WIP Wednesday

Well, it's time for another WIP Wednesday, and boy do I have a lot in progress!
First off, I finally finished the top of my husband's manly quilt!  Now I'm scared.  This thing is a MONSTER.  I don't know how I'm ever going to quilt it.  It's so big that I had nowhere to hang it for a good picture, so here's part of it hanging over the railing above the stairs:

I also decided it was high time I finish up my Nestie quilt along quilt.  I had pretty much abandoned it, since my husband decided he wanted this purple quilt.  Then I thought, if I make it a baby-sized quilt, I will be done in no time!  After all, I really love the fabric.  Here's the top, but I have everything ready to go to quilt and bind it already, too:

Last (but certainly not least!) I have four more Bottled Rainbows blocks to share.  May I present to you:

Pumpkin

Tangerine

Raspberry

Petal

I am LOVING these blocks!  It's so relaxing to sit there & sew the little pieces on.   Much as I like the process, though, I can't wait for it to be done!  I'm linking up again this week to Lee's WIP Wednesday.  Go on over & see what everyone else is up to!

Catching Up

Well, just pass me the Worst Blogger of the Year Award!  I can't believe it's been over a month since I have posted.  Oops.  It definitely hasn't been for lack of projects, but it also was crazy busy around here with the end of school.  Now that I've graduated my Kindergarteners I have a little extra time, and I am really looking forward to using it!

I still need to finish my husband's "manly quilt", but the number one project I can't wait to complete is my Bottled Rainbows quilt!  I've finally started, and here are my first two:

Ruby

Mustard

I've also been making a lot of bee blocks.  I have 2 more that need to get done, so maybe when I'm finished with those I'll do a bee block post.  As for this one, I started writing it on Wednesday, but Blogger wouldn't let me upload any pictures!  Grr!  Hopefully that won't happen again soon, and hopefully I'll be a better blogger now that it's summer!

WIP Wednesday

Hi.  I'm still here!  It's been very busy around here, but I have been making stuff!  I realize now that I never posted the top I made (my first garment, woo!), so I will be sure to do that.  I entered it in Made By Rae's spring top contest, but I don't have high hopes.  I am so not a garment sewer!
I've actually been working quite a lot on my husband's quilt.  All of the blocks are finally finished, and I started putting it together over the weekend.

This is what it's looking like so far.  I think I like it, even though it still looks sooooo 80's to me.  My husband likes it though, which is all that matters.  It is going to be a BIG quilt, and I am kind of getting nervous about quilting it on my inferior machine.  So much so, that I am considering pricing out new ones.  Eeek!

In other news, I FINALLY got my order of Kona solids to start my bottled rainbows quilt!  I placed my order two months ago, and have been really super annoyed with how the backorder was handled, but whatever.  Now I can make that delicious quilt!

I'm linking up with Lee today at Freshly Pieced.  Go check out what everyone else has going on this Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday

It's WIP Wednesday!  I'll be linking up again at Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced.

I have a lot "in progress" right now...  The only thing that I actually completed since last Wednesday, is my reusable coffee sleeve.  This is pretty much because we were here for a few days:

This is the nicest picture I was able to get at the beach.  In fact, this was the only day we actually went TO the beach, because the weather was so nasty!

Then I had to go back to work.  After a week off.  Monday was hard. =(  Some progress has been made on the "manly" purple quilt though.

This week I'll be working on more of those gray blocks at the top.  Also on the docket are: colored pencil roll-up for a co-worker's son, hexie-filled birthday present for my dad, and piecing the patchwork part of my crewel pillow (since I did go fabric shopping last week!).  Whew!

WIP Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday!  I actually usually dislike Wednesdays - it's the only day of the week that my class doesn't have a specialist, and since we're in the rainy season now, well, let's just say Wednesdays are looooong.
But I am on Spring Break!  Woo hoo!  I have been sewing a lot this week, too, so I decided to link up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.

After finishing my Pop Garden quilt, my husband asked where HIS quilt was.  Then he proceeded to give me a pretty tall order for what he wanted in a quilt:

1.) No prints.  Seriously, none.

2.) Must include purple.

3.) Be manly.

Hmm... well, I like prints, and I don't think purple really screams "manly".  Crap.  But then I remembered that I saw this really great quilt made entirely of solids over on Julie's blog.  And there was a sale on Kona going on too...  So I really quickly emailed Julie for the yardage requirement, placed my order (he decided he was ok with purple and gray), and now I am knee deep in what I think is a pretty 80's-looking quilt.

