket and watch tv and sew. Two very tempting options, I know!
The other night I finally updated my quilting links with some new blogs that I've been reading lately. Brit, (who often posts comments here--yay! A regular reader! You're awsome!) has a really good quilt blog called Terrapin Textiles and posts far more frequently than I have recently. Plus she's far better at organizing her quilting supplies than I am. Either way, it's always nice to find a good quilt blog, since there really are so few of them.
I so heard thunder! It's "thundersnowing" right now. I'm going to kick myself if I don't go to my meeting.
If you're traveling, stay safe. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Gobble Gobble! :)
My mom called this afternoon after work to tell me that my Granny's in the hospital, and isn't going to be feeling up to having the fam up for Thanksgiving. Both sides of the situation are disappointing: having her be in the hospital, and not being able to give her the quilt. Hopefully she'll be feeling up to having company again in the near future, and I'll be able to deliver the quilt then. Bummer.
But let's not be sad, people! I've got more project news to report!
I'm halfway done with a Christmas gift that I'm making for the teacher that I work with. I had all the kids in the class sign a canvas bag (one was sick, and I still have to have her sign it, but she's a bit of a loudmouth tattle-tale, and I'm waiting until the last possible moment for her to sign it so that she doesn't give the surprise away) and I'm embroidering over their signatures. (There's nothing cuter than a bunch of first-grade signatures written in bright colored floss.) The first side is finished, and I hope the backside goes as fast as the front did.
With only days to spare, I have finally finished the quilt. Today it took a trip through the washer and dryer to get its new quilt smell, and remove the majority of dog hair trapped in the stiches. It came out looking perfect--it's got that crisp look, but at the same time, looks like it could have been made 50 years ago because of the wrinkles. I love the wrinkles. That's the best part of taking it out of the dryer for the first time. Ahhh!
I really am pleased with how the quilting turned out on this bad boy. For all of the frustration I had with picking out the design, it was so worth waiting for to start. The pictures don't show how nice it looks--I wish I could show it to everyone in person.
But overall, I really am excited to give this one away. I think part of the reason why I don't have as much stress and tension about giving this one as a gift, is that it's actually going to another quilter. My Granny does beautiful work, also all by hand, and I know she'll appreciate all the work that went into it. Although this quilt (which, I should add is called "Celebration") is smaller than the Wedding Spectacularrr quilt, it doesn't mean that I worked on it any less than I did the big one. I just know that it's going to someone who really will see the value in all my work. That makes a big difference to me.
Yay! Another quilt finished!
Okay, so it's "virtually" finished (when I worked in the news business I was never allowed to write with that word, since it's a crappy word and in this case means that the quilt is only slightly finished, but not really). I still have to take it to my mom to help me dot the "i" in the embrodery that I'm using to sign my name on the back. I'm French Knot uneducated. So after it goes into the wash after work tomorrow, I'll have Ben help me take pictures to show it off.
I've been contemplating my next project though (like I have time to start a new project). I took some time the other night to draw it out here:
I made one block to see how it would turn out, and I think I really like it. If it turns out the way I hope it will, I think it'll be a really good project.
But the best thing (or it could be worst in this case, since it'll probably take me around three years to make) is that I already found the perfect backing fabric for it. We have a great Hallmark/giftshop/fabric store in town called Kean's, and the other day I spotted this fabric. I don't think the picture does it much justice. It's much cooler looking in person. Either way, I think that means that I have to make the quilt soon, so that I can at least figure out how much of the backing fabric I'll need to make it. I have to justify these things to myself.
Pictures will soon follow of the finished product!
October and Halloween has come and gone. I carved my pumpkins,
dressed up like the tooth fairy for a class full of first graders,
(that's my tooth fairy wand. Thanks for the great costume idea Becka!) and now it's November. November sucks. No really, it does. I hate the snow that will be coming soon, I hate the cold, and I hate the way it gets dark at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon now. But the one good thing about late fall is that it's finally the right season to quilt. I'm so close to finishing up Granny's quilt, that I'm hardly able to control myself. I need to finish it! I think that if I work everyday, I'll be able to have it done by the end of the week.
And to prove just how far my nose has been buried in my quilting lately, I didn't even happen to notice that Craftster has added a new section for people to post just about quilts. I didn't have a lot of time to look at all the posts, but there were some good quilts posted. I may have to show off this quilt there when I'm finished with it. (I'm such a show off! Is that a bad thing??)
