Monday 26 January 2015

First finished quilt of the YEAR!

26 days in, and finally a finish!! Yay.

Been an interesting start to the year.  My 5 year old got quite sick, and in the 1st 24 hours of him being ill, he vomited 14 times.  I have done more laundry this month than ever.  I am a bit OCD, and try not to buy paper-towel (except for crayoning, with embroidery), so clean up involved endless towels.  Towels that got washed, and used again multiple times that day.  Never ending laundry. 

Between that, and the ability to start and work on a variety of projects at once, I am glad to finally have one done! 

This is a wedding dress quilt, that I was contracted to make.

:)
The whole quilt, in colour ;)

The dress was a halter top.  This is the strap and the two buttons from the strap.  The buttons are functional.  Also in the picture is some of the layers of the top of the quilt, as well as a bit of the bodice (the beaded bit in the bottom)

A bit of the bodice.  This is tacked down by hand.

Some of the buttons from the back of the bodice.  These I hand attached, and none functional, as they were none functional on the actual dress as well.

More of the bodice.

The top shows some of the strap from the halter.  The bottom is some of the layers of the dress.  There are a number of these blocks in the quilt, some of them are completely tacked down, and some are left flowing, to keep with the original dress.

Friday 9 January 2015

So....

9 days into the New Year, and I am surrounded by fabric.  And books (my other hobby haha).

I am on the last kit of placemats (tops only)  I have over 1/2 dozen sets of placemats to baste and quilt now... trying not to run out and by batting for them, as I know when I get to quilting a quilt, I will have "scraps" and that they are usually a great size for placemats...  also at the sheer number of placemats that will be in my house, I will likely never have to make or buy another placemat again.  Ever.  So then I will have to find another use for my scraps... so might as well use them for this while I can ;)

In other news, I've been reading like crazy.  5 books since Jan 1st, so not to shabby.  Goal this year is 60 books total.
I should mention that I've been off classes since the beginning of December, which likely has something to do with the number of books and amount of sewing I have been doing...  however classes start again on Monday, so I am sure that the rate of sewing and reading will diminish as the studying and assignments go up.  ;)  3 courses this semester, not the 4 I did last semester... then 2 over the summer.  Which will put me 1/2 way through the time allotted, and 1/2 way through the program course requirements too :) so win win.

Hopefully I'll get some projects finished soon, and upload some pics.  I am working like mad on a wedding dress quilt.. lots of handwork.  But it should be done within the week... then I'll post a post on it... that will be released after the reciepient gets the quilt.

For now, I best get back to the child that just got home from school.... :)

Sunday 4 January 2015

Two by Two.

This is a commissioned quilt I did.  I don't have the exact measurements anymore.
And I was asked to take it up to, and include the machine part of the binding, but the gifter wanted to hand do the back part of the binding herself.
This was commissioned as a Christmas gift.

The quilting is done.  It was a different quilting pattern I did (and used well over two rolls of masking tape marking it), but it was fun, and I was happy with the overall effect... even if it was a pain in the rear end.  I will probably do it again!

Corner showing some quilting.
 
The very center of the quilt. showing quilting.
 
The back.
 
The finished product.   The binding is machined on, but not turned over, as I was to leave it at this point.
 
 
 

Friday 2 January 2015

Disney Memory quilt

Done for a customer... to remember family trips together!!!

Finished in October, but couldn't post pictures till now...

And the pictures are out of order... but I'm not fighting them right now...
Quilt all done.

Back of the quilt, showing the quilting (there was no batting so I could quilt it more loosely)

background and stabilizer cut and ready for use

the rows being put together

The special one I appliqued, as the tshirt was too small otherwise without building it up.
 
The t-shirts.... moments before they were no longer whole


The top all done.

The shirts all cut up and waiting to be stitched!

Thursday 1 January 2015

This Years Quilt Goals

While I fully intend on doing much more than this, in the next 12 months, I want to make sure to complete the following:

1. Finish quilting (and binding) my Downton Abbey quilt!
2. Quilt (and bind) my double wedding ring wholecloth!!
3. Hand complete at least half of the top for the RED Dear Jane
4. Hand complete the top for the Crayon Box quilt from Jinney Beyer

:) and of course lots of machine work, some embroidery, etc etc!!!