Thursday, May 31, 2012

Mail!

So this morning was rather rough.  I'm pretty sure my son was up about once an hour all night, and required a little bit more than quickly sticking a pacifier back in.  He went down for his first nap and I crawled back into bed...usually he takes a good first nap.  Twenty minutes later he was awake.  This happened over and over this morning.

Then I went to the mailbox and saw that I had a package!!  I won the Sew Mama Sew giveaway from Play Crafts.  (Sorry for the poor photo, it was night time.)  It helped the day change from not great to good.

The palette is based on a sunset photo.  The team of three are working on making a tool to do this for any photo that you have.  There is a beta test coming up if you're interesting in trying the tool out...you just need to subscribe to some email updates.  And I'm pretty sure that there are a whole bunch of other useful tools in the works too.  They have a very strong computer science background, so if you have ideas for any other techy ideas that would make quilting easier, they'd love to hear them!

So now I get to decide what to make with the fabric.  Already I'm feeling stretched (in a good way) because usually I choose the design and then pick the fabrics to fit it.  Now I'm doing it the other way around.  But there are several ideas that are percolating.

Side note: the giveaway post is here for further details and fabric specs.

Shower curtian orientation

Does one of these look better than the other?  I turned it upside-down in one of the pictures.  I thought it would make a large difference, but I'm not sure it does in the end.


Edit: maybe this was a silly post since they look so much the same.  Oh well, it is still nice to see it up.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Time for bed

A few nights ago Flurry sat on my quilt-in-progress as her way of telling me it was time for bed.  I had wanted to trim up one more side, but she ended up winning.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Don't Touch Me

I am proud to finally present "Don't Touch Me".  A quilt in which the colors only touch at the points and no color touches itself.

The back is lovingly called "Hug and Make Up."  I made all the colors touch each other.  Even the corner squares are actually two triangles touching each other.





The quilting is white and variegated thread.  All of the large and medium triangles have triangles in them, and the small outside triangles were also quilting.


The only thing I really don't like is how I tied the threads in the back.  About half way through I started tucking the tails back into the quilt and that looked a lot better.

One last picture...the wind helped get the placement just right.  I bound it in white so that no color would touch itself there either..

Also, I'm almost done with the pattern for this.  Is anyone interested in testing it for me?

Since I finally have a finish (!!)  I'll be posting to several places over the next week...Plum and June (Monday), Quilting by the River (Tuesday), Fabric Tuesday,  Whoop-Whoop Friday , Find a Friend Friday, and  Show off Friday.  Hmm, it appears that several of the places that only do finishes are on hold.  Oh well.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy, I'm sharing the quilt I made for my son.

Amy's Creative Side

The theme for his room was stars and planets.  (Although really it is mostly just stars.) The pattern is November Stars from Delaware Quilts.

Two stars also showed up on the back.  The orange one was made on accident...it actually caused me some problems because I ran out of brown fabric for the top.  I ended up going to the fabric store several times to finally finish the quilt.

Every week my son gets his picture taken on the quilt.  (He is currently 19 weeks old.)  I'm looking forward to going back and look at him grow.
The quilt has been well used...it gets eaten and drooled on a lot.
And I used as the backdrop for a picture.  I love this picture.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Progress

I finally have more progress to show on other things. :)

I finished the back of Quilt 11.

I started piecing the shower curtain.  The colors seemed a little off by my sewing machine, so I moved them to the bathroom were they will end up and they looked a lot better.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and Whoop-Whoop Friday.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mom's quilt

Before I was born my Mom made a quilt.  I don't know much about it because it wasn't out while I was growing up, although it does look well used on the edges.

My Mom died 10 years ago, and it's nice to have a quilt that she made since I recently started quilting.


I took a picture of a few of my favorite squares.


She did most of the sewing with a straight line, but every once in a while there's something different.  Below is a heartbeat shaped one.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Tulip Time Quilt Show

Today I went with a friend to a local quilt show.  We got to vote for our two favorites.

This was the first one I chose, "A  Touch of Whimsey" by Betty Balk.

 This was the second one.  I didn't get a clear picture of the designer or title. :(

I didn't vote for this one, but it is still cool.  Especially since it has tulips, which is what the festival celebrates.  (Although this year there were only stems since it was so nice out in early March.)


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

May goals

Here are the three things I really want to finish in May.

1. "Don't Touch Me"  - I just have the quilting and binding to do.
2. Create a pattern for Don't Touch Me
3. Finish quilting another baby quilt.


If time allows (haha) I want to do these things too...
1. Finish a shower curtain
2. Quilt another baby quilt
3. Try paper piecing and FMQ.  I was thinking of making some coasters.

I'm linking up with Traceyjay quilts and CrazyMomQuilts
 traceyjay quilts

April finishes

Ok, I don't really have a lot to show you. But I wanted to link up with Lily's Quilts, so I decided to do a summary anyway.

1. I finished my first pattern, Interlocking Pinwheels. I think the cool thing about this is that I can change the diagram colors to match the colors you're using.  No one has asked me to do that yet, but I figure there's still time.


2. I started "Don't touch me."  I'm quilting it right now, but quilting always takes me the longest.  I think I need to try a new technique so that it goes faster in the future.




 

Lily's Quilts
Lily's Quilts