From Fall to Spring...

Isn't it funny how we just sort of skipped winter this year in the South?  I barely had time to transition through my winter crafting phase (knitting and crocheting) before I started getting the urge to begin my spring and summer craft projects.  I always prefer to knit warm, textured things when it's cold and sew with smooth, cool, fresh fabrics when it's hot.  

I've been wanting to try hand quilting for the longest time, so on the last day of Spring Break I pulled an ancient work-in-progress out of the depths of my closet and finally got up the courage to start.

I decided to keep it as simple as possible, so I'm outlining the lover's 'knots' and the setting triangles.  

My stitches aren't completely even, and they're certainly not tiny, but for a first try I'm pretty happy with it!

I also put the final stitches in the blue Churn Dash block and decided on a setting for them.  I really like them on point, and I picked up some white muslin for the setting squares the other day, so hopefully I'll start putting the quilt top together soon!

Spring Fever...

has been translating into craft fever for me here lately.  So instead of doing some other (arguably more important) things over my Spring Break, I broke out the embroidery floss and sewing machine!  It had been SO LONG, I almost choked on the dust.

But, I'm now one step closer to being done with this...

and I finished these!  (A while back actually, but they never made it into a post.)

I was just dying to embroider SOMETHING, so I dug out some scraps and (inspired by this), 

started on this!

If I actually finish it, it should make a nice doll quilt for E.  That way when I send baby brother's quilt, she'll have a little something too.  :)

Finished Project!

I've finally finished a project!  And sure, it's the smallest project I had going, but still!  Finished!  I recently decided that I should give knitting another shot, and with the help of creativeyarn, and a few online videos that I linked to in this post, I was able to make...

...these!  

And yes, I did make a matching set, but the other hand was occupied holding the iphone. :)

Now to give  you an idea of the scope of as yet unfinished objects that I really will have to attend to eventually...

This afghan wannabe, which I really despair of ever being interested enough in to finish.

Blocks for this baby girl quilt, I fell in love with the fabrics and just had to make it.  I lack only three blocks (they're not all pictured below) to be able to put the top together.  

This pink bear is here to represent its brethren, yellow bear and blue bear, who have not yet been born.

And I haven't even finished cutting out pieces for my friend's wedding quilt!  Yikes!

Not to mention the almost finished baby quilt for my nephew, E.  I'm so close though!  It only lacks a binding!

And this quilt top, pieced by the grandmother of one of my mother's friends.  It's so gorgeous, but I can't quite figure out how I'm going to make the setting pieces without a template.  Suggestions welcome.

Phew!  I'd better get to work!

Decisions, decisions...

I've got an abstract to write and five articles to read by tomorrow, so of course...

I'm sewing and listening to Taylor Swift's new CD Speak Now!!!

Don't judge.  You wish you were too.  :)

But I've encountered a dilemma.  (Do you encounter a dilemma?  Experience a dilemma?  Hit your head against a dilemma as you try to run from it?)

I need to choose between one of three layouts for this baby quilt.  

A)  The layout of the original pattern

B)  Some solid blocks intermingled

C)  Different solid blocks intermingled, but I think the pattern isn't random enough?

Which one do you like best???

My first doll quilt...

And it's probably the first of many.  So fun and quick to make!  

It took exactly one jelly roll strip to bind a 9x9 in doll quilt.  How handy.  :)

I've never tried pinning down the binding before as I sew it down by hand, but I did this time and I was amazed at how much easier it was!  Usually my hands ache after sewing down the binding, but I'm typing away and they're fine.  :)

There are the most amazing doll quilt swaps on flickr, so inspirational!  Maybe one day I'll feel skilled enough to join in.  :)

Squiggles!!!

I had a nice, lazy day today, but somewhere in the middle of it I started feeling a little productive.  I don't really know how it happened, but suddenly I was motivated to finish that dratted piano key border on nephew's baby quilt.  So... I did!  

