Busy. . .

Well our internet went out yesterday, so that finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get some work done! Well that and the fact that I am going back to Iowa next week, and some of this NEEDED to be done before I go!The first thing is Becca's quilt. Becca is my best friends' 10 year old daughter, but Becca & I are also good buddies. I have known her since she was 2 months old! We share a love of Shrek, or well we used to. When I babysat for her we used to watch Shrek. I have taken her to see each of the sequels in theatres!
I let her go through all my fabric (which actually isn't as much as it used to be, I have been using a lot of it!) and pick out whatever fabrics she wanted. . .She ended up picking out about 20 fabrics, and I helped her slim it down, and showed her which ones went together and such.
Then we talked about size, and pattern, and I cut up the squares and she sewed it. It was her first time sewing! She didn't sew all of it, but did quite a bit.She chose this nice velour type fabric for her backing. I did the binding with a fabric that she REALLY liked and had originally wanted as a border, but changed her mind. (you can see that Minnie approves of the quilt!)It's not actually THAT big :/ So someday I will make her one that is bigger! I don't know why I haven't made her a quilt. . .probably because I haven't had a design that has just POPPED yet. . .I am not a machine :p I am bound by my imagination :pNow this quilt was a block exchange I was involved in. The swirly pieces (which are called snail's trail) I actually made randomly, and then thought they would fit nicely. I think they do work well! I have one more block I have to make to even them up.These are blocks that I use as enders and leaders (when I chain stitch). I have already made one top with some of them. We will see what these turn into :pThis is a pile of 4" squares made from the left overs of Becca's quilt back and my log cabin backing. I am thinking about sticking them with a flannel and making a little blanket.The colors in the picture didn't actually turn out that great. It's a pinkish/purple. And I think it compliments the blue and purple nicely.Now this is a pile of cloth wipes that I started. . .and then my serger broke :/ I have started doing the turn and stitch, but it takes so much more time! So we shall see how much longer I stick with that :p

I went to a sewing center here in town today, and they do serger repairs. It would be probably $80, which we won't be able to swing for a bit, but it's good to know, and to have it so close!

So what are you working on?

It's been a while. . .

I am sorry it's been so long since I have posted!! Things have been pretty busy!! First we went to Kentucky for ichthus, then back to Iowa to visit my family, then I had a friends daughter, then Ohio for Spirit song, and now I am finally back home!!

I sure am ready to be sewing again!! And I think I will get some stuff churned out this weekend.

Here is some stuff I have done since the last time I posted!So I haven't done much on the pinwheel quilt (that is for an exchange. I don't have enough of the middle border fabric to use on the outside :/ so I think I am going to have to go with a different fabric :(

I have also been working on a values quilt. which I posted a quickie picture of the pile of 4" squares that I had. They have been made into a lot of HSTs (half square triangles), lights & darks! And then they are going to go together, kind of a diamond style. Here is a layout I have so far (but it won't stay like that!) it's easy to change. I think I am going to make it into a baby quilt (or two!)Then before we went to ichthus, I finally finished something I have been working on since last summer. I call it a festival blanket!! It is made of bandanna's that I used to wear in high school/college.
That's all I have done (I think). I have to help finish Becca's quilt. She designed it all herself, and even helped sew a little bit of it!! Sadly we didn't get it finished before she left :(

so this weekend my goal is to finish Becca's quilt, finish Scott's grandma's quilt, and make a wetbag for my friend. And maybe get my sewing room cleaned up a little bit!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Why Do You Quilt?

I started sewing in High school, although it's always been something that interests me. I remember being a young child and watching my mom make me clothes (on the same machine I use today!)

I took sewing in 7th grade, and then the summer after that I used to sew a lot of little pillows and things. But it was High school that really got me interested. I took a sewing class. I started making clothes, then I started making a quilt for myself, and one for my grandma. And since I started college I have been making quilts for those around me.

Sewing day 2

Ok so this isn't EXACTLY my second day sewing, but it's close enough ;) I got a lot done in my quilt exchange, and found about five other projects I want to start ;)So I realize the above blocks are almost identical, but the one on top originally was going to have some more HSTs, but I decided to just leave it. . .I don't like this one as much as the one I did for my pinwheel quilt (above)BUT I like this one BETTER than my block I did similar to this.
I accidentally forgot to make this one bigger (since it's only 3 blocks across instead of 4) so I added a little border.

I am up to 12 blocks, I want to make 16, but the white for the border I am almost done with it :/ I have plenty of the others left. I just hope it's enough to make the last four blocks!

I have been working on my maverick stars some more, I am still not sure what I will do with them, they are too big for sashing, and I don't like them put together, so I thought about adding a sashing, or doing them as a nine block. We'll see!

