So many hobbies!

First quilt of 2013

I am amazed at how quickly I finished this quilt.  The back went together fast:

The back is fabulous fabric designed by Julie Paschkis called Catkin.  I fell in love with this fabric the first time I saw it and searched around until I found quantities I could purchase. 

I've got about a yard of this fabric left over and I may have to look for more.  Gorgeous!

The quilting was easy, simple and fast.  I had the entire thing stitched in one day.  The binding took two nights, mostly because I was playing Words with Friends with a friend of mine.  WwF is a huge time suck.  Tonight I ironed the binding and then stitched it down.  Now all it needs is a bath.

And now I'm between projects.  I much prefer being in the middle of a project.  I've been thinking of making a couple market/tote bags.  This is the pattern I've been looking at.  I've found myself in need of some tote bags lately and making my own seems like a good way to acquire them.  Besides, I need another project.

Who knew?

Apparently, leaving the sewing machine up does make for a more productive week.  The quilt is almost done.  This is the fabric I used for the back:

I've been wondering what would be the perfect quilt to use this fabric in and the cat quilt was it.  I just love this fabric.  I've still got about a yard left so it'll reappear in a future project.  It wasn't quite wide enough for the back so I took a strip of dark royal blue and sewed it up one side.  I should have a finished quilt by Thursday.  This will be the fastest I've ever made a quilt.  Go me!

Only the weekends seem to be productive

One quilt is completed and I go and start another one.  I ordered this and this adorable fabric designed by Laurel Burch.  Once it arrived Saturday, I couldn't wait to cut into it and start piecing.  I was thinking this would be another kid's quilt but I've kind of fallen in love with it.  This one will stay with me.  Because my camera refuses to correctly capture purple, you can't tell that the center strip of solid is, in fact, purple.  I think the quilt looks pretty good, especially considering I designed it on the fly Saturday morning.  It's not big enough for a bed quilt but it's plenty big enough to take a nap under.  Now I have to decide what to put on the back.

I get so much done on the weekend but I seem to be a complete slug during the week.  When I get home from work, I'm tired and it seems like way too much effort to drag out the sewing machine or start another knitting project.  Maybe if I leave the sewing machine out all week, I'll be more inclined to put the quilt sandwich together and start quilting.  I'll have to try that this week.

Happy New Year!

It was a wonderful holiday and time off from work.  My list of UFOs didn't go down by too much but I managed to complete the two biggest ones.  Or rather, the two I wanted to do the least because my current interests had moved from sewing to knitting and spinning.  The kid's quilt, blogged about here, is finally finished and it currently taking a ride in the dryer.

I love the look of the polka dot fabric I used for the binding. 

The second thing I wanted to finish but wasn't really interested in doing was the knitting bag I made for my friend Amy.  The deal was if she bought all the materials, I'd put the thing together.  Despite a couple a very annoying setbacks, I started and finished it today:

It turned out pretty well.  Naturally, I can see all the mistakes but probably no one else will.  I just hope Ames like it.

I spent the last week and a half without an alarm clock, sleeping until I woke up.  It was glorious!  Christmas was wonderful, with my entire family home for the first time in quite a few years.  There were 18 of us talking, laughing and filling up Mom and Dad's house.  It was great being surrounded by family.  I believe that it just isn't Christmas unless you get at least one book.  I got five!  It was a happy Christmas.

Back to work tomorrow.  It's going to be jarring to wake up to the alarm at 6:00 am and spend the day at work rather than with my cats.  Every time I sat down, I'd have a cat on my lap.  It's pretty great.

Decisions, decisions

This coming weekend, the girl's of my family are having a craft weekend.  We'll all meet at my parents' place and craft our brains out.  If the fabric I ordered arrives on time (it's coming from the west coast, Yen), then I'll be started my Christmas quilt.  I ordered these fat quarters for the greens.  I'll be doing a variation of the Log Cabin quilt.  Mostly green and white with red centers.  I'm hoping the fabric comes in at least by Thursday so I can start cutting.  It would be nice if I could have the cutting done and just start sewing when I get to my parents' place.  I'm still deciding on whether or not to use just plain white fabric or white fabric with white pattern.  I like the idea of white with a white print but I already have plenty of plain white fabric.  I have to weigh the look of the printed fabric over the cost of said fabric.  It's a toss up.

It's started

I haven't gotten very far 'cause I only started tonight.  What can I say; I got a novel from Amazon on Tuesday and went out to dinner with friends Wednesday.  Once I get the center pinwheel quilted, the rest should go pretty quickly.  I'm hopeful that the quilting will be done by the end of the weekend.  Then I have to decide on the fabric I'll use for the binding.  Should be fun!

The sandwich

The quilt sandwich is complete and the whole thing is pinned.  Now I need to figure out just how I'm going to quilt this thing.  Usually, I make/design a quilt that is easily quilted with a walking foot.  There are exceptions, of course, like the houses quilt, that really need special quilting that you can only get with free-motion quilting.  This time, I know what I'm going to do with the whilte background, but I'm unsure of how to quilt inside the blocks.  I'm leaning toward outlining the black borders in black and then just long lines in the color of each block.  I'm going to sleep on it tonight and see if something better occurs to me.  Suggestions are welcome.

I went with a friend to visit a new-to-me bulk food store that also specializes in emergency preparedness.  The owners were a husband and wife team.  As he was ringing up my purchases, I noticed that the husband was openly wearing a gun.  I had no idea you could do that in Michigan.  I told him the only people I'd ever seen wearing a gun were cops.  He then asked me if I had one, which I don't.  Guns scare the crap out of me.  He encouraged me to learn to shoot one and to visit a local gun range.  I admit, I'm curious.  Preparing for the zombie apocalypse is all well and good but all it takes is one person at your door with a gun and you're in trouble.  I'll think about it for a while but things in our country will have to get a lot worse before I go out and buy a gun.  I've already been warned that if I go out and buy a gun, my friends will stage an intervention to let me know that the preparations for an emergency have gone a bit too far.  Don't worry guys, I'm not there yet.

Almost there

Not bad but it needs about 10-15 more inches on either side.  Definitely not wide enough.  And it needs to be cleaned up.  I basically made up the pattern, such as it is, and my numbers were slightly off.  Either that or my cutting was lousy.  It could have been either of those things.  Tomorrow I'll make it wider.

Not much but a pot of soup

 

Putting the border on the blocks is just about all I managed to get done this weekend.  Well, that and a pot of split pea soup. After a long summer of being pretty busy, I'm really enjoying some downtime.  My weekends usually include long naps at the bottom of a cat pile.  Those are my favorite kinds of naps.  I tend to sleep better when the cats sleep with me.  And since I refuse to turn the furnace on yet, sleeping with the cats is warmer than sleeping alone.  They're like little furnaces all on their own. 

Oranges and pinks

Usually, I'm drawn to blues and greens but this time, my favorite blocks are the oranges and pinks.  This is the way they're going to be in the quilt although I'm thinking they'll look better edged in black.  More separation between the colors.  I think.  Initially, I was just going to put a black border around the entire pinwheel shape but I think it'll look better with the blocks separate.  I wonder if I have any black Kona in The Stash?