Finished Projects

Amazingly enough, I have finished 2 quilting projects in the last 2 weeks, including binding them, the part I probably hate the most. Making a quilt is much more involved than I ever thought, and I don't even quilt them myself. Initially, I wasn't drawn to quilting because most quilters are, ahem, older, and their tastes run a different road. But then I discovered there are all kinds of fabric available and I could make quilts that reflected my tastes and personality.

A couple years ago, I was visiting one of my favorite stores, Houston Street Mercantile, my local quilting shop. (The store is owned and worked by, ahem, older, women, so the website is not impressive. The store must be experienced first hand.) Up on the wall, they had a beautiful quilt hanging that was made of brown and blue batik fabric, very masculine. Batiks are hand-dyed fabrics that have gorgeous variations of color and contrast. I have included some in nearly everything I have made. I loved the quilt and thought I'd like to make one like that for my dad, so I bought the kit.

I intended to make the quilt for my dad to use while he slept in his recliner, where he slept for 15 years.

Then my mother died.

And my dad started sleeping in the bed again. I came up with another idea for him, but what to do with the kit? I decided to make the quilt for my father-in-law, Champion Napper, for Christmas. But then, what to get my mother-in-law? So I decided to make one for her also. I finished binding the last one mere hours before they arrived on Friday. I was fairly pleased with my work.

These quilts have the same border, the same backing, the same binding. The only difference is the "interior".

To finish the quilt for my bed, I need to put the last border on and get it to the quilter. Oh, and I need to finish the binding on my Christmas tree skirt. Then all my "open" projects will be complete. I love making quilts. I get such a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction when they are complete.

It's Another Monday...Hold the Mania

I've just returned from a 4 day weekend of scrapbooking. I am exhausted. Hour after hour sitting in a chair and trying to be creative with my limited number of supplies is tiring! I brought all my supplies and I probably had a third of what everyone else had. In my defense, I've probably been doing it less than everyone else, too. I'm proud of my pages, however time consuming. I even had a massage while I was there. Mmmmm. I should make that a monthly event.

But I am glad to be home. I was missing Brian and the girls and to be honest, they weren't really feeding me often enough! Of course, some of that has to do with the baby, but still, if I start getting hungry, I start getting nauseated, and that's not the fun part. I had my own twin bed and sharing a room wasn't bad. Certainly better than sharing a bed with women you hardly know.

I had been begging Brian for an electric blanket for our bed so that I wouldn't get pneumonia every night during the winter season, and for Christmas, he delivered. Last night was the first night to use it. What a treat to turn that thing on and climb into bed with my magazine 30 minutes later and the bed was warm!!! I even turned it off in the middle of the night because I was downright hot. Maybe someday we can live in a house that is actually warm in the winter and cool in the summer...

I picked out fabric for my next quilting project and I hope to have it all completed by the first of May. I intend to take advantage of whatever surge of energy I have in this next trimester to get some quilting projects completed. After a brain-numbing weekend of scrapbooking, I am looking forward to a different challenge.

The Hidden Star Quilt--Update

I have been furiously working on my newest quilting project. Here is the opening discussion. I did buy the new sewing machine and am glad to see that there was actually a real difference in quality of my sewing. My teacher remarked last night had I not used the new machine for this quilt, it is likely that I would have become so frustrated that I would have quit the project altogether.

Nearly 30 hours of class time (if not more) and even more hours of work at home have gone into this project. It has been challenging in a way I did not think possible. Challenging, but good.

Pictures of completed blocks:

This is the first block...the Log Cabin. I made 8 of these and thought they came out really well.

This is The Variable Star. My first attempt with triangles. I was not a fan.

This is an appliqued peony. This quilt has 4 of them. It was extremely time-consuming doing the decorative stitching. I think the effect is really nice. Probably worth the effort even though I didn't put the block together exactly the way I was supposed to. I improvised. The block name: The Peony.

This block has an appropriate name: The Contrary Wife. This thing was a pain. Ever little piece of fabric has been cut and sewn together. Although some secret triangle paper made this block bearable.

This was absolutely the hardest block to do. I may never do another Eight Point Star. Ever. This thing was incredibly tempermental and I did not have any sympathy for a high-maintenance block. (I also figured out how to turn the chair to avoid the shadow of the armrest in my pictures.)

The Cross and Crown was the only block that we did not work on in class. We had to complete it at home. I am very proud because not only did I cut the pieces and sew them by only reading the pattern in the book, I also solved a problem without the aid of anyone else.

