Saved by the sashing

So I fussed and I fidgeted and finally figured out a way to make this thing look better. I present to you, in all the crappy iphone photo quality, my Ruby quilt top!

I ended up turning the blocks them selves on point thus making it straight patchwork. I made a few more blocks for the ^ parts of the triangles and fashioned the corner pieces. Not a super huge deal, but I was really proud of myself for finding a way to get this to work. (I was channeling my inner Tim Gunn.) I've always hit a rough spot and said to hell with it. I'm taking this as a sign that I'm getting a bit better at this sewing thing. I even know how to make this if you don't want to cut off the corners. All that's left is to pick a backing, quilt and bind :D

Here is what I have so far from the Hunger Games pillow. I think the light yellow is too light. It maybe needs something less yellow and more of a pale gold, possibly use fewer strands. I also found a good dark brown for some of the darker spots. It's all a big trial and error thing. If this turns out complete shit I'll make another one and just outline the parts that overlap.

All sewing and no blogging makes Camille....

So I may win the award for crappiest blogger. I'm relatively ok with that.

I have been a busy little bean though. A part of our new house flooded, I quit smoking, my machine crapped out so I randomly bought a new one, decided that my hate of muffin top is greater than my hate of exercise, and my son is mostly potty trained.

Let's see what I've gotten accomplished on the sewing front.

I moved our old kitchen table into the sewing room. It fits my cutting mat AND my machine. (Yes that is my new machine, and no I don't care for pink)

I love that I have this big open table top to quilt on. Of course, it holds so much extra junk now.

This is a picture of it from when it was all on the wall. It's completely pieced and awaiting quilting now. I haven't decided just what to do yet. May have a go at this free motion I hear so much about.

I forgot to take a picture before this went to its new home so I stole this one off of her facebook. I sashed it with Kona espresso and quilted lines in the sashing.

This is the label I put on the back. They're pretty big trekkies so it only seemed fitting.

This is what's on the wall at the moment. I kinda effed up on this one. I didn't read the pattern right. Turned out I was reading directions for the wrong quilt. I'm thinking maybe white sashing between all of these? Take them apart and turn them on point? I don't know, the whole thing is irritating.

And finally, this is the big item for my Love of Solids Swap. It's a block from Mario. It's still missing the top and bottom rows because I haven't picked a background color. I'm leaning towards green. I'm pretty damn proud of myself because these finish at 1" square. And all the seams are matching up! What up beeeshes!

I'm also in the process of embroidering a Hunger Games pillow for the bestie. I hope to god it comes out right. This is her Christmas present after all.

And since it is Wednesday, I'll link up with the wee lil Lee at Freshly Pieced.

I was held hostage! By boxes!

So, ummm....hi! I wish I had a really great story about being held captive in Mexico by a swarm of sexy pool boys. Alas, that would be a lie. Shortly after I posted last we closed on our house. We had 2 weeks to pack and move. The Hubs wouldn't let me pack before we closed. Something about being superstitious. *Cough* load of crap *cough* Of course every wall and ceiling in the whole house was a buttery yellow beige. It was like Paula Deen exploded. Except the bathroom. It had to be the ugliest shade of forest green known to man. Home buying has been an adventure to say the least.

Now that we have an extra bedroom I get my own sewing room! It's a teeny bedroom and this time of year stays quite chilly, but damnit its mine! ALL MINE!!

Here is the sewing table with various mugrugs from swaps. The cathedral window is actually a pillow case but its so pretty I kinda don't want anyone to put their butt near it.

Here is what was previously my cupboard. The top row are the fabrics I got put on comic book boards. Seriously, it is amazing! I love the way you can see it all and pull from it like a book in a library. I need a few more packages and I will get them all settled in. Oh, how I love to organize!

Now I can have a design wall. This is just 2 scrap pieces of batting tacked up, but only because I ran out of full pieces. I LOVE having this! It makes layouts so much easier! This is the latest WIP I've got going on. Its a simple pattern I thought up, but I'm sure someone else already has. It comes together super quick and would be great for a first time quilt. This one will end up being a baby quilt. I'm thinking a thin sashing between the blocks, but can't decide what color. The first thing to pop into my head was a dark gray, but that seems too dark for a baby. I think a good polka dot would be great if I could find the right color. I know the back will be a light gray.

Now that the moving and holidays are good and done, I'm hoping to be able to sew more.

Now that she's back for the new year as well, I'll be linking up with the other wonder quilters at Freshly Pieced.

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 :)