krista stitched

WiP Wed - New Block!

2012-02-29T07:17:00.001-06:00

This is the second one of these Rose Star/Jazz Hands whatever-you-wanna-call-it blocks. Kris, over at Duke Says Sew What first tipped me off about Clare's Rose Star block party, which I promptly joined in on. I had been hand-piecing like mad already, and after cranking out a few of these my arm was about to fall off.

That's when I decided to up the hexie size to 8 inches (point to point) and try machine piecing. I'd never done y-seams by machine but I figured it out. The first block might be more visually striking in photographs, but in real life this one is my favorite. It screams tropical vacation or something like that.

As far as WiPs go, I made one block for my mom's quilt, and started this new quilt, with two block done now. Nothing else got touched!

STATS:
Completed Projects - 3
New Projects - 1
Ongoing Projects - 7

I also want to mention my pal Elizabeth is having an awesome Superior Thread giveaway, which you can find here. She's awesome and is full of useful quilty info and wisdom. Plus she writes like a dream :D

Linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday :D

New quilt + Stashing

2012-02-27T07:47:00.005-06:00

I started a new quilt! Turns out y-seams aren't so bad and I was able to machine piece two blocks over the weekend. I finished the second one last night so no photo of that yet.

I might have ordered a bunch of new fabric especially for this project. I'm also pulling from my stash.

I wish I could flesh this out more but I have to work (drat!) and don't have time :D

Linking up with {sew} modern Monday and Sew Darn Crafty (buttons on sidebar!)

OMG! Look at this brilliant button Lucy has made for the Stale Stash Swap she's put together. Can't wait to figure out how to add it to my sidebar!

WiP Wednesday - long time no linky

2012-02-22T19:07:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I linked up with Lee for a WiP Wednesday but I’m ready to get back to it. (Even though I'm late to the party...)

Completed:

Scrappy sheet coasters – started these way back when I had finished cutting all my pieces for my kaleidoscope quilt, using the scraps. All the fabric is vintage sheet material. Finally put the binding on the other day. It was my first go at bias binding, I just kind of winged it. There are pleated bits around the corners, so I’m pretty sure I did it wrong. But I love them and they’re almost too pretty to set drinks on.

i love these so so so much

Rose Star mini quilt – maybe I’ll enter it in Ellison Lane Quilts’ mini quilt challenge? I dunno.

Jen’s coasters – these little HSTS were made forever ago with no real project in mind, I was simply exploring an alternate method of making them. I wasn't in love with the lack of contrast (only the brown ones really pop) and stashed them away somewhere, never to be seen again... Until Friday morning when I busted them out and made coasters quick before I left to visit my friend Jen in her new apartment. They made a decent housewarming gift. It’s the thought that counts, right?

the brown one looks small, but i swear they were all the same size

Ongoing:

Punctuation quilt – needs binding

Summer Sampler Series quilt – I’m so close to finishing this thing that it’s ridiculous how long I’ve let it sit on my design wall, untouched. All the blocks are bordered in grey, and half of them are quilted. (I'm doing this one QAYG). Maybe I’ll work on it tonight now that I’ve brought it up again.

Across the Sea quilt – Block subunits made and ready for assembly. I bought the fabric with plans to make my mom a quilt for mother’s day… in 2010. I started the ATSQAL thinking I’d have it finished for mother’s day 2011, but didn’t get there. Then I promised it would be finished this year for Christmas. No dice. How long do I have before mother’s day 2012? I'll need to get on that.

Drunkard’s Path quilt – should have been a Christmas gift but I couldn’t get it quilted in time. I started and ripped it out twice and still can’t decide on how quilt it or what color thread to use. I’m paralyzed. I spent SO MUCH TIME piecing and I don’t want to ruin it with bad quilting.

Rose Star blocks – I have two made but no plans on what to do with them.

Hexie quilt – 50ish hexie flowers done, seven of which have borders. I haven’t done the math on measurements or set any kind of timeframe, so this will probably be a decade-long project. At best.

Stats:
Completed Projects - 3
New Projects - 0
Ongoing Projects - 6

Yikes. Talk about a reality check.

Rose Star Mini Quilt - Finished

2012-02-20T16:03:00.001-06:00

I went ahead and made a mini quilt out of my most recent rose star block, thinking it would look cute on the wall in my sewing room (once I get it back) or on the center of a table in case that never happens.

I echo quilted it, 1/8in from the seam on one side, 1/4in on the other. Why? Because I messed up and didn't notice right away. By the time I figured it out I decided to just keep going and pretend I'd done it that way on purpose (oops, so much for that plan).

I have a scrolly/swirly black and white dot print (by Alexander Henry maybe?) and thought it would look cool as binding. I was right (duh) and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

The back is leftover sheet material that my mom found at a thrift shop. It's 100% cotton and I used most of it for the backing on my punctuation quilt. I just need to put binding on and that one will be finished. I guess I should get on that...

I'd like to give a shout out to my pal, Elizabeth! She wrote a killer sweet post where she linked back to my blog not once, not twice but THREE times, lol! I was über pleased and am stoked she's joined in on the EPP bandwagon. Do yourself a favor and go check out her blog, Occasional Piece.

Okie dokie that's all for now. I'm linking up with:
Megan's {sew} modern Monday
Elizabeth's Little Quilt Monday
Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Thanks for stopping by!

My Love Affair with EPP

2012-02-14T13:11:00.001-06:00

Since I have no Valentine, (ick! who needs one?) I'm professing my love for English paper piecing instead. It's more like that disgusting, obsessive, quit hanging out with your friends because you've fallen off the face of the planet sort of love, but I'm ok with that. Judge all you want. I'm HAPPY.

hexie flower hexies

I know what you're thinking... Maybe if I put down the needle and thread and ventured out of my living room for a change I might find myself a man. Meh.

The other day I stopped to get an oil change. While the guy behind the counter seemed to be flirting with me, I decided to walk across the parking lot to the LQS and peruse the fat quarters instead of chatting with him while I waited. Once I returned he got back to asking 20 questions, attempting to find out if I was on the market. After telling him I spent nearly all my free time quilting, he straight up inquired if it was because I had no man to tend to. Huh. We laughed because he was spot on and we both knew it.

and another pic to prove this post does in fact belong on a quilty blog

Unfortunately for this guy, he didn't meet my very basic requirements. Since my pool of possible valentines is so incredibly vast (ha) I can afford to be picky. I'll share a few things I need from a man in order for him to have a chance with this fine behind.

- Must be able to fix a sewing machine.
- Must ~~enjoy~~ tolerate holding bolts of fabric so my hands are free to look for more bolts of fabric.

- Must be tall enough to hold up a queen size quilt for photographing without it touching the ground (preferably his footwear would be visible, but let's not get too specific!)
- Must have a mother who owns a long arm and would let me use it anytime I want (bonus points if she has a giant stash for me to pilfer)
- Must know to gift me a bundle of fat quarters on Valentine's day (and any other holiday) rather than flowers or chocolate or diamonds. Ok maybe I'd take diamonds, but you get the idea.
- Must make the mad cash so I can quit my job and be a SAHQ (stay at home quilter) for the rest of my life.

Are my expectations too high? Methinks not.

Oh and thanks for all the feedback on my Star Flower block (in the last post), it's so nice to ask for opinions and get such good ones! I'll be sharing pics of the finished product once the sun shows itself long enough for me to take some.

Liking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday :D

rose star block - help!

2012-02-11T18:45:00.001-06:00

Surely you're sick of seeing rose star blocks by now, right? Well that's just too bad because I have another one to share and I need your help deciding on a border!

When I first attempted this block I cut templates from a plastic file folder and thought it was oh so clever! I realized they weren't iron-friendly like my teflon hexie templates but managed to make it work a second time by being super careful to press in short spurts so as not to melt them.

This time around, I upped my hexie from 3 to 5 inches and cut the templates out of Manila file folders, which are still stiff enough to use like teflon templates (basting only on the back side) and are able to be ironed.

While I'm super pleased with the rose star itself, my feet got cold once I laid out these grey border pieces. The flower stems in the center hexie are grey, so I thought I'd tie it in as the background. Plus I have several grey prints in my stash and unfortunately no whites or ivories. But the darker green star points get a little lost, don't they?

Here's where I need your help! What should I do?

A) unpick those three darker green points and replace them with lighter green, then continue with the grey background pieces.

B) go get some white prints (maybe a tiny black or grey dot) from the LQS and see if that looks better

C) leave as is and get to sewing it together already

D) your opinion, let me know If you have any better ideas :D

I'm leaning towards option A since I've already got these grey guys basted and ready to go and it wouldn't take long to remove and replace the three dark green guys, but I'd love to get some feedback! I'm setting this aside now and am going out to interact with the world on a Saturday night.

Rose Star block #2 + hexie flower hexies

2012-02-05T18:30:00.001-06:00

This is my second attempt at a Rose Star block, you can find a tutorial by Clare here.

After finishing 45 hexie flowers I've decided on how I want to piece them together. I'm adding a border to each one so they finish as hexagons, 7 inches side to side.

After making three I wished I had used two similar colored prints for each background like I had with the flowers. I'm gonna do the rest like this and maybe I'll fix the first three later. Or maybe they'll blend right in and I won't have to!

I'm now realizing the amount of work I have ahead of me but hopefully I won't run out of steam :D

Linked up over at Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday!

Phoenix quilt shop + charitable quilting

2012-02-04T05:34:00.001-06:00

Both Joann's and Cabbage Rose quilt shop were located within walking distance of my sister's condo outside of Phoenix. Obviously I hit both while on vacation last week.

I loved how the quilt shop was set up and decorated. Organized yet whimsical. Candy-colored, vintage sewing machines atop tall shelves filled with gorgeous bolts of fabric.

They had a bunch of those glittery, sparkly, metallicy kinda prints which were fun to look at but not quite my cup of tea. Also a ton of batiks. I really liked the huge variety of vintage/antique looking floral, stripe and dot prints.

My five week old niece caught a nasty cold and landed herself at the hospital the day before I headed home. She's all better now, so no worries.

But look at that awesome quilt made by some wonderful retirees! She gets to keep it, cool right? Check out AZ Blankets 4 Kids for more info on the group responsible.

