Show and Tell

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So the computer fix wasn’t a big deal, but unfortunatly, I’ve been really sick since Sunday, and today is my first day back up and around. I tried to go back to work yesterday but I only made it through half the day before giving up and coming back home to go to bed. Today, though, was my day. So stop yelling at me people! I have quilts to tell you about now….sheesh!
After I was finally feeling well enough to do more than sip on Vernors and watch more than 15 minutes of tv at a time without falling asleep, I finished up my bright square quilt top.

Squares Quilt Top

I had a lot of trouble taking a good picture of it this afternoon in my house. I really, really like how it turned out though! As soon as I have some extra quilting money, I’m going to go ahead and order the Disco Dot fabric for the backing. It’s been so much fun for me to do–it was quick and easy to piece, and the bright colors are interesting to work with. I’m glad this one’s getting ready to quilt.
After I finished up that top I moved on to the stack of 30’s reproduction fabric that’s been sitting on my desk for awhile now:
30's Pile

I’ve been collecting the reproduction prints for awhile now, (that’s not my whole pile) and I hadn’t been able to come up with a good pattern for them. During my days on the couch though, I decided to go with a bow-tie pattern. I think my first block turned out pretty well too:
Bow-Tie Block

And of course, the top of the wedding quilt is finished! Super YAY! I really surprised myself with how fast the top came together afterall. When I started it, I thought that I might have been working on it for years before it all came together. If you’re not someone who isn’t allowed to see pictures of it, click on the link!

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ARGH!

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Okay, here’s the deal. I finished the top of the wedding quilt–yay! I’m very, very excited about that. And I’d love to show you all, but I can’t–our computer is out of commission. So please stick with me (thanks also to the people who kept coming back even when our server went down last week too) and I promise I’ll post real pictures as soon as the computer is up and running again! I have so much to show you all : )

Yay For Finishing Stuff!

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Despite having a very busy week last week, I think I can officially say that I’ve caught up. Last night I finished pieceing the last block of the wedding quilt (YAY! No more two inch sqares to piece!) and tonight I’m hoping to finish putting the last six blocks on the rest of the top. All I’ll need is a bit of a border (I’m thinking it’ll look strange, and will possibly be too small without one) and then I get to quilt! So very, very, very exciting!
Another projects that I started and actually finished this weekend were shrinky dink pins.

Shrinky Dink Pins

Again (like many good ideas these days) the pins were inspired by the ones done at Wee Wonderfuls. So many cool things ideas come from there. All I did was make crappy little drawings on the shrinky dinks (I totally love that stuff now–I’ve never played with it before and now I’m hooked!) and then I stuck a pin through it before I put them in the toaster oven. If nothing else really, the look so cool in a pincushion!
In the world of blogs that are not my own, I did want to mention that everyone should go check out Angry Chicken. Amy Karol is a textile artist has the coolest things on her blog. Today’s post featured an amazing log cabin quilt that her mother made. The quilting on it is so unique–it makes it look very different from any other log cabin quilt that I’ve seen, which in my opinion, is a good thing.
Finally, I have to post a picture of the cake my friend Laura made for our crafty girls group birthday party last week.
Knitting Cake

Here’s Alice and Allison posing with their knitting cake–yummy and crafty!

Have I Done Nothing But Quilt Lately?

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Yep. And I feel like I’ve done very little the past several weeks besides getting my quilt on. It’s not like I haven’t had anything to say either–I’ve just been quilting. A lot.
I’m finally on the last six blocks of Laura and Steve’s Wedding Quilt. I’ve been feeling like I’ve really been hauling on it recently–it seems like it’s taken me no time at all, until I look back and realize that in fact, I’ve been working on it for what is actually forever. I have been trying to really get the piecing finished up soon though–we’re expecting to start a major renovation in our kitchen, hopefully starting at the end of this month, and I’m not sure how much work I’ll be getting done on it when we start that project. No new pictures of it at this point though–it still all looks the same to me. I’ll post a shot of it again when I get the entire top pieced. It’s too hard trying to hide the pictures from those people who are not allowed to see it at this point!
Unexpectedly to me, I’ve also gotten a ton of work done on my Bright Squares Quilt that I started about two or three weekends ago.