It's taken weeks to get there, but I finally figured out how to finish quilting the Granny Quilt. I started a pinwheel sort of design in the four corner spot that I was having so much trouble with. The template is just the same as the lemon shaped pieces in the quilt, cut in half and rotated on the same side of each square, like this:
So the cool thing with this is when several of the blocks are done this way, it gives it a distorted Apple Core pattern feeling to it, like this:
(Sorry about the crappy picture)
I wasn't sure I wanted to do it at first, but I think it's going to look a lot better once the whole thing is done. Either way, it looks better to me than having nothing in that space. Without it, it just looked like I had forgotten to finish that section. Now I just have to worry about actually getting it done!
Oh, and here's my new kitchen door:
It's nice now, but I freaked out pretty bad when this was the sight in my kitchen:
Needless to say, I was pretty happy when I had a wall again.
So I'm back to work on Granny's quilt, but I'm still not sure what the final quilting pattern is going to be. I'm trying not to think about it while I just try to finish the basic pattern that I've already started. I'm getting the pre-gift jitters again though, with concerns about if I'm going to be able to finish it on time or not. I have one other gift that I'm working on too, that I'm not able to show or speak about, since the person that it's going to visits here. That one isn't nearly as exciting as Granny's quilt though, so you all aren't really missing out on too much.
I have been knitting scarves like a crazy woman though. You'd think by the time I made three scarves that I'd probably want another knitting project to start on. I bought a book the other night with a hat pattern in it, but I'm just so content to knit scarves right now in a boring old garter stich, that I'm not sure that I could try making one any time soon. I'm in a knit rut, but I seem to be pretty happy where I'm at right now.
I did happen to stumble across a fun quilting link, found at the blog Wee Wonderfuls. She mentioned an article about a company called Fun Quilts that's in the current issue of Country Living magazine. They've got some really great modern quilt patterns, but unlike quilters like Denyse Schmidt, the quilts are all machine pieced and quilted. I just guess that's the traditional quilter in me, that thinks a quilt is of higher quality when made completly by hand. Fun Quilts prices are a bit more reasonable than Denyse Schmidts though, and they do have some really great looking designs. It's fun to check out either way.
We have another hole in the wall of our house. This time it's to put in a patio door. It's a going to be a bigggg hole. I'll post pictures later!
The computer is finally back to normal again, and I have pictures to prove that I have actually been working! The current wedding quilt is coming along so nicely right now. I got a ton of piecing done this weekend when Ben and I were stuck in the house being sickies (which I still am). I keep looking at my bag of squares to sew and thinking just how much I have to go, even with all of the fabric not cut yet. It took me over a year to do the Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt, and this one's got a lot more piecing and quilting than that one did. As of this Friday, the 8th, I have exactly one year.
There's a lot more to do, isn't there?
But during the time when I'm not working on that, I've been keeping myself busy with the knitting. I finally finished the blue scarf that I ripped out and started again, and I've also started a fuzzy orange one. I love the color orange, and have no idea when I'll ever use an orange scarf, but it's fun anyway.
and....
If nothing else, I'll be able to wear that one for Halloween.
And finally, after several weeks of stress, I finally recieved my new quilt rack. Finally! I'm really happy with it too, but I found out, that there really wasn't a good place to put it in my house. Its location is still somewhat to be determined, but for now its sitting at the end of the hallway, just inside our office.
The green quilt on the front is the first I ever made, for my now husband as a high school graduation present. It took me a year and a half into his time at college to actually finish it. The one behind it is a quilt titled "Bloom," made by my Granny. She's the recipient of the blue, yellow and green quilt I'm working on. Which, by the way, is still causing me major stress and headaches, since I still haven't decided how to finish quilting it. I figured some time away from it would help me.
Whew! That was a long post!
I've been working on projects a lot the last couple of days (along with having a cold to slow me down pretty badly) that's been keeping me from posting anything new. So this afternoon, after work, I decided that I'd update everything that's been new in the last week, and I went around and shot some pictures to show what's been up. But what I didn't know, is that Ben changed around our computer last week, and the program I use to load pictures to our website is no longer installed. So while I wait for that, let me just say, that Wedding Quilt #2 is coming along nicely. Also, the blue scarf I started awile ago is finally finished, and a new fuzzy orange scarf is newly started. I also got my new quilt rack (which is lovely, despite the rage I experienced while ordering it) and it's looking very cool. I'd show you all of these things, but I guess I'm going to have to wait until I'm able to put them on our website. Hopefully that's no later than tomorrow!
