Dear Mom, I made them a quilt...

Quilt Kit Tutorial

2012-01-25T12:51:00.000-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, I posted some "learn to quilt" kits on my etsy shop before the holidays. The first one sold! So first of all, thanks Stacy! And second of all, here's the tutorial that goes along with the kit.

Congratulations on your first quilt! First, a small disclaimer: the tutorial I've written is how *I* make a quilt. There are many things I do out of habit (for example, stacking the squares once I've laid them out) that are simply personal preference - if you think of a way to do something that's easier for you, do it that way!

Let's start with what's in the kit. You have 30 squares, 12 strips, and one big piece. The good news is, all the dangerous work has been done for you...no sliced fingers here! :-)

The first step is design. I've laid my quilt out in a simple diagonal pattern, but you can arrange the squares any way you want - random is acceptable! This is YOUR quilt, so make it look how YOU want to see it!

Once you've arranged the squares how you like them, pick them up, starting from the BOTTOM LEFT, putting one square on top of the next until you get to the end of the row. Stack the rows on top of each other, offsetting the corners by 45 degrees each time, like I've done above. This makes it easy to grab a square to sew, without losing your place in the quilt.

Take the first two squares and place them on top of each other, right sides together. ("Right sides" means the "front" of the fabric.) Making sure the SECOND square is on top and the direction of the print (if it has one) is up, pin the squares together along the right side.

Right sides together, pinned along the right, directional pattern pointing up.

Begin stitching along the RIGHT side, a quarter of an inch from the edge. My machine's foot is a quarter of an inch wide, so I don't mark my fabrics. However, you should make sure you know where 1/4" lives, either by measuring the foot or marking the fabric. Stitch all the way to the end, and cut the thread. Do NOT "tie off" either end - this can cause snagging and isn't necessary to ensure the stitch stays. Just make sure you start stitching slightly before the top of the fabric and finish slightly below the bottom.

Continue this process until you've got a full row completed.

Putting the squares right sides down, press the seam open with your iron on the cotton setting. If the seam won't stay flat, try spraying it with a little water and pressing a little longer.

This is another step where you may find that you prefer something different. Pressing the seams open decreases bulges in the quilt, and is a good habit for when you're sewing a dark fabric to a light fabric. However, pressing the seams to one side or the other is perfectly valid as well. If we're being honest, I sometimes don't bother pressing them at all! Scandalous, I know! :-)

Continue pressing your seams until the whole row is pressed.

Repeat these steps for the other 5 rows.

Once you've got the 6 rows complete, take the top two rows and place them right sides together. Match up each seam so that the seams from each row are as close to lined up as possible. It may be that the blocks themselves don't line up exactly, but make sure the seams line up as shown. Any discrepancies in block length can be accommodated when you're sewing them together (I'll explain that in a minute).

Pin the seams together, to make sure they stay lined up.

Pin all seams together, down the whole row.

Start sewing down the right side, a quarter of an inch from the edge. Remove the pins as you go, waiting until the last minute so the seams stay lined up. If there's a difference in length between two blocks, continue stitching but gently pull the stitched edge to stretch the shorter block. If there's too big a difference, this may not totally take up all the slack. Generally though, you should be able to massage the fabrics into cooperation.

Continue sewing until you finish the row.

Open the rows to see your handiwork!

The corners should line up fairly well if you were diligent about pinning the seams together. Don't worry if they're off by a little bit...that just adds character!

Continue pinning and stitching rows together until you've finished the middle of the quilt. Once you're done, press the seams open as you did with the individual blocks.

Find your 1.5 inch strips. Iron them flat if needed, then pin to the center of the quilt, starting with the long sides first.

Sew the borders down, starting slightly before and ending slightly after the edges, 1/4 inch from the right side.

Press the seams, either open or flat. I've opted for flat here, but that's just my personal preference.

Continue sewing the borders on, trimming the excess at the end of each strip, until you have all 4 borders on. Make sure you do the two long sides first, then the shorter sides.

Repeat these steps with the 3.5 inch strips, again starting with the long sides.

Press the seams as desired again.

Take a breath and enjoy the fact that the top is done!

Take the large piece of fabric (I've cut it to be 54 inches long and the width will be 42-44 inches wide, depending on the fabric) and smooth it out on the floor. Tape the corners down to keep it from shifting while you work with the other layers.

Spread the batting out over the top of the backing, making sure it lays flat and smooth. For the sample quilt, I used spray on adhesive to keep the layers together, but you can used pins to baste as well. If you don't have them, now is a good time to take a break and go buy some curved basting pins at Joann's.

Lay the top out on the batting, making sure that there's at least an inch around each edge of both backing and batting. Smooth out the top and baste with pins.

When using pins, make sure they're at least every 6 inches (again, personal habit) and that you have a row of them lining the outside, to keep the edges stable.

Once you've basted your quilt, trim the excess batting and backing off, to 1-2 inches larger than the top.

For this quilt, I took a ruler and drew lines across the center of the top, using a Crayola washable marker. You can quilt yours however you like, including simply following the seams (which I'll show in a bit). If you have a pattern in mind, doodle it out so it's easier to trace with your machine. For your first quilt, I'd recommend staying with straight lines.

Draw the pattern on the whole quilt, since it's small. This method may not work as well for larger quilts.

Finally, the actual quilting! Make sure you're sure where the stitch is going to start - this is one time you don't want to go over too much on either end, so position the needle manually if you need to! Once you've found your starting spot, just follow the lines! The general rule is to start from the middle and work your way outward. In this case, I'm starting from the middle line, which starts in the corner. Use your judgement to figure out where to start, but remember that things do tend to shift as you stitch, so middle out is a good place to go from.

For this quilt, I also "stitched in the ditch" for the borders. That means I followed the seam line and tried to get as close to "in" it as possible, for both borders.

You can see the first line on the left, and the second on the right.

Sit back and admire your work!!

Lay the quilt out flat on the floor and, if you're using a rotary cutter, lay a cutting mat under it.

Using a ruler or other straight edge, cut the excess batting and backing off from the edges. Since quilting does shift the fabric a little, you may end up cutting some of the outer border off as well. This isn't the end of the world! Just make sure you're keeping an eye on how wide the border is so it stays relatively uniform the whole way around.

Continue cutting around the rest of the quilt.

Leave the quilt on the floor for your cat to enjoy for a few minutes and grab the 2.5 inch strips from your kit. Put the ends of two of them right-sides together, 90 degrees off from one another as you see above.

Draw a line and sew from one corner to the other.

Cut the excess triangle. Repeat these steps for all 4 strips.

Once your strips are in one long strip, take one end and fold it diagonally as shown. Press it flat.

Fold the strip in half so it becomes 1.25 inches wide and right sides are out.

When you get to seams, press them open.

Continue pressing the strip in half until the end.

Starting about 10-12 inches from a corner, on the back, start pinning the binding down to all three layers of the quilt. Use straight pins and pin every 3-4 inches.

When you get to the corner, hold the strip with your thumb, but don't pin it yet.

Fold the strip up (away from the direction of the next side) at a diagonal so it's now running parallel but in the wrong direction to the next side.

Keeping the diagonal fold in place, fold the strip back down toward the next side. The corner should line up and the sides should line up.

Pin on either side of the corner. It should look like this if you pinch that fold up.

Continue these steps all the way around the quilt, pinning frequently. When you get back to the beginning, pin the strip 5-6 inches over the starting point and trim if needed. Before trimming, make sure you verify that the excess more than covers the folded part of the start.

After you've trimmed the end, unpin it (just the end, not the whole thing!) and start sewing about 8 inches from the starting fold. Sew forward a few stitches, back a few stitches, then forward again. Remove pins as you go.

When you get to the corner, unpin about 3-5 inches on the next side. Pull the strip out parallel with the current side, so you can stitch until about 1/4 inch shy of the corner.

Stop sewing and lift the foot but don't cut the thread. Refold the corner as you had before, turn the quilt 90 degrees, and put the foot back down. Keep going!

Keep sewing until you're about 8 inches from the trimmed end of the strip. Sew a little backward then forward again and clip the thread.

Give yourself enough room to work - err on the side of too much room!

Lay the quilt on a flat surface, keeping the unfinished edge as flat and straight as possible. Tuck the trimmed end of the strip into the fold of the diagonally-folded end.

Smooth the ends out and carefully pin the ends together as shown. You should only pin together two layers of fabric here - not all the way through the whole pile!

Once the ends are secured, hold them together and pull them away from the quilt.

Making sure the strip ends are still 90 degrees off from each other, sew down the diagonal seam. As before, cut the thread and the excess triangle. You may want to check to make sure the binding strip lays flat with the quilt before cutting - measure twice, cut once!

When you've cut the excess off, lay the strip back against the quilt and continue sewing it down through the 3 layers of quilt. Once you've gotten back to where you started, backstitch a few stitches and cut the thread. Almost done!!

Flip the quilt over and fold the binding over to cover the raw edges. Pin every couple of inches to keep the binding in place. You can iron this if you'd like, but make sure you don't iron on a cotton setting if you're using polyester batting!

Fold the corners diagonally so they're mitered, then pin the fold.

Pin all the way around the quilt to make life easier while you're stitching the binding down.

This next part is personal choice - I like to machine sew the binding, especially for kids' quilts. However, you can hand-sew the binding using a slip stitch, if you want the final stitches to be invisible.

Starting a couple inches from a corner (any corner, but I usually start on the bottom edge), stitch a few stitches forward then back then forward. Sew as close to the folded edge as possible, but be careful to stay on the binding material.

When you get to the corner, leave the needle down, to use it as a pivot point. You can do this by turning the knob manually. Lift the foot

Turn the quilt 90 degrees, put the foot back down, and keep stitching. Repeat this until you've made it all the way around the quilt.

Write your name on it somewhere and go snuggle up!!

If you've used markers to draw a pattern, wash your quilt on the gentle cycle and lay flat to dry.

Long Time No See

2012-01-05T10:59:00.003-05:00

Sorry I've been a little delinquent lately. It's not for lack of sewing, it's simply been lack of time. Between classes (I got in to PT school!!!), work, gym work, and actual sewing, posting has sort of hit the back burner. But here's a post full of pictures, just so show you I haven't been doing nothing. :-)

This is the apron I made for my mother in law for Christmas. Horrible picture, but I think it came out well.

Father in law's quilt. He loved it. :-)

A mostly done great aunt in law's quilt. More on this one in a sec.

The military quilts are finally all out the door. I made 2 like this one for the boys, then the one following this for the mother, as a surprise. I'm told they were all a hit. :-)

4 quilts later, I still have a HUGE box of materials left, but 90% of it is DCUs, so I'm a little stuck for how to make that look interesting. I'm thinking maybe a rag quilt? I dunno.

This was the basket (purchased, not made, obv) with liner for grandmother in law

Front side

Over Christmas weekend, my sister in law and her friend wanted to learn to quilt, so I brought up my box of squares and showed them how to make a quick little patch quilt.

