Quilt Progress

Yesterday I went to the Sewing machine store to buy a new walking foot ... turns out that my walking foot is just fine.  So I took my sewing machine in for a service (but not before I finished my hope valley quilt top)!  Looking forward to having this quilt finished ... I have the backing and batting purchased but this project is going to go on the back burner while I work on a new commissioned quilt.  

Quilt Process

I finally finished making my nine patches (36 in all).  I had planned to add an extra row to the length but I ran out of fabric squares so I decided to be happy with a square queen sized quilt.  I'm really happy with how this quilt is coming together.  The last patchwork quilt I made, I sewed the rows together (one patch at a time) - I like the method I'm using this time much better.  I have also been sewing the nine patch blocks together in another larger nine patch (which becomes a quarter of the quilt).  I think this will be my "MO" for other patchwork quilts is the future.  Pictures here show how I planned out the smaller patchwork squares to look "randomly" placed.  I used tape markers for to help me remember the order to sew them.  I now have half of the quilt all sewn together! Woo hoo!

WIP Wednesday

I have had a very productive quilting week! I finally got up the gumption (is that a word) to try spray adhesive to sandwich my quilt - and I am a convert. It's quick, easy and effective! Not one wrinkly seam and no slipping - I didn't have to rip out a single stitch!!!!! The only drawback is the cost ... but I think it is absolutely worth it for the results! Because that went so well I just powered through the quilting and the binding in less than a week! I choose a turquoise binding from my stash - my plan had been to use the scraps from my quilt but there wasn't enough, I had also thought of using another orange from my stash but I'm happy with the turquoise. It's now time to go buy sheets and a mattress cover and get Josh sleeping in his big boy bed!





On with the rest of my WIP:

Quilting:
- all my projects are finished -- which means that I have a little time to get my machine serviced. It is clicking and clacking and needs some love. So off to the sewing machine hospital it goes today -- I will miss you!
- while the sewing machine is away I have time to decide what my next project will be ... I want to make some little quilts for some babys that are going to be coming into our lives (a new cousin for my kids, and a new friend), I want to do the urban lattice quilt along, and I actually want to make another quilt for my master bedroom (even though I'm really really happy with the orange and pink one!)

Scrapbooking:
1. Joshua baby book
2. Romance mini
3. 2010 Daily December
4. One Little Word Course project. Still thinking about the June prompt
(With my sewing machine gone, this might also be a good week to clean up this list =).

Blog books: (no work done this week)
1. 2007
2. 2008
3. 2009
4. 2010
5. 2011

Photo books: (no work done this week)
1. from 2010

This week's stats:
1. New Projects:0
2. Completed Projects: 1
3. Abandoned projects: 0
4. Currently in Progress: 10

Craftyness

I haven't been doing anything crafty for a long time now. I've really been focusing on my house and getting back into the flylady groove. Although right now you can't tell - it looks like a bomb went off in my living room, I have started noticing a few very nice changes in our home. Clean bathrooms, a tidy house when I go to bed etc. It's good. We are also working on potty training Josh right now - actually he's mostly the one working on it - I'm encouraging and handing out stickers and keeping the bathroom clean.

So, craftyness has been on the back burner for awhile, and I miss it! I really need to baste and quilt Josh's Lizzy House quilt so that we can move him into a big boy bed soon! It's all ironed and ready for the inspiration to strike! I also have a patchwork quilt I want to make out of my Hope Valley fabric, and I want to get going on an Urban Lattice Quilt. I really like Lee's version over at Freshly Pieced.

What I'm up to today...

In list form :)

1. Parenting. Working on getting my kids to sleep. Really looking forward to having an evening all to myself (and to share with the love of my life).
2. Playing with technology ... my iPhone and now I found this new site called Pinterest. So darn addicting.




3. Quilting. I finished making the back of my Lizzy House quilt yesterday and started quilting my Masterbedroom quilt. I think it's interesting that it takes me a long time to start stuff - (like quilting this quilt) when I'm a little intimidated by it, and then when I start, it's really just fine. Maybe, that's a thought for all of life.

Some progress ... and thoughts on process

I've got a pretty good start on my patchwork quilt. I'm making it with some of my stash fabric - Lizzy House Red Letter Day. This quilt will be for my son Joshua's big boy bed - he is still in his firetruck toddler bed and I think making a quilt is a good way for him to get excited about the transition. Today I want to talk about how I make quilts.

