A couple of quick projects

I really wanted to make a cover for my quilting binder but didn't have a pattern, so like always, I made it up as I went along. I also made another pincushion since I had a little more fabric left over. I'd like to make another binder cover but this time I think I'll draft a pattern to use again later. Maybe a quilted checkbook cover and quilted iPod cozy are in my future as well. I'll be sure to post pictures when/if I make them. Oh yeah, I still have that quilt to finish that I started last week. Good thing I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow!

Six years ago tomorrow...

More here





Enough said.

Wishing everyone love and peace
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On pins and needles

Well, not really. I just got so excited about this pincushion that I saw on May Britt's site. She was kind enough to post a tutorial and I fell in love with it. She used the English paper piecing method and 2 1/2 inch fabric squares. I tried it using 3 inch fabric squares and it took me several hours to complete my first one. Problem was that I was working on it during my son's baseball game and didn't have a picture of how to assemble it, so I actually put it together wrong. (See the dumpling shaped one on the left?) I was in such a rush to finish it because I was having lunch with Pat and wanted to show her "my bad ass English paper piecing skillz, dog". No matter how I poked or prodded it, it just didn't form that cool star shape. Duh! So I go back to May's site and googled around to see if anyone else made my mistake and found out where I went wrong. I really wanted one made correctly so after dinner I took my happy butt upstairs to make one, however, I wanted it NOW so I pieced it on the machine in about 30 minutes compared to the 4+ hours of hand piecing. No paper had to be harmed in the making of this pincushion, honest. It was really easy and if I make any more, I'll do them on the machine.

Oh, just wanted to show pictures of the Halloween print backpack I made for Chris. It cinches closed when you pull the straps. I intended it to be used for trick-or-treating but he insisted on using it for school. See the loop I added for his phone? I was afraid that it would fall out and get lost. He asked me why I made a backpack for trick-or-treating and I said I wanted him to have a backpack in case he got tired of carrying it, he could just sling it on his back. You don't know Chris, he gets more excited about handing out candy at home than having to go out and work for it. In fact, every year, he winds up giving most of his candy away to the trick-or-treaters after we've run out of the stuff we bought. The teenager has more fun than he does.

Has anyone else noticed that they're spending more and more on candy every year and it seems that it goes far more quickly than ever? We usually spend over $100 and we're all out between 8-9pm. I swear people bus their kids into our neighborhood!

Gotta get to bed. We have an early baseball game tomorrow...8 a.m.!

Well dressed monkey

I sent off my sweaters to Jen today for the Football Along's charity project. I made this one for monkey to wear. He will also get the blue and brown one that I have on the needles, whenever I can get around to finishing it.

Started another quilt yesterday. I'm kindof making it up as I go along. Not quite sure if I like it yet, though. If I can stand it, I'll post pictures.

New quilt finished this week

Just finished binding this one at 1:30 this morning. I'll be having lunch with my friend and her husband and wanted to be able to show her the finished quilt. It is a long lap sized to accomodate the taller members of my family. This was the first quilt I've made using my walking foot to quilt it. Can I just say that I'm not too sure I like the walking foot. I didn't feel like I had as much control as I usually do and I couldn't really see the ditch as well. It was easier to go over the intersections, however. I experienced a lot more puckering of the backing fabric than normal. I used it to attach the binding because I was going over so many layers and while hand stitching the binding down, I noticed that the quilt top had a couple of pleats in it. Overall, I don't think this was my best quilt but I still love it for the fabrics I used. This was also my first time using nylon invisible thread during the quilting portion. I only had it break once. I kept checking for breakage because my friend told me she had a big problem with that. Because of the invisibility of it, I couldn't tell, most of the time, where I'd quilted until I looked at the back. I will definitely be using this thread again! Now if I can only get over my fear of free motion.

More knitting going on

I've been working on the teddy bear sweaters and they're easy to memorize. I started the pink striped one while at the salon waiting for my pedicure this morning. I got to the underarms before I was done there. I wanted to do a girly one for the non-football fan. The blue one is for my NY Giants. I'm glad I have something small to work on since we're driving to Phoenix this weekend for a funeral and I'll knit while Bernie drives.


