One Quilt Done....4 More To Go

Finished one of my nieces quilt today....


Also, last weekend I finished the top to one of my nephews quilt....

Last Quilt for one of the Nephews

I had bought material back in April or May, but it was only the backing and another for the front main......so I've been racking my brain trying to figure out with material will look good with the front main.

Well this is what I found at Jo-Ann's...


I'm going to do a Disappearing 9 Patch Design with 1 or 2 pieces of the main material sprinkled into each row.

So far I've got the material cut, the rows sewn together to make the 9 Patch....right now I'm waiting for the iron to heat up so I can flatten the rows before making the final patch...you can visit P.S. I Quilt for a super easy tutorial....I know I did....and boy is it SUPER EASY!

Quilt Top Finished...

...one & a half to go...and then I have to quilt them all.




I'm a little disappointed about the top...my niece's favortie color is blue, but the quilt really shows a lot of brown....so to fix the problem I'm going to find some aqua blue fabric for the backing

Another Niece Quilt - Off to a Good Start

Well, I have the fabric all cut of for the the 3rd niece.....


.....time to get sewing!

Need to get Crackin'

As you call all see in my Project List, there are several quilts that I need to get finished. Well, "Joy in the New Year Challenge" is what this is all about....getting your quilts finished by January 1, 2010.

Well, I joined the challenge, but I really need to have at least 5 of them done by the Christmas Time. You see, I'm making a quilt for my nieces and nephews for Christmas, since they all have way too many toys as it is.....and for some reason I never know what to get them or what they like....kids' minds change too much.

As of today, I have only completed 1 quilt....1 is ready for binding.....1 top is ready for the batting ans back....1 top is only half way done.....1 the pieces are half cut out....and the last one I have 2 fabrics picked out and that is it. I figure I have about 5 or 6 weeks to get them all finished, since 5 of them will have to be mailed out. (I'm not sure if some of the family is coming home for the Christmas season.)

And then after the season is over I need to get working on a quilt for my Aunt Fay.....she is the only person in the family who did not get a quilt made by Grandma Wofford (her own mom) before she passed away. So, I told her that I'd make her one.

So, as you see I need to get crackin' on all of my projects.

Time for a Break

From Sewing that is!

I was working on a quilt, when I forgot to lift up up the presser foot and I was trying to loosen the thread....while my figure was down there, my foot accidentally hit the sewing machine pedal...

This what my finger looked like after it stopped bleeding. The needle went in through my nail and out the tip of my finger.....OOUUCCHH!

After about a week it started to heal and nail started to snag on things, so I had to suck it up and trim it the best I could....but I still wore a band-aid on it for about 2 weeks.

And to make matters worst, about 30 minutes after all this happened I tripped in the baby gate and clipped the back of my heel on it, which ended up taking a chunk of skin off of my heel. I was limping for about two weeks with this too.

Not quite a month later, my nail still has NOT grown back out and my heel still has a scab on it.

Sneak Peak of String Quilt

My piles of half finished blocks....




....there's a total of 48, that now, need to be ironed

Now that they're all ironed, they need to be cut into 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" blocks.

Since my square ruler is 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" I need to cut the top and side first,....

....then adjust my ruler to the new edges at the 8 1/2" marks
....and wha-la...my finished 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" block is done....

Only 47 more blocks to go!

But, I went a head to did four of them for right now, to show you where I'm going with this....
NOW ONLY 44 MORE BLOCKS TO FINISH!

A Couple New Projects

What I have been up to the past couple of weeks.....


Sultry by Basic Grey for Moda (Honey Bun)


Half of the quilt finished....


and Annabella by Tina Givens for Free Spirit

Hummm...what will it be?

I haven't been in touch with the real blog world for awhile, because I've been working with these fabrics.

You're Invited To Celebrate!

p.s. i quilt is doing yet another giveway in honor of The Quilt Shoppe's 2nd Birthday.

So, check out both site for terrific ideas and much much more!!!

Zigity Zag Zigity Zag

I've seen some really cute quilts lately that have zigzags in them....I've seen a couple different patterns, but I choose my own, that took me about an hour to draw up properly.