I hate being stressed out over a hobby. I don't even think it's that I'm so worked up over my quilting, it's that stupid quilt rack that I ordered from Crate & Barrel several weeks ago. Turns out that I have to be home for a four hour block for them to drop it off. Since I don't get home until 4pm, there's no way that's possible. I've yelled at the shipping company, and Crate & Barrel, and they sugessted that I pay for after hours shipping, or drive the hour and a half drive to Grand Rapids to pick it up at the shipping hub. Which to that I say absolutly not! So hopefully I'll be able to have them drop it off at my parents house, which is still in my mind, wrong, since I paid to have it delivered to my house. So just a word to anyone out there that's considereding having Crate & Barrel furniture shipped to their house--they're not nice to deal with, and I personally won't deal with them again.
Now on to my quilting dillema. I've started the quilting on Granny's Quilt, and although I like it so far, I don't know how to complete it. Each block has two sqaures on opposite points, where I've quilted a square with an "X" through. On its opposite corners, the four points of each quilt square meet together. It looks a little bland to me there, and I'm not quite sure how to quilt it. I thought about outlining a simple circle, but I'm not sure if that will look right. Either way, here's a picture of the quiltwork so far. If anyone has any ideas for ways to quilt the blank spaces (Look to the previous post if you need a reminder of what the front looks like) please leave me some comments. I'm taking any and all ideas--even silly ones. Those sometimes turn out to work really well.
*note: I'm sorry if my description made no sense. Hopefully the picture is self explanitory.
**note2: It is a lot larger of a blank space than it looks like in this picture. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
No, I'm not ignoring the world of blogs, I'm actually working on projects! We've just about finished the room renovation--I've got curtains to make and Ben is finishing some trim up. It's so nice to have a sewing room that I actually enjoy being in from time to time.
See? It's pretty nice now, compared to earlier!
And yes, I do collect and have a slight obsession with yellow rubber ducks. That's a small number of ducks on display compared to what my college apartment looked like.
And more good project news! I've finished piecing together Granny's Quilt, and I've started quilting it. It's very approprate, since a lot of the prints are the 1930's repoduction fabric (I love that stuff). I even used one of the repo prints for the back fabric. It took me a while to figure out how I would quilt the bad boy, but I think I've come up with an interesting, and not too over the top way to do it. Now if I can just finish it up by the time Christmas rolls around.
The number of projects for Christmas is growing, but I'm not allowed to share them all here. I know who reads this blog! You people don't fool me!
I really, really wanted to get my latest quilt project pieced by now. I had been moving along on it really well, when we had to start a new project. The difference? This one's house related.
To describe the condition of my house, one must think back to the days when pressed wood panneling looked nice in homes. Oh wait, that was never. This winter we pulled down the gray panneling in our office (what an awful job, since it was glued to the walls and pulled the drywall down with it) and now we're doing our guestroom/sewing room. Lucky for us, the panneling wasn't glued on in this room, but we still have to patch plaster all the holes in the walls and ceiling from nails and screws, before we're able to paint and move back in. It also means that the only other woody room in my house is the kitchen. Oh, how I long for the day that we're able to afford new cabinets that aren't panneled.
Here's a recent scene from the work in my soon to be nice looking sewing room:
But on the other hand, I still have more done with this quilt than I had planned to by this time. The first four rows have been pieced together completely, and it has only taken me about an hour to sew each row on. I'm hoping the room will be finished in a few more days, so I'll be able to work on this again for more than five minutes at a time. I'd really like to have this finished by Christmas though, since I'd like to give it to Granny for a Christmas/January birthday gift for her. I never seem to be able to hit my deadlines lately though. I need to get better at it by the time my next wedding quilt is due next year.
I really had hoped to have this done by now:
I'm still waiting for my quilt rack. I'll be sure to post a picture of it when it gets here.
It's offical--I can't keep a secret. My friend Laura saw the block for her wedding quilt last week, since I can't keep my mouth shut or things hidden in my house. On the plus side of this, it does mean that I can post pictures of its progress though.
Laura was pretty excited about it though. She thought the colors were pretty much just what she had wanted. I'm more excited about these colors to start with than I was with Wedding Spectacularrrr. It took awhile before that one really grew on me.
Either way, this is just one of the 30 blocks in the quilt. The squares in the block are about 2 inches each, so it'll probably take me a while to put together. I've been taking a bit of time off from it though, since my two scarves have been getting a lot of my attention, along with the quilt I'm working on for my Granny. I'll post a picture of that when I get the whole top pieced. That should hopefully be by the end of the week.
