Happy New Year

It's a quiet New Years Eve for me this year. My husband is off trying to kill Bambi so I'm home with the kids with nothing much to do. Not that I'm complaining--after a whole day of taking down the Christmas decorations and giving my sewing room a much needed organizational enema I'm perfectly okay with a quiet night. Well, relatively quiet--the neighbors started up the commercial-grade fireworks around seven and it's been going strong since. Ah, hickville.

Anyway. Did I mention my broken sewing machine? This is what I came home to last week. 

I was happily humming a little Christmas tune after a short music practice at church, and I walk in the back door to see my sewing machine in pieces. Aaaaerrgggh!! See, my machine (which is only two years old) had been acting kind funky, making weird stitches, not aligning properly, etc. So my husband, being a very industrious electrical engineer type, took it apart while I was off playing guitar. The prognosis: (other than it being packed full of batting lint--whoops) the motor that moves the needle was kaput. The cost to fix? A measly $700. Sure! No problem! Let me just pull that out of my back pocket!!!

I was bummed. 

But being (as previously mentioned) very industrious, my wonderful husband managed to find a suitable replacement motor online. For sixty dollars. I'll take my 640 dollars in change thank you very much. It came in the mail, he took it to work and fiddled with it, and voila! Fixed sewing machine! Happiness ensues! Queue choir music!

And today I gave it a test drive by making some blocks for January's do. Good Stitches bee. 

I have no New Years Resolutions to share with you (mostly because I think they're pointless--my philosophy is carpe diem! Poop or get off the pot! Don't buy a pig in a poke! Uh...wait...) but I will say that I intend to be a lot more mindful of the blessings I have while I have them.

Like a working sewing machine.

Happy New Year friends (and blog stalkers!!)

Happy Birthday Rachel

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Ages and ages ago when I first started making quilts for Swaziland, one of the first ones I made was this one, made from the New Wave pattern by Oh, Fransson!: 

At the time I remember her going on about how much she liked the pattern, the fabrics, and so I made a mental note to make her one later, after all the crazy quilt-making madness was over and my quilts were off to Africa. 

About two months ago I ordered a lovely stack of fat quarters in one of my favorite fabrics lines, ever, Good Folks, and proceeded to chop them all up into wedge shapes in preparation for making this quilt again. I'm glad I did it in advance, because if I'd waited there would be no quilt. We're so broke right now!! Ugh, anyway, the second time around is always WAY easier, and this one came together really quickly--about four days from beginning to end! Fun. I love things that work out fast. Instant gratification, people. I'm all about it. 

I like the way this one came out more than the original I made. This time, I elongated the original pattern from a six inch wide wedge to a nine inch wedge, and added more fat quarters (supplementing my supply with one Amy Butler and one Tina Givens print) so it would be longer than the original pattern. I think the original was supposed to be about 50 x 50ish. Mine was more like 52 x 70, mostly because I don't like lap quilts. If I want to snuggle up under a quilt, I want my whole body to fit under it, not just my legs. I mean, how is that fun? Warm legs, cold everything else? Nah.

I used Freebird Eggs in Grass for the binding, which matched the greens in the Good Folks fabrics really well.. I'm getting MUCH better at machine binding I have to say. And although I'm not much of one for gadgets, the bias tape maker I bought last year has been worth more than it's weight in gold. Five minutes and an iron and I have yards of binding ready to slap on. Good times. Makes me cringe to think of all those nice quilts that I bound with poly blend bias tape from Joann's. *shudder*

Anyway, I got an email this morning from Rachel telling me she was currently putting her new quilt to good use, which really, is the best thing a person can say about a quilt, isn't it?

Crazy Quilt Week

Tweet Quilt

 It's been nuts around here the last week. I've quilted and bound my three WIP's, got two quilts in the mail from some wonderful women, and my friend Jenn dropped off one she made while visiting her mom down here. Awesomeness.

Happy Dots

Owly Squares.

Linda's little yellow quilt--thanks again Linda!!!

Jenn's Big Brown Square. Grazie.

Toni's Baby Space quilt. It's flannel and so soft!!