I've seen lots of charitable quilting going on around blogland and I've always admired it. I'll have to look into my local guild and see if I can get involved in this sort of thing!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. I'm stitching up a storm :D

A little desert R&R + hexie progress

2012-02-02T01:41:00.001-06:00

Spent the past week visiting my sister's family out in Phoenix. I met my newest niece (5 weeks) and spent lots of time bonding with her older sister (24 months).

The new big sis and I just loved playing with hexagons. She'd count their sides and chew on them and spread my neat little piles out all over the place. Great fun!

I cut and packed bunches of scrappy 2.5in squares so I could EPP to my heart's content while away from home base.

I even assembled a travel sewing kit complete with everything I needed for making 4 or 5 hexie flowers at a time. The nail clippers make for excellent thread snippers.

I made about 12 more while on vacation, bringing the completed flower count up to 43. I'm using these for the Scrap Attack QA.

Not bad, right? I stole moments to sew during nap time, plane or car rides and evenings spent in front of the tv after bonzos were in bed for the night.

It's back to the needle and thread for me!

Rose Star + Hexie Flowers

2012-01-21T22:27:00.001-06:00

Now that I'm way into English paper piecing (EPP), I couldn't resist trying out Clare's Rose Star tutorial. This guy was a bit more complicated than the hexie flowers I've been making.

I learned EPP using plastic templates, so I used a plastic file folder and the paper cutter at work to make templates for this block. I was quite pleased with my ingenuity! They work great, but definitely can't be ironed over...

And here are the latest hexie flowers.

Hexilicious!

2012-01-16T00:31:00.001-06:00

Oh yeah!

Here's what I have so far and I like how it's shaping up so, so much.

So much that I expanded my fabric picks and acquired quite ambitious stacks of squares.

I'll keep going until I tucker out on hexies, at which point any leftover cuts will be ready to use for some other project down the road.

Linked up at Sew Many Ways and Quilt Story!

Hexie Fever + Scrap Attack

2012-01-13T21:57:00.001-06:00

I can add hexies to my list of newly acquired skills. I'm obsessed with these little guys. Now I have something quilty to play with while I'm traveling. Or lounging on the couch. Or whenever I feel like it, which has been any free moment for over a week now.

I dug into my scrap stash and had a whole stack of these flowers made by the time I saw my bloggy pal Elizabeth's post and realized this would be a perfect project for Rachel's scrap attack thingy. What a happy coincidence :D

I like how the only rules are that you use scraps and finish it my March. This gives me complete creative control which works best for me if there is a deadline, lol. We'll see what happens!

The Back Door is Dressed

2012-01-07T21:54:00.001-06:00

In an effort to start and finish something (anything!) all in one sitting, I busted out my DS stash and threw together a window curtain.

I can't decide if it's too long or not. I could remove that bottom dark blue strip of fabric. Or I could shorten the bright blue plaid strip. Reader input welcome!

Linking up here!

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T15:34:00.001-06:00

It's gonna be a good one :D

My Newest Addiction - Instagram

2011-12-29T02:14:00.001-06:00

Whoa. I just figured out how to utilize Instagram properly. As in adding #'s and @'s in order to tag photos and people. It's like social networking through filtered, square pictures.

I've gotten a lot of action in the last couple hours. Soon I will rule the world!

In conclusion, If you don't use Instagram, you should start because it's awesome. If you do use it, look me up @kristastitched. You know you want to. We can be instabuddies!

Grandma's Laced Star + New Niece!

2011-12-27T19:11:00.001-06:00

This is what my bro and I gave our grandmother for Christmas this year.

Woodworking runs in the family so my brother hand-crafted the frame. We wished my sister could have contributed but she was too busy having a baby, several states away!

I used the four hour trip north to attempt hand quilting for the first time. I used pearle cotton and stitched along the seams. I found this method made it easier for me to quickly quilt in a straight line, but I did have a hard time controlling the stitch length due to the truck's bumpy ride. We were both super happy with it and so was Gram :D

Here's that baby I mentioned earlier. She came out all yellow and had to spend time under a uv light, hence the blue tint and stylish eyewear. I also heavily edited the photo in order to throw off you pyscho cyber stalkers. In reality babies all look alike to me, but since she isn't my kid I figured I ought to disguise her identity, lol. Plus it's way super fun to play with photos in Instagram and MobileMonet, my two fav free apps!

Anyways, the dog desperately needs a bath after playing on the farm all weekend. Over and out!

Engelbreit Quilt Finish + Gifted Warm/Cool

2011-12-23T03:39:00.001-06:00

I've had this one done for a minute but didn't get it photographed until yesterday. The wind let up briefly over lunch and I was able to con a coworker into modeling it for me :D

I found these fabrics in the sale bin at Walmart and used lime green fleece as backing, so this isn't the highest quality quilt but it's going to get used. Once I pieced the top, the style and colors reminded me of the artist Mary Engelbreit. I'll be gifting this one to my 2yr old niece for Christmas.

I wish I could have quilted it differently, though. I use a 1960 New Home to FMQ and it can be finicky sometimes. It wasn't cooperating at the time so I decided to stitch in the ditch between each block instead. Now that it's finished I wish the quilting was tighter and I'm slightly concerned about durability, but this quilt will serve a purpose for now and I'll have plenty of time to make her an heirloom later, right?

I snapped a couple pics of the neatly tied up Warm/Cool quilt before giving it to my boss for his little ones. A scrap of lime fleece made for a rather snazzy bow!

I'll be heading north to my grandmother's house in the morning. Have a holly, jolly Christmas!

Krista :D

The Bummer Before Christmas

2011-12-20T02:32:00.001-06:00

thread holder - in progress

I went to a friend's house Friday evening to work on thread holders. She served up a mean plate of spaghetti and I headeded home around nine to find my back door busted in and my house ransacked. Lovely. After a bit of a panic attack as I assessed the damage, I'm happy to report they left all of my quilting supplies and the dog untouched. Thank God! They did however make off with two laptops, the roomie's giant flat screen television, all his high tech gaming equipment and a bunch of other stuff.

It's difficult knowing people used a crowbar to get in my house and take all the things my best friend and I work really hard for. I know they used a crowbar because the idiots accidentally left it behind. While we feel incredibly violated, electronics can be replaced. I hope they stole from us so that their children could have presents on Christmas and not to fuel some drug habit. Either way, my most prized possessions were overlooked: the animals, my sewing machines, the stack of quilts finished and ready for gifting. I was surprised they didn't grab my kaleidoscope quilt off the couch to wrap around the television for protection during the move. But they didn't think to do that and I'm really grateful because it would have been utterly devastating.

At any rate, the next day Michael and I were feeling picked on and decided we deserved coordinating iPads. These things are pretty fun and I plan on making them little outfits after the holidays. I also did some serious quilting this weekend in an effort to stay in my happy place. In case you're wondering why such an awful thing would happen to such incredibly amazing people (grin) we're pretty sure it's because I took down a window curtain in the living room so the Christmas tree could be visible from the street. Unfortunately so was the flat screen... Oops!

Lesson learned! We're getting a dragon and starting construction on a moat ASAP ;P

Here's a quilty pic for ya :D

finished Engelbreit quilt atop DP mid-quilting

Drunkard's Path Top + Scrappy Mug Rug

2011-12-11T15:21:00.001-06:00

Took me a little longer than I would have hoped, but I finally got this top finished. I worked on it little by little in random spurts and that worked for me.

I did change the layout at the last minute, though. I'd cut enough pieces to make 144 blocks, but after piecing about 100 and having several of them turn out unusable (oops!) I decided to just put the damn thing together already. Christmas is closing in on me, after all!

I just decided to add some borders too, maybe a thin gray one and then a scrappy pink/white one and then gray binding... We'll see what I come up with. My way of "planning" involves changing everything as I go, lol.

This little mug rug thingy came to be over Thanksgiving break, made with scraps left over from my Warm/Cool quilt. For my first go at log cabin blocks I think it came out pretty snazzy, but it's not as square looking as I'd like it to be!

Free motion quilted in a random boxy meandering style. I've got a recipient in mind but want it to be a surprise so I won't say who till after she's received it :D

Making Christmas!

2011-12-03T04:36:00.001-06:00

I've been working on getting the holiday decorations up, I love this time of year!!

I have a mini tree; it's awfully small so I'm thinking of taking it to my office at work and getting a bigger, real tree tomorrow.

I got this amazing, vintage, hand-carved nativity on etsy last year. It's tiny and awesome and I love it so much.

Incredible, right? I just wish they had a Stable!

Cute apron for my dish soap. I got several of them at a flea market last year.

When I was in high school I saw a CD rack like this in the Eddie Bauer catalogue. My dad and uncle helped me make this one, but I've been using it to hold knick knacks.

My mom used to have a Santa like this one only it was much bigger. We lost it in the move from Memphis to Kansas City, which was a major bummer. But not as bad as the Beatles anthology that went missing.

Got this awesome pillow at a thrift shop a while back. It's appliquéd and vintage and I love it so much :D

I wrapped some Christmas-ee ribbon around the roommate's "money tree" so it could be festive. Even his xbox looks snow-covered!

I'm linking up with Janine's Making Christmas!

Finished! - Warm Cool QA

2011-12-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

Oh yeah!

It's nice to check this off my list of UFOs. Thanks to Jeni over at In Color Order for hosting this awesome QA!

I almost like the back better than the front, is that crazy?! I love the scrappy binding.

All in all, I'm quite pleased! First go at FMQ on an actual quilting machine, and first go at real binding. To be gifted :D

I'm linking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday, go check it out!

Binding - first attempt!

2011-11-28T21:36:00.001-06:00

Finishing up the hand-stitching on my very first go at traditional quilt binding. Woot!

Looking good so far... now back to work!

Thrifted!

2011-11-19T15:17:00.001-06:00

I picked these up at the Goodwill sometime last week. Oh ya!

Such an adorable, hand-sewn tissue box cover. Love it so much! The vintage yellow thread will look neat in my sewing room along with the retro flower jars (to be filled with buttons!), below.

It was incredibly windy and in late afternoon sun when I took these photos, the tissue house kept trying to fly away! Always wanted a lemon juicer like this one. Good, useful finds, I'd say :D

Happy Saturday!

TTT - Twilight Zone

2011-11-17T11:07:00.001-06:00

I've been jittery and super productive all morning. My coworker thinks I'm on something. Three cups of coffee could have something to do with it, but I don't think so. I'm amped up on anticipation. You know why, don't pretend like you live under a rock and have no idea what I'm talking about. Or maybe you don't because you are not completely ridiculous. TWILIGHT!! OMG OMG OMG!!! haha. Yes, in just about 12 hours I will be sitting in a theater with my best friend and roommate, anxiously awaiting the start of Breaking Dawn part I, the 4th movie in the Twilight saga. So yeah, that's all I've been thinking about today :D

Don't judge! I'm only telling you about this because it's fun to geek out and act like a lunatic every once in a while. I find it amusing! Plus, let's be honest, Robert Pattinson is sofa king hot. In case you think I'm making this up, I thought I'd share a photo:

Yes, that is the door to my office. Don't worry, they're on the inside and I always have the door open so no one ever sees them. But every now and again when I need to put a smile on my face, I shut myself in and gaze into his eyes. I'll quit now and leave the gushing up to the ladies over at Robsessed. Maybe I check that site out every now and again. Not that often, ok? Seriously, I have things to do...

Linked up with Think Tank Thursday! (Well not yet, but I will be once Rebecca gets around to posting it!)

WIP Wednesday #13

2011-11-16T09:06:00.001-06:00

Yikes! It's been weeks since my last wip wed post!

Drunkard's Path Quilt Along - I've been making slow and steady progress on piecing my blocks. When the QA was first announced I sewed up sixteen blocks and arranged them into SEVERAL different larger blocks, took pictures and spent a bit of time and effort figuring out different layouts. Here's what I came up with!

The following pic is my all-time favorite DP layout. It's traditionally done in a two solid color pallete, and eventually I'd like to make one like that. Much bigger though, for my bed.

Since this will be for my niece due in December, (hey MQ, pretend you didn't read that!) I went with all the pink and white prints I had on hand and got a bunch of this slate gray for the background. I like the look of this last layout for a little baby, it reminds me of those shape games where you fit the circle peg in the circle hole, etc. So, while I love some of the other options I'm going with this one for this quilt. Yay!

Other than some coasters, mug rugs, and a vest I've been working on for my lovely roomie, all my other projects have been sitting for weeks. I should really get cracking as Christmas is just around the corner...

Linked up with WIP Wednesday!

hoard no more + mug rug

2011-11-15T09:17:00.001-06:00

About two weeks ago I watched am episode of hoarding: buried alive and got motivated to de-clutter my dining room. In a couple hours it went from this:

To this:

Bad lighting makes for bad photos but I just don't have the time to try and edit, lol.

Hank had to be in on it, of course. He helped me organize...

And held things in place on the table so they wouldn't blow away...

Once I had a nice, clean, perfectly organized dining room, I got the itch to destroy it again and worked on some mug rugs.

Made this one for my friend Amy using scraps from my drunkard's path quilt and some appliquéd hearts.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday!

some coasters and a doggy bag

2011-11-14T16:43:00.001-06:00

I am a drinker by nature. By that I mean all types of liquids, water, coffee, beer, you name it! Waitstaff can rarely keep up with my beverage demands, but if I had my way they'd be refilling my glass for the third time even before bringing me a plate of food.

It seems only natural that my cups and mugs have little bitty quilts to curl up on, especially with the cold weather creeping in.

Hey Syd, recognize the multicolored floral print on top?! Yeah, it's from the lovely package you sent me, all the way from London, no less! Way to make me jump around all giddy-like and inspire me to hit the sewing machine after a bit of a dry spell.

And thanks to everyone for all the kind words and encouragement regarding Lucy. Much appreciated.

It was so nice out yesterday and she just wasn't having any more of this "crate rest" business, so I stuffed the little invalid into a messenger bag and went for a brisk walk in the park.

Linked up with {sew} modern monday!

Animal Invasion! - TTT

2011-10-28T15:15:00.000-05:00

*Disclaimer*

This is wordy and has happy/sad topics but I feel the need to write about them. If you aren't in the mood for an emotional roller coaster and just wanna skip to the bottom, I have an exciting linky party idea/announcement that I'd love for you to check out! I'll be linking this to Rebecca Lynne's Thursday Think Tank (go check out the other "thinker" posts!) and I added a quilty pic down at the bottom to end on a light, happy note :D

It's been a busy week since my last post because friends, family and mammals have been taking up all my free time! My sewing machine is collecting dust, but I'd like to share some of the good and bad that's happened over the last seven days.

We were out in the boonies celebrating Halloween and my friend's 26th birthday last Saturday night with a bonfire, costumes, bathtub full of beer etc, when this emaciated dog ran in and interrupted. I'd never seen a dog so skinny! Maybe it was the booze but I was immediately attached. My friend already has four dogs so I took him home with me.

I called him starvin' Marvin and vowed to find him a good home, or at the very least get him into Wayside Waifs in KC, a huge no-kill shelter from which we adopted our family dog, Sydney, seven years ago. They had no room for him and neither did anywhere else, so as per usual my parents' 24 acres out in the country seemed like the best temporary option (evil laugh!) since he's a big hunting dog that needs space. Good thing my dad was out of town for work all week so my mom could nurse poor Marvin back to health in secrecy, LOL. I took him to the vet and got him all checked out and fixed up with shots, dewormer, etc.

My mom, loving on Starvin' Marvin

My mom was hard at work all week trying to find him someplace else to go. It seemed hopeless and she was considering having him put down since he was a lot to handle and wasn't getting along with our llama, sheep, sheep dogs... the list goes on!

I was debating bringing him back to my tiny house with no yard when a lovely veterinarian in the town where I went to high school decided to adopt him!!! YAY! He has three school age daughters for Marvin to play with and the means to give him the very best care, so we are really very grateful and excited and I can't wait to go visit him in a few weeks to see how much better he looks. All was well in the world!

Lucy on a giant doggy bed

Here's where it gets really heavy. Last night Lucy and I were snuggling on the couch when I got up to take her outside before bed. She didn't move. I called her name and she just stared at me. I went to grab her and she was stiff in her neck and body, not able to move. I panicked. I lost my shit. LOST it. The only signs she was still alive were her faint heart beat, shallow breathing and glassy, confused eyes giving me a look that broke my heart. She made no noise as I frantically tried to make her better, feeling quite certain she would soon be dying in my arms. Worst 20 minutes of my life.

my mom with Lucy and Scooter

Don't worry, she didn't die. It's pretty serious though. The emergency vet visit at 11:30pm was pricey but I was prepared to pay much more after losing my Scooter boo (on the right in above photo) just two weeks ago. He disappeared and we have no idea what happened to him, but he's gone. That was hard and I'm still not over it, so losing Lucy was just not an option. The lovely veterinarian who met me at the clinic was looking just as tired and disheveled as I was.

Diagnosis? a herniated disc in her neck, probably caused by my big fat ass squishing her tiny body when I carelessly hopped up off the couch. After a shot of prednisone and some muscle relaxers she began to regain function. Strict crate rest for the next four weeks and she may heal up. There is a surgical option which I'll get more info on this afternoon when I take her back for a checkup, but the cost is incredible. If she does get better I will still have to keep her from jumping up or off of things and be really careful with her, so no more snuggling in bed at night because it would be too risky. I'm having a hard time with guilt after treating my delicate doggy like a rag doll, but I'm feeling lucky that she is still here because I truly thought for a half hour that she wouldn't be.

Hank and Scooter all up in my bidniss

Apologies if you made it through all this text and now you're feeling gloomy, that wasn't my intention! But I wanna share an idea I had. I know lots of you love animals and they keep us company while sewing, so I was thinking about hosting an "Animal Invasion" linky party for anyone with photos of their beloved pets in their blog posts!

I think it would be super fun to check out each others' critters invading our creative spaces, laying on our lovely quilts or just plain being there in our lives. It could be a weekly deal or a one time thing, but please leave me a comment if you'd be interested in participating and also any advice for figuring out this linkup technology as I've never tried it and tend to be computer illiterate at times :D


here's that quilt pic i promised!

Thank you so so much if you read all of this, I know it was a LOT! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Free Motion Friday #3

2011-10-21T14:52:00.000-05:00

Uh, almost forgot to do this until I saw last week's attempt as I was cleaning up my sewing space!

I'm not that fond of this this week's pattern, slate tiles because there's too much overlapped stitching for my liking. I do think it looks better with squares inside squares, though!

Let's just say I like other patterns a lot better. My first ever attempt at FMQ evolved into this sort of boxy-meandering thing that I did around the edges.

Thanks to Cindy for hosting this killer link party to aid us in tackling free motion quilting :D

I'm heading out of town to visit some old college pals, but I'll try to keep up with blogland while I'm gone. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Fabric Pumpkins and Jack-o-Lanterns

2011-10-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

It's a tiny fabric pumpkin patch!

I won't pretend like I'm not absolutely in love with these little guys. Sure, perhaps the stems are a bit long or skinny and maybe real life pumpkins don't really have green leafy stuff on top, but I'm no realist. They look like pumpkins to me :D

This one is by far my favorite. Isn't he adorable?

And one last group shot for good measure.

Inspiration found via Jessica's pumpkins at Twin Fibers and Mary's tutorial over at Craft Buds.

And in case you thought I wasn't a fan of the real thing, here are some jack-o-lanterns the roommate and I carved last night. Wicked cool. It may be a bit early but we don't care. When these guys start sagging we'll just carve some more!

mine is on the left

It's raining now. Which means after a weekend full of beautiful weather I will be able to craft guilt-free tonight in the comfort of my dining room :D

I'm entering these pumpkins in the Celebrate Color home decor linky over at Rachael's blog Stitched in Color. As if you hadn't heard of it! I don't expect to win anything as there are some seriously awesome entries, but I thought it might be fun to participate :D

Also linking up with Megan's {Sew} Modern Monday, Jenna's Manic Monday, Kelli's Glitter Party and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday. Go have a look around! (or else... muahahaha!)

Hank Invasion

2011-10-15T22:57:00.001-05:00

While waiting in line for a roller coaster at the local theme park I thought I'd share some pics from earlier today.

Crafting in my parents basement! Making some fabric pumpkins inspired by a few blog posts I've seen lately - will credit later when I show the finished product!

Hank wanted to come in and play. I could hear him meowing through the open window and he kept pawing on the glass!

Attack! Must be up in mommy's business at all times :D

Getting close to the front of the line; so exciting! Hope you're having a great weekend!

Stashtacular!

2011-10-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

I was bad the other day...

I've been really holding onto my money lately and didn't see why I shouldn't stop at a hip, artsy-crafty shop mid-trip to KC on Friday. Urban Arts and Crafts carries fresh, modern fabric by the likes of Amy Butler, Michael Miller, AMH, Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry etc.

I didn't keep track of specifics but if any of you know the prints, feel free to drop names in a comment :D

FMQ Friday + Finished Mug Rug

2011-10-07T12:38:00.000-05:00

Just happened upon Cindy's Free Motion Quilting Friday and thought I'd give it a go right quick. Time invested? Five minutes. Results? Meh. Not bad, not great. It was fun to practice and I'm looking forward to next week's Drop Art challenge!

I got these nifty gloves a while back and they work wonders for gripping the quilt sandwich. I started out accidentally overlapping (on the right) and thought it looked cool so went with it a bit. Then I switched to the actual challenge pattern, Shadow Waves.

Broke my thread a couple times, oops! Do these stitches look too far apart or just right? I dunno.

I also have this finished mug rug to show off! This was what got me going on FMQ earlier this week. I realized that even though I wasn't in love with it after I was done, once it was washed and all crinkly I liked it a whole lot better.

I brought it to work for my desk so I could have something quilty to put my coffee on. Now when I clumsily nudge my foam cup just enough to spill a bit over the edge, this will keep my papers (haphazardly spread out all over the place) from getting coffee marks on them. Although my dad always said you could tell the importance of any paper on his desk by the degree of coffee staining they had acquired. I always loved that :D

Now I'm off to see my college friend Tiff who is in town ever so shortly from China, where she's been doing Peace Corps work for the last 3ish years. She's a real good time and we're headed to the killer haunted houses down in Kansas City. YAY!

Thursday Think Tank - Squaring Large Blocks

2011-10-07T11:52:00.000-05:00

Howdy! The other day, Heather posted about squaring up large blocks, requesting any and all advice on how one might do such a thing. I took a look at her swoon blocks and after assuring her they looked pretty darn square to me, suggested using a long ruler and her cutting mat. I've done some "thinking" on how to make it easier on myself and thought I'd share what I came up.

I figured out how big I wanted my blocks to end up and put painter's tape on my cutting mat to help me remember where to cut. I had been doing it without the tape, but my gosh does this save time! This way I don't have to double check and constantly count the squares to make sure I'm lining my ruler up in the right place. Just remember to take off the tape before you cut up a bunch of other fabric, or you'll end up removing tiny little pieces instead of big ones. That's it, folks!

You may notice this block is already quilted. I wanted to practice FMQ and figured I'd try doing the blocks individually and then piece them together later. Sort of a quilt as you go sort of a thing. Hopefully it works out! I kind of just do things and hope for the best, lol.

I'm putting them on point using this fabric I found at my LQS. It's interesting... but for some reason I'm digging it. I didn't want to go with white. And a lighter gray didn't contrast enough. So I went with this.

What do you think? I'd love feedback. I only cut two squares out of the cross hatch fabric so it's not too late for you all to intervene! I'm pretty sure this is what I'm going with, though. Seeing as how I'm too cheap to go but another 3 yards of fabric :P

Rebecca has perfect timing because she's started a Thursday Think Tank link party over on her blog, Making Rebecca Lynne. I figure I'll join in on the fun and add this post! Also linking with Karen's Sew Darn Crafty party.

WIP Wednesday #12

2011-10-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

Hi! I'm home sick from work today. My head hurts because my sinuses are all pressurized and my throat feels like sand paper. What's really weird is that my tongue is all swollen and I'm finding it really difficult to breathe, LOL. But I'm using a trick my mom always does when she's under the weather: a hot mug of coffee pressed up against my forehead and temples, hehehe. It works wonders!

Thanks to Lee for hosting Work-in-Progress Wednesday so we can all link up and share the fun projects we've got going on. I missed it last week so I'm just going to pick up from where I left off.

Completed Projects:
Drunkard's path table runner - Made this for my mom just to see how difficult the block was. Used a walking foot to do zig-zaggy quilting in the gold fabric. I got halfway through before I realized this would have been the perfect opportunity to try out hand quilting. Owell! I love it and hopefully she will too :D

Kaleidoscope Quilt Along - Done! For now, anyways. I plan on removing the loose stitches I used to roll forward the backing as temporary binding, and then putting on real binding. But who knows when that will happen and I wanted it done so I could use it. Lucy and I are currently snuggled up in it all cozy-like.

New Projects:

Drunkard's Path Quilt Along - I bought my fabric and tested out Kate's tutorial to great success. Trying my hardest to work on other projects before getting started on this one.

Drunkard's path mug rug - I was going to make six coasters to go along with my mom's table runner, but should have started with bigger squares because 3.75in coasters would be a bit small, hehe. I let loose and starting improvising, ending up with a mug rug instead. Added a bit of brown only to feel like nothing about it popped, hence the turquoise sashing.

Ongoing Projects:
Engelbreit Quilt - top finished and ready for quilting.
Summer Sampler QAL - blocks all sashed and ready to be put on point
Across the Sea QAL - no progress. Another shining example of my jumping into a QAL all crazy excited and then losing steam as soon as it's time to assemble blocks into the top.
Warm Cool QAL - quilted and ready for binding. Here's a peek:

By no means are these the only projects I've started and not finished. However, if I can't think of them off the top of my head they aren't worth mentioning, plus I don't wanna spend anymore time on this post because it's not often I get a day off work and can sew in the daylight!

Stats:
Completed Projects - 2
New Projects -2
Ongoing Projects - 4

Behold: A Test Run

2011-10-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

I bargained with myself this morning that if I got the sashing done on all my sampler blocks, I could start practicing for the Drunkard's Path QAL. I got 10/12 of them done, hit a road block and moved on to picking fabric for my test run. :P

I wanted to make sure I could do these curved seams to my liking before cutting up a bunch of fabric for a quilt. Success! I'll be making this into a table topper. I used these fabrics because I wanted to use a fall-ish palette. It looks red an yellow but it's really more subdued and harvest-y in person. Maybe I'll give it to my mom or something since she has these colors in her kitchen.

The Drunkard's Path Quilt Along is being hosted by Kristie @OCD and Kate @Needle and Spatula. I used Kate's block tutorial and if you'd like to read more about my go at it, I've included some more pictures and details after the break! Simply click the "read more" link below.

My quilty mentor suggested I try Magic Sizing to aid in pressing. I'm addicted. I will never not use this product ever again. It's only like a dollar or two at Walmart which makes it a no-brainer.

I sprayed the fabric before ironing and it seemed to help stick the squares together while I cut multiple layers (2-4) of them on a curve with my small rotary blade.

Sorry about the awful photos. The lighting in my house is so bad it's not even funny! Aside from carrying my mat outside every time I want to photograph something, there isn't much I can do about it. Full speed ahead!

I almost didn't believe Kate when she said not to use pins for this. But I went with it and she was right! I have a 1/4in foot that the lady at the quilt shop told me I had to have, but it actually never worked for me until I used it for this. I realized later in the process (when using a pin to line up seams) that this foot doesn't like pins. Go figure! With my regular foot I just always sew over them, living on the edge and whatnot. BUT, the little guard thing on this foot doesn't let them go under it, causing the fabric to push out of the way and ruin your seam allowance. No pins = no problems. Krista = total space cadet!

Pressing these open took a tiny bit of finesse. I always press seams to the dark side unless I'm trying to avoid bulk, but in this case that wasn't an issue. I picked up each block by the dark corner and ironed flat the light fabric.

After pressing the light fabric to the board, I gently pulled on the dark corner while continuing to press on the light side. Eventually the seam settles in and lays flat. Then I spritzed the seam with some Magic Sizing and pressed until dry. The starch really helps stiffen the blocks every so slightly, making them really easy to work with. Major time-saver.

It was easy to square these blocks up after pressing. Mine were very much not perfect after piecing but trimmed up just beautifully. I was surprised and excited by how little my scrap pile was after I was done :D

I tried out several different layouts. These two were front runners, for sure.

But, in the end I decided to go with the layout that originally caught my eye and had me hooked on drunkard's path blocks. I used felt as batting because I had noting else and figured it would work just fine for a table topper. Right? Let me know if this is a major faux pas lol.

I got halfway through machine quilting with my walking foot when my thread started breaking. I lost my energy and decided to let the project rest for a night. Whew, was that enough information for you? Is anyone still reading this?!

Thanks for sticking with me, now go join the Drunkard's Path Quilt Along hosted by Kristie and Kate. I command you to! And don't forget, this was just a recap of my trial run this afternoon, using Kate's excellent block tutorial. Kristie posted one using a Go! Baby fabric cutter, which you can find here.

Linked up with Karen's Sew Darn Crafty party and Heather & Megan's Fabric Tuesday. You should check them out!

Drunkard's Path Quilt Along

2011-10-01T15:42:00.000-05:00

Oh man, I am SO beyond stoked about this QAL I stumbled upon while on a break from cutting strips for sashing on my summer sampler blocks. I've had a love affair with drunkard's path quilts ever since I discovered this one made in 1930, at a local antique store.

soooo pretty!

I would have bought it for my bed since it was in such great condition but they wanted way more than I could afford. So I told myself I'd make my own one day. Or I could get started now, you say? But I still have lots of WIPs to complete. Owell, what's one more? Grin.

Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet

2011-10-01T12:05:00.000-05:00

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet. Fresh Sewing Day is an opportunity to recap and show off what all you've accomplished in the past month, while Small Blog Meet gives all us bloggers with less than 50 followers the chance to get some more traffic and hopefully new buddies in the process! To everyone stopping over from Lily's Quilts, welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Here's what I got done last month:

quilted my warm/cool

made my last two summer sampler blocks

finished my kaleidoscope quilt!

completed engelbreit quilt top

Thanks to Lynne for hosting these awesome linky parties!

Englebreit Quilt Top - Complete

2011-09-29T18:17:00.001-05:00

I plan on quilting this thing later tonight after choir practice. Oh boy!

Also, the weather today is to die for. Lucy and I are taking full advantage :D

Kaleidoscope Quilt - Finished!

2011-09-28T00:05:00.000-05:00

Hi there!

Had a great time with my family up in Iowa over the weekend. I buckled down and finished up my kaleidoscope QAL top by Saturday evening, just in time to sing happy bday to my gram and enjoy some yummy homemade cake and ice cream.

vintage sheets never looked so good :P

Quilted it the next day on the fancy long-arm machine I so amazingly have access to. Still pinching myself! It has this laser thingy which can be used to trace a pattern on paper while simultaneously stitching on the quilt. Neat, eh?

laser pointer on paper quilting template

Here's a closer look at the quilting. I went with thread that has a 70's retro yellow/gold look about it. I briefly considered hand tying it with yarn like they used to do back in the day but I'm glad I chose to quilt it. I think it might hold together longer this way.

Once it was quilted I couldn't resist the urge to photograph it outside amongst the foliage :D

washed out by late afternoon sun

I used a vintage blue/green floral sheet for the backing, with an added navy stripe since it wasn't quite long enough.

a shot of the back with sun shining through

My quilty mentor (the one who owns the long-arm) told me to bring it back with me over Thanksgiving and she'd help me through the binding process. I've only finished two baby size quilts before this one and simply folded over an inch or so of backing and stitched it down.

~70ish x 90ish inches

I started this QAL knowing I wanted to make it big enough to wrap myself up in on the couch. The thought of having it so close to completion but folded up in a plastic bag until Thanksgiving was just unbearable! I couldn't resist doing a speed demon, hack-job version of my "easy" binding method, using a long stitch length so I can easily rip it out whenever I get around to doing the real deal. I can't tell you how satisfying it was to snuggle up in this thing with my little Lucy dog last night. Sigh. I'm a quilter, and it feels so good.

I'm linking up with Lee's Work-in-Progress Wednesday as well as Megan's Sew Modern Monday! Click on over and check them out, you know you want to :P

Ripping Stitches

2011-09-23T18:51:00.001-05:00

I'm riding shotgun on the way to my gram's farm for the weekend. I'll be spending the next few hours in the car, carefully ripping out the quilting on my punctuation baby quilt.

It was my first attempt at FMQ and it didn't go so well (you can read about it here). Hopefully this thing will be quilted and ready for binding by tomorrow night. *fingers crossed*

Weekend - Summer Sampler Blocks

2011-09-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

I've been at my mom and dad's since Thursday after work and it's been a lovely weekend. Dad's been woodworking out in the shop while my mom and I cook, clean and quilt. The weather's been a bit dreary but that's allowed for us to feel good about all our time spent indoors.

Star

Finished up the last two blocks I needed for my Summer Sampler Series quilt. I only made five of the twelve blocks from the QAL. Add in my oops version of this one and that's six blocks, which I doubled up on to make twelve.

"oops" Star of Virginia

At one point I thought I'd do a much bigger quilt including the other skipped blocks, but I'm calling it quits now because I've run out of my original prints and simply want to finish some things before I make any more trips to the fabric store.

Now I'm left trying to decide on a layout...

layout option 1

layout option 2

The blocks are all slightly varied in size due to my not so consistent seam allowances and general quilting naivety, so I'm bordering each block with a slate print and squaring them up all even and whatnot. After that I'll either sash them in white or put them on point.

Which would you do? I would love suggestions :D

Joining the linky parties over at Sew Many Ways, Petite Hermine, I {heart} Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Canoe Ridge Creations, Quilt Story and (upon personal request, oh my!) Sweet Little Gals. Go check them out, you won't regret it!

DS in the WSJ

2011-09-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

"I had all these talents, but I didn't feel I was putting them to productive use until I started making quilts." - Denyse Schmidt

My parents came over for dinner last night and my dad was grinning ear to ear as he handed me this article from the Wall Street Journal. I was pleased to exclaim, "Oh ya, she designs fabric and I have a couple of her prints!" It made me feel like a real quilter, in on all the action and whatnot.

The Queen of the "Neo-Hillbilly Quilt" by Meg Cox
You can read it here.

It wasn't until later that I sat down and read the article. It was mesmerizing. Here I'd been thinking of Denyse Schmidt as a fabric designer when in fact that's just a cherry on top.

Some neat things I learned:

- She's got a cluttered studio. (ah, so she's not an alien...)

- She finds inspiration in old, imperfect, utilitarian quilts made by ordinary women, not fancy heirlooms.

- Her really crazy-unique quilts can go for 10,000 bucks. Whoa.

- She has a 25ft long design wall in her studio, which has 16ft ceilings. (I'd guess the lighting is spectacular, too :P)

- She didn't start designing quilts until her early 30's, which means I still have time to quit my job and switch careers. (shh, don't tell my boss!)

- She calls her style of quilting "Neo-Hillbilly." As in, a new take on the unsophisticated quilt. Here's an awesome example:

Image courtesy of Denyse Schmidt Quilts

There is also mention of a crafty blog, Exit Through The Thrift Shop, which chronicles Jenny Ryan's progress in creating the quilts from the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. You should totally check it out because it's awesome.

Congrats to Denyse for being such a rock star :D

Feel Good Photo Collage

2011-09-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful evening and the windows are open. I'm sitting on the couch with my little dog sleeping next to me, listening to the traffic outside my window. I was worried about the road noise when I first got the place, but it didn't take long for me to find it strangely comforting. Along with the crickets and the wind, it's a pretty relaxing soundtrack.

1.sewing machine, 2.glass door knob, 3.deadbolt, 4.fan pull, 5.built-in folding desk, 6.rusty doorbell, 7.bottle opener, 8.sewing machine closeup, 9. outdoor sitting area

They're playing news footage from 9/11 on the television. It's difficult to watch, but I was only 14 at the time and am seeing it now through new eyes. In an effort to calm my nerves and ease the heartache, I've been messing around with Picasa 3. I figured out how to make this photo collage of some things around my home that make me happy. Maybe I'll start doing "favorites" posts like I've seen around blogland lately. I'd like that.

Hugs to all,

Krista

Best. Weekend. EVER.

2011-09-06T09:16:00.000-05:00

Like my new toy?

quilting my warm/cool QAL quilt

Just kidding! It belongs to my aunt's mother, who is now my new BFF because not only did she let me touch it, she let me play with it. I could gab and gab about the goings on of this past weekend, (I've been doing it all morning, poor coworkers!) but basically she said whenever I finish up a few quilt tops, just give her a call to make sure she's not using it and I can come up and quilt to my heart's content. I know, I can't believe it either.

For anyone who may not understand my over-the-moon excitement, this thing cost more than my car. They built a whole new room onto their house just to put it in. This is simply the quilting room. Her sewing room is in the basement and she's practically got a fabric store down there too. This is how I want to spend my retirement. No, this is how I want to spend the rest of my life starting right now. *sigh*

Linked up with Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday. Lot's a cool stuff being posted, so click over and have a look around!

Small Blog Meet

2011-09-01T10:01:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! I'm linking up with Lynne's Small Blog Meet! I can't figure out how to add the button to this post. Everyone else is doing it, am I missing something?!

Welcome! I'm Krista and I love sewing. Blogging about it gives me an outlet for sharing my creativity, playing along with other quilters, gaining ideas, sharing ideas, and best of all it let's me keep a journal of everything I'm working on. I've only been doing it since June, but so far it's been so much fun. Sometimes I get busy with life and whatnot, but who doesn't? This weekend I'll be heading up to my grandmother's house and I'm bringing a lot of projects with me! I hope to get a lot done :D

I just posted yesterday and I don't have any new pics to share, so please scroll through and look around at my previous posts! I love comments and new followers :D

Krista

WiP Wed #10

2011-08-31T00:32:00.000-05:00

Howdy! I finished this Star of Virginia block on Sunday afternoon. It's the tenth block for my Summer Sampler. Only two more to go! Or ten? I still haven't decided if I'll stop at twelve or keep going until I hit twenty.

I've been hard at work all week on the pieces for my mom's cross quilt. It's the Greek Cross block from the summer sampler, but I'm doing it with the Across the Sea QAL crowd.

I'm using up a bunch of charm squares from Bonnie and Camille's Bliss line. Instead of trimming them down beforehand, I sewed all the pairs together and squared them up afterwards. I'm ready to piece the blocks together and expect it to go smoothly after all this prep work :D

you'll find piles like this everywhere

Visited my mother and my two boy kitties last night. I returned this evening because we were having so much fun! At the beginning of summer I sent the cats to run off their winter weight, and my gosh I couldn't believe my eyes! Scooter has lost a LOT. Isn't he looking dead sexy?

rub mah skinny belly!

WiP Wednesday #10 Recap
Last week's total: 7
Finished this week: 0
New this week: 0
This week's total:7

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced :D

WIP Wed #9

2011-08-24T02:58:00.000-05:00

I played around and came up with this mockup for the Across the Sea QAL. My mom likes the colored corner points so I'm using this block tutorial instead. Hope that's cool with everyone, lol.

I'm using Bliss by Bonnie and Camille. My mom loves it so I bought a bunch a few months back. I've already got a most of the pieces sewn together!

I hit The Quilt Shoppe on Sunday to get the background material for the cross quilt and Tula Pink was there. We chatted FOREVER and I fell in love with her and her fabric. I got a few fat quarters, justified by the fact that I'd like to make my own version of this quilt I saw on flickr.

I've done a little more on my kaleidoscope quilt, but nothing else. This week's stats:

WiP Wednesday #9 Recap
Last week's total: 5
Finished this week: 0
New this week:2
This week's total:7

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced :D

Some New Photos

2011-08-21T02:25:00.000-05:00

I figured out that the best place to take photos is on the floor of my front porch.

Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

I promised my mother months ago I'd make her a quilt from this line of fabric. Lucky for her, Jennifer announced her Across the Sea QAL on Monday and my mom thinks it'll make a great throw for her living room. I'm more than stoked to get started.

Found a great full size flat sheet, two pillowcases, and a brass apple desk bell at a thrift store. All vintage, all for 5 bucks.

These I scored a while back but thought I'd share. 25 cents a spool, vintage cotton thread. I couldn't not buy them at that price. Aren't they awesome?! I figure I'll put them on a shelf in my future sewing room one day, hehe.

I also figured out that if I photograph every finished Summer Sampler block, then crop them to a square, then put them all together, I won't have to keep photographing them all together repeatedly. This will be easier!

Summer Blocks and Friendship Bracelets

2011-08-16T00:12:00.000-05:00

Cranked out three Summer Sampler blocks yesterday.

I kept up with this QAL for the first week and a half before hitting a major roadblock. I didn't want to tackle the ~~scary,~~ ~~icky,~~ ~~awful~~ tedious blocks which lay before me. Blocks which looked amazing in the mockup but in reality just didn't appeal to me. Call me lazy; see if I care!

Skipping to the good part... I decided to take the easy way out and made duplicate blocks instead! Not that I won't want to try out the trickier ones eventually. I just needed some stress-free, easy-peasy, no-thinking-required quilting. And what do ya know, I have something to show for it.

all together now!

I feel like this should be a big quilt. Lap size at the very least. I'm going to forget about deadlines and work on it when the mood strikes me. Note: I used Rachel's Happier method for the easy Flower Garden Path Block.

On another note, look what came in the mail! My first swap ever and I'm digging these. Thanks Valerie!

I think she meant the little beaded one as a freebie, but it's my favorite. I haven't taken it off. It's simple and dainty and the most awesome, vintage shade of green. Speaking of that shade of green...

Why, yes! This is a 1966 Pontiac GTO. The owner showed up right as I was snapping photos. I could have been embarrassed but was smart enough to know this kind of moment is what he lives for. I gushed about its beauty and asked all sorts or questions. He restored it himself. He takes it to car shows. He parks it all crooked-like to keep lesser vehicles from getting anywhere near it.

WiP Wednesday #9 Recap
Last week's total: 5
Finished this week: 0
New this week: 0
This week's total: 5

Linking up with:
Quilt Story
Canoe Ridge Creations
Freshly Pieced

Some on the fly quilting

2011-08-12T12:41:00.001-05:00

I'm away from home visiting a friend, but she sleeps late so I was smart and brought some quilty stuff to work on!

Coffee, check. Colbert Report, check. Half square triangles, check. And a little dog to boot!

What am I doing, you ask?

2011-08-10T11:33:00.000-05:00

Absolutely nothing. Needing to make progress on all the projects I have going but longing to start new ones instead. I don't know what my deal is. Last week I managed to crank out three friendship bracelets. Epic, I know. I have been working on my kaleidoscope quilt, but so slowly you can hardly notice.

tweaked. obviously.

It doesn't look much different but here's a shot from my couch. It's where I've been spending a lot of time recently. I could blame my discovery of The Office on Netflix, but mostly it's the fact that I'm a perfectionist and those points have to be spot on. And there are a lot of them. And it hurts my eyes to pin so painstakingly in this awful lighting. And ten hour days leave me zombie-like. And so on and so on.

WiP Wednesday #8 Recap
Last week's total: 5
Finished this week: 0
New this week: 0
This week's total: 5

If you want to see some actual progress, go check out the link up over at Freshly Pieced.

Charity and Swapping

2011-08-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

This morning a coworker and I spent a couple hours making deliveries for Meals on Wheels. It was fun chatting with a few of the people, one of whom had a little dachshund like mine!

note: this dainty wrist belongs to a coworker. thanks for modeling, mel! :P

We managed to drop these off at the post office while en route. They're for my new friends from Amanda and Jenn's Friendship Bracelet Swap.

I left long ends so the girls can cut them down to the right size. This way they can use the ties to make permanent knots or bows if they want to take them on and off. Hope you like them, ladies!

My favorite moment from this morning's adventure had to be when my eyes noticed this fantastic mailbox stand made from an antique treadle sewing machine. Can you believe it?! Neither can I.

As far as actual sewing goes, there seems to have been a bit of quilter's block (pun intended!) going around blogland, myself included. I've only made a few minutes' worth of progress in the last week, but my kaleidoscope quilt top is closer to being finished. I just have a couple more rows to sew together. Hopefully I can find the perfect vintage sheet to back it, but thrifting can be dangerous so I've been avoiding it lately. That's all for now!

Krista

Oh ya! I'm linking up with Karen's Sew Darn Crafty Party over at Sew Many Ways and also Running with Glitter :D

Stash building!

2011-07-31T00:53:00.001-05:00

Look what came in the mail yesterday from Hawthorne Threads!

I really like their selection but can't afford to buy a lot of yardage. I wanted a good variety and tried out the scrap packs they have available. At a 50% discount this isn't a bad way to go and it's kind of fun to be surprised by the fabric you end up getting! I am in love with this cute mushroom print on top. Isn't it awesome?!

WIP Wednesday #7

2011-07-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

Hi there! I made some progress this week :D

Ongoing Projects:
Summer Sampler Series QAL - I have 6 finsihed blocks but am still behind! I typically get distracted while sewing, taking a two hour project and turning it into six. BUT, last night I hunkered down and only stopped to change loads of laundry. Here's the result! The pics are bad because I didn't finish until after midnight and the lighting in my house is awful. Sorry! But you get the general idea.

I made some room on my design wall so I could put them next to each other to see what fabrics I should be using next. This purple background print almost looks pink from far away, which isn't so great. When I add it to future blocks it'll work but for now it's a bit out of place.

Kaleidoscope QAL - I've sewed a few more blocks together and took this ~~good~~ better quality close up pic when the sun was shining through the windows yesterday. This quilt is gonna take me a while. If you wanna see some pretty ones look at the gallery of finishes over on Elizabeth's blog.

Punctuation Baby Quilt - Started quilting but stopped to ponder whether to keep going or unpick and start over. More on that here.

New Project:1930's prints mini HSTs - uh, this was a deversion and I don't really have a plan for them yet, lol. This layout won't be it, though, considering the peachy prints don't have as much contrast as the other three colors. Again, horrible awful lighting + iphone camera = not good pictures. I did the best I can!

On Hold:
Warm Cool QAL - No progress. For some reason I get right close to finishing things and then let them sit for a while. Check out the link-up to see some gorgeous finished warm cool quilts!

Engelbreit quilt

WiP Wednesday #6 Recap
Last week's total: 5
Finished this week: 0
New this week: 1
This week's total: 6

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday, make sure to have a look around!

Multitasking

2011-07-26T20:39:00.000-05:00

Despite it being a billion degrees outside, my little doggie thinks she needs a walk in the park. It's a good thing I live right next to one, huh?

My roommate insists I can't spend all my time at the sewing machine. Why can't I? He claims I'll turn into a big fat blob (more of one than I currently am, anyways) and while I want to disagree, he has the laws of physics on his side.

Yes, I do get up to iron every so often, but it's lightweight and can't really be classified as exercise. Pressing down on the foot pedal doesn't exactly get my heart rate going, either. Cutting fabric with my rotary blade does occasionally require a bit of finesse, though. I wish quilting wasn't such a sedentary activity! It gets my brain working hard but does nothing for my body.

What's the solution? I'm doing it right now! Blogging while walking the dog. It's brilliant, really. I hook her leash to my belt loop, bust out the iPhone and voila! Multitasking with added health benefits :P

Now if only I would have remembered bug spray!

One More Block!

2011-07-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

the lone new finish

I spent most of yesterday afternoon staring at fabric options in an attempt to get started on the Summer Sampler Series blocks from last week. Then Rachel posted her latest progress and it totally got me motivated! I managed to finish the Flower Garden Path block last night, and plan to work on more this evening.

getting cozy, now

Are you wondering why I chose to go with a yellow background? Me too. The yellow was in my original fabric stack for this QAL, but now that I've added it I'm not so sure. I'm pretty much just throwing stuff together and hoping the end result will be something worth looking at. We shall see :D

I'm linking this up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday linky party, Not Just a Housewife's Show Me What Ya Got, and also Sugar Bee Crafts' Take a Look Tuesday. Head on over and check things out!

I'm learning new tricks!

2011-07-24T01:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got to quilting my Punctuation baby quilt, which will be gifted to my boss for his new baby boy. I worked on straight line quilting the center part, then got a wild hair to try out free motion quilting in the borders.

This was my first attempt and I was stunned at how well it went. I do wish I'd worked a little less tightly because it's taking up a lot of time and thread and certainly doesn't need to be this densely quilted. Right as I was questioning this, my machine started skipping stitches! Could it be a sign? I've stopped to consider my options. I may push forward or just rip out what I've done so far, which is about 1/4 of what I would need to FMQ this way. What to do, what to do...

I was frustrated and had to switch gears to preserve my sanity! Rather than work on other ongoing projects, I started making these little bitty HSTs. There's been a stack of 4in squares cut up for months and they'd been dying to become something. Through this method each pair became 4 2.25in HSTs and I'll be able to bring them to work and square them up over my lunch hour! I have no idea what to do with them, but I'll play around until something strikes my fancy :D

I'm linking up with Marg's Pajama Party Sunday, over at Sunshine? Paradise? and also with Karen's Sew Darn Crafty Party over at Sew Many Ways. Click on over and check out the action! 

WIP Wednesday #6

2011-07-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I felt like I was getting a lot done, but mostly I was simply playing catch-up. I haven't finished anything, but at least I haven't started anything new! Here's my progress this week.

Summer Sampler Series QAL - I have 4 finsihed blocks; one of them is an oops that I will still use. I plan on doubling the size of my quilt by repeating and/or adding some blocks. Tonight I want to finish Monday's block and today's block in order to keep up, which I am determined to do!

Kaleidoscope QAL - I have around 8 finished blocks, the rest is all in various stages of piecing. I couldn't resist putting everything up on my makeshift design wall so I can at least look at it while I'm not actively working on it, lol.

i think i have enough pieces to make it 5x7. we shall see!

Warm Cool QAL - I started adding borders and am totally stoked at how it's looking. No pics yet, but I really need to finish this one so I can link it to Jeni's blog. So far there are 8 finished quilts, head on over to the link-up and check them out!

