Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My Famous Pot Holders


I made three, count them three sales yesterday!  Two of them were to the same person- two pairs of pot holders she wants to use on a show on Food Network called Dessert First that will air in the spring.  Pretty cool, eh?

Monday, January 24, 2011

I Get It . . .

... Cash wants to be a quilter!


I've been trying to pump up my Etsy site.  There's some new stuff on there and quite a few projects in progress.  Stop by my shop and see what I've been up to:

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Baby Joseph Quilt


I'm not sure there was anyone, including me, that thought I could actually pull this off.  I'm really excited about it.  And, while it's not perfect, this is the first time that I've been okay with a quilt I've make that isn't perfect.  In fact, I think that it makes it personal and a little fun.  On a side note- is there anything better than taking a quilt you just finished out of the dryer?  It's pretty much the best.


Some one saw that we had a quilt on the floor- little rascal :)



I need some better lighting.  I don't really have the possibility in my apartment due to the lack of sunlight I get.  If it was the spring time, I'd head down the street to Central Park, but in this weather it would just ruin it... bummer.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Your Sneak Peek

Thanks for the nice man at the hardware store, I was able to finish the Joseph Baby Quilt!  It needs some snips here and there and still needs to be washed, but here's you're sneak peek:


An Other Set Back

Ugh, the universe does not want me to finish this quilt...  Since Cash felt the need to sleep on the quilt all weekend, I decided to put the regular foot back on the machine and start to piece an other quilt while he slept (because he is the most spoiled cat in the world...).

Yesterday evening I decided to go ahead and put the free motion foot back onto the machine and I some how have stripped the screw and, while it'll keep the regular foot in place, it cannot hold the free motion foot.  Looks like I'm making a trip to the hardware store today.  Let's hope that can help me out...
Monday, January 17, 2011

My Not So Helpful Helper

My favorite helper is not being so helpful these days- he's in love with the Joseph Baby Quilt (and our new furniture arrangement) and he will not get off this quilt.  I haven't made a lot of headway this weekend to say the least...

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Getting There


And thanks to Meredith for my fancy quilting gloves!
Friday, January 14, 2011

The Dirty Thirty Quilt

Today is Cristina's 30th Birthday.  She is one of my closest friend and she, unlike me, is not too excited to hit the big 3-0 and she, unlike me, is celebrating in a nice normal fashion- dinner with her boyfriend and then a party at a bar.  Since we aren't going crazy with the celebrating, I decided that I needed to do something special for her for her birthday (especially since she will be traveling for mine).  I had put a nice little gift bag together for her when on Tuesday she let it slip that she'd love to have a quilt to use while watching TV if I ever felt like making one for her.  I also had plans to maybe see her on Thursday- Make an entire quilt in less than 48 hours?  Challenge excepted.

Who would have thought that I'd actually be able to pull it off?!  30 hours after I began the quilt, it was finished.  (Sleep and human interaction is highly overrated anyway...)  I have been thinking recently that I wanted to do more work with hexagons, because apparently I love them.  I also love a quilt that is in Elizabeth Hartman's book that is a white quilt that looks like it has peddles tossed all over it.  I decided to try to combine the idea and attempt to make a quilt that looked like there were hexagons sprinkled over the quilt.  For the most part, I think that I succeeded (especially since I patterned it myself- a first for me!).  Here is my wonky inspiration drawing and my notes that I used during the process.  Not a lot to work from, I know.

Also, since I had such a short amount of time to complete it, that I needed to only use what I had.  Thankfully, I'm pretty familiar with Cristina's aesthetic, so I just went through my stash, picked out stuff I knew she'd like, and cut hexagons using the hexagon template from Fresh Quilts.  The rest of it, I totally winged.  I played with the hexagon template and took all kinds of measurements.  Over all, I'm happy with the pattern (which will, forever be referred to as the Dirty Thirty Quilt), I think there is a little too much white, I think that it suggests what I was going for.  I might actually write up a little tutorial of this later if I'm feeling ambitious.  The back of the quilt is a few different vintagey fabrics that go pretty well together and the binding is actually from a top sheet that I no longer have the mate for...

