12.04.2009

Can't say

It's not that I haven't been quilting or making stuff, it's just they're Christmas presents so I can't spill the beans yet. Hoping for a good craft night with friends on the 16th of this month to really get some stuff done. Hope everyone had a nice turkey day!

11.16.2009

E1 - Aunt Exie's Phlox

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Block: E1 - Aunt Exie's Phlox
Started Quilt: 07/02/08
Block Completed: 11/12/09
Number of Pieces: 5
Description: Rotery Cut, hand appliqued

Blocks: 22
Triangles: 3
Kites: 0
Total Pieces: 253

Finally did another block! It's been ages, really. It's not perfect with my one mellon that's off a little bit, but I'm not going to redo it. I'd rather spend the time trying to get another one done this coming week. After that we'll see... travel and holidays shall complicate my creative life.

11.08.2009

Dear Jane

I met some local ladies on-line (yay Ravlery!) who've started a Dear Jane group. I'm hoping to meet up with them tonight for the first time. Who knows maybe I'll actually get some blocks done!

Last week's talk to me tuesday

Happy Belated Halloween!

10.10.2009

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hi everyone! Thought I'd participate in the




I made this quilt for my Mom about 9 years ago. She loves it so much it makes me like it all the more too. =) My mom has always loved quilts and wanted one. She tried to learn but discovered she had no patience for making them. I helped her pick out the fabrics and then made the top. We sent it out to have a long arm quilter quilt it (I'm so sorry I don't remember her name, she did a beautiful job!) Then I made the binding and stitched it on. Tada!
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10.08.2009

Talk to Me Tuesday - Getting You Caught Up

Let me get you caught up. I've been making Talk to Me Tuesday videos with an on-line group. They involve all my crafty stuff. Here is the first one I made in September.



And this one is from this past Tuesday.



I'll try to post here more often, especially as I make these.

9.27.2009

*Squee* Mail!

A big thanks to "altglas" for being such a dear and sending me fabric to go into the Single Girl quilt I'm working on.
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You can see the fabric swatches she sent and I also just loved the card so much I tucked it in there too (its the navy with the bird on it on the left).
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Things are coming along slowly in quilt land. I've been spending a lot of time in the garden still. I'm sure once it gets cold and cruddy again I'll go back to quilting more. Hard to motivate myself during the warmer months.

8.23.2009

D6 - Challenge

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Block: D6 - Challenge
Started Quilt: 07/02/08
Block Completed: 08/23/09
Number of Pieces: 9
Description: Rotery Cut, machine pieced

Blocks: 21
Triangles: 3
Kites: 0
Total Pieces: 248

And finally, I resurrected my Dear Jane from the dead and did one little block. I forgot how much a PITA these little tiny pieces are to work with! lol This is D-6 Challenge. I seriously should've paper pieced it but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, though it probably would've turned out nicer if I had. Ah well...

A chance to sew

Well, I've actually been *sewing*! And loving it. I think it has to do with being able to open the window to let some fresh air into the basement....

Anyway! I made another large block for the Single Girl. I guess that makes me a 1/18 of the way there. Doh. I know I feel kinda dumb for posting such feeble progress but I have to, otherwise I might stop sewing. I need to get motivated to stick with it. I'm excited though as I'm really loving working on this pattern especially with these fabrics. I can't remember who said they wanted to make this but it was sold out on the web site. I found it FOR SALE HERE. =D
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I also made something to send to Clumsy_Chord for the pay it forward craftiness meme that was going around. I think I can get these in the mail tomorrow.