Punctuation Baby Quilt - Finished quilt top! It looks crummy in this photo because I took it in a mad dash this morning before work and didn't have time to iron it first. My boss and his wife had a little boy last week and I plan on gifting this one once it's finished. Not that I'm a suck up or anything ;P

I've basically put the Engelbreit quilt on hold until I finish up all these other projects I have going. Eventually I'll come back to it.

WiP Wednesday #6 Recap
Last week's total: 5
Finished this week: 0
New this week: 0
This week's total: 5

I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday, go have a look at everyone elses' projects and don't forget to comment!

Child Labor

2011-07-19T14:58:00.000-05:00

My grandmother, uncle, and two cousins came down to visit from Iowa over weekend. After packing up my dog, a weekend bag, and a bunch of quilting supplies, I made the 45 minute journey to my parents' house to join in on a few days of family fun!

ironing mosaic block HSTs

One great thing about young cousins is how eager they are to please. They'll fetch you cans of pop from the fridge in the basement, or cookies out of the jar on the kitchen counter. I managed to trick Jules into being my little sweat shop worker! She helped cut out the rest of my blue kaleidoscope triangles, placed pieces right sides together and made neat little piles for me to chain piece, and even ironed them open as I got done sewing them. I wish I'd taken better pictures of the little assembly line we had going.

arranging kaleidoscope blocks

Before you go thinking I'm a horrible cousin, I did allow her to have some fun this weekend. We went tubing/skiing/swimming out on the lake, ~~crashed~~ flew a remote controlled airplane in the back pasture, played with a llama, rearranged the furniture in my old dollhouse (only after evicting some spiders), played Qwirkle, and even checked out a local quilt shop we hadn't been to yet. All in all, it was a pretty spectacular weekend. Thanks to her help I managed to get quite a bit of quilting done. YAY!

Summer Sampler Blocks

2011-07-16T19:22:00.000-05:00

Hey! I finished up a couple more Summer Sampler Series blocks. I made another Star of Virginia (sewing it together correctly this time, lol) and Friday's Mosaic block. Feeling good about my progress!

Here's all four blocks together. I think I'm going to add/double up on some blocks to make the finished quilt bigger.

Check out all the great blocks in the Flickr group. If you need me, I'll be at my machine :D

I'm linking this up with Sew Modern Monday, Sew Darn Crafty and Fabric Tuesday. Go check out what everyone else has posted!

Greek Cross Block

2011-07-14T12:43:00.000-05:00

Last night I pieced my second block for the Summer Sampler Series QAL.

check out more blocks in the flickr group!

I wish the cross popped more. I'm learning by doing when it comes to fabric selection. I also figured out that the edge of my presser foot doesn't give me a 1/4in seam like I thought it did. Turns out it's more like 5/8in. Combine that with my personal imperfection and blocks don't fit together right! I figure this must be why my warm/cool HSTs ended up being too small.

my oops block on the left!

I think for now I'll just leave my "oops" Star of Virginia block the way it is. I'll be heading to the quilt shop on my lunch break to get a 1/4in quilting foot like the one Faith is using in her Greek Cross block tutorial.

WIP Wednesday #5

2011-07-13T13:31:00.000-05:00

Is it Wednesday already?

The days are moving too fast but I'm ready for another weekend. The roommate and I are considering an impromptu road trip. It's one of those "let's just get in the car and drive" situations. Anywhere but here! At any rate, this is what I've accomplished recently.

New project:
Summer Sampler Series QAL
I called it a new project last week, but I actually started working on it yesterday, lol. So, still new! I wish I would have fussy cut the center square, but I'm a noob and these things don't occur to me until it's too late. Oops! I'm just gonna live with it because my fabric stash is rather limited.

EDIT: only after looking through a whole bunch of blocks in the flickr group did I notice my epic fail on piecing this block. OMG, sometimes I wonder about myself. How embarassing! I'll fix it tonight. Damn.

the sun made this dot print look blue. it's actually purple...

Speaking of my fabric stash, I bought all these fat quarters (minus the three at the bottom) at a quilt shop a few months ago and totally forgot I had them. I should have looked at the selvages so I could tell you what they are, but I forgot. Sensing a pattern? I also dug up the other three FQs just in case. The gray on gray and black on white dot prints I like, but the bottom purple dot probably won't make the cut unless I'm desperate.

Ongoing Projects:

Kaleidoscope QAL

Completed my first block last night and put another one together over my lunch break. Woot! I better slow down and let everyone else catch up. HA! Maybe now that I've finally started piecing I'll just whiz through it. 2 down, 28 to go! Check out the flickr group.

Warm Cool QAL: no progress. I need to just quilt the darn thing already but I'm still debating on whether or not to add borders to increase the size. Hmmmm.

Engelbreit Quilt: no progress (maybe I should put this one in the "on hold" category)
Punctuation Baby Quilt: Finished up the top by sewing the last border piece on but forgot to take pics. Figures.

And I cooked up the first picks from my garden last night for dinner. Yes, that's butter. Get off my back! At least I'm eating vegetables :P

I'm joining the linky party over at Freshly Pieced, go check out what everyone else is working on!

Slow Going

2011-07-11T11:06:00.000-05:00

It's been slow going at this house in terms of quilting, but that doesn't mean I've been a bump on a log. Thursday night I cleaned out my car, which was a major ordeal! Friday I tidied house and did some small home improvement projects like trying to remedy the moisture problem in my basement. We'll see if a dehumidifier will solve the problem. Owning an 80 year old house involves a lot of upkeep!

On Saturday I did get around to sewing up some coasters from sheet scraps left over after cutting out my Kaleidoscope quilt.

yes, let's tango!

I found this vintage bias tape at a thrift store for 12.5 cents and thought I'd try my first attempt at binding. I've just folded the backing over onto the front on all my previous projects.

My experiment didn't go so well! I think this bias tape isn't what I should be using but was hoping to make it work since the color is so perfect. I can't seem to catch the edges on both the front and back, and the sides of the coaster came out all wonky. I was hoping this would be a quick project to satisfy my need to finish something, but it looks like I'll have to try making double fold bias binding. Hmmmmm...

I also got the itch to make a design wall so I can arrange my kaleidoscope quilt someplace other than the floor. Everyone is leaps and bounds ahead of me, as seen in the flickr group, so I'm anxious to get this show on the road but don't want to start sewing till I have the whole thing mapped out. I had Elizabeth's method in mind from over at Oh Fransson, but once I started pricing I decided to make do with a more wallet friendly option.

nothing like a cold one to get your creative juices flowing :P

I got full sized quilter's batting and taped it to the wall. I already had the blue painter's tape so my total investment rang up at about 13 bucks. It's not the most eye pleasing setup, but it's a pretty decent temporary fix until I can come up with something better.

I'm linking this up with

and

click

WIP Wednesday #4

2011-07-06T08:42:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! I spent mine with family and got to watch fireworks from a boat on the lake by my parents' house. It was pretty awesome :D

sunset

oooooooh

ahhhhhhhhhh

I didn't get as much sewing done over the weekend as I was hoping to but I did make progress on a couple things.

Ongoing projects

Kaleidoscope QAL:
Super stoked to report that I've finally cut into my fabric! I didn't get all the solid pieces cut, but I did start playing around with the layout just to get a feel for it. Please excuse the awful photos, the lighting was horrific at my parents house last night around 2am, lol. The background solid looks really dark in this picture, but it's actually more of a dusty navy...

Warm Cool QAL:

I finished piecing the top, whoo hoo! I'm bummed at how small it is, though. The HSTs ended up 1/2in short, so it's a bit shrunken. Maybe I'll add a border?

in the thick of it

I had put off piecing the HSTs together because I wasn't sold on the layout. I tweaked it a little, but didn't really have the time or patience to keep moving things around so I just said to heck with it and got busy sewing. I'm not in love with the finished layout, but it's different. So that works, I guess!

all done!

Punctuation baby quilt:

I just have one last border strip to sew on and the top should be finished.

Nameless Quilt:

I didn't actually touch this one this week. Owell!

Projects on hold:

Engelbreit quilt:

I dunno when I'll get to this. I seem to have lost love for it recently. Mostly because the blocks are so not square and I'm so not looking forward to trimming them up!

New Projects
Summer Sampler Series:
I realize it's ridiculous to join in on another QAL when you've fallen pretty behind on the ones you're currently working on, but I just can't pass on this. It's being hosted by Kate of Swim Bike Quilt, Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts, and Lee of Freshly Pieced. It looks insane. I really like the idea of a sampler quilt and this one has some awesomely jazzy blocks. I mean, just look at it!

Till next time!

WIP Wednesday #3

2011-06-29T17:12:00.000-05:00

Holy unfinished quilts, Batman, I nearly forgot it was Wednesday! There hasn't been much time for sewing this week, but I do have a few things to share :D

Ongoing:
Nameless Quilt: Not sure what to call it yet so for now it's nameless. Some 1930's prints cut up into squares and ready to become HSTs. I've played around with some block layout ideas.

Punctuation Baby Quilt: Started this a while ago and will hopefully get to working on it again this week. It's a punctuation charm pack that I sewed into rows, which I then sliced in half and rearranged.

Warm Cool and Kaleidoscope QALs: I haven't touched either of them except to move them out of the way. I plan on making some much needed headway this weekend while visiting my family in Iowa. We'll see if my little cousins allow me to sit down.

On Hold:
Engelbreit Quilt

White Flagged:
Bridesmaid Clutches: Ummm. Epic failure. I procrastinated and then ran into every road block imaginable. My machine wasn't cooperating, the fabric was impossible to sew on, I couldn't find enough orange zippers, the fusible interfacing wouldn't fuse, and on and on and on and on. At 2:30am the night before I had to leave for the wedding I decided to raise a white flag in surrender. The bride took this news frighteningly well, considering I thought for sure she'd be demoting me from bridesmaid to guestbook attendant. The wedding was oh so gorgeous.

due to the heat, jackets were shed all over the place

I'll leave you with a stunning view from the rehearsal dinner...

ok, ok! i tweaked the saturation ever so slightly... :P

Show & Tell

2011-06-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

I wrote this a while back and thought that I had posted it. Suddenly yesterday blogger tells me it was only ever a draft. SO, I'll post it now, I guess. Weird!

