New Home, New Quilt

Curt & I moved to Nashville almost three weeks ago now and we have been going nonstop since. Our parents helped us move and spent the week in our new apartment. An extra bedroom and extra bathroom make it really easy for visitors now. After they left Curt got right to work recording some new/reworked songs for a demo. He worked hard on recording for a week and now the songs are being edited and mixed. I can't wait to hear at least a semi-final result.

Between recording Curt spent some time trying to fix our dryer. The hookup on the wall is in a crazy place and it was pretty comical watching him try to maneuver back there. The dryer still isn't working right, not his fault, but something's not quite right and I think it has to do with moving and something got jostled.. long story short, it's not drying. We have to send loads through two or three times. So that stinks and I still want to dig around a little inside and see if I can remove any more lint. Any suggestions?

Finally, my sister came to visit us last week and I decided it would be fun to make a quilt with her. She's helped me sew coasters and a few other little things before, but nothing of this magnitude. We decided to make a quilt for my parent's anniversary and a new comforter for their camper seemed like the perfect idea. Not my first color choices, but it matches their trailer perfectly. And we wanted to go with the grey because their bedding always gets so dirty while camping, what with the dog, the dirt, the sand.. grey should hide all that grime between vacations. This isn't a final product, we were in such a hurry to finish I forgot to take pictures in the end. I'll have my sister take some of it in it's new home in the camper.

It is loosely based on a Denise Schmidt Squares quilt, but we didn't use any pattern .. just winged it. The solid blocks have 6, 7, & 8 inch squares in the middle. The two-tone squares are two different sizes as well. All finished blocks are 12" square. We didn't prewash our fabrics (mostly Kona cotton solids) and had quilt a bit of shrinking. The final size is about 54" X 76". Seems small for a bed, I realize, but the bed in my parent's camper is TINY and this fit just perfectly, thank goodness. I panicked a bit after my sister doubted her measurements of the original bedspread.

(Please excuse the box that has yet to be unpacked and the Finn monster eyeing the quilt. He can't stay off quilts when I'm trying to figure them out on the floor.)

Now off to work for the night.. I hate that. I was able to transfer to the local Olive Garden here. Not my ideal job, but I'm really grateful to have something when so many people are out of work. Curt has been doing mystery shops around town to supplement, but we are both in search of more permanent employment. Anyone in Nashville hiring? :-)

WIP

I feel like my life is a work in progress right now, plus all the actual WIPs laying around my house. We are officially moving on June 16, just two weeks from today. Curt was down in Nashville this past weekend and found us a place to live, signed the lease and made some kind of payment, I'm sure. So as if my crafting wasn't a crazy enough mess, it's now half packed, half all over the floor. 

I can't wait until we move and I have a separate room to do my crafting in without causing a fabric explosion. Current WIPs exploding in the living room right now: 

Hedgerow Socks

Reversible Sack

iPhone cozy for a girl at work (sorry, no link, my own design)

All kinds of fabric that needs to be organized and packed

Added to my fabric stash: Tula Pink Nest charm pack, thanks to the giveaway from Jody at BlueberryGabs. I'm so excited to receive my charm pack, that is some of my absolute favorite fabric! Now just to find something to do with it... Thanks again Jody, you are wonderful. 

1 weekend, 2 finished quilts

This was a gloriously long weekend with plenty of time to work on finishing my quilts. I've been quilting them for the past week, practicing first on a couple pillow fronts and then taking the dive into actual quilts. This was my first time quilting ever, thanks to my new Janome 6260QC. I love, love, love it. The free motion was such a cinch, felt like I've been doing it all my life. So I practiced on the pillows, then moved onto my Mod Sampler Quilt. I figured I could do an okay job on mine so when it came time to do my sister's quilt, hers would be a step above okay. 

The good news is it worked, and I'm completely satisfied with how the quilting on both quilts turned out. And now onto some photos:

Brianna's 20th birthday quilt. She requested a stripy quilt with pink and orange fabrics. So hello, of course, Amy Butler Midwest Modern. I had some pink stuff left from this quilt, and I ordered the rest from eBay. I used Kona White sashing. The finished size is approximately 50" X 60". I made 12 huge blocks that had 8 stripes each (4 white, 4 colored) and then put them all together. It was one of the fastest quilt tops ever!

