Fixes and pillows.

So it's looking like my camera lens is the problem. Sad. I guess if you bump the lens in anyway the gears or springs or some technical thing gets ruined. I must have hit the lens on something at some point. (big sigh). 

The good news is that I can still manually focus my camera, bad news is if I want a new lens (which I will eventually have to do) the money will have to come from my new sewing machine funds. For today though my awesome sister took pics of my pillowcase with her Iphone! (thanks KP!)

finished pillowcase

I love the parasol fabric!

This pillowcase was soooo easy to make! Check it out here.

Pillowcases and pictures.

Sadly something is wrong with my camera and I cannot take pictures!! Arrgh! I am going to take it to a camera shop this afternoon to have it looked at. Hopefully it is something minor, I love my Nikon D40 and I want to take pictures!! I guess you will all have to wait, sorry! I will try to take pictures of them before I donate them!

Pillowcases for a Cause

Check back later today for pictures of my handmade pillowcases. I am getting them ready for the monthly meeting this Tuesday the 24th, of the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild (find us on Facebook!). The pillowcases are for a great cause.

Oh blocks!

Welcome to the continuation of my improvised pinwheel quilt. I think I have to come up with a new name for it since it's not really pinwheels anymore!

Remember this?

Once I have my squares or rectangles (let's be honest, this is not a precise quilt!) I then add this really pretty cream colored cotton to the sides.

I cut 2" x length of fabric strips of this cotton and sew it to each side.

This is how the blocks will look when finished.

I love how this is turning out. Not following a pattern has allowed me a lot of room for creativity. In some ways though it is a relief to see it coming together. I think I may actually get a few quilts out of these blocks!

Oooh, Quilt Challenge!

Exciting quilting challenge news over at the Modern Quilt Guild! Starting in September 2010 (only a few weeks away, how fast this year went!) quilting challenges will be announced and great prizes will be given away! Check it out!

Improvising

I am not a quilt pattern using kind of girl, so sometimes this gets me into some sticky quilting situations. Most recent quilt is a prime example! As you may remember I brought out this pinwheel quilt from the ufo pile.

I finished sewing the triangles together to make about 50 pinwheels. I brought a few pinwheels to Joann's the other day, looking for some neutral fabric to bring this quilt together.

Thankfully my sister came with me and told me how crazy I was to think I could somehow put sashing in between each pinwheel. She also reminded me how much work not using a pattern can create when quilting!  She helped me come up with a great solution though! Squaring off the pinwheels, total light bulb moment! Here are the basics of what I did to turn the six sided pinwheel into a rectangle.

finished pinwheel

fold in half

mark each cutting point

cut along dotted line

both sides have been cut off

I cut up each of the pinwheels in this way. Not all of the finished blocks are the same size, but that is the fun part of improvising!

Check back tomorrow to see these squares and rectangles made into quilt blocks!

Quadapus

New crochet buddy is finished, the Quadapus (named by the b.f.). I tend to work on the crochet for a day or two then put it away for a few weeks. My wrist does not like working on crochet so I have to take breaks so that is why the Quadapus took so long to make. Now that he is done though I love him so much I am already half-way done with his look alike!

Browsing fabric sites

When I can't sleep or want to avoid stuff I need to get done, I look at fabric sites. So last night was one of those nights where sleep was impossible! But I just found this fabric designer, Kayo Horaguchi, kayomaru.com, who does this crazy fabric. My favorite is the Kayo Haroguchi Cheetah and Giraffe Double Gauze Cotton which I found over at pinkchalkfabrics.com.
Being relatively new to blogging I am not sure how to include pictures from other websites. I know, crazy how far behind I am, but once my b.f. teaches me how, posts like this will be more dynamic!

Good things.

Somehow I stumbled upon this background for my blog. The other one was too bright and didn't quite go. I love this background, think I found a winner!

I had a really fun day today! I babysat my sister and sister-in-law's 4 month old puppy, Bohdi.

Look at his giant paws! He went to the dog park with Mason and I this morning. As soon as we got home he ate his lunch super fast and passed out!

After I gave Bohdi back to my sister, I ran some errands. For about a week now I have been sewing with the wrong size needle. I was using both a 11/75 and a 16/100 because I was too stubborn to just go to Joann's and get a pack of the 14/90's that I needed. So off to Joann's I went today to get my needles. I even had a 40% off coupon!!!

Really close to the Joann's is this little cafe called Quickly's. They have all of these different bubble tea's which I have totally been craving. I love the little tapioca balls in the bottom of the cup!!! Yummmm.

I have kind of, almost, given up Starbucks and have been on the hunt for a new place for yummy cold drinks. Well, I am now in love with Quickly's, oh so yummy! I got the coffee bubble tea but they had a gazillion flavors! I also was so ecstatic to see that they had the plastic pressed on top that you have to poke with your giant straw, really it's the small things that make me the happiest! I haven't had this style of bubble tea since I lived in Washington state and would go up to Uwajimaya's in Seattle!