And on a quick sidenote: The new job's great.
I know it's been mentioned time and time again, but I love the Quilt Index. It's a slow night here at work, so I've been scanning through it. It's such a great place to go to get inspired for color or pattern ideas.
I've been thinking about pieces of the antique Grandmother's Fan quilt that my Granny gave me. Right now, I'm using yellow quarter circles, but I found this verson of a similar quilt, and I'm thinking about possibly using the red instead. It's so much more vibrant than the yellow.
I've also been thinking recently about how important it is for me to be a good, consistant quilter. I had been working on the quilt for Laura and Steve at work the other weekend, and someone mentioned to me that it's unbelieveable that I'd want to do all that small work by hand. I think it's hard for people outside of this art to understand that quilting is, in fact, an art. No one would ever go up to a painter and ask why they put small details into to their paintings. I think it's why I was so worried that my Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt would be appreciated, after countless hours of hand piecing and quilting were put into it. But it makes me want to work harder as a quilter; to become exceptional in my work.
Oh, and by the way, I got a job. It's temporary for the time being, but it's a start. My last day at Fox is this Sunday, and Monday morning, I'm an aid for a special education boy in a first grade classroom--at least for a little while. It's quite a career change, but I'm feeling good about it. Yay, for somewhat steady work!
I'm stuck here at work, with no work to do (okay, I'm actually waiting for a soundbite from the Howell Melon Fest to come back to the newsroom before I finish my last story tonight) and I can't sew since I left my thread on a table in my living room. My philosphy is that even if they don't have work for me to be doing here, I might as well at least be working in some sort. So I guess I'll blog instead.
(Oooh...people are jumping on big trampolines on the Olympics right now. At least the Olympics are recording on my TiVo right now.)
I did want to mention that I really think it's cool how people have started to notice this little website of mine. In the last couple of weeks, I've gotten mentions or permanent links on Material Girl, All Too Quilty, Quilt Reflections, In A Minute Ago and Albedo Designs. I'm really excited that I'm not the only quilt blogger out there, and that people are actually reading about my work. I think there's a lot more really great quilt work that's being documented online than I know about, and everytime someone leaves a url with a comment, I'm excited to check out what they've done, or like to do.
Awww....swimming is on. I'll be so glad when I don't have to work evenings or weekends again.
I didn't want knitting to be fun, I really didn't. So to prove to myself how much I'd hate knitting, I bought a ball of yarn, and had my mom show me the knitting basics. Turns out, I don't hate it. In fact, it's really pretty cool. I'm thinking that by the end of the winter season, I'm going to have a scarf to go with every outfit I own. This one with the blue yarn is going slow, but I suppose you can't expect much from your first attempt at knitting.
But that's not to say that I'm giving up my quilting anytime soon. I'm almost done cutting the pieces to the new wedding quilt, and I'm working on piecing what's already cut up. I just have three more prints to cut, and I'll have the whole top of the quilt ready to sew up. I'm getting excited, since I think it's really going to turn out well, at least color-wise. It's one of those things that once I see the fabrics next to each other, it just makes me so happy that I don't stink at combining fabrics.
See! I'm still quilting!
So I'm still cutting pieces for the latest round of wedding quilting (when will you people stop getting married?!?) but I couldn't help myself and I started sewing. After a while I just had to do something else but cut. I know I ought to use my rotary cutters to help out, but I feel like I have more control over the fabric when I use scissors. It's probably the same reason why I don't like machine quilting either--I get a feeling of controling what I'm doing when I sew by hand. It's also the old lady in me creeping out. You know I'm actually a 56-year-old in the body of a 23-year-old. It's weird.
But when I've been stuck here at work (only 21 more days left until the Channel 10 takeover) in the evenings I've been on the search for new good quilting websites. Is it just me, or is there really no good quilting websites? Everything that I've found has just been pretty useless. Although, in the past couple of months I have found that All Too Quilty, and more recently Quilting Reflections, are another two quilting blogs that are good sites, that are written by people who are actually good quilters. But overall, I'm really blown away by the fact that quilting is hardly represented on the web. They're all knitters! Where did all the knitters come from?!? Knitters make me jealous because I wish I could do it. It's just another thing to add to my book of things to do after I finish the projects I'm already on.
Good news for me! My nearest and dearest friend Kate, is visiting from North Carolina this week. I see a shopping road trip in the very near future for us!
