Wednesday, January 26, 2011

WIP Wednesday 1.25.11

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I figured it was a good idea not to post because all I want to do is whine about what a pain moving is!

My biggest WIP is to get this room packed up today. The move is Friday so it all needs to get put in boxes. 

I did manage to finish my postage stamp quilt for Rachel's Quilt A Long. I'm pretty happy with it, but will say that if I had a design wall I would have done it differently. I do love this fabric SO much. I'm excited that the yardage is finally hitting stores. Now I just have to decide on backing and binding fabric for this one.

I'm working on ideas for my Make Mine Modern Swap partner. I'm thinking some Parisville Cameos are going to be right up her alley.

I'm also still working on my hexagons for the Spice Up The Kitchen Swap. I'm glad I have some hand sewing to do because I can keep this out to work on when everything else gets packed. That way I can at least feel productive!

My curtain fabrics still sit untouched. So does my daughters quilt. 

I got accepted to a new group of the do. Good Stitches Charity Bee. I'm excited to be a part of this group and just hope I can get my machine unpacked in time for it's start in February! 

I must end this list here because my eye is starting to twitch. I know I have some other projects in process, but I can't even think about it now! Hopefully I'll have some more fun stuff to post about next week. But for now it will be quiet on this blog.

Oh - I did have a question this week inspired by the postage stamp quilt a long. Do you pin as you sew?  I would normally pin something as small as this postage stamp quilt, but quickly found that if I wanted to get this done fast I needed to skip it. And seeing Rachel (the host) mention that she NEVER pins, made me feel better about not pinning. Just don't look too closely at my seams. ha ha!  How about you - are you a pinner?


Friday, January 21, 2011

A convert

Having never seen a Heather Ross print in person I was always appreciative of it, but didn't understand why everyone was so wild about it.

I just got my hands on some for a swap project and I finally get it. It's amazing! If you haven't gotten to see this stuff in person - you must! I'm a totally Heather Ross fan now.

that is it.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

WIP 1.19.11

Last night was the PMQG meeting and we got our next challenge.... well actually I picked the challenge!  A contest was held for our group and everyone was supposed to submit an idea for a challenge. My idea was a monochromatic quilt. A few days later The Modern Quilt Guild announced that as their challenge too so I thought for sure I wouldn't win. But, it seems to have worked in my favor! 

My prize? This sweet little Hello Betty honeybun! *squee**

Oh and I have to coordinate the challenge too. Guess I better start ironing out the details.

On to the works in progress....

I finally took my daughters quilt to the new (empty) house so I could lay it out for sewing. It's missing all the white that goes in between those pieces, but I didn't have the patience to do that at the time. Hopefully I don't regret that decision when I try to put it together! I need that design wall I was asking you all about last week.


The PS I Quilt Postage Stamp quilt is coming along. My next step is to piece these 2.5 inch strips into blocks. I need to do a little bit of math and planning if I want to keep my rainbow effect. I'm kinda wishing I had just gone scrappy!
  
I'm putting together hexagons for my Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap partner. I'm not sure how much I can say about what I'm doing with these and how much is supposed to be a surprise. But these have been fun to put together. I'm still working on the layout.

I should be getting my swap partner for the Make Mine Modern Swap anytime now. This is the mosaic I put together for my partner. I'm excited to start coming up with more ideas for my partner!


I got this fabric for some bathroom curtains. The plan has been derailed though. I wanted to make a roman shade, but found out that you need to use a wood board to mount it in the window. I can't do that because if I remove the curtain rods there will be holes and I have no idea what colors they painted the walls.  So I'm on to plan two which is basic curtains.  I just need to get back to the house for new measurements.

And no, I haven't even ordered the fabric for the windows that I did the poll on. Things are starting to catch up to me and I'm feeling overwhelmed!

The move is tentatively scheduled for next week. I'm so ready. I just want to get this over with! I've almost finished painting the master bedroom and that should be the end of the work until we are in.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Spicing up the Kitchen Swap

One of my hopes for this year was to do some Flickr swaps. The first one I've joined is the Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap. I'm really excited about this one - as the name says, we'll be making something for our partner for their kitchen. It's a blind swap so I don't know who's making something for me. I've put together this inspiration mosaic for my them:
Yes partner, my mosaic is all over the place. That's because I love everything I've been seeing in these mosaics. I haven't settled on a color scheme yet for the kitchen, but I really seem to be gravitating towards bright yellow, orange and red. I really love hexagons, string piecing and stripes. I can definitely use an apron, hotpads, napkins or towels (i love that new tutorial for the ones that tie on to the stove!). Just have fun with it! I will love and use anything.


Now I'm off to stalk my own partner...

