Showing posts with label bake shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bake shop. Show all posts

Monday, December 27, 2010

After Christmas Sewing

I have been sleeping alot this past week. Trying to get well and back to feeling much, much better. I think I am on the right track, but it is taking a bit of time. I tried to run errands and go to the grocery store today, but got so exhausted after one stop I just picked up some lunch and came home. I guess that I had totally worn down my body this fall semester and am in need of this rest. I only have little less than a week to get back up to speed, so I really need to settle in and work on that and on getting the laundry done. I really am about to run out of clean clothes.

So, when I have been awake, you saw one of the things I made one day while I was playing around with the scrap fabrics from my cutting table. (the Merry Christmas quilt from the last post) I have been trying to clear it off and get the scrap fabric cut into squares or strips so they can be easily used in scrap quilts. I go anywhere from 1 inch square (you know for those tiny quilts I sometimes get the urge to make) up to 5 inch charm squares. I won't let myself go any larger, yet. Now I need to find a place to put these little squares so they will be accessible and not get tumbled around in another scrap box. LIGHT BULB!!! I see two empty recipe/index boxes right here on my desk. What a great way to store these squares. I have several more at school that I have collected that students have left behind. They now will have a home in my quilting studio! What a great idea! Thank you light bulb.

Now, on to two other things I have worked on during the holiday. The place mats that still aren't finished. I just need to hand stitch the binding on two! that's all. Just two of the 4 place mats and they will be all finished.



The other thing that I just finished today and that was because I decided to go ahead and add the flower to the front and then I decided to hand embroider some extras to help it pop a bit more. (yes, it is hand appliqued. Thank you for asking)



it is a Kindle cover. I was going through Moda Bake Shop looking for a quilt that used two honey buns (because I finally found another Arcadia by Sanae for Moda honey bun - yea me only $12!!) Anyway, I was looking through and this is one of the patterns that came up that uses honey buns. Well, how fortunate. My sisters and I got my mother a kindle for Christmas. How much fun would it be to make her a cover? So, I got out my box of 1 1/2" strips - what? I am not using Arcadia for this! - and got to sewing. There are parts of this pattern that I liked and parts that I didn't. One of the things I had to do differently was that I had to draw out my own applique patterns. I tried to download them, but since it had been published so long ago, the site where they are housed wanted me to sign up and pay for membership. I didn't want to do that, so I wasn't going to add any applique. Then this morning I woke up and decide to play around with some card stock to see if I could draw the pieces to my liking. They are definitely not perfect, but that is what I like about them. the second thing is that the pattern calls for a 3/8 inch seam when sewing on the binding. I didn't take into consideration for the extra seam allowance when I turned the corners so my corners are not very good. Nowhere close to being near perfect. Matter of fact, I haven't had any perfectly mitered corners since Gerri's birthday quilt. (feeling great remembering those perfect corners!) Again, I am drifting off subject. Even with those two things, I like the pattern and am going to have to make at least one more. They go together really quick and if I knew more people that had Kindles I might could make some and sell them. Of course, I may have to make some severe changes to the pattern to be able to sell them. I will have to check and see. Wonder if my nephew would want/use one for his NOOK or think it was too girly? yea, you're right-probably too uncool and girly for a 17 year old. (I promise I wouldn't put the flower on the front of his!) We'll see....

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

New Quilt top


This is the Project I have been working on for a couple of days. It's not a hard pattern, just time consuming. Sorry for all the wrinkles in the top in this picture, I have a hard time stretching over to my far right and getting the quilt to adhere to my flannel wall. That dark blob in the bottom right is my fan in my quilt room and it is sitting on the corner of my quilting table. In order to get this top up all the way I have to stretch over the table and sometimes have to use a ruler to push up that top right hand corner and hope it stays. Since I put it up a few times (put it up, fall down, put it up, fall down, etc.) I didn't want to touch it since it looked like it was going to stay this time. It is in really pastel blues, pinks, greens and creams. This fabric line, Aviary by 3 Sisters for Moda, is sweet and dainty. Below is a picture of one of the blocks and a little bit of the sashing. This quilt uses two charms packs and one honeybun. For those of you that may not know, a charm pack is made up of at least 40 - 5 inch squares and a honeybun is at least 40 - 1 1/2" strips.



With all the partial strips left over from the honeybun I decided to make a bag to carry the quilt in (after it is quilted). I simply have sewn the strips together to create a piece of fabric. This morning I quilted it and that is as far as I have gotten until I clean off my cutting table a bit better I can't go any further. My little cutting space is not large enough to get this long strip even. Soon I will post the finished bag for everyone to see. As you can tell, from the picture below, I love quilting gentle curves in straight line quilts. I think it gives it a little texture and umph.