Posts filed under 'Crafts'
As promised (although maybe a little late) ’sliced’ the quilt is finished. I just love a finished product
I really enjoyed putting this quilt together. I did not particularly enjoy quilting this big of a quilt. It is approximately 96″ x 76″. It was a monster to man handle in the sewing machine.
It is also a little shorter width than I was hoping for. I paired it with a random top sheet that i had laying around with no fitted sheet. i hated to see a good sheet go to waste so i put it on the back of this quilt. it feels soft. but it was harder to quilt because it was a tighter weave.
Close up of binding.
close up of quilting. i did a meandering random pattern. It is fairly easy to do and it looks and feels good.
For my next quilt, i am trying this one:
Over at my local fabric shop this years block of the month program is completing this Civil War Tribute Quilt. I saw it in their newletter and then I thought I would drop in for a peak to see if I was interested in doing it.
They had one on display that was absolutely beautiful. so I decided i would try it. So this one is done just a little bit at a time throughout the year. so don’t expect it to be completed for quite some time. Also, it is going to be a monster: something like 112″x100″ when complete. I don’t know about quilting this one myself. Quilting is very hard work and rough on the hand, wrist and arm muscles.
February 18th, 2010
I am collecting quite a stash of fabric. Which loosely translates to: I have mass amounts of money tied up into something that is collecting dust.
So for my sisters birthday I decided to make her a bag. I downloaded a free pattern and rummaged through my collection of fabric and came up with this:
This is the first ever, Kristi Bag.
I really did not like this one very much. It did not turn out so well. Not good enough for a gift anyway. So I gave this one to Carley to play with. Which I immediately took back from her and began using myself. I don’t mind poor sewing quality.
But I made a second one:
It even has pockets for doodads and such.
Here is close up of the fabric to show the texture.
I showed it to a friend/fellow converted sewing-quilting enthusiast at work and she loved it. I may try to whip one out for her soon.
Let me tell you that I am really close to “Sliced-the quilt” being done. Keep you fingers crossed but I may produce finished product this weekend.
Also, I am in the mood for trying to make Carley some clothes. I am looking for free simple little girl dress patterns for her this spring. I really want to try and use up my stash as much as possible. I also want to try smocking…..must go to library soon for reference material.
February 12th, 2010
I thought I would give you sneak peak at the current quilt I have in the works for my bed:
There is a story to the naming of the quilt.
While I was making this quilt, Carley decided she needed to cut some fabric with my rotary cutter. For anyone who may not know what a rotary cutter, it is basically a razor blade on a stick used for cutting fabric in very straight lines.
Well, she sliced open her index finger on her left hand. We had to make a four hour trip to the emergency room for some stitches.
So in memory of Carley trying to use the rotary tool (And to mama’s who fail to close them like they should and then walk away) I named this quilt “SLICED”.
December 21st, 2009
Since the weather has just turned a bitter cold and going outside to play is out of the question, I decided to fire up the sewing machine.
I rummaged through my stash of fabric and found this Winnie the Pooh fabric.
There was not very much of this fabric. Just enough to make a cute cover for the sewing machine and a few scraps to add to a baby quilt in the future.
I lined it with white muslin fabric and found the white ribbon in Carley’s drawer. I know she does not have enough hair to use it yet and I can get her more ribbon later. I will give myself a 7 on this cover. It could be better, but still good enough to work. Next time I may try to a make a pattern first instead of just winging it.
OH and that fabric you see behing the machine in the first picture is my next quilt. It is coming along smoothly and the top should be finished by this weekend. So come back soon to see the latest creation from “my little corner of the world.”
December 7th, 2009
I got some new cookbooks that I wanted to share because they look really good.
On a recommendation from a friend and with a gift card from my sister, I got these books recently. I am very excited and I can not wait to enjoy some yummy goodness from each of them.
I also decided that I really like what I have written in this blog and the photos that I have taken. I like to go back over the years and remember what we have done and how much the kids have grown. So I decided to put the blog into a more paper form.
so for eash year, I took each blog post, put it on a page, stuffed it in a page protector and put it in a three ring binder.
As you can see from each post I reduced the pictures but you can still read each post like a page from a diary.
so when the time comes that i don’t want to keep this thing going–I will still have the written form available. I will be able to enjoy this for years and years to come.
November 24th, 2009
I just love it when i discover something new about one of my friends. I have a good friend in Ft. Worth who loves to sew and quilt. I have known her how many years and I just discovered this about her! She graciously cleaned out her fabric closet and tossed me some scraps.