Friday, January 14, 2011

A neat little find

I did a quick online search of my area to see if I could find any good 2nd hand furniture stores around. I'm looking to find some unique pieces and maybe even save a few bucks right?  I found the cutest little store. Actually, I can't say I found it today because I used to live near this store, but never went in because I was in an apartment!  It's call the Shabby Attic and if you are nearby it's totally worth a look.


I went in there with the hopes of getting this beautiful swirly hearts headboard for my daughters room. But I was too late! It already had a sold tag on it!  I was so bummed. But the store was so great I wasn't totally sad.  There were lots of great finds. I need to do some measurements of my rooms and come back with a measuring tape. But I didn't leave empty handed!



 
I walked out with this mirror (which is only dirty with my grubby excited fingerprints!).  I don't know where it's going yet, but I loved it so much I couldn't leave it. I'm thinking the powder room and maybe a pattern on the walls or fabric to match.

The only problem with the store is that they've done all the restoring already. So if you are looking for your own project this isn't the place for you. But, if you want something unique, check it out. And if anyone local is reading and knows a good 2nd hand store to check out, let me know!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Fighting with the curtains

These babies arrived in my mail yesterday. Some small chunks of fabrics that I'm considering for my curtains.
I quickly took them over to the house to hang them and see what they looked like. And I managed to do this to myself.  It doesn't look like much, but it HURTS!  And because it's in the crack there, I keep popping it open just using my hand.

Really, home repair is not my forte. I'm very accident prone and tend to do things in a rush. To give you the short story, the blinds fell off as I was laying the fabric on top of the current curtains (they must have been hung by a thread).  As I was going to snap them back in, they slide off and I wacked the holder directly. Slick, no? To my credit I was able to get the blinds hung anyway despite the bleeding. ;)


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

WIP Wednesday 1.12.11

I may have signed myself up for too much this year! The swaps I am part of are about to start so I'm trying to get other things done to make room for them. I am having fun with it though and really, I work best "under pressure".  Ha ha! So here's what I'm up to this week.
My king size quilt has been fully pieced and I just took it to UPS to send to the quilter yesterday. Oh it makes me so nervous to send these things! Thank goodness for package tracking!

Work as begun on the Postage Stamp Quilt-a-long at PS I Quilt.  I'm using Central Park and Kona White. Right now I'm feeling a little like a sweat shop worker piecing all these strips! I do love this line a lot. I liked it enough to buy a jelly roll obviously, but after unrolling it - I really love every fabric in it. And I love that there are enough color variations to do a sort of rainbow effect on this quilt.


I've got all my fabrics picked out for the Sliced Coin Quilt-a-long with Don't Call Me Betsy. This is almost an all stash quilt - which of course I'm trying to do more of this year. I got a stack of these yellow and black prints from a fat quarter swap and have since grew the collection since it's hard to mix with other prints (at least I haven't seen it).   I don't usually pre-wash my fabrics, but I'm going to do these because of the dark colors and the white solid. I wouldn't want this to run after being done.

This poor quilt still sits in the box. It may have to wait until we move. I don't have any place to lay it out at the moment. The floors are covered in boxes. Oh and pillows since my daughter has decided to make a fort!

So that brings me to my curiosity question of the week. Tell me about your design wall.  I keep seeing fun design walls on blog-land and I'm totally jealous. Where is yours (where did you find a wall without furniture or windows!)? Is up all the time or removable? How did you make it? If you've blogged about it - post a link, I'd love to read it.

Monday, January 10, 2011

A traditional pillow?


When I took my first quilting class it was a sampler class and we made a lot of traditional blocks. I was fascinated by this one block - the Sunrise Star - and I wanted to see what it looked like in some contemporary fabrics.  So here's my little Sunrise Star pillow in Parisville fabric. I am still unsure about the green border, but I've backed my new quilt in that fabric so I think it will work well once it's sitting on the bed and I tend to fold over the top so the backing shows.
Here's a little closer view so you can see the little mice scampering around the center!

I backed it with Kona ash (which looks really great with this colorway incidentally) and added a little of the purple eye drops.

So what do you all think? Modern? Traditional?  Do you like? Let me know if anyone is interested in a tutorial. I took photos but I haven't edited them.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The house adventures begin

The other day I mentioned carpet shampooing and I know you all are just holding your breath waiting to hear how it turned out.  So it thought I'd share some pictures as I go through my house adventures. You can let me know if I'm boring you to tears.

The only room in the house that has carpet is the great room. It had a giant area rug in the center and when we pulled it up this is what we found.
We had no idea how much discoloration had occurred around the rug.

