Christmas wrap-up

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally share some of what I've been working on!

 

 

1. DSCN3727, 2. DSCN3711, 3. DSCN3710, 4. DSCN3709, 5. DSCN3703, 6. DSCN3653, 7. DSCN3652, 8. DSCN3759, 9. DSCN3783

Since getting my embroidery machine, EVERYONE has asked me for embroidered stuff. The first picture is a saddle pad for my sister-in-law--I thought that was absolutely adorable when I found it, and then I embroidered her horse's name on it. The towels and sweatshirts I did as a favor to my mom, for my cousins and their kids. The Bride tank was for my other sister-in-law, the coasters were for cousins, and the monogram wreath was for decor at my house. (Not pictured are the two sets of placemats that I embroidered--one for my parents, one for my grandparents--and the 4 pairs of boxer shorts that I embroidered with the words Thursday for my brother because he is strange.)

Then we get to the big ones--quilts!

My Skill-Builder Sampler quilt has always been intended for my mother-in-law. I knew she wanted a Christmas throw so since I was beginning that quilt-along, I started it in Christmas fabrics. I've posted six of the blocks already, here are the remaining six--

Virginia Star

Breaking Out--LOVE this block, will do more with it in the future

Ohio Star

Then I decided that the Skill Builder blocks were either not to my taste, or didn't go, or involved paper piecing (my printer just wouldn't cooperate, making paper-piecing a challenge!) So I ventured outside the Skill-Builder blocks and did the following:

Quatrefoil block, from Modify Tradition (LOTS of great blocks here, I'll have to remember that as a resource)

Christmas Star block, from Happy Quilting via the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-Along

Starflower block from Ellison Lane Quilts

And here they are all laid out.

At this point I decided to use 3.5 inch white strips for sashing. I wanted wide sashing because I used embroidery applique in the corners. I did 6 appliques total. This was on December 23, while my husband ran our last-minute errands prior to leaving to drive 5 hours to his parents' house for Christmas. Then I realized that the only batting I had on hand was about 5 inches short of what I needed... and I realized that I was not going to get the quilt finished before Christmas. Oh well. I wrapped up the top, backing, and binding and his mom was thrilled!

Here you can see some of the appliques--the Christmas tree and ornaments were laid on there for test purposes, but I did go ahead and do those directly on the quilt top as well.

Finished quilt top--opened on Christmas Eve! The green and red flannel there is going to be the backing fabric. More pictures will be forthcoming once I actually finish the quilt.

The secret project that I couldn't say anything about? Well, I haven't mentioned anything about my Supernova quilt in quite some time... with good reason.

It was a birthday present for my mom! Her birthday is two days after Christmas, and I really wanted my mom to have a quilt of her own. She is also a quilter, and has made beautiful quilts for various family members. Her big thing is photo quilts, so she and I have different tastes, but I'm confident I wouldn't have started quilting if I hadn't been exposed to it my whole life. And she has NEVER made herself a quilt!! So the Supernova quilt was for her.

I backed the quilt using a navy fabric with tiny yellow and green flowers (which actually, Mom picked out from my fabric stash!) and bound it using a yellow fabric from Connecting Threads. I used straight-line quilting through each of the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines--three lines of stitching for each. (You can't see in this picture, but the center line is variegated orange and yellow, then the outside lines are variegated purple and variegated green--to match the colors of the quilt.)

Unfortunately, because I had so much going on leading up to Christmas, I was stitching on the binding the morning of Mom's birthday. She had a hair appointment before we went out to lunch, so I got as much as I could done, which turned out to be not quite all of it (hence the lack of pictures and the clips still on the binding). Rather than give it to her and then immediately take it back, she held on to it to show to my family members, and I'm going to finish it after the next time I see her, in January when I travel down south to take my kiddos to a math competition. I'll take more pictures then, too.

So that was my handmade Christmas. I took on a little bit too much, probably, and stressed myself out. I also managed to break the embroidery unit of my sewing machine--lesson learned, don't travel with embroidery unit! But everyone LOVED their gifts, even the ones that weren't quite finished. So everything ended well after all.