Bright Squares Quilt

Despite being a smaller quilt, I have almost the whole top finished! I’m about seven blocks away from having it all finished, but most of those blocks have actually been started. Hopefully another week or two, and I’ll be able to start piecing those blocks together. I’d like to have it finished soon so that I can order the fabric that I love for the back of it:
Disco Dot Fabric

And finally, after seeing all of the really cute pincushions at Wee Wonderfuls, I decided that I had to make one too. This one is for a friend in my Crafty Girls group (that I’m headed off to shortly). For being my first one, I thought it turned out pretty cool!
Flower Pincushion

eBay Find

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Last week I was browsing though quilting things on eBay, and I found something that I thought was totally cool! I’m not usually much of an eBay shopper–I tend to get bored looking through it–but I was pumped when I found a set of 10 Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks. They came yesterday in the mail–an exciting Valentine’s Day arrival! The prints look like the fabric is from the late 30’s or 40’s. I’m not that good with identifing dates of fabric, so if anyone could give me a better idea about it, let me know.

Granny's eBay Flowers

Parts of the flowers have been hand pieced, while some pieces in the same block were sewn on a machine. And while the fabric itself is in pretty good wear, there are a couple of stains on the blocks that I’d like to try to take out, if it’s possible to do, without destroying the fabric. If there’s no way to do that, it’s not too big of a deal. It just shows its age that way. Does anyone have any good tips for that?
Granny's Stains

Despite all of that excitement, I have been progressing with my wedding quilt for our friends. I have two full rows pieced together. Yay! Only three more left to go! (I’m never going to get it finished!!!) But I have made a promise to Steve (one half of the wedding quilt’s recipients) that from now on, I’ll hide the pictures of the quilt. (He wants to be surprised!) So anyone who isn’t getting my quilt as a gift–click on!

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I’m Putting the Knitting Needles Away

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I’m not allowing myself to do anymore knitting for awhile. When I start knitting something, it’s the only thing I do…ever. I finished my poncho this past weekend, and when I brought it to my crafty girls group this week, people were amazed that I had it done already. THAT’S BECAUSE I’VE DONE NOTHING ELSE SINCE I STARTED IT! I’m not fast, I just have no life. But it is finished, and it’s nice to wear around the house.

Blue Poncho

And now, since I’m no longer letting myself start any new knitting projects, I’ve actually gotten some work finished on my new wedding quilt. Today I sewed three finished blocks together. That was a big accomplishment. For months, I only had one actual block completly done. Now I can start to see just what the top is really going to look like:
Blue Poncho

It needs to be ironed pretty bad right now, but I’d like to wait and do that when I get a strip of six blocks done before I do that work. I’m real pleased with how it’s starting to look. Now if I can just get a lot of work finished with it this weekend when we’re on our 12 hour trip to North Carolina. As long as it doesn’t make me carsick, I should do pretty well!

A Glimpse Into The Unfinished Projects Basket

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I’ve been spending a lot of my free time working on projects, but lately, none of it’s been my quilting. I’ll get to that in just a bit. First though, I figured since I’ve been so stalled out my quilting, I’d at least profile some of the work that I could be doing instead. Shortly after I started the Wedding Spectaularrr quilt almost two years ago, I decided that I wanted to make myself a quilt in the same pattern, but in different colors. I got several stars done, but after I started piecing the top of Wedding Spectaularrr together, I put it away, and I haven’t worked on it much since.

Texas Star Quilt

As usual, it’s one of those projects that just doesn’t get attention because it doesn’t have priority over the quilts that are going to be gifts. I stopped working on this one, because I needed to devote all of my attention to finishing Wedding Spectaularrr. But until I get an extra moment for quilting, it sits in a basket, waiting for me to get bored with whatever else I’m working on for the minute.
In the meantime though, I’ve been knitting. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–I really don’t like knitting that much, but there’s something about it that makes me need to do it. It’s not that I hate it, and don’t have fun with it, but it’s not nearly as fun as quilting is to me. But despite that statement, I’ve been busy. Last week I threw together this:
Purple Hat

I found the pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn website. They actually have some pretty good patterns there. I thought this one was really simple–I finished it in only a couple of hours, and that’s pretty good for me.
And then finally, although I had started (and intended to finish) a knitted poncho a few weeks ago, I abandoned it and started a new one in better colors.
Better-Colored Poncho

I’m not giving up on this one now, and it’s also partially to blame on why I’ve not done any quilting yet this week. Ben and I are driving to North Carolina for a friend’s wedding reception (in simpler terms, it’s a hog roast) and I’d like to wear it to that. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it actually turns out!

