S-u-c-c-e-s-s

After losing a fight with scant 1/4 in seams, I was quite victorious in the battle. Once I figured out that my presets on my machine were gone, I played around to find the sweet spot. (Now, they are saved. Whoo hoo!) I was able to get a lot of blocks put together successfully on Saturday and part of Sunday. That kind of success makes me want to kiss my own biceps.

I had a great time at the Orlando MQG Sew Day on Saturday. The company is always great and the food is always delicious. I finished the two blocks that I failed to piece correctly last week and started designing my next quilt project.

Here are the highlights:

Stash Bee January BOM

Orlando MQG February BOM

On Sunday, I also finished up by last two blocks from the Skill Builder BOM from 2013. Finally! The paper piecing was insane but the results are worth it.

Strip Triangle

Starlight Block

My goal is to have them put together sometime this century. I decided to do the quilt-as-you-go technique after all. This way, I can quilt with each thread color needed and only change out the colors once. I can also manipulate them on my home machine and practice my modern quilting. I'll work on the piano key border once I have all of the squares joined and I can measure the finished sides accurately.

The birthday fairy did bring me both Angela Walters books on modern quilting so I'll be able to practice her techniques along the way. I'll be sure to post the blocks as I finish them.

I'm so grateful for the day off on Monday. No work=more time to quilt.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Long Arm Heaven

Today, I visited my friend and was able to spend some time learning more about long arm quilting. I would want to win the lottery just to afford the space and the machine needed to really get going on larger projects. I am quite envious of her Baby Lock Jewel and the accompanying computer software.

I am working on a project and was able to get a large part of it completed today. I learned a lot more about computerized quilting and love the results so far:

The stitch pattern is called Pipeline and perfect for the geometric shapes of my Tetris quilt. It still has a ways to go but it's all basted and ready for some color quilting this week.

As of now, I am officially on vacation! Whoo hoo! I can't wait to get lots done and share it with you.
Hope you had a nice weekend.

Counting down... - Day 20

In 14 more days, I will officially be on vacation! I'm so excited that I can just burst.

I know this might sound odd but I'm using a big part of my vacation to work at home on projects that I never have time to complete. This is work that I actually want to do because I am getting rid of some furniture, sorting out my sewing room, and making a waist level cutting station and a proper design wall. No more bending over on this low table for hours of cutting need to make some quilts. I've been using the dining room table as a "design wall" for more years than I can stand at this point. It's something I've dreamed of doing for many years but now am taking the plunge.

Sunday's Sew Time

It took a lot longer that I thought it would but I finished my quilting on the table runner I mentioned in yesterday's post. I really love how it turned out and might just make another one for myself to keep.

(Echo quilting on this beast.)

Now, on to binding it!

Continuous Binding - My Nemesis

I spent some time today working on binding. I still haven't mastered the art of continuous binding so I wanted to practice before finishing up some bigger projects on the horizon. I made some little Halloween pot holders that would be the perfect size to work on this skill that seems to elude me. (I recently lost one of my favorite pot holders to a stove incident. I can laugh about it now but it really hurt.)

The rat's nest I kept getting when the fabric
got stuck in the feed dogs.

I kept getting it twisted up once I sewed it down.

After sewing and unpicking the same seam 3 times, I finally turned to Youtube for some sanity and found the most wonderful video. I've bookmarked this gem for future reference. The directions here were so amazing and simple. (I was almost to the desperate stage of just chucking the pot holders and ordering one of those fancy binding tools I've seen online for ten bucks.)

 I ended up with two pot holders and a few hours of frustrating attempts to make the binding line up on the diagonal and lay flat the right way so I can sew it down. I do feel that I am getting the hang of it and am not so scared to do it again next weekend.

 Hope your weekend was super fun and productive. Wishing you a great week ahead!

Thankful! - Day 17

I am so very thankful for a lot in my life. I know I was pretty grumpy this week because of work but when I sit and really think about all that I have in this life I can stand back and appreciate my blessings.

My Love:
The love of my life gives me the space and time to be creative. I always hear praise for a completed project and suggestions to improve a piece when I am stuck.  My love is a math genius and a spatial relations guru that I use to help me when I can't quite make my math-challenged brain find a solution to a problem. After almost 13 years, I am still in awe of how lucky I am.

My Home:
I love the home I have in Florida. The space is perfect for the two of us. We have decorated it with colorful walls and lots of art. It's also filled with great memories. I have a whole room in the house (our former guest room) to be as messy as I want when I am sewing.

It's two blocks from an amazing lake front and park. I love how easy it is to soak in nature for a bit and take our dog out for her walks. (She doesn't love it as much now that she's getting older and is mostly blind, but we make her go anyway.) Our neighborhood is quiet for the most part and it's our place to call home.

My favorite view of Lake Monroe on my morning walk.

My Art:
Sewing, quilting, drawing. I love it all. It helps soothes me when I feel insane and allows me to be creative when I feel stuck after a crazy day of work. I am making more of an effort to be creative each day. Whether it's doodling in a notebook or breaking out the cutting tools, fabric and sewing machine, I do find solace each day in doing something that's just for fun.
After complaining in a previous post about feeling stuck on a project, I decided to put it away and make something colorful. Here's a quilt top that I started last night to break out of my doldrums. It was a simple and easy way to make a rainbow happen this week.

You:
I am thankful that you are reading this post right now. I appreciate your time and wish you a great weekend filled with fun and creativity.

Sunday, Fun Day! - Day 6

I love rainy, quiet Sundays. I was able to get in a nice walk before the rain started and spent the rest of the day in my sewing room.
I finished my design of the Double Wedding Ring for the DWR Challenge. I spent a good part of the day cutting and organizing my colors so I can start sewing them next weekend. I'm pretty excited about the outcome and can't wait to show you when it's all done.

All 194 of my little "A" pieces!

 After all of that cutting I wanted to get some sewing done, too. I am working on a gift for my dear friends who will celebrate their ten-year anniversary next March. They are both gamers so I had many designs ideas. I wanted to give them lots of color and still keep it simple, too. I promised her a queen-sized quilt a few years ago so I have to get it done soon.  (I still don't know if I can fit it in my tiny machine. I may have to take it to the long arm!)

I decided to make them a Tetris quilt! It's squares that I can make really large and piece together really easily. I decided on 5.5 inch blocks then got to work on graph paper to make up a design. I haven't played with my Sharpie colors in a while so this was a lot of fun.

                                   

Once I had the design I wanted, I counted up the number of colors and background blocks I would need. (Somewhere along the way, I changed up the final design so please don't copy these numbers if you want to make one, too. It would be best to draw your own and count them up to work for you.)

I had to do more cutting which took no time (or any fancy templates!) to get this little baby going. 

 If you have a design wall (or clean floor) handy, lay out your blocks and start sewing them according to your design. I usually chain piece for faster sewing but had to take extra care to keep all rows organized. I started from the bottom and worked my way up the following my graph paper pattern.

Crossing out the row as I went, helped me stay organized.
I almost duplicated a row which would mean picking threads out and starting again. Yuck!

I used Post It Notes to keep all rows in order as I moved up the line and when they were all done, I lined them up to make sure I had my design just right.

My secret for lining up squares perfectly is to use pins. I stuck a pin in the opposite end of every other row to keep them organized for ironing. (I don't have a good pic but simply: Left side pinned in rows 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. Right side pinned in rows 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) Then, I ironed each row using the pins as a guide for which direction to press the seams.

I iron from right to left.
I place my pins on the ironing board on this side so I can just press in one direction.
Make your preference work for you.

When you bring your rows together to sew, they nest perfectly every time.

I finished sewing my rows together and will be adding a border with some other finishing touches in the next few weeks. Here's what I have so far:

Quilting this will help emphasize the individual blocks that make up a Tetris piece and help this design pop. Since each color has a distinct shape, it's hard to tell the separation when looking at just the quilt top. More pictures to come!

I didn't plan on writing a tutorial but I saw the "Process Pledge" on another blog and think I should share how I create my quilts as I blog more this month.

I hope this gives you some inspiration for making your own pixelated design of something you'd love to see. I'm thinking about making a shades of black and green Tetris quilt next to make it look like the original Gameboy version I played when I was a lot younger.Then, there is Galaga, Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man [I would have called her Pac-woman but I digress]...I can make a long trip down memory lane using the old 8-bit or even 16-bit games we used to play.

Did you get to sew today?
(Hope your Sunday was a fun day!)

I am officially tired and heading to bed early for a change.

Moving Right Along

I am feeling good about the work I was able to finish this weekend. I caught up at work (finally!) and was able to do some sewing. I even sat and picked out bad squares on a quilt I started earlier in the summer that was put away after a huge error was found. I love when things start falling into place.

Skill Builder BOM

I made progress on the Skillbuilder BOM. I am almost caught up with my blocks and am still debating how I want to quilt it. (Her tutorials on quilt at you go were pretty but not really my style.) I do know that I am falling more in love with this quilt and am so happy that I am making a quilt to keep.

 My first plan for the Saturn Block was to use this Free Spirit fabric to change up the colors. (This fabric reminds me of the doodles I used to do with Sharpies!) I could not get my stripes to work according to her directions. I also felt that it didn't match the other blocks after all.

First attempt at Saturn block

I decided to stop working on that block after feeling frustrated by the instructions. I moved on to the Candyland block. This one was a lot of fun. 

Candyland

Then, I started the Pixelate block. I love that I was able to just throw them together without following a set pattern. (I did make a rainbow on the bottom block just because I could.) The Pelon quilter's grid makes sewing tiny squares look so perfect.

Pixelate

After feelings of accomplishment on those two blocks, I returned for one last attempt on the Saturn block and loved how it turned out. I used the remnants of the Candyland block to break up the stripes needed for this block. 

Saturn's Rainbow

I have 3 more to go and then will be officially caught up on these BOM. I can't wait to put them all together. I hope to have the quilting design in place by then.

Charity Work

The OMQG is putting together charity quilts for Camp Boggy Creek. I was sitting at the table assigned to the RED quilt and was tasked with creating 5 blocks  I'm so excited about this cause because I know it will be put to good use. I've really love all of the charities we've supported so far this year.

Our table decided to use the January BOM from our guild. The fun was in going through my red scrap basket to find strips for this design. I remember all of the quilts I've made using these fabrics and it was a fun trip down memory lane.

All that's missing is the white border to make them 12.5 blocks. I think I will start on my scrap quilt next year. Since I've saved squares and strips from every quilt I've ever made there will be a lot of happy memories when it's all done.

More Halloween Blocks

I am determined to win the Halloween blocks on Wed! I wanted to make a few more blocks to increase my odds.

If do win, I will be making another quilt for my godson in NC who LOVES Halloween as much as I do. Even if I don't win, I will be happy to see them made into a fun quilt for someone else. 

Wishing you a fun and productive week!

March BOM and Robots

I finally finished both blocks for the March Skillbuilder BOM. The woven star and chevron blocks look so intricate but are quite simple to put together. The scant quarter inch seams were a must and resulted in perfect 12.5 in blocks. I am more in love with my soon-to-be rainbow quilt.

Woven Star and Woven Chevron

My rainbow star using the Woven Star pattern

 I can't wait to put them all together in the fall.

___________________________

April is the month of many birthdays including my mom, dad, and nephew. Mom's gift has already been sent and I have a special gift in mind for a great little guy.

He loves robots and this has his favorite colors.

The fabric I ordered arrived in the mail yesterday and I can't wait to get started on his gift.

QST and HST Make Me Happy!

I am such a huge fan of rainbows. The BOM quilt I'm making for myself this year is filled with solids in the various shades of colors I adore. I'm still on the fence about the quilt as you go method so I haven't put any backing on them yet. The tutorials seem easy enough, I think my reluctance lies with deciding on the thread colors I want featured.  I have a rainbow box of Gutermann in shades that match every solid I've selected but I want to narrow it down to 2-3 for the final project. I guess I can still decide later.

This month, both BOMs that I'm doing involved triangles by some strange coincidence. Making half-square and quarter-square triangles are nothing new but the designs are endless. 

Here's my newest Skillbuilder BOM that was so simple to put together. (The original design uses 3 colors and creates a woven pattern. I made a rainbow sketch with the template and decided to go this route instead.)

I am in love with this scrappy chevron for the OMQG's May BOM! I see many quilts with these half triangles in my near future. I found quadrilaterals of all shapes and sizes in my scrap bin to use for this one.

I think I will find more in all 6 colors and try my hand at a rainbow chevron. It could be a lovely baby quilt that's also unisex.

We have a winner!

Yesterday, I won the blocks sweepstakes at my OMQG meeting.
I was so excited by the potential for awesome with the colorful Shoo Fly blocks everyone shared. I created a few sketches in my notebook while I was at the Dr's office after the meeting. JG gave me a few great ideas when I came home, too. I cannot wait to start sewing them together!

Stay tuned for more info.

Happy Easter! (Eggs and Rainbows for All)

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs!

What a wonderful weekend! It was filled with family, egg dyeing, chocolate croissants, scrambled eggs, bacon, and eggs containing a wild treasure trove/scavenger hunt. The Council of Egg Hiders decided it was to be an adventure and so it was.

(Don't even get me started on the deviled eggs that ensued today. Yum!)

I made a quilted place mat for our nephew for which I received many kisses and thank you's.

Rainbows!

The Easter Bunny dropped off a great gift on Saturday for me! He knows how much I love a pretty rainbow of cotton fabrics.

So many great colors, I don't even know what to make yet. Any suggestions?

February So Far

So far this month I've completed many projects but have not blogged about them. I really want to get better about posting as I go, but the habit has eluded me. "There is always tomorrow" I tell myself and then I get bogged down by the minutiae of work and my personal life. I am at least getting better about remembering to snap a picture of my projects when I'm done! (I am thinking about a new camera instead of my cell phone. The colors never really match when I see them online. I want to do these projects some justice.)

Here's a summary of the fun things I've been able to make:

Rainbow Table Runner

My first attempt at diamonds.

I learned the hard way about piecing them correctly.
(They are not supposed to be  sewn evenly.)

A happy accident becomes a trapezoid table runner.

          Pillowcase

I also completed a pillowcase for a niece's birthday in February. I haven't sent it to her yet and I can't wait to see if she likes it. I made it double-sided with her favorite pink and green colors and a matching row of flowers. 

Paper bag template used to make the heart center.
Fat quarters and half a yard of
green and pink to make borders and the background.

I love the opposing color blocks I created.
(I should have created a pattern for others to follow.)

          Skillbuilder Block of the Month Work

 I am finally making a quilt for myself thanks to the BOM from Pile o' Fabric. After 12 years of quilting, this is the first project I plan to keep. (I can't believe that I've never made anything for my own bed. I was so in love with the Kona colors I found on sale that I couldn't resist getting a rainbow.) It took forever to pick the fabrics I wanted but I am so pleased with the results. I love the easy to follow directions that are filled with tips and tricks to make any skill level quilter feel accomplished at the end of each piece. I know that future projects are going to be so much nicer as a result of these tutorials.

Rainbow Sound Wave is my favorite so far.
 It contains almost all of the colors I plan to use in the quilt.

January's BOM
Sound wave and Magnum

February's BOM
The Mood and Em Dash

I am still deciding on the quilt as you go method for these blocks. I did purchase the backing and borders just in case. The table I ordered to help become proficient in free-motion quilting is on it's way. I hope it will help settle the matter once and for all. (If it's easy to do on a practice block then it's going to happen!)

              OMQG BOM for March

My recent sew day with my guild has really inspired me to push myself to create more daily. I've always loved the soothing aspect of sewing but have never been able to share that with others in a group. It was a lot of fun to meet with these crafty women who were all doing their own thing. I was always a modern quilt lover and didn't know it had a following or even a name for that matter. I wish I found this group years earlier!

The block for this month is so pretty. The Garden Fence design is one I see appearing in future quilts due to the ease of assembly and simple yet elegant design. I can see so many colors working with this pattern. (I was not very fond of yellow until now. I made 2 in the hopes of winning these lovely yellow and gray beauties back.)

Garden Fence for March's BOM (OMQG)

Well, there you have it. February is almost over and I am having "sew" much fun. I look forward to posting more soon.