I wish it was more but I haven't been so crafty lately. Anyway she's been working on a Shadow and Light quilt for a few years now and I know she needed some more blocks so I made a few for her.
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8.20.2009

Traveling, fabric and being single

Well, lookie there - two posts in the same month! I'm on a hot streak. lol

All sarcasim aside, our family recently took a little vacation out to the southern Washington State coast. The hardest time for me to resist buying fabric is when I'm on vacation. I'm a sucker for a new quilt shop or at least one I don't get to shop in but once or twice a year. While we were driving out to the beach last weekend we passed two shops. I made DH stop at both. The first one was in a little tiny town; the name escapes me. I also can't remember the name of the shop. I'm terrible! Anyway they were a very small shop and had a few interesting things. I bought a few fat quarters. I was thinking I might start stashing for a Christmas quilt but I really should just finish any one of a number of just regular ol quilts first, eh?
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When we got to Astoria we had to drive past the only quilt shop in town. DH tried to drive by it but I made him go back around the block. He's fights it but understands how giddy I get and so indulges me. He waited with our daughter in the car. I know they were bored so I tried to hurry - except this is a fun little shop. It was hard not to linger over every little bit and bolt.
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They had a nice collection of fabrics that would work with the Single Girl quilt I've been stashing for so I picked these up and tried not to buy more. ::g::
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Not too bad overall, I only stashed 2 1/4 yards total. Could've been much, much worse!

Also a sneak peak of the first block of the Single Girl quilt. If you look closely you can see a few of the above fabrics worked in already. I don't remember exactly but the four quarters sewn together as shown makes about a 20" square block. I've had a lovely time so far working on this. I might even be motivated to knock this top out. Then again... I know myself. 0.o Here's hoping I don't peter out.
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8.12.2009

Quilt Guild

Oh my poor blog here is flat-lining! I've been so busy with the garden and the kiddlet and baking and caning and volunteering I haven't had a second to do anything crafty. I've also been in a terrible slump too. I really needed a pick-me-up. Something inspiring and fun that was totally for me and totally craft. So on Monday night I went to the NW Quilter's Guild Meeting. I've never had a problem going off and doing things like that all alone. Though apparently it's not common as I was chatting with one of the ladies there and she remarked how *brave* I was to show up all on my own. I felt pleased at this but it also made me chuckle to myself. It's not like I'm marching off to war! What possibly could a roomful of grandma's DO to me? LOL...

So I found parking and the entrance and I tried to pay my $5 to be a guest but they didn't have change for a $20. Laura was taking the money at the door and I told her I'd find her at the end of the night and try to give her money and maybe by then she'd have change. She was very agreeable. I liked her immensely.

What really struck me was the number of women there. I think there were about 100. I don't know what I expected but I sure didn't expect that many! (I later found out that this was a poorly attended meeting too! 0.o) I think I was expecting a number closer to 30-40 people. So I tried unsuccessfully to pay, then I sat down in a chair by myself. I was having a grand time just taking it all in. There were tables and sewing machines and bits of quilts pinned to walls and lots and lots of old ladies happily chatting away. In fact (with one exception that a woman brought her 20 yo daughter) I was far and away the youngest person in the room. Is that the way it is then? Younger women connecting on-line and older women meeting up face to face? (Not to say there aren't exceptions) At any rate my solitude didn't last long. I was admonished (nicely) for sitting alone and dragged off to sit with Susan and Kathy. ::g:: Susan's been attending meetings for about a year while Kathy is one of the old guard. It was a perfect introduction as Kathy had all the answers to my many questions.

For example one of the reasons this meeting is poorly attended is that for years it was the "starter" meeting for new members (great timing eh?) and it's the end of summer and this is also one of the interactive meetings so I guess that turns off people as well. (?) Plus Kathy notified me of the wonderful refreshments and where they were located (I didn't have the heart to mention that I couldn't eat any of them!) Though later I did go back and make myself a cup of black tea and sniff the cupcakes (I'm celiac and can't eat wheat). I needed it to stay awake! Maybe I am old but by 9:30 I was pretty tired. (Meeting started at 7) I didn't get home till after 10 pm and was laughing to myself driving around in the dark thinking that in college we'd just be headed out the door to START our evening at 10! and here I was headed home at that time sooo ready for bed.

The meeting started off with a bit of business then they were going to divide us into groups so we could assemble a quilt top for charity with orphaned blocks people had donated. It took a long time for them to sort everyone into groups. I was really hoping to get into Laura or Kathy's group but it was not meant to be. I had a good time anyway...

