In the knick of time!

I thought I finished this quilt a few days ago.  Not much time to spare for ALYoF, but enough.  Then today I noticed I had missed quilting a square.  And that the binding pulled away in two places.  So I'm finishing it with minutes to spare, but it is finished!

Matching Pillow

It's been on my list for quite a while, but I finally finished up a pillow from my Fractured wall hanging scraps.  (ok...I ran out of the scraps and had to make some scraps and wait for the cedar chest cover to finish up too for more scraps.)

I just took pieces and put them together, and them kept doing that until I got a rectangular(ish) piece.  Then I put the rectangles together.  I didn't read anything about improve piecing ahead of time...it might have been a good idea, but it ended up turning out fine.  I did have to make an extra cut because I looked at the first final product and there was a row of really large pieces that stood out.  But by that time I had kind of learned...if you don't like it, cut it up and try again.

 

I backed it with some minky.  My son hasn't discovered this yet and has just left the pillow alone.

 And here it is in its home, near Fractured.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, TGIFF, Whoop-Whoop Friday, Finish it Up Friday

Sewing Machine!

I purchased a new sewing machine yesterday!!  I've been thinking about it for a while, trying to decide if I really "needed" a new one.  My Singer has worked well for several years, but the feed dogs weren't working well any more.  (I'll admit, I don't know if they recently stopped working of if they never worked very well and I'm just noticing.)

I thought about it.  Hmm.  Then I went to the local dealer.  They sell Baby Locks and the Elizabeth in my price range with enough new features to justify getting a new machine.  I went home and checked the reviews.  People that had it seemed to like it, although it seemed as though some of the other brands were more highly recommended.  Hmm.  I thought some more.  But then I decided to purchase it.  There were two major factors: 1) The dealer is about five minutes from my house.  If there are problems that is significantly more convenient than driving 1.5 hours to both drop off and pick up.  2) It is quiet.  My husband is often talking on-line to friends while playing games in the same room that I piece.  He's been very nice about it, but the Singer is really rather loud and makes it hard to converse.

So far, in the one night I've been using it, I've been very happy.  It is much quieter.  It has a button for sewing (instead of a foot pedal).  That is similar to the quilter I use, and has a significantly more consistent stitch length.  There is a thread cutter...it doesn't seem to be better than chain stitching, but when I do need to cut the thread it is nice not to have to hold the thread ends on the next piece.  There is also a knee lift for the presser foot and I haven't decided what I think about it yet.

I also got a 1/4" foot which has been pretty nice, but some of the seams of the triangles I was piecing got caught on the foot. 

It's been fun!!

Rotating squares

Since the baby for this blanket will be here any time I thought I should finally get the pictures up.  I can't believe it's taken me so long to take the pictures...but then usually I finish after the baby has arrived so I am itching to get the quilt out the door.

This quilt started out as a QDAD  design.  I was aiming for something completely different, but still loved how this one came out.  The original had similar colors.

I love the colors in this quilt, even though they're much softer than what I usually use.  Kona asparagus, camellia, and iron make up the darker values and Kona mint and Medium pink make up the lighter values.  The white parts have some light hexagons on them...it is really quite lovely.

 

 For the quilting, I did (six) petaled flowers and some hexagons with a cross-hatch.  I used a new thread, Superior's So Fine.  It was very nice to work with...I might get more in the future.

Per normal baby quilts for me, it is backed in minky (soft pink) and bound in sateen (light grey).

 

I really wanted to take picture of this quilt with a background of clouds.   I thought awhile about how to do such a think and decided the easiest thing was the back of a different blanket.  Lots of cotton balls would have been fun though.

I took the quilt to a new park and was surprisingly uninspired.  I got another one at a friends house and the rest on my deck per normal.

I'm really, really happy with how this quilt turned out.  It isn't my favorite, but it is definitely up there.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, TGIFF, Whoop-whoop Friday, and Finish It Up Friday.