Courtney ended up doing most of the sewing while Jen made dinner, but the quilt turned out wonderfully!

Top done!

Quilting - I showed her how to do free motion stitching and she LOVED it.

The quilt's name is "Whackado".

Finished!

Kini came with us and was unrelentingly pathetic the whole time. She was very good about staying on her pillow at the top of the stairs, but she's definitely got the guilt thing down.

Aunt Margaret getting her quilt Christmas morning.

See, she's technically still on the pillow...

Father in law's quilt in its new home!

In addition to the bigger basket, I whipped up this set of pockets, in case grandma in law doesn't want to have a basket sticking out all the time.

Super easy to make!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'll try to be better about posting, but really the pics get put on my FB page nearly daily. Currently, I'm working on cousin in law's wedding quilt. It's a little nerve-wracking, but I think it's going to turn out nicely.

Ok one quick, crappy picture. It's still got a long way to go yet.

Facebook

2011-12-02T22:04:00.001-05:00

So I know I've been bad about posting lately, but I've been putting pics up on the blog facebook page. Check them out!

I also have a few more ready to ship things in the shop, just in time for the holidays. Check them out too!

Quick Pics

2011-11-21T14:12:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post. Had a productive weekend. 4 tops finished, w00t!
A Christmas gift, two commissioned pieces, and a surprise gift.

I desperately want to post the surprise gift one, but I'm not sure if the recipient reads this blog so I have to hold off. I'm in love with it though, so I'm hoping I can ship it soon!

Another 2 Finish Week

2011-10-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

It's been a productive week. I finished 2 more commissioned quilts and even taught myself how to make pillow shams in the process.

Finish #1 was for a little boy named Harrison:

Guess what I don't have a crib to model this on. Too bad.

The artsy long shot.

That right there is a quilted pillow sham. High end stuff right there kids.

For the quilting I did strings of stars down the sashing.

More stars

The backing was flannel and super soft. Love love love. The stars didn't stand out as much as I thought they would, which I think is ok.

So that shipped yesterday.
Today, this beauty is going in the mail:

The top was pieced by a friend of mine, and I did the quilting. She's going to do the binding, which is why it's unfinished on the edges.

A little better lighting

From the back

Up close and personal.

I loved this quilt. It's heavy and cotton, and just feels cozy.

Design Wall Monday

2011-10-17T15:06:00.003-04:00

Just a quickie, as usual. I reworked this customer quilt to use a different border around the outside. I like it MUCH better this way.

I'm shocked that this fabric may work as a backing for his name too...I thought it'd be too busy, but it seems ok to me. Thoughts?

And finally, the secret quilt is nearly finished and will be revealed on Wednesday. For now though, the quality inspector says it meets code.

Usually when he jumps up on my table, it's to get out the window. This time, it was solely to cuddle up on this quilt. That has to be a good sign, right? :-)

2011-10-04T22:58:00.000-04:00

Got a couple projects in the works right now. First up, a comfort quilt for a coworker and friend who's facing some serious difficulties, and doing it alone. Breaks my heart, but she's refusing rides and such so I'm forcing a quilt on her whether she likes it or not. I'm hoping to have it to her by the end of the week, but I'm lost in terms of how to quilt it. Thoughts? Anyone?

Also in the works is the two quilts for the sons of the husband who's getting the military quilt for his promotion soon. That quilt got to the recipient (his wife) today, but hasn't found its forever home yet - he'll be promoted in the next couple months I'm told.

Anyway, that's what's going on tonight. I started another Christmas quilt and doodled up another Etsy commission, but those aren't anywhere near photographable, so no pics.

Finish and kitties

2011-09-30T09:15:00.003-04:00

Here's what I've been doing this week.

This is for a friend's mom, who needs a little comfort in the coming weeks.

It's kitty themed. :-)

And on a related note, this happened this week. It was weird. They hate each other.

Busy Busy Busy

2011-09-28T10:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been so long. Life's gotten crazy busy lately.

Last weekend was our anniversary, so we went up to VT to celebrate. It was wonderful to be able to relax and relive the memories a bit.

At the winery

Out to dinner

At the church

Back at home, I've got a few projects in the works (of course), the most pressing of which is this one:

Just kidding. That yellow makes my eyes hurt a little. Blech. I swapped it out for a blue and now it's much more soothing:

Right now the rows are all sewn and about half are sewn together. I'm hoping to get the top done tonight so I can baste it and do some simple quilting (diagonal lines) and get it done for a friend who needs it this weekend. Might be a long night.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the gymnastics quilt:

I'm debating doing something more complicated on the colored blocks, but it depends on how much time I have in the next few weeks. I've been a little swamped lately.

On a positive note, two quilts met their recipients this weekend, and I'm told both were very well received. :-) I love hearing when my babies go to a loving home.

And finally, sad news...I'm shipping out the military quilt today. Mom's coming to visit tomorrow, but the girl wants me to ship it ASAP, so out it goes. Sigh. Another quilt goes out into the world...I got a little attached to this one, as you can imagine. Farewell little quilt, godspeed:

FNSI - Social Edition

2011-09-17T00:30:00.001-04:00

Just a quickie picture post before I head to bed...it's nearly 12:30 AM and I have a TON to get done tomorrow. Daunting.

Anyway, here are the pictures I'm at liberty to show tonight:

Our mascot, camped out in the tshirt scrap box. Anyone have ideas about what to do with tshirt scraps? I'm not really excited about sewing with them.

We crammed 3 sewing stations, a cutting station, and an ironing station into my sewing room. Love it. Oh, and the design wall was still accessible too. Luxe.

Carolyn's project...how cute is this???

My top finish for the night. I added a couple of borders and decided to dub this one "Funfetti".

Oof

2011-09-15T14:16:00.000-04:00

This...has been a turbulent week. None of the bad stuff directly affects me, but there has been a lot of seriously heart-breaking news this week that's made my weeping heart, well, weep.

But that's for another post. For this post, we have a finish! Huzzah!

Front!

Back!

I stippled it (not very well, mind you) around the focus pieces, so they're kind of raised and highlighted. I'm happy with it. I'm still not very good at stippling though. My lines cross a lot. A LOT. Oh well. The dark blue fabric on the back is some of the same stuff that I used in Just His Size, which was made for the recipient's grandson, so there's some connection there. Precious, I know...aren't I special? :-P

Friday Nigh Sew In is nearly upon us, and for once I'm hosting a party! A couple of friends are coming over, cramming themselves into my sewing room, and partying it up with me. I can't wait. :-) The major project of the night is top secret (to be revealed later, I promise), and if there's time then I'll put in some more time on the memory quilt. That one should go together quickly once I sit down and do it.

Design Wall Monday

2011-09-12T12:04:00.001-04:00

First up, the Civil War quilt:

The top is done! I don't have quite enough material (at least not in the right direction) for the backing, so I'm taking a little field trip over lunch to grab some coordinating stuff for a border. Tonight, I'll hopefully get it basted and start with the quilting!

Next up, the design wall:

This is a memory quilt I'm putting together for my sisters-in-law's friends who are getting married soon. I love the fabrics they picked out - so colorful!

Just a quickie today, gotta get back to work!

Hand Dominance

2011-09-08T13:25:00.002-04:00

Quick favor to ask all you followers out there.

Clasp your hands together. Which thumb is on top? What's your dominant hand? Leave the results in a comment (and for those of you who are FB friends, please only reply if you haven't responded to the question on FB).

Thanks!!

Impromptu Shop Hop and Design Wall

2011-09-06T12:24:00.000-04:00

This weekend hubs and I went up to Franconia, NH for a weekend with his soaring club. As much as I love watching specks of planes in the distance floating slowly in and out of the clouds, it was pretty muggy and warm, so I excused myself from the picnic tables and took a little road trip.

First stop was at Stitch at the Old Mill, which billed itself as "a social club and fabric resource". Love it. The shop wasn't too big, but half of the building was set up with tables that would allow 20+ quilters enough space to work and chatter for hours on end. I wished I'd brought my machine (or at least the latest finish, since they'd had a show n tell not half an hour before I got there). Their list of social activities makes me want to retire early and just hang out at the shop all day.

The next stop took a little work to find. Google Maps led me slightly astray, so I ended up needing to stop for directions from a surly guy working at the paint your own pottery place (he made fun of me for using a GPS...I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have known your little town even existed, let alone had a quilt shop if it weren't for Google Maps, so don't knock it!) Then I got closer and had to ask a sketchy dude running what might have been a pot shop if he knew where the shop was.

Finally, I made it to Pinestead Quilts in Lincoln, NH. They don't have a website, and the shop was really pretty tiny...but I loved it anyway. They had bins and bins of precut squares that you could put together and purchase as little kits...sort of like a by the pound candy shop, but with fabric. Love it! The lady working the counter was 75 (she told me so) and just this tiny little thing, but she had some great opinions about technology. Not ones I agree with necessarily, but she had them anyway. :-)
I bought these fat quarters for a project I'm not at liberty to discuss yet. I'm actually hoping that this project won't be necessary, but just in case...

Aren't they lovely? I just love the rich colors and the subtle texture/pattern. Beautiful.

The final stop was Keepsake Quilting in the Lakes Region. Oh. My. Goodness.

They had an outlet store!

The place was seriously enormous. It took up an entire side of a strip mall, and the fabric selection was just overwhelming.

I loved this little tie quilt! It made me think of church-going babies

I bought this fabric for an upcoming project for a friend's mom. She wants a "whimsical cat-themed" quilt, so I found this stuff. The fishes is going to be sashing and the paw prints is the backing.

And after much labor and graphing (see below), the layout for the Civil War quilt is coming together. All the feature pieces (flags and maps) have fusible stuff on them, so now the next step is to crease the edges then iron them to their background blocks (blue has the Gettysburg address on it and cream is just a pretty pattern). Then I'll start putting the blocks together in chunks and hopefully by the end of the week the top will be done! I'm thinking I'll quilt around the feature pieces with cream or tan thread, some kind of swirly something.

Seriously, this is the most planning I've done on a quilt since the first one!

Design Wall Monday and a Finish

2011-08-29T10:45:00.000-04:00

First, the finish.

The masterpiece is done! The backing is just tan fleece, and I just rolled it over to the front to bind it. I machine tied it (read: used the button stitch) in every block and in a few other strategic places (like the corners of the shirt). It's HEAVY, but it's done! Next up for this family is two queen-sized quilts made from the rest of the uniform materials, for her sons. Depending on what I have left from that, I may have an extra surprise up my sleeve...but no spoilers yet.

I also whipped up this top this weekend:

It's going to be a Christmas present, so I'm not doing anything more with it for a bit. It was such a quick and easy project though, I just wanted something "bubble gum" to do for a few hours. I'll do something more exciting for the quilting part of it, promise. :-)

I also got the focus pieces cut for the Civil War quilt. I'm still toying around with ideas on how to get them all into the same quilt without requiring applique, but I haven't quite come to an adequate solution yet. I'll keep you posted.