It's hard to capture in pictures. Especially in such a large room.
At first I wasn't worried, I thought I would just get a new rug the same size to cover it up. But I come to find out they don't make rugs this big. The looms(?) don't come wide enough. I have no idea where these guys got this rug from!  To have one specially made would cost so much we might as well just re-carpet the place. So now I'm feeling pressure to make my steam cleaning work.
I know someone in the carpet business and they recommended Capture cleaner instead of the stuff they give you with the rental. After this, I would totally recommend it too! Here are my results.
There is still a bit of a line on this side, but no where near as bad as it was. I think the dog lived on that side of the room because it was worse for the wear over there. But we can use a new rug to cover it there.
But this side the line is almost non-existent! Wohoo!  And wine stains came up like nothing. So excited.


Now I know ya'll are looking at those windows and you want a closer look at that fabric right?
Oh yeah! There are 5 windows in this room with this fabulous fabric!  /end scarcasm/

I apologize if this is your taste, but it is SO not mine.  What's funny is that when I was looking at curtains in the department store, I think I saw this exact window treatment still for sale!  I'm sure it was put in this house circa 1990.
So time for an update and I'd love your help. I picked up a couple of patterns that I'm considering.
From McCall's 6299 I'm considering the red one:
The bird one (without the birds, just with patterned fabric)
Or from McCalls 5872 I'm considering the reddish swaggy one.

Or should I just do a simple gathered straight curtain?   What do you think?

I need to cover the shades that are under those curtains, and I don't want long drapes. All fabrics are still TBD.  I'm considering some of the new Ty Pennington line, Vicki Payne, and maybe even Anna Marie Horner. But I feel like I should narrow the style down first.

I'm going to attempt to put a poll on here, feel free to leave comments if it doesn't work (or even if it does!). And if you have any great curtains you'd like to share, link me to your photos. I'd love to see them!



Wednesday, January 5, 2011

WIP Wednesday 2011 version

The fabric for my daughters quilt has been cut up. All except for the border to make it bigger. I'm glad I haven't cut that because now the size of her big girl bed is under debate. Anyone have a toddler? What size bed did you start them out on? We have a full size bed already and are debating if that's going to be too big and freak her out.
Anyway - the core of the quilt will be big enough for a twin if I leave the border off. So I'm not sweating that the fabric is cut. I've been keeping it in a nice big shirt box so it doesn't get shuffled with all the boxes being packed for the move in progress.
I thought it was pretty clever.

I saw these cute little owl pincushions in the current issue of International Quilt Festival Scene and decided to make them. I wasn't thinking. I got the bodies made and guess where they are now?
That's right, the two year old LOVES them. She's sleeping with them, dragging them around the house, you name it.  The one thing she doesn't do is eat with them because then they would "get all yucky". Smart kid.
So, even if I finish that project I can't use them as pin cushions.
My Parisville has been cut and I'm starting to assemble it.
This is one gigantic quilt! I decided to go with Elizabeth's 12+2=Q quilt. It's meant to be queen, but I upsized it to king. More on that later, I should have it done this week.

So my question this week is about cleaning. Since I spent all day yesterday cleaning the new house (still not sure about the carpet since it was wet when I left) I'm curious about everyone's cleaning habits. How do you control your threads? I have threads from my fabrics all over the place. They are like a little army spreading out to conquer my house! Its worse now that I work on hardwood floor and the carpet doesn't catch them. Is this just me? What's the status at your place? Any tips on controlling the thread monsters?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Check me out!

My day today was looking oh so boring. I have big plans to shampoo the great room carpet in the new house (which is going to be no small feat). 
Then I heard from AnneMarie at Gen X Quilters and found out that she's featuring my Argyle Pillow tutorial today! Woot woot! I'm way more excited than I should be. Go check it out. And become a follower of Gen X Quilters while you are there.
Now let's just hope my day keeps getting better and the wine stains come out of the cream carpet....

Monday, January 3, 2011

Unexpected finish

Last night I finished a quilt that had dropped off my radar. I pieced this quilt in May of last year using scraps from my very first quilt. This was the 3rd quilt I had made with these fabrics and I was sick of looking at them. They still aren't my favorite. What can I say, it was my first quilt!?
Pat Sloan was doing a New Year's Eve UFO Busting party and I got inspired to dust this one off and finish it. After all, it was pieced and fully basted just waiting to be quilted. And I have a baby shower this weekend for a woman having a girl so it was good timing. 
Sorry these photos aren't the greatest. It's actually sunny out, but not enough that the indoor are bright enough for good pictures.
I'm so glad I did this. I encourage you to finish any unfinished quilts you have laying around. This used to stress me out every time I moved it to get to something else. Now it is done and ready to be gifted! Wohoo! I have no more UFO's! How about you?
 
Some quilt stats:
Pattern: Baby Crackers by Alex Anderson
Fabrics: no idea!
Measurement: 38"x38"
Timeframe: 5/10 - 1/11 (yikes!)

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