Well, a little more than scraps. An entire garbage bag full of peices of fabric. The fabric was delicously wonderful. As I have spoken here before, quilting is not a cheap hobby and I can not thank her enough for supplying my fabric addiction.
so I took her scraps and combined it with some other fabric and came up with this:
This is the bears quilt.
I used this bears print fabric and fussy cut the bears out for these blocks. I really liked how the bears turned out. I think it really pulls the quilt together.
here is the peiced border. I just love how a peiced border looks and it makes a quilt so much fun.
and here is the back side. I did an all over “meandering” quilting technique.
Here is the whole thing again.
So, to the recipient of this quilt– I hope you enjoy it.
October 5th, 2009
As promised I finished the Cats Quilt.
I am still trying to figure out how to photograph and entire quilt. It is very difficult to get it into full screen and look good. This quilt measures approximately 58″ X 72″. It completely covers the top of queen size bed.
Here is a close up of the border and binding. I really like the binding/sashing fabric. I think it really makes the quilt stand out.
here is a bit of the backing. I just could not find a fabric that I was crazy about for the backing. I searched every fabric store in Midland and came up with nada. So I just went with white muslin.
This picture is suppose to highlight the quilting. i chose an all over random motion quilting. I quilted this thing in about 4 hours. Not too bad for my first try and machine free motion quilting.
I hope you liked the cats quilt because there are many more to come. I have another quilt in progress right now! it is a total scrap quilt. It will also be large enough for the bed. Once I am done with that, who knows what I might think of next.
April 17th, 2009
I am just so pleased with my latest quilt project and it is coming together nicely. Since I am so excited by this quilt, I have been burning the midnight oil to get it complete. Here are the lastest additions:
This is ‘Sister Choice’. I like this one alot and I really like how I placed that cute mouse right in the middle.
This block is called ‘twisted’ and it is paper pieced. I really like this block. It was very time consuming but it was a really cute pattern.
Flying geese. I have in my head a great idea for a large quilt of flying geese. I am currently rethinking that project because it is more difficult than it looks. My geese did not come out very well. This is not one of the better blocks and I had to redo it several times to get it like this.
This block is called ‘card trick’ This was an easy block and it turned out very nicely.
This block is “Grandmothers Fan” another really difficult block. I don’t like curves. I think I will stick with blocks and triangles for now. You can also see on this block the cornerstones and sashing that I have added. Here is the top put together with the border attached:
I am officially naming this quilt “Cats” Here is the layout of the entire quilt top. I have it on the floor and I am getting ready to pin the thing together for quilting. I will tell you that as of writing this post, I have already quilted it and should be done with the binding in a day or so.
I will be back soon with a finished ‘Cats’ quilt.
Have a happy Easter.
April 11th, 2009
More quilting going on this week. This quilt is coming together nicely.
This is my first try at paper piecing out side of the class room. Paper piecing is not too difficult but boy is it time consuming. It took me over an hour for one 12×12 block. I could not imaging paper piecing an entire quilt. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I will.
This is my second try at paper piecing. This is called ‘New York Beauty.’ I think it tuned out nicely.
And check out those points. Very nice if I do say so myself– which I do by the way. I only say that because I had to take this one apart and start all over because of a major flaw. and don’t be fooled, those circular parts are hard! The pointy orange spikes are easy– its the rest of the block that is hard. I will have to say this is the hardest one I have put together so far. This just confirms that paper piecing is not for me.
Check out my ‘La Moyne Star’. I will have to say it was pretty easy. Although, I thought it was going to be much harder. But my instructor gave me one on one training today for this block and she showed me all the tricks of the trade. Although my points did not quite come together in the center. I will let it slide this time.
I have 5 more blocks to put together before next tuesday and decide how I want it to lay out. The following week I will add the sashing and border and I will have a complete quilt top.
The next thing will be to quilt the darn thing.
I think I need a second job to support my fabric habit. Maybe I should put up and ad that reads “will work for fabric”
March 31st, 2009
The second week of quilting class was quite enjoyable. I completed two blocks and a bit of the cornerstones and sashing.
This is the Ohio Star. Nice name and easy pattern. I thought triangles were going to be sooo difficult. Boy was I wrong.
I forget the exact name of this block but it turned out really nice and it was fairly easy to piece together.
Here is sneak peak at the sashing and the cornerstones. I have to complete many of these parts and it is fairly tedious and time consuming. so we are getting an early start on that. It is suppose to be an amish sampler quilt when I am done. I almost can not wait to complete this great blanket.
Next week more blocks and paper piecing….
March 12th, 2009
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