Presents!

My husband's parents, who we are living with right now, just got back from a cruise to Alaska. And it was alot of fun to have the house to ourselves for two weeks. But look what I got!!! An Alaskan Sampler by debbie caffrey, and 2 fat quarters, one of which is soo cute it needed its own picture. Why? Because its a fq of an alaskan quilt shop. I wish i had been there.
I so was not expecting this, but I'm super excited. Maybe a little too excited because i had run right upstairs and show you. I was not expecting presents so this is super fun, i'm a bit giddy right now. I'll just be drooling over these for a bit,
Codi

I'm still here

Well, here's what I've been doing lately. I've been working on these star blocks, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Although seeing the red/brown on the computer is making me rethink that block, its too dark. I have about 12 blocks pieced, and i picked up some more star fabric at a new shop I've been checking out. they have a flat fold section for 1.69 a yard and about half the shop is new bolt for around 3 a yard. I bought 12 yards for under 30 bucks and it was so fun. I can buy so much more fabric!!





I am almost finished with this crazy block, but I'm so close to edge with the french knots, and i think i have 3 layers of denim under them, that its such a huge pain, and i feel like I'm yanking the thread through, so its slow going. But i love the hearts i did, they're so cute.

I also made a couple of messenger bags, one for me with shoe fabric (so cute/funky) and for my husband with some sock monkeys outside and bananas inside, that was a lot of fun.

How Cute is my Husband

So last night when I got home this lovely little sheet of paper was waiting for me. My husband, Tim, has drawn me some quilt patterns off the top of his head. I was surprised that he came up with some traditional patterns (he's seen me cutting and knows what angles I can do). But I LOVE the chain links, I've never seen it before. Wouldn't it be cute on a white/light background with each chain a different color? Or it could be pieced for a border if he'll draw it for me with corners.

So fun,

Codi

Look Away!

Try to scroll past really fast so you don't get hurt. Here are the blocks...
and here it is with borders before I attached the backing. The fabric on the border is really cute, but doesn't help since its busy too.

GAAHHH!!!! Its Hideous!!!

It might be too bad for pictures, I don't know yet, although it didn't break my camera so there is hope. It looks so bad, the colors are terrible, and there's no flow, nothing nice, unless you only look really close at one or two fabrics at a time, then it might be ok. You don't want to see it. Trust me, it might contain a virus and break your computer. I am practicing hand quilting in a hoop on this thing, and man that is hard when you're trying not to look, but its seriously UGLY. It might need to be put out of its misery, or locked away in a tower, never to be seen again. I'm not quite sure yet, but I know that my crappy quilting will perfectly match this horrible top.

And the backing fabric! I do have to post the backing, which was $2 a yard on clearance, and looked ok in the store ($2 a yard and I'm trying to get a stash together, it sounded perfect and I bought a yard) but once it made it home, and I saw it natural light, I realised, of all the fabric on clearance, this one was supposed to be there. It was also asking to be a part of the sampler. It wanted to. Knowing it would be put in a corner, not even getting the selvage cut off or the sides evened up, it wanted to have some friends. So I used it, and although it knows it will eventually be put away from human eyes, at least it won't be lonely. Plus, I didn't have to use something nice for the backing. Actually, if this little bit hadn't talked me into it, I'd have stopped once the top was pieced. Maybe I should thank it for giving me the practice. I'm not sure tho.

Pictures to come! If I work up the courage.......

Codi

Funky sampler blocks

These are not all the same size, and I had too many for one post so I'm missing a star and a tree, but here are my sampler blocks. I finished this boat this morning.


This one (above) is the very first block, I didn't have to take anything apart and I was very happy about that. And I love the color combo for the 9 patch, it pops so nicely even tho I wasn't trying.
I am pretty sure this will look rather funky when I get it together, I might do the last block tomorrow before work if I get up I time, and then I will post a pic of the whole thing. I am actually using a pretty fabric for the borders, because it was what I had when I started and I already cut it. I will probably use some muslin for the backing that I have in a drawer, so I don't use up something pretty. And I need to buy some batting.

This week's progress

Yesterday I went to the fabric store and raided the clearance section, so I had to make room for more fabric, and I found some really cute stuff, so I had to reclaim 2 of these shelves for my fabric.
And here is my pressing/ironing/cutting station, which also hold my denim scraps in one of the drawers, and some more fabric in another, but its canvas and stretchy stuff so it can stay in the drawer for now.
Obviously this is my sewing table.
And I put some more blocks up on the wall, I really love seeing it all together, it makes me want to finish. I think I'll have to play around with the lights and darks so its not lopsided. I think I will take this to work this weekend, while I'm sitting in my office answering phones.

I have also been working on my bad color choices sampler, although sometimes I actually end up with pieces next to each other that look pretty. But the over all blocks are kinda crazy. I only have one more to do then I will add the borders and binding, then i will figure out how to quilt it. I'm still stuck on that one.

I've been thinking about not using batting on the crazy quilt, since its denim, and heavy already. I would probably just do a cotton or flannel backing, then quilt it. I live in So Cal so it stays pretty warm here and I'd like to use this quilt not box it for being too hot.