I've been cutting pieces for the next wedding quilt I'm making for several days now, and I was in the mood to take a break from that. Unfortunatly, it feels like it's 90 degrees in the house today, and keeping a quilt on my lap to work on just doesn't excite me too much. But I did pull out the Apple Core quilt that I'm making for my parents. I'm hoping it'll be much cooler by the time I get home tonight from work to do some sewing. But I was pleasantly suprised by it. I hadn't worked on in in some time, since I wanted to get Wedding Spectacularrr ready to go. Turns out, I'm on row 20 of 30. So with that said, I'd like to try to have the top completly pieced and ready to quilt by the end of October. I think that's pretty reasonable.
But while my sewing isn't loving the heat, my flowers sure are. I moved a lily that was in a weird spot next to the shrubs in the front of the house to along the side of our fence this year, and it just finally opened up. I was afraid I had hurt it when I moved it, but apparently it was okay. It's now one of my most favorite flowers in the yard.
So I'm pleased to report that all went well with the quilt giving. It was a mighty traumatic weekend and all, since it was very much like giving my child up. (Okay, so I don't have children, and I'm sure it would be worse to give up an acutal child, but it was pretty hard.) I spent much of my evening strolling by the gift table to make sure that people were still looking at it, and it hadn't been pushed aside or buried by the plethora of presents surrounding it, as seen here:
We went to watch the newly married couple open presents the next day and got to see them open it. I, of course cried. They spread it out for everyone to see and they all started clapping. I was emotional, and I felt like a big dork. But it was all good, and we had a fun day.
See? We know how to have fun and look good, all at the same time.
But now, you may be asking, "Sarah, now that you've finished this quilt, what will you be working on next?" Now that's a pretty stupid question. The big project now is to get the next round of wedding quilts started, along with about five others already in progress. I'll post pictures of everything, minus Laura and Steve's quilt since I know they think they're going to be sneaky and try to find out what it looks like here!
It's finally done! Last night my quilt was offically finished at 10:11pm. Today I washed it, had a photo shoot, and wrapped it up. The wrapping is actually really cool! I wanted to let people at the wedding see it, but I didn't want people putting their sweaty, dirty hands all over it. So I bought some cellophane wraping, and put it in that, so you can see a section of the quilt, along with the patch with their name, the date, the title, and my embrodered name on it. That way they don't have to worry about it getting nasty, but people can still see what it is.
So anyway, here's a couple pictures of the finished project. It's just a few, and I have more up at AvenueB in my quilting photo gallery.
(Sorry Dad, I know you didn't want to be in the picture, but it was the only one that showed the quilt completly.)
It's got the date, the couple's name, and the title in the box, along with my name embroidered below.
It's all done! I can't believe it.
So I've been trying to decide on a pattern for a new quilt that's going to be a wedding gift, and I've been really stumped. I know the colors I want to use, but up until now, I had no idea what to do for the pattern. TADA! I so found my quilt. Since I don't want to give away the surprise of what it'll look like, I won't link to the actual pattern. But it's still fun to look around at Jinny Beyer Studios anyway. I just have to say it's going to be tough trying to talk about this project and not give anything away.
Speaking of my other wedding project....I've got to get it done. Today is June 29th, and the wedding is on July 24th. That means that really, I need to have it done by July 17th, so that I can bond with it before I give it away. They'll be standing there, at the gift table, and I'll be crying and yelling "don't take my baby away" and A&V will be pulling it out of my arms yelling "no, you made it for us. We're taking it away and never ever letting you see it again!" Ahhhh!!! It's torture! I've still got the three sides of the border to do, and the first side took me about four days to do. I'm not sure if the rest of it will take that long though. Then I have to sign it, and bond. I don't want to give it away now! Here's a picture of half of it though!
So I really like to quilt. That's pretty obvious. I also really like to use the Internet. Put the two together, and you've got quilting websites, like mine for example. I'm wondering where the other people like me are lurking. Today I strolled over to Stargazey Quilts Online and I had honestly thought it was a neat site at first: there are some neat patterns, some cool pictures, and it's another person with a new quilting idea, which in my opinion is always appreciated. But then I read on, and the site starts to annoy me a bit. They think it's quirky to end all of their pattern names and ideas with a "Z," like "appliquez" and "samplerz." That's just not cool. It's like the Homestar Runner e-mail when Strongbad does the band names. So please, come up with some not annoying quilting websitez. (I had a fish in college that I named Jaw-z. He was a rapper fish. He also didn't live very long.)
