Done, and.... done...

I finished the pink and aqua floating four patch! It is approximately 39 inches square. It will be donated. I like how it turned out, but there are a couple of puckers in the back. Mostly because I was too frustrated with my machine that night to take it out and fix it. LOL. The back is a pink oxford cloth that has been in my stash for a very long time. Part of the fabrics that my mother gave me years ago. The only fabric that I purchased for this quilt was the white. The rest was either from my stash or from scraps.




AND

I also finished the blue spiderweb quilt. This one is approximately 44 inches square. I LOVE this one although I got really tired of the string piecing. I think I cut my strips too narrow and it took a long time to finish them. The only fabric I purchased for this one was the back/binding. I went with this fun blue polkadot. Otherwise this was completely from my scrap stash as well, even the white. I had intended to donate this one as well, but I'm having second thoughts. :)

My machine is home!

My dear friend Dawn at Associated Sewing came through for me and got my machine done earlier than expected! I was able to go and pick it up Friday. I spent the afternoon yesterday quilting the blue spiderweb quilt and machine stitching the binding onto both the blue spiderweb quilt and the pink and aqua floating four patch quilt. I am now ready to sit down and hand stitch for a while. Those two will be finished then. :)

I have been thinking about starting a new blog along side this one. It would be very basic sewing instruction and just sharing what I have learned through my experience. My mom gave me the basics, but after that I am pretty much self taught. The idea came to me because a friend on Facebook suggested that I come to her house and teach her to sew while my machine was in the shop. I couldn't because she lives in another state, but it gave me the idea that i could put up a blog that would teach the basics.
What do you think?

Fabric editing help please?

Do you see anything that looks like it should be edited out of this collection of fabrics? I need 9.5 yards total and most of these are either scrap pieces or half yard cuts. The yellow is a whole yard and the green gingham check next to it is about 2 yards.
The pattern I plan to use is "Don't Fence Me In" by Carrie Nelson from the book Miss Rosie's Floral Quilts. You can see it draped over the table in this post at her blog.

Oh the agony!

11 yards of brand new fabric and.....
my machine in the shop for at least a week. :(
Last night I was quilting this quilt and my bobbin thread kept getting wound up wrong in the bobbin casing and hanging up. I bet I re-threaded that bobbin a dozen times. The quilt is only 39 inches square and it took me almost 2 hours to quilt it. Ugh! This is an issue I have been fighting for a while, but last night it just about drove me bonkers. So...... I packed it up this morning and ran it to the shop on my lunch break. So now I have to find other projects to finish.

Of course, I just got my package in the mail of the clearance fabric that I ordered from equilter.com yesterday and I was all jazzed up to find a use for it. Great prices on this stuff, all of it was less than $4.00 a yard. :)


I also got an email from a friend that I used to work with. Her daughter has first communion in a couple of months and she wants me to make a dress for her. That will be fun! I made a few things for her daughter when she was really little. A couple of fleece buntings when she was a baby and also an Easter dress when she was about 18 months old or so.

That machine really needs to come home from the hospital soon! LOL

Busy bee...

Wow! Has it really been 12 days since my last post! I have been a busy little bee since then. :)
I finally finished Alexa's sweater that I started and intended to finish for Christmas. Don't laugh, this was my first attempt to knit something that I wanted to give to anyone. I had a few issues along the way, but all in all, I think it turned out ok. I love how the yarn worked up, it is really soft. Now I just have to figure out how to get it to her. Her dad works across the street from where I work, so that shouldn't be too difficult, I just have to catch him while he is there.



I also completed this stack of 30 bandanas to be donated to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The beautiful Jennifer Paganelli fabric was donated by Westminster Fibers. I participated in a hat and bandana drive through an ebay group that I joined a while back. I have a little more fabric to use up for a couple of hats yet. St. Jude is just such a wonderful place and they are doing such important work there. My cousin, Sandra, is a nurse there and I am so proud of her and the work she does with those kids.


I also finished the blue string spiderweb quilt top and sandwiched it. I found the pattern at Quiltville.



Joann has Warm and White batting half price right now, so I bought 6 yards yesterday. I used some for the spiderweb quilt.
I also sandwiched this quilt. And I will soon be sandwiching this one, and this one as well. I will still have a little left for another baby quilt as well. My plans are to donate the baby quilts and keep the larger ones to use at my house.
I hope to get the little ones quilted and bound this week. I am not looking forward to sandwiching the big ones. I hate the crawling around in the floor.

How am I doing on finishing the old projects so far?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that the Lord will bless each of you in the next year!

I have been thinking a bit about "resolutions". I have NEVER been good at resolutions. I, therefore have sort of given them up in recent years. Goal setting has never been something that I have excelled at. :) However this year, I am going to try and set a crafting/sewing goal for myself. You see, it seems that I have a bit of A.D.D. when it comes to my projects. I have a real tendency to start a project and then get bored with it when it is almost finished and set it aside for a new one. The new project always just seems more interesting than the current one. LOL. I have decided that this year I am going to try and finish an old project that I have laying around for every new project that I also finish. So lets say, for instance that I see a new project that I want to do. I do that project and finish it and then before I can start another new project, I have to finish up an older project that I have stashed away some place in my sewing room. This is what I am going to TRY to do. I might need you all to help me to stay on task. LOL. I might even re-work my sidebars a bit to find a place to begin listing them as I get them done. Just so that I can look back and actually see what I have accomplished. So many of these projects are so very close to completion that it is just ridiculous that they are just sitting around unfinished.

What are your resolutions/plans/goals for this year?