Finally, I got out and took a few "good" pictures of the ARL donation quilt.

How artsy am I, huh? Ha.

Pay no attention to that computer tower...or the fact that I had to strategically angle the shot to crop out the boxes full of junk on the porch. Next time I'll haul the chair out into the yard maybe.

Reliving

2011-08-24T22:50:00.004-04:00

So I've started working on the embroidery part of the military quilt (taught myself, TYVM) and I have to say...it's actually really humbling. Doing this by hand is sort of forcing me to really think about what the words mean, and what they meant to the family involved. The one I'm working on right now says

"Short Tour"
Bahrain
Nov 2009 - Nov 2010

I can just picture the soldier's wife getting a phone call every few weeks telling her that they'd be in the field...just a few more weeks. I don't know that that's what happened, but it's what I'm picturing anyway.

I rearranged the blocks a bit so now BDU material surrounds where the blouse will go.

Hand embroidered FTW.

Didn't wash away the marker, oops.

Looks impressive, huh?

First block. Not as pretty, but ok.
It's getting there.

In other news, I've cut out all the pieces for the Civil War quilt and am kind of a little considering bringing them to work so I can lay it all out on one of the big conference tables. Would that be crossing some kind of line do you think? :-D

This weekend we're supposed to get some silly hurricane heading our way, so it looks like I'll be spending a lot of time indoors...oh darn! :-)

And also, to everyone who thinks I have superhuman energy...you wanna know my secret?

I don't have kids. :-)

I manage my time well and I don't have kids. My time is my time, and I LOVE that. I'm living it up until the inevitable happens and the future grandmothers in my family win out. For now, I don't spend my day chasing a knee-high around, so while it may sound superhuman, it's not. It's just lack of offspring.

What are you working on?

Accidental FNSI and Design Wall Monday!

2011-08-22T12:48:00.001-04:00

Finally, I'm back!

This weekend I ended up having a bunch of time to work on stuff in "the lab", so I got a TON done. I had a finish:

This one is puppy-themed, and is a donation quilt for the Animal Rescue League of NH's silent auction fund raiser in September.

If you want to donate to the rescue league, our team page is here.

This guy will thank you for donating. :-D

After I finished that (literally, seconds after I finished the final stitch on the label), my best customer showed up with some Civil War themed fabrics to make a quilt for her dad's birthday at the end of September. I don't have pictures of that (grr), but it'll be up on the design wall as soon as this next one is down (hopefully by the end of the week, but we'll see).

Some of the fabrics include these:

The two general pictures are going to be the feature fabrics, and the flags and maps will fill in the spaces until the edges. Terrible description, cool project. There will be more pictures, promise.

After Jen left, I started cutting up pieces of military uniforms to create this:

This is a promotion quilt for a soldier who's being promoted in December. The post it notes mark where patches and/or embroidery are going to go. The only change I need to make is around the shirt - I'm going to make all the squares touching the blouse be BDU (green) material so it stands out more. The arms also need to be folded differently, to lay better. I'm waiting on 2 more sets of stripes, then I'll be able to start putting blocks together. Until then, I'll be embroidering stuff and stitching on patches.

I got mad embroidering skillz, yo. Yes, that's my handwriting, and yes I did that freehand. I know the 1 has a tumor, it won't happen again.

I still have a TON of leftover uniform material, and the wife has asked me to make 2 more queen sized quilts out of the leftovers for her sons. Hopefully, I can get them all done in time for Christmas. The only one that's time critical for now though is this one.

I also got this quilt basted last night (I didn't make the top, a friend's requested that I quilt it for her). Not sure what I'm going to do for the quilting.

Isn't that adorable? I just love the colors. It's so fresh and summery, it makes me think of lemonade. Love love love.

Other projects in the pipeline are a wedding quilt:

This is going to take some creative engineering because some of the squares are bigger than others, and (worse) some are signed all the way to the edges. I'm excited to work on this one though, and honored they'd think of me to put it together for them.

I really need to be putting together *our* wedding shower quilt as well. It's in a box and I really just need to spend a good hour or two getting the pieces organized so I can just hammer out a block or two when I have 15 minutes to spare. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Finally, the other pile o' fabric new in my sewing room as of this weekend is a stack of t shirts from a gymnastics camp my sister in law and her friend(s) went to for the majority of their lives. I guess one of their friends is getting married, so they want a quilt made out of all the shirts from all the summers. I'm thinking this might be my first QAYG quilt, but I'm going to have to try it out on a smaller scale first, to make sure I can do the block joining right.

Anyway, that's what's going on in the lab these days. :-) All or nothing.

Hiking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

2011-08-15T16:35:00.001-04:00

Or: Why I haven't been quilting for a couple weeks.

Anyone who reads Pedal Faster, don't bother...this is the same stuff as over there.

It all started with an airport debacle that wasn't properly documented. We waited on this curb for probably 20 minutes while we were on the phone with our ride yelling "no WE're at the right terminal!" Turns out we were in the drop off only lane, and they were in the pick up only lane...which was across the airport and much less busy. Possibly because of a power-tripping crossing guard who made sure we knew we were not as important as the 300 or so cabs he let by first. Hmph.

Eventually, we made it to camp. No pics of the ride because I slept through 90% of it. Actually, there are pictures of that. Aren't I precious?

Thanks for that, Devin.

Apparently, while I was sleeping the apocalypse happened. I might've been awake for this actually...there was some discussion of why we were driving directly into what looked like a tornado. No such luck. My vacations are so boring.

Finally, we made it to the North Rim campground and set up camp. I'm taking pictures to document the trip while Nick's working.

Devin thought the pay phones were quaint and hilarious.

Natch, we saw the edge of the canyon and walked towards it. Why wouldn't you?

It was seriously dizzying being that close to the edge.

Just a preview.

Hey look, I'm reasonably photogenic when you can't see my face full on! Nice!

Keeping it classy at camp, drinking a Fat Tire for my homies.

I was very worried for that sandwich's well-being.

Boys making fire. Sort of.

Hanging out at camp.

All packed up and ready to roll.

The before shot, when we're all smiles.

First couple shot!

There was a lot of this.

We came down that! And we weren't even a third of the way down!

No perspective on this makes it look smaller than it was.

There, you see that black blob at the bottom? That's Devin, who's about 6 feet tall.

Being the slow kid, I wound up with a lot of "this will look epic in a montage" butt shots of the boys.

Devin was behind me some of the time.

Definitely not a tourist.

Made it to our first camp!

And Devin felt like 7 miles with 40 lbs on his back wasn't enough of a workout.

Then the apocalypse.

The water is colder than it looks, but it felt so gooood.

The park services had put big rocks (not these, other ones) in place to make a little swimming hole. It wasn't deep, but it was wet and cold so we jumped in and cooled off for a while. Wonderful.

Then we made like literate lizards and read by the pool.

Think of it as nature's ice bath.

There were a ton of these crazy caterpillars, and they kept dropping from trees onto our tent. It was weird.

And thus ends day 1.

Day 2 was supposed to be the "easy" day with a flat 7 miles. It was actually really nice...we got to camp in about 4 hours and were in the shade most of the time.

Starting out the day right...with pasty legs and unflattering shorts. Yeewoozah.

Sunrise in the canyon is a dramatic event.

Nick, clearly a morning person. Is this owling?

Woah, river crossing!

There was a side hike (immediately after "Asinine Hill") to Ribbon Falls, which was spectacular.

The rock was hollow on the inside. I think it wasn't eroded so much as formed...bizarre.

From behind the falls.

Wider shot.

Artsy water shot (Devin's handiwork).

Candid couple shot, courtesy of Devin.

Foraging on the way back.

Action shot!

Closer to camp than we thought!

Happy couple!

Then suddenly...this.

Ummm...so much for roughing it I guess. This is Phantom Ranch, where the slackers sit on their high horses down into the canyon and then dine in air conditioning and tell people they've been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

It's rough being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but someone has to do it.

I feel like this needs to be made into a charicature.

Possibly this one too. Aren't I...special? Also, that orange thing is my poncho. We left all our food in ammo boxes (seriously) to go take a dip in the river and when I came back a squirrel had eaten THROUGH that poncho because it was sitting on the (sealed) box! Those canyon squirrels are no joke.

Oh look, there's one now!

Nick is unconcerned. Those white things are the boxes we had to use to keep critters out of our jerky. No joke, folks.

Seriously, the heat hit him the hardest I think.

Overlooking Willy Wonka's death river (aka, the Mighty Colorado).

This was pretty much the afternoon. It was 124 in the sun and 108 in the shade. And 75 in the river.

Seriously, it was hot. And at the bottom of the canyon we were still nearly 30 times higher than at home.

It was like a little hot tub, but the opposite.

Here's the view from our private pool.

At 8 o'clock, they let us lower class citizens into the fine dining hall, and we had ourselves a beer.

I tried to get in on the picture, but succeeded not so much. Best mule Tecate in history though.

This kid and the faces he makes because he thinks I'll take fewer pictures...

Couple shadow!

Willy Wonka's river of death in the morning light. Still terrifying.

*shudder*

No big deal, just some epic scenery.

5 miles into the hike and we're at Indian Gardens. That thermometer read 70 when we got there and by the time we left it was above 80...in half an hour. Frightening.

That's the trail we hiked up!

This. Is not funny. With 40 lbs on our backs and over 5000 feet to climb, this might as well have read "you're going to die".

Preparing for the death march.

I bonked HARD mid climb, and couldn't keep my body temp in check. Nick was kind enough to get my goofy hat wet so I could keep my head a little cooler (and look more awesome, duh).

It was seriously gorgeous. We ended up resting every 10 feet or so because we were all bonking hard and getting really winded from the altitude change (seriously), which meant we got to enjoy the epicness of what we'd just done.

The clouds made for some really dramatic shadows.

There was a shocking amount of greenery on the trail. I just didn't expect that at all.

I mean really! Who'd want to grow here!

We did not avoid the mules at all. In fact, most of the way back up was covered in mule excrement.

The trail away from one of the water stops.

Seriously, who's sexier than me on a backpacking trip, huh? No one, that's who. Giselle, eat your heart out.

First "holy crap, we were just down there" moment.

Dev's good with a camera.

Almost there!

Seriously, it was practically paved on the last bit.

Shockingly, no hand rails.

Made it!!

Free motion victory!

2011-07-24T16:37:00.001-04:00

After more than a few arguments with my machine (Bessie doesn't like the heat, it turns out), this beauty is finally complete! I've never been brave enough to free motion quilt fleece, but I think this turned out pretty well! The pattern differences correspond to the fabrics...I circled around the animals and the "I love Mommy I love Daddy" phrases, but the rest was just stippling.

