UM Quilt updates

I've officially started the blocking on the UM quilt for my brother.

So far I like the way its coming out, and I think it will really look nice once I get the "balancing strips" added to each block (ie. the bottom right square will have a thinner green strip on the outside, and the upper left square will have a thicker green strip...).

I'm also really liking the colors on this quilt (and not just because I bleed orange and green myself)!!! Working with such bright colors on such a large scale (think the entire quilt) is something I haven't done before, and I have to say it makes everything much more cheerful:)

Now to just get this sucker finished in less than three weeks... I'm already horribly behind on my Christmas schedule.

A tote for quilts

Whew, I finished my second tote.

Sadly its not as good as the first one I made (although I'm not exactly sure how I lost skills...), but its good enough for holding a quilt which is more or less what it was intended to do!!

This also makes one entire Christmas present that can now be wrapped and placed under the tree. As soon as I get a tree...

bad days mean good sewing...

It seems that the worse my day is the more productive I am with sewing... I guess in the same way that I love to clean when I'm mad because I get out all my frustration on the dirt, the repetitive nature of sewing stops all the thinking. If that makes sense. And while sucky days suck, I'll definitely take the productiveness!!

Tonight I managed to finish the last of the HR squares and bind the KND quilt (thus making it 100% completely done now... and let me just say that using decorative machine stitches make binding not only easier, but also looks as if I almost know what I'm doing!!).

And at the end of the day its all relative.

Handy Dandy Grocery Bag (or other type of bag depending on your personal preferences)...

I made a tote bag!! After I spent a few hours trying to decipher the tutorial (picture fail) and then cutting out the pieces (sometimes twice, I'll admit), it was pretty fast going. Of course it still took me about 3-4 hours, but now that I know what I'm doing I feel confident I could make another one in an hour (or at least in under two hours).

The sewing itself is pretty minimal, and I love that the bag is reversible (half the time to sew??)! I had originally wanted to make the bag fold up and sew a little pouch for it to go in, but I decided to add a stabilizer in the base so folding isn't really an option anymore. I might make another one just to try the fold-and-store approach (I have some fun ideas for the pouch, based on a design I saw at SF MoMA).

And hooray, one whole item to mark off my CPA!!!! I've officially finished something:)

Time Management

I have no idea how it got to be November 2009. I'm still writing 2007 on everything! Not to mention the part where this officially makes me 30, which officially makes me too "old" to use my age as an excuse for anything. Although I've decided that by the time I turn 33 I'll be comfortable with being 30, so I guess its not too bad.... I still have three years to "be" 30.

But I digress.

The point of all this is that Christmas is a month away and I haven't finished a single thing. I've started a few things... but finished nothing. SO - I'm reverting back to my high school days of serious scheduling and devising a Christmas Plan of Action:

CPA:
November 17-20: finish HR quilt blocks; cut binding strips for KND quilt, cut quilt strips for RY quilt.
November 21-22: sew front and back of HR quilt; bind KND quilt; start stippling on HR quilt
November 23-24: sew RY quilt blocks
November 25-28: Kentucky for Turkey
November 29: finish stippling HR quilt, piece RY quilt
November 30-December 3: layer & start stippling RY quilt
December 4-7: Basel Miami
December 8-18: FT quilt binding!!!!! Also, side projects

Side Projects:
2x Market bag, holder
1x PH
2x knitted WC?
4x Co
Tasty Food Products

Yes. This is going to be great.

The things we do for family...

So this is the quilt I'm making for my brother, Ryan. I'm 99% sure this is the layout I'm going to use, with the green of the back layer wrapping around the front side to make the binding.
I wanted to make him something to take with him when he moves to California in January so that he'll have a little piece of home all the way on the other side of the country.
The only real debate left is how to sew the layers together... its between using the stippling technique (example below), or using diagonal lines (which I think might be more of a "guys" look). I guess it really comes down to time since I essentially have less than a month to start and finish this.

little bows make a big difference

Enough said.

Kitties love Quilts

Malcolm has officially appropriated my scrap test quilt as his own... he sleeps curled up in it all the time, and if you try to take it back he gives you the "what do you think you're doing, I could kill you in your sleep" stare down. He also sometimes thinks he's a people (please refer to adjacent picture). I think I may have to make a special one for him because I really want my couch quilt back!!

No Soup for You!

I know it's another food post but seriously, I'm pretty proud of this soup!! Its yellow split pea, which is one of my favorites, and it actually came out really well. So well in fact that Adam, who hates pea soup, honestly enjoyed it!

A dress for Luna

I'm not 100% finished with this dress (I want to add a bow around the top, for that little something extra), but I still think it came out very cute for a little play dress! And while this dress has become so easy to make at this point that I can bust one out in about an hour, I think I may step it up a notch for the next dress and try my hand at my new Oliver & S pattern.

I love the fabric used with this dress though, very light (which is perfect for Miami weather) and very girlie and bright! I may have to find some more like it...

Not so secret secret quilt...

Okay, so it is a secret quilt, but obviously not to the one reader of this blog (ie. me).

I started piecing this together last night and actually got 75% of the way through the front panel. Today I've managed to finish the front and back panels, layer the quilt, baste it, and now I'm 50% through sewing all the layers together.

I'm using a technique called "stippling", which basically means I make a bunch of curvy lines that never cross (or at least almost never cross). Once the quilt is washed the curvy lines will help it take on a cozy, wrinkled look.

