Cut-N-Shoot Quilting Diva

New Blog Location

2009-12-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I am moving my blog to my own website! Exciting times!! Please go here: Cut-N-Shoot to see the new blog. I'm in the process of setting up an RSS feed for anyone wanting to follow. I hope to be able to add lots o' new stuff to the new blog as well.

See ya there!
Tammy

Christmas Present

2009-12-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

I had an idea for a Christmas present, but I'm pushing it to the last minute! What was the idea? I can't tell you Not yet. You'll see the finished product tomorrow, if I can get it done by then.

I cut most of my strips today. First of all, I just have to say that I absolutely love my project ruler. This thing is excellent. You can cut strips in 1, 2, 3 inch increments (what ever size you prefer) without moving your ruler! The slits in the ruler allow you to cut the strips without having to reposition the ruler.

Yesterday I hemmed my mother-in-law's Snuggie for her. So, I decided to repurpose her left overs!

I took the left over snuggie and cut them into 1x7" pieces. This is what I'll use as my batting. Now, why I thought it was a good idea to have 1 inch strips...I'm not quite sure yet! This will probably make me have to get new glasses!

I used some fabric I had in my collection. They were the marble collection that I was having a hard time figuring out what to use it for. I absolutely love these colors and the dots! The picture somewhat distorts the colors of the fabric. These are somewhat dark and earthy. LOVE THEM!

I ran into one problem. I didn't have enough fabric strips to complete this little project. So, I need to cut another 30 strips. I also didn't have any black thread; therefore, I couldn't get any sewing done today. :( I found a brick red to go with the dark green, burnt orange, and brown. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have these all put together and completed! I can't wait to see how it ends up!

The Quilt and a Wallhanging

2009-12-10T05:09:00.000-08:00

This was a fused piece that I ended up putting in a frame and hanging it in my office. I loved how the flower looked with the different fabrics. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close enough attention to know when I'd two of the same petal fabrics together, but that's alright I still like it. The bee is made out of fuzzy fabric, so I really like him too! This was a great deal of fun to do and eventually I'm going to do another version and make it part of a Spring quilt.

I came across this story as I searched the Internet and couldn't pass it up. So, I'm posting it here for others to enjoy as I have. I also have an idea for a quilt based on this. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off. If I can, I'll post it on here!

As I faced my Maker at the last Judgement, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives, like the squares of a quilt, in many piles. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I had endured, which were the largest holes of all.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other quilts were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their quilts. So filled their lives had been.

My angel looked at me and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been.

I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes wide. Then I looked upon the quilt before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you."

May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through.

~ Author Unknown

Park City Girl's Scrapbox Charity Giveaway

2009-12-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for giveaways and I'll usually post for any I like. However, I am in LOVE with this one! I'm drooling so much it's hard to type on the keyboard!

Ok, so what is it? It's a desk made for scrapbooking but can be used for any other craft as well. I'm not a scrapbooker but I could very easily make this desk at home in my sewing room!

I learned about this from Amy's Blog. The rules are there. Basically you can be entered into the drawing by posting about it on your blog, following her on twitter, tweeting about it, becoming a fan of The Original Scrapbox on Facebook. So, check it out and put your name in the hat!! Why not?! Ok, now I'm off to get a paper towel to clean up my keyboard!

Have a great day y'all!

PS...they will also be giving a desk away to the charity of your choice! How sweet is that?!

Time to Set Some Goals

2009-12-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I've been gone most of the month of November. I participated in Nanowrimo where you write a novel (or 50,000 words) in a month's time. So, most of November was dedicated to working on my novel "Normal's Not So Bad". I FINISHED it!!!! I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but I did. I read part of it again and realized, it's really a rather bad story...but, the point of it was to set a goal I thought would be out of reach and reach it!

Since I was spending most of November writing, my sewing has really fallen behind. I haven't added even one more stitch to Zoey's baby quilt. It's time to get back on the horse and get some of these projects completed.

