Saturday, February 28, 2015

Decisions, Decisions

I've got all my rows together, so now I need to make a decision about the cornerstones....
I have an idea - I'm thinking cute little snowball blocks would look like buttons!  I'll make one and see if I like it.  

First it's time to get dressed and out for a walk before I head out for a walk with my hubby.  We are going earlier than usual because I have a Women's Ministry meeting out at the church at 10:00.  Hopefully lots of time to sew this afternoon and I can get this top together as planned!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

EQ7 Block Design Challenge

Here is a great opportunity for those of you who do not already have EQ7!  They are having two winners, and if you don't already have the program, you can win a copy!

I'm going to get working on my block design now!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Taming My Quilt Stash

I finally found a source for all the plastic baskets I needed so I could work on organizing my fabric closet!  I've wanted to do this for some time, but didn't really want to have stacking baskets.  Once I got used to the idea, the next problem was finding enough of them!  I had to make a couple trips, but I finally gathered enough to get most of my closet done.  I still need a few more to do the Christmas fabric, but the rest is sorted, culled and basketed!

Here is the before picture:


This little closet is really great for storing my fabric, but storing it in piles just was not working.  The piles were always falling over and getting disorganized, resulting in a huge mess.  Now I have the colors sorted into baskets.  I allowed two baskets for my favorite blue fabrics, and everything else has one.  (Orange and Yellow share a basket)  Any fabric I had in excess of the basket allotted had to go into the donate bin.  I sorted out one banker's box of fabric to get rid of.  Most of which was fabric that I always pass over anyway!  I had to keep telling myself that it was silly to be emotionally attached to fabric and I could let someone else have it that will USE it and not just pet it!

Here is the after:



Much nicer, right!

We drove up to see our daughter in Eugene today and give her some encouragement.  It was a lovely day for a drive and I got the rest of my Dresden Plate blocks appliqued on the way home - I'll add the centers soon and give you a peek.  I'm excited to get this top done by the end of the week!  This one will be hand quilted with the queen size wool batt I bought this summer, I think.  I might give my husband the choice - I have three quilts in the same pattern and plan to keep one for myself.

 I hope to finish the pattern up this week as well.  It's a great beginners sampler quilt that teaches a variety of techniques...I just have to come up with a name.  Sometimes that is the hardest part!  Maybe I'll put a picture up on Instagram and Facebook and see if I get any good ideas.

In fact, here is the EQ7 version of the quilt design in brights.  What do you think would be a good name for this pattern?


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Announcement!

I got an e-mail that made me very happy yesterday!  I was accepted as an Embassador for Island Batik!  Yay!  That will mean some very fun stuff here on my blog as I get to work with their beautiful fabrics.  I can't wait!  My Quiltsy friend MaryEllen was part of the group last year and I was a bit envious to tell you the truth, so when I saw they were accepting applicants for 2015 I decided to apply.  I've been snooping on the other Embassador's blogs, and will be sharing them with you as well - good stuff!  I think it is so awesome that even though I live pretty much out in the middle of nowhere I get to be involved with something so incredible - I just can't stop smiling!


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

What I Do on Stormy Days?

Sew my heart out of course!  I had a couple project I've been wanting to do, so I spent Monday working on them.  The first project was a cover for my serger.  It's been a real pain to get it in and out of the soft case I bought for it and I seem to be using it at least twice a week, so I decided that it needs to have a cover and stay out on my table.  I had seen a tutorial on the Sew4Home blog earlier, so looked it up and got started.  The first decision I had to make was fabric.  I had thought of using some of my Paris fabric stash, but at the last minute remembered the pretty blue and yellow toille I've been saving for something fun! Perfect!

After going through the instructions and measuring my machine I realized that I needed to make a few adjustments.  It still ended up being a little bigger than it really needs to be, but it isn't too bad!
I had almost 4 yards of that blue and white check piping made from another project - it was about 1 inch short of being enough to go all the way around the bottom, so I had to improvise!
I used a strip of the accent strip fabric to cover the last little bit!  It came out really nicely and as a bonus I didn't have to join my piping anywhere.  Here is the tutorial for the Serger Cover  if you would like to make one of your own!  I used fusible batting in mine and it came out great!

The second project I worked on was a laundry bag for my husband.  When we go on trips he always ends up using mine!  Now he has a nice blue one to match his bag.  No pictures of this one, it wasn't that exciting.

The third project was a quilted journal cover with a monogram on it.  Bright and fun, the perfect project for a rainy afternoon. It is now on it's way to Florida!

It'll be back to sewing a big order of Roman Blinds for the rest of the week, so I was really glad to have a play day in my sewing room!  What do you do when you have a day to play?

Saturday, February 07, 2015

Giraffes, Elephants and Hippos are finished!

Thanks for this finish has to go to Project Quilting!  This weeks challenge was to finish a UFO - the hardest thing about that for me, was deciding which one.  Since this was the quilt I intended to finish for my UFO challenge in December and I did not get it done, I thought it was a good idea to work on it.

The first thing I had to do was to piece my back.  I had a nice chunk left from the original yardage of the fabric in the borders (Michael Miller's Zoology in black) that I wanted to use, plus another largish size orange stripe that I thought would work, plus a strip of the fabric I used in the narrow borders.  Since the Zoology piece wasn't quite long enough I cut it in two pieces and inserted the strip of the border fabric.
Since the stripe was about 27 inches by the width of fabric I cut it in half and sewed the two pieces together to make a large enough piece to add to the side of this.  It was the perfect size at that point for the back!

At this point I had to dig through my batting box, and ended up having to piece this as well!  I was glad I found a strip that was just big enough to add to the piece that was not quite large enough.  I got the layers pinned andstarted quilting.  I though t about using a fun lime green thread, but ended up going with the slate gray, and think that it was a great choice!  I just quilted this in a large meander since I just wanted to get it finished up.  I think part of the reason this has been a UFO for so long is the fact that I just could not figure out how I wanted to quilt it.  The allover design looks just fine on it!
 It was a rainy day today, so a bit hard to get the right lighting....
 When I finished the quilting I realized I had managed to get the backing on upside down.  Whoops!
 Here is a close-up so you can see how all the animals are blanket stitched down.  They were fused first with fusible web.
Hurray for a finished UFO...A month and a week late, but I got it done!  I am still working on my November quilt (hand-quilting), and it should be finished up as well before long.   Still thinking about my goal for this year, but I have something in mind.  

This quilt is available in my Etsy Shop - here!