Just had to get a little sewing done yesterday so I whipped up this little sling bag from part of a fat quarter and left over quilt backing fabric. I will definitely make more of these but next time I want to give the bag a bit more substance by using batting and quilting it. I even started on a patchwork version but haven't finished it yet.

New quilt top and sweater done

Just finished this quilt top this morning. I'm still trying to decide whether to make it bigger than lap sized or not. If so, I'll need to get a bigger batting. I just love these two fabrics together. I'm sure this won't be the last time I use them.

This sweater in Las Vegas HS colors is the pre-season charity knitting project for the Football-A-Long. Now I have to start one in New York Giants colors, whip up a couple of scarves and send them off. They are really quick to make but since I haven't done any prolonged knitting in awhile, I am suffering from some wrist pain that might slow me down a bit.

I hope to complete the quilt tomorrow. I have the backing fabric in the washer right now. Pics to come.

Addicted to Quilting

Saw this poem on an online quilting group I belong to:

*Addicted to Quilting*

She learned to quilt on Monday.
Her stitches all were very fine.
She forgot to thaw out dinner.
so we went out to dine.

She quilted miniatures on Tuesday.
she says they are a must.
They really were quite lovely.
But she forgot to dust.

On Wednesday it was a sampler.
She says stippling's fun.
What highlights! What Shadows!
But the laundry wasn't done.

Nine patches were on Thursday -
Green, yellow, blue and red.
I guess she really was engrossed;
She never made the bed.

It was wall hangings on Friday,
In colors she adores.
It never bothered her at all,
That crumbs were on the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday,
My week is now complete.
My wife can quilt the hours away;
The house will still be neat.

Well, now it's only Sunday,
I think I'm about to wilt.
I cursed, I raved, I ranted,
Cause the MAID has learned to QUILT!

Author Unknown
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It's so true except that my husband hasn't reached Saturday yet!

My biggest fan

My baby loves his mama's quilts!

Here he is watching John Cena in The Marine. The acting was horrible!

Last night my friend and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum while our kids and their friends were watching The Simpson's Movie. I enjoyed it. Matt Damon is a hottie. Great action scenes. Then they wanted to see The Bourne Ultimatum so we took Chris to see Transformers. I thought that was a good movie too! Very action packed as well. Cool scenes of Hoover Dam.

I know that Robert Ludlum died before he could finish his Jason Bourne series. I found out that the Ludlum estate chose another author, Eric Van Lustbader, to continue where he left off with The Bourne Legacy (2004) and now The Bourne Betrayal (2007). I saw this movie without reading The Bourne Ultimatum and in reading the synopsis of the book, realized that the movie didn't even come close to it. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything here. I bought The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Legacy last night. I hope I don't have to go all the way back to the first two books to figure out what's really going on. We'll see, won't we?

No real quilting done today. Just playing around. I finally bought my walking foot and free-motion foot today. Then stopped at Nancy's Quilt Shop to see which Heather Bailey prints she had in stock. I only saw a couple but they weren't the ones I was looking for. I bought a couple of different prints. I think they're Kaffe Fassett but I'm not sure. Have to check on that one. I'd really like to do a Heather Bailey quilt. Just love her fabrics. Very fresh and spring-like. Oh well. I can always get them online, but that will have to wait since I've already spent my allowance. I'm pretty sure I have enough fabric to keep me busy for awhile. Still doing my research to see what to try next. My hands are just itching to cut and sew! Can I just say that free-motion isn't as easy as it looks? I don't have a stitch regulator on my machine so I have to really work on keeping my movements even and smooth. Practice makes perfect, right?

Diagonal criss-cross coasters

Have some leftover 5" blocks from my last quilting project and wanted to try the coasters I made before but with the squares folded on the diagonal rather than in half. I really like the way these look and you can still stick a wine glass base in the center hole.

I also made an Annie's Choice block but didn't take a picture yet. I realized at 2 a.m. that I hadn't done any sewing the day before and went upstairs and cut out the squares and sewed the 1/2 square triangle units for the block. I finished it when I got up this morning. This block contains 16 of the 1/2 square triangle units for a finished size of 12". This was my first experience trying to match up all of those little points. Needless to say, they didn't all match up and frustrated the heck out of me. I also tried to squeeze 2 of these blocks out of 2 fat quarters and came up two (2) units short! Argh! I was hoping to be able to do it, but wasn't too confident. This would be a good opportunity for me to make all the blocks different. I'm also thinking about trying the quilt-as-you-go method again on this. Will post pictures soon.