Poor lighting, but you get the idea.

See, pattern differences.

Ahh, natural light.

And, of course, the artsy shot. Ish. Whatever, it's got sunlight on it, that makes it artsy.

I just need a name for this one other than "Jen's quilt" which is what I've been calling it. Thoughts?

Still alive

2011-07-19T23:16:00.002-04:00

New glasses! And part of an apron I'm working on for a wedding gift. 3 quilts in various stages of "the works" and a couple small projects here and there fit in between work, classes, and observation hours. Busy busy life I love. :)

Quick test

2011-06-26T06:45:00.001-04:00

A flurry of pictures

2011-06-24T21:48:00.002-04:00

Been super busy!

This was for my friend's 2 year old daughter, who wanted "puppies and trucks and pink and purple". I love it. She loves it.

I had a ton of extra fabric, so I made her a coordinating "travel quilt" and practiced my stippling.

Turns out stippling isn't nearly as intimidating as the internet would have you believe, and I just love the way it looks. I've used it on basically everything since (which is really just 4 bibs I made for Nick's coworker's wife).

I also whipped up this little prototype for my friend who's started a cookie store on Etsy.

If you buy cookies from her, mention in your buyer's box that you both follow my blog and want a gift bag and, solely for my blogging friends, you'll get the bag FREE with any cookie order. Even if the cookies are for yourself, the bag is perfectly regiftable! :-)

Quilting doodle

2011-06-11T10:19:00.001-04:00

Just playing around with some stuff inspired by Leah Day.

Finally, a quilt!

2011-05-31T23:42:00.000-04:00

Just one picture for now. A friend requested a quilt for her daughter, who wanted "puppies and trucks and pink and purple". So that's what I'm making. It's sort of reverse appliquéd. Or something. More details later.

The other thing that kept me away from blogging - Tough Mudder

2011-05-14T11:43:00.000-04:00

This is how I spent last weekend (Mother's Day). It's two posts combined into one, from my fitness blog, so if the tone is a little different than normal, I apologize. :-)

UPDATE (got a little introspective after I published this the first time):

I'm starting to feel a little bit like I'm in Fight Club. I've run into a few coworkers who have similar bruises and faint outlines of numbers on their foreheads and legs, and the response is always the same...a quick double take then a "wait...did you do Tough Mudder this weekend? Holy crap, so did I!" And then an hour or so reliving the experience with someone for whom you have a whole new respect, knowing they put themselves through the same hell you did. It's the mud that binds us, if you will. Anyone who walks in on the conversation responds with a vague "oh that's cool..." or "wait...why would you do that??" but without experiencing Tough Mudder, you simply...don't get it.

I've been looking for other races/runs to do that would come close to what TM was, and nothing seems good enough. Too short, not enough obstacles, on flat roads, allow entrants under 18 (a sure sign that the course is meh...sorry Spartan)...and yet, the next VT TM is almost 14 months from now, and who knows where I'll be then?

Also, other coworkers have asked about doing TM and whether they should go the full Mudder or try something else "to see if they like it" first. I have a hard time with that...maybe it's elitist or something, I don't know, but I figure...if there's any doubt in your soul, you should not be doing Mudder as your first mud run. But then again, I've always been a "go big or go home" kind of girl, so maybe that's just me.

Holy moley you guys, today hurts. I'm actually using my arms to get myself out of my chair to walk to the kitchen. No bueno.

That said, I wanna do it again. I'm so hooked, and I can't wait until Tough Mudder comes back to town next year. I also just found out that a coworker ran it on Saturday, so I'm trying to convince him to run the one in NJ in November. We'll see how that goes.

Until then, a few notes on the obstacles.

1. Braveheart Charge

This one was fun. Everyone was amped up and ready to go. We sang the national anthem and there was an awkward thing involving a picture of Bin Laden with an X through his face. Unnecessary, but whatever. The moment wasn't lost. The initial charge was downhill and everyone was smiling.

2. Death March

This was probably the first time we started questioning what we'd gotten ourselves into. It wasn't a little slope, guys...this was a red at best, which is more than I'll snowboard down, even on a good day. The mist is from the snow making machines they had blowing on us...not warm y'all, not warm.

3. The Killa Gorilla

Coming down the hill to see this, we were laughing. It was so absurd to look at. This was the first obstacle that I got to help someone else. There was a girl I was about to pass who was losing steam and fast, so I grabbed her hand and said "let's go" and pulled her up some. She sped up as soon as I grabbed her hand, and I felt faster too...that's just Tough Karma. :-)

4. Devil's Beard

This one wasn't so bad. It was annoying, but we all wound up giggling most of the time, especially since I got clotheslined more than once. I was the tallest one going through it at that point, so I earned that.

5. Boa Constrictor

I saw pictures of this Saturday afternoon and my heart sank. They put them at an angle, into a large puddle that was probably knee-deep to stand in....which is roughly eye-level when you're in them. I have HUGE issues with small, dark spaces and with murky water, so I expected this one to be an issue. However, right before this one we saw Nick, who then ran ahead to meet us here and cheer me on. I love that boy. His cheers made me so happy I forgot to be nervous. The tubes weren't completely dark either, which made it better. However, there was a good chunk of it that I was under water completely (as far as breathing is concerned) so that was unsettling.

6. Tired Yet?

I think the website might have these slightly out of order, but I honestly can't remember. I remember laughing at the tires because they were right after an uphill trek. They weren't so bad, but they weren't great either.

7. Tree Hugger

Now I know these are out of order. The Tree Hugger was definitely after the mud mile, and I'm pretty sure after the Ball Shrinker. But whatever, it was there. It was rough, but not impossible. Fortunately, the ground was miraculously dry, so that helped a lot.

8. Ball Shrinker

The first of the water obstacles...all I can say is misery. The water was <40* and they had a snow making machine blowing on us for over half the way. In the description they make it sound like there was a choice about going in the water...there wasn't. The top rope was maybe two feet above the water, which made the whole thing under water up to your neck. One guy fell here, since his hand started cramping up...he didn't look like the kind of guy who screams easily, and I've never heard genuine screams of agony before, so that was a little unsettling. I hope he's ok.

9. Mud Mile

Here we fell in sync with a group of maybe 6 guys in navy shirts who were hilarious and kept us laughing the whole way. Stupid jokes that I'm told aren't funny out of the situation, but I'm still giggling.

Q: What's blue and smells like red paint?

Answer after the next obstacle.

10. Kiss of Mud

This one was almost disappointing...until the end when the mud got about 6 inches deep. Then the girl in front of me laid down 100% and said she was taking a nap, right there. Loves it.

A: blue paint.

11. Hold your Wood

Another man fell here...apparently he had a stye in his eye. Ouch. We got to the top of the hill and watched as a guy accidentally dropped his wood, which was a round log. Guess what happens when gravity meets a round log on a steep hill? Near disaster, that's what. In the end, some guy ended up diving in front of the thing to save the village. It was epic and the whole world heard us all yelling about it. Good times.

12. Hey Bales

It was as advertised...hay bales in the middle of the course. Itchy, itchy hay bales. Hay + soaking wet clothes = mega itch.

13. Evil Knevil

This was actually a half pipe we had to run up the grab onto something (usually a hand) to pull ourselves over. It was kind of badass because it felt like you were about to flip over completely. I helped 2 people up, including one girl who we had to pull up one limb at a time. Boom.

14. Spider's Web

Shockingly painful, this one. It was a net that went straight up and straight down, and you had to climb over it. Turns out, chicks can also suffer when metal wires are introduced to the tender areas. Just saying. I didn't even know Nick was there, which is why I don't even look up when he's cheering...and why I look like Frankenstein.

15. Mystery Obstacle (Fish n Chips)

Basically, you crawled through a vat of maple syrup and vinegar, then through wood chips. Would have been dirtier but more painful the other way around, IMHO. It wasn't that exciting since there really wasn't much maple in it.

16. Walk the Plank

I know for fact this came earlier, but I couldn't tell you where. I think before Spider Web though. Anyway, this was...mind blowing. This was the only obstacle that I really hesitated on. I'd never jumped off a high dive before, and this was HIGH. If I'd known how gawdawful cold the water was, I probably would have hesitated more. Julie, god bless her, held my hand though and we jumped in together. The water was about 35 degrees, and I've never felt my body seize up so completely before. It was terrifying. I could hardly swim to the side, and I'm a pretty strong swimmer.

No turning back now...

Scream started here (note open mouth).

Continued, but you can't see my mouth. You can finally see Julie though, who, because she was gracious enough to hold my hand on this one, ended up being blocked by my massive pinkness.

Mouth still open, scream still happening.

Landing gear down, still screaming.

COLD! Quick gasp before we went under!

17. Underwater Tunnels

This was more like "hip deep muddy water that smelled like cow poop with really low pipes over it". It was really damn cold, I got a brain freeze every time I came up, and I nearly lost my contacts. The guy behind me pointed out that's what my goggles were for. Oops.

18. Glacier

This was the first time I wish I'd brought gloves. Climbing up wasn't awful, but you ended up sliding down, which meant all that cold, icy snow rubbed your hands raw. No fun.

19. The Gauntlet

More hay bales and a guy in a mask with a fire hose. And some snow making machines. Translation: more cold. We decided to run to minimize exposure, and the guy took pity on us and didn't even hit us. Thank god.

20. Cliff hanger

Uummmm...I'm not sure which this one was. Maybe this was another snow one? Probably. There was no motocross slope though, so I'm going to go with snow bank of doom. Again.

21. Blood Bath

They shoveled ice cubes into this water, to make sure it stayed just barely above freezing. Again, brain freeze. Julie went over, I went under. Oh and our tank was green.

I'm not crying, I had a massive brain freeze from the icy water. Ouch.

22. Funky Monkey

Won't lie, I climbed over the top of these. I had no upper body left at this point and no real burning desire to swim it. So I cheated. But really, if I'd fallen it would have hurt a lot more. Just saying. And 80% of us were doing it that way, at that point.

23. Berlin Walls

We looked at this one...stared for a long time. Then decided broken limbs were not what we wanted, so we walked around. That's right folks, technically I didn't finish. I'm sorry.

24. Tower Hurdle

My shins are just now turning blue and purple from this one. Seriously, major damage points here. They were fun though. By the time we got to them, they were wicked slick with mud and the pits on either side were deep, so I think they were harder than, say, on Saturday. Just saying.

25. Fire Walker

Warmth! Oh, and smoke. A lot of smoke. Didn't stay here long, just wanted to finish.

26. Turd's Nest

This one was almost easy, comparatively. The fact that it was so late in the run is really what made it hard. Mentally, I just wanted to be done.

27. Greased lightening

Don't be fooled...this sucker hurt. The water had had time to carve really deep, narrow ruts in the ice, forcing you down the bumpy ride at top speeds. At the bottom, it made a few nasty turns, which meant bruises. And for this girl, a busted ankle.