I do think it will be pretty cool when it's done though.  I successfully cut out the 588 pieces in one afternoon, still have all of my fingers intact, and have actually finished 31 of the 84 blocks.  Go me!

I also finished a springy Nicey Jane table runner for my dining table (I pieced it a long time ago & finally got around to quilting/binding it).  I don't have a picture yet because it's too darn gloomy in here.  I finally gifted my mom her birthday table runner, as well.  She loved it & sent me this pic right away:

Finally, I made a block for Jodi for April of the Fat Stash Bee.  I feel terrible, because her first round of fabric never got to me.  Either one of my neighbors has it, or it's floating around in postal no man's land...  So I made her this one, but I am going to do an extra or two:

I did it!

I like to take my wedding rings off when I sew.   I just realized I see them here in this picture, haha!

I have conquered the quilt!  My very first quilt is completely done, and has been in use for about 4 days now.  It is rife with imperfection and beginnerness, but I love it nonetheless.  Unfortunately I don't have very good pictures of it because the weather is horrible here, but...  Horrible weather makes perfect curling up under a new quilt weather!

Stats:

Size: throw (I forget the actual dimensions, but it's a big throw)

Fabric: Heather Bailey's Pop Garden and Bijoux, plus Kona white

Quilting:  machine quilted, straight-line 1/4 from the seams, by me

The binding might be my favorite part!  I won't lie - quilting this on my dinky little machine was hard...  But not so hard that I'm not ready to jump right in & make more!

Fat Quarter Friday

One of my local fabric stores has a "fat quarter Friday" sale every week.  Buy 3, get one free.  This week I decided I needed to treat myself to a fat quarter Friday.  I needed some more yellow, orange, and blue for my newest project: the Bottled Rainbows quilt along.  I've been intrigued by this quilt ever since Rachel at Stitched in Color first mentioned it, but I didn't think I had the stash for it.  Darn if she isn't persuasive though!  She kept posting links for scraps and Kona bundles, and pretty soon I could no longer resist.  I can't WAIT until my rainbow gets here so that I can start sewing!

While I'm waiting though, I also have been trying out a new craft!  Crewel!  I've wanted to try this for a while, but I knew I wanted to start with a kit since I didn't know what I was doing.  Most of the kits out there, however, are...  a little grandma-ish.  Sorry grandmas of the world, but that's not my style!  Then I found Tako Fibers on Etsy.  Oh my goodness.  I love everything about her kits.  Super easy instructions, modern designs, and even the packaging is so amazingly adorable.  Love, love, love.  

Check this out:

I think I'm going to turn it into a pillow.  Fantastic, no?

Oh, and I'm also finally quilting my Pop Garden quilt.  Yay!

Just One Star

Yesterday I ran to the post office to mail out Rebecca's block for the Fat Stash Bee, but also this little block here.  It's my contribution to the Just One Star Project.  The people at Moda fabrics are working with the Semper Fi Fund to make 100 quilts in 100 days for soldiers.  All you have to do to help is make one of these star blocks and mail it in to them.  They will gather the blocks, assemble the quilts, and deliver them on Flag Day.  One block?  How easy is that?  I only made one, but I might make more, it was that easy (and enjoyable).  Those words on the block are the sewer's name and home state.  So each soldier that gets one will have a quilt from all over the country.  Cool.

I really enjoyed participating in this project, and I hope to do more things like this in the future.

Buzzzzzzz...

See that little badge on the right over there?  The one that says, "Fat Stash Bee"?  Yep, I joined a bee!  Quilting bees are not just for grandmas anymore.  It turns out there's this whole world of "virtual quilting bees".  A VQB is a group of people that come together, and just like a traditional grandma-bee, each person makes blocks for everybody else.
Typically, a bee has 12 members, and each member is assigned a month.  They send out fabric and directions to the other participants when it's their month, and everyone makes blocks & sends them back.  At the end of a year, every person has a whole quilt, made in part by everyone in the group.  In this bee, we're sending each other a fat quarter when it's our month, and then we get to pull from our stash of fabric.  Hence the name "Fat Stash".
March was our first month, and I just finished my block:

This is Rebecca's month, and she asked for a "neighborhood quilt".  Every person was to use some of her orange fabric to make a block with a house, or other building.  I made her a log cabin.  =)  She's expecting a baby, and mentioned that she wants to use the quilt in the nursery.  How great is it that people all over the world (we have members in Canada & Germany too!) are helping to make something for her baby?

