Resolving an issue

When working on my Fat Quarterly quilt I bought a jelly roll. A few of the pieces were a bit off the grain. No biggie. I made it work. Besides, I cut the strip lengths all crazy too. I'm 4 rows from being done. I'll post pictures of that soon. Cross my heart and kiss my elbow.

I bought a layer cake of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. Loooved the colors. Plus it had my name on it. Silly, but whatevs :) I had intended to do this pattern.

 From www.fortworthfabricstudio.com

It's the project sheet from Little Apples. Love this layout. Then I opened it and that idea went straight out the window.

For the Little Apples layout I need all 42 squares. Ummm, obviously not happening. I did some math and could do the Sugar Pop n Change from Moda Bakeshop. Nope. Can't do that either. Most of the squares weren't a full 10 inches. A bunch were too short by 1/4 an inch.

I contacted the online shop I bought it from, along with emailing United Notion's customer service. With both I included pictures of what I got. I'm really bummed. I don't have much money to spend on fabric and now I've got this big glob of scraps.

Maybe it's a sign I shouldn't start yet ANOTHER project.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm linking up over at Amy's Creative Side for Blogger Quilt Festival. There are some really stellar quilters out there! I mean, whoa damn. You guys have skills! Let me share with you my journey getting there.

This quilt was an adventure. I found this great bundle of fabric and fell in love with a layout. I added in a few more, bought some solids and away I sewed!

It all started out well and good. A few corners weren't matching up as well as I had planned. I knew this would live on my bed so I wasn't all that concerned.

Then this happened. WTF!?! How in the world do you get so off track that you mess up this many rows?! I had 2 options. 1 - unpick the many wrong pieces and try again, or 2 - say well crap and fix what I thought was right in the first place. Path of least resistance you say? I'm sold!

The back didn't go so well either. (Why would it?)

There are puckers galore. I got in the zone of doing some quilting (while my little guide thing went all over the place) and didn't bother to look at the back.

ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BACKS!

I can giggle at it now, but at the time many a bad words were said.

I love it though. Is it the best, most perfect thing ever? Nope. Does it make me proud to say I pulled through and didn't set it a fire in a fit or rage quit? You betcha.

Plus, it makes the Hubs, aka quilt holder, look like the Chancellor from Star Wars.

Stupid camera is stupid

I LOVE to take pictures. Before I started quilting I had really wanted to get into photography. Once upon a time I wanted to be a photojournalist and travel the world. Now? Not so much. But my love of taking and editing pictures remains. Small problems though. 1 - my camera crapped out on me and 2 - so did my photoshop.

I am lazy as a cat when it comes to uploading. I try to break out my real camera when it comes to my finishes because they are worth the extra effort. (Not that its THAT much effort, I'm just THAT lazy.) For whatever reason all my pictures kept coming out soft. I finally reset the stupid thing and it shoots much better. Did I mention I did this AFTER I had already begged and pleaded with my husband to hold these? I love the natural light outside but my neighbors already think we are weird.

With out further ado, and decent pictures, I give you my recent finishes!

This is the first quilt I have labeled. I was going to put it on before the quilting, but something shiny distracted me. I used some heat n bond and then hand sewed around the edges. Not sure if that's the way to do it, but I think it looks quite spiffy. What's that you hear? Me tooting my own horn? Ya daaaaaaaaamn right.

When do I start packing?

Our offer was accepted, we got it inspected and we're on our way with all the other mortgage paper work crap! Woop woop! After signing so many papers I was starting to spell my name wrong. Hubs dared me to put a smiley face in with it. A tiny one is on the bottom of a page about hazard insurance.

Meow what?! (Just a little Super Trooper humor)

Do I have good pictures of things I've finished? Nope. Some stupid battlefield game came out and my husband's inner 13 yr old boy played that non stop. 0_o I've become a Playstation widow.

I am also an official member of the Ft Worth Modern Quilt Guild! It was a pretty small group. I actually got up for show and tell. I can talk to people all day but when I get in front of a group? Fear strikes! I didn't go with the intent of show and tell. I had a finished quilt with me because I knew I would need to do this.

All the ladies were super nice and I didn't throw up on my shoes, so I consider it a success.