And what did we receive for Christmas? The highlights--

• A Keurig coffeemaker from my in-laws (SO looking forward to hot chocolate in the mornings before work!)
• Tickets to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure from my parents (YAY, Harry Potter World! I've only wanted to go there since it was announced!!)
• Tickets to see Cirque du Soleil--La Nouba from my in-laws (we saw it the day after Christmas, and it was wonderful!)
• Joann's gift cards (I'm saving up for a Cricut!)
• The best present of all (IMO... my husband would probably disagree)--a KITCHEN-AID STAND MIXER!!! I've regretted not putting one of these on our wedding registry for sooooo long. My mom paid attention and kept it totally secret from me--I had no idea! So now, thanks to my mom and dad, I have a gorgeous blue stand mixer sitting in my kitchen, just waiting for me to bake something. I didn't get to bake Christmas cookies this year (no time--whose idea was it to work up until the 21st, anyway?) so I'm going to have to make something soon to get it out of my system.

I hope all of you had similarly wonderful Christmases, and best wishes for 2012!

Linked up to

 

100 Quilts for Kids Quilt-Along WIP

I'm working on a quilt for the 100 Quilts for Kids Quilt-Along!  This weekend is the link-up, so here it is... 

(this is upside down... oops)

A while back I sent off some charms for an I-Spy charm swap on Ravelry's Quilters Knitting group. The idea was that they would all be kid-appropriate fabrics. Since there were about 60 charms in the pack, it was perfect for theStorytime Squares quilt!

This quilt came together SUPER quickly. Like, ridiculously so. Two evenings, maybe, for the top. Working with pre-cuts makes things SO much easier--I hate cutting! I decided to leave off the final borders, feeling like it was big enough without it. I've backed it with a puzzle-print that is an autism awareness fabric, apparently, and I'm working on quilting it using FMQ for the first time (loops and curliques). I will post the finished version when it's done! In the meantime I have a Christmas block to make for a swap, a Halloween mug rug, and I'd like to get caught up on my Across the Sea quilt and my Skill-Builder Sampler--in addition to all my grading, test writing, math team stuff, and hosting a bridal shower next week! Soooo much to do!

WIP Wednesday

I am so excited today! Why? Because I finished the top for my Supernova quilt!!!!

 

 

It could probably use some ironing.

 

I was unsure about whether to add the border or not, but it seemed too small without it. I had to square the blocks down to about 13.5 inches? I think? because the edges were so uneven. There are some places where the quilt really looks weird as a result. But all in all I am SO pleased with how it turned out. I'm a VERY new quilter--I've made one quilt-as-you-go rag quilt, and one small quilt top for a Sunkissed Squares quilt, so this was my first attempt at doing any complicated piecing. The bias seams are kind of a disaster. Oh well. :)

 

The next question is how to back it and how to quilt it. I was sort of inspired by this picture:

 

 

I really like the way the points match up like that, so I'm thinking about getting a half a yard or so of each of those point fabrics and doing a big cross like that on the back. Problem is, the purple is a FQ from JoAnn's and the chartreuse is discontinued. I can get the yellow and I already have the pink, but I'm not sure how I would do the other two colors.

 

Alternately, this line came with these other prints:

 

I was initially drawn to the eggplant plaid (the only one of these that I used in the quilt). I'm not a huge fan of the vegetables--I don't think it goes. I would LOVE ideas from anyone that has them! :)

 

Kaleidoscope Quilt Along:

 

I've started cutting and I've done a little bit of piecing, but right now I'm mostly laying out the fabrics and seeing how I like them.

 

The first three I'm thrilled with. The last one in the top row is really not that orange in person. With the exception of the left-hand one on the bottom row, I'm really not sure about any of those--so much so that I haven't even cut the fabric yet. I have fat quarters of all of these, and I have enough fabric to do 3 blocks of each print. I've got two that aren't pictured here and I might replace those three. I'd like to wind up with a total of 10, for 30 blocks. We'll see how it goes.

 

Garden Squares quilt: no progress

 

Skillbuilder Sampler blocks: caught up

 

Other news: I signed up for the For the Love of Solids swap. I'm excited to do some work with solids, since I haven't done much with them yet!