The complete quilt top without borders. Excuse the mess of my den. It was 2am, after all, when this picture was taken. I do like how I took this shot from a distance and you can very easily see "The Hidden Star". Before starting this project, I was very anxious about how well the Star would be seen. If the wrong fabrics are chosen for the Log Cabin blocks, the Star will not be as distinct and the Log Cabins will look like book ends and not part of a larger pattern.

The next phase will be to do the borders. Because I need a great deal of length on the sides, I am going to do some exotic things on the borders. Well, exotic to me. I am anxious to get this thing finished and on our bed. I've got several other quilt projects down the pike.

My New Quilting Project

Since I am taking another quilting class, I am working on another project. The first quilt was technically a "lap quilt" for Darcy, and it's still not finished. The top is finished, it's been quilted, and I only lack putting on the binding. I want to finish it, but since I am in the middle of this class, I have to stay caught up with my current project. Having never sewed before, I really have to work diligently to keep up with the rest of the class.

This is a picture of what I am working toward. Of course, with my own stylishly selected fabric. It was very ironic when I went to pick the fabric for this quilt. With the first quilt, I was overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. I hadn't even decided what to do with it. With this quilt, there was no hesitation. A quilt for our bed. The hardest part was picking fabric that Brian wouldn't hate. He didn't have to love it, just not hate it. There was even a point in time during the selection phase that I wished I had more fabric to choose from!

Modern, whimsical fabric for this quilt:


The completed log cabin square:

It might look a little off; that's because it's sitting on top of another square.


One completed sashing (of about 60):

(Goes in between the squares.)


I should have taken a picture of the new sewing machine I want. I was having a terrible time with my other one (Wal-Mart special, $100). I thought it was my sewing. The lady that teaches my class kept saying it wasn't me and I didn't believe her. Then she brought a Baby Lock for me to try. Okay. I agree; it isn't me. This machine weighs less than 13 pounds and has 66 stitches, and it's electronic. I am hooked. Except Mother's Day and my birthday have already rolled by before I found out about this Baby. The lady who owns the store offered me a part time job to help cut kits. If I became a permanent, part-time employee, I could get a Baby Lock for wholesale. Wholesale! Not only would I get a discount on the sewing machine, but 25% off my fabric and they would pay me also! Except we don't live in the town where the store is located. But I'm going to talk to her again tonight what exactly she's needing and see if I could make it work.


I am having a flashback to about 11 years ago, when I came home from college and had to get a job because I had left school and was back home living with Mom and Dad. I started by applying at Kroger and by the time it was all said and done, I had 4 jobs and was working 90 hours a week. Someone would offer me a job, and I would try to make it work. What a crazy life that was.

Quilting Update

I kind of dropped the ball when it came to the step-by-step documentation of my quilting project. At any rate, I am very pleased to report that I have just completed the the quilt top. All I need to do is sew the backing together which will only take a few minutes and then it will be ready to go to the quilter's. I found a long arm quilter here in town that is not experiencing a 2 month backlog.

I am just so proud of myself. I can't believe I made this all by myself. Lily is begging me to make a quilt for her and I actually think I could do it. Since Lily has a "big girl bed", I will have to make hers twin sized which is twice again the size of the one I just completed. I think I can do it. The girls have watched the process and Darcy keeps asking, "Is that for me?" Brian keeps seeing this as some kind of potential cottage industry, but I am finding it incredulous that anyone would pay money for something that I made. I keep thinking that I could make them and give them away.

I heard there is going to be an intermediate class in May and I am looking forward to taking that class as well. Brian's outage will be over and maybe by then I'll have had time to complete Lily's quilt. I don't think she is going to give me much rest until I at least start on it.

But seriously, who would have ever thought such a thing could happen?

Though it's limited, here is the progression of my first quilt:

First, I brought home a stack of fabric. Brian has already confessed that he didn't think this was going to look well together. It wasn't what he had in mind when I came and asked his advice and then hurried back into the store....

Then, at the end of the first class, we had to have one set of strips sewn together to make blocks. For our second class, all of those strips had to be sewn with seams pressed open. Here was my first effort:

It took four sets of these strips and a center square to make an actual block. I should have taken a picture of my first block, but that was the part where I was remiss. All 20 blocks had to be created and then sewn together in 4 rows of 5 for our third class.

This is a close up of the corner.

And finally, the whole quilt top, as seen thumbtacked to my den wall...

I am very pleased with myself and think it has been a fine first effort. Now, if I could only finish my apron. I am committed to finishing that stupid thing. And also, I want to learn how to make a Veggie Tale dress like the one I bought Darcy for her birthday. It can't be hard...