I also went to a Halloween party last weekend. I go out about once a year and party pretty hard. I don't know how people do that every weekend. I'm getting too old for that crap.

I wasn't super drunk here, I just blinked. I had to make the hat and the sign. The sign was printed out and taped to the cardboard that comes in the bottom of a bottled water case. The dowel is left over from the ghetto clothes wrack I used a few months back. The hat came together pretty quick. If anyone is interested, email me and I'll tell you how I did it. All in all, I thought it pretty darn cute. I'll wear it again on Halloween at work.

After finishing 2 projects I started 2 new ones. A whirligig and another fat quarterly one.

Here is the template I made so I could plan it out instead of hit or miss with fabrics. I some how miss calculated and need something to go around the edges. I'm not sure if I should cut more out of the fabric I'm using or try to do a border.

I had pulled a whole different set of fabrics. After reading the Art of Choosing I changed my mind and am MUCH happier with this set. Its some Darjeeling, I think a Tula Pink, Alexander Miller, a couple of Joann's prints, and I have no idea what the others are. (I don't keep track of all of that. I only remember those because it was printed on the selvage)

I bought a jelly roll of Terrain from Missouri Quilt Co deal a day. I'd never bought one and I am in LOVE with this line. Especially the purples. Honestly, I'm not diggin the jelly roll. I love that you get the whole line, but it felt like I had a lot of issues with it not being cut with the grain.

I will admit I jacked this up hard core when cutting strip length. I think because I tried to cut too many together at once. All the finished blocks are supposed to be 6.5" square. I went back and trimmed them all down to 6.25" squares. Each block with be sashed in white. Immediately after looking at this picture I switched around a few blocks. Standing back and taking a picture helps me so much. Maybe the change of perspective?

Wow, this seems really wordy. Thanks for listening? reading my rambling. Word vomit is good for the soul :)

WWP - Wine While Posting

Great googly moogly!

Might I start off with a bit of annoyance at HGTV. After watching House Hunters for years I was led to believe that looking at houses would be fun.

Nope. Not at all.

It's time consuming and frustrating and some people must have no idea their houses stink.

We have been a bit crazy. We have lived a year somewhere and then moved for the last 5 years. It sounds crazy, and it kind of is. In all fairness, there were valid reasons for each move. When looking for a rental its no big deal. Stay there a year or two and something always comes up and we move. Once we buy we are there for a good long while. Not going to lie, kind of freaking out a little. Housing commitment issues?! BUT we drew up papers to put an offer in on a house, our 3rd house to try, so hopefully we hear back soon.

I think my son is also finally getting the last of his teeth in. Or he is a cranky cannibal trying to eat his own hands. See title above.

Amidst this chaos I have finally buckled down and finished two quilts! One is Oh Franson's New Wave and the other is FITF Rectangle Squared.

There it is in all its crinkly glory! Once its not windy I'll take a good picture outside with something other than my phone. Here it is draped across my kitchen chairs to make a tunnel. It's a great size for a toddler bed. Or tunnels/caves/houses/hiding.

This is the fabric I finally went with for the binding. I was going to do a lighter gray Kona but I stumbled across this in my stash. It has all the colors and a few extras. Its wobbly as all get out on the back. I don't know what is going on that I can NOT get a straight machine binding. Well, I know part of the reason...

I took apart the feed dog/bobbin area of my machine. This is what came out. I swear it wasn't that long ago that I did that! It was so bad under the plate around the feed dogs. I think that is why I've been having so many issues with it pulling to one side. Maybe now I can free motion quilt with out all the asshattery.

Tomorrow is the first time I'll be going to a quilt guild meeting! Ft Worth Modern Quilt Guild is super new. There's been one in Dallas for a bit, but that's too far for me to drive. The Ft Worth one meets about 3 miles from my mom's house and is much easier to get to. I stumbled across a Sewing Saturday while I was on vacation. Saw a girl with the logo on her shirt so I asked her about it. I'm kind of nervous. Do I bring something?? What goes on? Does everyone bring a show and tell??

Since it is Wednesday, I will link up with the ever sweet Lee of Freshly Pieced. Show some comment love on the lovelies being made :)

WIP Wednesday actually ON a Wednesday

I actually managed to find time in the craziness of today to find time to blog! Suuhweeet!

