Baby FM- Kickin' It

I almost forgot! Baby FM's mom is back at work and is loading us with adorable pictures. He's 3.5 months old now! I feel like I just got newborn pictures. You've gotta admit, what a cutie! And apparently he is loving his quilt! So glad it's getting used. Just wanted to share the baby love. It's so rewarding seeing things you've made with so much love get used and appreciated. No better feeling.

Happy Crafting!

To Grandmother's House We Go!

Two weeks ago I was able to spend a full week at what I like to call Home Home. This is my parents' home in Illinois, therefore it's not my home anymore, but it's my home home aka original home. You can never really stop calling it home, no matter how long you've been gone. It was a week away from the computer and anything with a screen (minus the TV and occassionaly some house hunting with the parents on Dad's IPad). But of course, this meant saying goodbye to the cat.

While at Home Home I got to sneak away while the parents were at work and spend a major amount of time with Grandma!! YAY! Pretty much the best week ever. She has an epic sewing room, which I now realize I probably should have gotten pictures of. Ironically, we have the exact same sewing machine! She pulled out a loner for me during my time there so we could sew together. It's older but just as fancy-pants and I had no issues using it. Well, I take that back. Neither Grandma or I could figure out how to wind the bobbin.

Here was our set-up. Perfect for chatting and sewing together. Grandma is on the left there but refused to have her picture taken.

The project of the week was the stroller/car seat baby quilt for Baby Cousin. She is due at the end of this month. I'm also working on that sweater for her, which is slow going so no updates yet. I think I'm going to wait for the Cousin's to come back to America before handing over the gifts, which will be about 2 months after the baby is born. It's probably going to take me that long to get that sweater knit.

I used a Moda Charm Pack from "Walk in the Woods" by Aneela Hoey which have little girls in red capes out on adventures! Knowing her parents, this will be an adventure having little girl, so it was only appropriate. 

The plan all starting coming together with the layout, which I loved! The pattern is so simple yet looks kinda hard. Those are the best kind. I laid everything out on the floor like I do at home. I think Grandma thought I was little weird on my hands and knees down there, but I'm just much more comfortable on the ground.

 

The quilting then began. At this point I had somehow convinced Grandma to let me switch to her machine for the quilting aspect of it. I did a lot of free motion quilting with the BSR and wasn't about to even try it on the older Bernina. Since we have the same machine it was like being home. I was super comfortable. Plus, the quilt is so small it didn't take long to get all the quilting finished.

During our frequent breaks for snacks and naps and dinner out on the town, I mentioned a couple long term projects I had in mind but was keeping to myself (and Grandma). She said, "oh yes, I think you'd mentioned that one before. I've saved all my selvage for you". And how! Look at that bag of selvege! (Thanks, Grandma!) 

And yes, I did get that in my tiny suitcase for the way back home. I finished the binding while watching a movie with the family and tadah! Finished! Don't you love the ties?! That will be helpful in securing this little quilt to the stroller or carseat. Genius! (not my genius, I copied)

My time at Home Home flew by rapidly but I was so glad to get back to the roots. It's nice being home now, but only because it's time to start the next project (and I'll admit, I missed the hubby, who complained about me being gone mostly because he was terrorized by the cat for a whole week).

As for the next project, I have a few up in the air. I'm thinking about getting some muslin to start some selvege blocks now that I have a massive quantity of them. I still have this one to quilt as well as some coworker envy over the stroller/carseat quilt above as she's just had a baby. I'm looking forward to this weekend already!

Happy Crafting!

Anticipation

It's about that time! I decided to take a vacation and spend it not on a beach but at home with the family. It will be a combination-adventure, spending a few days wedding dress shopping with the bride-to-be sister in Chicago followed by a train ride HOME with Mom. I anticipate a week of crafting! While Mom and Dad are at work I will be crafting with Grandma! You may remember that all those years ago it was the Grandma that taught me how to sew. I don't know how much fabric the sister and I wasted making "purses" which was the first item I learned to make. Needless to say, the quilts my Grandma turns out are spectacular. I hope to be that good one day.

I purchased the above fabric to make a tiny baby quilt that will attach to a stroller or carseat. My cousin is having a baby girl! Finally a girl to make stuff for!! I'm coming for you, Grandma! I got all the fabric cut and ready to sew.

A week filled with crafting doesn't denote quilting only (although the goal is to completely finish this tiny quilt). I will also be hanging out with the brother. Video games and knitting? The ultimate combination. I've been trekking along and am almost finished with the yoke of the baby sweater I'm making for Baby Cousin. I should even have enough yarn left over for a pair of baby socks or booties. Neti and I spent last weekend on the couch knitting and snoozing. You can see we were quite comfortable.

