So Many Ideas, So Little Time

I spent over an hour in my sewing room today looking for fabric to make a little quilted bag. It was quite ridiculous the amount of time I spent in there looking through all my fabric. (I really really need to figure out a way to organize all that.) I made my choices and then came up with ideas for a total of four projects. Then there's the UFO (Unfinished Object) from last Christmas....

I am thankful for...
...having a fabric stash
...being a SAHW so I can tackle all those projects
...on-line shopping spree packages beginning to be delivered
...this verse:

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:12

Condensing

Last weekend I started cutting out my next quilt. It's all laid out on my sewing table waiting for me to start putting it together.

Then all of a sudden I got the bug to sort through the bazillion quilting magazines and books that I have accumulated over the years. Now that I have gotten into the quilting groove, I know more about what types of quilts I will make and what methods I prefer to use.

In the picture below there are six magazine holders. I threw out probably the equivalent of five of these full. I ended up with a stack of eight or ten magazines, then went through those and tore out the one or two patterns that I really liked. Those went in a binder. I kept six magazines.

My next task was to sort through all the books that I had. While it felt a little wrong to toss those, at the same time, it felt good to weed those out and get rid of the excess. Like I said, I know what types of quilts I am likely to make, and some of those books did not fall into that category.

Then when I thought I was all done with all the magazines, I discovered another stash of a dozen or so magazines. I sure hope I remember all this the next time I am standing in front of a magazine rack! Good thing there is Pinterest. My quilting board on Pinterest has 244 pins. That doesn't take up near as much room!

As I was thinking about writing this post, I remembered some other condensing I did a while back.

I have always had a goal of making a denim quilt out of old jeans. I raised one little boy. That little boy managed to wear a hole in the knees of his jeans. I would cut off the bottom parts of the jeans and convert them into shorts.

I saved those jean legs:::

These are from jeans my son had when he was about two years old!

I loved the tiny flecks of color in the ones on the left and the boat on the jean on the right were so cute!

So how did I condense? I cut the seams off of those pant legs and cut apart the grown up jeans I had kept over the years as well.

As I was thinking about doing this huge task, I thought about how much my hand would hurt with all the cutting. Then I remembered my mom had some electric scissors she bought at a garage sale back in the 70s, so I asked her if I could borrow them. (Good thing I asked when I did because they were in a pile bound for a garage sale...)

It went a lot faster with those electric scissors!

But soon they got pretty dull, and the motor just quit.

So I bought a new electric scissor. This one worked SO much better.

And no cord to mess with!

After I was all done, I had condensed that pile of jeans my more than half!


Now to figure out more storage for all that fabric I keep buying.... :-/

And to actually make that denim quilt! Someday...someday...

The Race

I have a couple of photos of a quilt I finished last November. I hadn't even photographed it until last week sometime.

But first, a little back story:

I received it back from the Missouri Star Quilt Company the day we left for 10 days over  the week of Thanksgiving. I whipped the binding on it and tossed it in the washing machine and dryer that afternoon. Miraculously, it was all dry about the same time Hubby had our car packed and ready to go. I wanted to take it along to keep warm in the car and I ended up using it while we were at our family reunion. Then we came home and I made two baby quilts and spent a ginormous amount of time preparing the house and a lot of food for Christmas here with the kids.

I guess that's why I hadn't photographed it or blogged about it until today.

Okay, okay enough with the excuses.

Last August while I was watching the Olympics, I worked on a Jelly Roll Race Quilt. (I wrote about it it here.) The method for putting this together is pretty cool. A little quilting lesson here:
A Jelly Roll is a roll of fabric strips cut to 2 1/2 inches wide by the width of fabric which is around 44 inches.

Here's a video tutorial that tells how to make this quilt. It's actually pretty entertaining even if you are not a quilter.

Whew!

Here's what I started with....

It's not the best photo because I took it with my cell phone. Also, what you see is the back of the fabric.

And... the finished product:

I need to add my critical comments here.

