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 :)

A Very Productive Saturday!

Zeb took a very long nap today (two whole hours!). I am ecstatic. More sewing time for Mommy!

Immediately, I set to work on more of the nine patches for the quilt-along. I only had five done at last post, which put me eight behind as of this morning. Well, not only did I get my eight done, I managed to get an additional five in!!

This means that I'm gravy until Friday morning!! Yay! I still have an urge to work on nine patches though... They're like chips for me: can't make just one.



In addition to my nine patches, I was able to work on my Grandmother's Fan blocks. I haven't squared them up, but they're ironed. Yay for progress!!

I think this is pretty good for two hours!

A Quilt-Along!

Yesterday, I was shopping at Walmart with my mother-in-law, looking for things for Zeb, and for her new apartment. In six short weeks, Ma will be moving into the same apartment complex, which I'm very excited for. As much as I love Zeb, he can be a handful, and having Ma around to baby-sit on occasion will be a relief.

Anyway, I found a cute, little, metal trashcan in an aqua color, and decided I had to have it for my scraps. I was simply keeping them in a canvas shopping bag. This meant that the kitties and kiddo would get into them on a regular basis. The trashcan is the perfect height for my scraps and to hide away my scissors and rotary cuttery out of Zeb's sight.

In other news...

As if I don't have enough UFOs, but now I've gone and joined crazy mom quilt's quilt-along. There's also a Flickr pool at which to view everyone else's blocks. I'm a little late to the party - we're seven days in, which means I should be seven blocks in.

However, I did get five of them made this afternoon while Zebediah was napping. They went together gratifyingly quickly. It's been so long since I did something as simple as a nine-patch that I'd forgotten how snappy they were, even with stopping to press open my seams. I'm also making sure to cut extra 2.5" squares for the borders so that I'm not stuck cutting 144 of them at the end of doing all the blocks.
In the process of selecting fabrics for the nine-patch blocks, I discovered one more yard of the black fabric framing the blocks in "Not My Favorite Top". More than a little irritated here. And fighting the urge to rip hours of stitches out and make the top the way I wanted to. Considering how little I like the thing right now, I might just do that, if I have enough of the other fabrics. On second thought, I'm lazy, and just DONE with that top.