1. Look for inspiration. I do this a lot ... I like to look at flickr, quilting books, and magazines (but I look at flickr most - daily)
2. Decide on the design. This can be agonizing ...
3. Decide on the fabric - either find it in my stash OR buy it (usually online at Fabricworm or Hawthorne Threads or my local fabric store)
4. Cut it out. This is the scary part because once I've done this, I'm COMMITTED!
5. Start sewing the quilt together.
6. Decide on the quilt back design (#2, 3, 4, and 5)
7. Sandwich the quilt (I baste it using pins but I may try using spray adhesive - Film in the Fridge has a great tutorial here)
8. Quilt it on my machine (more decisions - free motion or straight lines, if straight lines how - wonky straight, random angles, echo quilting ...)
9. Binding - cut, machine sew the front, hand sew the back
10. Wash and enjoy!

I'm in the #5 stage right now for my quilt. I really enjoy this stage ... it's fun to see how the design I worked out in my head is working - sometimes it does, and sometimes there is a whole lot of seam ripping and starting over. I decided instead of sewing the blocks together one by one to do a nine patch random formation. I think it's helping keep the shape of the quilt and also helping me with keeping the patchwork looking random. I like it so far, and so does Josh (although he did tell me it's too wide and not long enough). Off to make some popcorn for my boys and work a little more on this quilt.

I like patchwork!

All quilts made by these amazing quilters (found on flickr):
1. custom baby quilt., 2. Hope Valley Patchwork Squares, 3. Lotus Patchwork Quilt - finished, 4. Sample Block for Joy Circle January do.Good Stitches, 5. "Huckleberry" Modern Baby Quilt, 6. Baby Quilt, 7. One Little Monkey 2, 8. squares!: piecing done, 9. Baby quilt


I will admit that since I got an iphone for Christmas I look at quilts A LOT on my flickr app. And I've been adding a lot of quilts to my favorites list lately! I like a variety of quilts, but I've noticed lately that I'm drawn to square patchwork quilts. So today I started one.

I've been really wanting to buy the entire Denyse Schmidt collection of fabrics Hope Valley. They are beautiful and I see her fabric pop up in so many lovely quilts these days. But, right now it is just not in my budget to buy any fabric. So, I started thinking about the fabric I have and settled on using up the Lizzy House Red Letter Day collection that I have in my stash. This will be a quilt for my Joshua - he's going to be moving into a big boy bed soon and "needs" a bigger quilt.



Oh, and some exciting, jumping up and down news! I entered into a draw at for a book called Modern Basics by Amy Ellis last week on the Wild Card blog and WON!!!! I'm so excited! Looking forward to reading this one - and trying out some of her ideas!

Creating ...

mug rugs! These seem to be all the rage in the quilting world right now! I made the first one for my wonderful sister in law Allison for her birthday.




This star mug rug is for me =) I have been reading a book by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston called Collaborative Quilting and I wanted to try out making a star.

Purple Quilt Reveal!

This quilt was made with love for my friend Leona. I started it in October using Oh Franson's Crazy 9 patch lattice quilt instructions, inspiration from Urban Patchwork's quilt, and fabric bought from FabricWorm. I'm so thrilled that Leona likes it!




PS. Doesn't it look great on her bed!

WIP Wednesday and an invisible tutorial

It's WIP (Work in Progress) Wednesday! A day to reflect on the crafty work I've done this week ...

1. Quilting:
a) Kaffe Quilt - IS FINISHED! Hooray! Photos to come soon.
b) Purple quilt - I started to quilt this ... and made a lot of puckers so I had to rip out the seam. Tonight I'm planning to add more pins. My friend Shirley suggested I pin the sandwich every 4 inches ... I need to add quite a few =)

2. Scrapbooking:
a) 2009 Daily December - I have the journalling done and the pictures mounted. Next is embellishing and the title page. Really want this done by next week!
b) 2010 Daily December - I have started with a few notes about today and some pictures of the kids. Ideas swirling around in my head about how this year's book is going to look!

This week's stats:
1. New Projects: 0
2. Completed Projects: 1
3. Currently in Progress: 20

Invisible Stitching Tutorial

Thought I would give a little tutorial on how I have made the binding sewing "invisible".

1. I use Elizabeth's instructions at Oh Franson to sew on my binding. She has explained on there how to hand sew as well.
2. I gather my tools:



- a needle, thread (that is similar to the back of the quilt), scissors, and a thimble. I keep them all together in a baby jar (but you could use anything for this) so that I'm not constantly looking for the scissors or the thread etc.

3. I thread the needle with a double thread (the tails of the thread closest to the needle, this helps me to make a neat knot at the end using the "fold" of the thread.



4. I start my stitch just behind the last stitch and run my needle along the inside of the fold of the binding. Then I put an anchor stitch into the backing of the quilt (but not all the way through) and start again.



The trick for me was the running my needle along the inside of the fold of the binding! Hope this helps and made sense!

