No more projects!

I changed my mind about posting about the Bernina 830 on this blog. Later this week I will post about it on SewFlakes blog, I may link to it, but I want to keep this blog for my personal projects. Why bore you with advertisement-like posts when I can bore you with personal stories? Right?

I currently have two projects going, if you don’t count all the UFOs sitting on my shelf. These two projects I’m going to finish before starting another one though. (Famous last words, I’m sure!)

The first one will be a sample for the shop. I decided to test out some personal embroidery.

This tiny embroidery and the other 3 just like it are going to be pockets on some quilted placemats. I’m using two pieces of the “Make Life” line from Moda. I think they look pretty darned cute, but they aren’t finished yet so no pictures.

My other project is quite ambitious and has a deadline.  I’m not sure when the deadline is because the rules for the contest aren’t posted yet. However, I’m working pretty diligently on it because I want to be sure to have it completed.

The contest? The Tulsa State Fair quilt exhibit.

The project? A baby quilt completely hand done. I’m doing a simple baby log cabin block, similar to the “Plume scraps” block previously pictured, but with different fabrics of course. I figured that a log cabin isn’t going to even earn an honorable mention since it is so simple. However, I thought that if I hand pieced the blocks and then quilted it by hand that it might, just maybe, stand the chance of winning something.  I don’t have my hopes up to high, but I think its worth the effort to try.

It is going to be a baby size quilt using somewhere between 16 and 20 blocks (each 4 1/2-inches big when finished) with sashing, so its not going to be finished anytime soon. I hope to have the blocks ready within the next couple weeks. Then I should be able to sash everything and start quilting by the end of May. I figure the deadline is somewhere in/near August, so I plan on having the hand quilting done by the end of July.

The good news is that I’m pretty confident that once I get to the quilting part it will go pretty fast. The piecing, I think is the hardest because I’m having to match of the pieces and make sure I’m using 1/4″ seam allowances, which isn’t as easy to do by hand compared to the machine.  I hope it turns out great. If it doesn’t then at least I will have tried. Sounds like a good plan to me.

I will post pictures of this once I get some of the blocks done, and will continue to update you on the progress.

 

Snowed in projects

Because of the snow I had a 3 day weekend. Most of it was spent lounging around the house playing board games and spending time with Erik, who celebrated his birthday yesterday! However, I did manage to start and finish some projects.

Okay…I confess. I started 3 projects and finished 1. The first and complete one is a pillow case using the tutorial from Film in the Fridge. (By now you are probably getting the idea that I really love her blog!)

Bright Pink!

Her directions say to leave the selvage edge on the fabric, but I read that about 10 seconds after cutting it off so I just went with it. Nor did I do the French seam to finish up the case because I didn’t read that far until just now when I went to get the link to post here. I also did the cuff a little different, but not really. The first time I did the cuff I did as she said, but the fabric kept slipping.  I ended up needing to rip the whole thing out and redo it.  The second time I had to do it I ironed the cuff in half and used about a 100 more twice as many pins, which worked out great.

I love the way it looks folded!

All in all it is a great tutorial if you read all the way through it first instead of jumping the gun like I did! I already have another case cut out, pinned, and ready to be sewn together tonight. Later I might try to alter the sizing a bit because the case is a lot bigger than my pillow, but for now it will be just fine!

My second project that is about half way complete is one of the flour sack towels I mentioned at the beginning of the weekend.  I decided to use this free pattern. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

From Bad Bird's Embroidery Patterns

I will take an pictures of the towel’s progress over the next couple days and post them later.  It is coming along nicely, especially since I bought more colors of embroidery floss to play with!

My last project I’m not satisfied with at all. There is a chance it could turn out once I complete the hand stitching on it, but right now it looks like something definitely went wrong somewhere. It is a purse out of the “Sew Simple” book I posted. It looks mostly like the picture, but the handle seems to be really small.  I’m not confident that it is going to be a practical purse, but I suppose there is still hope since its still unfinished. I will let you know.

So if anyone actually reads this please leave a comment letting me know what sorts of things you did this weekend.  I would love to hear from you.

Trina

P.S. I will be taking pictures of the scrap bag for the give away this evening and posting the details tomorrow evening, so stay tuned. (Yes, I know, I’m officially late in posting the give away, but it will be worth it…I hope.)

 

Cute Winter Stitches

I’m on Facebook all the time!  Seriously I spend about 6 hours on and off through the day on Facebook! This isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds though because most of that is work related. (Oh my job really is the pits – I have to sit in a fabric store and “play” on the computer. If that isn’t the worst job ever I don’t know what is! *note the obvious sarcasm*)

Anyway, I was piddling across Facebook and saw that Sublime Stiching was tagged in a few photos.  These stitches were done by Shannon, and I just have to pass them on they are so cute!

You can visit Shanon’s blog, here, and see all of her awesome embroidery projects.  If you like the stitches she made and would like to make your own you can get the pattern from Sublime Stitching, here.

(I will add both links to the side of this page for future reference and inspiration!)