I got my new die yesterday and boy is it nice! I just cut 48 2.5″ squares in 1 pass out of a fat quarter! And there is so little waste! Here’s some pics I took as I did it. I’ve cut up 2 fat quarters so far, I have 6 more to do, plus the three 1/4 yard white on white’s that I bought. I’m really glad I spent the money for the die, should have done this sooner. I’ll have to finish cutting later, Alex is up from his nap and I need to give him a bath! I’ll be back later with a picture of all the pieces I cut out today!
Oh my goodness have I accomplished a lot lately! Today was the guild sew-in, only 2 people besides me showed! I finished the blocks for The Quilt Show 2010 BOM and started working on the borders. I got the first set done, I have 136 half square triangles to put together for the next set of borders. Probably won’t get to that yet, but it’s next on the agenda!
December Star Crazy Blocks
Remember last year when I said I was going to start hand piecing a quilt? Well, since I want to use the 2.5″ squares on the hexagon quilt I decided to just machine piece everything I had done and see how big it was going to turn out. It’s kinda on the small side unfortunately (only 20″ x 36″) , I’m thinking I might put some borders on it and have it in the car for Alex. We’ll see what I decide to do with it, it won’t be anytime soon! I might just decide to start making more blocks and make it bigger, I do like how it looks.
hand piecing project
My die from Accuquilt shipped last week and should be here Monday, so I will be able to cut up the whites I bought last week and the fat quarters I pulled from the stash. I’m really happy with how it looks so far, I did a mock-up in EQ and right now it’s designed at 37″ x 43″. I’m not sure how big I want to make this, so for now that’s where I’m headed as a starting point. I need 39 whole flowers and 10 half flowers for the top and bottom, right now I’ve got 15 whole flowers completed. It looks dark in the picture but’s it really not that dark. I bought some plastic templates at Joann’s last week and have started using them. I haven’t decided if I like the heavier weight paper or the templates yet. They are a lot thicker than the paper, I’ll have to see if there’s a difference when it’s sewed together and the templates are removed.
Hexagon Quilt 02-18-12
Never got up to the frame the other day, I still need to finish removing the red tacks from the backing so I can get working on re-tacking it, I want it off that frame!!! Now that I have my MacBook pretty much setup the way I want with music, I’m hoping I can work on it tomorrow since I’ll have music to listen to while Alex sleeps!
Was it only Tuesday I posted about starting my hexagon quilt? I cannot believe how much I have done already! I’m using red centers for the flowers and scrappy around that center. White in between each flower. I have 9 flowers done, 7 of them almost all put together. Putting this much together allowed me to pull some of the templates out and I can work on getting more flowers together. I’m hoping (weather permitting) to go to Joann’s tomorrow and get some fat quarters – white for sure and possibly some colors – even though I have a bunch of squares all ready to go. A few years ago one of my friends gave me a gift certificate for Accuquilt, and I haven’t used it yet. I think I’m going to get the 2.5″ square die which will cut out 9 squares per layer at once. It’ll be so much faster doing it that way instead of using the value die that came with my Go that only cuts 1 per layer at a time. It’ll also help when I decide to go back to my other hand piecing quilt project with the 4 patches.
Hexagon Progress 2-12-12
I didn’t mention it the other day, but I never made it to the guild sew-in last month. I spent the morning of the 26th prepping Star Crazy and making my pillow case contribution. By the time Alex got up I wasn’t feeling very well and had a fever! Somehow I managed to get the flu and was sick until the following week. However, they are having another one this weekend and I already told hubby I needed to go. Have to figure out a way to start working on my projects!!!
Pillowcase for charity
Hoping to get up to the frame in a little bit to see how much I can get done on basting my mom’s turning twenty quilt. I had it almost done and discovered that there wasn’t enough backing fabric the way I had attached it to the frame. Had to take it all out and start over again. Since I’m using those red plastic tacks I need to get the off the backing so I can start again. Hoping to get that done soon so I can quilt the tumbler quilt for my sister – haven’t worked on that in a long time! I just went back to link to the post where I showed it and I haven’t taken a picture of it yet! I don’t feel like taking it out right now, but I’ll get a picture before it goes on the frame.
I don’t even know how it started. I was reading blog posts and clicked on a link that took me somewhere and next thing I know I’m deciding to use my already cut 2.5″ squares to make 1″ hexagons. I printed out templates on matte photo paper since it’s heavier than regular paper. I’ve already got 29 basted and ready to start stitching together. I can start working on that tomorrow, hubby and I will be watching the Cavs/Miami basketball game. Nights that his team play my team are always tense, but we still love each other!
Just a quick note, I did finish that block this evening while watching the Cavs/Heat game. Good news, another block done, bad news the Cavs lost by a small margin. *sigh* Up to 77 blocks completed! Making progress, just another 92 and the center will be complete.