Not only that, but I kept going and prepared the batting and backing...

and then I quilted that sucker!!!  That's the great thing about baby quilts, once you sit down to do it, everything goes so quickly!

I was very brave and tried some free motion quilting.  It's not perfect, but hopefully I'll keep improving.  :)

To combat imperfection, I decided to quilt some "purposefully" imperfect squiggles down the seams and in the borders.  I kind of like it!!!

And since nephew gets a quilt, I think niece should too.  :)  And if I can find the time to put a binding on this mini quilt, she'll have an almost matching one for her Barbie dolls.  :)

Time to go continue being lazy.  :)

Quilt Update

I finally pieced Everett's quilt top together!  Now I just have to add the borders (and do everything else, lol).  

Hot Pink Dreams

I rebelled against the readings last night and got creative. :)  It's been so long since I've been able to sew anything that I decided to make a spur of the moment mini-quilt.  I've wanted to try making a doll quilt for a while now, so I hauled out a few sewing supplies and got started.  

I paper pieced each of the blocks (found the pattern online for free) and used up scraps from a bright, fun kids quilt that I made a year or two ago.  

I was so happy with it, right up until I decided that I didn't want to get out the other (heavier) sewing machine to quilt it and decided to try zipping a few lines of quilting over the top with the regular quarter inch foot.  Quilt in haste, repent at leisure.  It was so sad.  My pretty, brightly colored blocks are now a bit wonky and crooked looking.  If I were a better, more conscientious craftswoman I would pick out every single stitch and redo it until it was perfect!  No crooked, sad little project would leave my workstation, no way!  

Alas, I am not that craftswoman.  So instead, I'll send it to someone that I know will love it, crooked, misbegotten seams and all.  

I'll whip on a binding and send it to E (since she was so appreciative of her teddy bear, sweet girl!) and she can use it for a little doll (or bear) quilt.  

In other news, some guy came around my apartment trying to sell magazine prescriptions this afternoon, and while I'm sure he truly was a hard working student with dreams of traveling to Italy, I was cold of heart enough to turn him down.  I dislike being disturbed in my fortress of solitude.  

Lone Star Dreams

A few days, okay... weeks, OKAY... months! ago one of my mom's friends sent me an unfinished, hand-pieced quilt top that her mother began a long time ago and never finished. She has several of her mother's quilts and would love to be able to use this quilt top as well, so she asked me to finish it for her. It's a gorgeous, scrappy Lone Star.

Problem: I don't know how to find the measurements for the setting pieces. 


I posted a question to my favorite forum Quilting Board and received so many helpful answers from fellow quilters!  One member even offered to send me a sample block to see if it fit my Lone Star!  I've been "lurking" on the site for several months, but I feel so encouraged by the response that I received that I plan to keep asking questions, and maybe even answer some when I feel that I can help.  


I think I know what you're saying...


"Don't give anyone your name/location/personal information!!!"  That's what my mom would say.  :)  Which leads me to my next point/soapbox...


As a future English teacher, one of my main goals for the classroom is to teach students to communicate more effectively using up-to-date technology.  I feel that it is far more important to give students access to things like online forums and social networks and show them how to use them responsibly and safely than it is to block them entirely.  If they're cut off from these forms of communication, they'll never learn to use them effectively and to navigate the world we live in today.  


That being said, no Mom, I will not give out my name/location/personal information.  :)

Baby Blues...

I'm so excited about traveling to Arizona in a few weeks to see Mere, Matt, and Erin, and to meet Everett!  I've been working on his baby quilt lately, here are a few pictures of the work-in-progress.

Below is a picture of the pattern and fabric that I'm using (I pulled all of the fabric from my scraps and stash, I was so excited!)

And here are a few shots of my work-in-progress:

A few of my pieces laid out on Momo's sewing machine (yes, it will always be "Momo's," I'm just borrowing it :)

Starting from the left, the strips turn into the triangles turn into the blocks.

I love the blues and whites...

Hopefully I'll have a picture of the completed quilt top for you soon!

New Quilt :)