Speaking of pets, we're getting a dog! Kasey the four-year-old Golden Retriver stayed with us this weekend, and she's coming to live with us in a week or two. Her family is moving to Taiwan, so we're adopting her. Yay!
And in other good (but not too good--I don't want to get worked up over this one either) news, I got a call today while I was at work, about an interview for the Communications Representative position with the Department of Agriculture. I can't put into full words just how much I want this job. It's not just that I want to leave the exciting world of Fox 47 this time, but I REALLY want this job. Really. Keep your fingers crossed that good things do happen to people who get passed over for other crappy jobs!
I've really got to stop starting projects. So I went to my wonderful Granny's house this past week, and got to talk serious quilting. We were talking about the 1930's reprint fabrics and antique quilts, and she brought out a shoebox full of half done Grandmother's Fan blocks, that were started by (I believe) her aunt in the 1930's. They're great--some of the pieces are actually fabric from shirts and old aprons. So my newest project is to put it together. I'm not sure how big it'll be when it's done, but I'm really looking forward to doing it.
I also got big compliments on A&V's wedding quilt. She liked my stiches. It's always nice to get good comments from someone that you know does really good work. But as far as getting it done, I'm really losing steam. I'm just really tired of working on it, and I want it to be done--without putting more work into it. I felt this way when I was finishing Ben's quilt too. But the satisfying feeling that I'll know I'll get when the last stich is in is something I look forward to as well.
And lastly...eh. There's no end in sight yet to my days at Fox. I didn't manage to get a ticket out of here. I think I want to start quilting full time instead of anything else right now. Then it wouldn't be a hobby anymore. It'd be work. Eh.
I am so glad that I'm typing here tonight. I was working on the templates last night, and at one point I reloaded the page, only to find that my blog was GONE! Totally freaked me out. Thankfully I married a (cute) computer guy, and we got it all worked out. *Phew!*
So I worked up the courage (and the stress) to start quilting the border around the Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt, and it's been a nightmare.
Big Problem #1. I had to make sure that the lattice pattern in the border would line up and be even. Being that I barely know how to add, I decided to take the project to my dad, to plot out on his drafting software. That was a problem, since the quilt isn't perfectly square (or even for that matter). We ended up getting a pretty good idea of the dimentions for the template, and I decided to run with that.
Big Problem #2. After I made the templete, I used the water soluble chalk pencils to trace the template. It was a good three inches off by the time I got to the end of the border. Not good at all.
Big Problem #3. Turns out the chalk pencils aren't as water soluble as I thought they would be.
**Solution** Ben to the rescue again! So we decided to measure the length, and divide. But each time we'd measure, we'd get a different length. So we pulled it to an even length, and I have a cross line every seven inches now. I'm hoping to do this with the remainder of the quilt now.
Big Problem #4. I think the dimonds in the lattice are too far apart. I want to add more lines to make more, but smaller dimonds. I'm just not sure if I'm going to have the time to do it.
*Final Thought* This quilt, along with about 17 other things going on right now are making me a human stress ball. What I'd give for a vacation to somewhere far, far away, until everything has gone away.
Today's post brought to you by my really nice husband, Ben.
ARRRGGGHH! Stupid Internet connection! I had this whole post written, and then my connection crapped out on me. Let's see what I can remember about what I just finished.
It was so hot here today, that I couldn't even think about working on the Wedding Spectacularrrr quilt today. Actually, I did think about it, but I was worried that I'd pass out if I tried quilting under it. Luckily, it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow, so maybe I'll have more luck trying it then.
(Side note: Would it be weird if I actually name A&V's quilt "Wedding Spectacularrrr?" I don't know if that sounds strange or not, but I like it. Maybe it could just be "Wedding Spectacular." I think it really needs the rolled "R" at the end though.)
Favorite quilting site of the day (and possibly even the week--this one's really cool) is Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I really, really love her quilt designs. They're so simple, but they're just what I like. She's also designed other fabric creations like pillows... purses, and aprons, and they're really great. Although I know I could never afford any of her quilts, they're great inspiration for me. Plus, as an added bonus in my book, they're all hand quilted by a group of Amish women. Not only do you know they're works of art, but they'll last forever.
This better post this time.
So, being the procrastinator that I am...
