Quilting Class Output

Remember that quilting class I said I was going to take?  I really did take it.  And it was totally fun.  A lot of my reason for going was to figure out all the stuff I had been doing wrong.  Just like when I learned that I was so, so not purling correctly a full half sweater in.That sweater has since been sacrificed to the frog and no photographic proof remains that it ever was.  I am very happy to report that quilting class didn’t unearth any similar face-palm lessons.  Most of what I had been doing, I had been doing correctly or close enough.  The biggest things I took away from it were

1. Keep a hot iron close.  Really saves a bunch of time and helps you not give into the laziness of just not ironing
2. Measure all the damn time.  This one was a biggie.  We made 9 square blocks.  Measured each piece, measured each block, measured each row, etc. I need to be better about this
3. A 12 1/2 inch square ruler is kind of essential.  See measuring above.  That thing makes it far less painful.
4. It’s totally ok if at the end of attaching your binding, you finish with a flat seam for the two ends instead of a bias one. Quilting police did not storm the building.  It was like they don’t even exist.
5. Binding stitch. Most things I found I had been doing mostly right except this.  I have been hand sewing the binding wrong on every quilt I have made, making my life more difficult and my fingers more… perforated in the process. This is the way to do it.

I ended up with a nice little quilt made out of a things I already had in my stash. One of my rules of class taking is that I shouldn’t buy materials if I already have them.  This is for practice not for the family heirloom (right, like my son is going to want to keep any of this.  He’ll likely go to college with the 2 yards of star wars fleece currently on his bed that I picked up for 40% off at Joann’s).

I am very lucky to work with humans. Humans who have babies.  Humans who have babies always need blankets, even little wee ones.  Aaron from two desks over was very happy to accept my homework for his new Little J.  I hope Little J gnaws on that new-stitch-learning binding to his hearts content.

Full quilt taped to the wall

9 block detail

back side with cool ghost print

 

Thanks A Verb for Keeping Warm for the great class.  I’ll be back.

 

Spring in January

Hey, remember when I didn’t post for like 3 months over the biggest crafting time of year?  Me neither.  Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.  Great.

In other news of inactivity and procrastination… 10 bajillion years ago I started a quilt as part of the Road To Spring quilt-along. I got as far as this picture:

That is the last I ever posted to the group.

I did actually finish the quilt top.  I learned a lot about what not to do. My fabrics were wrong as was a lot of my technique. The Road to Spring quilt called for free motion quilting but I knew I wasn’t up to that.  So the quilt top just sat.  After my quilting class – and really learning how to do the quilting part and binding – I wanted to practice those skills.  And there was my old quilt top just waiting

I found some nice backing fabric at the local Cat’s Pajamas sale and used scraps from the front to get the width right.

I also made the binding out of a yellow solid I have had around for a while.  I haven’t measured it yet but it’s definitely a throw/baby blanket type size.  Now just to figure out who to give it to…

Instagram whatnot

I wouldn’t say that I have switched from Hipstamatic to Instagram so much as I have learned to love both.  The social part of Instagram isn’t all that interesting to me and, yes, it does bug the crap out of me that I have to upload to Instagram to have an image save to my local device.  This is lame. Fix it, Instagram.  But I do like that I can choose my filters after the picture has been taken… setting up Hipstamatic is also a pain. And that Instragram doesn’t do weird croping… so what you see in the view finder is what you get in a picture.  That Hipstamatic goes for some old style ‘framing’ is lame.  You can set it up to be precise but it doesn’t come that way out of the box.  Whatever, Hipstamatic.  Regardless, I do love that my otherwise crappy pictures are looking a whole lot better these days.  They even make my crafting craftier.

Nick Fury approves these quilt blocks

 

Shiny!

 

Hay Maze Adventurer

 

If you’d like to follow me, I’m ‘kaelaangelica’

 

Holiday Bash Week One – Release the Kraken

Olivia Jane is hosting a Holiday Craft Bash right here. I’m not sure I will make every week.  I know she is doing a tree skirt week and since we rarely get a tree I don’t have much use for a tree skirt. But week 1 was stockings, and man, I love stockings. My plan is to make three new ones based on the young man’s current fascination but I wanted to get at least one done in time for the Holiday Bash.  I chose to finish the Kraken because 1) Krakens are awesome 2) He’s seriously cute 3) It’s the young man’s favorite.  Box Jellyfish isn’t far behind so I’ll post that one as soon as I finish it (probably tomorrow).  I based my project on Jessica’s from A Little Gray.  I used a very light coating of fabric glue to place my cut outs before machine appliqué-ing them down. Krakens are super curvy so I messed up a couple of times.  No biggie, love him anyway

should I add a little boat here?

Surprising Art

Guess what we found at the Dallas Arboretum?

Pumpkins and houses.  Pumpkin houses!

The pumpkin village is put together each year for October.  They make the walls of the little houses out of pumpkins – with cool little pumpkins inside to find, too.

 

There was also a Chihuly exhibit going on.  The large glass sculptures were interspersed throughout the grounds.  Our day was gray but I’d imagine they are pretty spectacular in the sun.  We found them extremely cool in the fog.

 

Presents! For ME!

Yesterday the mail carrier decided she loved me and brought me presents

Craft Coffee and a Alice Supply Co. toolbox. I had been eyeing the toolbox ever since I saw it in a Martha Stewart article on how to organize your sewing supplies.  But honestly, at $82 buckarros it was a bit outside of my “isn’t that cute” range.  My Ikea box storage box was fine if not quite as sturdy or pretty.  Then, the shopping fairies took pity on me, and put my toolbox on Fab where I seem to have no will power at all.  And it was half price!  $40 of cuteness? DONE.

Oh, it is so very awesome.  19″ metal toolbox with a enough heft to it that you can tell it will last.  A plastic (boo) tray inside to separate the compartments.

I wasted no time.

Sewing stuff is now nicely put away with room to spare.

Half-way there

Years ago I made some pillow covers for some great big Ikea floor pillows. They were probably one of the first thing I ever sewed on my sewing machine.

Considering how badly sewn they were, it’s rather surprising they lasted so long.  But one kid later, the pillows are done for.

This time, the plan is to make the cases out of a basic cotton canvas and decorate with my favorite freezer paper stenciling technique.  The boy helped decide on the designs.  He clearly has a bit of Tiny Art Director in him. Many, many designs were rejected.  I did a really cute whale that was barely even considered.  So far we have finished two.  This time I have made them removable since washable is definitely a requirement for anything in this house.

The fronts:

One dinosaur

and one orca

and even nice little backs