Ready Yourself for Sewing

Here are components of a good creative mind ready for sewing.

1.  A messy desk.  Make sure you have lots of types of creative materials, like watercolors, that have nothing to do with sewing on your desk and in the way.  And lots of wires too.  The ones in view here are for recharging gadgets. 

2.  A crude plan.  (apologies for the photo facing the wrong direction), when you start out even a simple pencil sketch or in this case a marker sketch can get you on your way.  This is a sketch of week #2 of the Tetris quilt along.  You can see week #1 here.  And I should give myself a few bonus points, because this sketch is at least cut out and glued into my sewing journal.  Less chances of being lost that way, right?

3.  A floor that is clean enough to put fabric on.  I know.  I hear you asking me why I'm not using my design wall for exactly this use.  I'll get to why next.  But, first let's focus on the floor.  If you are going to put fabric on it, be sure it's free of dog hair and stuff.  Mine turned out to be kinda hairy and it took a few shakes of the fabric to return the hairy stuff back to the floor. 

4.  A design wall that's full to the brim.  Hence the reason I had to layout my above pieces on the floor.  A cluttered design wall is just as good as a cluttered desk.  Gives your brain no room to process and forces you right into sewing action since there is no 'holding zone' for something else in progress.  And I still hold that the only way these triangles are coming down is either sew or press them.  Seriously.

5.  Get reaquainted with your sewing machine.  Remember this lovely?  It's been too long.  So long, that I was sewing and the stitches stopped working and I couldn't figure out what was wrong.... turned out to be an empty bobbin.  Wow, this summer is powerful anti-sewing stuff.  The bobbin.  Now, how do you wind one of those things?  Ha, silly me!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic as heck, but what fun to dive back into some sewing time after a way to long break.  I'm sure it'll be smooth sailing from here.

WIP: {Rainbow is Quilted!}

Well, there I was last night tracing the daisies on the rainbow quilt and I got to the last one!  What a home run moment.  I enjoyed the free motion quilting practice and it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know my newly refurbed sewing table --which worked marvelously! -- but you know when you reach that moment on a quilt where you've had enough?  Yup, I was just getting to that point.  Thank goodness I was in the homestretch.

It's going to get it's first wash today and I am on pins and needles to find out how the scraps on the front fray and get softer with a wash.  And so as not to leave you totally hanging, here is sneaky peak of what those flowers look like on the front.  If you remember, I've been quilting this one upside down and I couldn't be happier with the results.  Oddly enough, the Mister even said how much he liked this quilt.  Cool huh?

With the Bottled Rainbows project wrapping up I can feel myself mentally moving on.  So, let's take a look at the updated project list and talk about where I'm headed next. 

I do have my triangles mostly cut and the beginnings of the arrangement on my design wall for Patchwork Prism, but need some uninterrupted time to get that one to the point of sewing the pieces together.  Need to finish this by June 25th to be considered for the amazing prizes... not sure I'm going to make that deadline. 

You'll notice I also took the idea of hand sewing a separate triangle quilt off my list.  Funny how quickly I've had enough of triangles.

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 9
New Projects: 0

Finished Projects: 1 (bottled rainbows is off to it's first wash!)

Total WiP's: 4

I'm taking liberties to refine my list and really only count what I'm working on, so with the finish, I'm only going to count four active projects (Prisms, Mushrooms, Hawk, and the City/State Landscape).  

Speaking of mushrooms, I wanted a project that I could hand sew and work on slowly throughout the summer.  I was going to do triangles, but since that desire has faded I looked at my list and decided I could do needle turned applique mushrooms.  Sounds so fancy, doesn't it?  I have started making a few mushrooms, but am still working out the design and the sizes.  I will hopefully have more to show next week.

But the quilt that is just begging to get attention is my hawk quilt.  I have had a hawk quilt in my head for nearly three months now and since it's not going away then I guess it's going to come out in fabric.  And it's perfect really because then I can enter it in the Wings and Things show coming up in October.  I did make some brown feather colored fabric over the weekend in my fabric painting adventure.  I have also been collecting photos and sketching.  Here is a page from my sketch book below.  And yes, I'm thinking of making three hawks for this quilt.  I must be out of my mind.

And I've thrown in a picture of the pups for good measure.  I still laugh... all that space on the trail and they have to walk smashed together.  Almost hard to tell if that's one dog or two, right? 

Hope your sewing time is plentiful and your creativity is never ending!

WIP {Basting & Quilting the Rainbow Quilt}

Well, I got around to picking the backing for the scrappy rainbow quilt and ended up using a colorful flower sheet from my childhood.  My Mom had saved it for me and we talked about how it would make a nice quilt back.  And I think she was totally right.  The white in the sheet also helps balance out the intense amount of color on the front.  As a bonus it's so very soft from all the washing and use!

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 9
New Projects: 0

Finished Projects: 0 (almost done with bottled rainbows)

Total WiP's: 9

I decided to finish this quilt a little different than normal.  A little easier even.  I put the right sides of the quilt and the backing together and then stitched around the edge leaving a portion unsewn. 

The unsewn part is then used as a hole to turn the quilt right sides out.  I sttiched a 1/4 seam all the way around and closed up that hole.  For the life of me I can't think of the name for this!  But, it means that the quilt edge is finished now and I will not be adding binding which is perfect because my lack of ability to settle on a binding color/fabric was keeping me from finishing this one.

Then, I was off to add a bit of quilting.  Since the front is so busy I was also experiencing paralysis in deciding how to quilt this one.  Then it struck me.  Turn the quilt over and trace the flowers in the quilting.  The organic shape of the flowers and wide spacing should help soften the harsh square lines of the front.  Sometimes I really surprise myself!

