Friday, January 29, 2010

Officially finished!

Yes, you heard correctly, I have officially finished my first quilt order. Sadly, it has taken me this long (the order was placed in March 2009). I finished the crib quilt AGES ago, but the name embroidery on the second quilt is what put the project on hold.

Here is the 1st finished project:

This is the back.
This is the front.



Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Quilting zigs and zags...

I drew out Maddy's quilt on a piece of graph paper and had deliberated with Nato over how to quilt it. We decided on one squiggly line , and two straight-stitch following the zigzag pattern of the quilt, down the pink center zigzag. Also, I'm going to free-motion a diamond spiral in each diamond.

I'll post pics after I'm done.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Finally accomplishing something...

I decided to just quilt Henry's quilt going one way. So I finished sooner than I had expected to...

I also FINALLY finished basting the batting for Maddy's quilt. So, I can FINALLY finish her quilt. I can't seem to apologize enough to Cindy for how long her order has taken me.
She gave me the order and mailed me the first installment of money in March 2009! I should've been done w/ them at a MAXIMUM of 2 months later, (there were 2 quilts).
I told her not to worry about the remaining approx. $30 for the materials, since it's taken me SO long to FINALLY finish her quilts, I told her I wouldn't feel right taking the money.

Well, off to bed again. Tobi just passed out again, so I will too!

Hope you all had a good yesterday, good night, and good today.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Busy, busy little bee...

I've been busy and been getting distracted alot since my last post.

I have one line left before being 1/2 finished quilting Henry's quilt. I'm hoping to be able to finish Henry's and Maddy's(Cindy's daughter) quilt today.

I've been using the machine quilting gloves, and they really help me keep control of the fabric. After I finish quilting Henry's quilt, I'm going to free-motion my logo in one corner. I'll post a pic of the logo when I post up pics of Henry's quilt.
It's a thing I want to start doing with all my quilts, in addition to sewing on a tag similar to the one below, with my name of course...lol

I need to get the money to order some of these though...I found this here:

Okay, well, I better get back to quilting...

Ta-Ta for now!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Agenda for the day...

Tobi went back to sleep, Nato is still asleep, and after Nato gets up, he's got to do his homework. So, I'll be keeping an eye on Tobi for him while he's doing that, then he'll want to hang out w/ Tobi, so he'll watch Tobi while I work quilt/sew.

After a little bit, I'm going to get off my lappy and quilt Henry's quilt(finally)!! I've been meaning to do it for a while...and I have everything I need to do it now.

So, first on today's plan is to quilt Henry's quilt, then finish Maddy's quilt(Cindy's 2nd quilt). When I've finished those, I'll post again w/ the next items to accomplish.

Monday, January 11, 2010

My next purchase, and current dealings...

I'm going to wait until JoAnn's has another sale on rotary cutting products, then I'm gonna get a LARGE cutting mat, cause the 6"x 17" cutting mat and the foldable 24"x 14" cutting mat (Jewell's) aren't cutting it...please excuse the pun.

I'll probably also get some rotary cutting rulers then too...but I'm waiting for a sale, and for Nato's job, so I can start saving my allowance from him.

I'm planning on trying out my machine quilting gloves, and a few other of my new sewing "toys" today...I've already tried my thread cutting pendant, and it works great. It even looks cute. Made in Japan, so it's good quality.

I also already put it on a cord, so I am a really geeky quilter now...well, I guess I kinda already was, as I'm making my husband a Tetris/original NES controller quilt...lol
So, HA!

I'm thinking I might tie this quilt...I have all the accouterments to do it, except the tying thread...but Meme has some she said I could have.

I'd be matching the ties to the piece of quilt...it'd be interesting...not sure which side I'll have the tails come out on yet, though.

Hmmm...

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Today's success!

I was able to go by JoAnn's, and luckily(for me) someone wasn't doing their job right, cause all the stuff I had collected yesterday in a carrying basket was still in that basket, right where I left it.

I took my printout to the front of the store with all of my stuff, and was able to get most of it on sale, so instead of paying $50.58, I only had to pay, $37.35, which even though the card was a gift, I'm glad I saved, cause I still have $8.85 on the card.

After we arrived home, I proceeded to get all my sewing storage boxes out and put everything away. So now everything is put away, and organized in "hand-sewing stuff" and "machine-sewing stuff".

I'm still in a euphoric mood...lol


Hope you all had an awesome day too!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, the sun'll come out, tomorrow...

I talked with Jewell(my mom-in-law) about it after she got back from taking Butch to work, and she agreed to take me to JoAnn's tomorrow, to get my stuff.

Woot!

Oh, and Nato(my husband) has finally been hired!! He's just waiting for the owner/manager to put him in the next schedule and give him a call. It'll only be part-time for now, but it's something!!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Today's JoAnn's excursion...

Okay, so we went to JoAnn's, and I found all my stuff, except the last 2 items. I asked a sales associate for help to find the last 2 items, and she showed me where they were.