Anyway, with the ones my neighbor is making I've got a growing stack here--about 23 all told. We'll still need more, so if anyone wants to try their hand at a simple crib sized quilt PLEASE let me know.

Thank you for your kind support

Finally getting around to posting a picture of the quilt I received last week. The lighting outside has been kind of icky so you'll have to settle for this indoor pic.

Cute, huh? It looks better in real life, as do all the quilts I post on here. Thanks so much Genevieve for giving this quilt, I know someone in Swaziland will be so blessed.

In other news, I'm still on quilting hiatus over here--for various reasons. Since this project has sort of been taken out of my hands I've decided not to be so focused on it. I am still going to be making quilts for the project of course, just not as...psychotically as I have been.

Today I ordered some cool seeds from an organic seed website. Yay! Seeds are fun. Now that my spring garden is reaching the ends of its Florida heat tolerance I'm starting to plan my fall/winter garden (one of the FEW perks of living in Florida) and I think I have a better idea of what to do and what not to do. For example, never EVER buy tomatoes from Home Depot. They have blight. And the blight spreads through the soil to the healthy plants. I've watched with growing aggravation as the organic tomatoes I babied from seeds grew up into gorgeous plants that soon withered and blackened from those dang Bonnie Bell tomatoes. Another month and I'm going to have to solarize my soil to kill the blight so I don't get it in the next crop.

That being said, it's been really fun to a) walk outside and just grab food and eat it right there, and b) to realize after years and years that I DON'T have a black thumb after all. I just suck at apartment-dweller gardening, that's all.

Scrappy Sunrise Quilt

I actually finished this a few days ago. Isn't it pretty? It makes me smile. This is not going to be a Swaziland quilt, though. First of all because it came out HUGE. It's bigger than a twin, or at least wider. Second of all, because I want it. Bad. Ha ha. We'll see what happens. I always say, "This one's for me!" and then I give it to someone else.

Here's the back, because I have obsessive/compulsive disorder when it comes to arranging colors by a gradient, and repeating patterns. Plus it just made me laugh while I was doing it.

Here it is all pretty and folded up. :) You can see the loopy quilting stitch I did, and the pretty binding. I used Heather Bailey's "Wash Day Ticking" which I think I finally just ran out of after using it in a zillion projects. Kinda made me sad. I love that fabric.

I've got two more Swaziland quilts ready to be quilted, just waiting for batting. Dooodeedoo...thumb twiddling ensues...

the everything but the kitchen sink quilt

That's what I decided to call this quilt, since, y'know, a name is a really important thing for a quilt to have. And Steve was already taken, soooo... Originally I was calling it the "stash-buster" quilt, but that was a total misnomer since my stash is not even remotely busted, in fact it's way bigger. Ha ha.  Anyway, I really liked the way it turned out, and this was my first time doing random scraps for binding, which I think goes well with the randomness of the quilt.

Mostly I'm just excited to be done. My stack o' unfinished projects is steadily dwindling, and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plus is frees up some room so I can start some more unfinished projects. Exciting!!

busy little bee

so i've been busy lately. too busy for pictures, really, and my lack of good camera or picture taking skills does not really inspire me to get out there and do it even when i should. but today i forced myself to come out of my quilting cave and snap some pics of my finished stuff. the above is one of two identical quilts, identical because they were once conjoined twins in the form of a duvet cover that i never got around to finishing. i figured they could undergo surgery and become individuals for the cause. i tried to do some more, um, organic quilting lines and it came out organic all right. and by organic i mean messy and not straight at all. but i sort of like it that way.

then i finished the red and aqua cross quilt. yay!

the new wave quilt, all sewed and bound. note to self--seven year old boys don't make the greatest quilt-holders-for-the-purposes-of-picture-taking.

on top of the general insanity, i've also been purging/reorganizing/cleaning my "studio" (ha ha), and one of my self-imposed tasks was to sort out my horrible overcrowded crumpled up scrap bin. i've sort of tossed any reasonably sized scrap willy nilly into this plastic bin for, um, over a year, and it was getting out of control. so being sort of type A, i had to take out every piece, lay it flat, and then organize them into color groups. then they went into ziplocs.