The house I was lusting after got a bid in and accepted a day before our. I wish them a plague of pubic crabs nothing but the best. I will be optimistic and think that the universe has something better in store. There is one house we looked at today that has lots of potential. It needs a good bit of work on it, but the question would be how much and the cost efficiency of buying and fixing vs getting something in better shape. We shall see...

Ever since I saw the Rectangle Squared pattern on FITF I wanted to make it. This week I got out a FQ set and went to it! I took out most of the pinks and all the animal prints. I think they would be perfect for a baby quilt later on. For me? Not much of a Pink Lady in that sense. More like Frenchie but I didn't drop out of beauty school.

I draped this on my ironing board while I was working on the back. My son promptly crawled under and declared it his cave. Of course I had to allow it. Everything I make he says" OOOO! I like it. You make one for me??" I knew this one would be for me so I wasn't super precise about everything. Ok, maybe not precise at all. You could say this quilt top is half ass chic.

This was the first time I had ever tried spray basting. Shit works! Smells to high heaven and god knows what is stuck to the bottom of my feet, but it was so quick! I think I am sold. The main reason I tried it was because I had every intention of doing the free motion thing. I've never really done it. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This was the front. My plans were to do loopy doos in all the gray areas. Though not perfect, I thought it looked pretty nifty.

WTF!? See those dots? Yea, that is the thread from the top. This is with the tension all the way up. I have tweaked and fiddled with all kinds of stuff on the damn machine and this keeps happening. I want to use 2 color threads! You hear me?!!Looks like I will have to send this off to the machine doctor to find out what is happening. Or I go all Office Space a la copier on it.

Might I just say that free motion is THE hardest stuff to rip out. Lesson learned: free motion quilting is like tattooing your quilts.

The lovely Laura of Needles, Pins and Baking Tins received her goodies! She was the one who got the rainbow mug rug. I was sooooo relieved she liked it.

Since this is actually on the right day, I'll be linking up with the linky ladies at Freshly Pieced. Check 'em out and show some love :)

Stress is stressful!

Life has been a bit nuts in these parts. Our vacation was wonderful! The Hubs wanted to go to the beach so bad. He bought a pair of rubber dish gloves, cut off one of the fingers and taped it over the bum pinkie. It looked crazy but no sand got in it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Potty training has been put on hold. My son would pee everywhere and try to mop it up with couch cushions or hold it for hours until nap time. Once that diaper went on, Niagra Falls of pee. I know he could do it, but the little bugger just loves those diapers. Grrr..... In a few weeks we will go at it again and see if he is ok with this whole potty thing.

Another reason I fell off the face of the earth? House hunting. That is so stressful! We are in the beginning stages. We are trying to put an offer in on a house but we will see. I'm trying to not get my hopes up about it in case it falls through. Better to be excited than disappointed.

On to non stressful grown up woes, SWAP GOODIES!

This is going out to partner 1. I won't say who just yet because it is in the process of making it across the ocean. Hopefully she likes it.

This is for partner 2. One of my partners crapped out so I got a new one. I wasn't too surprised to hear since she signed up and then vanished. My new partner is awesome! Totally vocal and an absolute doll. I hope she likes this. She is an incredible crafter so I'm self conscious as all get out.

This came in the mail for me this week. Jennifer of Knotted Thread was my goodie maker. Thank God it wasn't breakable because that poor package had been through the ringer. What they were doing in the post office, I do not know. I love the little hexie card to go with it. SO cute!

This was what was inside! The mug rug is actually hanging above my sewing table. Too cute to use. The pin cushion hasn't been commandeered by Little Man yet. (He thinks cute pin cushions are baby pillows.) It's so pretty I feel kinda bad sticking pins in it. Is that weird?

I had thought about starting a swap. I was thinking fall/winter potholders. Since the holidays are coming up and all good holidays are full of food what better item than potholders! I'm kinda tiny in the blogoshpere, but if anyone would be interested I'll get the ball rolling. My main worry is that I would start this and only 5 people sign up. Kind of like throwing a big party and inviting a ton of people only to have your mom and the creepy neighbor show up.

