Wednesday, January 28, 2009

wedding quilt progress






this was from last weekend, i'm posting now cause i can't work today, i have walking pneumonia. woo. any ways, i added the green last time, and trimmed what i could join together to 15 inches high. i'm not paying attention to the green in the middle lining up. it drives my husband crazy. he likes clean lines and very planned/organised stuff. i could not be more different, i love crazy/wonky stuff, and i'm always a mess. even his messes are organised, in neat piles whereas mine would be a big blob, just look at the pics of the sewing room. this quilt got alot bigger than i thought it would be

Monday, January 26, 2009

baby quilt



heres the baby quilt, jason and kristin, if your ever come across my blog, pretend you didn't see this. i tried out the mitered corners on this thing, they were a pain for a first try, but i really like how it turned out. i went thru my fq's, and found the shoe fabric, which i was excited for since its girlie but not baby, so i went with it, and i also pulled the teal. you can't tell, but its a mermaid fabric from robert kaufman. i plan on using some for the backing.

i like how this turned out, it looks like a crossword from far away. i think they'll like it. i plan on quilting it in yellow, with a wiggly zigzag. i will probably make the backing tonight or tomorrow.

these are 6.5 inch blocks, imagine a 9 patch with a brick on one side and you've got the block.

what i learned: square up my blocks before i put them together. i think its why so few seams match up. cause i tried to match seams it just wasn't happening.

ps. stash busting
i used 2 yards for the top, but i got 3 fat quarters from freecycle, which brings my total to 219.25 yards, and no money spent. i recommend freecycle. google it.

Friday, January 23, 2009

please vote,

this is the third post today, and your help is needed
this is going to be a baby quilt. i will pull in some scrappy bits here and there, but what do you think? its for a baby girl of my friends, who are not at all traditional. The main fabric will be the nerds rock yellow, as the daddy is very proud of being a nerd. i need opinions, one side the other, some from each, use them all? leave your comments. even if you would never use these fabric choices.
and the one that looks like black with ugly/weird colorful bats on it is brown with colorful butterflies. none of my picture came out well for that one

sewing update

ok, i spent 4 and a half hours ironing.
yep.
went like this, run downstairs with fabric to throw in the washer, count as it goes in, 17 yards. btw, thats when i realised i was crazy. debate as to whether white on whites should go in with a few reds, but i threw them in anyway, and they were fine. back upstairs to iron. count the fabrics on the chair.... 21 yards.
see that, thats 38 yards of fabric to iron, so i can use the chair to sew. and i have to iron it because otherwise i cant use it if i want to.
i started this at like 8:30
i cleared the boxes off the chair after 1pm. i'm hoping its one, if it was 2 i should be shot for allowing myself to be tortured for the sake of a beautiful stash.
i notice holes in the stash now, i'm low on turquoise. yep. and i could use some more black on whites.
i'm fully aware that i'm crazy.
I only started sewing and stashing in july/august 08.
i now own 220.5 yards of yummy cottons, plus scraps and strings in a 3 drawer bin(medium) plus a bucket of 5.5 inch squares.

thank you jenny's fabrics, for your wonderful flatfold section. you have allowed me to buy way to much fabric because $20 brings home at least 12 or 13 yards. thank you ladies of Jenny's, for cutting generously when i get flat folds. i know its because you want to get rid of them, but i like it. thats an extra 4 to 6 inches that magically appears in the stash. times however many yards i buy, its wonderful.

Friday sewing day... all day long!

Well I've the first part, getting up on time(thank you annoying cough) so here are my goals for today.
  • wash new fabric and iron
  • iron fabric sitting on the chair
  • put my sewing machine back in the room
  • fix dh's jeans
  • make a mini quilt for a swap i joined
  • make the apron for Ly that she won
  • mail as many things finished as possible
i'm hoping i sew til i can't stand it anymore

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

State of my sewing room, (its a work in progress....)

believe it or not, this is much better than it was before. yes i am a slob, its why i have a room to be slob in, but now you could easily sit on the couch to visit while i sew. if i move my backpack and work shirt. on the back of the couch you can see the quilt i'm working on, and fabrics piled up on left of the pic are from friday when i washed fabric. those are patiently waiting for me to iron them.
umm, this is my "sewing" table. you may notice there is no sewing machine. its sitting on the floor in the spare bedroom from weeks ago when my sisters came over to sew. i haven't done anything since then, and i am itching to make something. if you have a good imagination or work well with clutter you may be able to see that this is where the "organising" is happening. one of the drawers that should be underneath is sitting on top so i can easily throw strips and strings in there, and a stack of newly ironed and folded fabric is waiting to be sorted into its real home on the shelves. and lets be honest, theres also alot of crap that doesn't need to be there. but its a great i spy pic.
this is the chair. you can tell its a chair right? no? oh well. note the trash bag hiding my snack stash, but its almost empty. that cardboard box has those jeans i need to fix, and again you have a lovely view of my washed but not ironed fabrics. topping it all off is another drawer waiting for 2.5 inch strips. these only have their own drawer cause i cut so many for that quilt. I have been kind of using bonnie's scrap saver system, cause i want to have scraps to use. i am only cutting down things that are less than a fat quarter, into bits, 2.5 inch strips/bricks, and strips and strings. wonky crumb blocks will happening this weekend. when the chair is usable and the sewing machine comes back from vay cay.
thats what i cleaned of the couch. it went far.
and last but not least (especially since its the only pic where i come off looking like an organised person) look how pretty it is. it makes me feel happy, all the piles are their own color, its like a breath of fresh air. by now we all need it. go look at the next post, scroll down, its much nicer than this one.

squishie!!!!




