I'm not dead

I did go and have a baby in April though so, yeah, there's that that's been keeping me very busy.  But also I've sort of stopped blogging because I can't seem to get the time to sit down and write every day.  I do have things to say about projects that I'm working on though (can't give up the sewing!) so I've moved most of my crafty-self over to Threadbias.  I like that I can keep all my individual project info in nice tidy "packages".  If you'd still like to see what I'm up to come on over and take a peek and say hi!

Baby Scrap Quilt

My favorite part about this quilt is that I didn't buy any fabric for it. I didn't buy batting or backing or binding or thread. I actually used all things that were already in my sewing room. I have a huge bucket of scraps and it was dreamy to knock it down ever so slightly. Plus with all the odd sizes pieces available to me, I didn't really cut or alter them and just tried to wing how everything went together (I didn't use a formal pattern) which made it very liberating and fun to sew up. It makes me want to make another one and explore some other ideas I have for free-form piecing.
My only criticism is that it should've had larger white areas. I just didn't have that many white scraps. The next one I'll probably have to buy some solid fabric and not worry about it being scrappy. Of course I have a few other quilts to finish first before I can run off and start another one just for fun.

The Front


The Back (the aqua is flannel for softness and comfort)


Detail of one of the blocks

Auction Quilt

In order to get volunteer hours at my daughters school and donate to the school auction, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make a quilt to be auctioned off. I picked a quilt I thought I could make quickly. After having kept track of everything I discovered I'm either a really slow quilter or this hobby is WAY more time consuming then I thought! All told it took me 26 hours to put this one together. In my defense I will say I took a step that I don't normally take. It took up three hours of that total: knotting and hand sewing in the quilting thread tails so the stitching won't come out. Normally I'm lazy and just back tack, figuring if the stitching pops I'll just fix it since all the quilts I make are for family or friends. What I learned was, it actually looks a lot nicer done the "right" way. lol... I do like hand work so I'll probably continue this "extra" step for future quilts even if it takes more time. For the this quilt I also hand bound the back of the binding which always takes a while but went faster then I thought it would, 3 hours to cut, sew and stitch the binding to the quilt. Not bad! I love that step anyway. ^^

The front


The back


A bit of detail on the back


Pattern (and kit): Positively Perfect Nap Quilt 54" x 66"
Fabric: Hometown by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics. Backing fabric is flannel with scrap pieces from the front.
Hours to complete: 26

Cut to the quick

Can I say what an awesome Christmas present this has been? I've now cut out my third quilt (and several other smaller projects) with the same blade and have just taken the few minutes to sharpen it before each project. I think I might have to officially endorse this product... lol. It's not quite as sharp as a new blade but it works just fine. This latest quilt, I wasn't able to cut through more then four layers of high quality quilting cotton, whereas with the last quilt I could cut through 6 - 8 layers of batiks. So I'm not sure if it's any less sharp or if it's due to the difference in fabric. Still, I most certainly don't need to replace the blade yet.

And yes here's a bit of the most recent quilting fabric to meet my blade. It's the quilt for the school auction. I initially was going to make a bed size quilt but was afraid I'd run out of time (due before Feb. 25th!) so I went with a nap size instead. I should be able to knock it out. Also might make a matching pillow but not sure I have enough of the cream color.... And yes, I am being totally *lazy* about the whole thing and I bought a kit (second one ever) just because I think the design and fabrics could appeal to a wide variety of people and I'm not really sure who will be bidding on it.

Composition Notebook Cover

I based this cover on these two patterns, Journal Cover Tutorial by Bloom and another Journal Cover Tutorial by Bloom for Moda Bakeshop that's a little more complete - it kinda fills in the blanks where the first one is lacking. I actually customized mine to make it fit a standard (US) composition notebook. Having never made anything like this before and trying to take care of a small person in-between it took me a couple of hours. I think I could probably make another one in half that time or easily less now. It was super fun to make and I could easily see how these could be addictive. I want to make a dozen more!

Buttercup Bag

My first finished project of the year. I made this sweet little bag for my friend's Birthday.