At work several girls and I have started our weight loss journey. I've been setting short term and long term goals for that, so I figured while I'm working on goals I may as well write some quilting goals as well!

Here we go:
1) Finish Alaina/Zoey's Quilt
2) Start the Magic Mini's BOM quilt
3) Make a Grids and Grommets purse
4) Put up my design wall
5) Put Mom and Dad's going away quilt on said design wall (they've been gone for a year!)
6) Save up money to buy a better sewing machine than my "Jeans Machine"
7) Create an impromptu quilt using scraps!

Now, I don't necessarily have a solid timeline for this but I'm going say within 6 months to have all but goal 6 done. It may take me a year to complete goal 6!

Zoey's Baby Quilt Update

2009-11-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

I started working on a baby quilt for a girl I work with, Alaina, when she had about 2 weeks left in her pregnancy. She was going to be out for 12 weeks afterward, so I had 14 weeks total to work on it. Well, Zoey has joined us and Alaina's been back at work for 2 or 3 weeks and it's still not done.

Alaina doesn't like pastel colors, so I used a dark brown background and added some appliquéd flowers sporadically over one of the corners. The flowers aren't pastel, but they aren't bright either. I believe the flowered material is called Sweet Baby Jane by Moda.

I blanket stitched around all of the flowers using some embroidery floss. I like the way most of the blanket stitching came out. Since this was my first time to blanket stitch, I thought it wasn't too bad!

Once I got that done, I took a couple of weeks off. I needed to give my eyes a bit of a rest! Once I felt like I had rested enough, I had to figure out what kind of quilting I was going to do. My quilting experience usually consists of stitching in the ditch...not gonna work here. So I thought about doing an echo quilt, but I was afraid my curves wouldn't come out very well. So, I settled on a diagonal channel stitch. It was going ok until....opps:

No, it's not an optical illusion, my line is completely and totally wavy. EEEKK....Not liking the way that looks. So, I folded up the quilt and set it asside for a while. Now, it's time for me to get back to it. I think I'm going to leave the wavy line in for now. Once I wash the quilt it is going to pucker up and maybe the waviness won't be too noticeable. However, I can always rip it out and restitch it before I wash it too.

Quilting Blogs Galore!!

2009-11-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited!! I was able to get added to two great sites that list different quilting blogs. If you're interested in finding more blogs by quilters, check out these two places:

Quilter Blogs.com: This site lists over 750 other quilting blogs as well as quilting stores. They also read the blogs on a daily basis to find out any new information to share with the world. Very cool site, check it out.

Quilting Gallery: This is another fun site that lists different quilting blogs. It also has a chatroom, blog site, and lots of other fun information and things to dig through! Again, I highly recommend checking it out. They currently have an article up about virtual quilting bees.

I just signed up for my first virtual quilting bee this week as well, so I'll be posting updates here! This has been a very exciting month so far! I just got my blocks for the Magical Mini's BOM the week before last but haven't had a chance to start on it yet. They just put month two up, so I guess I should get busy!

Another Give Away!!

2009-11-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

I must say, the quilt blogging community is by far the most giving group I've ever known! It is a pleasure to be part of it. Who knows...maybe I'll have my own give away eventually!!

Ok, so on to the info. I was reading up on Sweet P's blog (good luck with the dentist!) while looking at several other quilting blogs and saw a new give away mentioned. So, I popped over to see what it was all about.

Block Party Quilt Along is giving away free fabrics for their kick off!! I've never done a virtual quilting bee...shoot, I've never been part of a real quilting bee so I think I'll jump on the wagon and give it a go! Looks like it will be quite fun.

Back From Vacation - Still Not Done W/The Hand Piecing

2009-11-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

I am back from my vacation in the Outer Banks, NC and I didn't get my top done like I thought I would. There was just too much to do and see that I didn't get a whole lot of time to work on my project. The house was absolutely gorgeous. It was 3 stories high and had a little "eagle's nest" where I liked to sit and work on the hand piecing.