Came home from work and look what i found! a wonderful present from the lovely Sonja(no blog?) in the netherlands, two red fabrics, one an african print, and one a football print. plus some lovely dutch fabric, which i need to use for something special. its so pretty. and the cute little clog on a keychain. so happy... i love swaps. this was for the imagingermonkey fatquarter swap. stay tuned for pics of what i will send her.

quilters shorthand

i found these today, on this blog, this seriously made laugh, and wonder where on earth some of these came from.
umm, seriously, SEX, is apparently something i do whenever i have the money for it. hehe. read on, and get your mind out of the gutter

BOM Block Of the Month
DSM Domestic Sewing Machine as in home sewing machine, not longarm
EQ Electric Quilt, marvelous software (also seen as EQ5 or EQ6)
FART Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
FLIMSY Finished top, not quilted
LA LongArmer, professional machine quilter
LQS Local Quilt Shop
PIG Project In a Grocery Sack
SABLE Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
SEX Stash Enhancing eXperience
STASH Special Treasure, All Secretly Hidden
TGIF Thank Goodness It’s Finished
UFO UnFinished Object
WHIMM Work Hidden In My Mind
WIP Work In Progress
WOMBAT Waste Of Material, Batting, And Time
HST Half-Square Triangle
QST Quarter Square Triangle
DWR Double Wedding Ring (quilt pattern)
GFG--Grandmother's Flower Garden
MAM Mile-A-Minute, modern version of crazy quilt block
SBS--Sunbonnet Sue

i have pictures to show you all soon, progress on the wedding quilt and my newly organised stash, i just cant post pics at work, and im always at work. but i will have pics by friday at the latest, blogs are always better with pictures

Monday, January 19, 2009

Lately I've...

  • been reading a lot, The constant princess, the Boleyn inheritance, the hiding place, and I've decided to share what i read, cause id like to have a record for myself.
  • bought some new fabric. but that should be it for a while. its washed but not all ironed.
  • organised my stash, refolding and reorganising, also taking inventory of how many yards i have, I'm not finished counting, but its getting close to 150 yards, so i need to stop. i spend all my food money on fabric and make something to eat at home. which is fine, but i have plenty of fabric for now.
  • realised i need to fix my husbands clothes before he decides to buy more, 3 of his 4 pairs of jeans are waiting to be fixed, it'd take 10 mins to do all of them. but its just not fun. (not when i have fabric to play with)
  • started breaking down scraps into scraps, strings, and 2.5 inch strips and 3 inch strips. not as crazy nicely organised as bonnie from quiltville, but what i can do with the space i have. basically anything smaller than a fat quarter gets cut into use able pieces, and organised in a drawer with its friends, and when i want to scrap something i pull from the appropriate drawer. it seemed like it would work and so far it is. much better than having a pile of too.big.to.scrap.too.small.to.use.and.what.do.i.do.with.it fabric.
  • cleaned off the couch in my sewing room. yep, there was a couch in there, you just couldn't see it for all the junk. good thing i did this cause now my chair has all my un-ironed fabric on it, so i can sit on the couch
  • found the perfect fabric for the apron for the winner of the giveaway, possible sneak peak coming soon

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Winner!!!

and the winner of my whirl into winter giveaway(and 50th post give away cause those were the same thing) is Ly + Alan.
Congratulations!
email me and let me know what your address is, and i will have some questions for you about colors and stuff.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

something fun

While following a rabbit trail through blog land, came across this lovely blog.
Blogspot Templates. they have tons of cute and different templates for your blogspot blog. i will probably play around with that when i get home from work. from what i can tell, this might be free, but i don't have access to photobucket at work so i haven't actually tried. but its cute and worth checking. i'll let you all know how it goes later tonight, or maybe you'll just see my fantastic new blog.

Monday, January 5, 2009

I'm participating-Whirl into Winter give away

winner is here

You've seen my previous post, Debi is hosting a major give away, and has let me join in the fun, although i'm a bit late. I will be giving away a reversible half apron, kinda similar to the one in the picture, but i haven't made it yet, so the winner will get to choose their colors. i will also be giving away a stack of wintery fat quaters, a couple quilting magazines, and some other secret stuff as we go along.

the rules:
you do not need to have a blog to enter, but i must have your email address in the comment or i can't contact you and you won't be eligible to win.
You can get 1 entry for commenting, 2 entries for posting a link to my blog on your blog, 3 entries for being or becoming a follower of my blog, for a total of six entries. Be sure to let me know if you link to my blog, so i can go check and make sure you get all your entries.
I will announce the winner on Jan16, you have until 11:59 pm on jan 15 to enter. Only comments left on this post will count towards this giveaway.

Good luck,

edit: please don't follow anonymously, if i can't tell who you are you won't get the extra entry, and anyone who is a current follower is already entered just by being a follower.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Whirl into winter give away

Have you heard of this give away yet? It's going on from now until january 15, on about 60 blogs. its being hosted by Debi at Whirlintowinter, where the links to all of the blogs are.
i have entered a few already, and will update this posts with more links when i can earn more entries.
go check out keepsakemoments and zananinis, and all the rest of these fun give aways
also craftyjanie,
alittleofthisandalittleofpat
hillscreekquilter