Generally, I like the fabric line (Circa 1934 by Moda -- if there are any other fabric nerds out there like me). The colors are great, but for me, not the best prints for this type of quilt. If you look closely at some of the more linear designs...they are not printed on the straight of grain, therefore it is very noticeable on the 2 1/2 inch strip. I know, I know, I'm probably the only one who really notices that. But still. I also should have made that solid cream color border about twice as wide as I did. It would have looked nicer visually. I do like the pieced outer border and the pieced binding.

Before I sent this off to be quilted by the wonderful people at the Missouri Star Quilt Company, I had it pinned up on my design wall and was staring at it and being disappointed in how it turned out. My favorite person came in to my sewing room (Hubby) and I told him all the reasons I didn't like the quilt. Hubby listened and thought a bit and assured me it wasn't as bad as I was thinking. Then he had a suggestion that made it all seem better. He said, "This could be our outside quilt. It would be the quilt we keep in the car in the winter and the quilt we take on picnics." Suddenly I felt better about the whole thing. Silly, I know, but it made a difference.

I did learn some things through the process of making this quilt, so I guess it's not a total loss.

Month of Thankfulness - Day 2

Today was a pretty quiet day. I woke up later than I thought I would and that kind of threw off my morning plans. Nothing big, but I was kind of frustrated by lunch time. But it was all made better since I got to have lunch with my hubby!

This afternoon I ventured into my sewing room to try to get some inspiration for my next quilt project. Nothing came to me, so I worked on a project book. I  photograph the quilts I have made and I have been putting them into a little book so I can keep a record of what I have made. (That's about as close to scrapbooking as I get.) But, for some reason, when had I printed out the photos at a local store, some of them printed so some the edges of the quilts were cut off, like it cropped in the printing process. So tonight I got on to Shutterfly's website and figured out how to make sure the photo wasn't cropped and ordered some prints. Hopefully they will turn out better.


I am thankful for...
...lunch dates with my hubby
...a DVR that (so easily) records TV shows so I can watch them later
...having a whole room for my sewing habit hobby

Table Runners

A few day ago I wrote about spending a lot of time sewing. I have finished a couple of table runners and thought I'd post some photos.

Remember my post about using a  die cutter to cut up some of my stash and how I ended up with this pile of 5" squares?

Here's a table runner I've made from just a small part of that pile: (I made this one for my sister.)

I made just a little label for the back. 

I like how using the same fabric as the backing blends in so well.

I bought a charm pack called Breeze from my one (so far) visit to The Missouri Star Quilt Company. I just love the colors. This is the table runner I made from that: (I made this one for my daughter.)

For both of these table runners I sewed the binding on the back and brought it around to the front and sewed it with a running zig-zag top-stitch. I like the added texture and it's a bit more durable.

It feels good to finish some projects. And yes, I already have the next one laid out and ready to go. :)

Blogging or Sewing...?

I seem to be able to spend my extra time either sewing or blogging. If I emphasize one, the other is neglected. Based on the fact that it's been a week since I blogged, it's safe to say I've been busy with sewing.

But never fear, I have a few post subjects in mind, so I will get back to this.

To make this post a little more interesting, I thought I'd throw in a couple of pictures that were on my phone:::

My sweet hubby brought me some roses a few days ago.  One red one and two yellow ones. This yellow one was particularly pretty, so I snapped a photo. 

 Hubby knows what a sucker I am for yellow roses. I carried them in our wedding.

 Oh gosh, who are those younguns? (and no, this photo wasn't on my phone, it's a bonus)

 

I saw this sign at a store a couple of weeks ago. Made me laugh. Maybe I should get one for my house. I think it's a good sentiment. What do you think???

Good Fortune

I've been having so much fun with making some small quilts. I found a cute pattern to make a little quilt that is used as a car seat cover for babies. I finished my first one! Only I made a boo-boo.... I arranged the blocks wrong and ended up making a square quilt instead of rectangle. Oops.

The fabric line I used is called "Good Fortune". I love the Asian flair it has.

But I love how it turned out anyway. It will be a sweet tummy-time quilt for a sweet baby girl.

I have two more quilt tops finished out of different fabric. (And they are rectangles!!!) I just need to sandwich them and quilt them and bind them. I'll make sure to post pictures when I finish them.

Hi There

Well. That was a long blog break, huh?

