A Few Things Crossed Off My List

This weekend was good for quilting and good for me! I was able to sneak in a little early-morning work and bits here and there and got a couple of quilts quilted and bound as well as two things pin-basted together so I can work on getting those quilted. (I think that's a run-on sentence. I'm just not sure I care.) I haven't taken pictures yet, but I will. Mostly because the last 2 times I've thought to get the camera out it's been dark out and I want some natural light for the photos. I finished a rocket themed kids quilt (for no one yet) and a fall-ish wall hanging that I had tried to hand quilt once and machine quilt twice. No joke. I ripped it all out because I couldn't get anything to look good enough. I think it was mostly the fault of the quilt being pretty ripply and so I ended up quilting the heck out of it so that it would look mostly mashed down. I think it will look really great this fall, even though I'm still deciding on where to hang it. It's pretty large as far as wall hangings go, so I need to find a blank wall. I pin-basted my Christmas quilt and also a little panel for Valentine's Day that I think will be really cute.

Overall, I haven't felt totally inspired as I've been working on these things. I mostly feel like I'm doing chores and crossing them off my list. But I'm still accomplishing things and I won't get any downtime until January to just sit in my sewing room and play because of football season and the holidays. For now, it needs to be about just getting things done and dreaming about the projects to come.

I also realized that we have a friend that's about to have her baby and I didn't have a quilt for her. I found a cute pattern on http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/ and it was so easy! Here's my beef with it, though. (I'll take a picture of it later) It's called the "monogram quilt" or something. It's really just big blocks of fabric with some sashing and a giant letter appliqued in the center. But it's really cute. So I downloaded the pattern and actually tweaked it a little because I like a smaller quilt better. Then I was looking to make sure they had the patterns for all the letters of the alphabet because I'm not good at free-handing 12-inch letters. Yeah. They only have the pattern for "B" which is shown in the pictures. Now apparently "B" is for baby. First off, why would you call it a Monogram quilt if there is only one letter option? I thought monogram meant your inital pretty specifically. Secondly, who in their right mind is going to go to all the work of applique and then give a quilt that has a giant "B" on it to a baby named Gabrielle or Jackson or Micah or Julia? Not me. I can just imagine some poor new mother opening that gift and being totally confused about the quilt. Kind of crazy if you ask me. But it was a really cute design (and did I mention easy?) so I just put it together and I guess I'm going to wing it as far as the letter goes. We'll have to wait until they name her, too.
Well sorry for the mini-rant. Just don't get it is all. Hope to get pictures up soon!

I finally got all the stars appliquéd and the squares sewn together. I actually have the backing all planned out, too. So unlike me. :) Maybe I'll get it pin-basted together soon so I can think about quilting it. Thinking maybe echo quilting around each star or something.

I started a ticker-tape quilt on a whim. Thought I was really making headway but then I realized when I took it off the machine that I had actually only completed a tiny portion of the rectangle.

Turns out someone wanted in the picture!

Finally, I just wrapped up a finished quilt for a little guy that was born a few weeks ago. He lives down the street from us. He was born a little early, so I'm glad I already had it done. That's about it from around here. I feel like I have a lot of projects underway. Hopefully more progress soon!

Finished Tent!

I finally finished the project I had been working on. Saturday morning I had a "Make-It-Work" moment (I could almost hear Tim Gunn saying it) and got it done. I wasn't sure how it would go over, but it turns out it was a hit! I was unsure about it because it was kind of big, and giving someone something that takes up a lot of space can be unwelcome. Kind of like when I gave our friend's boy a drum for his birthday. The kid loved it, but I'm guessing the parents are probably sick of it. I should revise my gift-giving guidelines. :) Also, I was unsure about the finish level of it. I didn't know if it would look cheap or poorly-made. In the end, she seemed to like it and her parents were at the very least, great actors. :) I learned a few things during the course of it so it hopefully won't take long to make one for my son. When I get around to it. After all those other projects that are hanging around in my sewing room.

I, of course, didn't take a picture of it before I gave it to her so I'll have to try to snatch a photo off of Facebook. We'll see how that goes.

I'm loving my new darning foot and have done some free-motion quilting recently. No finished items yet, but I'm close. Hopefully I'll get some time in the next few days. I also have about 27/35 appliqued stars done, so I'll be sewing that together sometime soon, too. Oh, more things to quilt!

Weekend Doings

I had a great weekend with some shopping, some cooking, and some quality time with my baby boy. I have yet to take pictures of anything I've been working on, but hopefully I'll get around to it soon.

I had some strawberries from my mother-in-law's garden that I needed to do something with so I made some preserves. Those strawberries are just so tasty! You can't get that kind of flavor from a store-bought berry. I tried making jam/jelly one other time and I guess I thought it would turn out really thick and jelly-ish. But it was thinner and runnier. I thought I had done something wrong so I got rid of the jars. :( I actually think I just didn't realize the recipe was for jam, not jelly. But it tastes great, so who can complain about that!? Next time I'll use more pectin or another recipe if I decide I want different results. (My husband thinks it might slide off his toast. Hmph.)

I got to spend some time shopping with my best friend in Des Moines, which was time well spent as usual. I went to church on Sunday to say goodbye to our pastor who is retiring at the end of this month. He baptized my son and welcomed us in as new members, so it was kind of sad to see him go. Hopefully the "new guy" will be just as good!