My work station was basically my lap! But it's an ample lap so it worked out just fine:

The "eagle's nest" was on the third floor and had windows surrounding it so you can see the water and the trees. It was very peaceful. I wish I could have packed it up and took it home with me. This first picture is looking out at the trees and coastline. That's my brother in the shot as well:

This second shot is the corner of the room so you can see the water and part of the coastline. My nephew is in this shot as well trying to get Papa to get his feet off his chair! I said it was peaceful, but it definitely wasn't quiet unless the nephews were playing elsewhere!

UPDATE: just found a better picture of my "eagle's nest" on the house's website:

As I mentioned, it was 3 floors high and had it's own elevator! It took 35 seconds for the elevator to go from the first floor all the way to the top and it was quite small, so I didn't use it very often!

This final picture is our view from the backyard. This is the sound area. It was quite shallow as far as you could see. If you wanted to, you could probably walk from the islands to the mainland and not get in any deeper that waist high!

If you went across the street to the other side of the island, you were staring at the ocean. The waves were quite loud and I absolutely loved listening to it! In fact, you could sit on the back deck and still hear the surf.

While we were there we spent a few days searching for seashells on the beach. We didn't find very many shells that were whole. I guess because the waves were so violent it would break the shells as it flung them up on shore. We did find some sea glass, which was really cool because I'd never found any before! It looks a bit like a whale tail....or an armless, headless woman...but I prefer whale tail!

We also saw 4 out of 5 lighthouses on the islands. They were all very pretty and most of them were black and white.

We had cloudy, drizzly weather most of the time we were there. We got there Saturday night and the sky finally cleared up some on Friday, one day before we were going to leave! Ok, so this was a bit of a shootoff from quilting, but it was such a great trip!

OH....and one more thing. My lovely Hubby gave me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday just two days before the trip!!! Is he the best or what?! Now I can take my books with me and read whenever I get the chance.

I'm a little busy right now though because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For whatever reason it sounded like fun to try to write 50K words in 30 days. Now...4 days into it, I'm realizing it's a bit more qork that I gave it credit for. However, if I complete my 50K words in 30 days, I will get a hardcopy of my book free!! How cool is that?

Another Hand Piece Update

2009-10-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have two rows done! Only 5 more to go!

Hand Piece Update

2009-10-25T12:40:00.001-07:00

I have finished piecing together the 4 square halves! Now I just need to put them together and finish my rows!

The Right Move or Not?

2009-10-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Y'all may remember this UFO. I stopped this one because I ran out of one of the fabrics and I haven't been able to find an exact match. I bought some other leaf fabric but it just didn't seem to go well.

After seeing Amandajean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) quilt with her log cabin and the one that inspired her I think I found my answer! I'll break these blocks into 4 large blocks and go from there. I'll put the ladybugs on it after I get the top put together. So, out came the seam ripper.

Once I got it separated out into four larger squares, I came to realize the squares looked odd. My lovely quilt advisor Ellie and I agreed that it would look better if we did a sort of spiral or plus in the larger blocks it would look better.

I ripped a few more seams and sewed them all back together again and WALA!!

There are four separate blocks there, they just look like they're all sewn together. I had to snap the picture fast or I'd have more fur people in my way! Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I like the design of these blocks. I just need to find a good background fabric now! More pictures to come!

Update on the Hand Pieced Dog Quilt

2009-10-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

I spent a little time working on the hand piecing for this quilt. My first block wasn't that successful. If you look close enough, you notice my seams don't match:

However, I'm not too upset. My second block had perfectly matched seams. I just don't have a photo of it. I got my first row done and plan on finishing the rest of it on my vacation this next week. I will post a picture of the first row so y'all can see how it's coming along!

In case you're wondering, the lucky dog is named Ruby. She's a bit of a handful, which is why she gets to stay in her "Room" during the day. However, she's full of personality and deserves all the loving she can get!