Another quilt top sneak

I finished my second quilt top on Saturday (thanks Mom for watching the kids so I could sew!). I'm really happy about this because I've met my goal for October ... two quilt tops. My goal for this week is to have them both sandwiched and ready to quilt by next week. I plan to have them both done by November 30. I've had lots of people ask how I do this with three kids. Well, I do it in fits and starts. A minute here, five minutes there (and sometimes if my Mom comes to visit I get to quilt for several hours uninterupted by kids). Another thing is that my house suffers ... the laundry piles up, and it's not as neat as I want.

Crossing another off my list ...

I have finished the baby girl quilt ... this week I'll work on the baby boy quilt (which is going to be the same design so I don't have to agonize over that - just not pink =). I ended up using a freemotion swirl pattern ... so much easier I find than stippling. I also took the feed dogs right out of my sewing machine and then my freemotion foot actually worked (still have to work out the kinks with tension and then with putting the dogs back in so they don't click -- thanks to Matt for fixing that!)

Last night Josh was up off and on from 2 until 7:30 -- which is when I finally gave up on sleeping and just got up with him. I think if Joel hadn't woken up from all the crying we could have had him back to sleep ... but alas . Needless to say, I wasn't able to go to church and I had a BIG nap this afternoon. I really really want my boys to be sleeping so that I get a few nights of sleep in before the baby arrives.

32

Today I am 32 weeks pregnant. WOO HOO! Every day that this baby continues to incubate is a blessing! Believing that he or she will stay in there the full 40 weeks!

I've been working hard on baby quilts ... I decided to make a pink one first. It's gone really quick - I had all the fabric cut on thursday morning and tonight I finished the quilt top. The process goes much more quickly because there is no longer any hesitation for me - in cutting the beautiful fabric, or sewing the beautiful fabric. I spent the most time trying to figure out what I wanted to do ... lots of thinking, some conferring with my wonderful MIL who is great with picking fabrics, and lots of Flickr surfing for inspiration (it's amazing to me how much inspiration is on Flickr for quilting).

A frosty morning ...

Having a wonderful morning with my boys ... and spending time working on my projects. Here is a sneak peak at my next quilt (working on a baby girl quilt).

It is finished!

I finished Joel's quilt this afternoon! I really really like it ... so glad that I spent the time to "fix" it. Next time I need to a better job with the binding. Excited that he get's to snuggle under it tonight (and so is he!)

Gotta start the next project ...

PS, Happy Birthday to the love of my life.

Skating lessons

Yesterday was Joel's first ever skating lessons. He did wear bob skates last winter a couple of times (bob skates have two blades and strap onto boots) but this is the real deal - with a teacher, at an arena, with real skates and a "goalie" helmet. It felt so so familiar to me ... when I was little I took skating lessons too (I went the figure skating route and quit when I was 13 because it was just too cold for me.) Joel's first lesson was how to get up when you fall ... he was so cute and he caught on really quick. By the end of the class he was taking "baby steps" as he called them. I'm sure in the next few weeks he is going to take off! It was fun to be there watching with Daddy and Josh and our Grandmas as well as a friend who's son is taking lessons at the same time.

Today I finished the back of Joel's quilt. I am now ready to put together the quilt sandwich. This is the fun stage ... (okay, it's all fun).

Joel's art and some quilting progress

Joel did some art at playschool on Wednesday! Although he told his teacher that his painting was "a secret" he told me it is a pirate map. He's been carrying it around the house and refering to the map and saying "arghh" these days!

Yesterday I finished the top of Joel's quilt ... it is not at all what I envisioned when I started it. I have ripped out a whole lot of seams and changed the design ... but finally I'm satisfied with the look of it. It'll be a snuggly quilt for Joel (it's not quite long enough to fit on his bed).

What's your opinion?

OR



Not the greatest of pictures (I've laid out the quilt on my bed ...) but it gives me a good idea of what the quilt will look like. I was leaning toward the coin quilt ... but now I think I'll make a smaller quilt with the original design I was inspired to make (from the Old Red Barn quilt along).

Back on track ...

So I decided to rip all the polka dot fabric out of Joel's quilt ... I finished that last week. Today I finished sewing all the long strips back together. This afternoon I hope to work on the layout. I've decided to change the design on this quilt ... it'll be a coin quilt for Joel - probally won't be big enough for his bed but that's okay with me.

Ready to go ...

I got lots done today ... no worries - mostly sitting down jobs that I have been neglecting. Trying not to look out the front window to much, our dear friends (and neighbours) are moving away (like back to Australia ... and I don't want to cry again). I've got Joel's quilt fabric all ready to sew ... so excited about this!