Whoops. So I kept telling myself over and over how much I needed to get A&V's wedding quilt finished up before it got hot out. Yeah, so much for that. I'm hoping that someone nice, who's house is also equipped with air conditioning will invite me over for hours at a time to work. Or I could just come to work and do it, since it's always just about -30 degrees in here. Brrr!
I found today something that I never thought was availible--another quilting blog! Material Girl is not only a blog that seems to be updated more than once a year, but I've also found it interesting to read. I'm adding it to my links, either way.
And finally tonight, (I'm such a dork) I've decided that I really need to finish learning the basics of operating this website. It's white, and boring, and none too fun to read. So it's my goal this week (you know, in between my time spent finishing A&V's Wedding Spectacularrr quilt, and work, and doing my other quilts, and keeping the house clean and stuff) is to spend a couple of hours in front of the computer with the stylesheet book that Ben brought home for me, and I'm going to learn how not to be boring anymore. Because I'm just not that. Not at all.
Happy June! I, of course, celebrated the beginning of the new month by shopping. I ended up buying the Encylopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns, but it was mainly because it was a dull day in the book asile. Last time I was in the store, it seemed to me there were a lot more books that I really wanted. It just didn't seem to be that way this week.
But while I was in the store, I happened to find a really good deal on 10 page scrapbooks. I've never really been into scrapbooking, and I don't really want to start, but I'm more or less looking for books to file what I've done with my garden, or decorating ideas for the house. I plan on keeping all the tags from the plants I bought this year, and following up on how each did. I was flipping and ripping pages out of one of my old Real Simple magazines, and they had a neat idea to catalogue big projects so that you're able to reference it later. Either way, the scrapbook, was only 4.99, so I figured it was a good deal. I would have bought two, if there were more nice ones still available. The only ones left after I picked out mine were a really bad print on red and blue books. Mine was much better.
My weekend starts tomorrow, and I've got big plans for the next three days. Ben heard over the real weekend, that our neighborhood is holding a yard sale soon, and I want to be prepared. We have sooooo many old clothes and stuff from college that needs to be out of our basement. If it doesn't sell, then its going to Goodwill. If they won't take it, it'll all be trashed. I want my house clutter-free, if for just once in our lives!
Oh yeah, and hopefully we'll hear good news from anyone about interviews. I'm meeting for with the owner of an insurance agency next Friday, and today she e-mailed me to tell me my resume looks beautiful. I think that's a good thing!
I am officially finished with the binding on the wedding quilt for A&V. Let me just capture in words, the thrilling excitment of what I went through when I FINALLY finished it:
YEEEEAAAHHHHH!!! WOOOOGGGGHHHHAAAAA!!!
Ah yes. Life is good.
So now comes the daunting task of figuring out how I'm going to quilt the border. Should be fun stuff. But in the meantime, I'm going to take a trip to my local JoAnn Fabric store to pick out a new book. I got a fun little 40% off coupon in the mail the other day, and I've got to use it. The Enclopedia of Classic Quilt Patterns is one that I've thought about picking up. It would be nice to have a book of standards in quilts. We'll see. I'll probably head out on Tuesday morning to pick something up, and then I'll post what I get.
In totally other news... KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! I'm hoping to get a call for a possible new job interview for a position that I reeeeaallly want! I'll keep updating on what the future may or may not hold.
I'm wallowing in frustration here at work. Instead of typing up a neat, little 20 second vo/sot about the new 20 year master plan at Capitol City Airport, I'm scanning my favorite websites. It's my retaliation for all of the nonsense I put up with here.
But in my exploration, I've found a really neat quilt idea. The crafty-gal behind Going Domestic pulled this together, and I really want to make one now! I was thinking about a red, yellow and white quilt, possibly (it all depends on when I find just the fabric I need) add a yellow, red, and white striped pattern, with the same color. I think the only different thing I would use, would be instead of satin ribbon, I'd use the more woven, ribbed ribbon. I think it might hold up a little better in the long run.
Don't worry. I finished writing my airport story.
It's the best of both worlds in our house. I do the quilting, Ben does the math, and these quilts are perfect for us. I've seen some of these fractal art quilts in other spots, but it's neat to see a whole site dedicated to them. Someday the geek and the old woman in us will join forces to make something very, very cool like this.
