Thursday, September 22, 2011

Moving Along

Last night I had some time to myself so I started quilting.  It's coming along nicely, I'm about half way done with the initial pass.  I'm going to go back and sew inside every other stripe three or so more times to give it more character.  Here's a sneak peak at the back:

I love stopping at random small thrift shops around town when Ellie and I need to get out of the house (it's still too hot to play at the park during the day).  Today I found a sandwich bag full of wooden spools.  Two-thirds were generic craft store spools and the rest were genuine spools.  The price?  Twenty-five cents.  I was so excited.  I've already strung them on some twine and am trying to figure out where I want to hang my little spool garland (in a few months it will probably be on my tree!).

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Best Intentions

There have been numerous occasions in my life where I wished I could just have a few more hours or an extra day off to get all that I wished done.  I could do so much with even an extra hour!  

To make a short story long, a few weeks ago I found myself with some extra time during nap time (read:  the main side job I was working on kind of ended).  Super!  I could get so much crafting and organizing done!  I started with working on the back of my quilt.  I mentioned earlier that I wanted to use as many scraps as I could, so I was piecing a lot together.  After a good amount of time was spent on it I took a step back and didn't like it.  I wasn't about to finish a quilt I didn't like.  So out came the seam ripper to re-invent the back.  To keep me occupied I browsed online shows and found the newest season of Design Star.  Sweet.  Needless to say I spent more time watching the show than getting anything productive done.  Don't you hate that?

Anyway.  I am turning a new leaf.  I am going to be better with my free time!  Yay for motivation.

Last night I finished pinning together my quilt sandwich.  Oh, what an exciting step.  I don't think I'll be able to start quilting until later this week, but I am very excited!  I think I am going to branch out and do some straight line quilting and dearly hope it works out okay despite the fact I don't have a walking foot.


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Assembling

This week I have found myself with a little extra time during nap time.  I've put that extra time to good use and have been making some good progress on my quilt!  A few rows have been sewn together and I like it so far.

As I sometimes have the memory of a ant, I keep numbers affixed to my rows so I don't mess up.  A helpful tip I picked up a few years back.

Although I am not a perfectionist in many aspects of my life (just take a peak at my living room right now), I am a perfectionist when it comes to quilt corners.  It bothers me so when corners don't match up.  Pressing, trimming finished blocks, and pinning helps tremendously when matching corners.  Hello, look at that lovely corner!