 

Finally--on Saturday I will be taking a break from vacationing to take my students to a national math competition. This is a competition in which we won second place last year, which was the best we've ever done. Wish us luck to do as well or better this year! There won't be any sewing going on, since we're flying to Dallas and I'm not hauling my sewing machine on the plane, but I'm sure I'll be doing some knitting while we're there.

 

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

 

WIP Wednesday

Hi all! Back from vacation, lots of exciting crafty things going on... ready to get back to the sewing machine! So here are my WIPs for the week:
Finished:
I made a skirt! I did not finish it in time for skirt week, oh well. I'm just proud that I finished it. 



No cute pictures of me modeling it, but take my word for it, it DOES fit and it looks pretty good. I still need to sew the clasp onto the waistline, but other than that it's completely done.
The pattern was a "learn to sew" pattern from New Look (I posted about it in my previous post) and it was straightforward and easy, though the fact that I had to make it in a size 18 still rankles.

Continuing WIPs:
The Supernova is getting to the finishing point!

I mentioned previously that I wanted to make three more blocks so that I could have 3 of each color, 3 rows of 4. At the point when I took this picture (pre-vacation) I was stalled because I was waiting for the last little bit of fabric I needed to arrive. I'd run out of the lime green in the corners of the green block, the pink in the corners of the pink block, and the dark purple in the diagonals of the purple block. I ran into trouble when I realized that Connecting Threads had sold out of the lime green! But fortunately, they still had precuts of all the fabrics, and the amount I needed was small enough that a charm pack did the trick. (Of course, now I have charms of all the other fabrics in the line left over...).

Here's a tentative layout for how I plan to arrange the blocks, once I've finished the last three. (Peanut really likes it, as you can see...) Then I just need to do the border and it'll be time for me to quilt my VERY FIRST QUILT!! Gulp. I'm terrified. I'm debating waiting until I take the long-arm quilting class in August, but I'd really like to finish SOMETHING this summer.

New: Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along
I wasn't sure about doing this one. Then I saw this and it inspired me. The background color (teal in this picture) will be the charcoal gray. The foreground color will be the various pink and teal prints.



Garden Fence Quilt:

The block is from a tutorial from Hyacinth Quilt Designs--I LOVE it! I bought this stack of fat quarters from Sew Fresh Fabrics a while ago in a bundle with a yard of June Jubilee by Alexander Henry. I really love the fabric but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I definitely think, though, that this is a great fit of fabric and pattern! I've cut out enough for 4 squares of each color, but I've run out of all the solids. I'm going to hold off on ordering more until I have some of the squares put together.

(Both of these pictures are saved from Sew Fresh Fabric's Etsy store.)

I have super exciting sewing machine news too, but that will come in a later post!

(I also switched over to Blogger, with the idea that it's a little more user-friendly than Wordpress. All previous posts have been copied over!)

Linking up to Freshly Pieced!

Baby shower gift, learning new things, Skirt Week update, pattern sizing rant

First things first--I used some stash fabric (a cute remnant that I picked up from JoAnn's) to make a baby shower gift for one of my coworkers! I started out with the plan to make a bib, burp cloth, and onesie. The onesie did not work out. So I revised the plan, and instead made a portable changing pad and a wet bag.



Bib--tutorial from Chickpea Sewing Studio.



I don't know why I can't turn that one the correct direction! Burp cloth tutorial from Chickpea Sewing Studio, though I think I referenced several others.



Changing pad, folded up.



I LOVE this button!



Unfolded to see the inside. I can't find the tutorial I used! Hopefully it's still in my browser history on my laptop.



Wet bag! Tutorial from Dilley Dalley Diapers.

You can see the PUL lining here--finally found some in white, and I will be using it frequently!



The whole package.

And the mama-to-be opening it up!

Everyone was super-impressed that I made it and she especially loved the changing pad. It was a hit!

I mentioned in my last post that my sewing machine sucks. Well, here's the thing--my sewing machine is a very basic entry-level machine from Brother, the LS-2125. It was not intended for heavy usage and I'm using it a LOT. So I am in the market for a new sewing machine--I'm looking at the Pfaff Hobby 1142 or the Bernette 25 (goes to a PDF). There are so many things to think about--do I NEED the 155 stitches (including alphabet and numbers) that the Bernina offers? Do I need an automatic needle threader? Would I rather have mechanical (Pfaff) or computerized (Bernina)? So complicated! And since presumably I will own this machine for many years I want it to be a purchase that I don't regret.