This week's quilt

Just finished this one on Monday. I'm having withdrawal symptoms. What's next? I don't know. I really want to try something more challenging but not sure what just yet. I found a quilt block I want to try that looks pretty easy. I've also become enamored by the bullseye quilts I've seen. So many choices!

I've been dying to do a baby quilt and just found out that one of my neighbors is a grandma of a new baby boy. Might just have to do one now!

Susan, did you notice I changed my header to say I quilt now? hahahaha Thanks for the idea.

Black and white quilt done

Woke up this morning determined to get this thing done. The red binding was just the right thing. I figure that it takes me 6+ hours to bind a lap sized quilt. I don't know what it is about binding a quilt that is so relaxing. I make sure the drink next to me is full, there's something interesting on TV or DVD, and I'm in my favorite recliner.

My friend, Pat, is coming over on Friday morning and we'll spend all day and night quilting. She's bringing a Halloween print charm square project and her machine and will be spending the night. Now that I've finished this quilt, I have to decide what project to work on while she's here. I have a choice of 4 different sets of fabrics to choose from but don't have a pattern in mind yet. I have been playing with my Like Sew quilt pattern generator to see if I can find something to try next.

What's black and white and red all over?

Okay, so it's not red all over but I think the red really adds a visual punch to it.

I'm not totally happy with the way the center looks in this photo. The pattern of the 4 patch looks heavy on the right but, unfortunately, this didn't show up until I was editing the photo. Too bad, because I'm not taking it apart at this juncture. I don't have a design wall but rather a design floor and was just happy to get this much done.

The 4" squares were some that I bought on eBay and the red was a fat quarter I've had in my little stash for a couple of months. The outer border was one of the fabrics I bought yesterday. I have 3 more black/white fabrics from which to choose to complete the quilt. I just might have to go to the store and get more of that red to bind the quilt. I haven't decided yet. I think that would look really good since the backing fabric is basic black.

New quilt finished this week

Pieced and basted on Tuesday then quilted and bound on Thursday. I made some coasters on Wednesday and just played around with little placemats made from quilt scraps. I had to finish yesterday because I knew I was going to meet my quilting friend for lunch today and wanted to show it to her finished. I'm getting better at stitching in the ditch but joked at lunch that it looks like I Q.U.I., or quilt under the influence, because sometimes I'm in the ditch and sometimes I'm not. I had planned to quilt-as-you-go with this one as well but messed up and had to do it the regular way, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

When Bernie came home from work this morning I showed it to him and he asked, "How many of these do you plan on making?" I said "millions" and he nixed that idea. I told him that there is always someone's birthday or baby or other event to give one as a gift. He hates that I've taken up quilting. I don't know exactly why. He calls me a traitor and sell out to my knitting and crochet. I still love those but this is something new that's not boring yet. I hope to get better and better. Yes, this can be quite expensive but so can knitting. I remember spending $100 on yarn for a shawl that has yet to be finished. So far, the most I've spent on a quilt is $25-$30. I'm not saying that I won't spend more. I'm absolutely sure I will!

Today after lunch, Pat and I went to Centennial Quilts, a shop next to the Greek restaurant that we like. They're closing their store and all fabric is 50% off! I bought some Moda fabric for a couple of quilts and still only spent $35! Pat spent close to $170! I told her that if Bernie ever found out I spent that much, he'd kill me. When I told him that, he actually said he wouldn't. I was shocked.

Perhaps he doesn't like that I'm quilting because my sewing area is upstairs in our loft (which gets excellent daylight) and he is crocheting alone downstairs. No wonder he has been spending more time in his office playing X Box 360. We used to crochet side-by-side or he'd watch TV while I crocheted or knitted silently next to him. I'll have to make an effort to spend more time with him downstairs. Too bad he was on duty yesterday when my ass was in my recliner for 6 hours while I sewed the binding down on my quilt!

For my kitchen table

I finished these placemats yesterday (I made 4 of them) and whipped up these coasters and trivet today. I just don't feel complete unless I sew something every day. I used to feel this way about knitting and crochet. I know I will get back to those but for now I just need to feel the instant gratification that sewing provides. However, the other night, I sat in bed and crocheted a coffee cup cozy because I just felt the need to touch yarn. Weird, huh?

