Very First Post

Well, First of all, I've never blogged before, but I've been reading some other quilting blogs here and there, and I love them, so I thought I'd start my own. So here's me.

I'm Codi, I am 22, married for 2 months, and setting up an actual room entirely devoted to being crafty. I'm so excited about my room, it has all my craft stuff in one area, and spread out so I can find it or just see whats there. Huge improvement from the 3 huge plastic bins everything was in before, I love it. I have been crocheting since Jr. high school, and I make scarves and beanies, cause those go fast, and I do a lot of baby blankets, I love giving those away, and my largest piece I made for my honey when we were dating, was a twin sized afghan I made my own pattern for, I love it. I've tried knitting, but I crochet so much faster its never stuck with me, and I've had various sewing projects here and there.

I've been working on a gorgeous, don't-know-what-on-earth-I'm-doing crazy quilt, using a couple years worth of old jeans of mine, and a few stolen from sibs goodwill bags. There will be 30 blocks total, making a king size bed spread, and I am using Fat quarters to piece my patches on the blocks. Once I have them pieced I am embroidering the raw edges (raw edges being nicer to my machine and fingers than trying to get through all those edges folded together). I am also stitching in some quotes from favorite books and Bible verses, and putting something pretty whenever I feel like it. Its a beast of a thing for a very first ever quilt project, and I love it, but I should have started smaller I think. Go big or go home I guess. Also, I started this quilt in November 2006 thinking it would be finished by summer (2007), then by my wedding, which was 2 months ago.

Anyhoo, I need to piece 7 more blocks, and prettify about 20, then join them all and hope they even out somehow. Didn't realise fat quarters are not all cut to the same exact size at the start, so all the blocks are different sizes. Luckily I'm not a perfectionist and no ones going to notice if my edges are funky right? I can fix that later right?

I also bought my first rotary cutter the other day, and was very excited because they were on clearance since no one wanted the flowery ones (I guess). So I bought 2, and together they were still cheaper than a replacement blade, woo for the clearance rack. I also picked up a mat and 2 rulers, but those I had to pay for. I've never seen those things on sale, but I shopped around for a while, and they're all the same price. I still don't know how (or when for that matter) I'll finish this behemoth, but I'm very optimistic that someday it will be on my bed, in one finished piece.

Anyone who knows where to get a quilt frame for a reasonable price, and reasonable is free, or less than $200, let me know. I really want a Grace z44, so I don't have to baste it, (I will definitely be hand quilting this thing, I'd just rather get it all off the floor and not use a hoop or those PVC frames) but the $300 I found it for is still too much. I'm praying for it, but at the rate I'm going with this quilt I've got some time yet.

Pictures will be posted, I promise, I need to start documenting this quilt anyway, so there will be pictures, but probably on monday since I work all weekend.