Sewing Time!

So I had time to sew late last night, and early this morning...

This is the quilt top for crazy mom quilt's quilt-along. It's about the size of a lap quilt right now, but I'd like it to be larger, so I'm going to be adding three borders: one row of scrappy squares, then a border of white four to six inches wide in which I'll applique a vine, flowers and leaves, then three or four rows of scrappy squares. I just have to get to sewing all those squares together, so they're ready for when I can pick up the white fabric. I only bought two yards of the Kona cotton, and it just got me through the quilt top. One yard should get me through what I want to do, but I'll probably get more, three or four yards maybe. It's such a nice, lovely feeling cotton that it'll be a staple in my stash.

I've got most of one more New York Beauty block done. I just have to sew on the corner, and I've got five done. I'll finish one or two more before I post pictures though. I'm definitely liking the more complicated NYB blocks though. They are fun, and the play of shapes and color in them make me a lot happier. Figures I'd like the harder to make blocks, wouldn't it?

In other news, I have the pincushion for the swap done. I just have to get it in the mail. I need to buy more batting, for three tops now and figure out backings. That'll be interested. They're fairly large tops, and I don't really want to do it all out of my stash. I'd burn through quite a bit of fabric - and I really want to save that stuff for tops. I do have some larger cuts, that might work, but they'd still be pieced backers. Not that I mind pieced backers. I actually really like the look...

Anywho :) That's it for now. I am going to take advantage of Zeb's nap, and get back to the sewing machine.

Update 11:37 pm:

I just saw earlier today that I have my first follower. SQUEEEE! I know. I'm a dork :) Hello, Michelle, and thank you for joining me. I'm so excited to know that someone out there in blogland is reading and enjoying ramblings :)

Hmm... Not So Bad!

So, I've added the borders to this top.

Huh.

Forgive the crinklies, and it not being squared up. I just wanted to photograph it right away! And look! No kitties!

But, huh.

As I said yesterday, this isn't my favorite quilt top. In fact, due to the huge amounts of pink, my emotions regarding it bordered on hatred. I'm totally not into the "girly" end of the color spectrum.

But now, I look at this with the borders on, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I rather like the floating effect the blocks have because of that stripe of pink just inside the final border. It's still not my favorite, but I no longer detest this top the way I did. I might even be able to quilt it, and begin to appreciate it even more.

And even with this glimmer of a possibility of like for this quilt top, I don't think I'll be keeping it. It's just not me. I'm going to finish it though.

I Am a Sick, Sick Monkey

I'm very bad. Very, very bad. I keep promising to use my stash, but instead of using it, I add to it. To be fair to myself, I had never anticipated the difficulty of sewing around a rambunctious seventeen month old who is instantly jealous of anything Mommy does that isn't centered around him. Zebediah is my sweetums, but he's a demanding sweetums.

Anywho... This is what I get for having a Joann's two doors down from work, and for loving color and pattern.

The photo shows off what I've managed to acquire since the beginning of the year. What you see there is 28 yards, and that's not all of it. Just what is washed and ironed (I prewash everything!). I am so disturbingly ill, but I just can't find the willpower to find a cure.

Looking over this fabric, I am struck by the range of patterns and colors. I don't normally stick to a 'genre' of fabric, the way some of my quilty acquaintances do. I just have to see potential in a fabric, and it will probably make it into my stash.

Speaking of the stash... With these purchases, I have officially broken the 400 unique fabrics mark. It's funny, too, looking back. Some of these fabrics are from when I first started quilting, 15 years ago. The way my tastes have migrated from very traditional, tiny prints to, well, anything under the sun, just strikes me.

I wonder if I'll break the 500 mark before the end of the year. I don't know if I can afford to! My fabric closet is running out of space!

On that note, I'm going to escape to my sewing machine while the going is good. Zeb is asleep, and I've dug out one of my tops that was just awaiting the last borders to be put on (again with the prerequisite cat):

Not one of my favorite tops. My original intention had been to have the entire top be composed of the black bordered blocks. That failed when I discovered that I didn't have enough of that black fabric.

Not being one to give up, I decided to switch tactics and throw in big squares of coordinating florals.

I've been sitting on the coordinating border print for a while. Just didn't have the ambition to sew it on. Now, I do. I've got my Little Gracie II and my Janome 1600P, and I want to put them to use. This particular quilt will be the first one I machine quilt AT ALL, as well as the first on my new set up.

So, shortly, I'll have those borders on, and I'll press that top one more time. After that, I just have to purchase more muslin for my fabric leaders and some tubings for the Fabri-fast system, and I'm ready to start quilting!

I'm off to sew!

New Blog

It's been forever and a day since I kept up a regular blog. I just lost my motivation, and quit. This time, I really want to stick with it. Really. I stay more inspired when I keep track of my accomplishments and what I'm doing.

Anyway, I recently pulled out a favorite quilt top of mine (photo to the left - cats included, of course). I've avoided sandwiching and quilting it for eons. Why? Because it felt incomplete.

I love the colors, and the repeat stripe that I used. It's why I made this top the way I did. I wanted to show off that glorious border print. I actually really love the fact that I used a thin stripe of a mustard yellow fabric around the main portion of the top. I think it helps it 'POP' some. But the more I looked at it, the less happy I was with it.

Finally, about a month ago, I determined that it needed another border around it. So, I went shuffling through my stash, certain that I had enough of each of my green, blue and aqua fabrics used in the top to cobble together a simple border.

Boy, was I wrong!

Apparently, I used every last scrap of each of those fabrics to put this bad boy together. That only made my dilemma that much harder. Should I give in and just quilt this thing, to get it out of my (ever-growing) UFO pile? Or should I cave and see if I could find fabrics in similar colors?

I finally gave in last payday and purchased 14 fabrics that coordinated with my quilt. They're not the same exact fabrics, but they match the color scheme. I'm much happier now with the addition of this five-inch wide border. Now, I just have to select a backer fabric, decide which red fabric I'm going to use for binding, and get this sucker quilted.

On the whole, I'm pretty happy with it. At least, I'm far happier than I was without that border.