i felt like i had to MAKE something with them to justify their continued presence in my house, so i started working on this baby, and i think that i'm going to end up keeping this one. i just love the bright colors against the light gray kona, and the arrangement. not to mention it pleases me no end to make a whole quilt out of stuff leftover from other quilts. you should see the back--it's a miniature of the front and it makes me giggle. i can't find the picture of it though and i am too lazy to go take another. you'll have to use your imagination until i finish it and get inspired to wield a camera again.

hope you're all having a wonderful day. i certainly enjoyed the sunshine from behind my sewing machine. i kinda wish i'd gone outside earlier, but i was in conquer mode and the urge to finish cannot be laid aside for the pleasures of baking in the sun. ha.

this might just be my favorite yet

i just finished this new quilt top tonight. i love it. i'm ashamed to say that i'm really struggling with the idea of giving it away. i love the colors. i love the crosses. and it's just my size!! aagghhh.

well...we'll see how many i can get made before september...maybe i'll have an extra one so this one can stay with me??

not likely.

look what i got in the mail today!!

(WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS AN OVERABUNDANCE OF THE WORD "CUTE")

today i got a little box dropped off next to my back door. i had a feeling i knew what was inside, but nothing could prepare me for the utter cute awesomeness!

this rad little quilt was donated by teaginny designs for the swaziland project. i can't tell you how excited i am to have someone else interested in this. and this thing is just so cute! the colors are so bright and cheerful and i'm sure it will bless a swazi baby soon. 

here's a detail of the cuteness:

thank you so much, alex, for your kind gift, and your lovely words. God bless you!

quilt #2 for swaziland

finished this quilt top at 7:30 this morning. it's based on the new wave quilt by oh, fransson! i say "based" because i pretty much just looked at the picture and figured it out because i hate following instructions. nevertheless, credit where credit is due.

see that fabric? remember awhile back when i won some anna maria horner fabrics on a giveaway? i've been hoarding it for awhile, sitting in dark closets and rubbing my hands together while chuckling to myself in a creepy fashion whilst daydreaming of how i would put it to use. this seemed like the time and place.

i like taking pictures of these things with light shining behind them, even if the quality isn't great. hopefully i will look good quilted, but i'm just going to keep pumping out tops for awhile before i start that part. i can only handle so much of that quilting rack and the wedding quilt was so crazy that i need a good long break.

quilt #1 for project swaziland

this morning i was up bright and early, so i decided to make good use of the time alone and finish my stash-buster quilt top. i looked at it, and looked at it, and pondered. should i keep it? it was meant to be a quilt for me originally. but the more i looked at it, the more i thought about how dang spoiled we are already, and how even though all the quilts we personally have in house are, um, well, wannabe quilts from target and ikea, they are still blankets and we are warm when we need to be.

so.

this is going to be the first quilt i make for the children's ward at good shepherd hospital in swaziland. i feel good about this decision.

my oldest, however, is upset that we're not using the quilt top as a permanent curtain. i can't say i blame him, it did look pretty rad with all that morning sunlight shining through. as per usual with my stupid camera, the picture is lame.

swaziland on the brain

ever since our church announced they'll be returning to swaziland this fall i've had it on my mind. i keep thinking about quilts...more quilts...LOTS of quilts.

i mean, i think about quilts a lot anyway, but this is sort of...above and beyond the normal obsession.

our church will be going over to swaziland with a lot of different goals in mind: building water tanks for a village with a crocodile-infested water source. (i'm trying to imagine being in fear for my life every time i need a drink and it just boggles the mind.) they're also going to be doing VBS for the kids there, a youth conference for the teenagers, and (and this is the part i keep thinking about) bringing supplies to a local hospital.

obviously i don't have a secret store of medical supplies hidden up my sleeve. but i do have a sewing machine and fabric scraps. and one of the things they've asked for are quilts for the children there. a lot of them live there and have no personal items at all, and i think that a handmade quilt would be something lovely to give them. if i have time i'll try to do some more softies, but my main priority right now is quilt making.

