Wordless Wednesday

Quilter Blogs

Less than a year ago, the concept of as quilting blog was unheard of to me. Then I stumbled upon a blog one day while searching for a tutorial and I was hooked. I first read that entire blog from the first entry to the present. After finishing it, I found myself wanting more. I began searching out other quilt blogs to take in the creativity, enthusiasm, and inspiration that oozes from them. In my searches I one day stumbled across quilterblogs.com It is such a great resource for finding new blogs to read, inspiration for projects, and more. It also has a section on locating quilt stores and shops. All in all a lot of good stuff in one place. If you have a few minutes you should hop on over and check it out. I'm sure you won't be sorry!

My Original Princess Quilt

I finally have the time to share the story I promised here and here. My first attempt at quilting...

A lot of my weekends during my junior and senior years of high school were spent babysitting for three little girls that I absolutely adored. The two older girls, ages 3 and 2, shared a Disney princess themed bedroom and one day while out at the store I found a panel print of Disney princesses. Having wanted to quilt for a number of years, I thought I would make quilts for the girls to put on their beds. I purchased two panels and some matching calico fabrics and solids to put together the backs.Having no idea what I was doing, I randomly cut into the fabric and pieced together a rectangle that was the same size as the panel for the back. I knew it wasn't perfect, but I was quite happy with my first attempt at piecing. I sandwiched the panel, some batting, and the pieced back together, basted with a few safety pins and attempted to free motion quilt it all together. Knowing nothing about what I was doing, I had the feed dogs up and was using a presser foot. The result:I tried to move the quilt back and forth to create the wavy lines I had seen on other quilts, but it was hard. I was upset that I had a couple spots where the fabric folded over the quilting, but was otherwise somewhat happy with what I had put together.I couldn't figure out how to fix the problem though so I decided to just bind it. Mind you, I had no concept of quilting. I was just looking at a quilt my parents had had made for me in middle school and trying to copy what I appeared to be looking at. To me, the binding looked like a tube of fabric so that is what I did next. I cut long strips of fabric and sewed them into tubes, turned them right side out, folded them over the raw edges of the quilt and pinned them down. Each side of the quilt had a separate piece of binding and I just folded the ends under so the raw edge wouldn't hang out.When I finished sewing down the one side, there were several places the binding wasn't attached to the quilt. This was the last straw for me. I was so frustrated that I quit. I didn't know where to turn to learn what I needed to to fix the quilts since I didn't know anyone who quilted or really even people who sewed much at the time.
I've learned so much since this first attempt. Luckily, I thought to look online for help when I next attempted quilting. Between what I read online and some critical thinking, I've figured out what I'm doing now.

I still have this mangled mess of fabric, batting, and thread. My mom thinks I should keep it as a reminder of my first attempt at quilting. I'm thinking about throwing it away. I still have the fabric that I had planned to use for the matching quilt plus these pictures so I'm not sure I need to keep this unusable mess. We'll see.

Parade of Projects 4

The most important of my upcoming projects is a dorm quilt for my sister who is graduating next May. I'm planning and beginning a year early so it'll be ready in time to give her as a graduation present. I know how I operate and that I may need all that time. Plus I'd rather have it done too early than too late.

(I apologize this picture is sideways. I cannot get it to rotate.)

Fabrics: Michael Miller prints, Kona solids, and a floral print
Pattern: An original design I created. Blocks are 16 1/2"x9 1/2".
Size: Twin extra-long bed sized (I'm aiming for 66"x92")
Backing: Hot pink with a stripe pieced from the other fabrics
Binding: Black

She requested a French theme and hot pink. Everything else is up to me. I've (finally!) finished the design and now just have to get started.

That's all the confirmed projects I have at the moment. There are several others stewing in my brain, but they need to be firmed up a bit before I add them to the list.

Progress and I'm a Winner!

This past weekend, I headed home to see my sister perform in a musical. She was the lead and did such a wonderful job that I ended up staying home for four days to see all the shows. Despite the stack of end of the semester papers and projects that need completed, I was able to sneak a little time at my machine. Sadly, I don't have pictures of the blocks, but I was working with these fabrics:I am absolutely loving the string blocks and can't wait to make some more. I believe I made 13 blocks. I think I'm shooting for 64 so hopefully I still love string blocks by the time I'm done!

More exciting news: I'm a winner! Last week, I entered Robin's birthday giveaway - her new "Five, Ten, Twenty" pattern and 20 fat quarters. Imagine my excitement as I read her winner post and saw my comment number and name on the screen. Usually, I don't know what my comment number is, but Robin had replied to all her comments with the number so as I scrolled down and saw '58' I was in shock and quickly kept scrolling to see if it could possibly be true. It was! She's already sent out the package and I can't wait to see all the beautiful fabrics in person! It won't be for a couple of weeks until after I move since I had her send the package to my new address, but it gives me something to look forward to as I push through the final weeks of the semester.