I'm back to my quilting, and as always, I can't stay focused on just one project. During some downtime while reorganizing the spare bedroom/sewing room, I decided to take an inventory of the projects that I'm currently working on. I'm just about finished with Angie and Vaughn's Texas Star quilt, I've got my parents birthday/wedding anniversary Apple Core quilt about halfway pieced, there's the new blue, green, and yellow quilt I decided I had to start, then there's the machine pieced Trip Around the World Quilt I've been working on for 4 years now, and the bold color Texas Star quilt that I thought would be fun to piece when I started the wedding quilt for A&V. Let's see... five quilts? That's not too bad, especially considering that I'm almost done with the first one.
I actually dreamed last night that it was a week before A&V's wedding, and I was only in the place that I am right now, and I freaked out. I'd really like to have the binding done by the end of the week, so I can finish the rest of the quilting. I really am paranoid it's not going to be finished though. Even with the rest of my projects, it's still my first concern.
Moving along, I've been checking out The Quilters Cache a lot lately. They have an huge amount of free quilt block patterns that you can print off and use. I spent about an hour going through the blocks fast, and printing off some of my favorites, so that I can start even more quilts that I don't need to be doing. Beware though, it's so cutsie and country, that it makes me a little sick. Despite its appearance, it is a pretty good place to hunt for things to do.
After a brief hiatus from this little blog, I'm back with more quilting uselessness. LiveJournal was having an attitude problem, and any time I tried to post anything, it would just let the last two or three lines of my entry show up. I refuse to become one of those blog people who think having a blog is really cool, but after about three weeks get bored, and never write again. That's just no fun. Hopefully we'll have more fun and excitment here!
But on the up side of all things fun and deeelightful: I'm a few steps closer to finishing my Wedding Star quilt. The main quilting is done, and the binding is about half way finished. After that I'll finish it by quilting the border, and that will be eveything. I am pleased that it only took about a month or so to quilt the stars and diamonds in it. That'll mean that I'll only be working on this quilt for roughly another six months or so. I feel like I'm trying to fly through it since I'm getting eager to do more work on my Apple Core quilt. Yeah, I think I promised that one to my parents only oh... two years ago.
One other thing. I happened to stumble across some high-tech quilting stuff this week. I was flipping through this month's issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine and I found an ad for quilting information at Hewlett-Packard. It turns out that HP super into the fabric printing, and some of it seemed really interesting. I think it would be a really great way to print labels for a quilt, that wasn't so super detailed. There's no way I'd ever use it for something I entirely hand pieced and quilted, but it would be especially good for a kid's quilt.
And one more thing, besides the last one more thing. Sort-of related to quilting; I think I found my perfect quilt rack. We got money from my Granny to buy a quilt rack when we got married last October, and so far, we've still not bought one. But today, I found a perfect one at Crate and Barrel. It's perfect. All of the ones I had seen so far were really country, woody ones. And as many people know, I have a problem with woodiness. It's perfect, and it must be mine! Get out the AmEx, I'm shopping tonight!
Why is it whenever someone finds out that I do my quilting and piecing all by hand, they freak out and tell me I'm nuts? I'm not nuts, I just enjoy it, and really respect people that still do the majority of their work by hand. I'm not against machine quilting and piecing, but it's just what I prefer to do. It may take longer, but in the end, if it's a quilt that I'm giving to someone (and I've never yet made myself a quilt at this point, they've always gone to people as gifts) I think it's something very special to receive a piece of art that someone has taken that much care to make. Stop freaking out about people who hand quilt! Geez!
So I didn't get any of the things I had suggested for my birthday on Wednesday. Don't worry. All of those things could still work for other holiday gifts.
As a treat to myself, I headed off to my local quilt shops to see what was new. It really just turned into a bizarre event. I don't think that people in quilt shops must take me seriously about why I'm there. I finally made it to a store in Lansing called the The Quilt Depot, and I wasn't too impressed. It's not like I'm odd looking, or repulsive, or have blue hair (that's pretty nice!), but the people in the store acted like I had no reason to be there. It bothers me (and I've run into this problem at other quilt shops) that people seem to think that since I'm 23, that I have no idea what I'm looking for and/or what I'm doing in general. But on the other hand, like most times I've been there, the people at Country Stitches don't act like I'm an idiot. Hey! I do happen to know what I'm doing.
I'm getting pretty close to having everything but the border on the wedding quilt I'm currently working on, finished. As thrilled as I am to be closer to finishing up, I have no idea how to quilt the border. It's three strips of fabric, and I've never had to come up with a quilted border design. Everything else I've done has just gone to the binding. I bought a stencil to trace a design on one of the strips, but I just don't think it's going to work. In the end, as long as it looks good, I don't care what it looks like.