Sunday, February 28, 2016

Accomplishing a lot and starting even more

I have been pretty lucky so far this term as I have had plenty of time to work in my sewing studio as I guess others would call it. Most weekends other then doing things needed around the house I have managed to work in my room.

I finished my Mardi Gras Girl, I finished the baby blanket that I needed to make, I have kept on top of Pat Sloan's block a month program. I got a bird, I made a cover for his cage and a cover for my daughter's tv as her room mates cat likes glass among other things. I completed another box of ornaments and started on another box this one is done in purple variegated thread for my daughter.
I started working on my dragon again and am making some headway on him as well.

So, what haven't I done well I have not labeled my projects that well, mainly I guess because I am completing them in a timely manner but I still need to go through my kits and projects that I have but haven't started yet and clean those up and label them before I forget what I wanted to do with them.

I still am working on organizing and sorting through my stuff as I also continue to add more tools as well. I still have to schedule a time to take my serger and my machine in to be serviced.

I am waiting on some special fabric to start a new project that I am super excited about it is a challenge where only 120 quilts will be chosen.  I really hope that mine is one that is chosen. I think it is going to turn out spectacular but we shall see. I have drawn out the pieces and even know how I want to sew it but just waiting to see the final four pieces of fabric to make sure they will work for what I need.

I started my daughters quilt with the panel from Nightmare before Christmas and I think it came out pretty good. I am working on quilting it now. Which reminded me I still have my last Pat Sloan vacation time quilt to quilt so will pull that out and pin it as well to quilt up.
 The second Pat Sloan block.
 The cats discovering their new TV channel.
My daughters Nightmare before Christmas Quilt which I am designing as I go.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Practice Practice Practice!





By now everyone knows that I love to quilt, I love to play with fabric and thread and I think I always have. My problem is I get bored doing the same thing over and over again. So I always jump to doing something new, however, recently I have discovered that by doing something over and over again that is called practice and that is how you get better at doing something.

Recently I found out that my friend's daughter was going to have a baby and since babies and quilts go hand in hand I decided I would attempt to create something for her that was unique but not overly complicated for one such as me. Of course if anyone knows me they know complicated is my middle name right along with double trouble.

So the nursery is to be Lilo and Stitch so I chose that as my starting point. I have seen these two around but have never really watched them. I found a coloring book page and enlarged the picture and drew my pattern from that.


 This is my pattern drawn out on Freezer paper and then each shape was cut out and ironed onto the right side of the fabric as the Freezer paper leaves no residue. I then ironed the cut out pieces onto Heat n Bond light and re-cut them out so they were now ready for appliqueing.




Once I had all the pieces cut out I began to sew them on in the proper layers I started with Lilo and then the pillow and then Stitch. I then used my Accu-quilt Go to cut out the flowers and applied the heat and bond to them and then sewed those on in a random pattern. Then I sandwiched the finished top with batting and backing and quilted it in straight lines across by passing the flowers and the center. All in all I am pretty happy with it. 





 However, I still need more practice for both appliqueing and quilting.