Can't wait to get home! My flight leaves in 7 hours. Hurrah! Next post will be from home. Maybe I should highlight some of Grandma's inspiration quilts.

Happy Crafting!

A Peek into the 30's

This weekend was GORGEOUS and what did I do? Shut the blinds so I could properly quilt, that's what! Don't worry, I did actually get out a bit and take a few walks with the hubby through downtown. I finished another quilt-- "A Peek in to the 30's".

I know that I've mentioned many times how difficult fun it is to have a little crafty-cat. Let's see if you would put up with her nonsense. At least one of us had fun. Ok, I actually love when she terrorizes me. I'm sure it's because she loves me, hahaha.

You saw a layout of the quilt last post but I want you to know that I worked hard for that layout.

Last weekend I sewed it all together and got it basted. This weekend was a focus on actually quilting it with a new (to me) quilt pattern I found online.

I had a handful of little squares left over from the front since I trailed in two corners so I decided to piece the back. I needed it to, because I barely had enough backing fabric.

I then quilted an Orange Peel design, which I LOVE and desperately need to practice more. I'm ok with the ok quilt job. It looks rustic. Haha.

I slapped the binding on it lickidy-split and wallah! A finished quilt!

I called it "A Peek into the 30's" because all of the fabric are 30's repros. I love all the fabric and love how intermixed they still look amazing together.

Here's the back...

I absolutely love how it turned out. I don't really have any plans for this one. I figured I could treat myself to a quilt now that I'm about to be back in baby mode for a cousin who is expecting in June. Yes, this June. I'm running a little behind on that one. 

Along with the baby quilt I'm sending a baby sweater. I went a little overboard because this cousin and I are close AND because it's the first little girl I've had to prep for! FINALLY! A girl! Too many boy things, I've been craving pink. I started up a swatch this weekend and blocked it to get my gauge. Perfect!

I also have the fabric to baste and quilt my Victorian Festive quilt. Can you believe this cat finally fell asleep?! Sometimes you just need to distract her with another sewing project.

A full week of crafts ahead and just two weeks until HOME with family. I can't wait to spend a week quilting and knitting with Grandma and fam.

Happy Crafting!

Guest Quilting

In desparate need of a sister's weekend I flew to Chicago to visit the one and only sister of mine. It was COLD and that's a little weird to say seeing as Seattle is usually still chilly this time of year. It was actually 20 degrees colder in Chicago! Regardless we did spend the day running around doing some scouting for wedding pictures (hence the park below) and choosing linens and looking for photographers and... well, the list continues.

While in Chicago the sister and I did what we do best-- vegetate. Either this blog or my constant chatter or a recent Seattle trip which included snuggling in my own T-shirt quilt inspired Devon to make one for herself and our brother. Ok, maybe it was the fact that the brother cleaned out his clothes for Goodwill. The brother's was up first. Devon had done SO MUCH! She was much more methodical than I, placing interfacing under each T-shirt and sewing them all together. We even spent time on the phone together calculating how much quilt batting and backing she would need. She even basted it! And then she stopped.

I haven't been able to get over to Bainbridge yet to get a new knitting project (a very particular one is in mind) so I went to Chicago empty handed. Devon seemed hesitant to quilt, as she never has before, and I know the feeling. With ants in my pants for a project while vegging I asked if I could quilt our brother's blanket and of course, Devon said yes.

 

A day of guilty pleasures (see the Lindsay Lohan version of Parent Trap up there?) and quilting with my sister. Things could NOT have been better. It was the best day ever!! And not only did I show her how to quilt, fix her machine of an annoying bobbin threading issue, but I also bound and finished the quilt!

It was pretty much the best when, while stretching my back and getting a cup of tea I overheard my sister and her fiance discussing my work. Fiance: "That was so fast!" Sister: "Well, she does this all the time, this was easy for her." Fiance: "You should get ours ready and when she's here next month see if she'll quilt that one". Haha! It's so nice to get recognized for something you are so passionate about. The hubby has to put up with my "look at this! look at this!" but these guys don't. Like I said, it was pretty much the perfect day.

I am now inspired to get quilting on my next project! I'm almost there! I'm a bit farther ahead than what you see below.

I have a quilting plan in mind that I am dying to try-- the orange peel. I just need to get to that point. The goal? Finish piecing tonight and spend the weekend quilting. Thanks again to Devie and the fiance for hosting me over the weekend. Devon, get that next blanket ready, I will see you in 21 days!

Happy Crafting!

Undecided

It's been slow going on this project. Too many little squares and so much preparation just to get pretty little HSTs. I am super enjoying the process though, which is a big improvement. I typically just like to get to the part where I hold it up for the hubby and say "look what I did!". I'm learning to appreciate each step (even ironing). I finished sewing the white blocks to the patterned blocks. I then spent an afternoon perfectly cutting those squares in to four triangles, like a PB&J sandwich for a kid. See how many triangles I ended up with?!