remember this from last fall? (ugh, those wretched photos! the quilts weren't THAT ugly, i promise) i had very little notice, but me and my friends managed to whip up some quick blankets and softies for the ladies to bring with them. it wasn't much, but it was the best i could do at short notice (and while the 1 month old baby slept. ah, the good old days when making stuff didn't have to be crammed hurriedly between naptimes!).

this time, however, i've got PLENTY of notice. nevertheless, the idea of making 25+ crib and twin sized quilts is...daunting. and so, once again, i'm throwing this idea out to everyone. if anyone is interested in helping, please let me know. if you can't swing the sewing, but have some nice fabric you'd like to donate, that would be rad. i think this is a really great cause and i would love to be able to help bless these kids with some lovingly-made things of their own.

here is a link to the website, just in case you think i'm a criminal trying to steal quilts and resell them or something: Hope Alive 2010

PICTURES OF THE LAST TRIP TO COME LATER. the lady who took pictures last time is one of the busiest people i know and i'm trying to pin her down to give me some! :)

blood, thread, and tears

15+ yards of fabric, 3 weeks of cutting and sewing

100 straight pins, 1000 meters of thread, 49 squares,

 one trashcan full of scraps and trimmings, an unspecified but embarrassing amount of money, and one partially severed finger later

and you get this:

i hope they like it.

wedding quilt progress report

The day before yesterday i got the wedding quilt top put together. at first it was going to be more of a rectangle but it looked weird so i left it a square. yesterday i added a gray border to the outside to beef it up a little, then i made the backing. then i did one of my least favorite parts of the quilt-making process: i pinned all the layers on the torture--i mean, uh--quilting rack.

now, actually quilting the layers together is something i don't usually enjoy. it's tedious, and whoever the sadistic jerk is who designed quilting frames to begin with just wasn't taking people's backs into consideration. it's at this awkward height where if you sit the frame is too high, and if you stand you have to hunch over to see what you're doing. i've been using this frame for a year now and every time i use it my back and neck hurt for weeks afterward. i'm not kidding. it sucks.

well today i came up with the perfect solution, and i'm kicking myself that i didn't think of it sooner. a long time ago, i bought these thingies that are for making your bed higher, only they didn't work with our bed so i just stuck them in the closet. until today!

see how perfect it is! now it's the ideal height! no more hunching! no more anger and headaches and pathetic pleas for backrubs! okay, well, i'll still probably beg for backrubs cause they're just nice. but now i won't be so desperate. 

so anyway, it's coming along nicely i think. it might even be done on time for the actual wedding. let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

my head slopes thataway

i've decided to nickname my finger gumby, cause that's what it looked like when i changed the bandage yesterday. when i went to borrow neosporin from my neighbor, who also quilts, she showed me her gumby finger to make me feel better about my general clumsiness. i'm not alone!! i'm not the sole klutz of the sewing world!

in other news, 45 squares down, 11 to go. queen size quilts are so time consuming...

apparatus, and the start of a new quilt

i have nothing to say about this drawing. every time i look at it all i can do is giggle nervously.

starting a new quilt this week. i'm excited and anxious about it, because it's something i'm being PAID to do, for someone i've never even met. kinda sketchy. i'm never quite sure if my idea of a cool thing is someone else's idea of a cool thing, and nervousness ensues.  hopefully it will work out.

a quilt for esther

about two weeks ago my friend esther lost her mom. i'm no stranger to pain, but this kind of grief is currently beyond my comprehension. still, i was super bummed for her. the morning after i heard the news i started working on this.

i guess one of the thoughts behind this was that quilts are comforting. at least to me. nothing makes me feel as nice as wrapping up in a comfy blanket when i'm bummed. and of course, being a person who has a hard time sitting still and doing nothing, and being in a situation where you really can't do anything to help, i had to come up with something. to. do. since i'm kind of a moron when it comes to comforting words, this was my answer.