It's a Happy Halloween Giveaway!

2009-10-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe: It's a Happy Halloween Giveaway!

Ok, so I never win anything but I saw this giveaway and thought "What the heck...why not?!". They have 27 fat quarters up for grabs and the fabric is absolutely adorable! I love the pumpkins!! Check it out and why not join too?!

I hope y'all have a fantastic Tuesday! I'm going on vacation on Friday and I can't wait! North Carolina Outer Banks, here I come...

International Quilt Festival Houston 2009

2009-10-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished touring the IQF. What beautiful quilts they had there! There seemed to be more art quilts than traditional quilts, but all in all it was very motivating! They didn't have the shuttles running from the park and rides like in previous years...boo. They didn't do it last year either, but I was hoping they would have learned from that mistake this year!

Ok, so how about some pictures?! I have to say one of the most interesting exhibits was the hanging quilted forest. The names of the trees were on the floor, so you could see what they were. Each one was unique and delightful.

There were a couple of traditional quilts with tiny blocks. I think some of them may have been a 1/2 inch square. I'd like to give it a try!

I found myself a pair of small scissors and a lap quilting frame. Unfortunately, they have to ship me the quilting frame so I don't have a picture of it to show here. Once it comes in I'll have an unveiling! My only disappointment is not being able to find a certain booth with a quilt pattern (junk food) that I wanted. I couldn't remember the name of the store or where the booth was, so I just tried to look at each one as I went by. Oh, well, I'll try to order it online. Oh...and the food was not so good!

Next year my Aunt and I are going to sign up for a class or two and make the most of it!

Hand Piecing

2009-10-14T08:58:00.001-07:00

Today my husband had a conference in Austin, so I decided to tag along and enjoy myself. I found a nice spot by Lake Ladybird (complete with swans and gorgeous trees!) and decided to start my hand piecing
project. Here's my first seam. The stitches are a little wide apart, but all in all not too bad!

Dog Blanket

2009-10-11T18:51:00.001-07:00

I've decided to give hand piecing a try. So, my first experiment will
be a blanket for one of my dog's pens! I assume she'll chew it up
anyway, so if it doesn't look good then there's nothing to worry
about! I'm also going to use the blanket to start practicing free
motion quilting on my machine! It's only 35 x 24 so it should be about
the right size to handle easily.

Here goes nothin'!

Park City Girl's Fall Quilt Festival - Online

2009-10-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic idea!! I'm not by any means a seasoned quilter but wanted to join in the festivities! I'd have to say one of my favorite quilts I've made to date was the Christmas Moose quilt for my Mom. The faces are so sweet. I want to make this one again but this time use either 1) fuzzy material for the moose or 2) bright vibrant colors (pop artish).

UFO Sighting

2009-10-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so everyone has some UFO's sitting in their sewing room somewhere! I had a strip quilt I started for my professor's new adopted daughter a few years ago. However, life got busy and it got put away and forgotten about. I absolutely love this fabric. I believe it was called "Grown With Love". I think the colors are very soothing and "happy"! All I need to do is make the sandwich and quilt it. This will probably be one of the first ones I tackle to finish.

This next one is almost done too. Again, all I need to do is sandwich and quilt it. This was made for my Father-In-Law's birthday gift. It was actually a last minute gift idea which was why it wasn't finished! He loves food, especially sweets, so what better fabric to use other than food oriented?!

I had a couple of girls I worked with at a local jewelry store that asked me to make quilts for them. So, I said "sure, that would be fun!" And now....I have two more UFO's that aren't even close to being completed. The first one was for Samantha. Halloween is her favorite holiday, so I bought a panel and some coordinating fabrics. In fact, the fabric with the eyes glows in the dark. How cool is that?!

The next one is for Amanda. She loves ladybugs, so I had this great idea to make a pieced top and appliqué some ladybugs on the top. I cut the rail fence blocks and started sewing. The only problem was I WAYYY underestimated how much fabric I would need. So, now I can't find one of the leaf fabrics. The next step is to figure out how to fix this problem, or possibly start over with a different fabric choice.