I have made some progress on this play tent and I can't wait to get some pictures of the finished product. It is turning out really cute! Just a little more work to get the fabric to stay on the structure and then some girly accessorizing is probably in order. Ribbons! Glitter! PINK PINK PINK!!

I'm also halfway done with the applique for my Christmas quilt. It's going well, although I'm not good at the sharp points on the stars. but I'm learning and I've already decided it doesn't have to be perfect to be something I really enjoy.

Lastly, I finally got a new darning foot for my sewing machine. I currently use a Singer 212-2 and I love it. I thought the quilt was pulling too much so I lowered the feed dogs. That didn't help, so I figured it must be the foot. I think something with the tension was messed up after a tiny part fell off. I originally thought it was inconsequential, but I guess it made a difference because now that I have the new foot on, it works incredibly well. In fact, too well. I have to slow down so my stitches aren't an inch long!

Well, looking forward to a 3-day weekend. Maybe I'll get some more things done. My goal for this week is to get some pictures uploaded here! Wish me luck!

What a Sham!

I had put together a scrappy Irish Chain quilt about a year ago and my brother's girlfriend had offered to have her mom machine quilt it for me. I have tried to take pictures of this quilt but because it's so large, the pictures haven't turned out very well. My husband and I decided to use this new quilt for our bed in the summer since our down comforter can get to be a little much. Of course, I realized that our duvet cover shams didn't really go with the quilt, so I toyed with the idea of making shams. I wasn't sure exactly how to go about it, but I sketched out a plan and the last time I got some free time, I just started sewing. I decided to put the same binding on them that is on the quilt, and I think they turned out well. The only hesitation I had was that they aren't quilted so they have a different look than the quilt. After some reflection, I decided I was too glad that they were finished to really care.

My next time-sensitive project is a play tent for a little girl who's turning one year old soon! It's going to look like a teepee of sorts but with PVC pipe poles and lots of pink and green fabric! I've seen projects like this and have a plan in my head sort of, but I still haven't bought the PVC. We'll see how much work it takes to get it standing.

I took some time to fold and reorganize all my fabric last night. It's not the first time I've done it, but after you dig through and pull stuff out and put stuff back, you'll need to do some re-organizing. It's always an eye-opener. It makes you see how much fabric you have (too much), and cringe at some of the ugly stuff (why why why did I buy that?), and it makes you ready to start new projects! I also saw some fabrics that brought back memories of when I bought it, quilts I'd already made using some of it, etc. and that was nice, too. I really don't spend a lot of money on fabric because I try to get them on sale or better yet clearance, but sometimes the lure of the sale has, I'll admit, bitten me in the butt. A few years ago, the Hancock Fabrics next door went out of business. I was excited about getting their usually pricey fabrics on sale. But they were very stingy in their marking-down process AND they required a 2-yd cut of the really cheap stuff. Boo! For someone who rarely makes large quilts that use more than 2 yards of fabric total, that isn't very useful. I waited them out until they were like $1.99-$2.99 a yard and then bought! I got some good ones to be sure, but I also got some that I'm not sure how I'll use them, if ever. I guess they are destined for backing!

I also don't usually buy, say, all the fabrics from one collection or design series, either. That leaves me hunting for things that will work together when I start a project (or sometimes in the middle of one!). I think it is good for me since it forces me to think through the colors/pattern/contrast issue on my own. It also, no doubt, has lead to buying more fabric. You know...I have this great print! But I need this solid, this stripe, etc. to go with it. So off to the store. But often enough I'll look through my stash and find just the right thing to go with, and it works, and it is great.

All this to say that although I have some guilt about how much fabric I have, sometimes it's worth it because you have exactly what you need without running out to Joann's. Of course, if I needed any sort of justification, I'd more readily point to other blogs and the pictures they have posted of all their sewing rooms. I have very little fabric in comparison. "Of course", (my husband would say) "what's important is what you will/can use before it goes out of style and you won't use it anymore." True. My grandmother had so much fabric after she passed away that was unusable or at least undesirable that we gave a lot to Goodwill. Polyester in a rainbow of colors, an entire bolt of sweater-knit, and fiber-fill for days. She also had 2 freezers of food and a wall of canned items but we won't get into THAT.

My point is? Well, I realize that I need to balance projects I can actually complete with the fabric I allow myself to buy/hold on to. What good are 18 new fabrics if I will only complete 1 project each month for the next year? My inflow has to at least match my outflow for now, I think. I plan on quilting for a long time, but you also have to be realistic about how much you'll be able to complete. Another thing to think about it SCRAPS. This is an area where I'm failing a little bit. I have made several projects using scraps, but they seem to multiply when I look away. I really appreciate any patterns or ideas that utilize scraps, but they seem to hardly make a dent! Oh well. I guess you have to see the big picture. And I can continue using scraps for years and years. I'm not usually a resolution type of person, but maybe I should challenge myself to make 2 scrap projects a year. That would at least keep them at bay. For awhile. :)
What about you? Do you have stash-guilt? Do you limit the new fabrics you buy? How do you use scraps?

Delta Patchwork

I just got some fabric from Delta Patchwork and I'm really excited about it! I saw an ad for them in the American Patchwork & Quilting magazine and went to their website. They have great deals! I got some Moda fabric for $3.99 a yard. Plus, they shipped really quickly (it went out the same day!) and my fabric came wrapped in a cute package with a hand-written note! Wow!
I got a really cute Valentine's panel and some coordinating fabrics that I'm excited about. They have a bunch of their Valentine's-themed stuff on clearance now so go check it out!