One finished project, one unfinished...

I managed to complete the Halloween quilt (begun in September 2007) in August - and it now has a place of its own on the living room wall. I'm rather pleased with it - but at the same time happy that it purposefully has a "thrown-together" look so my haphazard quilting style almost looks as though it was meant to be.

The following quilt, a baby gift for Abby Fay, was begun this summer - long before we knew if Abby was a boy or a girl. It was meant to be a "Take to the Hospital" present for Bridget and J.R.'s baby but instead I have a feeling it'll be a "Happy 1st Birthday" present for sweet Abby.

The part on the left has been somewhat stitched together but I've gotten hung up on the corner piecing and am already worrying about quilting in the ditch and Dakota seems to think the pieces on the bottom are for her to take off the design board and chew on. But really - all that's just plain silly - I just need to sit down and get the darn thing done. After all, winter's coming!

Quilting for a Cause

A close friend was diagnosed with cancer in December and a quilt for her is our latest project. Anna and I stole a pillow from her bedroom and picked out the colors. At the store I was in awe of Anna as she told the clerk we were designing a quilt and then figured out how much material we needed. At that point we were just going to do a larger flying geese pattern than the one we did in October. The clerk was quite dubious when Anna said we were designing our own, but so far it's worked out.

A few Tuesdays ago Caprice joined us with her quilting books and wonderful design ideas. We looked through her books and decided on the pattern - all I knew was I wanted to use flying geese and I wanted to incoporate pinwheels. We quilted all day long - it's pretty amazing what you can do with two people at sewing machines and one at the ironing board. Unfortunately the quilt has sat for the last two weeks - I've been busy at 817 and the flu has been going around town... need I say more?

But here's the pattern - I'm thinking it's beautiful - perfect for a beautiful woman.

Christmas Quilt

When Mom figured out I was serious about quilting she suggested I try a rag quilt - she said they're pretty easy to do and you don't have to be so precise on your measurements. She's done quite a few of them and I love the look - the rag gives it such a well-loved, comfortable feel. Mom even had a pattern in mind, Oh Christmas Tree, that she wanted to try. So I found the pattern on the internet and ordered two of them from Saginaw Street Quilts. They came promptly and there the pattern sat, and sat, and sat... until two Tuesdays ago when I got started. And here's how far I am so far - stacks and stacks of 9" and 7 1/2" flannel squares interspersed with 5 1/2" squares of batting. It's been a whole lot of cutting and not any sewing up to this point. But the good news is... only 70 more batting squares to cut and then I can start sewing. Maybe the sewing machine will be whirring on Friday; but then again, the laundry room paint job is calling my name...

Starting a new quilt...

and here it is all cut out - just waiting to be sewn together. My first quilt, on the other hand, still needs to be finished. I tore out the binding yesterday as I did it the opposite way I was supposed to. Ooops. It'll have to wait until we get back from Barcelona to finish it. But in the meantime, Halloween is right around the corner. Let's hope the Halloween one gets up on the wall before October 31st.

Weekly Quilt Update

Just look at this quilt top (just not too closely) - week three and I'm still loving this hobby!

Quilting Update

We were welcomed back to the quilting store last week with a cheery, "Here the travelers are!" It was wonderful... and we spent the morning quilting and chatting. We each have our four big blocks and small sashing done and on Tuesday we'll put on the 3" sashing and then be ready for the backing. When it's all done I'll post a picture of the finished product; but in the meantime here's a pic of Anna's busy hands.

A New Adventure - Quilting with Anna & Caprice

A few weeks ago Anna came over with a few brochures and an uncontainable excitement - her proposition was that each Tuesday the two of us travel to a small town about a half hour away and quilt all day. I was game - there's something about quilting that has always fascinated me even though I'm not much of a sewer. (Or should I say seamstress?) We talked to another friend, Caprice, and she might join us on our weekly excursions.

I've already learned a lot - for example, the pattern we'll be doing is called Flying Geese, there's something called a sash that frames each block and I think I now know what it means to cut on the diagonal. Although I haven't purchased any quilting books, there's a children's book by Gail Gibbons called The Quilting Bee (see book excerpt above) that might be right up my alley for learning more about the history of quilting.