After seeing how many little triangles I now had to iron open I took a break and went for a moped ride up to Ballard with the hubby for dinner at Ocho. Think delicious tapas. Yum... tapas. Upon my return I set up station at the ironing board and began opening up my little creations.

I think they look great! I love all the colors and variety of the prints. But now comes the hard part and I am completely undecided. What do I do with all these adorable little HSTs?! I need some help deciding.

Here are some options of what I'm thinking:

Option#1: Total Symmetry

This option is super appealing to me because I LOVE symmetry. Especially built out of so many colors. I'd most likely do a color mash-up. Mixing and matching the patterned triangles but having everything point the same direction and line up row for row, column for column. I think it would lend itself well to the patterns and be more fabric focused.

Option #2: Zig-zag

I ADORE this option. I could even break up the zigzags into color coded zigzags. So one zig-zag would be blue, one green, one red, and line them up rainbow order. I like that idea a lot, but I feel like it takes away from the HST look. But it's so cool!

Option #3: Trailing HSTs



This idea may not look much different from Option #1 and it's hard to get the message across with just the squares I laid out, but I'll try. This would be similar to #1 except that I would trail in the HSTs from one corner to the other. I'd start with 1, then 2, then 3 and I'd keep them in color order. So that first HST would be white and I would trail the quilt diagonally increasing in color order. I think this would lend itself to the HST camp while moving your eye from light to dark in color, not necessarily in value.

(le sigh). I just don't know which one to pick!! I would like to start piecing it this weekend but what to do?! I asked the hubby. He looked at me with terror on his face and said, "that's like me asking you which size jet to use in my carburetor". Point taken.

Happy Crafting!

Little Projects in Little Time

A weekend spent sewing! A much needed weekend spent sewing. After spending a week in Boston followed by a hectic work week back in Seattle it was nice to settle in to a weekend at the Bernina. As you can see, I was joined by Neti.

I decided to focus on small projects. Believe it or not after that powerhouse One Block Wonder I was exhausted of quilting. Followed by that Victorian Festive lap quilt, which I have yet to quilt, I just wasn't feeling like another big project. So my focus was small.

A new pillow! Now the other pillows don't match, but I figure I can slowly convert them all over to quilted pillows. At first I think the hubby was skeptical, but with it's added batting plushness this pillow is now his favorite on the couch. I used only scraps from my bins. Yay! I had purchased this beautiful color gradient pink for a baby quilt. His mom was just sure he was a girl. Oops! So I got some new fabric for the baby quilt and had a ton for pillow backing!

I also worked on that vest for a friend. I was told this was his favorite vest of all, and he wears them everyday. As a bartender this is his uniform. I got cocky one night and told him, oh yeah, I can fix that. Well, I hadn't seen it yet.

Did I mention that I have no patience for sewing clothes? See all the holes? Particularly in the underarm area? Yeah, this needed some major work.

At first I only wanted to take out the back and replace it, but once I seam ripped it out I realized that the inner lining to the front panels was all tattered, and I wasn't going to do half of a job, my name was at stake! I ended up replacing the whole back and inner linings. It's basically a brand new vest. I fought this thing the whole way, yet remained patient and calm. It was a full 5 hours spent at my sewing machine but I'm pretty happy with the results.

There are definitely some mistakes, but I'm hoping I'm the only one who will catch them because I was looking so closely at it. I think I did right by the vest. Good Lord, I hope it fits!

I also replaced the leather seat to the hubby's Puch moped, which was frustrating and a feat in itself. It does, however, look great. He's happy so I'm happy. He has yet to send me pictures of it (ahem!).

With three tiny projects behind me I could hear the 30's repro fabric calling my name! Another big quilt it is! So I cut down my Kona Cotton fabric to 5"x 5" and got started!

The goal for this one is to make the entire quilt out of HST (half square triangles). It's going to take a LOT of sewing and cutting and sewing to make it happen, but I found a great shortcut for getting 4 HST at once! You sew the white block to your patterned block all around the edges. Then just cut them like you would a PB&J sandwich for a kid into four triangles. Whallah! 4 HST! I haven't gotten that far yet. I have 84 of these to sew (and if you do the math that equates to 336 HST). Yesterday I sewed 42. I know, I'm crazy.



The fabric totally reminds me of Easter, too, so it was great working on it knowing that Easter is this coming weekend! This week I'm in Ohio for work, so another week away from the sewing machine. Don't worry, next weekend should at least result in cutting those HSTs down to size. The hubby is also asking for a carrying case for his files (not paper files, metal files). I already have some ideas for that one. I think that robot fabric may be rearing its head again.

Happy Crafting!