I was inspired by the Denyse Schmidt Hop, Skip & Jump quilt, but decided to go at it myself. As scrappy and random as it may look, I planned and planned and planned for this quilt. And even then, somehow my plans got a little messed up. But luckily the scrappiness of the quilt lends to easily fixing mistakes, and fix I did. My dad, ever the mathematician, will probably be the only other one to notice my mix up. 

I also made a matching patchwork pillow to go with her quilt, but sorry, no pictures yet. She doesn't know about the pillow, so that will be a nice surprise.

I also made a pillow to match my Mod Sampler Quilt with leftover scraps.

I just love the way my Mod Sampler turned out, so bright and cheery, perfect for my couch this spring. I don't have any full pictures of it yet, it was rainy today when I finished the binding. (On a side note, two quilts worth of binding to sew on by hand = very sore fingers!)

I used a mix of Amy Butler and Heather Bailey fabrics with Sugar Snap on the back. The sashing is Kona Snow, the binding is a plain pink, the same I used on my sister's quilt. This is the first time I used plain binding and I like the simplicity it brings to an otherwise busy quilt. My husband appreciated the balance the white sashing brought to the colorful blocks. I swear if he were to design a quilt, it would be all solids, maybe 3 colors. I should ask him to design a quilt, just to see what he would come up with. 

Now, because I love to see quilts all cuddly and crinkly:

Alright, time to watch Jon & Kate battle it out on the season premiere. I think I might grab some knitting to keep my fingers busy... 

My Enlightenment

If you are visiting my site for the first time, welcome! Many of you may have linked from the Made by Rae Spring Top contest. Don't forget to vote before tomorrow night, mine is TOP J in the Top 10! And some of you may have found my ruffle top on the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by :-)

My favorite new top isn't the only exciting news in my life....

Yesterday Curt picked up my new sewing machine from the local sewing shop. I've only been looking for a year now.. haha. After looking around the internet and asking other sewers, I made an impulse decision to buy the Janome 6260 Quilter's Companion. I haven't used it a whole lot yet (I had to work last night) but so far I love it. 

I've been working on my Oh, Fransson Quilt-Along sampler quilt and it will be my first quilting project on my new machine. The highlight of my life: the ability to free motion quilt, finally! That was the #1 reason I needed a new machine, besides the fact that my old one is a Brother low-end starter model that I got for my 19th birthday. My parents didn't think I'd stick with sewing, so they didn't want to invest in anything expensive. Somehow I've been sewing with that and managed a few quilts, but now I feel like my possibilities are endless. 

Tonight I'm going to start cutting fabric for my sister's birthday quilt. I gave her the choice of a bag, a quilt, or something else I could make her, and she choose a quilt. I would have too. So per her request, a pink, orange, yellow & white quilt based on Denyse Schmidt's Hop, Skip & Jump quilt. I don't have the pattern, but I was planning on winging it anyway a~la Kathy's baby quilt at Pink Chalk Studio. 

Now I just have to double check my math and get cutting - pictures to come. I ordered a bunch of different Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2 prints in the color scheme to throw in with my stash of pink Midwest Modern prints left from this quilt. Plus I'll probably add some random scraps from Heather Bailey for good measure. 

Wow, how exciting! I'm going to get to work right away. 

April Showers Better Bring May Flowers

Just a quick update on some things I've been working on lately. I've been really busy working, but I managed to get a little done in the last week or so:

A Spring Ruffle Top from Made by Rae. The tutorial was featured on Sew, Mama, Sew! 

I used some Heather Bailey Freshcut from my stash. I've had this fabric for awhile, but couldn't find the perfect project to use it on, until this shirt came around! The tutorial was wonderfully easy to follow and I only had to make minor adjustments to make it fit my small figure. (I'm 5'1") Instead of 20" long I did more like 16" or 17". I also took it in about 1.5" on the sides to make it more flattering. I love, love, love the way this top turned out and I will definitely be making more. I think I'll make my next one without the ruffles so it sits nice under cardigans (always my staple) or over a t-shirt (so I can wear it to work). 