Roller coaster week

This last week has been nuts! Texas finally got some rain! It is also supposed to rain this coming week. Not that it matters as much since The Hubs crushed up his pinky finger between the handle of a sledge hammer and a rim of an 18 wheeler. It's nasty and gross and had to get 16 stitches. The ER doctor seemed to put all the bone pieces back where they needed to be. (I think I could have stitched it prettier) So a forecast of rain and a jacked up finger are how we are starting this out. I'm staying positive though!

Another addition to my crazy week? The mail. I forgot I had ordered some little apples and was quite surprised when I opened the mail to find that. I just got one little charm pack. No idea what that will turn into. Maybe save it for a giveaway some day. Today when I went to get the mail a red light ticket was waiting for me. They caught me! I will admit I am horrible about gunning it and barely making the green. It's a left over habit from living in the big city so long. Now I get to send $75 to the city. Damn technology!

Upswing of the mail? I got this.

The wonderful Melissa of Child of the Wild Blue Yonder made me this gorgeous 17" pillow and tiny cathedral window pin cushion. This was her first time making cathedral windows! They look great! I am one lucky swapper.

This went out to Sarah of Moshie Creations. Click the photo for more details about what she received.

This is mug rug for partner 2. It's about 12"x12" square. The tree trunk is from some curtains I found at a resale shop. I knew I would eventually want to use them for an applique project. I got the idea from pinterest and tweaked it to meet my needs. I think for partner 1 I will make a wallet and partner 2 will get a pincushion. I've got the wallet put together 99%. Its from my own simple pattern. I think I may just turn it into a tutorial vs a pattern for sale. I get so much from others tutorials that it only seems right to share one. Once its finished I'll try to make up a quick tutorial. (This is all assuming its cool enough that someone would want to actually make one.)

I have yet to make any bow tie blocks for that swap. I think I will get to that after vacation. I have until October to do those.

I think I have become addicted to swaps! I want to sign up for another one. Anyone in the US know of any good ones still open or about to start?

Work in progess Friday doesn't sound as cool.

Some how Wednesday came and went with out me even posting. The Hubs is working crazy tons before we go on vacation. Partly for more money, partly because his job is so short staffed. His job is like mine in that you get paid per what you do, not hourly or salary. Blessing and a curse.

Here is one of my mug rugs for the Goodie Swap. I thought it was too small so I made 2. I finished them up and put the binding on today. (I haven't taken a picture just yet.) I haven't quite figured out what to make for the goodie. Maybe a pin cushion? I thought about trying out a wallet.

I got this fabric for wallets. I have an idea in my head of how I want it to look. The brain to hand road is a bit bumpy in these parts. I may look around at some tutorials and blend them together.

I sent off my Love of Solids swap package! I won't post the finished pictures until I know its been received.

I came back to the New Wave for my mom. It took stepping away for about a month for me to want to work on it again. I sewed the rows all together today and even basted it.

This is supposed to be iron basting. Last time I thought just the ironing would work it ended up a hot mess. This time I said eff it and pinned the damn thing. Since I'm doing simple echo quilting it wasn't a pain trying to find where they wouldn't get in the way. I hear so much good stuff about the spray basting, but I see that ending with a sticky, sticky house. My basting area is also my son's play area. I shudder to think of how gross that could end up.

Working out is justly named

Majority of my coworkers have decided to go to the gym. There's a nice new city rec center that is really affordable and doesn't require contracts. I don't live in the city. Which works out peachy since I'm a neurotic weirdo and am freaked out by exercising around other people. I know no one is staring, but I feel like everyone is gawking at my jiggly bum. Maybe not everyone. Just the perfect toned bodies of 20 year olds that haven't had kids. Tonight I kicked my own ass and did some YouTube work out videos. I found an awesome girl named Cassie that has a ton of neat Pilates workouts. Search for username blogilates. She's super upbeat and has some good background music. The Hubs is quite surprised that I resorted to YouTube. I kind of hate that site. Ok, I love the educational aspect of it. If I get horribly stumped on something sewing or cooking related I will watch a video. I don't like how a good majority of stuff in there is total crap, or how so many people use it to be mean. Plus every other person wants to be famous for something. I'll pass, thank you very much.

Before my sudden urge for fitness, I FINALLY finished my love of solids swap project! The original was pissing me off to the highest level of pisstivity so I made a new one. The dimensions are much smaller, but I think it will work well still. I'm thinking about sending along a lot of the left over solids, as a "sorry if you don't like this take some nice Kona solids so you don't think it a total bust" kind of way. Once it's sent out next week I'll share all the finished pictures.