And now, a word (or a few) about free motion quilting.  This was my first attempt.  At first, I HATED  it.  It was really loud (I thought my neighbors might complain) and really hard to control, the stitch lengths were crazy different, and I broke 5 needles.  And then, like magic, the foot broke.  No, seriously, this medal bar thingie snapped right off, and it was like magic.  Suddenly, it was quiet and controllable and faster (and no more broken needles!).  Maybe they sold me the wrong foot.  Whatever it was, now it's good, so I'm okay with it.  I did sort of curly cues mixed with circles- I wanted it to basically look like I had doodled on it (I even threw in a "Hidden Mickey" for good measure).  For a first outing, I think it went pretty well.



Cash insists on immediately running up and lying on any quilt (or fabric) that I put on the ground- especially when I want to take photos.
Thursday, January 13, 2011

Greye

My aunt, who also shares the same middle name as I do, sent me this wonderful photo of Greye making an American Flag during WWII in New Hampshire.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

This is Awesome


I finished the top of what I will now refer to as The Baby Joseph quilt.  Is it perfect?  No.  Is it still awesome?  Absolutely.  Not to mention, I feel like I've found the type of quilting that I should be doing.  I love the shapes and colors, etc.  It has certainly inspired me to make many more quilts and to say with confidence that I am indeed a quilter.

I saw Rachel today unexpectedly.  Had I known 24 hours before hand, I would have tried to finish this sucker, but now I won't rush it.  It'll be done in plenty of time for the shower.

And Cash likes it too :)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Takin' A Break

My favorite helper takes a little nap under the t-shirt quit:

Friday, January 7, 2011

Hell Yeah!

Excuse my language, but this is exciting!  I had made great stride in not only Rachel's baby quilt, but at being a quilter in general.

First, I finished cutting all 108 stash patterned pieces:


Instead of then cutting all of the off white fabric, I decided to cut about 15 or so and see if I was actually capable of putting one of these, uh, let's call them 'blocks' together.  It turns out, hell yes I am!  I mean, seriously, this is hard stuff and I actually managed to put it together without it looking terrible. 


Sure, this kid may have a doctorate by the time I finish this quilt, but I actually feel like I'm off to a very good start and am excited to continue.  The baby shower is in March...  I better get moving!!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Once Upon a Time...

I think I've let it slip a couple of times on blog that I'm a Disney fan, but that's not completely accurate.  I'm a Disney fanatic.  Okay okay, I guess "obsession" is a better word when describing how I feel about Disney.  In fact, for my 30th Birthday I will be traveling to Disney World with a handful of friends and my parents.  And, since I'm a Disney pro, I go all out- I've replaced a zipper of a Figment backpack from my childhood and then decided that I need a Disney themed wallet for the trip.  Why buy when you can make?  So, I grabbed the book Easy Japanese Quilt Style (a Christmas gift from my friends Shelagh and Doug) and loosely went off a pattern for wallets- I made two: Disney 'Once Upon a Time' themed, and one from the left over fabric from Courtney's Thank You quilt.

The idea for these wallets is really cute, but the directions are not the clearest ever, so I had to sort of loosely follow the instructions and sort of go with my gut on how to put it together.  Courtney's was easier than my Disney wallet, simply because all of the fabric already coordinated, while I had to decide which of my Disney fabric I was actually going to use.  I have a lot, but not a ton of options- no Mickey and Minnie (bummer), but two different Disney Princess themed, a little bit of left over Ariel from pot holders I made Courtney for her Birthday, a fair amount of Winnie-The-Pooh, and, of course, the Alexander Henry fabric that I'm convinced looks exactly like "It's a Small World."  I settled, however, on staying with the Disney Princesses.  Combining all of the fabric on such a small project looked a little messy and disjointed.
The thing that I really loved about this project is, now that I know the basic way to put a wallet together, I feel like I could make my own pattern and make it more functional and a better size.  If I do, I am going to attempt to write my own pattern.  Hopefully I will be more clear enough for people to understand me. This project also made me really appreciate Elizabeth Hartman.  Her instructions are so clear and easy to follow.  I hope she writes a million more books!







I can't wait to get to Disney World, so I can use this little guy!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I Must Be Crazy

My childhood best friend's sister Rachel, and her husband Ami, are expecting their first child about a month after my 30th Birthday.  Of course I'm making them a baby blanket, but decided that instead of doing the simple little ones I normally do, I'd do something creative, fun, modern, gender neutral, detailed, and stash busting and, evidently, super hard!

I'm not sure what possessed me to think that my skill level is up for this adorable pattern from Fresh Quilts, but I'm determined to do my best!  I've begun cutting the 100s of pieces that will go into this quilt- it is, by far, the most detailed I have ever attempted- in piecing as well as in quilting.