I know ladies...I promise to get them done within a year from now and get them delivered to you! I'm sorry it's taken so long.

I Can't Have Too Many Bags!

2009-10-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

I decided I needed to have a cute little quilted tote bag to take to the Quilt Festival the first year. So, I took a normal canvas tote bag and added some material and batting. Needless to say, this was an interesting under taking. I barely got the bag through the sewing machine without a walking foot!

My next attempt at making a bag was much more successful! I used the X-bag pattern. I found some cute "Patriotic Roosters" and star fabric that I thought would be fun! I made a few happy accidents with this bag, but I love it. The only thing I would change is adding some sort of closure on the top of the bag, otherwise it's very open.

International Quilt Festival - Houston

2009-10-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

A little slice of Heaven on Earth!!

A trip to the International Quilt Festival (IQF) has become a tradition for myself and my Aunt Linda. I haven't been quilting all that long (a few years) but I've always loved the Art. My Aunt that initially taught me how to quilt passed away this year. She also went to the IQF every year. We were going to sign up for a class one of these years, but never did. Aunt Linda and I are still going to try to go to a class sometime. Unfortunately, my day job keeps me busy and I only have time for one day at the event.

I have my ticket and I'm ready to go this year!! I can't wait to see all of the marvelous quilts on display!

One of the first things that completely overwhelmed me was the magnitude of people there! Thankfully they have it set up so it's easy to move through and look at the quilts on display. The shopping area can get a little hairy though!

The second most striking feature was the quality of the quilts displayed. They were absolutely exquisite! In my wildest dreams, I couldn't imagine being that talented. One of the quilts by Barbara Lies looked like a flower motif on first glance, but when you look up close the butterflies are wheelbarrows and the flower is made up of trucks. Absolutely BRILLIANT!!

The wide range of subject matter was astounding too. There were flowers, animals, towns, political statements, nursery tale twists, abstract, antique, you name it and it was there. They had a row of the Hoffman Challenge quilts from last year with the peacock fabric. Once quilt in particular was a delight because it was quit unexpected! I don't remember the Artist's name unfortunately, but kuddos to you!!

If you're lucky, you can also see some celebrities! I got to see Eleanor Burns and Alex Anderson my first year there (pardon my horrible picture...but love you Alex! I miss Simply Quilts)

Last year the Daughters of the Revolution (I think) where there with a quilt exhibit of antique quilts. They were outstanding. Just to see all these quilts that are part of history is unfathomable. Someone made that quilt for someone they loved...who were they? Did they fight in the war? My mom (right) came with my Aunt Linda (left) and I (center). She learned a little something about quilting (yo-yo quilts) while she was there even though quilting isn't her "thing"!

Every year I look forward to the IQF like a kid waiting for Christmas. This year I plan on finding some fun black and white fabrics, possibly a lap hoop for hand quilting, and a travel bag for my upcoming road trip!

Sewing Room Update

2009-10-08T08:48:00.001-07:00

My Carpenter flew in this past Friday and helped me get some much needed shelving and tables put together for my sewing room!

First step was to add shelves on the back wall of my closet. Once we got those put in, I was able to move some of my books and fabric in there. I still have a bit more to move, but it still looks good!

The next step was to create a table for my sewing machine and to alter Grandmas Olson's coffee table she gave me so it was tall enough to use. I still need to paint the legs on the coffee table so it doesn't look quite so odd!

Now I need to clean up the room and decorate it with my bird stuff! OH, I also need to find a decent chair!

Sewing Room Makeover Part 2

2009-10-08T08:47:00.003-07:00

A little while back I stopped by Michael's to find some leather cording for a bracelet when I saw they had their home decor on sale for 40% off. Heck yeah! I'm all about saving some money!

