It’s Monday

Unfortunately, it is Monday. Back to work. I haven’t posted much in the last week. I spent a few nights last week cutting up a ton of fabric. 1 more project to add to the list. Friday night was spent making the backing for Curious George and getting it basted. Basting spray, 505, is the best stuff ever made! Those people that baste with pins are crazy!! It is a little expensive but worth every penny!

My goal was to have Curious George halfway quilted by the end of the weekend. Didn’t quite work out that way when I realized I have no thread to match the backing. Luckily, my thread order is on its way to me as we speak. So, that got put on the back burner. Than I started a few mario srips and stopped those to go play in the 80 degree weather yesterday. Than I was ready to sit down and finish up my mario section last night when the call of a dirty kitchen and a ton of laundry became too much to ignore.

So, I am going to try to do better this week and work on more projects every evening after the gym and dinner.

Wish me luck. 🙂

 

And, because I can’t have a post without a picture…Here is a crappy one of a basted curious george laying on the floor. (My iphone usually takes good pictures, not sure what happened here!!) The only crafty thing I accomplished this weekend:

Quilt Updates

After shopping all day on Sat, I decided I need to get a couple of things done on Sun.

I finished up another section of Mario:

The brick is about done and Mario has feet and is now standing on a pipe. The next section is already sorted into baggies and ready to be sewn together.  Its slow going but I have hit the halfway point!

I also got borders cut and sewn onto curious george:

I am not sure that I love this one with borders but I needed to showcase some more Curious George fabric. Oh, well. I am hoping that once I get it quilted I will like it a lot more. Heading to the LQS tonight to pick up some 505 spray so I can baste this and start quilting it this week. I would like to give this to the recipient asap so I can focus on some other things.

3 posts in one day. I am now over 50! So far, my goal of blogging more this year is going pretty well. It kind of helps to keep me motivated so that I will have something to show everyone!

🙂

 

Something for me…

A lot of fabrics and such that I buy are intended as gifts. I haven’t bought much to make for just me. Well, that changed this weekend. I found a pillowcase kit that I fell in love with!

Check it out:

How flipping cute and funny!!

The woman at the ironing board in the above picture is my favorite one!! Look at that behind!!

Although, Alan would probably say that the woman at the cash register was his favorite because it represents reality!! HAHAHA

The flange and cuff are both perfect compliments.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

Waiting to be washed and than on the bed it goes. It won’t match anything but it will make laying down more fun!

🙂

New Toy

I won an auction on ebay this week! I never bid on ebay but I did this time and I won! I got a mini-iron! I didn’t really know about them until recently and it is completely worth it!

It is so nice to have to iron small seams now. No tilting the iron at a weird angle to just use the tip of it.

It was so nicely wrapped:

Here it is:

So cool !! It comes with a small tip and this auction happened to include a large tip also. I haven’t used the large one yet but the small one is definitely very nice to use on smaller seams. Its been great for my mario quilt.

🙂

Went shopping today! Too late to take any pictures tonight so I will get some tomorrow. We found a REALLY awesome quilt shop in jacksonville. The Cotton Patch. So many patterns and fabrics. It was a little overwhelming at first!! I found a couple of quilt kits that I loved for me that I will be getting next time I visit. I will definitely be making that a regular stop!!

Curiosity

I know everyone (as in the 2 people that read this blog :-)) is curious as to what I have been up to. Well, I have been working with George.

Curious George that is!! A gift for a mama-to-be!

An up close shot:

The recipient doesn’t want to know the gender so we went with primary bright colors. This project is stopped as I am waiting on more fabric. (I only ordered a yd and I should have known better and gotten two.) I am going to do a border with the same fabric so that Curious George stands out a little more.

I recycled this pattern from my airplane quilt. It was a really fast way to get this done. I have too many other complicated projects going to jump into a complicated baby quilt. This whole top came together in about 6 to 7 hrs total.

Since I am waiting on more fabric, I decided to use up my scrap piece from cutting the blocks and make an accessory:

My first Envelope-Back pillow. I pulled a tutorial with measurements off of the internet but they ended up being wrong so I figured this one out myself.

I used leftover light blue minky on the back. My corners stick out some…I think that’s from the minky stretching. (I had the cotton on the bottom while sewing and I should have had the minky so that I could ease it in.) If I cared at all I would turn it inside out and sew those in a little bit, but I am trying to teach myself not to be a perfectionist on everything. So, I am leaving them.

I have to say that my new sewing machine was so different to sew this minky than my old one. I just cranked the tension up to about a 7, lowered my stitch length and it sewed like butter. You can’t even see the stitches once they are sewn. It was so nice compared to my last experience.

The best thing about this type of pillow is that since there is a pillow form in there, the cover can be taken off and washed.  The pillow form is 12×16 and I picked it up at Walmart. Found the Curious George fabric on Etsy. (What can’t you find on there!!??) It was the only fabric that wasn’t $15 or $20 a yard. Turns out that Curious George is a pretty popular monkey!

Back to paper piecing and some Mario and 1 or 2 other secret projects.

😉

Random Ramblings 2

In my hurried attempt to get my last post finished, I COMPELTELY forgot to mention something really sweet and awesome. I got an early birthday present from a fabulous friend!! And what, you ask, did I get?? Why, just a little piece of software named Electronic Quilt 7!!!! Yes, this is the epitome of a cool birthday gift because it is not something that I would have bought for myself.

And because it just seems not right to have a post without a picture, check it out:

I have already installed it and am going to figure out how to put a couple of ideas I have into it tonight. It has a manual that is 275 pages long!!!

Thanks Julie!!!!!

🙂

Random Ramblings

Not too much has been happening this week. I have completed a few more paper piecing blocks. I will add them into the paper piecing post and try to figure out how to move it back up to the top.

The Pirate Quilt…I think that I have everything except some fusible web and different colored thread. (I am seriously lacking in the thread dept! Added this to my mental wish list for my new sewing room) I am going to try to remember to pick those up soon so I can get started. I have been practicing applique stitches on my machine and think I have found one I like.

Also, on the practicing front, I have been working on teaching myself (courtsey of the internet and a few books) how to free motion quilt. You have a small foot that attaches to the machine and you drop your feed dogs. This gives you complete control of your stitches. The faster you move your fabric, the larger the stitches. The slower you move your faric, the smaller the stitches. Its a very hard rythum to achieve. I felt pretty good about my stitching, I just wasn’t very good figuring out what direction to swirl around in next. I am thinking that if I had a template to follow that I might be able to actually do this! 🙂

I tried to write my name:

It is easier to see from the back…its backwards but still easier to see…

My highlight last week: I won my first ever blog giveaway!!From Melissa over at happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com

A very nice card and applique pieces that she put fusible web on and cut for me. Aren’t those owls sooo cute! There are more under the black boxes but since they are hopfully going on surprise projects, I didn’t want to ruin it. Suffice it to say that they are really cool looking. Thanks Melissa!!

Thats all I have for the week. A full time job and trying to get back into the gym takes up a lot of time!! HAHA!!

🙂