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)

Finished!.... Well, kinda.

I finished my place mat tops! I want to shout it from the roof tops and show them off to anybody and everybody! It wasn't too bad, actually. I just needed a table at the correct height (bent over a coffee table is not as comfortable as it sounds) and some TIME. :o)

I survived machine applique. :o) I'm super glad I spent the $14 on the open toe foot. I can see what I'm doing! Imagine that. I decided against using the blanket stitch because I couldn't seem to get the right stitch length/width  combination, AND it uses up a lot of thread! I went with a zig zag and I loved it.

Once I finished all the appliqueing, putting the tops together went by super quickly. I did *EXCELLENT!* on macthing up most seams.

However... some seams were not so lucky. :o( Wah, wah, wah....

Oh well. It's my first time, AND nobody will notice, AND we'll probably only use them a few times a year. It doesn't take away from the fact that I'm closer to finishing! Whoo!!!

Now... To sandwich!  Quilt sandwich, that is. ;o) Oh! And I signed up for a beginners quilting class at my local quilt shop! It doesn't start until the end of September, but that should give me enough time to figure out my fabrics. I'm going to quilt two birds with one stone: my sampler will be my niece's baby quilt. :o) I had planned on these classes being almost stress free for my husband since they're on Sundays, but that was before football was back on. :o( AND they're from 1pm to 4pm. Double :o(  But it's only 4 weeks! He'll still have 14 more of regular season PLUS the playoffs and I'll be able to translate all my new found skills into lots and lots of quilts!!! :o)

 

I'm sewing, I'm sewing!!!

I finally stepped over the hump and started sewing this past weekend. My husband gave me a sewing machine for Christmas, it's a Brother.I'm not sure of the model number, but I do know that it's a Project Runway special edition. And it's MINE! Buahahahah! *ahem* Moving on.

Fancy isn't it? I'm still learning all it can do, so it's good enough for me! :o)

Until yesterday, I had only sewn about 5 straight lines back in March. I "made" burp cloths for a friend.  I say "made" because all I really did was make two folds and sew them closed. But hey! It's a start, right?

When it came to sewing my 1/4" seams, I used my 1/4" foot with guide, which made me feel really confident. I may have strayed a bit once or twice, but for the most part, I think I did a good job. I paid attention to all the great hints out there and I chain pieced the charm squares for my place mats. I feel pretty cool, actually. I'm chain piecing!. How quilty of me, huh? :o) I'm still missing an open toe sewing foot so I'm still avoiding the applique, but since I have two blank place mats, I went ahead and pieced it all together. And now... I have a finished top!!! I'm so excited! I messed up a tiny bit so one of my corners doesn't line up, but it's not too noticeable.

I kind of wish the kids would have stayed in the pool a bit longer so I could piece together the second one, but oh well. :o) I get distracted easily so I hope that now that I know how "easy" this is (and fun!) I'll be focused long enough to keep my momentum going so that Christmas doesn't sneak up on me!

Slower Progress

I'm a little scared of machine applique, and I'm not afraid to admit it. It doesn't help that a) I've never done it before, and b) the super nice sales lady at the sewing and vacuum store told me it's easier to have an open toe foot so I can see what I'm doing. :o(  Did I buy the foot when she told me? No. I was more worried about getting the 1/4" foot with the guide. So now my conundrum is.... try to applique with my current foot? Or go out and buy the "right" one? I *could* do it by hand.... but with 10 names, averaging at 5 letters each... I think I would lose the slight timing advantage I've got going on right now.

Well, on a good note: I did make some progress on the place mats at a time when I could have let Applique Indecision 2011 rule my life. I ironed on all the names onto the white rectangles, and arranged 10 charm square around each.

I've gone as far as I can go without sewing a single stitch. Now... do I start piecing the charm squares? Or do I figure out how to do this darn applique and go for it?! I think I need to figure out my sewing area. Either sew in the living room with the TV or arrange the extra TV in the dining room. Mexican soap operas make great crafting companions. :o)

Progress!

I finally got EVERYTHING I needed to start my quilting career. :o) I know, I said it before, but I "needed" the 1/4" guide on my sewing foot, since I can't trust myself to sew a straight line. AND... it turns out I bought the wrong Heat 'n Bond. :o(  All that is behind me now.

I started my place mats first, since I'm still missing the fusible fleece I need for the purses. I'm using Frecklemama's Personalized Place Mat tutorial from ModaBakeShop.
So far, I've traced my letters (backwards) and cut them out of the Heat 'n Bond.

I didn't trust myself to not lose any letters in the process, so I color coded all the names.  :o) That way *I think* it will be easier to see what colors I'm putting together. There are 10 people in my family so far. I'll be making a total of 12 place mats, leaving two with plain centers.

These are the 9.5" by 5" rectangles I'll be using in the centers to personalize.I laid out my Flurry by Kate Spain charm pack first so I can see all the beautiful colors together.

Then I got to spend some time at the ironing board! :o) My husband joked that I didn't know where the iron even was since he's never seen me do it. I know how to use an iron, thank you! I just choose not to. But with quilting, I'm not 'ironing', I'm "pressing". See? I'm learning.

 And these are some of the finished product. I ended up using most of the charm pack, minus the duplicates. I think I really only left 2 squares unused. Even then, I was as careful as possible to keep at least half of the square to add to my scrap pile. I see a stacked coins Christmas quilt in my future! Well, maybe after the umpteen projects the CraftMonster is piling up. :o)

Free!

I finally got the fabric I won from QuiltTaffy.com!!! Well, I'm sure it got here a while ago, I just hadn't checked my mail. I love it! :o)

I may be in love.

When I first discovered Camille Roskelley I fell in love. I think her quilts and fabric may have been partly to blame for my new found obsession love of quilting. I really liked her Swoon pattern at first sight. It's huge! I think that helps me think it's easy (which shouldn't be the only thing that motivates me to make a quilt, but hey! I'm a beginner, I'm allowed, right?) But now more bloggers and flickr-ers are making their versions of it, and I have to say I am definitely in love. *Sigh* Looks like I'll have to add another quilt to the "to-do" list. :o) Maybe if I make it "manly" enough, I can convince my husband that I NEED the pattern for our bed. Wish me luck!