So, I looked through their different items. Most of it was arranged by theme. For example, they had a beach house or nautical theme, french country theme, and birds. I liked the birds, especially the coloring. I thought the green (of course green!) would compliment the brown walls and some of the decorations were about the same color of brown as the walls! I ended up buying four wall hangings, a bird house, a bird cage, two figurine birds, and a canister with a bird on it. I also bought some wooden eggs that I think I'm going to paint and add silouettes on (a la Martha Stewart!). I haven't decided just yet where to put the decorations. I'm sending pictures of my room and the decorations to my interior decorator in North Carolina...my Dad!

Sewing Room Makeover Part 1

2009-10-08T08:47:00.001-07:00

We have a three bedroom house that originally consisted of a master bedroom, guest bedroom, and a workout room. Once our garage was finished, I was so excited to be able to move all of the workout equipment out of the house so I could finally have my sewing room! We ended up moving the guest bedroom into what was the workout room and the old guest bedroom was mine to do what I wanted with it. Well, as you can see, it became a holding room. It held every piece of junk that we didn't want to deal with at the time. Yes, it is embarrassing.

Unfortunately, it stayed that way for almost a year. Once the company decided they were going to cut my hours down to 32 hours a week, I decided it was time to get off my lazy butt and get busy on the room. So, my first chore was to empty out most of what was in there. I haven't organized it all yet, but it has been cleared out of the room (for the most part). My second chore was to paint the walls. I found a lovely shade of brown called "Fudge" to paint my walls. It took me twice as long to paint the room because I had to go over each wall at least twice. And...I got a good leg workout going up and down the ladder to paint around the ceiling! I decided to leave the ceiling the cream color just to keep it from being so dark. I LOVE my walls!!!! I couldn't be happier with them.

Ignore the spots, that's just some dust floating in the air.

Now, the next step is to decorate the walls and put up shelving in my closet. The closet to that room is going to be turned into a library/stash collection. My Dad is coming in June 12 to stay with me for a few days. He's going to help me with the closet and with setting the room up. So, part 3-? will be posted after it's completed so I give y'all a better view of what it's going to look like. Part 2 will be posted before too long showing all of the goodies I found at Michael's to do part of the decorating with!

Logan's Bugs

2009-10-08T08:46:00.003-07:00

I decided to make my youngest nephew, Logan, a quilt for his birthday. He was young enough that I figured he'd enjoy having a "blanket" to carry around. Okay, so that last part was an afterthought. What really happened? I found this adorable fabric called Biker Bugs and the only person I knew young enough to enjoy it was Logan! Again, I took the no pattern approach. This was a relatively simple multiple border quilt.

I did things a little differently with the fabric. I bought some fleece (royal blue) and minky (light green) fabric. This meant there would be three different fabric textures in the quilt. Overall, I was very happy with the outcome! Below is a close up of the middle.

The different types of fabrics were harder to sew together than I thought they would be. The minky fabric (softer and thinner than the cotton or fleece) kept wanting to slip and the fleece kept wanting to stretch. However, it turned out just fine.

Logan absolutely loved the quilt and still had it in his bedroom the last time I went up there for a visit! Funny enough, I was looking at it because it looked like some of the seems were pulling out (I later learned that you should always use 1/2" allowance for children's quilts instead of 1/4" allowance so it doesn't pull apart as easily!) and Dakota looked at me and said "That's Logan's blanket". So, that statement alone let me know that Logan used it quite hardily!

This picture is the back of the quilt. I couldn't bring myself to cut up the panel, so I used it to construct the back, which made it two sided!

Merry Christmoose!

2009-10-08T08:46:00.001-07:00

My second quilt was actually a collaboration with my Aunt Linda (my partner in crime!). We found a pattern at the International Quilt Show (the first year we went) that we both agreed my mother would enjoy. So, we decided to try to make it for my Mother for Christmas (the same year I made Dakota's quilt). I would go over to her house every Monday and we'd work on different parts of her quilt.