AQS Quilt show in Grand Rapids

I'm lucky enough to live near Grand Rapids, where the AQS quilt show was being held this week, so I got a babysitter for the day and took off.  I went by myself...it is actually a very nice way to go.  By happenstance I started at the Modern Quilts, and found myself spending quite some time looking at several of them.

I especially found myself looking at how they were quilted.  Partially trying to find inspiration, partially because I just found myself standing very close to the quilts.  I had to remind myself to backup several times.

And there were several quilts that I recognized!  I was even able to put a name with a blog/Instagram handle for two quilts and feel as though I finally put Instagram to good use.  (Yes, I finally got an Instagram account (@fabricengineer).  And while I'm in the minority, I don't love it and so don't use it very much.)  The blogs are ChristaQuilts and MeadowMist Designs.

I even went out of my comfort zone and introduced myself to Terri of Threadtales.  She was super nice.

I ended up spending more time at the show than I expected.  I probably needed about 15 more minutes to have made it through everything without rushing to get home to the babysitter, but really that is pretty good.  I bought a few things but not too much.  I didn't buy a new sewing machine.  It wouldn't have been an impulse purchase since I've thinking about it, but I haven't done enough homework and the price was too high to purchase without more thought.

A few last quilts to round out the show.  There were so many lovely quilts.  I did seem to have a different taste than most people there, but that's a bit expected.

Thanks for reading!

~Amanda~

A first zipper

A while ago Lisa at Hilltop Creative Works since me a thank you package for a half made pattern.  I know...I thought it was way over the top, since the pattern wasn't perfect by any means.  It included two zippers.  I had never used zippers before, so put them in my bin to be used at a later time.

Well, recently that time came!  My purse broke, and so I've been using a different set-up.  But I wanted a little pouch for gift cards.  I realized that I could make my own!

The outside was really easy to choose.  I love this fabric, more so that I normally love fabric.  This one keeps pulling me back.  I'm usually not a pink person but there is something about this pink that calls to me.  And the pink fabric with teal zipper looks great.

Then I found some scraps for the inside that matched the outside and the zipper.  Score!

So the zipper isn't put on perfectly and the bottom isn't completely straight, but it will function excellently as the simple little pouch that I needed.  I loosely followed instructions from Polka Dot Chicken. 

August rollover

1.  Baby quilt, boy.  This is my goal for August's ALYoF (#52).  It's a design of my own, but the last time I did it was when I was just starting to quilt.  That time I lost a lot of my points and I was wondering if this time would be better.  It wasn't.  I still lost a lot of my points, but since I lost so many I'm just going with it.  I will probably try to do this again in the future, but doing more math and more trimming to make sure everything can come out ok.

It might look almost done right now, but there is a seam in the middle that needs to be "dealt" with and will involve some unpicking and smashing into submission.  There is also a seam near an edge, but I think that one should be pretty easy to deal with.

Other things that are still in progress that I worked on this past month...
2. Sunset wall hanging.   I started hand quilting.  I would have done more on vacation but brought the wrong marking utensils.

3. Baby quilt, girl.  This is finished!  I just need to take pictures of it.  I can't believe I haven't managed to do this for a month.

4. QST.  The middle is all quilted and I need to do the borders.  I am going to finish this one before I quilt my primary goal, so it should get done this month.  Below the bottom is shown, because it's easier to see the quilting.

5. Rainbow log cabin.  I started this as another leader/ender project.  It will be a small wall hanging.

Other items on which I didn't make progress this month...

6. Pillow for family room. 

7. scrap quilt. 
8. Simply solids bee quilt.  So while I didn't make any progress on this, I did discover that I don't know what solid my blue is nor where to get any more.  So I need to make some creative decisions.
9. map wall hanging.  
10. Baby girl quilt - possibly stack and whack. 

11. Space robot quilt.

12.  Pluses quilt. 
13. Orphan rocket block 
14. Quilt nautical quilt   
15. Quilt Christmas quilt 
16. Jeweled floors. 
17. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt). 
18. Winter quilt. 
19. Baby quilt. 
20. A small pouch.
21. A door stop.