This was the early stages of our design... it went though a lot of changes.
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Here are a few of the designated sewers for our group.
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Some of the other groups working away...
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The direction the quilt was headed at the end of the evening. I think our group leader took it home to finish it.
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Once we were asked to stop our project so we could clean up I noticed a table at the back of the room. It had baggies of fabric on it. Enough in fact, to make a Twin top. I asked one of the ladies what they were for and she told me you could just pick one up, take it home and follow the directions on the back to make a top. Bring it in whenever it was done and it would be quilted and donated to charity. I thought this would be a good challenge to kick myself back into gear. There was one that had *beautiful* fabric in it so I set it aside.

I then went to find Laura to try to pay. She'd nearly forgotten about it... but she went to ask if there was change and there wasn't so she told me not to worry about it and was gushingly nice about the whole thing. I was informed however that in lieu of payment I had to come back next month. =) Uh, maybe I shouldn't have posted that in a public place - I'd hate for her to get in trouble. I'll still pay if they want me to!

I returned to our work area to pick up my stuff before I left and apparently I did a terrible job of setting aside the bag of fabric well enough, for the top I wanted to work on was gone. Dang it! So now I have to make myself work on the projects I already have going. I just really need to work on SOMETHING. Anything.

I did really like the show and tell at the very end of the meeting, even if I was terribly tired. It was inspiring and overall a good experience.

7.05.2009

Finished Skirt

Oh it's been a while - sorry! I haven't been doing much quilting but I did manage to make a skirt this weekend. I think I'll just stick to quilting though. Heh. I guess it's because I rarely if ever make clothes. I dislike pattern sizing too. Finished measurements were for the hips and they fit well (yay for full skirts) but the waist is a bit snug. Should've gone up two sizes in the pattern... Anyway. I like the fabric and I might even make it again - overall it was pretty easy. I definitely need the practice with the zipper. Oh and I got to finally use my invisible hem foot for the first time ever so that was fun! =)

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5.19.2009

Round Robin

Well you'd think I'd slipped right off the face of the planet with how infrequently I've been posting here. I'm not dead, I swear! (Go check out my gardening blog and you'll see what's been keeping me so busy).

I finally made some time to work on one of the tops sent to me for a round robin swap. This was the top as I received it.
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This is after I'd added my borders. It's got one more round to go before it makes it back to its owner. It was a fun one to work on. I just feel bad I'd had the thing for so long. I feel like I should've done more with it.
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I have one more top to work on and then I'll be complete with this swap. It's good because I think I'm really ready to start working on my own projects again. I miss Dear Jane.

2.22.2009

Fabric Bliss

I had so much fun last night! It was really hard to stick to the objective and just buy fabrics I liked with no plan! I'm such a planner - it was hard. HARD I SAY! lolz... I believe I might have cursed the gift givers several times under my breath. ;^) Corse if that's the worst thing in my life to curse about, well bring it on. Heh.

I want to make my sister a quilt so I thought I might get her fabrics and started filling the cart with fabrics for that... but then it just wasn't fun. She wasn't there to help and I didn't have a good idea yet of what I really wanted for that quilt. It felt rushed and obligatory. That was not in the intended spirit of these gifts. So, I put them all back! After all, these were supposed to be splurgy fabrics just for me.

I tried again. That's when it started getting fun. But holy cow! Shopping a whole city block worth of quilting fabrics makes the mind boggle. I couldn't even look at ALL of them - there were just too many! Really, at one point I couldn't shove another bolt into the cart without it toppling over and I hadn't even gone through a third of what they had to offer. They were all fabrics just for me with no real plan, rhyme or reason. Heehee. It was awesome. I will have to say that I picked out about 20 different patterns varying in yardage from one full yard all the way down to 1/4 yards. It was pure bliss. BLISS I SAY!

I didn't spend it all on fabric though. Sadly I actually needed a few notions and some thread so I could actually sew them together! Oh and a box of candy. Because candy makes me an extra happy sewer. Sew happy!!