I know, I know….it’s been AGES since I’ve posted anything. This 15 month old little boy takes up all my time! 🙂 I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. He’s 15 months old, walking (and running) and so damn cute it kills me! And smart too! Ok, you didn’t come here for me to gush about my little one, did you?
I’ve been doing some cross stitch, haven’t finished anything since Halloween though. I made this little wall hanging just in time to put up for our Halloween party. You can’t tell in the picture, but some of the thread glows in the dark, boy was that a pain to stitch with!
Trick or Treat Wallhanging
I haven’t really worked on my hand piecing project lately. I was working on cross stitch and just put that away recently to work on Dear Jane applique blocks. I was talking with some of the ladies at guild and they reminded me that I need to make time to work on my sewing – it’s been MONTHS since I turned it on! In fact I just cleaned it off a week ago! Mended a shirt for Alex that has been sitting here for ages and now it’s ready to work on some quilts! So I’ve decided to start working on Dear Jane again. Finished 2 blocks in the past few weeks and I’ve got another almost done, in fact it should be done tonight since there’s a basketball game to watch!
J-11 JS09
Saturday the guild is doing a sew-in from 12-4 and I’m thinking that I’m going to go. I really want to sew and this would allow me to do nothing but that! I think that hubby can take care of Alex for 4 hours, especially since he’ll most likely be napping for half of that. So I’m planning on working on Star Crazy. I’m going to get as much prepped as I can before Saturday, I’m hoping I can get the top put together in 4 hours. Heck I’ve already got the center done!
And just because I love posting pictures of my son…. Alex - January 2012
Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put him down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom, I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.. I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.
I know, I’ve been absent for awhile. I don’t get much time to sew anymore since I spend all my free time (and some that’s not free) with Alex. I can’t believe he’s going to be 5 months old on Monday! Time is going by way too fast!
Anyway, since I don’t have time to sew at my machine anymore, and since I’ve been kinda jealous of Karen with all the hand piecing and hand quilting that she does. And because I have my little tubs full of already cut up scraps of fabric, I decided to start hand piecing a quilt. Once Alex goes to bed at 9, I’m just too tired to sit at the sewing machine to sew. But I’m awake enough to be able to hand piece blocks while I watch basketball games or movies with my husband! I’m making 4-patch blocks, 2 white and 2 scraps. I had to pull a bunch of white fat quarters out and cut them into squares with my Go, because I just don’t have a lot of white scraps. Not quite sure why. I took it with me last night to guild and managed to sew 17 pairs of 2 together. This is not something I even care about being finished right away, and I might set it aside and work on something else, but for now it’s the only sewing I can do!
The start of the hand pieced quilt!
I did pick up 3 kits from guild last night to make charity quilts. I need to help more in the guild and I really need to get in front of my sewing machine before I forget how to use it!
In addition to working on the hand pieced quilt, I’ve decided that I want to learn to hand quilt. Again, since I don’t have a lot of time in front of the machine, I need to do things that I can work on in the family room while Alex is playing or we are watching tv at night. There is a class in May that I’m going to sign up for, hubby can take care of Alex for a 3.5 hour class! Oops, just realized that I have a dentist appt that day, now I don’t know if I can sign up…..doggone it!
I’ll try not to be a stranger anymore….I need to start reviewing books, blogs, something!!! Oh and here’s a gratuitous picture of my baby!!! 🙂
I haven’t had any more time to sew, but I figured I’d post about the new quilting site that’s coming. It’s going to be a bit like Ravelry for knitters in that everything is in one place! Fabric, patterns, projects, etc. I’ve only seen screenshots and I know they are working to resolve some issues they’ve been having, but I can’t wait to see this site in action! Oh wait! DUH! Helps if I give you the link right? You can get the story of SeamedUP here at their blog, but the site is at SeamedUP. I have a block in the sidebar if you want to contribute to the cause to defray the startup costs.
Well, I really wanted to keep working on the Quilt Show 2010 BOM, but I decided I needed to spend the time yesterday working on some terry cloth bibs and burp cloths for my son. I had bought white and pink terry cloth a few years ago intending to make bibs for my cousin’s baby. At the time I was going through a miscarriage and just couldn’t make anything baby related. So these 2 yards of terry cloth have just been sitting. We have now gone through all the small bibs that we were given because my wonderful son just got too big and drools so much they just don’t hold it all! And I’m still trying to understand why companies make burp cloths that don’t cover your shoulder all the way, because this kid loves to spit up on mommy!
I’ve made 2 bibs so far, and I have enough white left to make at least 4-5 more when I get time. I used up all the pink for burp cloths since my husband doesn’t mind if Alex spits up on pink, he’s just not allowed to wear it! Hopefully I’ll be able to get some of my own sewing done soon!!