See that crocheted flower in the picture, too?  I crocheted something!  It's been a while since I've crocheted anything.  I first saw this on Angela's blog, Fussy Cut, and have been wanting to make some since.  It's supposed to be a potholder/trivet, but I think it'd make a great scrubber too (it is made of all-cotton yarn).  Tutorial can be found here.  Now I must go and binge on our impulse-purchased Easter candy, and cheer on my Buckeyes (even though I hate basketball).  Go Bucks!

Now for something completely different...

Yes, two posts, back-to-back.  Because this is a total departure from paloozaness.  Anyway, did I mention that I'm doing another quilt along?  I am.  I draw a lot of crafty inspiration from the ladies over on the Nest, which is a sister site of the Knot - a site I used a TON to plan my wedding.  Happy day for me, when I discovered they have a whole board of craftiness for us now-married folk!
One day, one of the girls on there posted a question: did anyone know of any scrappy quilt alongs going on/starting?  Well, I didn't, but I casually suggested that we start our own.  So now we have a Nestie quilt along!  To keep it simple and conducive to using up a bunch of scraps, the person in charge chose a 9-patch pattern.  I don't have enough scraps saved up for a whole quilt, and I was kind of thinking of doing a black & white quilt for our living room.  So I bought more fabric.

Sorry for the horrible lighting.  It's pretty hard to take pictures of anything inside when it's winter in Washington.

I was really loving the fabric I chose, but I wasn't to sure about traditional 9-patch.  I did not want my quilt to look like a checkerboard, and I wanted it to be pretty modern.  So, after a little google image searching, I settled on this type of layout:

Yes, I know, the white squares are kind of cheaters.  Why do all that cutting and matching of seams though, when you don't have to?  So far I am LOVING how this is turning out.  I want something really fun for the backing, and right now this Michael Miller print is a strong contender:

It's called "Prom" and it totally cracks me up.  It is a very dreary day here in the Pacific Northwest, which means I may be able to make some progress on this one.  Or I could baste my Pop Garden quilt top.  It's pretty large though, and I'm scared.  Plus, I don't feel like vacuuming up all of the dog hair so that I have a space to put it...

Enough of my ramblings!  I leave you with some more pictures of my Nestie QAL goodness:

Block-a-palooza 13 & 14

The other day I was showing off block 14 to my husband.  He said, "Aren't you finished with that yet?"  I was able to tell him, I almost am!  Next week is the last week of new blocks, and I can't even believe it.  I'm not sure I'm in love with my fabric choices for number 13.  This whole QAL I've been trying to get my hands on an aqua solid, and none of the fabric stores in my area have any!  So I made do.  I'm really liking 14 though!

Block #13

Block #14:

Paloozin'

I won something!  I'm so excited, I've never won anything before!  At the half-way point of our Block-a-palooza, everyone was invited to post a collage or picture of their blocks #1-8.  Five people who posted were drawn at random to win prizes of fabric.  I was one of the people selected!  I won a layer cake of Charlevoix:

This line of fabric isn't quite my style, but I've already got ideas about making it into a quilt as a gift for a family member.  Exciting!

I've also been hard at work getting caught up on blocks 10, 11, and 12.

Block #10:

That top corner needs a little editing.  I've already ripped it out and resewn, like, six times though, so I'm taking a time-out from this one.

Block #11:

Block #12:

And here they all are together (so far):

There are only four more blocks left (2 weeks), then we start the sashing/assembly process.  Seeing them all together like this makes me pretty excited for the final product!

This and That

I have the plague.  Not really, but I am pretty sure that my body has succumbed to the sickness that the kids have been passing around for weeks at school.  Just in time for Mid-Winter Break.  Awesome.  I was not to be deterred by my 100.04 fever today though!  I finished my first ever 100% complete quilting project!  I can't tell you what it is though, or show the whole thing, since it's a gift.  Here's a sneak peek though:

I also realized that I never posted my Block-a-palooza blocks from this week!  It was kind of a crazy week around here, so I was super thankful that block 7 was a simple one.

Block #7

Block #8

Block 8 required applique... which... terrified me.  It turns out, it's no big deal!  In spite of the extreme traditionalness of this block (which had me thinking I didn't like it), this might be my favorite one so far.  I've already got another applique idea in mind for another project now too.

I've got the whole week ahead of me (as long as I get healthy).  I anticipate a LOT of sewing going on (and maybe even a little crochet, you never know!).

Well, that screwy saga is over...

My sewing machine is basic.  We're talking bottom of the barrel here.  So, of course, when I decided I wanted to make a quilt, one of the first things I realized was that I needed to buy a walking foot for my machine (a walking foot feeds the fabric from the top and the bottom, which makes it really great for sewing things with a lot of layers - like quilts).
So I googled.  My machine was so dinky though, I wasn't even sure I could find a walking foot that was compatible with it.  But I did!  Yay!  Ebay to the rescue!
The day it came in the mailbox, I ran inside, installed it, and started sewing a test scrap.  That was when disaster struck.  The needle fell right out of the machine as soon as I started sewing.  I tried again.  Same thing, only this time I bent the needle & had to get a new one...  um, uh-oh.  Turns out, my foot doesn't really work with my machine after all.  But why?

See that little screw sticking out on the right?  Well, pretend your walking foot has a claw that needs to grab onto it.  Now pretend that screw doesn't stick out at all, but sits right against the black part.  Yeah.  That's what I had going on.  

I went to three sewing machine repair places.  One told me to bring in my machine another day.  One told me to go to the hardware store and tell them I need a screw like mine, only longer.  And one told me I was screwed (pun intended) and had to buy a new sewing machine.

Well...  I wasn't really taking any of those things for an answer.  I went to the hardware store.  Actually, I went to a store that was just for screws.  Really, it was called "Tacoma Screw".  And the good people there screwed me for free gave me the screws for free!  But that didn't work either.  The needle still fell out.  However, with the powers of the Nest and Ebay combined, I found that brassy beauty you see above!  A "spring loaded" needle clamp screw.  It cost $8.  Seriously.  The other screws were free, but this one cost EIGHT dollars.  

It was worth it.  I can quilt things now.  Things with many layers.  Things that need a walking foot.  I am no longer screwed, woohoo.

On another note, see what I have going on in that picture up there?  Applique!  I just learned how!  I thought it was really scary, but it turns out it's actually easy.  Although, I just realized while looking at that picture that I have a straight-stitch foot on still, even though I was using a zigzag stitch... big no no...  um, oops.  I think I got lucky that I didn't break any needles...

Weekend Sewing

Whew!  My sewing machine has gotten a lot of use already this weekend!  And it got a good de-linting under the needle plate... whoops, there was an embarrassing amount...
Anyway, I present to you Block-a-palooza blocks five & six:

Block #5

Block #6

These blocks were a little more challenging, with a lot of piecing & points to match up.  They aren't perfect, but I like them (especially six!).  Starting block six was hugely difficult - I could not make a decision on fabric.  I knew I wanted a red-heavy block, but I could not make my fabric play nice.  So... I may have paid a visit to my local quilt shop...  Whatever, I really like it now!

In non-quilty news, my friend Sara has been asking me to teach her to crochet.  This weekend we were finally able to meet up for it, and it was a blast!  I have never taught anyone before, but she's home now practicing her single crochet.  She'll be a pro in no time.  I thought that Sara would need a pretty new roll-up case to hold her new hooks, so I whipped one up for her.

Here it is all rolled up:

The inside:

It was fun to make, super practical (I love the needle pocket), and Sara liked it!  I made it mostly following the pattern here, with a few changes, like omitting interfacing (I didn't have enough, and it was fine without).  I kind of want to make one for me now, even though I have a crocheted one as a WIP right now.  Hmm...

Block-a-palooza 3 & 4

I've got a lot of WIPs going right now.  Unfortunately, right after I took pictures of the new blocks, my camera battery died.  So the rest of them will have to be in another post.
Anyway, Block-a-palooza quilt.  I'm not sure if I am really liking this quilt so far, or really not.  At all.  I may end up re-doing some blocks (cough cough block 3 cough).  Or, maybe not.

Block #3

I am super, super annoyed that even though I followed the directions explicitly, all of my geese have their noses chopped off!

Block #4

All four so far (sorry for the horrible lighting, it's a really gray day here in WA):

Quilting is Addictive

Ok, so, I know I haven't actually quilted my first quilt, but I may have started another one...  Ok, I did start another one.  Why?  I stumbled upon this:

It's from a blog called Quilt Dad.  Seriously.  A dad who quilts.  I know, it's pretty awesome.  Anyway, when I made the white afghan for my mom, I did it by following a crochet along.  It was a good way for me to remember how to crochet (it had been a while) and learn some new skills.  I think this QAL will teach me a lot.  Each week, 2 bloggers post a block with VERY detailed instructions.  I can handle that! So without further ado, here are blocks one and two:

Block #1

Block #2

Obviously there is a lot more going on in this quilt than my last one already!  I can't wait to see what next week's blocks are!