Monday, December 31, 2012

Landon's Quilt

 I was thrilled with how fast my second Boy Quilt went together.  Getting 80 squares prepped for 4 quilts was the hard part.  Once I got them all arranged and assembled, all that's left is to put borders on them and finish them!
 I finished off the quilting and binding in about 3 hours this weekend.  I had a blast doing it.  I just winged my design, and it came together quite nicely!
 I did zigzags on the border, and I bound the edges in blue flame cotton, one of my favourites.  I was even wearing my matching pants that day!
 I chose a simple quilting design of just sewing lines around and around and around, and I got them lined up with the squares, and it ended up fitting perfectly once I got to the middle!
 My friend Nina and her son Landon came for a visit on Sunday, and I made sure to wrap his quilt in paper so he could rip it to shreds.  He didn't disappoint!
 I had fun watching him explore his quilt, and also chase our cat all over the living room.  Kids are so much fun!  He's about a year and 8 months old.
 I will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.  :)

Connor's Quilt

Connor's quilt, otherwise known as Boy Quilt #1, was finished around the end of October or beginning of November.  
 I was thrilled to be able to use my new industrial Singer, which I bought from one of our upholstery customers.  It's from the 70's, and it's in absolute mint condition.  We got it serviced, and it runs like a dream.  Now I have an industrial sewing machine at home and at mom & dad's.  Once you go industrial, you get rather spoiled!
 I think finishing this first quilt was the wall I was beating my head against.  Once I finally finished it, my sewing mojo came back in droves!
 I even used some new fabric I bought on our 2-weekend shop hop.  I bound the quilt in the lime green stripe.
 I was so happy to wrap this one up!  My second one whipped together in record time, and now I'm just itching to get more done!
Connor and his family finally came to visit on Sunday, so I got to give him his quilt and take some pictures!

It's just big enough for the whole family.  Aw...

Later that night, I was pleased to find these 2 adorable photos on Facebook.  This is the best part of sewing for others.  :)

Sewing Night - Nov 21, 2012

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and will have a fantastic New Year's Eve!  I haven't posted in a while because Blogger told me I outgrew my data, and I didn't know what to do about it.  So, I'm trying it again, and lo and behold, it's working!  

So, the last Sewing Night when I took pictures, Benita and I worked on our own projects, and we got lots accomplished.  I got the sashing and borders sewn onto my second Boy Quilt.
I'm quite proud of it, as you can see!
 Benita sewed some big snaps over the worn-out velcro patches on her chicken suit.  Of course, I couldn't watch her work on that bright yellow suit all night without making her model it for me!  She more than happily obliged me.  :D

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Quilting Shop Hop - Oct 15 & 21, 2012

Corrin and I went on a bus trip for the first Saturday of the Shop Hop event for our local area.  There were 38 of us on the bus, and we visited 5 stores, mostly in far-away towns.
 We had an absolute blast.  Going on the bus was an adventure.  I had never been on a shop hop bus before.  At every store we visited, we brought our own crazy line-ups.  We learned to help each other out throughout the day.
 Corrin bought this kit in September at the Creative Stitches show, and she found it at one of the stores and we had to get a picture of it.
 We came across the biggest long-arm quilting machine I've ever seen!  I think this one can even handle  king size quilts!
 At the end of our day, we stopped for a supper break.  Here is approximately one-third of our bus group.
 And here is my stash from that day:

Charlie Brown fabric.
 Charlie Brown Christmas fabric, with the quilt I plan to make it into.  (Next year)
 One of our best finds at one of the stores was 3 boxes of quilting magazines that were all free!  We rifled through a bunch of them, and came home with a decent pile.  This was in one of the Christmas issues.
 I stocked up on some Dr Seuss fat quarters.  Someday, I'm going to do my nursery in Dr Seuss theme, so I'm collecting fabrics now.
 I also bought some "girl" fabrics in fat quarters.  I already have quite a few girl fabrics in my stash, but I plan on making 5 girl quilts, and will be making 120 squares, so I could use a few new ones.  Besides, fat quarters are easier to cut than scraps.  I tried to stay away from pink prints, because I have a few in my stash already.
 I couldn't resist this adorable animal print.  This will go in the "kid" stash for later.  :)
 I bought 2 metres of this gorgeous fabric.  I intend to use this for backing for one or two of the girl quilts.  It's so pretty.
 I came across these in the sale section.  I swear, they're both way funkier in real life.  So bright!  The print will be borders for one girl quilt, and the red will be the matching binding.  Both fabrics will also work their way into the squares.  
 Another fat quarter, and variegated thread.  The first two are neon, and the third one is Christmas colours.  I can't wait to see what these look like!  They always look better sewn than they do on the spool.
 My pattern purchase of the day.  I love funky, asymmetrical, eye-boggling quilts.  This one will be perfect for one of my jelly rolls I bought at the Creative Stiches show.  Also, a spool of lime green thread, because, why not?!
 Lime green fabric found on sale.  I have already used this on boy quilt #1 for the binding.  Yay, me for actually using something already!  Stay tuned for the epic conclusion of boy quilt #1.  It's been a long time coming.
 On our second weekend, we decided that the two of us would hit up the remaining 5 stores on our own.  I think this was the funnest of the 2 days, although we had a blast on both.