Also featuring my Heather Bailey stash, plus some left-over Amy Butler:

My Mod Sampler Quilt from the Oh, Fransson! Quilt-Along. I also love the way this is turning out, I was anxious to start this quilt, but had to order a tad more fabric before I could start. Now I'm just waiting on some sashing... I'm going with white but I have to find the perfect shade. Putting it all together shouldn't take me long once I find the time. 

As far as quilting it... I'm trying to buy a new sewing machine that I can free-motion quilt on. My current machine is a basic starting Brother I got for my birthday 4 years ago. Other than being able to free-motion quilt, I don't have very many other requirements. I have a good pile of money saved up to purchase the machine of my choosing, ANY RECOMMENDATIONS? 

That's all for now. I'm considering a cuff from Anna Maria Horner's book, it's so cute and I could probably get it done tonight. I probably won't wear it all that often, but I'm dying to have one for myself. 

Quilts and Birthdays

Every week in school we have a "Letter of the Week" and a couple weeks ago it was the letter Q so, of course, we made a quilt! One of the girls helped me pick out the fabrics from my scrap pile. I pieced those together at home into the long strips, then let the kids help me sew the sashing on. They used their hands to push the pedal and I fed it through the machine. Not perfect, but they enjoyed sewing.

Here's the result:

I picked a pastel rainbow striped binding, I love stripes on binding! 

The back is an adorable Sesame Street flannel. It was difficult to pick a gender-neutral print that was cute and kind of went with our rainbow theme. All our kids love Sesame Street, so in the end I think it was a winner, plus it's cuddly and soft.

And it's already getting lots of nice use as a perfect lap quilt/nap quilt.

My mother-in-law raises alpacas and I was lucky enough to snag some of the wool she has laying around the basement. She doesn't have time to spin it, so I told her I'd give it a try. I ordered a couple spindles from Ma & Pa's Spindles and got to work. Here's my first try:

My MIL had previously dyed the wool and had it roved, a beautiful mix of purple, blue and pink. It came out thicker than I intended, but I was pleasantly surprised for my first try. I got some more wool for my birthday, which I am spinning right now.

Which brings me to my next topic:

My 23rd Birthday!

We played pin the tail on the donkey and ate a rainbow cake:

We also went to Disney World for Spring Break last week, but I will post about that later. I wanted to get something up for the time being, my posts have been way too few and far between, but I don't find a lot of time on my hands these days. Yet somehow I am making time for this: The Oh, Fransson! Quilt Along. I have a lovely stash of Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Tula Pink, and Melissa Averinos saved up to make a flowery, girly spring quilt. When I saw the quilt along, I knew that would be the perfect excuse to start working on the quilt. 

Is it really March?

With March's recent arrival, I'm asking myself "where did the time go!?" I left the blog in the dust and haven't updated in months. But March is national craft month (or so Joann's tells me) so I am inspired to post like mad this month and get back in the swing. Knit Picks also tells me it's sock month. I don't know if that's a national thing or just a Knit Picks thing, but either way, I'm game.

The socks will come later, for now, some projects I've been working on over the past few months. This is not a complete list, but rather, the photos I have enough time to post.

Freezer stencil shirts for my dad.

Travel wallet for Curt

Quilt for baby Gideon

Herringbone mitts for myself

Pin cushion for my Grandma Wilson to match a sewing machine cover I also made

That's all for now, I have to upload some more pictures from my camera and I'll post those as soon as I get on that. Life's too busy. 

On the To-Do List for the next couple weeks:

-Mail out aprons to my cousin Becky

-Make computer sleeve for Curt's little sister

-Purchase a drop spindle

-Start spinning fiber from my MIL's alpaca (I'm so excited to do this, but I have to finish the other things first)

So I best get to work; for some insane reason I am scheduled to work 5 nights this week at the restaurant (with 2 closing shifts!!) in addition to my 5 days at school. I'm not going to have any time to myself unless I can convince some people to pick up my shifts at work. I was hoping to cut back my waitressing hours now that Curt's back and working, but looks like my manager has other plans. I hate when that happens.