28. Electroshock Therapy

Not as bad as anticipated, but mostly because I took it slow and avoided a lot of the wires. One got me good enough to know they meant business, so I kept out of it.

Julie and I helped this girl get to the last obstacle.

Again.

So what happened here is one of these guys (I think the one in blue shorts) came barreling around the corner and WIPED HER OUT. Like, flat on her face, wiped out. So they took over and helped her to the finish while Julie and I tackled the wires on our own.

The finish!!! WOOOO!!!!

Overall, I have to say that this is the first run/race/whatever that I really truly regret nothing. I gave it everything I had and then some, but most of all I had FUN. I didn't quit and I didn't let my fears get the best of me.

Easter

2011-05-14T11:35:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I know I've been a horrible blogger for a while now. This is the first of a couple of recap posts (which you may have seen on other blogs of mine, since there's really no sewing involved in anything here).

Easter week we decided to take a road trip down to visit my mother in law, in NC. On that Tuesday, we drove down to Florida, to see what was supposed to be the last launch of the space shuttle Endeavor. No such luck, but the trip was still way fun!

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Friday: Left NH, drove to DE (hi...we're in...Delaware...). Stayed at sketchy motel after being turned down by angry Indian for having a dog (they said they were pet friendly on the phone...they lied).

This was Kini's first experience in a hotel, and she just didn't know what to do about it. Eventually, she decided the bed was ok and laid down (but didn't sleep much).

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Saturday: Left DE, drove to NC. Nothing too exciting on this leg, but it got hotter and humider. More humid. The air got wet. Got there in time for dinner and to watch the puppies tear around (and in) the pond by MIL's house. Our dog who won't take a bath wanted nothing more than to jump in and then drink the decorative pond. Go figure.

This pretty much sums up their relationship.

Laziest puppy in the world.

Not interested in me at all.

Sunday: Enjoyed Easter festivities with the families. Yes, that includes an egg hunt, in spite of the fact that the youngest (and least enthusiastic, I might add) hunter was 25 years old. That's right folks, I'm pushing 30 and I can count on one hand the number of Easters my parents have *not* hidden eggs for me, in some fashion. I love that about them. :-) Needless to say, I found the most...but I also have 27 years of strategic advantage and knowledge of their hiding patterns.

The traditional bunny cake, from my mother in law. Love it.

We also went to the beach and took cute pictures.

Dad and I flew a kite...ok mostly Dad flew it and I crashed it then felt bad.

I don't know how I look so tan. I know that's pasty to most, but this is tan for me.

Monday: Drove down to visit my aunt and uncle at their sweet beach house. Also got to learn more about his sweet shoe store. I wish he'd open up an online store, but that'd take away from the personal attention I guess, so they don't have one. If you're in the High Point, NC area though, check them out (and tell Bill his niece says hi!) Got some great fried shrimp and a sweet sunburn. And an adventure hat. Can't forget that.

Using Google maps on my phone to show them my parents' house.

Hooray we're a couple!

Special, huh?

Tuesday: Left NC kinda late and drove down to Hilton Head Island, SC. Got in late but the hotel was decidedly unsketchy and very welcoming (Red Roof Inn FTW!). We also crossed the NC/SC border, which is home to South of the Border, America's creepiest roadside attraction! Seriously, worth the stop but bring hand sanitizer.

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Wednesday: Doinked around HHI and decided to stay another night. Couldn't really figure out why we loved it so much, then it dawned on us...this place is *home*! Everyone there was some variation of upper-middle-class, functional family unit, there for a reasonably-priced family vacation. It was like stumbling on the mother ship. It was wonderful. We decided that'd be where we'll go when we have our own family (in like 40 years or so).

At the beach

Kini was super itchy so we got her a bath. She makes friends quickly.

At the dog park

Pirate Mini Golf! Arr!

Nick got a hole in one on one of them...because I knocked his in with my ball!

Out for a fancy dinner on the town. Sunburn and all.

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Thursday: Drove HHI to Titusville. Dropped the pup off at daycare and made it to Kennedy Space Center around 4:30, thinking we'd maybe get half an hour to tour before they closed. Nope! They were open until 8, so we got the full tour, AND got to see Hubble 3-D (narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, *swoon*) in IMAX. Score! Survived some massive thunder storms to get back to our campsite and set up for the night (rain = no bugs, hooray!)

At the IMAX.

Friday: Woke up early, drove to Waffle House (YUM) and headed to the Astronaut Hall of Fame for the STS-134 launch. Realized at about 8:55 that our "please arrive here by" time was 9:00...oops. We made it just fine anyway, but had a good laugh. Doinked around at AHF until around noon when we heard the launch had been scrubbed. Boo. Made a few command decisions and decided to pick up the pup early from daycare and start the drive home. We made it as far as Lumberton before calling it a night...wish we'd gone 5 or so miles further, since we might have avoided the symphony of sketch the Lumberton Motel 6 had to offer. Yikes.

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Saturday: Long long day in the car, but we made it all the way from Lumberton to home. Not much else to report. I started getting my allergies back around VA and Benadryled my way back up the coast.

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So that's the recap.

Next up: how I ran the equivalent of Mt. Washington in 4 hours, with a lot of mud and bruising along the way!

Gah!

2011-05-03T23:50:00.000-04:00

Cripes, has it seriously been a month since I posted?? Geesh! I gotta fix that! Remind me tomorrow, I need to post pics of a prototype, the filled baskets (I think I have one...), and various excuses for my absence. Tomorrow!

On Hold

2011-04-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

Remember how I mentioned a few times that our neighbors are the best ever? Well, she came over today to give back a container I'd used for brownies, as well as to give us a belated HAND MADE wedding card. It's gorgeous and adorable, and I'll post pics later. She also came over saying "stop sending us thank yous!" Apparently making brownies in return for a driveway plowed multiple times makes her/them uncomfortable. So maybe next year I'll stick with a card or something. But the funny thing was, as she was knocking on our front door to tell us to knock it off with the thank yous, I was pinning/sewing their thank you quilt.

...
....
.....

...awkward.

So I think I'm going to put this one on the back burner for a bit and keep it until we move. Then I'll finish it and leave it on their doorstep with a note and a flaming bag of dog poo so they don't feel too awkward about it. Silly neighbors.

Quick Update

2011-03-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

Lots going on in the sewing room lately! Last week, I made a set of bibs for a friend who had a baby shower last weekend.

I adore the owls!

I quilted big roses on each one, then appliqued a little purple heart.

So cute!

More owls

My cousin asked me to make some Easter baskets for her mother in law, so the EB sweat shop is back up and running. :-) I took a few minutes to whip up this mini basket for a friend who's having a long week. It's a little early, but I figured I'd rather be early and relevant/useful than on time/late.

Holds 3 eggs perfectly, with room to spare underneath for hidden chocolates! The fabric is Chrysalis from Moda, which I simply adore.

I also sold my treadmill last night, so a full half of my sewing room opened up! I have my design wall again! I have space to lay out/baste at least a full-size quilt! It's glorious!

SO MUCH SPACE!!!! I might move the dresser (off screen, left) eventually, but for now I'm loving it!

Fabric Accountability

2011-03-25T10:40:00.000-04:00

Last night I set up my ironing board so I could watch Michael Scott propose to Holly (I'm not ashamed to admit I teared up a little...it was surprisingly sweet and minimally awkward) and ironed 66 (yes, 66) fat quarters from last weekend's adventures. I didn't bother ironing the yardage (about 4 yds) because I'm not using it yet and I hate ironing yardage. It's a flaw.

This is the whole mess, minus 4 that didn't go with any of the three themes (batiks, animals, and civil war).

Civil war prints, including one FQ that was actually a freebie that got lumped in there on accident, but I think works. Can you spot it? These are going to become a replica of the 121 love letters quilt. I'm saving the heart block for last (and for the back) so it'll be extra scrappy.

The animals. Mom and I found these at the second store and started a quest to find the hippos, which was the only print they were out of. 4 shops later, we got the whole collection. I have a couple FQs of footprints that I'm going to incorporate in there somehow too. I'm thinking I Spy on these.

And finally, the batiks. I couldn't spread these enough to really do them justice, so you'll just have to wait until I start using them to see each one in its full glory. This stack alone accounted for half of the FQs bought. I can't wait to use them...I have big plans for these. I'm excited to see this one come to life. This one and the civil war one will likely be slow progress over the summer, but I want to really enjoy them both, so I don't want to try and rush them out. Speaking of slow progress, I really need to get the wedding quilt out this weekend. I need to get hacking on the neighbors' quilt too. So many quilts so little time!

First Shop Hop, Or: A Brief Introduction to Mud Season in VT

2011-03-21T10:02:00.001-04:00

I'm hooked! Shop hopping was SO FUN!! My mom came up from Texas to hop in VT with me this past weekend, and we had such a blast!!

This hop had 17 (!!) shops, spread out over the whole state of VT (which sounds like not much since it's a small state, but a lot of the roads are backwoods and windy, and while they're beautiful, they're also not always terribly well-marked...)

http://vermontshophop.com/index.htm

So there's the shop hop map. Originally, we'd planned to hit maybe 9 of the shops, if we were really ambitious. It turned into an adventure and we ended up hitting 12 total. Day 1 took us from point A through point E ("home"...more on that later). Day 2 took us from point E through point L ("home" again). And finally, day 3 took us from point L through point Q. We actually only drove past point P, but it was integral in getting us back on the right road to get us home, so I left it on the map.

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I'm having issues uploading pictures from my phone right now, and I don't have the majority of the pics (on my mom's camera), so these will have to suffice for the time being.

The spoils of war. A new book, 5 total yards (20 FQs) of Civil War fabric, probably 10 total yards of batiks (all in FQs, including the shop hop fabrics), and 2 or so total yards of animal print fabrics which I'll need to get better pics of later. There were some other misc purchases/free FQs as well.

One of my favorite quilts. So fun!

I liked the colors on this one.

UPDATE: A few more pictures (in no particular order):

The shop project from the last shop. The star parts are all the shop hop fabrics (which I don't have a good picture of, but will get tonight...promise!)

I love the modern, blocky feel of this. It's simple but powerful.

Quilts quilts quilts.

This one store had over 5000 bolts of flannel alone! They also had thousands of fat quarter bundles...most were in the $45 for 17 range, but I snagged one (a Civil War one) for $35 for 20! Inspiration for that one is coming.

More bundles.

Most of the shops were little houses converted into shops. Love love love.

Here are 4 of the 6 SH fabrics, but still not a great picture.

Inspiration for the CW quilt. There are 121 blocks, and I'm going to make them all...eventually. I figure I'll QAIG and do a block here and there when I have time/inspiration. Have I mentioned my sewing room needs serious reorging?

Cute cute placemats.

More inspiration.

I loved this one! I'm starting to think my next endeavors are going to be sampler quilts.