New Crafty Projects

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Okay, I’m going to try this one again. I had a new entry completly finished last night, and then somehow I lost the whole thing. I was not a happy camper. So let’s see what I can remember.
Despite not doing a whole lot of quilting, I did manage to get quite a few crafty projects finished up over the weekend. My making-things rampage started with a shopping trip to JoAnn’s, where I managed to spend the rest of my gift card that my Aunt Claudia gave me for Christmas. I got some green beads, a few frames, a couple of pieces of red fabric (that I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with) some new knitting needles, a knitting magazine, and a few other things too that I can’t remeber at this very minute. I think I had the most fun with the beads. Normally I don’t have the knack to make nice jewelry, but I was pleased with how my first necklace turned out. In fact, I liked it so much I made a second on with red beads I already had:

Red & Green Glass Necklaces

Then I also used one of the pieces of red fabric that I bought to make a needlecase for some of my knitting needles. I had thought about making one awhile ago, but I didn’t think I’d need one until I started going to crafty girl’s night. Now it’s nice to be able to bring all of the needles I think I’ll need along with me, in one place.
Knitting Needle Case

I just took a fat quarter, divided it into thirds, sewed in a bit of extra quilt batting and used some other red fabric that I already had, and it really turned out nice. (I know that wasn’t a great tutorial and all–sorry!) It also got a lot of compliments Monday night at crafty girls group.
Then I also finished up a scarf made out of super bulky yarn that Ben gave me for Christmas. I thought that the two skeins of yarn would be plenty to make a long scarf, but the yarn was so huge that it only came out to be just long enough to wrap once around my neck. It’s still very warm and very pretty though!
Multi-Colored Bulky Yarn Scarf

And then finally, it’s not quite crafty, but gardening is one of my most favorite hobbies. When it’s too cold outside to grow things, I love having my plants inside. This weekend Ben bought me a new Phalenopsis orchid (my most favorite plant of them all!) and so yesterday I had to have a photo shoot with it. I think this was my favorite:
My New Orchid

To me, there’s nothing better than to have a beautiful plant flowering inside your house when it’s cold and snowy outside!

Machine Quilting and Me, Part Two

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(I had started to write this as just a comment to all the responses that I got to yesterday’s post, but I started to ramble so much that I thought I needed a new entry for it.)
Power to my fellow handquilters! I honestly figured that people would just told me to pull out my machine and give up my handwork completly. And it’s not like I’m even considering giving up my handwork–I love it too much to give up–it’s just that I guess that I look around at other quilters and the quanity of work they’re doing. I feel like if I start any more projects, it’ll be years before I have any of them finished. It took me over a year to make “Wedding Spectaularrr” from beginning to end, and to me, that feels like an eternity. Sometimes I just wish I could churn out more projects (that are still up to my quality standards) more quickly and effeciently. I also think I listen to people who have no idea what goes into making a quilt too much, and hear “Why put so much work into it, when you could just finish it up in a few days with a machine.” I have to go back to what I really feel though, and say that hand quilting is a true art form. No one would scoff at the work an artest does to make a painting; why should I stand for someone to tell me to take all the art out of what I do? I just think a lot of times people can’t appreciate all the work that goes into a quilt because they have no idea what actually goes into making one.
So in conclusion: I’m not giving up hand piecing and quilting, but I may try to do more piecing work from time to time on the machine. I’m still not convinced on machine quilting though–to me it looks far better (and gets that great wrinkle look) when quilted by hand. It is also nice to know that I’m not complely in the minority in quilting; although I don’t have too many people my age (I’ll be 24 in April, for those who wanted to know) quilting in my area, the Internet (as always) has shown me there are others like me out there. Oooh, I love the Internet! : )

Machine Quilting and Me

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I’ve been thinking of a lot of new quilting projects that I’d like to start in the near future, and although I’m thrilled that I’m actually coming up with new ideas, I’m so frustrated to think of how long it would take me to get through any of them. It’s making me seriously reconsider just how dedicated I am to the art of hand piecing and quilting my projects. To me, handwork is just so uncommon, especially in quilters my age (okay, let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of quilters my age anyway) that I feel that I’m somewhat obligated to keep up my policy on it. To me, it just feels so much more complete when it’s finished by hand. I’m torn on the issue, and I know so many people would tell me to just suck it up and use the machine, but I’m so attached to my needle, thread, thimble and quilting hoop. I know I could get double the work done that way though.
And quilters, if you’ve got some downtime in the next two days you may be interested in contributing a block to Marta’s Tsunami Quilt. She’ll be putting together a wall hanging made from sent in blocks to sell on E-bay with the proceeds going to UNICEF. If you’re interested though, act fast–the deadline is February 15th. You can get all the information at Tsunami Quilt 2005.