Summer vacation!

So I signed up for a fabric exchange, basically you put as much fabric as possible into a gallon size ziplock bag. Here is the fabric that I received. I decided to do it as a pinwheel sampler, especially since I have already done these blocks for my own quilt sampler. I must say, I REALLY like the way this is coming together. The fabric I added (we could add up to 1 yard of our own fabric)
Here is my artsy fartsy attempt while sewing HSTs (half square triangles).This is a stack of 4" squares I have had for YEARS. Some of them were going to be a baby blanket, others were scraps, others were just random fabrics. I have started sewing them into light & dark HSTs.

I am still working on the pinwheel stuff, and a quilt top for Scott's grandma.

Quilt along

I haven't had a chance to post pictures in a while, I didn't get a lot done weekend before last, but I got a few blocks made this past weekend. This weekend is a 4 day weekend, so I hope to get some sewing done tonight, but we will see how busy I end up being.

Here are the blocks I have been working on. I also have a quilt top that is about 70% done, but I don't have any pictures of it. Maybe this weekend :p

This is BY far my favorite block so far! ^ I am not sure if it's the colors or the pattern!


I hope you all are having a good evening!

Finally sewing again!

I have finally gotten back into the swing of things!!
I have missed sewing, it's been about a month, and it's a month too long! especially when I spend most weekends sewing!

While I was at a friends over Spring break I saw this (baby?) quilt on their couch, and I thought the design was SO cute!! So I decided to make a quilt like it! And since I just got birthday money, I decided to spend it on fabric (which I haven't done since Valentine's day!)
And this is what came of it. . .and you get a mini tutorial. . .I say mini because it's not 100% done.

Here is my fabric. I just got a yard of each except for the brown I got 2 1/2 yards. (no reason, it was just a piece on the bolt)Cut into strips that are 2 1/2" wide. Then sew together. The width and number of strips can be changed. I chose 4 strips, but you could do 5, your squares would be bigger.

Then using the 45° angle cut triangles out. I used two rulers to make it "perfect"
Then out of the brown (that I had more of) I cut 12.5" squares and cut those in half, and sewed them to the other triangles and this is what I have so far.

So any ideas of what to name this quilt?

And of course I had helpers ;)
And I can't do anything without them!

I also got a block done for my quilt along (well one of them), I am working on this project instead, don't get me wrong, I will get them done, it will probably be next weekend. Because I am going to finish this one up today (I might get the top all done.)

Quilt along blocks 4

Here are my first two color combinations. I don't like the layout of this block, it basically used flying geese, (but as half square triangles). If you look closely this is almost the same pattern as I posted last week. I liked that better with triangles.And here are all 8 blocks I have finished so far!!

Another quilt a long ;)

I LOVE IT!! I found another quilt a long ;) here is the link it's a jelly roll quilt a long, but I am just going to use fabric from my stash, I think that I am going to put this with the second quilt a long I am doing, cause that won't have a lot of blocks either.I think I could have made better choices about what went in the middle. . .but we will see how it looks in the end ;)

I also spent Thursday night sewing. I was working on some maverick stars from this site
This is Pepé helping me ;)
And here is a close up of one of the blocks.

More sewing this weekend!

I have spent almost all of today sewing. Later comes the grading :(

Today I made:
a reusable bag
a head wrap for after the shower (no pictures of that)
block 3 of the quilt a long

So here are your pictures!Here is block 3 for the quilt swap!This is the reusable bag I made
It has nice lining, and it could technically be turned inside out!

The head wrap is for use after a shower. My host daughter has one, I thought it was pretty cool, and I had a small towel that I don't really use (too big for the kitchen too small for the bathroom) so the only part I had to sew was the top, because I used the edges of the towel.

I also got some work done on my next string x quilt, or my blocks for them!

Quilt along 2. . .

After finding the pinwheel sampler quilt a long, I decided to google quilt a long, to see what else I could find.

I found one and I decided to start it. . .So I will have quite a few different blocks started ;) But I am going to try to keep them very organized!

Here is a picture of the block I made tonight:I like this block! And the fabric, they are both from my stash. . .I am working on destashing as much as possible, especially since I have quite a bit of fabric that is just a little bit (less than a half a yard) left!

My first quilt along

I have decided to do a quilt a long. I had an LJ friend that was doing this also, so I thought I would join the band wagon :)

The site is here: psiquilt.com
More info about the quiltalong is here: Information


Here is block 1! I like how they turned out! I can't wait to see what it all looks like!
Block 1: psiquilt Block 1


As soon as I finished block 1, I found out that Block 2 had been posted! So here are mine! So hopefully next weekend there will be another!
Here is block 2: psiquilt block 2

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!