All the batiks are nicely lined up when you first come in and I've always had a fondness for them so it seemed a logical place to start. I got 1/2 yards of each of the following...
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I also couldn't resist a couple of few fat quarters of blacks for my potato chip quilt. I also just love them - so in the basket it goes! Plus a few needles and pins. My pins always seem to disappear... sewing room elves I'm sure.
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Then of course there were a bunch of fun bright colors that I couldn't resist! With some summery white on white to set them off... I'm thinking these might go for the Single Girl quilt. Okay so I couldn't buy fabrics totally without a plan. ;^)
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Best for last... I wandered off into a section that I don't normally visit in fabric land and found this beautiful little set! I think they'd make a perfect bag - I love, love, love the birds. Now to just find the perfect (free) bag pattern. I bought a yard of each.
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Now if only I could get into my sewing room to play!!

2.21.2009

Oh the temptation

So I made a commitment to not spending any money on new fabric this year. I've been very good so far but my friends and family conspired against me and got me gift certificates to my favorite fabric store for Christmas and my BD. Tonight I went and blew the whole wad. Zowie it was fun!!! Soooo technically I didn't spend any of my money - that was the deal right? *Squeee* I shall post some pictures tomorrow.

2.06.2009

Where's the dip?

I've not really made any time for quilting as of late. Life is so busy! But I couldn't resist working a little bit on what I've come to refer to in my head as the potato chip quilt. It's so easy to just knock out a few of these snack size bits out! I'm half way though cutting out one little triangle from all my red and pink fabrics. I've still got a stack of blacks in envelops that I need to go though and cut out not only 5" squares for the trade but little triangles as well.
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What I really should be working on is the round robin quilt that I need to mail out in two weeks - yikes!

1.18.2009

What have I been up to?

Making a gift for my SIL. Yay! This is using the Monk's Bag pattern that an on-line friend posted a link to recently.

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I received Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match a few years ago for Christmas. I finally got to use it! I wanted something that would really be a focal point on the front of the bag so I decided to pull the Cherry Blossom motif out of the strap fabric and make the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) applique block from this book to put on the bag and tie it all together.

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The instructions call for one solid inner pocket. But I can never find a pen at the bottom of my bag so I added in an extra seam to make the pocket more functional to hold a pen and a cell phone or other small item.

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I also agree with my on-line friend's recommendation to use a 5/8" seam allowance on the top of the inner (lining) strap. If you follow the instructions and use a 1" seam allowance it makes sewing it all together entirely impossible. Otherwise it's a super easy bag to make and if you don't go crazy with hand sewn applique, it would sew up in a couple of hours from start to stop!

1.04.2009

One last hurrah!

So my last hurrah on quilting goodies* came just before Christmas while I was visiting the in-laws in Greensboro NC. My MIL took me to Randy's Quilt Shop. I bought a few yards of really cute fabric for a bento box I'll get to later this year and one pattern. Normally I don't buy patterns because there are so many free ones out there or I can pretty much figure it out just by looking at it but I couldn't resist this modern take on the double wedding ring quilt designed by Virginia Robertson. I've never made a DWR so I wasn't sure at all how it was constructed. Glad I bought it.
Glowing Wedding Ring


I really want to make it for my sister. She's been bugging me forever to make her another quilt. I gave her the first quilt I ever made. It's uh... funky. Now she wants a nice one. ;^) Who could blame her? lol...

* New years resolution - buy no new fabric for one year! Work on making the fabric stash smaller.

1.02.2009

Happy New Year

One of my resolutions this year is to not buy any new fabric but use just what's in my stash already. I've already run into my first obstacle - I received a gift card to my favorite fabric store for Christmas! The plan in my head is to use it for things like needles and thread when/as I need them. However I know I can't resist a fun fat quarter! I am weak. Maybe I should make an exception to the rule and allow myself to spend it on backing fabric only for that pile of quilt tops I want to finish this year. Which is quilting resolution #2 - finish what you've already started! No new projects until TWO current projects are finished. At least that will cut down on the rampant new project spree I seem to always be going on and help me focus and get things DONE!