I have one more 'float' in my parade of projects to share tomorrow and then you are in for some laughs when I finally get the story of my original princess quilt up later this week. ;-)

Parade of Projects 3

Fabrics: Disney Princess Panel with coordinating calico and solid fabrics
Pattern: Pieced square border surrounding the panel
Size: Baby sized
Backing: Pieced but I haven't decided on a design
Binding: Hopefully the purple, but if there isn't enough than the blue

This fabric was purchased six or more years ago to make two matching quilts for a couple of little girls I used to babysit for. The story of the first quilt will come, complete with picture, later this week...

Parade of Projects 2

Project BFabrics: Misc. red, black, and white fabrics. Some scraps and some cuts specifically for this project
Pattern: Strip quilt, but I haven't decided on the block size. I'm thinking 8.5" unfinished blocks
Size: Lap quilt
Backing: Red, black, and white checked fabric
Binding: Undecided

Parade of Projects

Since I can't be working on the actual piecing and quilting of my projects, I have been planning out my projects for the upcoming months. I love planning and organizing most anything - events, meetings, projects, groups, etc - so I've actually been having quite a bit of fun with this. Over the next week or so I will be sharing my project plans (in no particular order). I'd love to hear any suggestions or thoughts you have on any of them.

Project A
Fabrics: Camelot fabrics and red, blue, and green solids
Pattern: Alternating four patch blocks of 2 blue, 1 red, and 1 green square with 5" blocks of the prints
Size: Baby sized though exact dimensions I don't know
Backing: Pieced from leftover fabrics
Binding: Green

Look What I Got

Look at what arrived in the mail earlier this week....
I was one of the March giveaway winners at Quilting Ranny. Jean gave away four of these breast cancer ribbon print cup sleeves as well as several other prizes. I consider myself lucky to have won one of these handmade sleeves. My debate now is whether to keep it for myself or gift it to a family friend that is battling breast cancer. Either way I know this will be appreciated!

Thanks Jean!

Quilting Bee Blocks

Before I had my own blog, I was reading other quilting blogs for several months. One thing I kept coming across in my readings was that all the blogs I was following would display bee blocks each month. Once I figured out what Virtual Quilting Bees were and how they worked I couldn't wait to get involved in one. I knew that I probably couldn't be a responsible bee member until after I finished school since I don't get a lot of time with the machine while going to classes and studying, so I've consoled myself in the meantime by admiring the beautiful blogs created by the many creative individuals whose blogs I follow.
One thing I've continued to wonder is how to get involved in a VQB. Today, I came across my answer: Quilting Bee Blocks. I'm excited to further explore this great resource and all it has to offer!
If you have a moment, stop over and check it out. There are block tutorials, pictures of beautiful blocks, information about VQBs and how to get involved in one, and even a giveaway. How much more could you really want from a blog?

Quality Time

I had planned to spend some quality time with not only my family this holiday weekend, but also with my sewing machine. The family time, however, seemed to grow and swell until I realized my weekend was almost over with little time at the machine. I had managed to sew a few of these blocks together Friday night before falling asleep. This morning, while the Easter Bunny finished hiding eggs, I finished sewing the quilt top together.
In my haste I didn't properly line up a few of the corners, but I'm not worrying about it. I like the look, but think I'll make a few adjustments to future disappearing nine patch designs. The quilting will have to wait until May.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

The New Additions

My new fabrics arrived from fabric.com...
The one on the left is a guitar fabric I bought for a future project for my sister's boyfriend. He loves to play guitar and will appreciate all the guitar words. I haven't seen very many masculine fabrics so if I'm going to make a quilt for him at some point, I'll need to keep an eye out for appropriate fabrics starting now.
The fabric in the middle is a flannel print for a Noah's Ark baby quilt. Also a future project as it was requested by my younger sister who won't be having a baby for several years.
Last, but not least is dance fabric. Not sure yet if this will be for a quilt or a dance bag for one of my sisters. It is covered in dance terminology and I think they'll love anything I make out it.

Also in the package was a $5 coupon since they weren't able to send my tiger paw fabric. I'm trying to not buy any more fabric for awhile since I'm about to graduate and have yet to find a source of income post-graduation. If anyone is interested, it is $5 off of $20 at fabric.com and I'm happy to mail it to the first person that leaves a comment saying they would use it.