This was called something like "butterfly house"...you're looking into the butterflies' home, from the window. Can you see the shutters and clapboards?

More inspiration.

One of the stores was a bar converted into a shop! LOVED IT! There were even still booths for the menfolk to take a break, and the quilts were hung from glass racks!

There are dozens more where those came from, but for now this will have to suffice. I've got big plans for the fabrics I got (3 whole new quilts came out of this weekend! At least!) so stay tuned for design walls galore. I also need to reorganize my sewing room...anyone want a treadmill??

Easter Baskets

2011-03-13T21:05:00.001-04:00

I spent my weekend whipping up baskets for this year's Easter festivities...as far as I remember, this will be the most people I've celebrated Easter with ever. I might be wrong though...there was one year in New Orleans that I think was Easter and there were like 20 people. This year there are 9 of us, from both sides of our newly-formed family. Last year, Nick told me not to worry about putting together baskets for folks because it "wasn't a big deal". I got TWO baskets last year and had none to offer. This year, I'm making up for that lapse, with a vengeance. This weekend up put together 11 baskets (2 extras for my best friends in other states), all using a super simple pattern that you could use to make just about any kind of basket if you wanted.

The first one was deemed "too girly" by Nick, so I tried again.

More masculine, but there were cries for pirates.

So we got pirates.

And more pirates.

Back to the girly stuff...

More girly stuff...

I think this was 7 of them.

Another variation on the pirates...

And the whole heap! I can't wait to get plastic grass and eggs and candy to fill these!

If you're interested, these are for sale on my etsy site. Convo me if you're looking for particular colors/patterns and I'll see what I can do to make it work!

As Promised

2011-02-27T14:12:00.000-05:00

Here are the pics of Cori's Wrapped in Hope orange dancers quilt. Still no real name for this. Maybe it'll just be orange dancers. How original.

I gotta say, these pics were hard to get. There's SO much orange here that it screws with the coloring of the whole rest of the shot. I had to do a little post-production tweaking to get them anything close to the real look.

Doesn't that backing look like it was made to be part of this quilt??

Close up of some of the quilting.

"Love is louder"

And finally, the full frontal. This will ship with the Superhero quilt in a week or so, in time for their respective birthdays in mid-March.

And now, back to cleaning. Yay.

Neighborly Love

2011-02-27T13:33:00.001-05:00

As if Mother Nature knew I was starting to wonder if making a quilt for our amazing neighbors (who always plow our driveway, without so much as knocking to say "hey look what I did!") was a little too much, she dumped another 5 inches of snow on us over night. Sigh. Is anyone in the southern states (I'm looking at you, Hawaii) accepting applications for poolboy/house maid? Nick and I would make a great addition to your household staff!

In any case, here's a little update on the quilt I'm making for the neighbors. I won't lie...it's not as muted as I'd hoped for. The pictures of the Moda line (Charlevoix) made it look like the colors were sort of...dusty? I dunno. Less whubam than they are, anyway. They're bright. It's not necessarily a terrible thing, it's just that muted tends to be more "decor-neutral" and since I don't know how they decorate their house, I'm hoping this won't completely clash. There are so many different colors though, I'm sure something's bound to work. I hope.

Anyway, pictures.

The first few strips. Even pictures now still look a little less intense than they do in person. I dunno.

More strips, with between stuff added.

All the blocks are done and sewn together. The between stuff with the smaller squares isn't sewn together yet, but this gives an idea of what I'm doing with it. The treadmill makes design-walling a near-acrobatic experience, but I'm lucky enough to have both so I won't complain.

The wrapped in hope quilt is officially done too! I need to get pics of it...stand by! UPDATE: PICS!

Love is Louder

2011-02-24T11:17:00.000-05:00

I'm not dead, I swear! Just trying to finish up this quilt before posting more pics of it.

On Valentine's Day, a friend of mine introduced me to the Love is Louder movement on facebook, and I gotta say...I'm hooked! It's hard to remember it some days, but love really is louder than anything negative the world can throw at us.

To that end, I decided to incorporate the message in Cori's orange dancers quilt (which still doesn't have a good name yet) and quilted it (in my best handwriting!) in the bottom right corner. It's subtle and you can barely read it, but if you look for it, it's there. I could have done it brighter, bolder, louder, but I like that you have to really know to look for it to see it...it's like a secret message. I did it using (what else) paper stencils. I think I'm going to incorporate this on all my donation quilts.

Twist My Arm...

2011-02-19T21:42:00.001-05:00

...Nick forced me to buy fabric at Yankee Pride today. Life's rough. :-)

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Quick Pix

2011-02-18T23:23:00.000-05:00

Just a few pix of the orange dancers quilt. I found the backing on sale at Joann's this afternoon, and I have to say...I'm a little bit in love with it. It's like it was designed to go with this top. At the store, this old Irish lady commented on it and told me my top was wonderful...it meant the world. :-)

Basted and bunched up.

Stencils. Whirligigs are for the orange blocks.

Hearts are for the pink blocks.

Butterflies are for the dancers.

Dancing butterflies.

Hearts and butterflies.

Whirligigs.

Flipside. See what I mean about the backing? How gorgeous is this stuff??? And it's flannel to boot!

Now you can see where I got the butterflies idea from.

And last but not least, the hearts. I'm doing the butterflies in white, hearts in pink (need more pink thread, argh), and whirligigs in orange. I'm also stitching down the ditches, but I got impatient and wanted to try out these patterns. :-) I had to use tweezers to get the paper off of some parts, but I'm not too worried about that...it'll be tedious, but a good "zone out in front of the TV" activity.

Since I made Nick hold this up...

2011-02-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

...I'll post this picture now. Here's the full frontal of the Wrapped in Hope quilt.

Kini is suspicious but I think she likes it. You can tell how long it is by realizing MOTU is holding it above his (6ish foot tall) head. I think I calculated it was about 70x76. I haven't decided what to name it yet...any ideas?

Design Stuff Monday

2011-02-14T08:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I did a bunch of shopping for MOTU, so to reward myself I went to Joann's and used up some coupons. I got this nifty book which has literally opened up entire new worlds for me. I never thought to quilt using paper stencils. Duh. I think I need to get myself some thinner paper, but for now just plain printer paper is working ok.

I played around with the new stencils, using some leftovers from the last round of QFKs. I made a couple of these and turned them into Valentine's gifts for some unsuspecting friends. Muahaha.

The paper should be thinner...it's hard to get off as is. If I wet it, it mostly works but some stuff still lingers. If I don't, I'm afraid I'll rip the stitches.

I kind of like the slightly damp effect here.

I have (as usual) a couple projects going on right now. In addition to the quilt for the neighbor, I signed up for one of the kids in the Wrapped in Hope program. My girl likes dancing (but not ballet) and the color orange. Her birthday is in March, so I need to get working on this. I'm cheating and using a modified version of the QFK pattern for this. I have a lot of the dark orange and a bit of the pink/orange hearts and the lighter orange. So that pic up there is the basic pattern I'm using. Grey is the focus print (dancers), and the rest of the colors are self-explanatory.

Blocks and strips cut.

Trying out the first few blocks. I'm still mid-strip-sewing, but I wanted to see if this would even look ok. I think it works. I'm excited to try some of my new paper patterns to quilt on these!!

I also have the wedding quilt and the colonial quilt for our bed in progress as well...should really put some more time in on those. They're just really big and slightly overwhelming right now. But I'll get there. Really.

UPDATE!!

I actually finished the entire top before going to bed last night. I don't have a good picture of the whole thing, but here's a sneak peek anyway:

Happy Monday!!

Next Up

2011-02-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

Remember these? The one on the right (for the neighbors) is turning into this:

Pretty simple blocks, but it should be pretty, fingers crossed.

They'll look something like this when they're done. With different colors in the corners, and more than just two strips per block, of course.

Finished Pictures

2011-02-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

My quilt is done! Top!

Back! I used a charm pack of Martinique for the rows on the back...I think it ties the whole thing together quite nicely. The binding is stuff I cut off the sides, so there are little splashes (I like that name too Jo!) of Martinique along the sides as well! Love love love!

It's in the wash now, so I'm finding ways to delay going to bed so I can put it in the dryer before I sleep so it'll be ready to show off at work tomorrow. I have a fan club, what? :-D Ok, not really, but I've been trying to describe this one for weeks, so its time is due.

The One That Didn't Get Away

2011-02-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

I've officially decided to keep this quilt. I'm in love with it. I even had fun with the backing.

Naturally, I needed the quality inspector to make sure it was worthy of completion first.

Here it is all laid out. I've quilted it too, but I don't have pictures just yet. I used a grey thread that matches the backing, and simply stitched down the diagonals. It's definitely a "don't look too close" quilt, but it's mine. :-) Hoping to put the binding on tonight so I'll have done pics tomorrow. And I'll likely bring it in to the office to show off. :-D

Design Strip Twist Monday

2011-02-07T10:08:00.000-05:00

The strip twist top is coming together nicely. I have the top three rows sewn together...just 5 more to go! I'm not sure what I'm calling this one, nor what I'll do with it when it's done. I'm starting to think I might keep it for myself...selfish, I know. :-) I got this fabric to make a bed quilt for MOTU and me in the first place, so I guess it's not so wrong.

I got these two sets of fabric to make a quilt for our sainted neighbors (right) and possibly another one for me to keep (left). It's hard to explain the pattern I'm going to try, so I won't bother until it's in progress.

If all you want to see is quilts, stop here.

This is our back yard right now. That mound is actually a car...no joke. Fortunately, it's not one we use frequently, but still. Anyone out there in a warmer place need a nanny or something for the winter?

The snow is so high that Kini doesn't have to jump up to the window anymore. She can now simply walk up the pile outside the kitchen window and poke her nose against the glass.

I spent 3 nights in Cambridge last week, and this was the view from my hotel room. Pretty spectacular.

Different day, same window. Love it.

Secret Kiss Quilt

2011-01-30T22:56:00.000-05:00

At the 11th hour, this quilt finally gave itself a name. I wish I'd known it from the start...it would have turned out differently, I think.

Excuse the slippers and hair bands in the background. I really need to work on places to take pictures...it's hard to find a place that both looks nice and isn't covered in pet hair.

Close up of some of the hearts.

More hearts...some are more hidden than others.

I love the Love Birds fabric.

Hearts on the back, with the "secret kiss" in the corner, top right.

Stack of ready to ship items up for sale right now!

One perfectly placed heart.

Crumpled shot.

Next up: strips with a twist, using Martinique I bought ages ago. Should be a twin to full size quilt when I'm done. I'm loving it already. Might call it "Twisting Martinique" or something. Ideas?

Superhero Near Disaster

2011-01-29T23:05:00.000-05:00

Long story short, don't keep candles in your sewing room. I got the bright idea that I could put candles on my space heater and melt them to get the scent, so they wouldn't be lit. Good thing, or else this puppy would have gone up in flames Friday night.