So all in all I'm really proud of myself and this quilt. I still have the binding to deal with though, which that seems to be my weakest skill, but considering I've done better on this quilt than I thought I would I'm hoping this is the breaking point where I actually sew the binding like I know what I'm doing...!!

Baking is the new sewing...

Yes I'm aware that cakes aren't quilts, but this one took a long time to make... especially because I'm not skilled in the art of cooking/baking/anything involving a kitchen. But I'm learning and since this attempt actually came out right, I thought I'd add it to this blog for all the world to see (i.e. the three people that know about it...)!!

Fungus among us!?!

I've been testing various layouts for the "secret quilt"... I'm not 100% completely convinced with this one, but I think it's the best to date. At least it's sticking with the original theme(s) and color scheme!

Commitment Issues...

So I finally committed to the finishing fabric for the fairy tale quilt!! Of course now begins the daunting task of cutting and binding the edges, which always seems to go poorly...
But at least it looks good so far!:)

I heart Heather Ross

This is the new fabric I just bought (technically pre-ordered months ago). Its from the "Far Far Away" series by Heather Ross (her last series ever) and was only printed in Japan on double gauze cotton. Needless to say it's awesome and expensive so I'm struggling trying to figure out what to do with it.
Of course I'll probably just wait until my skills improve before I attempt to use it...

Quick quilt... Will it ever end??!!

Just when I think I'm done with my alleged "quick quilt" something always seems to go wrong. Like today when I ran out of ribbon for the binding (just one yard short!!), or last week when the cats played judge and the verdict was "we don't like it so we're going to pee on it" (everyone's a critic!!).

Live and learn but you still die dumb!


UPDATE:
I finally found the same ribbon I was using for the binding and was able to sew the last edge of this "not-as-quick-as-I-thought-quilt". Whew. I feel like a weight has been lifted!! And while this isn't the prettiest of quilts, it did help to teach me a few new techniques. And perhaps most important of all its made me feel more comfortable with machine layering.
All in all I think it was a success, and now the couch has one more throw blanket!

Kitties love mistakes...

I was trying to make a little stuffed bird to go along with the dresses for Sofi (the package mails tomorrow...) but I wasn't satisfied with the end result. So instead I added a little catnip and now it's Malcolm's favorite thing ever (next to lettuce, head butts and salt & vinegar potato chips)!!
Emma also wanted in on the action for about 5 seconds, but gave up trying when she realized it wasn't going to be easy to get it away from Malcolm.

Polka-Dot dress revisited

It's definitely getting easier to make dresses from this pattern, so hopefully soon I can start making my own alterations and really making them mine...

Polka-Dot Dress

My skills are improving!
I finished my second dress for Sofi (or first "real" dress, depending on how you look at it...), and I have to admit it's actually pretty decent. There are still a few things I need to resolve, like learning how to properly sew corners, but for the most part I think I've mastered this dress pattern!!!

A Father's Day tie that's quickly becomming a Christmas tie....

So I thought making a tie would be a fairly simple thing to do, but it turns out it requires a whole set of skills I don't possess... one being patience, the other being able to sew a "slip stitch". I've gotten as far as I can go and so now I just stare at it, hoping if I wish hard enough it will just sew itself. And considering that its already July and well past Father's Day, I've decided this should just be a Christmas present, which I will send along with the Father's Day card that's still sitting on my desk.


I will make no comment about the fact that this is a Florida Gator's tie, except to say that perhaps all the problems really stem from the Gators sucking so hard.
Go Canes!!



UPDATE:
This did not manage to be a Christmas tie either... maybe it will be a Father's Day 2010 tie!! I also like to think my NOT finishing this tie in 2009 helped the Gators NOT go to the National Championship again. Whatever it takes!!:)

Quick Quilt that isn't so quick... part 2

I guess technically I'm about half way done with this "quick quilt", and hopefully I'll be finished with it before the weekend is over.
Basically its just two yards of two different colored fabrics sewn together with zig-zag lines using various colored thread. Pretty simple really, its just sewing all the lines takes a lot longer than expected (at least at my skill level). Plus, I get sidetracked by the 18 other sewing projects I'm in the middle of so nothing ever gets my full attention... the joys of sewing A.D.D.

Quilting Kitties...

Malcolm and Emma decided they needed to help with my latest quilt... It's supposed to be a "fast" quilt but with all the kitty moving it isn't going very fast at all!!

Fairytale Quilt

So I'm in the middle of a "fairytale quilt" for Anasofia and Gabriella.... its much more time consuming than I could have ever imagined (who would have thought hand sewing a quilt with a million tiny pieces would take a long time??!!...). But I'm really proud of it, and I actually like the way its coming out (thanks to my test quilt that answered a lot of my questions through trial and error, and Adam's mom who explained the whole process and gave me the most helpful advice about piecing the layers together!!). Although when it finally is finished (I guesstimate about another 6 months) I think I'll be taking a break from the intense hand quilting world and trying my luck with machine quilting!!!

Test Dress

I know how to follow directions!!!
Seems like an easy thing to do, but for me that's a very serious undertaking!!! But it paid off in the end because now I know how to make dresses for little people (which will also *hopefully* open doors to making them for regular sized people).
I made this "test dress" for Anasofia, just to get an idea of sizing and to practice the whole cutting and sewing thing. It was much easier than I expected and, aside from all the pinning, it took a lot less time than I thought it would! And of course now I have 100 that I want to make!!!... Sofi and Ella better not grow up too fast!!!