The Friday after last I went to the Nodaway County Historical Society for an event on quilting. The talented Audria Humphrey presented and talked about a bunch of her quilts, and also discussed basic techniques and tricks. It was awesome! I'll apologize now for the crummy pics. My iphone takes ok pics if the mood is just right, but it wasn't feeling it in this room.

Audria on the right with one of her quilts

the sides of those little cubes are only 1/2in!

When she passed this one around, I almost died. I need to figure out how to do this! I love taking projects and scaling them down as tiny as I can get them, just for the heck of it. This mini (micro?!) quilt was fantastic.

love. love love. LOVE!

Some ladies at the workshop brought in antique quilts to show off, and I managed to photograph a few of them.

This buttefly one was a neighborhood quilt, where a bunch of ladies in the neighborhood sewed up blocks and each one has someone's name on it. How cool!

For more photos and information on the event, you can find an article on it here.

WIP Wednesday #2

2011-06-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

New projects:

Bridesmaid clutches
My friends are getting married this Saturday and I am in the process of making orange clutches for all the bridesmaids (myself included). Unfortunately I haven't taken any photos of my progress yet, but this is one of the fabric and her shower invitation. We had the hardest time finding anything in orange, and then one day I stumbled across this suede upholstery fabric in the clearance section at Joann's. Sweet! I'm just going to turn the wrong side out, which has a shiny sateen sort of finish. Brilliant, I know :P

Ongoing projects:

Warm Cool Quilt-Along
HSTs are done, and I've spent a good deal of time moving them all around to get the right look. I only used 8 prints, and for some reason (I think I thought it would give it more variance) I made two different types of HSTs from each print. It just ended up making my life difficult when it came time to do the layout, because trying to find a pattern to repeat was just too much for my brain to handle.

I wanted to tweak the layout just a smidge and ended up going with this one. Now that I've been looking at these pics for a few days , I may decide to go with something closer to the first pic. I dunno yet...

Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along

Fabric picked, just waiting on cutting instructions which should be posted here tomorrow!

On hold:
Engelbreit Quilt

I'm calling it that because it reminds me of the illustrator Mary Engelbreit. My mom is a fan and has had illustrated magnets on the fridge for years. I started this one a while back and haven't made any progress for a while. I have all the blocks finished (80 total, 20 shown) and will eventually get around to finishing it.

That's all for now! I'm hanging up my lab coat and heading home on my bike. That's right, I rode my bike to work today! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up...

Weekend Update

2011-06-17T21:14:00.001-05:00

Went to an amazing quilt exhibit/show yesterday and will post details later. In the meantime, spending some girl time with a friend and some dogs! She has this amazing c.1980 Coleman cooler; my family had one just like it when I was growing up. I want to steal it when she isn't looking...

We stocked it with some miniature juice jugs that I saw in the store and had to have. I'm weird I guess, because tiny things really get my attention. If it's little, I love it.

The 5th of rum is only there for scale:P

On another note, I finished up squaring all my HSTs for the warm cool QA. They ended up small, at 4" instead of 4.5". I must have misread the ruler when I posted about this before. Talk about a brain malfunction. I don't know. But at any rate, I ended up with quite a pile of trimmings...

Next time I'll make my starting squares slightly bigger, and use a scant 1/4 inch seam. That way I'll be sure to end up with the right size HST. Of course there were a few casualties...

Luckily I had extras just in case! I think rather than scrapping these I'll just piece them into the backing. I like that idea :D

One more thing!! I stumbled upon Meg's finish it up challenge and think I'll join in. I have several unfinished sewing projects, and digging them out of storage might also encourage me to unpack and organize my sewing stuff. Currently my roommate is occupying my sewing room, and I'm sure he'd appreciate me getting some of those boxes out of his way.

Work in Progress Wednesday #1

2011-06-15T02:15:00.000-05:00

I've stalked the heck out of Lee's freshly pieced blog, and it's time for my first work-in-progress link-up! I like her format so much I'm just going to borrow it :D

There are a few projects that I have on-going or on hold, but I haven't blogged about them yet so I won't bother talking about them either:P

New Projects:

Warm Cool Quilt Along
I've got all my HSTs pieced and about half squared up. I used the Missouri Star Quilt Company method, demonstrated in this post by Christina. Last time I attempted HSTs I did it the regular way and spent a lot of time being a perfectionist. They turned out great, but this time I thought I'd try speeding it up and just flew through it. Big mistake. They somehow ended up just enough short of 4" that I had to square them up at 3.5", which will significantly decrease the finished size of my quilt. Especially since they're apparently supposed to finish at 4.5". I'm thinking perhaps I should have started with larger than 7" squares? Or maybe I cut them short to begin with... any thoughts?! Either way, it'll still work. I'll just end up adding a border!

Kaleidoscope Quilt Along
I've signed up, joined the flickr group, and started my first draft of fabric picks from my stash. I'm also oozing with enthusiasm!

Coasters and Quilt-Alongs

2011-06-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

I've decided to join the Warm Cool Quilt Along being led by Jeni over on her blog, In Color Order. This will be my first quilt along! One of my main reasons for starting a blog is to participate in these types of things. I'm using fat quarters I got on sale at Jo-Ann's because I'm currently refusing to spend money I don't have on designer prints. I love them. I just can't afford them! I devoted an evening to cutting and assembling all my HSTs, and will hopefully start squaring them up tonight. After I finish mowing the lawn...

I'll also be participating in Elizabeth's kaleidoscope quilt-along, over at Don't Call Me Betsy. Whew, all this linkage is time consuming! I'm not certain what fabric I'll use for it, but I'm leaning towards making a dent in my vintage sheet stash. I should be embarrassed by the fact that I got a little sloshed on Franzia box wine a couple months ago and ended up ordering over a $100 worth of fat quarter bundles cut from vintage linens.

This is maybe 1/3 of it. sigh.

These are decades old sheets. People [slept] under them for years. Right? Well, yes. But they look so pretty all stacked together. So I can't imagine how good they'll look pieced together into a quilt. Oh wait, yes I can!

They've waited their turn, and now it's time for coasters. My adorable vintage end tables have taken quite a beating, due to my thoughtless roommate and house guests, who all pass the blame onto a lack of coasters. They make a decent point.

I like starting and finishing projects all in one sitting, which I haven't been doing much of lately. SO, I collected some scraps and tried out this string block technique I'd been eying. Now I have nifty little quilted coasters and I can hold beverage handlers responsible when I find water rings on my furniture :D

1930s Baby Quilt

2011-06-13T12:36:00.000-05:00

2nd attempt at quilting, 1st attempt at HSTs. woot!

I first visited my local quilt shop 3 months ago, and when I stepped in the door I was greeted by this fantastic lady with a warm smile. We gabbed and gabbed for what seemed like forever, and by the time I left I had enough fabric and inspiration to make three different baby quilts. I'd never quilted before, but Jeana was really encouraging.

me + 1930s reproduction prints = <3

I'm not sure if these are all 1930s reproduction fabrics, but they came together in a fat quarter bundle. I bought it and spent a few weeks falling in and out of love with these prints before cutting into them. After piecing all the HSTs I spent another week or so figuring out what to use for a border. The only print from my bundle that they had more of was the brown dot, which I decided to use as backing and binding. The yellow spoke to me. I went for it. I think it looks awesome.

Starflower Table Topper

2011-06-12T01:57:00.000-05:00

My friends are tying the knot at the end of the month, and they just bought their first house! I made them this table topper as a housewarming gift. The bride's favorite color is orange. I guess everyone else knew this too, because the new house has been stockpiled with orange towels, orange dishes, orange everything. The groom even got an orange bbq grill. Thus, my table topper definitely goes with the decor.

These pics were taken on the patio table on the deck in their backyard. I'm quite jealous of this deck because it makes you feel like you're in a tree house, and I just so happen to love tree houses. I'd live in one if I could.

I stumbled across this tutorial over at Ellison Lane Quilts, and used it as a guide. I don't recall what size squares I started with, but it finished up at about 22 inches. On my first quilt I did stitch in the ditch quilting, but this time I echoed the seams, and I like it better. I'm trying out quilter jargon and hopefully not butchering it too badly :D

Here's a look at the backing. I pieced it together from the leftover scraps, which was annoying. I didn't have enough of the tan to do the whole thing. It was a last minute project so I didn't want to bother with binding. I just made the backing big enough to fold in on itself and then over again to the front and machine stitched it down. Blasphemous, I know. But I was lazy and in a huge hurry and it works. So there!

Hello Blogland!

2011-06-10T17:16:00.000-05:00

Hi. I'm krista. It's so nice to meet you! I've wanted to keep some form of crafty journal for a while now, and figure this blog is a good way to do it. Plus, ya know, I've been stalking other quilty/crafty blogs for a few months and I want to get in on all the fun. I'll start by sharing a bit about myself.

I'm a middle child. This means the world picks on me, a whole lot. Or at least that's how I perceive things ;P

In the fifth grade a friend taught me to make bracelets out of embroidery floss. I was hooked. I quickly progressed to beaded jewelry, which I made and sold to classmates during recess. I've been crafty ever since, and my current obsession is quilting.

I'm 25. I don't have any babies, nor do I have plans to make any in the immediate future, but everyone I know seems to be mass producing them. Little quilts make great baby gifts. And they're fun to put together. Win-win!

When I bought my house I decided I needed a dog for protection. I ended up with this instead. Her name is Lucy. I rescued her from a life of crime out on the streets.

note: this is not my kitchen. i have no dishwasher. wah.

I also picked up two cats when I was in college, but they've recently been exiled to my parents farm due to excessive winter weight gain. It's feline fat camp! They're much happier out there, killing small woodland creatures, so I don't feel too bad for them.

I work for a company that makes biological inoculants. I get to play with microorganisms in a laboratory and it's totally awesome. The best part is my 4 day work week. I put in 10 hour days Mon-Thurs, and have a 3 day weekend every week. It's pretty sweet. Although now that it's summertime, it's hard to look out my office window at 4 in the afternoon, knowing I'll only have a couple hours of daylight left by the time I get to leave.

That's probably sufficient for now. I'll leave you with a pic of my first quilt, made for my niece's 1st bday this past February. Isn't she adorable?

correct response: "yes. so adorable."