So, I took some fabric that I bought back in March and this is what I came up with.


I'm so proud of myself...everything lines up just right. But again, it measures only about 40" x 40"....this one will make a cute baby blanket.

Diamonds....Girls Best Friend

I bought this cute fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop....Full Bloom by Bari J. Ackerman.


I found a cute pattern and whaaaalaaa.....

The only down side to this quilt, is that by the time I'll be done with it, it will only measure about 43" x 44"....not a big quilt, but maybe great for a lap quilt, or a baby blanket.

I was able to cut the material and sew it all up in one day...now I just need to finish it!

P.S. I Quilt

So there's this cute little blog that's been going for about a year & half now and she's doing a give away for a $50 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. Rachel has got a lot a stuff to check out on her site, so get on over there and check her out.

Start of a New Quilt

So the other day I wondering what I can sew next, which i should be working on Niece #2's. All I have left to do is finish quilting the quilt and binding, but for some reason I keep putting it off. If I don't stop soon, my may not get it done for Christmas and then I'll have to kick myself in the butt for being a procrastinator.

Anyways, I went to work on coming up with a design for Nephew #3's.

This is what I'm working with, plus another fabric not shown.

The Front Side

The Back Side

I guess it really doesn't matter which side is the front and which is back, because I like them both equally. I guess I'll find out which is which when I give it to my nephew which side he like best.

Yeah and by the way....Andy and Alex are both mad at me for this quilt. Andy thought it was for Alex and Alex thinks it's for him also. I could make another quilt from the red outer space and blue zigzag outer space material, but I'd have buy more of the robots outer space, since I used it all for the backside. (But think where I got the material, it is on clearance right now and last I looked out of stock! I think they'll get over it.)

As with some of the other quilts I've started, I will not be finishing this one until we get back from VACATION.

And when I say "we" I mean Andy, me, and the boys, and Andy's parents. We're loading up in his mom's Envoy at about 8:00 pm (maybe sooner) Friday night. I want to leave at night time: #1 the boys will sleep through most of the 10 hour ride to Prior Lake, MN, #2 we'll miss a lot of the rush traffic in Chicago, IL, and #3 well I haven't thought about it yet, but I'm sure there's another reason, there always is. I hope to have a lot of pictures for you for when i get back.

Out to Sea Quilt is finished

All week I've been slowly working on finishing Andy's quilt. Every night I was quilting the quilt, it took about 4 nights at about 2 per night to finish. But this time I did it a little differently....I did NOT baste the quilt first, which saved me a LOT of time. My batting and material that I bought was about a foot too wide, so I decided that, since I'm just going to do a stitch in the ditch on the rows, that I'll just stitch down the left side edge of the quilt with a 1/4" seam (doesn't matter if I'm going to be covering with binding). When done with that, I took it a bigger area, like the living room, plopped down on the couch and just smoothed it out enough to pin the next row. This is when I decided to stitch in the ditch. Then I just repeated for the rest of the rows, but the further along I got the harder it was to, so after about the 12th row, I turned the quilt around ( this way I did not have a lot of rolled up quilt to fit through the opening of the sewing machine). Now all I need to do was bind the quilt.

Joanns is having another one of their HUGE sales, where a lot of items are 50% off, which is a great time to buy fabric. So, went to go see if I could find something to make the binding. I found several items, but I ended up with a shirting material that is pinstripe white in the Red Tag fabrics, which was 50% off.




The whole to finishing the quilt is so we can take it with us to lay on the ground tonight for when we go see the fireworks!

I've also been busy with the Pop Garden quilt. I've got the back piece finished now.

Front

Back

I couldn't get a good picture of the front, I think you can get a idea of it.

Another Note:
Yesterday, I went to Shipshewana, IN with my mom. It's about an hour away from Fort Wayne, IN, but so worth it. I like the Flea Market, but some of the vendors do get boring at times....I mostly like the produce and antique section. From the Flea Market, we went to the downtown shops, which is where a found a little piece of heaven...Lollys Fabric Store. I could have gone on a fabric shopping spree, if only I have brought more money with me.