Pinwheel Quilt

Out comes the Pinwheel Quilt! I first blogged about this quilt on March 8, 2010. I was going to work on the flying geese quilt but found the Pinwheel quilt first in my craft closet. Sadly, this w.i.p. has been in the u.f.o. pile since March. I am excited to give it another go and see if I can finish it this time around. Now for some pictures!

A pile of triangles waiting to be turned into pinwheels.

Here is a better perspective, seems like a mini mountain of fabric! I totally have my moments when I am making a quilt where I feel a little overwhelmed by all the piecing that I still need to get through!

A few finished pinwheels. Well, not finished all the way. I think I am going to add corners to them so they are squared up and there is some space between each pinwheel (that is a different blog post for a different day though!).

Being completely revealing here is the back of one of the pinwheels! Aaaghhhh! Don't judge too harshly! I was just about to write a few excuses for why it's so wonky but I won't! This is what the back looks like, so now you know I really am showing you my process!

Stack of Pinwheel blocks waiting to be ironed.

U.F.O. pile.

So as my readers and followers of the blog, you know I have been working on the flowering vines quilt for awhile now.

I finished squaring it up since it was all wonky. The thing is, I have been thinking over the last few days about moving it to the U.F.O. ( un-finished object) pile. Since I like to work on one quilt at a time and tend to only be able to stand a certain level of frustration when it comes to sewing, it looks like the flowering vines quilt will be moved to the UFO pile sometime today. Part of the frustration with this quilt is aimed at my sewing machine. I have a pretty cheap Singer that has only the extreme basic functions. I would like a better machine but am holding out until I can afford a good machine. Since I don't have enough saved yet, this quilt will have to wait.

I know that pile can be a sad and lonely place for a quilt to be,  but if I put the f.v. quilt there I can work on the flying geese quilt again.

I think my quilting skills have improved since the f.g. quilt went in the pile many months ago so it should be easier for me to tackle.

Ripping out and squaring quilt.

I noticed the other day when I tried to fold the Flowering Vines quilt that it isn't square. Ughhhh. This has happened to me before on a small baby quilt I made that I ended up giving to my dog, which he loves. I am not quite good at squaring up a quilt, yet. The great thing is that I can fix this mistake!

I ripped out two sides of the quilt's border, used a fabric pen to draw a new line for the border and now I am ready to sew it all back together!

ripped out side

new line drawn in

making progress

Mason!

Quilt Show! Quilt Show! Quilt Show! (from awhile ago)

I am awake at 3 in the morning not able to sleep. Wanted to do a blog post but not wake anyone up by taking pictures of the progress I made yesterday on my flowering vines quilt. Let's look at some pictures from the East Bay Heritage Quilter's Voices In Cloth 2010 quilt show in Oakland, CA. The show was at the Oakland Convention Center on April 10-11th, which happened to be the weekend I was moving. I was so happy we finished moving in time for me to attend this show!

Sorry for not having the quilter's information! This is the first time I have gone to a quilt show and then wrote about it (extremely after the fact) on my blog. Promise to do better next time!!

I loved the detail of this quilt. Standing back and close up reveals two different experiences of this work.

I wish I had a more detailed picture of this quilt. It was incredible, as you can see.

I love the movement in this quilt, not only in the pattern but also in the machine quilting.

This particular quilt was one of my favorites. The star block, in all its varieties is one of my top blocks. I would have liked to see this quilt without the green in it. My eye is drawn to the green and takes away the focus from the overall design of the quilt.

Love this quilt though, that is why I am standing, smiling in front of it!

look, in my hand all the info.

10 Things you may not know about me.

1. I am a twin. My sister and I were born a minute apart, her first. She says we are a few minutes apart, so she is that much older than me!
2. I grew up in a very small town in Nebraska but now live in California via Washington state. I think all those places shaped me in some way.
3. I learned to sew from my Grandma and 4-H. I learned to love sewing and all things creative from my Mom.
4. I earned a Masters degree in Psychology but don't use the degree. Some days I feel good about it and some days I wish things were different.
5. I was born with a serious heart condition. Finally as an adult I feel in control of my health and see all the struggle I went through was worth it, just to be where I am today.
6. I tend to be somewhat shy, but once I know you I cannot stop talking.
7. I love Starbucks Chai Cream Frappacino, venti of course!
8. I want to be good at something right away. Quilting is no exception. I am learning to be okay with my mistakes, actually to see them as something creative, this helps me to keep going.
9. I am in love with the man in my life and cannot imagine my life without him. We hope to soon be parents. I never thought I would ever be able to have a baby, but was given permission by my cardiologists earlier this year. We are excited and nervous for what lies ahead, but are so ready!
10. I have always loved to write, but have struggled with my "voice" as a writer. Got in the habit of being very dry and academic from all the years in college. I love blogging though, and love that I can be myself.

2 hours.

I have decided to commit to two hours a day working on my quilting and sewing. It may either sound like a lot or not that much but for me I see it's what I need to do if I want to be serious about being a great quilter. I tend to get caught up in the other stuff that needs to get done around the house and end up not working on sewing. So let's look at what I got done this morning during my two hours!

flowering vines quilt border fabric

sewing on the border

border finished!