i really liked the fabrics, and i really liked the effect of only quilting the plain gray fabric. it gives it a weird illusion of depth when you're looking at it. plus i just didn't want the quilting to overwhelm the pretty amy butler fabric.

i admit i was pretty nervous about this. there's always the possibility when making something for someone that they'll hate it, or think you're weird for making something so...i don't know, eloborate? for them. but she seemed to like it so that was good.

my thoughts on modern quilting

so...the modern quilt guild is asking people to write a little something on what modern quilting means to them. here are my thoughts.

i started quilting about two years ago. i know, i know, that kind of makes me a newbie but there you have it. i've been sewing since i was a kid, so it wasn't a huge leap for me, and the more i make the more inspired i get to make more. i've always loved mid-century mod decor and architecture, and modern quilts sort of go along with that (at least in my head). i literally had no idea that these kinds of quilts existed until i stumbled upon denyse schmidt's website. i saw her drunk love in a log cabin quilt and fell instantly in love. nearly a year later i had finished my first real quilt, after countless ripped seams, machine jams, poked and/or sliced fingers, and a million, "so this is how NOT to do it" moments.

for me, it's all about the pretty fabrics and non-traditional piecing. i can appreciate the effort that goes into an exact, traditional-type quilt, but they don't appeal to me aesthetically and they certainly don't inspire me to make one. no offense to the traditional quilters out there. 

i love bold patterns and bright colors. 

i love colors other than white (although white is cool, too) for sashing. i love quilts that look a little more like art and a little less like something dusty that covers your grandma's couch. 

and i LOVE LOVE LOVE how endless the possibilities are! for me the hardest part about starting a new quilt is deciding which idea i like more. and that takes me almost as long as the quilt.

susan's hexed hexagons

well now that i'm sure this quilt has arrived at it's final destination, i can post pics and not ruin any surprises.

a few months ago i decided to make a quilt for my friend susan, of the much aforementioned "whatsoever things are beautiful" blog. i really wanted to try something different from the many variations of log cabin blocks i'd done so far, and i racked my brains trying to think of what to do. i considered circles, but they kind of scare me. i didn't want to do a strip quilt because it makes my head hurt. then i alighted upon this pattern from amy butler and i was in love!

after a lot of online fabric searching, and drooling, and indecision, i finally came up with a color scheme i liked in heather bailey's new "nicey jane" fabrics. oh wait, did i mention i bought the fabric BEFORE i picked the pattern? yeah, never a smart idea. i didn't have nearly enough, which is why there are random mermaids and pink amy butler fabric thrown in. and even with the additions i BARELY had enough fabric for all those ginormous hexagons. it took me almost three days to cut out all the pieces because i had to be so...creative and uptight in order to get all the pieces i needed. hence the hexed hexagons. 

i really do love the way it turned out, though.

the colors made me happy. almost the whole time i was working on this it was overcast and depressing outside, so the cheery yellows and soothing blues really perked me up.

and the back...let me just say that strip of hexagons on the back took me ages. and they pull in six directions so there was a lot of puckering where i didn't really want it.still, all in all i was pleased with it, and apparently susan was too, judging by the response on her blog. which is, for me, both embarrassing and gratifying at the same time. it's always nice to know that the things you make are liked.

a fundamental lack of supplies

i hate when this happens. i'm on a roll, i'm all inspired...and i run out of supplies.

i have 48 pretty quilt blocks sitting in a stack, and i can't put then together because i need fabric for sashing. look how pretty! i love this. i need grey fabric! (right now it's sitting on another quilt so i could get an idea of what it would look like)

i have about fifteen ideas for new drawings, and i just ran out of paper.

i'd like to bake something fun on this dreary, overcast day, but i have no butter, no milk, and no eggs.

all of these things could be remedied, if i didn't also lack a car. *sigh*

i could use some of these pretty new fabrics i got as a birthday gift (thank you again elizabeth and gina! it was really fun to go the fabric store and just blow money with no guilt!) but i'm saving them for something special. i just don't know what that will be. yet.

i suppose i could go clean the bathrooms. that is, if i haven't run out of cleaning supplies as well. one can only hope...