I love the sunburst pillow and want to have them every where

a blog list

Another step on my sewing journey



Hopefully this will be a good motivator for me to both sew and post about it :-)

football timing

When I was in high school and dragging my feet about complying with the requests (or outright demands) my Grandfather would sometimes make I would take a "football minute" to get to it. Everyone knows a minute in football could very well take what feels like hours so I thought it was the perfect solution (although my Grandfather never did buy it)

Well it has been a week of football minutes, and getting sick again (3 consecutive opens is never great - 4a is just not the right time to be waking up) but here at last is a photo and a few links to some of the cool things I read this morning as I was catching up on my interwebbing.

Some thoughts on fearless quilting (which I think are good to ponder an apply to any creative endeavor)

A lovely example of well used scraps with the Hit The Spot quilt

A fun easy scarf to make

A tutorial on hand quilting - which is something I also love

And lastly a button from Mary Lou

christmas sewing

I had high hopes of lots of homemade gifts (fact: they should be started in October not late November) and these are the three that made it.

A doll


A pair of capes



They were both fun projects. I wished I hadn't rushed the end - but sometimes that happens.

more patterns I want to try

In the interest of keeping track of some of the projects I most want to try I have been keeping this running list for the past monthish (since Nov 2 to be precise). I will probably make this a monthly tradition.

an origami/a-line skirt in triangles and trapezoids

yoga skirt? why do they call it that?

belle dress I want this for me :-D

a doll I have already started a similar doll from a different pattern, but it is useful to consider the variant

notebook covers

bowtie

lollipop quilt

flower quilt I don't know that I would make this exactly but it is a cute idea to have on the back burner

I must admit - owls are adorable

house placemat a little busy but still cute

picnic bag-sket I love the quirky picnic basket Chris bought at our church yard sale right before we got married - but it is not always the most practical option, so I am loving the idea of this.

a sample quilt of sorts

I love hexagon quilts. When I first thought about trying to tackle on I thought it would probably make me want to poke my eyes out. UNTIL I decided that I want to make a hexagon from from the scraps of every project from now until whenever I have enough ... As an added bonus I think this will make it easier for me to let go of some the cherished fabrics I inherited.

thoughts on quilting a hexy

quilting progress

As I alluded to a few weeks ago, I have finally started the quilt I am trying to get done before Anne's deployment. It loosely follows an Elizabeth Hartman pattern I discovered very much by accident while skimming International Quilt Festival

The basic idea is that you draw the contour of the trees on freezer paper. Then you trace those contours onto a second piece of freezer paper and divide it into patches, cut the patches, then construct.

I am not following the pattern, but I am borrowing the idea and technique. It is coming along very steadily (largely because I am growing in the area of daily disciplines) and I am very excited . My goal is to be at the quilting phase by January so that I can work on it while I hopefully spend 5 weeks in new staff training.

These are my trees - currently they have taken over a wall in our dining room (thankfully neither my husband nor roommates seem all that bothered by it)


For a variety of reasons I am trying to make the bulk of it out of fabric I already have - especially these old t-shirts. They are so full of memories, and way to worn out to wear - no better resting place than a quilt :-D





But Anne did help me pick out a few new materials including this green.I look forward to sharing more progress along the way - I am so stinking pumped!

Also - love this and its Christmas cousin

E.E.S.

fabric blogs

Many of you know (or at least can tell) that I am falling in love with fabric arts (mostly quilting) and I wanted to take a moment and share links to some of the blogs I am currently in love with ...

diary of a quilter

noodlehead

happy together

Also I think I will completely change the direction of the quilt I am making for the little sister (deadline:her April deployment) originally it was going to be a collection of 49 9x12 squares but when I was about to check out of hobby lobby with the muslin I needed for the t-shirts I saw this , was completely lovestruck and I have spent my evening thinking through the pattern and making design adjustments (like using squirrels instead of birds). Ambitious much? I know - it is my learning weakness.

I am now following her blog as well - Oh Fransson

done with one ... starting another

About a year ago I decided I wanted to pick up quilting again. I had started a t-shirt quilt with my Grandmother a long long time ago but any time I wanted to pick it up again it was just too emotionally overwhelming. I decided that there is no simpler quilt to make than a baby quilt, a friend at work was pregnant so I had grand plans of making a quilt for her.

Between my normal penchant for distraction and for not doing things the easy way (like following directions – or for that matter reading the entirety of directions) the baby in question is almost a year old but none-the-less I am glad to be done.

Obviously it has flaws, but I am not displeased with it and I look forward to giving it to the lovely little lady.

Being done with the quilt has freed me up to start my next project (well one of them) is a rag doll for my niece. Hopefully it will be ready for Christmas. And the best part is that I am getting to use some of the random plethora of fabric I inherited from my Grandmother (the pieces for the body are actually some of my great-grandmother Mary Lou's ... she had an affinity for brown)

Lots of projects to try...

I am in the middle of three projects right now and two of them really need to be finished before I start new ones ... but here is a long list to choose from (not that I didn't already have a bit of a que worked up but hey - this is how I roll).

t-shirt turned cardi

a personal mannequin

a longer cardigan

ruffle skirt

cuff skirt

homemade leggings

vest


All because of the refashionistas ...

such as it is so far

Of course Gandalf thinks it is his






It is a little less structured than I had planned but these things do happen

quilt top - done.

I finished the quilt top for my first ever baby quilt ... or any quilt.

The craft is a little lacking (which is to be expected in a self taught first attempt by someone who isn't very good at reading directions fully or following them even if they have been read) but I am not altogether displeased. It is a good beginning.

Now I just need to do the actual quilting which I am looking forward to because I rather like hand sewing.

Photos to come - but perhaps not until it is a more completed project.