Sneak peek(s)!

I'm getting closer each night to finishing the binding on Baby Wren's quilt. Sadly the shower for her mommy at work got canceled due to an emergency appendix removal (bummer). So I'm just trying to finish it now to bring to the hospital for baby.

I've also just gotten back my quilt from Janet's Quilting Bee where I let them quilt my creation from class, if you've been following my progress on Facebook, this is my (almost) finished product. I'll tackle the binding after Christmas.

Here are the pictures!

Finished quilt top. I AM IN LOVE.

Finished quilted back, notice that cute little guy, bottom left. ;)

I did this little applique of the wren on my own, it looks neater now though.

ALMOST done with all of the binding, this was 2 nights ago,
so I've only got 1/2 of a side left now.

My quilt from class at Janet's.

Project: Quilt the Baby Quilt

Oh hi, followers! After taking a vacation over Thanksgiving (Cozumel in November is fabulous) and finishing up my 8-week quilting class at the local quilting shop, I'm back to my crafting ways just in time to make Christmas gifts!

First on my plate is to complete Erinn's baby quilt. The mystery is solved, Baby Wren Louise made her grand entrance on the day after Thanksgiving and she is quite the beauty. I have no doubt she will love my heartfelt creation, and her mother is one that I know will appreciate it. I surrendered my quilt top from class to the skilled hands of the ladies with the long arm and that quilt will be quilted professionally before Christmas. But for Baby Wren's quilt, I knew the design I wanted to quilt would be able to be done by my cheapo Singer Simple (looking at getting a new machine from my parents for Christmas).


So without further ado, here are some progress shots of how the quilting is coming. I've done more since these photos were taken, but so far I'm very proud of myself. It's looking MUCH better than the futile attempt I made a few years ago, someday I'll get around to showing off that piece of work...

Back of the quilt

Front of the quilt

I am so in love with this project, I almost don't want to give it away, especially considering I've literally put my blood, sweat, and tears into it. Quilting is definitely a labor of love!

Project: Finger Stitching

WARNING: Not for those with weak stomachs!

So today has not been my day at all. As I type this, I am still feeling the pains of a very valuable lesson in sewing. Lesson: Sewing machine needles pass much easier through fabric than fingers. Turns out there's a lot less blood with fabric, too.

From the first time I started using my sewing machine I'd always been told, "Don't get your finger caught under the needle," much in the same fashion as A Christmas Story's young Ralphie was warned, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Well, just as Ralphie did, in fact, shoot the lens out of his boyish glasses, I attempted to make the tip of my finger a permanent part of Baby C's quilt. The result was bloody and rendered many tears. It also left my needle in four pieces. Like the JFK "Magic Bullet" theory, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how and where the needle went in and out. My best guess is it entered at the top of my fingertip, went all the way through to break my fingernail and then when I pulled away is when it ripped.

This was definitely a time I could/should use these vulgar little bandages I bought at Urban Outfitters a couple years ago. But sadly, I decided to go for the old fashioned ones.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

It looks much worse than this in real life.

Ouch!

Broke my fingernail from the inside! And I just painted my nails last night!

My poor needle was a casualty.

Progress on Project: Baby Quilt

So as Erinn is inching closer and closer to her Nov. 15 due date, I'm trying my best to finish this quilt so the baby can have it by maybe Christmas. We're actually crossing our fingers for an 11-11-11 birthday. But anyway - here's an update on the quilt progress. I've gotten all of the squares sewn into rows. Next I'll sew the rows together. I have that strip of fabric beside the quilt because I plan to do a pretty thick border to give it some more size. Right now the quilt measures around 28 inches wide by approx. 36 inches tall.

Without further ado, here's what we're looking like at this point:

Project: Baby Quilt

So my good friend, coworker, and evil twin, Erinn Carty, is expecting a mysterious baby within the coming weeks. I say mysterious because she's not found out the sex, so whether the world is about to be blessed with a new baby boy or girl is a mystery to all! In my recent crafting spree and since I'm taking this quilting class, I thought a quilt would be the perfect gift for Baby. Now I had considered waiting until Baby is born to make the quilt, but a mid-November birthday means this baby is going to need a warm quilt ASAP. So I dug through my trusty ol' craft box and found this set of lovely fabric squares I'd bought a year or so ago on Etsy. I found a simple pattern to follow using squares I've learned in quilting class, and voila. I went to Hancock Fabrics tonight and bought a nice khaki Kona Cotton as the filler fabric.
 
Here's the beginning. I'll update as I go...

Inspiration photo

Scattered 5 inch squares

I then pressed the neutral squares to the printed fabric

Action shot of the ironing

Okay, here's where I get a little crafty. I don't have my 
1/4 inch foot yet  and I don't trust myself to eyeball a 1/4 inch seam. 
So I drew my line down the diagonal and then measured 1/8 in. on each 
side for my seams to make the half-square triangles

After stitching the seams. 
My cheating method of drawing the lines helped a lot!

First two I finished and squared off. 
The quilt will be comprised of 80 squares just like this.

Project: Curling Iron Cover

Okay so this isn't the first project I've done EVER. But I did this tonight and I've got quite a few other projects lined up so I decided it was time to create a blog that actually had a purpose. And that purpose is (drum roll please)... I shall share my projects.

Anyway - I got the idea to make my own curling iron holder after my last trip to see Beaufriend and I really wanted to curl my hair the morning I was to leave, but I couldn't because I didn't want to throw a hot curling iron into my suitcase. After that traumatic experience (flat hair to have lunch with BF's mom, sigh) I scoured the internet for suitable holders. I couldn't find any I really liked. Vera Bradley has a cute one, but that stuff is highly overpriced and overrated IMO.

So the search then continued to find an easy to follow guide to making my own. And TA-DA, I found these simple step-by-step instructions to make my very own Quilted Curling Iron Cover. Since I'm kind of spastic and impatient, I didn't quite take pictures all along the way as I should have. I'll get better though, I promise!

I eyeballed the size of my curling iron to decide how big of a rectangle to cut.

I then pinned the fabric to the batting to secure it for machine basting and quilting.

 This is where I got spastic and forgot to take pictures of a few steps. I then quilted the fabric and proceeded to trim the edges leaving less than 1/8 in. past the seam.

This is the heat resistant part. I cut a piece of Ironing Board Cover to match in size my quilted fabric and batting.

My sandwich of quilted fabric, batting and ironing board cover

Closeup of my quilting. This was my first attempt at actually quilting. I'm just warming up for the big show in my quilting class.

I then pinned the bias tape I made myself to the iron board cover side. I pinned it so that the outer edge of the bias tape matched up with the outer edge of my sandwich.

After somewhat of a struggle with those corners, this is my finished product.

Showing off the heat resistant inner lining.

Okay for reference, this is my 1 1/4 inch Hot Tools curling iron and it fits comfortably!

Okay I'll say it, I freaking hated sewing those corners. They really messed me up. If I make another one, I may edit this design to have corners, not rounded edges.

I'll work on posting about my quilting class so that I can update here as I finish the last 5 weeks of it.