I guess I just hit a dry spell there for a while. I find it hard to write on this blog when not much is going on in my life. I have also noticed that when each new season begins and we still live in the same place, is really hard on me. I am so ready to live some where else.

 Enough whining though.

Today's blog-post is brought to you by insomnia. I woke up a bit before 5am. I tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. So about 6:15 I drug myself out of bed, played a little Solitaire on my phone and read my Bible. Then I got rolling on my to-do list. We are having company this weekend, so the list was lengthy. Believe it or not, I finished everything on my list by 1pm. Crazy.  So, because of the insomnia, I have some time to write today. Not that I have been so busy that I haven't had time.  But, well, the point is, I'm writing.

Since the beginning of March, I have been sewing...making quilts. I have finished four receiving blankets and three quilt tops. (!) One quilt top is quilted and waiting for me to finish the binding. When I get that done I will make sure to post a picture. I like how it turned out. :)

A couple of weeks ago, I ran out of thread. Quite tragic when I have to drive 25-50 miles to find some place that sells good quality thread. So one Saturday I talked Hubby into driving 50 miles so we could go out for lunch and I could go to a quilt shop and buy some thread. So exciting, I know. That hubby of mine is a trooper. I just love him.

While we were in that little town, we went looking through a couple of antique stores. We have become very interested in browsing through antique stores. Sometimes we find neat things. Mostly we just look and love finding something that reminds us of a toy we had as a child, or something our grandmothers had in their homes. This is one of the antique stores we stumbled upon:

We have driven by this multiple times as we drove through this town, but have never stopped. I was more interested in looking at the building. I believe it used to be an old gas station. It was quite cool.

Speaking of sewing... (I was...check back a paragraph or two) I made an upgrade in my sewing room. For years I have had this $10 lovely for a chair:

Yeah. I know. Not the most comfortable looking thing. Nor the most comfortable thing to sit in.

A couple of months ago, while visiting my in-laws, my sister-in-law and I went to a quilt shop (a quilt shop I dream about, it was so awesome) and I found a new chair!

This one adjusts all over the place and I absolutely LOVE the red color.

Well, that about wraps up this post. (Now you might understand why I haven't written much.)

Baby Blankets

Over the weekend I worked on a few more baby blankets. I had bought some more flannel to go with some that I had on hand. I am really happy with how they turned out. So soft and pretty! (The purple one on the bottom is the first one I made a few weeks ago.) (Go to this YouTube link to watch a tutorial of how to make these.)

One thing I've like about these, aside from the magic of the border, is being able to choose a decorative stitch for the top-stitching. I think you are able to see on this close-up some of the stitching I used. I even bought some variegated thread (with pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple) to use on these.

Now I just need some babies to wrap up in a cozy blanket. That pink one is so incredibly soft!

Another Quilt Project

I finished off a little quilt kit I bought almost 10 years ago when we had a vacation on Cape Cod. I didn't realize that to construct this little quilt required a method I knew nothing about. There is a method in quilting called paper foundation piecing. It's a great method to use for tiny pieces and sharp points. Here's a link to a video that explains it, if you really want to know. I was thankful to be able find some video tutorials to watch so I could learn how to do this. I learn better by watching something than just reading about it. (I realize that this may be confusing. I just want to document my projects.)

This little quilt is 8" by 8".  Once I got the hang of it, it went together pretty quickly.

Daily Photo Journal -- May 9

Have any of my readers ever had a project they've intended to do, but have put it off because you fear it's more involved than you want?

Well, I have. Several times.

Today's project was to re-stuff some pillows that go with our couch because what was inside just wasn't enough. They sagged. My first plan was to buy pre-made pillow forms. When I was shopping for them, I decided it would be a lot cheaper to make my own pillow forms. So I bought two bags of stuffing and found some fabric in my stash at home that would work for the covers. This afternoon I tackled the job.

Thankfully, there is a zipper on the back of the pillows, so it was easy to get in to. I thought there would be a pillow form inside, but I found that there was a cover with stuffing inside. Just not enough. So I cut off one end, and added stuffing, sewed it back up and stuffed it back in and Poof! It was perfect!

The before is on the left with the improved pillow on the right.

Much, much better. It only took me three years to do a 30 minute job. Sigh.