We went fabric shopping yesterday and after looking through at least 15 reams (again, is that the right word?!?!) I went with the first fabric I'd picked out and three totally different ones. Anna, on the other hand, had her fabric picked out within 10 minutes and it looks beautiful. My fabric is on the right side of the picture, Anna's on the left.

I must say it was pretty relaxing - I left home with a headache and arrived back headache free. Maybe this is a new kind of therapy... who knew!

Procrastination, continued (or How Not to Sew...)

This picture illustrates all the sewing projects I, with the help of the kids on the quilt, have finished since yesterday at 8 am. Because the rest of the house is so trashed you'll notice there aren't any pictures of any rooms in the house. In fact to find clean space on the floor on which to lay out the sewing projects so I could take a picture, I had to move from the dining room to the living room. But, the good news is I got much more comfortable with my sewing machine. Here's a summary of the various sewing "happenings" at our house in the last 24 hours.

Project 1: Baby Doll Quilt (or you can call it a pillow if you'd prefer)
Lucy picked out the fabric from 10-year old leftover pieces and Sophie and Lucy created the design on the floor. I then used the mat and cutter to cut the 30 5" squares and then taught Sophie and Lucy to sew the individual pieces together. When we got a row down, they started on the next, etc... Then I sewed the rows together to form the "face" of the quilt. Lucy picked out the back fabric and we cut it out, along with the batting. I then put the "right sides" of the front and back together and sewed all four sides, leaving a small opening in which to draw it through. My thought was we could then handsew the opening.

Unfortunately, I sewed the batting to the "face" of the quilt, so that when it got pulled through there was a nice plaid backing and batting for the fact of the quilt. Oops - I called it quits for a few hours and then got out the seam ripper and went to town on tearing out all four sides of the quilt.

Fortunately I didn't give up like I usually do at this point; I even laughed out loud. OK, you're right - first I let go with a string of expletives (all quietly muttered) and then laughed. This morning I finished up the quilt - this time I gave up on the idea of sewing the batting in. Rather, I sewed all around the quilt, left a small opening and then stuffed the batting in. Then I taught Lucy how to hand sew the opening shut - but we didn't get very far before I decided we'd use the sewing machine to finish the job. Finally, I used embroidery thread and pulled it through to hold the batting in place. Voila! A quilt, or pillow, for baby dolls and the girls have a hunger for sewing.

Project 2,3,4: Bags for Sophie, Lucy and John
While I was drinking my coffee this morning, Sophie (all by herself) made a small purse for Lucy (pic on left) and I thought - "Hey, she's on to something." So I then took a turn at it. This time, I carefully thought it through and did lots of somewhat-straight line sewing to make some handy-dandy bags. After John saw Sophie and Lucy's he wanted one so I made one for him - unfortunately, he thinks it looks a rather lot like a purse and was a little disappointed. We'll see if he chooses to take it to our SD car trip with him.

Thanks for the inspiration Ashleigh and Carmyn!

I did it - last night at 10:30 I finished the scarf I thought would never end. For those of you that don't know the story it started sometime in November when Carmyn brought over some gray yarn, handed me some needles and said, "OK, now you're going to make a scarf." So I tried, and I tried and I tried. On our roadtrip to Arizona, I knit all the way through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Unfortunately I kept adding stitches. Once I discovered that, I tried decreasing stitches - all resulting in a big hump on one side of the scarf. I was ready to leave it be, but when we made it to Sedona, Mom, without hesitation, took out row after row after row. There went Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Still, I plugged away until the same thing happened again. This time it was Carmyn who did the pulling out, but upon seeing my despair she then knitted back up to where I'd been. Then I stalled - for about a month. In the meantime, Carmyn went crazy - check out her blog for her creations. So, finally inspired, I overcame my knitting block and finished up. The picture on the left are all knit scarves and gloves: the gray one by me, one confetti one and matching gloves by Carmyn, and the two on the right by my 20 year old neice Ashleigh - she paved the way for all of us. Thanks for the inspiration Ash!