Yup, one was even red. Yikes.

After a couple of runs through the wash, it's fine...turns out highly-scented candles are mostly oil, so the wax comes out a lot easier when water/drier temps are high. I haven't decided if I'm going to donate or sell this one yet.

Here are a couple of glamor shots:

Seriously, I love this one. I didn't do much in the way of quilting (I used the button function to "tie" the layers at each vertex), but the fabrics just make me smile. There has to be a little boy out there who's meant to have this one.

In other goings on, I made a little wine glass coaster...because I could. It's quilted, and the other side is blue. I'll get a picture of that later. You may recognize the scraps from Abbey's Road.

I finished the backing for the Valentine's Day quilt, and just now finished quilting and trimming it. Tomorrow I'll slap some binding on it, take some glamor shots, and throw it up on etsy.

Kini's latest trick is telling me via window when she wants to come in. Or just spying on me, I don't know which.

MOTU has been recovering this week, so the Lego space shuttle (courtesy of my grandparents) came out to play.

Fun Lego dudes.

Seriously, we had no idea there were SO many pieces, and that they were all in baggies in an as-of-yet undiscernible order. But that's the fun of it. :-)

Quick FNSI Update

2011-01-22T00:47:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say I did get stuff done but my camera battery is dead so I'll have to get pics in the morning. The superhero quilt top is done, so maybe sometime this weekend I'll get a chance to quilt and finish it. And maybe I'll get a chance to baste the Valentine's day quilt so I can quilt that too. And maybe I'll get a chance to sleep.

Tomorrow morning I get to spin with my new shoes! I can't wait to try real cycling shoes!!! Should be a trip. Off to bed!!

Mostly Just Pics

2011-01-20T23:00:00.000-05:00

Just a few more pics from the week.

Lisa, quilting her first line of quilting.

Done! How great a job did she do??

She used blue for the ditches, the pink and green down the respective diagonals. Love it!

Such straight lines!!

The two quilts together.

Again.

I added this quilt to the mix. The front is flannel, the back is fleece. After putting it in the box, I started wondering if I was allowed to use those fabrics. Hm.

Hopefully they can use it. I loved the fabrics, and I thought it was cute...but I may be biased. :-)

Up next, the superhero quilt.

Close up.

Wide angle.

That's about all I've accomplished in the sewing room this week. Between my grown up job and my new, evening job (did I mention I'm a Spin instructor in training?? LOVE IT!!), cooking, cleaning, and MOTU starting school, it's been a long week. Oh, and I've been sick and work has been seriously nuts. Hopefully tomorrow night will change that. What are you working on?

New Member of the Fold

2011-01-16T18:42:00.000-05:00

Quilty bloggers, I'd like you to meet Lisa.

She's been indulging me for months now, oohing and ahhing over endless pictures of projects from wedding stuff to silly little quilts. I kept telling her I'd teach her to quilt if she wanted me to, and she always said she'd love to...when she had time. Well, she finally had time, and I think we have a new member of the quilting fold!

I ordered a couple of kids from Quilts for Kids, and they came in on Wednesday. We decided she'd come over on Saturday, to learn how to quilt. Here's her first design wall layout (minus the two blocks she was actively sewing together):

Isn't it adorable?! Basting the quilt:

She was a great student and picked everything up super fast...not that I expected anything less. :-)

This was my kit. I'm waiting to put the binding on until tomorrow, when Lisa will be back so I can show her how to do hers as well.

After all the girliness of yesterday, I needed a little break...I found this hilarious fleece (far right) and some super hero prints, and now I'm channeling my inner super hero by watching Daredevil and making a totally superhero themed quilt. I have a new design in mind for this, so we'll see how it turns out.

I also picked up the backing for the Valentine's day quilt, which I'm hoping to be able to baste at some point tonight.

Small Projects

2011-01-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

It was pretty nasty out yesterday, but Kini kept wanting to see what it was all about. This is my sewing room window. She's figured out that, if she jumps up and looks in, she can make eye contact with me and run around to the back door so I'll let her in. Smart dog.

I'm also playing around with some space-themed flannels I had lying around. It won't be big...maybe 30x40 tops, but it's cute. Maybe I'll add some borders to make it a little bigger, I dunno. Anyway.

Design Wall Monday - No clever title this week sorry.

2011-01-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

Just a few things going on.

The first quarter (upper left) of the wedding quilt is done. It's pretty chaotic, but I like that it tells a story only two of us know to completion. I've decided to get it professionally quilted, when the time comes. I really want it to turn out nicely, and I'm just not sure I can make that happen on a quilt so big (96x96 finished, in theory) on my machine (not to mention skill level).

I finished the pink lovey, then found a flaw I didn't like, so I hid it with some appliqued hearts. Can't say I'm a fan of how they look now, but whatever...it's done.

I like it overall, just not really a fan of any of the parts that took real skill lol.

It's listed in my shop for $10 because I know it looks kind of amateurish, but I needed to practice somehow.

Detours

2011-01-07T09:44:00.001-05:00

I got one more block done for the wedding quilt last night. As much as I'm enjoying putting this together though, I needed a quick fix...I needed to put something together that would be done withing a couple hours tops. It's not quite done, but it can be tonight if I make it so.

Pink pinwheels lovey!

The backing is fleece leftover from my mom's quilt eons ago. The quilting is practice...I'm not terribly good at free motion, as you can see (actually it looks ok if you squint). Mostly this is just practice. I'm not sure what I'll do with it...either throw it up on Etsy or put it in the package with the QFK quilts I'm hoping will come any day now.

I wasn't sure if pink and black would be too dark or not, but I think I like it. It's a little edgier than pink and, say, brown would've been. I could see this working for a young tomboy.

Quick Pics

2011-01-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

Just a quickie post to throw up some pictures of the progress on the wedding quilt.

The first 4 are the "special blocks" with centers made from material I couldn't slice into 2.5 inch strips.

My grandmother made this one herself! It's from Mardi Gras 2008, when we went as Ghostbusters to their "departed spirits", complete with handmade proton packs and everything.

From my coworker Maryrita, a shirt from the company we worked for before being bought out by...

...Pega. This one is from another coworker, Lisa, who cleverly got this from a mouse pad. Love it.

And last but not least, from a former coworker and dear friend, Jen, a bookshelf. :-)

Sorry for the poor lighting on this one. This is what all the rest of the blocks will look like, more or less.

5 down, 31 to go!

Slicing, Dicing Design Wall

2011-01-04T11:19:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a day late with my design wall, but better late than never, right?

First up, I've unearthed the Valentine's quilt from last year. It's currently about 60x80, so I'm going to add some borders to it, then sometime this week I'll figure out something for the backing and baste that sucker. Hopefully it'll be ready to ship by mid-month.

Next up, the Shower Quilt. I've been slaving away, slicing and dicing the fabric for this, and wouldn't you know it? By sheer dumb luck, I have EXACTLY as much fabric as I need from what people gave me. My back up plan was to use the stuff I got when I went to pick up our marriage license. That'll go on the back now.

See, not so organized, huh?

Believe it or not, there's a method here.

The final stack up. Some 430ish strips later, I'm ready to start piecing.

And a picture of the older brother of the wedding quilt.

Godspeed, Quilts

2010-12-28T10:59:00.000-05:00

Two more quilts went in the mail this morning...the Train Rag Quilt finally sold (to a lovely customer in Canada...so I've now sold to Canada and Japan...I'm world famous!) and I finished Kelly's Man Quilt just in time to get it to him for his birthday on the 31st (assuming no more blizzards, that is!)

Some pics of KMQ:

Not a great shot, but what I could do at home.

Finally, a bed without pet hair.

The backing is blue with fish all over it. I won't lie, it hurt my heart more than a little to part with this one. I'm not sure I'll do it any time soon, but I think I'm going to need to do another blue quilt.

Christmas Report and a Perplexing Puppy

2010-12-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

Merry belated Christmas, everyone! We had a great time...it was bittersweet for me, since I didn't get to see my blood family, but instead I got to spend it with my pull-in family...not exactly torture, but I definitely missed my side!

We went up to VT to have a white Christmas (and boy did we ever!), but first we had a mini-Christmas at home, to avoid hauling a whole bunch of stuff up. First, the critters got their gifts:

Kini took to hers immediately, and has been sleeping on it ever since.

Grisgris wasn't convinced at first.

Shelby tried, but wasn't too sure either.

Eventually, Grisgris found his spot though, and he hasn't stopped sleeping on it since.

Shelby too.

This was the aftermath of Christmas in NH.

What, no more presents?

Oh wait, those are for me, right?

What do you mean they're not for me??

Best Christmas present of the year!

She kept working on this all weekend!

Finally, we were on the road. Kini was excited at first.

But eventually she got comfortable...

...and zonked right out. Love that dog.

When we got there, we had a quick turnaround time and headed out to ice skate...first time since early college for me - yikes. Nick's definitely holding me up in this picture.

This is Courtney, who will be referred to as "MOTUATS" after this (master of the universe and then some).

The whole group (Jen is in the green scarf).

Kini wanted to skate SO BADLY.

Norm's tree - very nice. This picture doesn't really do the sheer size of it justice.

Christmas morning, putting Aunt Margaret to work first thing!

Breakfast was monkey bread, eggs, and bacon. Yum!

The whole group (minus me) at breakfast!

Stockings, all lined up and waiting to be opened! The blank one is Margaret's.

Even I got one!

Courtney opening the present I couldn't mention...I made her plushie Angry Birds!

She's addicted, so it was a big hit.

Action shot! Maybe the best picture from the whole morning.

Skiing piggy bank!

We got a Kinect and some dancing games! Good times had by all but the puppy, who thought we were playing with HER, then would get kicked on accident...then came back for more. Sigh.

Christmas dinner...banished back to the kids' table somehow.

Sweet potatoes, ham, meat pie, salad, scalloped potatoes...yum!!

Last time we went to visit Nick's grandmother, she was sitting by the window a lot, and she just looked like she needed a lap quilt. I made this one out of the Verna charm pack I'd won months ago during my first Friday Night Sew In. The backing is flannel, and the quilting is more complex than I've done before or since. She LOVED IT. She tucked it around her legs and sat there grinning like a kid the whole night. Her reaction made my whole Christmas.

Too cute.

This is Phoebe. She has thumbs and a lot of mass.

Kini wasn't allowed upstairs. She didn't get it at first, but eventually she caught on and sat down at the bottom whining. She tried to sneak up a couple of times, but inevitably got caught. She is not a people.

She also eventually figured out it was best to lie very still while we were playing Kinect.

Very, very still.

