Newest project - completed!

It has been a long while since my last post but I undertook a fairly big project, with the hopes that  the recipient enjoyed receiving it. I was asked to make a quilt for my hairdresser's mother. Her birthday was this past week and she is a 13-year breast cancer survivor. My hairdresser left it completely up to me on how to design the quilt. Here is the final product:

The pictures are a little dark but the background is actually white. My husband was gracious enough to hold up the quilt while I took pictures.

Need More Hours or Days or Something...

Howdy! I know its been awhile since my last post but I honestly have a good excuse this time. :) I've decided to finish my Bachelor's Degree and am now taking online classes. It's been a little rough getting back in to the swing of things, since it's been a few years since I've taken college courses. This coupled with being out of the house more than half a day (work and commute) doesn't leave much time for my beloved quilting. But I am excited about my recent purchase; Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt.

I am so glad she decided to reissue this beautiful fabric because I missed the original legacy prints. My first two classes are nearly over and I am attempting get into a routine where I can get back to quilting. I do miss it dearly.

Patience cont'd

I've sewn the blocks into rows. This patience this is not as hard as I thought (at least this time it isn't). Next comes putting the rows together for the quilt top. That should take place this weekend. But for now here are the rows.

Patience...

I'm sure all of you have heard the 'patience is a virtue' a positive trait. Well in an attempt to be a more positive person, I thought I would teach myself a lesson in patience. Not sure I picked the correct quilt to practice this on but, what heck, you gotta start somewhere.

Previously I found myself hurrying through one project, to get it finished so that I could get to the next, which resulted in seams that didn't match up and things not exactly square. This caused a great deal of frustration and because I didn't want to get stuck with a UFO, I just wanted to get it done.

The quilt I chose to do is "Small World" from the book Transparency Quilts. There is 110 pieces to this quilt not including the skinny blue sashes, each one cut individually. Cutting them individually (and accurately) took some doing. Here are some of the 'oatmeal' fabrics I chose.

These fabrics were not as difficult to chose as the fabrics for the center. That part took a lot of 'auditioning'. Here are some of the center fabrics with the blue sashes in between.

I also slowed my sewing/piecing speed down, which seemed to pay off. Look straight, 1/4" seams....yaaayyy!

Next comes, sewing the individual pieces into rows. We'll see how far I get tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

A new year, a new beginning (that's if you want to). Some may be perfectly happy where they are and didn't want to offend. I learned quite a bit about family this past year and about the saying 'family is as family does'. I recently reconnected with some people that treated as good as any blood relative could, but because of misunderstandings we had been separated for awhile. It was wonderful to get to know them again and I am very blessed to have them in my life.

I only crafted a few gifts for Christmas this past year and here they are...

Hand made notebooks for my son and his girlfriend.

I modified a couple of notebook versions I found out on the web, mainly because I like the look of the slanted pocket. The left side is for loose papers. There is a pen holder in the middle and the right side is for legal sized notepad.

 And finally I made a baby quilt for my nephew Gabriel...

The pattern is Boho Baby by Blue Meadow Designs.

Welcome back quilt

I am making this quilt for someone who is going through a difficult period in their lives. A period of self discovery that does not seem to be going so well. This person does have a lot of people that are willing to help them but I wanted to let them know how much I love them and that they will be welcome to return home. Here are the smaller starter blocks.

Which became a larger blocks that looks like this one.

Here is the finished top.

I plan on starting the quilting process this weekend. My original plan was to start last weekend but I am having some stitch tension issues with my sewing machine. :(

Ok...Ok

Well its bit quite awhile since my last post but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Lets see...I finished the ornament mini quilt:

Created some row/block markers, to keep things straight when doing larger projects:

And make a Queen sized body pillow for our bed. I made a pillow case for it as well, but here is the pillow itself made with red ticking:

There are a few other things that I have started and I will show those in a later post.