I settled on an off white thread for the front and put that in the bobbin since the quilt is upside down and I am using a bright turquoise on the back.

I'm a little more than half way now and head over heels for the result.  Here is a closer look at the blue outlining I am doing on the daisies; cool, right?  And yes, I have snuck a few looks at the front and it's pretty cool too.  My last touch may be to add a quote or happy saying around the edge of the quilt, but I'm still deciding on that one.  Any ideas on a quote you would capture on a bright quilt like this?

...and I still can't wait to throw this one in the wash and see how the edges of the scraps on the front soften up. 

Don't you just love it when a quilt can excite you this much?  Sew on!

Rainbows Almost Done

So, one thing about being home and nursing my allergic reaction was that I found a lot of time for movies and sewing.  And yes, thank you, I am feeling much better -- nearly 100% now.

I am also happy to report that all of my bottled rainbow blocks are sewn!  Aren't they pretty?  I really had a hard time pulling them off the design wall to put them all together, but I am also quite giddy to see what a washing does to the edges of the scraps!  Come on soft fraying!

I have had a lot of time take in the beauty around me too and realized that my red rose bush is blooming!  Last year I had one rose late in the summer, this year since the deer seem to really have left my flowers alone, I see a ton of buds coming!

I also am seeing this pink rose bush bloom for the first time.  Again, this was a plant that the deer ate regularly and once the buds were eaten it took a year to nurse the rose bush back to life again.  I had no idea these were pink (it was here when we moved in), and they smell divine!

Our mountain laurel is also starting to open up.  I only have one bunch of these flowers on the whole bush, but I removed a vine that must have been choking it as well as some dead branches.  I bet this one makes a nice come back next year.  And in the meantime, I just love this one!

I couldn't resist bringing flowers into the house.  Here is that pink rose.  Really smells so good.  And it doesn't get much cuter than a rose in a tiny mason jar.  I'm also joining the Cottage Garden Party at Fishtail Cottage!

Sammy approved.  And she is a hoot as she had to smell each and every rose or peony I cut and brought in.  This one has such a curiosity for all things, makes me laugh sometimes!

Once I finally mustered the energy, I took the bottled rainbow blocks down one by one and started to put them together.  It's funny piecing with batting already in place. 

And yes, I am just loving my sewing table.  The extra table arm on the left there was so handy to hold and prop up the weight as the quilt grew in size. 

Once the last seam was sewn, I dashed outside to put it on the laundry line to take all that rainbow-y goodness in.  I'm a horrible tease... aren't I?

It's everything bright and cheery as I hoped!  I adore seeing all those scraps in a place where they can be enjoyed and the colors are so much fun that you can't help but smile when you see them. 

I am also sharing my progress at Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.  I haven't had much to share there lately, but it's nice to be back!

We'll have a closer look at my works in progress tomorrow.  And I've nearly figured out the backing and binding, but haven't started the basting or quilting yet.  Maybe this week.

Thanks for popping in and hope you are easing into the week nicely!

Happy Bits {number one}

I think this is a fitting title for all those little random bits of happiness that I capture on the camera.  Sometimes the pictures tell a story, but lately I'm noticing that I am using photography to reflect on those little bits of happiness that are in each day.

Just looking through these brings me calmness!  Let's see what made me smile through the week.

Newly made spotted binding.

Sammy.  Also, newly nicknamed Sam-urai!

Doesn't she look like she is in so much trouble here?

Moving my sewing table into the sunny window.

Putting binding on the The Lake piece.

Spending gobs of time outside and watching how quickly Katie closers her eyes in a sunny spot.

Taking notice of all the bulbs that are blooming.  And I just can't get enough of rich colors!!

And Katie's big infectious smile!! 

Ahhhh... see, happier, more balanced and ready for more!

Friday Night Sewing {results}

Had a great night sewing and made a lot more progress on the NY-NY binding -- almost done, cleaned off my desk and workspace nicely, loaded a few bobbins, watched the movie 300, and made some serious progress on this confetti quilting piece of Shadow and Timber.

Here is Shadow and Timber in progress...

The confetti was laid out to create the grass and sky.

A close up of all the tiny scraps.

The meshing is overlaid and then pinned down.

Start to sew and secure the pieces in place as you go.

A look as some of the colors that are going in.

Most of the pieces are secured and textured at this point.

I start pulling fabrics for the details of the dogs, red frisbee, trees in the background, and picnic blanket.  I also cut out the pups Shadow and Timber from a print out to get a template for their bodies.

Shadow was cut out of black fabric and Timber out of white.  I still have the paper templates laid on top and everything is pinned in place to get a feel for the placements.

And a close up view.  

I'm really excited with how this piece is turning out!  I still need to sew all the pieces in place, finish planning the trees and sky, decide if I like how the picnic blanket is rumpled, make a picnic basket and then it's off to finishing details like the dogs eyes and nose, the dogs collars, and maybe some flowers.

Hope your sew-in was a huge success!! 

Can't wait to peak around and see what everyone else did.  You can see the other participants here!

Friday Night Sew In Success!

It was Friday night.  I stuck to my plan and X Marks the Spot is now quilted!  I am still debating a few more details, but I would say it's 98% there.  I can't wait to sew up the binding and put it on. 

Here is what my night looked like...

Filled the bobbins.  First time using Auriful.  Peachy colors.  Totally in love with how smooth everything went.

Rolling and coaxing queen size quilt through my machine.  And take note of foot 'massager' under my desk.  I can't quilt or even really sew without it.

Making good progress!

A closer look.

I'm not giving a lot away with how I am finishing this one yet.  You will see it finished up soon enough and I will spill all the beans.  For now I'm just happy that the weather chilled down so that I was content with a big heavy quilt on my lap.

Happy sewing and hope you are enjoying the weekend!