Fabric Friday

Well the last little bit of Christmas money was spent at the fabric store.... shock of shocks! I really need to go on a fabric diet after last year. More sewing, less purchasing! However I am in the collection stage for the Oregon Patio Quilt I'd like to get to sometime in 2011 so I don't feel too bad picking up a few more greens and grays.


However what I really should've spent the $$ on was getting my serger fixed. Remember when I made my Mom her holiday apron? Yeah, well now my sister wants one too and it's so much faster to use the serger to finish the raw edges then my sewing machine. Ah well. So what I've decided to do is finish making the holiday apron I was going to make for myself and give that one to my sister and then just make an everyday apron for myself. I want to scrap together the main body and make it quilty. I'm using all the fabrics out of my Single Girl Quilt and will coordinate it with these then for the pockets and sashing and such. I don't think I'm going to add any batting between the layers as it'll loose its drape and get too stiff.

Fabric Friday

Slowly but surely collecting for the Oregon Mossy Patio Quilt....one FQ at a time.

WIP Wednesday

So until my serger died I was working on an apron for myself at the same time as I was making one for my mom... see previous post to see the one I finished for her. Anyway, here's the pile of would-be cute apron I now don't have time to make. Foo. The pattern is Indigo Junction's The Ruffled Chef.


I also sit in the coffee shop on Monday afternoons and quilt while Snookie is in school for a few hours. There is a group of spinners and knitters who I usually sit with and one of them made this lovely pumpkin cowl. I bought it off her and just need to add buttons. I had the big coat button which I think goes in such a nice way. I needed two more buttons and it's taken me a while to remember to pick them up. I have them now and just need the ten minutes to sit down and attach them all.


The thing that's been really keeping me busy is my sister's quilt. OH the trouble this quilt has given me! Sheesh.


Now, as a disclaimer before I became a SAHM I used to quilt by check (yay for having extra $$ from being employed) of course I can't afford that now so I've been left up to my own devices. Fortunately before I quit my last job I had enough forethought when buying my sewing machine to get a stitch regulator with it. I've been using it to quilt with for the past few years. So while I've been piecing for a long time, the whole quilting aspect is rather new to me. I admit the SR is a bit of a crutch.

Now back to the problem of my sister's quilt. For whatever reason the SR is not happy when I sew over seams while also having a flannel back. I love flannel on the back of a quilt... it makes it so warm and cosy. My friend Heather has been encouraging me to let go of the SR and learn to self regulate. Well I had the thread bread six times while trying to quilt just one of the 12" motifs. I knew then that there was no way I could make it all the way though all the quilting I had to do if it was going to keep going that way. So I let the SR go. It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be! How wonderful that she had more faith in me then I did in myself. Thanks Heather! See? My stitches are pretty even and small. Yay! Of course I still have a long way to go and need loads more practice but it's a start.


I also was planning on using two different thread colors for this quilt. I stitched up four of the 12" motifs before I realized that the dark teal color looked ghastly. I had done a wee bit of the border in a cream thread and decided it was loads better.... SO last night I started picking out all the thread and starting those sections all over. Maybe you can see the difference in this picture... the light triangle block in the lower right has the cream thread while the light triangle block in the upper left is using the dark teal thread... yack. I still have to pick that one out and redo it.


So all that to say there's no way I'll be done with this quilt in time for Christmas... so I broke the news to my sis this morning and happily she was cool with it. Thankfully her BD is in late January which *should be* just enough time to actually get it done. ^^

Happy Holidays!

Yeah, I know I should be working on my sister's quilt but I just really needed a break from it so I whipped up a holiday apron for my Mom this past weekend. I gave it to her yesterday. She adored it. ^^ Nothing like making something and have it be appreciated. Yay. Might have to make one for myself here soon too. I wonder when I'm gonna find the time?

Updates

Well, I've managed to get my sister's top finally all pulled together. I swear some quilts just go smooth as silk and others burden you with so much grief. Can you guess what kind this one is?! Grief is all I've gotten from this thing! I wasn't paying attention when building my blocks originally and did half of them wrong so I had to rip them and remake them. Then I planned out a border that I realized I've have to buy three extra yards of fabric just to make it all fit and return the queen size batting for a king, so I redesigned it but now I've got extra fabric I didn't need to buy, etc. etc. etc. Even pinning tonight I ran out of my curved basting pins (this AFTER buying an extra pack of 100 before I started). I have a gut feeling that the quilting itself isn't going to go smoothly either but I'm putting it off till tomorrow because I'm just tired tonight. I will make the long trip to the one fabric shop tomorrow I know has machine needles that my sewing machine adores - hopefully that will stave off any difficulties I might get while trying to quilt over seams (which is where my machine gets cranky). It's a large queen size... I think it's 90" x 100 and something. I'll have to measure when it's all done. Sorry the lighting is terrible on both these pictures... it's dark in the house and there isn't an overhead light source in the living room.


Also thought I'd share an update on the hexi hand project. It's coming along slowly but surely. It takes a while but I really enjoy it. I left the iron in the frame just so you could get an idea of scale.

Copyright Law

Well if I was ever confused about copyright law before this really spun my head. Without understanding legalese and reading it all for myself it's hard to know who's in the right, though I tend to lean toward the rebuttal since they at least support their arguments by pointing directly to portions of the law whereas the magazine's author waves her hand around in big general sweeping motions. I did find the whole thing totally fascinating however, and if you have the time, it's completely worth the read.

Peppermint Mocha

I should mention that I foolishly drank a peppermint mocha around 7 pm this evening and even though it was decaf I am WIDE AWAKE right now, which might explain my barrage of posts. Heh. It was delicious however and got me though some of my Christmas shopping so I can't complain. Anywhoodle....

FRENCH TWIST, CANDY SWIRL, or SWIRL QUILT
This is another NU I'm in love with. It'll be a year or more before I can get to it. I'm planning on it being my "take with me hand work" (since it's applique) however I want to finish my hexagon quilt before I start any other hand piecing projects. There's some interesting information on the pattern that can be found here and here. Would you ever guess that this pattern may have originated as early as the 1890's? I think I'd like to tackle this in no way that I've seen done as of yet by using the same method I did on my Colorwork Charm Quilt. Of course I'll have to play with it to see if I can get it to flow properly but it would be cool if I can get a near enough effect.