The cutting of the cute pieces of fabric has been a lot of fun.  The center pieces are an Olivia fabric I picked up at Fabric Shack.  The rest of the pieces are from my stash or fat quarters I just picked up while on my "vacation" in Ohio.  I have also ordered some off white fabric for the back ground and some fun dots for the back and binding.  Just cutting this is going to take forever and I have actually lay awake in bed thinking about how to actually piece this together, but I am determined.  You will all be impressed if this is ever when this is done.  Impressed.  It'll be all worth it.
Monday, January 3, 2011

Thank You Quilt Top


Okay, so I decided that I like this quilt a lot better today.  Seeing the top come together made me feel a lot better about the work I've put into it- also, knowing how excited Courtney is to get her quilt definitely makes it worth it.  I hope she doesn't mind that all of the lines don't line up perfectly, but that's what you get with handmade!  We're still deciding how to quilt it and if we're adding a boarder, but I have the fabric for the back and the binding.  In about a week or so I think I'll dive into the quilting portion.  I've gotta say, I'm pretty pleased with this, fingers crossed Courtney feels the same.

The top minus the sashing

Thank You Quilts

If you can remember back to the fall, you'll remember that I was in Ohio for about 2 months designing a play.  I was there for a week with no car (because why would I own a car, being a NYC resident?).  If you've ever been in Central Ohio without a car, you know how hard it is!  Thankfully, I have some very wonderful cousins who picked me up (a half hour out of their way) and drove me around, helped clean up the apartment I was put in, and drove me all the way to Cincinnati to get a car- needless to say, I'm not sure how I could have made it there without them.  As a thank you, they are each getting a quilt since they were both in the market and couldn't find any that they liked/could afford.  While I'm still waiting for Caitlin to tell me what she wants, I have been getting a lot of work done on Courtney's recently.

She found a quilt in a magazine that she really wanted and I did a little research and found the pattern online (above).  It's made with a jelly roll, which I've never worked with before.  To be honest, I'm sorta hating it.  There are lots of long straight lines, etc.  While I guess having the fabric pre-cut into strips is very convenient, it sort of feels like it takes the creativity out of making a quilt.  I've worked with patterns before, but you still get to pick off of your own fabric, etc which makes it feel like your own.  And, while we picked a jelly roll that is different than the one they suggest, it still feels more like work than like creating.  I hope that this changes once it's pieced together a little more.


Sunday, January 2, 2011

Brown Bag Quilt

So, I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog yet, but I have the best brown bag quilt partner, Leona over at Leona's Quilting Adventure.  Not only did she send me some lovely fabric when the contest started, but she also sent me a bonus holiday fat quarter that's part of the collection she originally sent me!

The reason I love the brown bag quilt is because I probably wouldn't have noticed or bought this fabric in a store, but now that I have it I absolutely love it and may look at fabric differently while shopping.  I am going to use a pattern from my new book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  It's not terribly detailed, but the fabric is so lovely and has such large patterns on it that I wanted to make sure that the quilt I made was a showpiece for the fabric.  I've cut all of the pattern pieces thus far.

I am going to pair it with some solid light blue fabric that I have.  I'm not as happy with this pairing as I'd like to be, but seeing as I've only see quilting for 6 months or so, I don't have quite the stash I would like to have for projects like this.  A few more trips to Fabric Shack and I'm sure I'll catch up!

My goal is to finish piecing all of the blocks this week, so stay tuned for progress.

And on a side note, since it's the last week of regular season NFL football, I just wanted to say that there is nothing that I love to do more on a Sunday than spend the day quilting while watching football.  I'm going to miss this when the season is over...
Saturday, January 1, 2011

New Year, New Projects, New Look

With the new year, comes a whole new list of projects to dive into.  (And a new look for blog!)  Here are the projects that I have to complete before I turn 30 that I will blog about...






1. Rachel's Baby Blanket
2. Brown Bag Quilt
3. Courtney's "thank you" Quilt
4. 1-3 Custom Ordered T-Shirt Quilt(s)
5. Disney Themed surprises for my crew on my Birthday trip
6. Various Pot Holders by request and also just to put on Etsy

I have a Bengal's quilt on my year to-do, but I certainly don't anticipate that happening soon.

Looks like I'm gonna be super busy until April!