Quilting For Dummies-Class 1

On Monday night I had my first quilting class. It went pretty well, considering my total lack of experience. It's a small class with four ladies (including myself) with very few of us actually having any sewing experience at all. If the average age is 40, it's because I am bringing the average way down. We spent the evening familiarizing ourselves with the rotary cutter and learning about "a scant quarter inch". We spent a lot of time just folding the fabric so that we could actually cut it. We did some measuring with a square ruler with enough lines to make anyone go cross-eyed. Lots and lots of measuring. And then we measured some more. I loved how we were continuously told that quilting is different than sewing. Mostly because my foray into sewing hasn't gone real well. I like how in quilting everything seems to be uniform. That appeals to my meticulous nature.

The big accomplishment of the night? Cutting all our strips. I didn't do completely poorly even though I did needed a fair amount of one-on-one help to get started. As it got later and later, I got really excited because it seemed like we weren't going to be using our sewing machines that night and I hadn't had time to sit down and sew to get myself familiar with the machine. I hadn't made a bobbin with the thread or threaded the machine. In fact, I still need the manual in order to thread the machine and I have never wound a bobbin by myself. I didn't want the class to be the place where I had to learn.

We ended up using our machines after all. But Miss Glenda was very kind to me and helped me get my machine going. I ended up being the last one finished and the last one to leave, but Miss Glenda stayed and let me finish. I told her that I was interested in learning how to sew garments and did she know anyone who might be willing to help me learn. Wonder of wonders, she said she would be willing to teach me. I was really excited by that. She said to give her a few weeks as she's expecting a new grandbaby and wanted to see what it was going to be first. That sounds great because Brian is about to start an outage and my free time is going to be greatly reduced for about the next six weeks. But I am excited. I am nearly motivated enough to get my apron out and finish sewing that.

Monday's homework was to sew all the strips together, cut them into 6.5" strips and then press. We had to do one before we left on Monday. Here is my effort:

Homemaking Bliss, Installment I: The Trip To The Fabric Store

As promised, I am chronicling my journey into homemaking bliss. It starts at the fabric store.

I was so excited when Ms. Glenda told me that I would not need any special skills in order to learn how to quilt. Just a working familiarity with the machine. I am hoping to have that by the time the class starts, on March 10th. She bids me come and see her at the store and she will go over everything I need for the class.

Excited does not begin to cover how I felt. I was thrilled. It was almost as if I was going to come out of that store with the thing already sewed together, ready to put on the bed. I could not wait to go to the fabric store. And on that Friday, the whole gang went. They stayed out in the car and I got to go in by myself.

I just love looking at fabric. Not touching it or sewing with it. Just looking at it. Everything was so organized (shelved by color and style) and I wondered if I had ever seen so much fabric in all my life. It was fabric that was just waiting to be made into something. Of course, not by me because I am sewing-impaired.

I had not decided what I was going to do with the quilt. I had thought about making it for my mom or possibly for the end of our bed. Mom's favorite color is red and our bedroom is purple. Oh, why does everything have to be so complicated?

Ms. Glenda said that the beginner quilt that I would be making is similar to what is called a "log cabin" quilt, except this was her own design. I had only heard of such a thing from Jackie who either had one or was making one or both. Then she cut me loose to find all the fabric. Well, she offered to help me and I didn't want to waste her time while I panicked over every available choice.

I didn't even know where to start. There was a ton of fabric in that store of every conceivable hue. And I had to pick out 5 different ones for my quilt. And they needed to look well together. This was a major problem because I could not envision what this was going to look like in my head.

The more I walked around, the more overwhelmed I became. My quilting career was about to be over even before it started.

So I ran outside and conferred with Brian. I know those ladies thought I was leaving and that I wasn't coming back. (The thought crossed my mind!) There were several paisleys that I loved, but that didn't fit into either of the ideas I'd had on what to do with the quilt. There were too many choices and I didn't have the first idea of where to start.

"Help me figure this out or I'm done," I assured him.

He told me to make the quilt for Darcy [what a novel idea!] and go get the pink paisley and get some soft pinks and maybe a white to go with it. I was thrilled. At least I had an idea that I could work with.

With Ms. Glenda's help, I was finally able to pick out coordinating fabrics. At least I hope they are coordinating!

Something I found very interesting is that they do not cut the fabric with scissors. (She said this was my first quilting lesson.) They tear the fabric. She says that by tearing the fabric, it is always "cut" straight, even if it's rolled on the bolt crooked. (Because it tears on the grain.) After all my years hanging out at Hancock's as a young girl with my mother and grandmother, I had never heard of such a thing. What a concept.

Class starts on Monday. I am excited and a wee bit nervous.

My fabric: