Saturday, October 9, 2010

WANT!!!


Ok... I understand that I have more than enough fabric to keep me quite busy for a few years....BUT I keep finding fabric that I want. Just out.... Dr. Seuss fabric from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. WANT!!!! (wiping the drool from my face) Oh the ideas I have for the ENTIRE line! Much more than the sampling in the picture. See the whole line here at the Fat Quarter Shop. Some of it isn't even out yet.

I hope to have pictures and a post up this weekend from my trip to Granville, TN and the quilt festival there. I am also working on oven mitts that will have a posting soon.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Two Doors Down

I have moved my sewing room! I hated being in the back of the house. The lighting was bad in the old room too. The room is bigger, but there is no storage space so I guess that I will just use the old sewing room for storage and designing. It was a pain moving everything. My bookshelf collapsed as I moved it. I spent Saturday with my parents looking for a new one. I ended up with the same type as before. It took dad and I forever to get it together, it wasn't drilled right. You can't tell it in the picture but it is bowed a little at the bottom. I moved the buffet into the room. It is perfect for storing fabric. It doesn't have it all in there. It wouldn't all fit anyway.
My favorite new item is my little white shelf! I bought it at Goodwill for $5.00. It is perfect for ribbon and to hold my honey buns, jelly rolls, and charm packs that double as decorations till they are assigned a project.

You see my latest work in progress laying there across my sewing machine. Hopefully it will be finished and posted soon.

Moving has got me sewing again. As you can see, it isn't all nice and neat, which means it is being used!

Speaking of being used... here are 2 blocks I finished yesterday. It is my September Block of the Month and one of my September Buck a Blocks (one still to go.)




I have LOTS of sewing to do. I have 2 craft shows coming up. More on those in the coming weeks!

Time for a nap and then to my real job for the night!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

I Remember

I remember where I was on 9/11/2001. I had just pulled into the Murphy Center parking lot for class at MTSU when I realized that I had forgotten my things for a HS Biology class I had to teach. I decided to skip my class so I wouldn't be late teaching. Rick and Bubba were on the radio. I think it was Bubba that reported that a terrible accident had happened in NY. That's what everyone thought it was until the 2nd plane hit. I got home in time to see the 2nd one live on TV. I watched until I had to go. On my way to the little private school, Rick and Bubba were as solemn as I have ever heard them. Then the unbelievable happened, the first tower fell. The terror in their voices still haunts me. The kids were already watching it when I got there. Another private Christian school was on there senior trip in NY and all the kids knew someone on it. No news about there safety had been heard yet. It was scary to them. Most just wanted reassurance that they were safe. I felt safe where I was at that moment and told them that this little place in the middle of nowhere was not likely to be a target for anyone. But I knew that in one morning everything had changed for America and that made me very uneasy. This was before we knew of who was behind the attacks or if there were going to be any more. No biology was learned that day. No one could focus. Thankfully a parent called before the end of class to say that they had heard from a parent of a kid that was on the trip and that they were okay.

America has changed, but I can't say the way I thought it would looking back to the days and months right after 9/11/01. It seemed that the whole country was unified for once, not on every issue but on the important ones. We looked at each other differently, we talked differently. Nine years later we seem more UNunified than ever. I have a feeling that if they showed the footage more regularly there would be a different America today.

It's a different world today. The radicals didn't win by attacking us on 9/11, but the fight is still going on, and I hate to say it but.... if we don't start remembering and standing up... they will win.



Friday, September 10, 2010

Carter's Quilt, aka, The Fastest Quilt EVER!




Carter's Quilt

Well, I started this project yesterday. I would have finished it yesterday but I lollygagged around.

Cut

A friend's baby is having her 1st birthday party tomorrow. She is at the stage where everything goes in her mouth. I wanted to do a little blanket for her so I started going through all of my quilting magazines.

Summer 2010 issue

I found a recent one that had a quilt that I have been wanting to make but didn't want it that big. This one was perfect to size down. I just did 9 squares and then added a little special something of my own.

Pieced

Layered

I used plain white fabric and 8 10" squares from a layer cake of Moda's Frolic line.
I L-O-V-E this line! It is by Sandy Gervais. She has the cutest blog too.

Quilted and Bound

I did try something new... Continuous binding. I found a great tutorial on YouTube. I can't figure out how to move it so it's at the end of this post.

As for my special addition? I put a ribbon under the binding, which was done completely by machine thank you very much, added a snap and teether. I got her some keys she can put on there too. I had the ribbon and I think it goes well with the quilt both the circles and the colors.






And now for the video for making continuous bias.....

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner



OK, so no chicken dinner, but I did win $10! Two of my quilting projects won 3rd place in the Wilson County Fair! I think that's huge considering all the quilts that were entered!


I am going to enter some of my quilts in a show in Granville, Tn at the end of this month. We'll see how that goes.

I can't believe it has been almost 3 months since my last post. I don't think I have sewn since then either. Hopefully there will be lots of posts coming up of all the new things I am making.


Monday, June 14, 2010

It shouldn't take 4 days to do one block....


It really shouldn't. But that is how long it took me to do this block.
Why? 2 jobs. 12+ hours of work 6 days a week. It is really cramping my quilting style! Maybe I'll find time to quilt one day soon!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

2 blocks done!



Wow, all work and no quilting makes Suzanne an unhappy girl! I finally got 2 blocks done. One of which is "overdue." I got a reprieve since they didn't give me enough of a strip.

I felt like I was doing a chore though. I guess because I knew I didn't have time to just do what I wanted. I still have 2 more blocks to finish by the end of the month.

Well, here they are....
May Buck-a-Block (pastel)


April Block of the Month

I can see one glaring mistake in this one. Hopefully when combined with other blocks no one will notice.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Long Time No Write!

Wow! Has it really been almost a month since my last post??

To tell you the truth I haven't been doing a lot of sewing. Almost none! I got my Block of the Month for May only because they messed up in the amount they gave me on the last one. I am not sure I would have finished it if I had the right amount in the first place.

Reason? 2 jobs. One day job....one night job. I usually pull at least two 24+ hour days a week. So my sewing room sits stagnant. It's sad really. Sometimes I go in there and turn the light on and just look at it. Sigh.

So no pictures to show. No new project in the works. Nothing. Sigh.....yeah...sigh.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Lee.. you will be missed

Lubov Landsberg - aka Lee

When I moved to Texas I found some wonderful women that got together twice a week to crochet and knit. These ladies welcomed me in with open arms and I looked forward to seeing them every week. One of these ladies was Lee. She was funny, crazy, an amazing knitter, caring, and beautiful. I personally loved that she didn't mind looking at all the pictures of my quilts (she especially liked the Lamb Blankie.) I am not in Texas anymore so I didn't get to see her recently but she made a lasting impression on me and I will miss her. I hope to get to meet up with all my yarn buddies when I take a trip to Texas this summer. I am so sad that Lee will not be there. I bet she's knitting with the best cashmere EVER right now though :).


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Yee Haw! Introducing "Cowgirls"


The Cowgirl quilt is officially DONE! I broke down and bought a seam ripper at Walmart. I don't like it, it's huge and awkward, but I was desperate.

"Cowgirls," as I have named it (original I know) is not a complicated or intricately designed quilt. It's just squares, squares made from a fat quarter of cowgirl material, 4 shirts I bought at Goodwill (one of my favorite places to buy fabric disguised as 100% cotton shirts), and a pair of my old jeans that I machine embroidered little sunbonnet cowgirls onto. These simple little squares are bordered by some fabric I have had for years with cowgirls on it and then bound by some other fabric that I have had with horseshoes on it. It's backed with a striped soft cotton. Nothing really special or complex.... simple like a... well like I think a cowgirl would want it.

It is incredibly soft, even my old worn out jeans are. Of course I have finished it just in time for the warm weather so it might not get much use for a few months.


Here is my machine hard at work quilting. I used the feather stitch along the seams. I used a light pink in the bobbin thread and it compliments the striped backing fabric and brings it all together I think.

A couple of shots of the front and back. I hope to get one of it flat out but I need more room and better lighting. Look who decided to get some camera action... It's "Circle of Life" peeking in!


A closer look at an edge.

And one of my favorite features... a pocket, courtesy of the cotton shirt!
Now I have a blank planning board! Not for long!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Where are you Mr. Ripper?


There are a lot of important tools to a quilter. A good pair of scissors, a sharp rotary blade, a self-healing mat, good needles, pins, rulers, sewing machine, and last but not least.... a seam ripper. This little tool is the bane of every sewer's existence because you use it when you've screwed up. But without it where would we be? I'll tell you where I'd be... I'd be blogging about a seam ripper instead of FINISHING the last bit of my Cowgirl Quilt! I can't find it....anywhere! I think one of two things has happened. One, it has been stolen and it is screaming out in a muffled voice too tiny for me to hear. Scared and alone, without it's protective top (it's laying next to my sewing machine), wondering if it will ever come to my rescue again. Two, it is hiding on purpose to torture me. It knew I was finishing up my binding and I was bound to screw something up. It was laughing, tucked away in some nook as I practically destroyed my sewing room desperately looking for it. Could there be any other explanation? Well, till I either rescue or lure out the little tool I didn't miss till it was gone, my Cowgirl Quilt will be laying in a heap next to my sewing machine instead of on my couch...which is where it could have been in less than an hour!
See.. I was going along so well....


Then I realized I goofed... That needs to be inside the seam. Oops.


Friday, April 2, 2010

Upcoming


I worked three nights in a row, my house was a disaster so I spent today straightening up... needless to say I haven't done much in the area of creating (unless you count creating a mess, I do that a lot.)

Here are some "upcoming" things I will be working on after my cowgirl quilt is done.

1. This little blanket.

2. A very special quilt that I cannot post until it is given away this summer. I am going to be experimenting a great deal so it may not even come to reality.

3. More baby bibs and burp cloths.

4. "Caveman" quilt. This is one I am extremely excited about! I am designing this one from scratch, well except for the embroidered designs. I plan on blogging each step in the creation of this quilt. Lots of experimenting to get the ideas in my head to work in real life!

5. Making more tags for items I want to sell. I use scrapbook paper. I wish all scrapbook paper designs came in fabric too!


6. Books I plan on reading BEFORE this summer. HAHAHAHAHAHA..... Seriously, I will try!

7. Layer, quilt and bind the cross quilt.

8. Potholders!!

That enough? Should keep me busy for a little while.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Baby bib made to order....

I had mentioned that I made baby bibs and things at work the other week and one of the nurses asked me to bring them because she was interested. She decided on a couple but then said that I should get an embroidery machine and that I could really make money if I had one of those. Well... I told her I did have one. Then came the idea for the bib she really wanted.

I don't mind making special order things, but they make me so nervous. What if I don't get it the way they want? What if what they want is beyond my expertise? It's very stressful! But I couldn't say no. A sock monkey bib with "Monkey'n around" embroidered on it. No problem.... yeah right. For some reason my machine, which I usually love with all my heart, decides to act a fool. I am still not sure what its problem was, though I think I have narrowed it down and it will be going to the shop soon. Thankfully the wording allowed me to be creative as I dealt with my issues. This is why the "U" and "N" are off line and the "D" is hanging off the edge. Well, here it is.



Does it look ok for being totally screwed up?

Friday, March 26, 2010

Almost there!


I have the border on! I love it! I can't wait to back, quilt and bind it.

Here it is in its current state.



Notice anything in this one?


It has a pocket!

I used 100% cotton shirts from Goodwill for most of the squares so I decided to use one of the pockets in my quilt. It will be perfect to hold my remote or my phone while covered up on the couch.

I hope to work on it more next week. I have a baby bib to make for someone at work first though. She's buying 2! Like I said before, I wish this could be my job!


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Getting There...

My planning board is one step closer to seeing a new project! I finally got all the denim pieces of my cowgirl quilt embroidered and all of the squares are pieced. All I need to do is add the border and it can come down!... well until I get my backing material then it will go back up shortly. I am not sure what project will go up next. I have a couple in mind.

Here are some pictures of what I did last night (till about 3:00 am.)

My friend Pfaff that does all the work!

Design 3 of 4 (1 & 2 are in a previous post below)

Design 4 of 4


All the squares fit perfectly! You can see a bit of the bordering fabric on the right side.

There is one thing I don't like but I am not about to rip out all the seams that I would have to to fix it. I'll just deal with it. It's going in my living room anyway!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

March...up to date


I finished my March Block of the Month. I think it is my favorite one of the 3 so far. I like January's too. I wasn't too fond of last months though.

March BOM

I need to finish embroidering my cowgirl quilt and piece it so I can get it off my planning board. I have other ideas swimming in my head and no place to plan them! Maybe I need to work on a few smaller projects so I once again have a sense of accomplishment. Maybe I should just quit procrastinating and sew! It seems like when I have time I am not in the mood and when I'm in the mood I'm not at home. Occasionally the two occur at the same time and I spend 10 hours in my sewing room and wonderful things happen. Why can't this just be my job?


Monday, March 15, 2010

Just call me the Night Quilter


Well, it's 2:32 am. Now that I work 3rd shift 3 days a week I find myself up at all hours. What a wonderful time to quilt! I had a little extra inspiration today since I went to my favorite quilt shop to get my new Buck-a-Blocks and Block-of-the-Month. I also got the one strip I needed to finish my block from February. Since 11:45 I have finished last month's block and started and finished my 2 Buck-a-Blocks. I decided to save my newest BOM for later this week. Here's the proof I have been hard at work....

February BOM


March BOB (Civil War)


March BOB (Pastel)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Long Time No Blog

It has been a long time! I haven't forgotten about my blog but my computer won't power up. It is time for a new battery.

Sadly, I am no further on my cowgirl quilt.

I did do my 2 Buck a Blocks for February. I started my Block of the Month but I messed it up. Only one strip but I need to go back and get more to finish it.

Here are my Buck a Blocks...


I am in a lull when it comes to my UFOs. I'm just not in the mood to drag them out. New projects seem so much more fun.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Slight Change of Plan


Ok, so Cowboy Quilt 1 is now Cowgirl Quilt. I have this wonderful cowgirl fabric and denim.
I didn't have enough of everything to make a quilt though and I didn't have enough money to get fabric. Solution.... GOODWILL! I found 4 100% cotton shirts that match perfectly. They are all different too. I got them home, washed them, and then started destruction!

The denim squares are from an old pair of my jeans. Each will be embroidered with a cowgirl. I have 2 done.




The larger cowgirl print will be the main border and I am going to back it with a plaid flannel I think.
I have 6 more denim squares to embroider then I start piecing. More to come!