As I picked up the last item, the thread organizer box, I mentioned the sale from the JoAnn's website to the sales associate, and she said that online sales are not always the same as in-store sales.

So, it turns out that I went around the store(for almost an hour) collecting everything from my list, just to have to leave all the stuff in the carrying basket.

I explained that I found all the stuff online on a 30% off sewing notions sale, and the sales associate told me that if I bring in a printout of the items on sale, that they'll match at least some of the sale items.

I tried buying the stuff online, but the website is apparently broken, so hopefully we'll be able to go sometime tomorrow.

I went on the site an hour or so ago, and almost nothing was still on sale, so I'm hoping that if we can go to JoAnn's tomorrow, and I show them the printout, they'll sell me the stuff at the sale prices.

Wish me luck!

Friday, January 8, 2010

JoAnn's trek tomorrow...

I asked my mother-in-law about it yesterday, and she has to go to Visalia tomorrow to pick up my father-in-law's new wireless card. So, when we get up in the morning, she's going to take me by JoAnn's to get my list of stuff.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Continuing my JoAnn's list...

Total from previous post: $19.23

Continued list:

thread cutter pendant($4.89), flexi-lace hem tape($0.97), red machine quilting grip gloves($3.59), beeswax with holder($3.29), quilter's marking pencil-silver($2.29), cone thread holder($3.89), and a clear thread organizer($3.49).


TOTAL: $41.64

I could buy a few more things with the remaining $8.36, but I'm leaving that for tax, cause I don't want to go over my $50 limit, then have to put something back.

I hope we can go to JoAnns soon...cause this is possible only if I can buy the stuff while the sale is still going.

Regarding yesterday's list...

I only managed to get some repair work done on the green & yellow quilt. Not exactly the magnitude of what I wanted to complete yesterday, but, can't do anything about that now.


Anyways, I have 2 appointments today, then Nato, Tobi, and I will be coming home, and I'll hopefully be getting back to work on yesterday's (now today's) to-do list.

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Between last night and this morning, I've been looking on JoAnn's online at some of their notions. Meme gave me a $50 JoAnns giftcard, and they're having a 30% off sewing notions sale.

So far, I want to get:
quilting pins ($3), curved safety pins($2.09), extra-fine satin pins($1.74), leather thimble($2.79), skirt hook & eyes($2.30), 12-pack of reusable pre-wound plastic bobbins($2.51), leather hand needles($1.25), quilter's curved needles($2.30), long-life sewing machine bulb($1.25).

TOTAL: $19.23

Not finished yet though...I'll add more in my next post.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

January 5th, 2010: To-Do List

  1. Make latticework square for Meme's quilt
  2. Finish Maddy's quilt
  3. Make at least 4 patches for baby girl quilt
  4. Quilt more on Tobi's bumpers
  5. Repair a few more lines on Dan's quilt
  6. Repair some of green and yellow quilt

Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas rush and New Year resolutions!

Now that the Christmas rush is over, and I can "relax"...well, as much as I ever get to relax.

Nato and I had an awesome time house-sitting for my mom and dad, and spending quality time with each other and Tobi.
I got a good portion of work done on my Seven Brides for Seven Brothers skirt. The skirt has 6 panels, and I'm using a brown sheet as the "backing".

When finished, I'm hoping for the skirt to be similar to the scrap skirt pictured above. I have the first panel almost completely finished, I will post pics in a future post.

I also intend to make a shirt similar to that one, without the shawl.

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As for New Year's Resolutions:

1. Moving out of our current home, and into another in the same complex.

2. Constantly, working on 2 projects simultaneously, (one of which MUST to be a quilt).

3. Finishing at least 5 quilts this year. First to finish: Meme's, Cindy's daughter Maddy's, Henry's, my baby girl's, and Nato's....lol...well, that's 5 of 5 right there...haha

4. Finishing as many projects on my "Projects List" as possible.

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I am also working on laundering and repairing 4 old quilts.

The first, being one my grandma made for my oldest brother a green "Pink Panther" quilt that is 27 years old(if I remember correctly...) Some of the stitching has come loose so I'm repairing it...mostly the sashing stitches.

The second is the quilt my grandma made for my mom and dad as their wedding quilt, it is white with a blue border, and a blue star. It and 2 others were stored outside in a plastic garbage bag, and apparently a few small holes got worn in the bottom of the bag, and the bottom two quilts got mildewed. The worst being this quilt. So, I'm in the process of washing them separately on the delicate cycle, with 1/4 cup bleach in with the loads.

The third quilt is one I can't recall where we got it from, but it's old. It is a patchwork quilt with squares approx. 10-12 inches. It has many different colors.

The forth and last of the repairees is one my grandma made and gave to my mom after she and my dad broke up. It is white with a flowery border, then a yellow border, and a yellow and green star. It doesn't even smell like mildew. That's a good thing, in any case, but even more so in this one, I think...there is a pretty big chunk missing out of the star, and it can't be washed until quite a bit of repairs are made.

Well, I think that's all for now.

Please comment.