The roads on the way home were pretty bad. Drivable, but not ones I'd've taken the wheel on. And that reminds me. I love Nick. I am glad I married him every day. Sometimes though, he does things that make me so proud of him and love him so much I come close to tears. Like yesterday, when the truck in front of us fishtailed and hit the guardrail...Nick calmly slowed down, kept our SUV in control, kept tabs on who was behind us and what they were doing, and in the end kept us safely on the road, no problem. He's so good at that. Even when we're the ones spinning out (it happens, it's VT in the winter), he's very calm and very collected, and knows exactly what to do to minimize damage and injury. I am never afraid with him at the wheel, and it took all my willpower not to cause another accident by hugging him yesterday when he kept us all safe. I love that man.

And now, our puppy of questionable judgment. We got out to let her pee, and she took a running leap into a snow bank, nearly pulling me with her.

Then she just sat there. Stupid dog.

We finally got home last night to find that our angelic neighbors had snow blown (not plowed, snow blown) our driveway...all 12-15 inches of snow down the whole long thing, even up to our cars so we could get out no problem. I've never been so grateful in my life as I was seeing that driveway empty last night.

More Pics and Some Progress

2010-12-21T08:29:00.000-05:00

I decided having a treadmill in all my pictures was getting old, so I took this top out to the living room and had a little photo shoot. Hooray Christmas.

Close ups of the I Spy squares.

This one is basted and ready for quilting...as soon as I figure out what I want to do with it.

The Man Quilt got put together last night, and I'd love to call it a finished top, but it's just a little short...it's about 72 inches long, which isn't quit twin length. I didn't have anything in my stash that I could use for a border (at least not that would look good) so there'll be a Joann's run today so I can finish this. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the week, but we'll see.

And finally, the picture of Kini and my horrible job hiding her Christmas present.

Design Exhaustion Monday

2010-12-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! I accomplished the following:

* 16 blocks for the I Spy Log Cabin quilt (which I'm calling "The Fun Grandma's Quilt"...maybe) - they're 16x16 finished.

* All 20 blocks for ISLC sewn together - top finished! I don't have a picture of the finished top yet, but I'll get one later tonight.
* Backing bought for ISLC - waiting for space on the floor to clear up before moving forward with that one.
* 28 out of 30 blocks done for a man quilt...I have to say, I'm a little in love with this one. It's all blues, and it's the 'friendship circle' block.

Lots of scraps used up this weekend. Enough that there's a discernable hole in my stash, even! I thought I wouldn't have enough blues to make this quilt, but it turns out...I still have a bunch left. Yikes. The recipient's birthday is the 31st, so I'm hoping to get it done in time to ship out this weekend, fingers crossed.

I also got my room cleaned up enough that we can put the new printer my folks got us in there, to avoid any more kitty mishaps. Nick wanted to get a copy of Kini's paws to send to my dad, but it's too high up. Oh darn. :-D

I also finished the critters' gifts this weekend (everyone's getting their own fleece-covered pillow!). I had a great picture of Kini being oblivious to my awesome hiding place (on top of the TV), but apparently it didn't upload. Oh well. I'll post pics of those later. I'm also dying to post pictures of The One Gift (every year, there's One Gift that is perfect and will rock the socks off the recipient...every year I try to go for more than one, but invariably I run out of creative juices after just one), but I don't know if the recipient reads this so I won't post it yet. Suffice it to say, I can't wait for Christmas. :-D

Friday Night Sew In

2010-12-18T01:28:00.000-05:00

Since it's now technically Saturday morning, I should probably wrap up the night and go to bed. Just a quick post to make sure I log what I did tonight in case I forget to post tomorrow.

Tonight I made 4 more blocks for the log cabin quilt, including a crummy little tutorial on how to slice n dice the strips. I made a couple of Christmas gifts that I'm DYING to post but can't until after Christmas. I made a little bib with a pocket that I'll probably post on etsy once I wash it and take some good pictures. That doesn't sound like much but the gifts took up a LOT of time. I had to make templates and such before I could even think about sewing, so...there ya have it.

Now, off to bed for me!

Modified Log Cabin - The tutorial!

2010-12-18T01:25:00.000-05:00

Let me preface this by saying that while I did come up with this on my own, I'm not claiming it's original. All the thoughts were mine though, so no one should feel like I'm infringing on their work (except the wonderful folks who invented the Log Cabin design so many years ago).

Moving on.

I don't know if y'all knew this about me, but I use graph paper. A lot. I doodled this up the other day before I made these blocks.

I used jelly roll strips (not Moda) to reduce the work. For the sample quilt, I need 16 more blocks, so I cut the following:

4 each of light and dark strips cut to 4.5 inches and 16.5 inches. This yields 16 total strips of each size, 8 in each colorway.
8 each of light and dark strips cut to 6.5 inches and 14.5 inches. This yields 32 total strips of each size, 16 in each colorway.
8 each of light and dark strips cut to 8.5 inches and 12.5 inches. This yields 32 total strips of each size, 16 in each colorway.
4 each of light and dark strips cut to 10.5 inches and 10.5 inches. This yields 32 total strips of this size, 16 in each colorway.

I laid the strips out starting with the 4.5 inch strips. For blocks where the A group is the light group, pick two each of the 8.5 and 10.5, and one each of the 4.5 and 16.5 strips in light colors. Pick two each of the 6.5, 12.5, and 14.5 inch strips in dark colors. For blocks where the A group is the dark group, pick two each of the 8.5 and 10.5, and one each of the 4.5 and 16.5 strips in dark colors. Pick two each of the 6.5, 12.5, and 14.5 inch strips in light colors.

Starting with the center block, sew the 4.5 inch strip to the right side. Continue sewing strips on, building out working around counter clockwise.

Look, Ma, Artsy Pics!

2010-12-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to practice taking better product pictures, some of the stockings and I had a little mini photo shoot this morning on the front porch. Fortunately, the exterior additions to this house all seem to have endless nails sticking out at just the right angles (though there's no way to have "just the right angle" when it's on the ground, in a place meant to trip anyone who walks over it...just ask my favorite pair of ripped-up flip flops (thank God I wasn't barefoot)), so it was easy enough to hang them just under the decorative lights.

First, a decent interior shot. Still doesn't really capture the colors though.

The two outside ones are actually filled...I had to prop the middle one up on the outer ones to make it stand up.

Heels!

This would be way cuter without my car in the background, but if my car weren't there, you wouldn't be able to see that we got a teensy bit of snow last night!

And, last but not least, the mildly artsy angle. I think I need help.

Sample Size

2010-12-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

So I've finally figured out what I want to do with all the fabric I got from my bridal shower. I'm going to do a modified log cabin design, using 4-inch (finished) squares of fussy-cut campers as the "hearth".

I'm much more confident that this could turn out well this morning, after playing around with junk fabrics I had in my stash last night. I got a few of my I Spy squares, and 12 strips from a generic jelly roll I got on eBay a while back, and did some stack n whacking. This design was actually really easy and worked perfectly with jelly roll size/length fabrics. I'll try and make up a tutorial as I go.

I made four blocks total, each about 16 inches a side, finished.

Yes, that's batman.

First finished block.

Closer to what the real blocks will look like, with campers in the middle.

All four blocks sewn together. It's actually kind of huge already, so I've decided to keep going with this thing and call it a "grown up I Spy quilt"...it's like your grandmother's house - at first glance, it's pretty and floral and traditional, but on closer inspection, there are all kinds of toys and fun things hidden in the nooks and crannies. I'm going to expand it to 4x5 blocks (making it about 64x80 finished) and then I'll figure out what to do with it...we'll see. It goes together super fast though. With the jelly roll already cut, I cut, arranged, and sewed all four of these blocks in about an hour and a half last night.

Hung by the Wood Stove With Care

2010-12-13T10:56:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend, I won my first Etsy Alchemy bid! A military family stationed in Japan needed some last-minute stockings made, and while I couldn't find the nativity print she'd wanted, I think they came out quite nicely (and I got her permission before using other fabrics).

Hung by the woodstove with care.

They're all lined with fleece that says "believe" all over it.

I think this one is my favorite.

Also, this was the first time I'd ever used rick rack...I think I'm in love! I'm making more for MOTU's family who'll be around on Christmas, but I won't post those until after Christmas, so they can't see (just in case!)

happy Monday!

Design Border Monday

2010-12-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

It seems like this one has been up on the wall forever, but I'm so close to having it done, I can taste it!

Yes, I munch on Oyster Crackers while I'm sewing sometimes. What of it?

Quilting done!

Binding is halfway done. I meant to sew it on to the back first, but then I forgot I guess and did it this way. Oh well.

Friday Fave Five - Advent Edition

2010-12-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

What a week! MOTU has been in Texas all week, bonding with my parents, so he gets first mention on this week's FFF.

1. My wonderful husband. We were both supposed to spend this week down in Texas with my parents, but because of work stuff I needed to come back on Sunday instead. This is the longest time he's spent with his new (but awesome) in-laws, and I know many men would shy away from that kind of thing. He's taken it in stride, and I've actually barely heard from him all week because he's gone out of his way to hang out with my family instead. What a guy! He also did some gift wrapping for me (a task he hates but does well) without complaint. Love that guy.

2. Progress! I've got 3 stockings made, the garlands hung, and half the Christmas cards addressed and signed. I need to make 2 more stockings, a tree skirt, and a couple of Christmas presents, but this is progress.

I forgot, I also started on the critters' gifts...everyone's getting fleecy pillows this year. This is Shelby's, minus one zippered side.

Garlands hung with care.

3. Kini. Lordy I love this dog. Right now, she looks like this:

Last night though, we had this series of events:

She wanted to be on the bed, but didn't want to scare Grisgris off.

So she waited.

And climbed very...

...slowly...

...up onto the bed. The only thing that kept moving was her tail.

Eventually, she got up, flopped over, and laid very still so he'd know she was safe.

Then she got comfy.

Then they got cozy. This took about 15 minutes total, and I was laughing the whole time. She's so considerate! I love that dog. She's about 10 months now.

4. Potential. This is another cryptic one, for fear of jinxing anything, but there are things to be excited about going on, and I'm, well, excited about them. It's been a good week for winds of change.

5. SPACE. I've finally managed to get rid of most of the furniture on the porch, which means we can once again walk through there! Thank God! I got rid of 6 (yes 6!) night stands, a couch, a coffee table, and two end tables this week. Oh, and like 8 sets of wire shelves. It's cleansing to have so much stuff out the door.

And one bonus one.

6. Freedom. I love MOTU. I miss him terribly. There are things that I get to do though, when he's not here, that I miss a little. For example, this morning I hit the snooze button...9 times. I had no intention of getting out of bed at 6:30. None. But I wake up better when I do it in 9 minute increments. As you can imagine, this drives MOTU NUTS. I don't blame him, but I still do it, on purpose, when he's not here. I also eat completely crap food, let the critters sleep with me, and wear the ugly (but comfy!) sweaters daily. I can't wait until he's home tomorrow, but it's been a fun week on my own anyway. Especially since no one got sick. :0)