Sunday, June 1, 2014

Two Months ?!?!?!

Wow, I did not realize that it has been 2 months since I last posted. So much has happened, though not on the sewing front. The main reason for that is we found out we are expecting baby #2! Apparently, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas ;). We were in Las Vegas for my cousin's wedding, which was spectacular. My cousin always said she was going to get married in Vegas (and not one of those quickie, drive-thru weddings, a full on destination wedding in Vegas), and all the family came in for it.


This was my and my husband's first time in Vegas, and we loved it and want to go back!

This is us on the party bus on the way to the rehearsal dinner. 

As for the baby news, due to the little peanut I have been extremely exhausted for the last two months. I have barely had energy to get through the work day, and every evening I just come home and crash. Sewing has been non-existent in the household, but that changed today since I am finally feeling a little better (it also helped that the hubby took the kid away for four hours so mommy could have some peace and quiet). I finished quilting the starburst quilt, so all that's left is the trimming and the binding! I'll be back soon with more updates and a look at another one of my finished quilts from last year.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Houndstooth

As part of this blog, I want to create a record of the quilts I have made. My grandmother has made over 200 quilts in her lifetime, and she has a list of most of them, and pictures of some, and I so wish I had a better record of the wonderful quilts she has made to be able to look back on someday. I hope that by recording my quilts here that I can pass on my legacy to my granddaughter one day.

To start, here is the first quilt I ever completely finished. It is a lap quilt I made for my mother-in-law. It's not the first quilt I ever started (I still have 2 or 3 WIP's that I started in college), but it is one of my favorites. It is a houndstooth pattern that I modified from somewhere. I created it in 2013, machine pieced and quilted, using solid colors.


Since everybody in my family are huge Alabama fans (and it's where both my husband and I graduated), this pattern was very appropriate. I want to remake this one some day but double it to use when we go tailgating. 


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Deal Me In!

This week has been very productive week for sewing! Last night I got my mom the help me finish adding the borders to the Starburst quilt. It looks great and I'm happy how it turned out, even if some of the points are a little wonky (I won't tell if you won't :).


Next up is sandwiching it and quilting it. I have a wonderful light green minky for the backing. My goal is to start quilt it this weekend. 


I also got the next sampler blocks done! This is one of my favorite patterns, the card trick block. I love how the block looks so different just by changing the colors of the fabrics. 

Revolutionary
I was worried about the contrast of the fabrics in this block, but I think it turned out great. The colors are pretty close to how they actually look, and most of my points are even! I have a hard time with points sometimes, but I'm getting better. These sampler blocks are great practice. 

Roaring 30's
I was't going to put white in this quilt, but this block just begged for it. The solid color really makes the patterns pop. I need to add more white from now on. 

Mod Squad
This block just doesn't photograph well (not that anything really does under fluorescent light, on a wooden dining table, at 10:00 at night). The colors are actually more vibrant, and the two blue and green patterns are on a white background. The blue background is also more blue and less black as it shows here. I really like this block. 


Beale Street
This block. I love it. I am so glad I picked this combo of colors. 

Rainbow
These colors are a little more vibrant in person, and you can tell a much greater contrast between the light yellow top right card and the light green background. The rainbow blocks are always the first block I do, so it's my practice block. This block came out a little wonky, but not too terrible. 

So that's another 5 blocks for the samplers! I might finish the tops in the next 5 years! 





Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The 350 Blocks Project

Since my last post, I've made another 10 blocks for the blue and tan quilt for my husband, which I think I'm going to call Points and Bars. That brings the total up to 57! I hope to get it done in the next few months, at least have the top pieced by our anniversary in July. As part of helping me stay on course, I am participating in the 350 Blocks Project on Prairie Moon Quilts. It's just a way to check in and make sure I'm on track, the goal is to make 350 quilt blocks this year. Each month  a goal is set, and quilters report in on their progress. March's goal is 30 blocks, which I have hit, but I'm behind for January and February, so my over all total is low. Here's how it's shaping up so far:

Points & Bars: 57 Blocks
Family Samplers: 10 Blocks (2 per quilt)
Starburst: 6 Blocks (I'm counting each point of the star as one block, as I had to sew them together to create the whole star)

Total of 72! I hope to make 8 more so I can get back on track for the year. Some of the other quilters have already made upwards of 200 blocks! I am in awe of their abilities. I may not make the 350 goal, but I hope to have at least a good head start on the sampler quilts and the others that come up along the way!


Friday, March 21, 2014

Back At It

Well the last few weeks have been horrible on the sewing front. Between craziness at work and our whole family being sick, I haven't had much energy/time to do any sewing. Last night I finally got back on track. 

For the starburst quilt, I sewed the borders into strips so I can attach it to the main body. This weekend I'm going to get my mom to help me pin and sew the borders on. Since I just hand stitched the star down, it's not perfectly square, so two sets of hands measuring and pinning will hopefully make it come out right. Here is what the border will look like once it's on:


After that I just need to add a thick solid purple border then I can quilt it. I am still unsure about how to quilt it. I've gone back and forth on quite a few different designs and nothing has stood out yet. Still have some time on that though. 

The other thing I worked on is a quilt that I started back in November of last year. It was requested by my husband to go on our bed. It is a take on a pattern I saw in one of my magazines. The original one had navy and ivory blocks, but I expanded my palette a bit and included more tans and different hues of blue. I also used linen for the rail fence blocks, for a different texture and a bit more weight to the quilt. The blues I pulled from my stash, various quilt shops, and even stole some from my grandmother :).

 In all it has 20 different kinds of blue fabric. I had to cut 4 quarter square triangles per block, with 178 blocks in total. I think it took me almost two months to cut out all those triangles. Now I am piecing the blocks together, and then will sew them into rows like this:

I'm slowly making progress on these blocks. I have 47 done, so only 131 left!


Monday, February 3, 2014

Starburst

So I know I said I wasn't feeling the starburst quilt pattern I had begun, but after talking with my mother-in-law, who loved it, I decided to revisit it and try again instead of completely redoing it. 

As a recap, here was the original design:

And here was my take, with the lone star pattern:
I changed it a bit as I was sewing it up, and put all the greens in the center with a purple ring around them.  Putting the star together wasn't so bad, I did rip the seams a few times to get everything to line up, but seeing as this was my first time to make this pattern, it ended up ok. The issue came when I tried to do the y-seams to add the sold border around the star. I just could not get them to work right. Now that I've stepped away from it for a few days, I'm going to try again.  If it doesn't work, I'm going to just appliqué the whole thing down onto the purple back ground fabric. Then I just have to make the two borders, add the backing and quilt it. We'll see how it goes, and if I have to go to plan c :) 




Sunday, February 2, 2014

Colors!

I'm still working on building the fabrics for the samplers. Here are the collections I have so far. I also want to name each quilt, so I don't have to keep saying my grandmother's or my mom's. Here is the first stab at the names (subject to change at any time:). 

Revolutionary (my grandmother's quilt)
Tan, brown, navy, light blue, and deep red. 

Roaring 30's (my mom)
Various 1930's reproduction prints

Mod Squad (My sister-in-law)
Teal, aqua, lime, purple, white

Beal Street (mine)
Brown, teal, tan, and aqua

Rainbow
Rainbow colors! (Duh;) 

I have the next block cut out and hope to have it pieced today.