Quilted coasters - photo tutorial

I know these aren't new, but they're new to me. I've never made them before although I've seen them around. I found the instructions here called "Penny's Easy Holiday Coasters" but there were no pictures to illustrate them. I made a few of these this morning and decided to put up pictures of my steps.

These should probably be made with 5" squares but I had a bunch of 4" squares left over from my last quilt to play with. You could also put a piece of batting between the bottom two full squares if you wanted to but I'd cut the batting 1/2" smaller to decrease the bulk you're sewing through. For the example at the bottom I used a 3 1/2" square of batting with my 4" squares. Wouldn't these be cool at a party at the base of wine glasses, especially if everyone's were unique? They'd be able to tell which glass was theirs, unless they were totally obtuse like some people I know. I'm already thinking Christmas gifts in stacks of 4-6. Hmmmmmm.

Another quilt done - Quilt as you go technique

This one is about as done as it will ever be. It is a different quilt-as-you-go technique in which each block has it's own built in sashing attached. It really looked simple to begin with and very straightforward. However, I found it to be a royal pain in the ass! I intended it to be a lap sized quilt but since I hated practically every moment working on it, I'm lucky it is as big as it is. It looks to be the right size for a crib. Of course, Sophie thinks every afghan, quilt, etc. is her personal doggie bed and just had to model it for you. It is made of recycled fabric for the backing/sashing and 4" squares purchased from eBay. The one thing about it that I'm happy about is the finished binding. It is part of the backing folded towards the front but I wanted to do something other than plain topstitching. I got really nice mitered corners and used a decorative leaf stitch all the way around. Other than that, I don't think I'll make another one like this again.

I'm so cozy!

I'm getting better at this! I whipped these 5 cozies up this morning after the little one went to school. I think I can squeeze 3 of them out of one fat quarter with careful maneuvering.

I am gifting one of them tomorrow when I meet a friend for lunch. Too bad I already told her about it. I should have just slipped it on her coffee cup. We're going to a Mediterranean restaurant that has the most amazing food. They won awards for their Aphrodite cheesecake that has a baklava crust. Yum! We always split a piece over a cup of Italian coffee after we've practically licked our lunch plates clean.

It was 122 degrees here in Las Vegas today. Don't believe the posted temps in the news reports. They take the temperature in the coolest part of the valley in the shade. Bernie called me from work this evening because they'd responded to 3 fires today and he thought he was all out of clean clothes. Poor guy! And here I am complaining about how hot it is in my car until the A/C kicks in! I can't even imagine how hot it is in all of his turnout gear inside a burning building. I'm just glad I'm married to a man who likes his house very cool inside, especially in the summer, and who doesn't mind that our power bill is $536.00 this month. I'm curious to know how typical our bill is compared to others here in Las Vegas.

Cozies, cozies, cozies on the brain!

Okay, so I was up until 2 a.m. this morning sewing coffee cozies. I've been wanting to make some but didn't want to knit or crochet them...I wanted to sew them! I looked around online and saw some that I liked. They look a lot easier to make than they actually are if you don't already have a pattern. Chris and I stopped at Starbucks on the way to pick up Anthony from his night class and that gave me the cup and cardboard sleeve from which to draft a pattern. Out came the fabric scraps and machine and several templates later, this is what I got.

They're all quilted in some way to keep the batting in place. The pink one has a seam in the back which I'm not at all happy with so I wanted to buy some Velcro and do a closure like that with the subsequent ones but, dear friends, it's 118 freaking degrees outside today and I don't want to go to the store for some. Besides, I needed it at 1 a.m. After I woke up this morning I was still obsessing about them and decided to try a buttonhole closure. Only problem is that I've never done a proper buttonhole before. Undaunted, I got out the manual and figured it out. The green one is the first to get a button, then the golden yellow one told me it wanted not one, but two buttons, then finally I made the black one. Can I just tell you that I also sewed the buttons on by machine? Yep, somebody just try and stop me now!

The last two pictures are just to show that these are really good for cold drinks too so you don't have to worry about the condensation on the outside of the glass! Off to enjoy my iced tea now!

Happy 4th of July!