I also went a little nutty at Joann's this morning. They FINALLY had some of the DS collection in. There was even some new fabrics I hadn't seen before. I got a crap ton of the blue and green dots. I also loaded up on Kona white since I know I'll use it up on the Bowtie Swap I signed up for. (Those are after the goodie swap.) The bow tie blocks will be a lot easier since you use whatever you want, mail em out and get the same number back. It's on flickr if anyone is interested.

Hello Wednesday, we meet again.

Alright ladies and gentlemen, sewing is kinda kicking my ass.

My love of solids swap is coming to a close. The big item has been one challenge right after the other. Its not that its a hard project, but I went at it with out a pattern. Why oh why did I think that was a good idea?! It started out waaaaay to big. Solution? Cut it down. After quilting the outside and, I thought, squaring it up and sewing it together it is no where near the same size as the inside. How.does.that.happen.

This is a small view of the outside. I don't want to show too much in case I burn it in a fit of rage change my mind at the last minute.

This was easy. A little TOO easy. I'm wondering what went wrong with it. Hmmm...

The small item is done and has been done for a while now. It was the 2nd made because the 1st one had a small case of the fugly.

My Goodie Swap members were assigned! One person has done zilch as far as introduce herself, likes mosaic, anything! The other one has limited amounts of stalkworthy stuff. I've picked out fabrics based on the colors Miss No Info gave on her survey so that's an extra challenge. I think the fabrics are cute, but now to decide what to do with them. Hmmmmm...... Nothing has spoken to me for my second one just yet, but she is active in the group, so we shall see. All the active ladies in the group make me giggle. I have no idea what a cuppa is or half the other little funny things they say. Being American, shouldn't that be in my brain, somewhere deep in the back? I know Europe is where the history comes from, according to Eddie Izzard hehe.

Remember half square triangle madness? Oh, its worse. Much worse.

See that stack on the left? Those still need to be paired with solids. Along with being sewn, cut apart, pressed, and trimmed. Christmas after next is looking a lot more likely as time goes on.And yes, that is Dopey. He is the patron saint of my sewing adventures. Seemed only fitting :)

Best joyful thing this week? VACATION!! Hubs will be turning 30 next month and we randomly decided to go to the coast for a few days! I'll be loading up on SPF 900. I work next door to a tanning salon and the leathery chests of 20 year olds has frightened me beyond anything else. Plus I don't want to buy new makeup. We've never been on a real vacation together. When we were planning our Honeymoon to England we found out I was pregnant. As in, were about to book flights and had gotten our paper work to start passports planning. I'm glad we didn't spend all that money on a trip. This time however, fruity drinks and sandcastles! EEEE!

As per usual, I'm linking up with other sweetheart sewers at Lee's Freshly Pieced. Go check them out, there are some super cute projects going on in blogland :)

Wednesday is here again!

Let me just say, that despite not always having a picture for MofJ 365, I always think about the day and what has made me happy. Usually its right before bed.

For the last week it has been the following:
- A sweet Roman Solider hat made out of felt. I love silly kid hats.
- Chairs for sitting in. The back to school crowd was the worst ever this year. Everyone was terribly grumpy.
- Cream cheese cinnamon rolls 4/$1. Yes, I was eating my feelings. Those feeling sure did taste delicious :)
- Cuddling with my sweet Little Man
- The Hubs for putting up with my craziness and supporting my craftiness.
- Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Lattes. Seriously folks, best way to start the day.
- My friend Jake for stopping by while home from Austin. He is the shiz and brought me tasty fancy beer.
- Today we found out a wonderful friend of ours is expecting her first baby! I'm so excited! I can't wait to make them all kinds of sewed goodies!

Now for the sewing!

After fighting with the bottom seam on the lining, I realized i put it in on the wrong side. I was FURIOUS! After a long string of swear words, I took the pocket out and put in a new one, right side up. Now I need to quilt and piece the outside, make a strap and I'm good to go.

I also have a gajillion of these. 3.5" half square triangles. Everything has been from my stash. This is my in between project. I work on this when I'm pissed at a different project have downtime. I'm hoping this will be good to go by Christmas or the following March. I'm thinking March...

