Getting There!

So my quilt top is almost finished. I enjoyed doing all of the piecing, and cutting, and even the seam ripping...but I did not like sewing on the sashing! It was very precise work, and I think I might have cut some of the strips a little crooked.

It turned out ok. Most of the blocks line up nicely, some are a little off, though you might not notice if you don't look for it.

I still have to put the borders on. But it is so cool to see what it looks like all pieced together!

Don't mind my big toe...

I think I like it!

Block C

Block C was so much fun!

I started working on this block Tuesday evening. I got one finished, and it looked and measured good.

Then, on Wednesday evening I discovered chain-piecing, and finished the other 5! Boy what a difference chain piecing makes.

Here are the blocks.

I think the orange and brown one is my favourite (top row in the middle), though I also really like the bottom left one.

On to block D...

I Did It!

I actually started to cut my fabric!

I was quite worried about cutting into my fabric. For months I have just been staring at the pretty pile of fat quarters, and now I finally found a project that sounds great for these prints. Of course I have yet to see if it will really look good, and not just overly busy...

I cut all of the block-pieces. I still have to find some backing fabric, and figure out what to use for the sashing.

I started sewing Block A. It went well, until I got to the 'squaring my blocks' part. I have a new sewing machine with a 1/4 " foot, and I am not used to it yet. My seam allowance was a bit larger than 1/4" so my blocks turned out to small

I took my seam ripper to all 6 blocks, and re-did them with the proper seam allowance.

I did Block B as well, and some of these turned out just a tiny bit to small as well. I really have to watch this. And work on getting used to a different foot.

But I am having fun, and I am not expecting a perfect quilt out of it!

Mending...me?!?!

I am not usually one to fix things. Often I intend to fix what is broken...someday.

'Someday' usually doesn't happen.

But now it is Mending Week at Making More With Less, and I really wanted to make more with less too!

It has been about a year since I made my very first attempt at quilting something. I made a little potholder, and I had so much fun doing it! Until I came to the binding part.

The tutorial that I used, told me to have a separate piece of binding for each side of the quilt (in this case my potholder). And then I had to do the stitch in the ditch method on the front, and by doing that, attach the binding on the back.

It was the most frustrating thing ever. So frustrating that eventually I zipped through the ditch, and ended up with this:

And threw it in a bag in a closet. I was pretty ticked off that I couldn't do it.

But since then, I have learned to do binding the better/easier way from this tutorial.

It was fun, easy and relaxing. Especially the hand stitching.

No more stitch in the ditch for me...

Sooo...in honour of Mending Week, I pulled out the potholder and ripped off the binding (which was an awful job. The stitching was so tight, it took me a couple of hours, yes, hours, to get it off!)

I re-did the binding, and in the process also put a little loop on one of the corners, so it can hang.

Now, I don't just have something that was fun to fix and looks way better, but I also have a present for someone. I needed a small gift for someone, and I wanted it to be homemade.

Tadaaaa...I think I might love mending!

The Quilting Bug

So...I think I officially caught it.

The quilting bug. I already had a thing for fabric. Mostly modern, coordinating fat quarters, but almost anything will get me going!

I finished my little 'try-out-quilt' which I made for my son to match his name pillow, and I can't think about anything else but making another quilt!

Here is my son, enjoying his new 'blankie'. I'm thinking maybe I should make him a bigger one someday!

Soooo...I had this big stash of Moda fabrics sitting around for a long time (the Arcadia line) and finally found a project for them!

These are my fat quarters:

And I need 12 of these to make this quilt. The quilt-along is long done, but that just means that I can find a lot of inspiration here!

I picked out my fabrics:

I hope to start my cutting before the end of the week. But...I do have some knitting and crochet projects that I haven't entirely forgotten about!

Double the excitement!

I LOVE buying fabric online. I find that I get the excitement of buying something new not once, but twice!

Initially I am so excited that I bought fabric, and the anticipation of receiving it is so fun!

Then when it finally comes in the mail (LIKE TODAY!!) I get excited all over again.

This is what I received in the mail today:

6 Fat Quarters by Patty Young. The hummingbird one is definitely my favourite and I think I am not so excited about the auqa and red stripe.

In the same pack I also got this:

7 Make Life Fat Quarters by Sweetwater for Moda. I thought when I bought it that the little star fabric was actually a polkadot fabric, but I really do like the stars!

Another thing that is nice about receiving fabric in the mail, is that all of a sudden very unexpectedly it becomes laundry day! I am getting a TON of laundry done today, thanks to this, and my impatience to get my fabric washed.

I am off to put another load in!

1,2,3...

So I have 3 projects I am currently working on.

I am doing a knitting, crochet and a sewing project, so I can swap projects when I feel like doing something different. It works, because I am doing something different without feeling guilty!
This is my knitting project. I am knitting this little shirt using Bernat Cot'n Corn. It consists of 67% cotton and 33% corn. It is nice and soft, but horribly, horribly splitty. I am not enjoying working with this at all. But I. Will. Finish.

Here is a picture of the horrible splitting that is happening. I will just finish this project, and if I like the look and fit of the shirt I will probably buy some nice yarn and make a nice looking version.

This is my crochet project. It is almost finished, but has been sitting around almost finished for quite a while now. I need to do 2 more colours, and then do the edging. It should take me a couple evenings (if the kids are good) and then it will be done.

And last, my first attempt at a quilt. This is the top all pieced together and the backing fabric laying on top. The name pillow is made with the same fabrics, and the pillow and blanket are supposed to go together.

I ended up layering the quilt (with help of a friend who knows far, far more about quilting than I will ever know...) and quilting it. The quilting part wasn't that great. It was fun to do, but as expected, the squares started to fold over a little bit at the end. I will have to post a picture soon of what it looks like. Lucas already loves it despite the imperfections, so I will just end up finishing it the way it is. It is just waiting for the binding now, with which I will need help (or at least instruction) as well.

Now that this is nicely documented, I will actually have to get up and finish it all!