In the meantime, I'm struggling with my old Brother, and I learned something new last night. I've had lots of trouble with the bobbin thread--it catches at the end of nearly every seam and requires me to rethread the machine almost every time, which majorly slows me down. I know I'm threading the machine correctly. But--did you know there are different types of plastic bobbins?? I didn't! I've just been purchasing bobbins that look right, but not necessarily the ones that are intended for my machine--meaning that the bobbin thread jams! Total breakthrough! So I'm ordering the correct type (Brother Style SA156, for future reference) and going to mail all the wrong ones to my aunt, who owns an alterations shop and about 15 different sewing machines and should presumably be able to put bobbins of nearly any type to use!

Skirt Week: almost over and I have yet to complete one single skirt! But I'm working on it. I'm using some stashed linen or linen-look fabric, not sure which, to make Simplicity 2314 (the medium-length version). Which brings me to my rant. How on earth do they figure the numerical sizes on patterns? I was a good little sewist (I kinda hate that word) and measured my hips and waist, as I was supposed to. My 33-inch waist and 42-inch hips somehow resulted in me having to make the LARGEST size of the pattern--a size 18! That's absolutely ludicrous. That's 4 sizes above my usual size 10. I cut out the waistbands, and it is the correct size for me, but Simplicity, what are you thinking? How on earth do you think that making women sew a size drastically larger than they're used to is a good idea? And no, the number doesn't really matter, but still--it's maddening.

And finally, I'm participating in a new swap (button is in the sidebar)--the Gen X Quilters Spoonflower Swap. For those of you who haven't heard of Spoonflower--you can design your own fabric and upload it to the website, then you (or anyone else) can purchase your custom printed fabric. I'm definitely not a designer but I'm loving a lot of the stuff on there--it's so pretty! It's a little pricey which has kept me from ordering thus far, but I'm looking forward to getting charms of 28 different fabrics from the swap. (You order one yard, cut it into 56 charms, mail them off, and get a charm pack back with 2 of each charm.) It should be fun! Here are some of the ones that have caught my eye so far.

And finally finally, Happy Quilting is hosting a sponsor giveaway from Sew Obsessed fabric--because I need another resource for pretty fabric like I need a hole in the head! Go here to enter the giveaway.

Have a good day, everyone!

Are we done yet??

Yes, we are!!! It's officially summer vacation! I had to go to work today to finish packing my classroom, but as of about 4:30 PM I turned in my keys and went home :-D

I'm posting a work-in-progress today. I started participating in the Freshly Pieced Supernova Quilt-Along when it was first announced back in March. Many people are already done. I am.... not. :-D But I finished my first 4 squares this weekend!

 

Most of the fabrics are from the Homegrown collection at Connecting Threads, with a few fat quarters from Joann Fabrics thrown in.

The quilt-along pattern calls for you to make 9 blocks and arrange them in a 3x3 pattern. But of course I picked 4 different color combinations, and well, 4 does not go evenly into 9, does it? (Yes, I AM a math teacher.) So this was my original idea for a layout:

But I don't think I like it anymore. So now I'm going to do something like this:

 

I think the blocks look a lot better than these little stacks of fabric though :)

This appeals to me more because it's more even--I have three blocks of each color--and I prefer rectangular quilts to square quilts. This also probably means I have to buy more fabric, at least of a couple of them, because I only had 2 10x10 pieces of each of the Homegrown fabrics.

Things I've learned thus far:

• The seams look MUCH better when I press them open than when I press them to one side.


• Piecing when you've got diagonal seams is HARD! This is only my second pieced quilt top and it might have been slightly beyond my skills when I started. I feel like I'm improving a lot.


• My sewing machine sucks. I have to rethread it about once every 5 minutes. This makes the chain-piecing process rather difficult.


• Looking at the blocks, it's hard to notice all the wonky seams--so this is a good thing. :)

There are lots of really pretty finished Supernovas at the Supernova Flickr group, if you want to check it out!

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday for the first time :-D