Something got finished! I even finished the binding by hand. It looks so nice, but man oh man was it annoying to do. The thread kept knotting up on this one and it was only because of it that I went the hand sewn route. It made me really sleepy working on it. Is that normal??

As per usual, I'm linking up with other sewing extraordinaire at Freshly Pieced.

8.17.11

I braved the sun and went out on the boat. Little Man had a blast when he wasn't having a total meltdown over not catching any fish. I can't wait for it to cool off some more so I can take some of the girls out on it.

8.16.11

I was tracking my shipping and fedex said they would get here on the 17th but they came a day early! I LOVE when that happens. I did a happy dance and ran off to the post office. Now I need to find a perfect project to go with them.

Moments of Joy

This is more about life than sewing, so feel free to skip this one if you want.

Diane of from blank pages had a wonderful idea. 365 moments of joy.




The reason this appeals to me? I'm not an optimist. I consider myself a realist, L, the bestie, calls me a pessimist. Its always been in my nature. I suffer from depression. Throughout the years I've taken medicine and sometimes I don't. Mental illness has a certain stigma attached to it. No one gets crap for having diabetes or asthma, but mental illness is the same. The chemicals in my brain aren't what they should be so I take something to make it function properly. Prior to getting married and getting pregnant I was off of medicine. Pregnancy was very hard and post partum was terrible. I had PPD and didn't want to deal with it or admit it.Finally at about 8 months PP I went to the doctor and I got help.

While doing hair I encounter pregnant women and new moms a lot. Sometimes I can feel their energy and know they feel like I felt. I want to scoop them up and hug them. I will openly tell them about my struggles and not enjoying pregnancy. Too many people don't understand and look down their nose that you don't feel like this huge blessing is upon you. A friend of mine had the same experience years prior and hearing that I wasn't alone made me feel like I wasn't a freak and gave me hope that I wasn't alone.

I wish like anything I could take it back, that time I lost. I missed so much joy and happiness of having a new baby. I missed a lot of joy in my life for those years I wasn't honest with myself and didn't take care of my illness. This is me not missing life. This is me forcing myself to see the good in life even when a day kinda sucks.

Thank you Diane. I don't know if you can understand how I hope we can inspire each other a thousand miles apart.

Tastes of cinnammon

My blog from last Sunday magically disappeared again. What the deuce blogger?! Why must you gobble up my Sunday stuff?



This is the view from my front porch. It's a monster heat wave and I refuse to go outdoors. Or spend money watering the yard. I expect to see tumble weeds any day. I haven't sewn as much lately for the sheer reason that the iron being on makes a room too hot. God bless you Sonic Drive In, and you're wonderful pellets of ice.

I looked at what I had made for my swap partner and realized it kinda sucked. I liked it at first, but then the more I looked at it the uglier I thought it was. I made a whole new small gift and it looks a lot better. I'm a little nervous about posting it to the group and her saying she didn't like it. I'm not sure my ego could stand the blow right now.

I had started a tote a la Tetris from back in the day. I charted it out on my handy graph paper, cut the pieces and sewed them into strips. When trying to join the strips, I don't quite know what happened. I don't know how everything ended up so wonky and crooked! Nothing matched up right at all! How does that even happen?! That may end up being scratched as well. I have some more solids coming in soon so hopefully that will kick me in the rear and find something that doesn't come out looking like technicolor dog poo.



This is the New Wave quilt I'm making for my sweet mums. There are 3 more rows and its turned out pretty big. I had to rip apart a lot of the sashing pieces. For whatever reason I sewed them on, and then trimmed them down without realizing there were big gaps where I hadn't done it straight. Thankfully I bought tons of the fabric I'm using. Once those got fixed its coming along swimmingly :) The 8 rows have now turned into 4 2row pieces.



I spent Sunday doing this all day. Just Between Friends is a big consignment sale that I somehow manage to sell stuff at in the Spring/Summer, but not Fall/Winter. These are Little Man's newborn - 2T winter clothes. It's hard to imagine him ever being that small. Some of my favorites aren't going though. I don't plan on any more kids, but I guess I'm a sentimental sap and love me some onesies.



As per usual, I'm linking up with the lovely ladies at Freshly Pieced.