Sunday, March 17, 2013

Busy Busy

Happy st patty's day.
Today is a special day for me, not because it is st Patty's day but it is a date that means allot to me. you see today marks 28 years that my love john and I would have been together, I miss him every day still, hard to believe that it has been 8 years since he passed, cancer is a evil thing and I pray that one day soon there will be a cure.
So what have I been up too, well I have finished 2 quilts, one baby quilt and one lap size
Baby quilt close up
 
I also made 3 receiving blankets and 3 burb cloths and a bib from stash fabric for the gift, The lady who this is for did not get any given to her at her baby shower , which surprised me and her , normally most people get tons of them , but she did not, so I thought I would add some to my present to her. will be giving them to her tomorrow at work, I hope she likes them, will post later and let everyone know how it went.
I also finished the lap quilt

 

I stippled quilted the whole quilt edge to edge and used the leftover bits to piece the back, I really like how it turned out, the stitches are not perfect but are getting better,
Sewing from stash has gotten better, so far this month I have sew up 6 meters and there is still two weeks left to go , so hopefully I will be able to sew up 4 to 5 more
happy sewing to all


Sunday, March 10, 2013

1 baby quilt and 1 lap quilt started

Happy daylight savings, spring is getting closer! I had to move all my clocks ahead 1 hour today, I forget how may clocks I have till the power goes out or daylight savings happens,

what I have been up to this week is started a lap quilt and a baby quilt, now normally I would not have two projects on the go at the same time but started the lap quilt and then decided to make a baby quilt for a lady at work who is due in April so time is a ticking on getting it done.
The lap quilt is being made out of stash material and batting , I cut the fabric into 2 and 1/2 inch strips and pieced them and then turned them into blocks, I used this video
 http://quiltingtutorials.com/all/amazing-jelly-roll-quilt-pattern-3-dudes/ form the Missouri star Quilt co, she explains in so much better then I can , so far it has turned out great. She has a lot of good ideas, and I have learned a lot form watching her.
The lap quilt is basted and all that I have to do is quilt and bind it.
 I used the left over scrap fabric to piece the back , as I have seen it on a number of quilts lately and I really like the look, I don't know if this is a new idea but it is new to me,
As for how I am going to quilt it , I am not sure if I am going to stipple it or quilt in the ditch.
 
The baby quilt is also ready to quilt, it is basted and I am just marking the design on it . All the fabric for this quilt is new to the stash, so it doesn't count to my stash reduction but that is ok , I think that the baby it is for will love it.
Well I must get back at it , happy sewing to all , till next week

Sunday, March 3, 2013

The UFO Quilt is Done!!!!!!!!!

Happy Sunday.
Today is my girls 30th Birthday!! woow, I cant believe how fast time goes, seems like only yesterday they were babies,, Happy Birthday L and V, hope you have a great day,
As the title of this post says, the quilt is done, thank goodness, it feels great to have it finished and soon it will be off to its new home
I have to say that in making this quilt I learned a lot , and I think my skills have got a little bit better, but they need more work, some of the stitches are not as straight as I like  but in time I home to improve , and they say practice does help..and the new owner knows that this is a practice quilt for me and that there are a few mistakes , but that is ok ,, good thing,, for me and the new owner.

As for my stash sewing for Feb , not so good , only managed to sew 5 meters up from stash, not including quilt top as it was already pieced. For march I hope to get at least 10 meters sewn, we shall see....
happy sewing to all

Sunday, February 24, 2013

busy week , but not much sewing

Well it is Sunday again , were did the weekend go,, work week goes way to slow and the weekend just fly by,, oh well, such is life..
Lets sew what is new this week, My daughter called  and told me that she has adopted a puppy, it is a beagle cross, I have not met him yet , but have see a pic , his name is tubs, but that I think will change, the grand kids will have a ball with him that is for sure, puppy's are a lot of work that is for sure but they are worth the work. lots of love and kisses
The work week was well not one of my better ones, but I got though it, hopefully next week will be better,with the way work went I did not get much sewing done on the quilt, but I have made some progress, all the free motion work is done, and I have started quilting the borders, hopefully I will have them done though the week, then all I have to do is make the binding and put it on,  I have decided to use the burgundy backing fabric that I was going to use the first time, enough of it is in good shape to use for the binding, sorry no pic this week camera is in the charger
Happy sewing to all

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Ah yes progress is made !

Happy Sunday Feb 17
I am happy to say things are going well at sew little time, Quilt is basted and is being sewn, yay .
The quilting wall worked great, love how much easier it is to baste with 505 spray, it was so much easier than pin basting and so far it has been much easier to sew,
I changed my mind on the backing fabric instead of the burgundy which was in bad shape after all the stitches were removed I am using a light brown /beige that I have had in my stash for way too long , so that is 4 meters used so far this month, the burgundy will be used as muslin fabric before being thrown away, so not much is lost on it.
 
quilt at machine
 
 
stippling
 
I am using free motion quilting to quilt the main part of the quilt with a variegated thread doing a stipple stitch and it is going well , no puckers or skipped stitches which is what made me stop working on this quilt so long ago  
It is hard to see in pics maybe you can see in pic of back
    
I have Monday off , it is a stat holiday here  called family day , so I have a full day to sew , and I will be getting paid for it, how good is that! well that is all for now , going back to the sewing room .
Happy sewing to all

Sunday, February 10, 2013

What I have been up to this week

lets see.. we had a large amount of snow happen on Friday well over 30cm here, what a mess, now the temp is going up to the plus side of things and we are going to a get rain on Monday. Wish the weather would make up its mind and just turn to spring!
removing stitches
worked only 4 days this week due to the snow so Friday was a day to putter around , I did manage to finish ripping out all the threads from the quilt and remove all the little bits of thread, what a job that was, but now it is ready to re quilt but first I have to baste it .
which leads me to this project ,, I have made a quilting wall! used Styrofoam insulation board the type that u can get at any hardware store and used a type of clocking that can be removed form the wall with out causing any damage, it is the type use for putting up plastic storm sheeting on windows and is easy removed, I live in a rented apt , so I have to be careful not to damage the wall. And what gave me the idea to do this you may ask,, well I want to spray baste it and i was looking at you tube to see how it is done and saw a  lady who used ceiling tiles to make a quilting wall, she also is the one who spray bastes all her quilts using her wall.
After the wall was up I covered the wall with some fabric  and now it is  ready to go, I used thumb tacks to attach the fabric along the edges of the foam broad,  and will use pins for pinning fabric to the wall, in the pic above I have pinned the quilt top to see how it works, so far so good,.
Well that is all for now happy sewing to all

 
 

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Riping threads

Well as the top of the post says I have been getting real friendly with my seam ripper. but it is all done now.... please see last post for pic of quilt that I am working on,,, I have the top and batting and backing apart,Now it is just on to picking all the little tread bits out, and weell that is a pain in the but to do , going to take me a bit that is for sure but , I am determined to get it done, I need to get this ufo done and out of my sewing room.
I have made a few practice sandwiches out of scraps of fabric and batting and hope to work on them latter in the week, we shall see how it goes and I will post pics of progress
As for my fabric and pattern fast is is going ok. not as good as I had hoped it would thought, I have used 2 patterns from stash and 10 meters of fabric also from stash , not as much as I had hope for January but it is what it is.. onward to Feb sewing , hope to keep it up with the fast and get some more work done on this quilt, but if  paid sewing comes my way it means sewing for me will just have to wait,
happy sewing to all