Hawaii Quilt

I bought fabric in Maui both times I've been there, and FINALLY finished the quilt and the quilting!!

But then I had a dilemma -- how does one bind a rainbow quilt??

I decided:  With rainbow binding.  I used up a few scraps of binding I'd been saving, plus added a few other colors, and I think it turned out GREAT!!

I'm off to work on the next project...

Grace the Cat, Quilting Assistant

My kitty, Gracie, has been helping me quilt again.  By sitting on them.

What a goof-ball!!

She also helps me grade papers.  By sitting on them.

So helpful...

Quilt Room Re-org

For years I've simply folded my fabrics all the same and then stacked it, but the problem is I would always need the fabric halfway down the stack, and it would just be a big mess to get it out and try to restack everything.  So, when I saw this picture on Pinterest that led me to this blog post about how to store your fabric storage, and then I also saw it on Threads Magazine's website. All that has to be done is to buy comic book storage boards, and then fold and wrap your fabric around them.

I've been working on this project for a few days now...But the embarrassing part is that I had to buy 500 (!!!) comic book storage boards to wrap all of my stash.  Apparently, I've been collecting fabric for a while.  I'll take a picture when it's all completed!  Hopefully, when I need a fabric, it will be much easier to get it out from the storage area from now on!

Art Quilt Challange

The third Sunday of every month, I hang out at Ruby Street Quiltworks with the RAQ, the Ruby Street Art Quilters.  A few months ago, a fellow group member brought in a whole stack of doilies she had got from a family member, and it became our next challenge.  I had an idea immediately -- an RV!!  Who knows where this idea came from...I think it turned out SUPER CUTE!!

Do you see the doily along the sides of RV?

But then, I read the challenge rules a little closer -- I'm not such a great rule-follower when it comes to sewing. ;)  It was supposed to be a flat item, somewhere around 12" square, so I had to make a back-up/secondary project.  I really like it too!  So, I've had fun lately...I love challenges like this.

It's really not as lumpy in real life...I'm off to sew up my next project!!

Sew Expo 2

I got one other amazing thing at Sew Expo!  I forgot, and it's the one thing I'm MOST excited about.  Please don't judge me for being so excited about this, though... the spend-thrift in me is thrilled to the core about this!  It's this fusible stuff that fuses small pieces of batting together super-fast and super-strong so the piece created can be used inside of another quilt.  (Here is the company's website.)  So, you know, all those annoying edges around a large piece of batting that I am forced to cut off because my quilt is smaller?  ALL BETTER because I can just fuse it to another piece, and TA-DA!  Into another quilt it goes!

I used to spend lots of time sewing these pieces together, and let me say, fusing is the way to go -- but it's totally a "Why the hell didn't I think of this?" idea... I was so excited that on Sunday of last weekend (you know, the day after I'd bought the stuff) I spent a short hour and half fusing batting pieces together and getting straight-up organized.

I learned a couple things while I was doing it...and who knows?  There's probably a handy-dandy tutorial on their website that says all of this stuff, but I didn't find it before I went to town fusing away:

1.  The spot where the batting abuts doesn't have to straight, just exactly the same...

So I got around this by laying the batting pieces on top of each other, and cutting through both layers.

Then, I pulled out the little pieces from under each, and the batting matched up exactly.

2.  It is REALLY sticky.

It seems to have the consistency of fusible interfacing you'd use on clothes, as opposed to double-sided fusible interfacing for applique on quilts.  Nevertheless, it's fusible, so I used my scungy iron.  I love this iron.  I wish it wasn't so scungy -- I'd still be using it as my 'daily driver'...but as you can see, it's seen better days...you can see my new daily-driver iron in the back...

And after a short while, my stack of "this is too big to throw away" batting scraps went from a mess to an organized stack of labeled, usable pieces!!

Before

After

I'm off to sew again for at least a little while...I've got lots of batting to quilt up, don't ya know??

Sew Expo

I went to the Sewing Expo at the Puyallup Fairgrounds this last weekend, and had a GREAT time with my friends Susie and KK.  We were all in a clothing-making buying mood, and I got some great pieces for a jacket and a couple of shirts, plus a darling dress pattern, and two new pairs of scissors.

Here's the story on the scissors:  I had two little snips that lived by my sewing machine, BUT then I cleaned up one day, and got all organized probably, and do you think I can find those little snips???  NO!  I'm sure they're in the proverbial "safe place".  But still -- it's very frustrating...so, I bought two NEW small pairs of scissors to live by my sewing machine, and I'm betting that Murphy's Law will kick in very soon and the other two pairs of scissors will magically materialize out of thin air.  Or a storage bin.  And then I'll have a veritable treasure trove of wonderful little pairs of scissors.

I've always wanted some dainty, gold-handled, downright fancy scissors, but for some reason, I've never bought myself any...I have a very well-used pair of silver Gingher scissors, which are shiny, but they're so...well...utilitarian!  So when the one pair of dainty-gold-goodness was under-budget, I decided I 'needed' two pairs of dainty-gold-goodness.

Here they are.  Aren't they pretty??

When the Scissor Man put them in the bag, he said to be careful -- two such pretty scissors were libel to get up to mischief in the bag.  I thought this was very charming -- he said it with such a twinkle in his eye.  He was a very nice and funny man.  But he's right -- they look like they're straight out of the Victorian Era, and if I remember my history correctly, for all their buttoned up appearances, those Victorians liked to party...