Here follows my second stash:

First thing in the morning, I discovered my favourite of the 10 stores.  Quilting from the Heart in Camrose, Alberta.  Awesome!  I found lots of goodies there.  Some of it I can't show you, as they're going into gifts.  This is the funkiest jelly roll I've seen yet.  It will be transformed into something awesome in 2013.  The fat quarter is part of the set.  I love plaid.
 Here are the girl quilts from the day.  These are from 4 different stores.  I love them all!
 More Dr Seuss finds.  These are both flannel remnants.
 Another remnant.  We saw so many amazing lines of Halloween fabric, but this was the coolest.  I found this remnant of the border print that shows off the awesomeness.  I love it!
 Last but not least, this is a funny Santa panel.  This has endless possibilities.  Each of these pictures can be showcased in their own project.  
We finished off the day with supper, featuring a towering onion ring!  We had such a blast.
Thanks, love!  I can't wait to transform all these goodies into projects during our Sewing Nights!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Sewing Nights, Week Two & Three

The Giant Sewing Room is very slowly evolving, one week at a time.  This is what it looked like after the first week, and we've tweaked a couple things since then.
Corrin absolutely loves Sewing Nights.  The first week, she cut out her first bag.  The second week, she finished her first bag.  The third week, she cut out 3 more bags and started sewing them together!  What a go-getter!  
Rayona is one of our beginners.  Unfortunately, we're not terribly organized with pre-planned projects for the beginners, but as long as there are a couple of pros on hand, they're welcome to bring whatever they want, and we'll help them along.  I knew it might be a bit quiet for a while, so I brought my wedding photo book for her to look at.  There were 3 of us sewing around the same table, and Rayona was playing musical chairs and stealing the chair of whoever got up to iron, or cut.  But really, sewing nights are about spending time together first, and getting sewing done second.  We definitely get lots of visiting done!
I managed to mix up the squares for boy quilt #1, and I got all the squares sewn together.
Here is a sneak peek, with one strip of the border fabric.  The next 3 will go very fast.  Assembling and layering quilts is the easy part.  The time-consuming part is cutting and making the squares.  Especially when you think big like me and have to make 80 squares for 4 quilts!  But I'm having a blast, and I can't wait to finish these off and start on the girl quilts!
While I was picking out penguin quilt colours, and Rayona and Avril both got distracted helping me, Corrin kept working, head down, until she finished her first bag!  Look at the clock on the wall.  It's 10:15 pm.  Past my bedtime!  We have way too much fun.
This is the lining of the bag.  Totally reversible.  It looks awesome!  I love it, Corrin, and I am so proud of you!  Can you teach me your work ethic?  
On week three, I brought a new addition to the Giant Basement Sewing Room.  One of our upholstery customers is getting her sofa recovered, and she just happened to have this immaculate industrial Singer lying around, needing a good home.
We took it in, got it serviced, and are trading it with her towards the cost of her sofa upholstery.  In turn, I'm going to buy it from the upholstery shop, one little paycheque at a time.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Immaculate, I tell you.  Not a scratch.
I tried it out by sewing my borders to my quilt.  I love it!  I swear, once you go industrial, you can't go back.  The foot pedal has its own personality, as every industrial does, but they all sew so fast, so straight, so strong.  I am in love.  We have the best customers.  
Here is Corrin, making amazing progress on her bags.  Way to go, girl!  And Avril decided to have some pity on one of mom's old machines, which has probably never been serviced.  She cleaned out the fluff and tried to get her to shape up.  Remind me to pay you for your services!  You spent a good hour sweet-talking that poor thing, and I think she listened!
After a week off, I can't wait to do it again and see what we all can accomplish!  I am so thankful for my sewing buddies.  :)