2 month round up.

I finally have some time to catch up on my blogging, so I'll try to fill you in on what went on craft-wise during Sept, Oct, and most of Nov. Wow... that was a long time! I did actually work on projects, I just didn't blog about them. Bad Vio.

My quilt class went well. I was trying to think of a summary of what went on, what I learned, etc. and my first thought was "I didn't learn anything!! I already knew everything, I was just there." Silly me. That's not true at all! I *thought* I knew everything because I've been reading blogs like crazy, looking at all sorts of tutorials, etc. But aside from piecing my charm squares together, I hadn't really done anything. What this class did was give me 3 hours at a time where I could devote myself to piecing and actually putting into practice everything I thought I knew.
Our quilts are samplers made up of 7 types of blocks: rail fence, 9 patch, 9 patch variation, square dance, friendship star, flying geese and log cabin.  I was able to do the first 4 pretty easily, without much instruction besides what size to cut. The friendship star was my first stumble. I pieced it incorrectly and had to rip out the stitches. I love the colors I used so that kept me happy. I knew I wanted to see how the instructor made flying geese since there are at least 4 different ways to do it. And the log cabin actually had me lost for a bit. But I worked through them and I really enjoyed making all the blocks. My finished blanket is 5 blocks by 5 blocks with a 1" inner border and a 4" outer border ( I think). I used the fabric I showed earlier.
I was a little concerned at first because all the other ladies chose really nice subtle colors: one had Fall rusty colors, another had browns, reds and creams, one lady chose only yellows and corn flower blue,and another chose Hometown by Sweet Water for Moda. My colors were almost blinding! The instructor kept pointing it out each time I showed her a block. It got almost to the point where I wasn't sure if she liked them or if she was really aghast at them. I started to doubt in my choices, which is not a very nice thing at all. After I put them all together, though, I REALLY like my finished project.

 I pieced the back with a square dance block and strips of all the fabric I used in the quilt.

 I did grid quilting on point in the main blocks, just stitched in the ditch for the inner border and free motion on the outer border following the flowers on the pattern.

 I love the final result!!! I just hope my sister does too. All I have left is the binding. I bought white polka dots on dark gray fabric. I think that will tie everything up nicely. :o)

Oh, and I even made a quilt label. I'll have to hand stitch that one in once I finish the binding. I'd like to have it done by Christmas, but I have 2 other projects with Christmas deadlines that MUST be completed first. :o)

I thought I had a lot more going on, craft-wise, in the last couple of months, but I guess this was the biggest thing! I've posted about my place mats (finished!), I'm working on ornaments and Christmas stockings... I have all the fabric I need for my daughter's quilt... and the main fabrics for my nephew's quilt (which I bought with a gift certificate I won to the Fat Quarter Shop thanks for Lee from Freshly Pieced). That only leaves 5,783 other projects to do! Unless Craft Monster gets some more ideas. :o)

My Tom Cruise moment.

I ordered fabric for my quilting class/niece's blanket online from the wonderful people at Hawthorne Threads last week. I was a little unsure of what I wanted so I went through their website a couple of times last week. Of course, by the time I decided to buy, some of the fabric I wanted was out of stock. :o(  I really like their website because they have a color grid that displays fabrics in a specific color with the option to show from high dominance, to low, to "it's in there somewhere". I'm completely new to mixing and matching fabrics so that was a wonderful tool to have. :o) I also visited my local quilt shop Running Stitch Fabrics and came away with only one fat quarter and two half yards of Heirloom by Joel Dewberry. I wanted the whole Heirloom line, but I need to be focused. My last stop was JoAnn Fabrics. I got 4 fat quarters just in case. I think I only need 4-6 fat quarters and there's a slight chance I may have gone overboard. Oh well... more fabric for another project!

My fabric order arrived this Monday and I couldn't open up the package! I was almost jumping on the couch, proclaiming my love for the fabrics á la Tom Cruise. :o) I did good, I must say. My sister is very specific about which colors can be in my niece's blanket which I thought was going to be hard. But looking at my selection, I'm so excited to start cutting and piecing RIGHT NOW! I have the book that's required for the class already and the temptation to start is so hard to resist! But NO. I'm doing things the right way, and I will wait. But that doesn't mean that I can't take out my fabric to pet every once in a while. That doesn't sound creepy at all. ;o)

The required colors (as set by my very picky sister) are Magenta, Red, and Purple. I know we're both in love with Gray right now, so I'm sure she won't mind me throwing some in there too. Here's a shot of all of them together:

I'm not completely sure about the first gray from the left. I know that I love the pattern (it's Starlet in Gray from Jenean Morrison, the Silent Cinema collection) so I might have to try it out with a few of the other patterns. If it doesn't work out, it will just go in my "to use" pile for later.
Here are the pinks:

Blockprint Blossom in crimson (Joel Dewberry, Heirloom), 2 random pink fat quarters from JoAnn, two random red fat quarters from JoAnn, Cherries in Pink (Monaluna, Spring Metro Market) and Peeps Illusion in Pink (Lizzy House, 1001 Peeps).

Purples and Grays:

Peeps Jewels in Purple (Lizzy House, 1001 Peeps), Empire Weave in Garnet (Joel Dewberry, Heirloom), Starlet in Gray (Jenean Morrison, Silent Cinema), Kona Solid Ash, Castle Wall in Pewter (Jessica Levitt, Kingdom), and what I think is Raspberry Tart (Patricia Bravo, Nature's Elements).
I just hope that my wonderful color collection will translate into a wonderful quilt!
P.S. I will eventually have enough space in my computer to download all the pictures from my camera which will give me room in said camera to take better pictures than my Blackberry Curve 8520 can currently take. I have hope. :o)