OK, I'm going to go do some sewing and use my fancy-dancy new scissors...

FINISHED!!

My cat quilt for the Riley Blake Challenge with the Modern Quilt Guild is finished!  For whatever reason, when I saw these fabrics, I totally thought "cats", especially the orange swirly one -- looked and acted exactly like my Gracie:  lots of energy and orange-on-white!  I've titled it "Cats I Have Known", and the names of all the cats in my life are included in the quilting.  I love how it came out, and I can't wait to enter it...give me a couple minutes to figure out the unclear entry area...

Gracie approved!

The WHOLE quilt!

Up close...

Up close...

Each cat has a name of a cat I've known quilted on it...

Each cat block is quilted differently,
cuz, you know, all cats have different personalities...

This pattern designing stuff is addicting...

I've had two more pattern ideas, so I'm working on writing the patterns.  Then, I'll make a sample to test my instructions, plus have something to photograph for the cover.  I wish I had them done today -- it's a gorgeous, GORGEOUS sunny day outside today!!

I'm also working on the baby quilt I talked about the other day.  I'm loving how it's coming out.  SO SO cute!!  This is not my final arrangement -- I'm just putting them up on the design wall as I finish them so I can admire my work.  Right now I pretty much only have low-volume blocks done.  At the bottom of the cut-fabric-stack are some brighter, louder-volume fabrics.  So, those blocks are coming...this quilt will definitely be a mix of things.

Back to work!

Another baby quilt!

I've been playing around with Instagram, and trying to post things there.  What I like is that my camera still backs up the picture to Dropbox, but it doesn't keep the Instagram-iness, i.e. the changes in tone and color.  Oh, well...it's still fun.  

I've been working on a quilt for a friend who's having a baby and it's going well, I think!  I found the tutorial for the blocks on Pinterest on the blog Little Bluebell for a Stargazer quilt, and it led me to this great blog, Happy Zombie, home of the original block.  I'm not going to do borders around each block -- just the blocks up next to each other.  I'm loving how they're turning out.  They're so fast!  I have some directional prints, but I've decided that I don't care for them to stay going the same direction, and the randomness is super cute, too.  Below is a blue and yellow stripe with gray star points...I'll show the quilt once I've given it to the baby's Mommy and that way it will stay a surprise.

The shower is in a couple weeks -- hopefully I'll get it done before then!  HA!  That's always the challenge, isn't it?

And then there was 28...

Somehow I ended up making 28 of my snowflake blocks...I thought that a 7 by 4 block quilt might look funny.  Electric Quilt confirmed it:

Yes, I have an old, old version of EQ.  Don't judge me.  I didn't like the upgrade way back when, so I went back to EQ4 because it makes sense to me.

So, as I still have an embarrassingly tall pile of snow fabric, I'm making more blocks...

Luckily, as this is a SNOW fabric quilt, and not a CHRISTMAS fabric quilt, I don't feel any pressure to get it done anytime soon.  I think as long as it's finished before Thursday, March 20, 2014, I'll be ok.  (That's the first day of spring, FYI.  In the land where it is really dark and rains a ton, I keep track of things like that...)

This is where I belong...clearly...

This is my spot.  Obviously.  The serger and I are old pals, even though it sounds like a vacuum machine.
So, you know, I just sit here and hang out with my friend.  

Last minute gifts

I know I'm not the only one who does this to myself...but these last minute gifts are killing me...One done...

yup, it's another tree skirt...I'm addicted to my own pattern...

One to go...

and it's 60" x 80".  Sigh.  I have no idea how it got that big...

OK, I'm off to buy more batting.

Get Organized!

Today, I realized that my sewing table looks like this:

What a hot mess.  And, for the record, that's a tin full of Danish Butter Cookies, just in case I need a snack, I won't have to walk the frightfully long way downstairs to the kitchen.

I think I need to get cleaned up.  There's barely any table left!!  How can any one work like this?  It's a little ridiculous.  And I need to write down some "assignments" on a calendar, because OMG it's already 11 days until Christmas!!  ACK!  (That's a word, right??  Yes, it must be -- Cathy the cartoon says it all the time...) 

OK, here I go to put some stuff away!

Busy Week!

Why is the last week of the quarter always so busy?  All those 'pesky' grades to get turned in for students... No, just kidding -- geesh, I hope my boss doesn't see this.  Grades are important, but arduous to be sure.

But now that's done, and today I taught a quilting class!  So much fun!  5 wonderful ladies and I made my Quick & Easy, Comfy Cozy Tree Skirt pattern in a last-minute rush to decorate for Christmas.  We weren't quite done with it after 4 hours, so I didn't get pictures of their completed tops, but they promised to email them.

This is Loris' -- she works at the quilt shop and made it using my pattern -- isn't it gorgeous???

And of course, since I feel like a better teacher demo-ing how to do things instead of trying to find words to describe what I'm doing, I made one, too.

 I cut all the pieces before class so if I wanted to show a step in the process they'd be RIGHT THERE for me to use to demonstrate.  Hmmm, blue, green and white --  I wonder who I should give this to for Christmas?? ;)

Happy last minute sewing!