First was picking out the colors. I thought about doing the moose in funky colors, but decided Mom might like it better with "normal" colored mooses. One of my favorite parts of quilting is choosing the fabric. Who doesn't love fabric?! My stash is definitely enough to create 20 or 30 quilts but I could always use more!

Unlike my first quilt where I just jumped in, I was actually working from a pattern. Once you pick out the fabric, you have to cut all of the pieces out before sewing them together. We cut out squares and rectangles until we were covered in thread and fabric bits.

I had a lot of fun putting this quilt together. However, the quilt top was a bit cattywompus, so we had to work a little magic and square it up before binding it! One of the mooses also had a crooked jaw, but hey...it gave him/her personality!

We were able to get it put together and quilting (in the ditch quilting) but again, didn't get the binding done in time for Christmas, so I took the quilt back after giving it to my Mother on Christmas Day. Unlike Dakota's quilt, I had this one bound and given back to her within a few weeks.

She thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to put it in her trunk and not use it. COME ON....it's supposed to be used!! I'm hoping with her new house she'll actually put it to good use. The purpose of a quilt is to feel comforted and loved. I know she doesn't want to mess it up, but that's alright...it'll give it some character!

Who Said Quilting Was Old Fashioned?

2009-10-08T08:45:00.001-07:00

This is the artwork off of 311's new album. Many of the little circles have different quilt blocks in them. Most people that listen to 311 won't be quilters, but I thought it was interesting to see!

The Dreaded First Quilt

2009-10-08T08:22:00.001-07:00

Not that I've made a lot of quilts, but this is the first one I tried to make on my own! I wanted to make something for my oldest nephew, Dakota, and decided what better way to step out on my own than to make a quilt for him. What 7 year old boy doesn't want a quilt? duh! Great idea! *insert Mike's (my husband) sigh here* So, now the next step is to decide what fabric to use and what pattern. I found some great candy fabric and I know he likes sweets, so it's a done deal! Pattern? Who needs a pattern? Just jump right in! I always liked the way the pinwheel block looked, so I decided to use that pattern for the center, then put a border around. The best complimentary colors were solid primary or brights.

I jumped in and started cutting and sewing and a Quilting Queen was born!

Or not.

So, what's wrong with this picture? First of all the borders are HUGE!!! You can't quite see it in this picture, but the yellow pinwheel in the border slants upward at the end. The stitching is also off. It goes from big to small, back to big. But, all in all, and about 15 feet away from it, it looks alright! So, I box it up, unfinished because Christmas is here now and I have to give to Dakota. All I have left is the binding and that shouldn't take that long.

Christmas day gets here and Mike and I load up the car to go to my brother's house for our family Christmas. Dakota and Logan are having a great time opening toys and games and all sorts of things that make noise. I'm extremely excited because I have Dakota's quilt, and my mother's which I'll post in a different blog, ready to go. I normally buy the boys books or things like that because they always get toys. In my head, hey...I didn't get books this year! The time has come, he grabs my box and paper starts a flyin'. He sees it's fabric and says "what's that?". He whips it out of the box, looks at it for all of 2 seconds, then throws it to the side and starts ripping into another gift. Mike starts laughing because he had realistic expecations of what would happen. I was crushed. It took everything I had not to cry. It was my first quilt and while it wasn't perfect, I was proud of it! Nana, my Mom, made him pick it up and look at it. She kept saying "Oh isn't it pretty" and I know that was more to make me feel better than anything else. So, I got a picture with him holding the quilt and looking happy, but now we know "the rest of the story!"

PS...I didn't get the binding done or the quilt back to him until this year...just two years later!

Time to Start Anew...Blog!!

2009-10-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have a few other blogs, but I decided I wanted to keep all of my quilting stuff separate from my other day to day things. So, I've decided to begin this blog. I'm going to transfer some posts here from a previous blog so I can have all of my quilting stuff together. I'm also going to put in some updates I've been meaning to do for eons.