But the real reason for the whole trip was to buy myself a drying rack. The flimsy drying rack that I bought at Walmart broke on me....the top rung broke which is the same rung that holds the whole thing up. So, at Yoder's Hardward (across from Town & Country) is where a got this...

This beast comes to my nose (which I'm 5'10") and so worth every dollar that I paid for it ($50.00). I believe it's built by one of the locals, most likely Amish, so this drying rack is going to last a long time.

And oh yeah, I asked the clerk where I bought this if it was one huge store and she told me, "NO! Three stores under one roof." The reason for asking was because the was a HUGE fabric store there too and a little grocery section.

So, the next time I need fabric, I'll being taking the quaint little drive up the Shipshewana.

Pop Garden Quilt

For about the past week and a half I've been working on a new quilt.....Pop Garden Quilt (because it's made with Pop Garden fabric, by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit.

I believe that there are 21 different designs that I'm working with, even though there are more than that in the collection.

Here are a couple samples of the squares blocks that I'm working with.



I do have a pattern that I'm using, but it's one that I just draw up myself, so it's on grid paper in pencil (if I need to change anything I change it as I go along). I'm hoping that when I get done with the front and back I can come with with something a little more presentable to share with you along with photos of the quilt.

On another note: I've been slowing quilting niece #2's quilt one row about every other couple of days. So, I'm working on it is the main thing.

Mary's Homemade Gift from ME

I've been so excited to post pictures of the cute bag I made for Mary, but









I've been waiting for her to post the picture first so that I don't give it away.

It is an Amy Butler Birdie Sling Bag made with material by Dena Designs for Free Spirit: Monaco.

I'm really proud of how the sides just happen to turn out, which I didn't even plan on happening.


Now, I made this bag first as a trial run, so if I make mistakes it's not going to be on Mary's bag. And wouldn't ya know, I made a BIG mistake, but the bag still looks nice.

The pattern is upside down...MoMo for Moda: Wonderland
The main part of the outside of the bag is Tea Time Tomato Twill and the lining (not pictured) is Mad Hatter Sugar. The band and handle is Mid Century Modern Strip Mustard by Kathy Hall for Andover Fabrics. I must admit that it looked like they might together, but now that I see the finished project, I'm not so happy with it.

Well I think I'm off to a great start for being a Beginner Sewer, but I really have to give the credit to Amy Butler who made the instructions to simple to follow that a beginner, like me, is able to make this great bag. I learned some new sewing terms as well, like, "Gusset", which I'm quite proud of myself for not messing up that part of the bag.

Well now I'm off to start another project or maybe I should finish one of the quilts that I've already started.

Thanks Mary for the inspiration of this great offer, now I can't wait to see what you come up with for me.

Just for you, Mary Dapelo

Ok, Mary, I've completed my end of the DEAL. I'll let you know when you should be receiving it in the mail. I really hope you like it.

Upgrading

I came a across a quilt with a ruffle binding on at Spool Sewing. And I was wondering how they did that, so I went out on a search, Google search that is, to find out how to make a ruffles.



I found out that there are several ways:

The most time consuming is to fold the fabric over to create the ruffle / pleat, but if your going to do this for the whole quilt it could take you quite a long time.

Then I found a YouTube video where the sewer used elastic. She stretched it all the way out and then sewed it on the fabric and when she was done the elastic returns to it's original state creating the ruffle.

Finally, I came across a free quilt pattern provided by Michael Miller called Ginger Blossom. After reading the instructions and found out that they used a "ruffler foot", which looks something like this....


Scary looking contraption, isn't it?!?

Long story short...my sewing machine is not made to have a ruffler foot attached. So I went to Joann's where I purchased it and they are going to let me upgrade to a machine that does have the ruffler foot option and much much more. But since I cannot do this until a get paid, the manager over the sewing machine department is going to hold it back until this coming Friday. In the meantime, I need to round everything up that came with my sewing machine, this should be a fun treasure hunt.

All this trouble for just a little ruffler foot, which the machine does not come with, you have to buy it separatly, but I'm going to get a good price on it. Matter in fact, she made me a deal that I just could NOT refuse. I'm so excited that I cannot wait.