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!

Stuff to look at.

Coming up with a title for each post is not one of my strong suits! But I took some pictures of my quilt/craft space and stuff that's on there right now, so let's take a look.

fabric I am thinking of using for a border on flower quilt

I love this pincushion

pink fabrics stacked on quilt pieces

fabric scissors, ruler, mat and rotary cutter, which I cannot do without

fabric stack reflected in ruler.

That was the quick tour of what is on my craft table right now. The flowering vines quilt is rolling around in my head all the time and so all the fabrics sit on my desk. At the stage right now where I need to put a border around the main area so I can put the outer squares/rows on the quilt top. Then I can move onto the applique part.
This border part is like a mini roadblock, not sure what fabric to use for this. My ability to be very indecisive is coming out!
I could ask you my lovely readers to help me in the decision! I will show you the fabrics I am considering and you weigh in! I like this idea, so check back and let me know what you think.

Flowers, flowers everywhere!

The Flowering Vines Quilt is moving along. Below is a reminder of the flower quilt, on the cover of this awesome book.

I've gone through a few packages of the Lite Steam-A-Seam already, so I will have to find a larger package of this stuff! Now let's take a look of what's new:

Leaves

Flower centers

Flowers

Flower fabric

Fabric for more flowers

Quilt Sketches

Make it Lite!

Applique, I continue to work on my skills. You see right now my applique knowledge is at a medium level from all the reading I have done on this technique. But getting comfortable with actual applique is still new to me.
Yesterday I went to Joanns, 40% off coupon in hand, and bought this lovely pack of fusible web sheets.

I was thinking I originally wanted a fusible web that wasn't double sided, but not sure now that I roll it around in my noggin if that would work. I really want something that doesn't add bulk to my applique, since right now the applique flowers I already made with a regular Steam-A-Seam2 are super stiff and will have to come off the Flowering Vines quilt.

You can't tell in this picture, but it's like cardboard and will totally not work on this quilt! I love this flower though, oh it's cute.

I went searching for more info on fusible web applique technique the other day and stumbled upon critterpat's channel on Youtube. The lovely Deborah Konshinsky had a whole video series on Machine Applique. This particular video is Machine Applique part 2 raw edge:




I like the raw edge and the "drawing" on the applique, there seems to be so much freedom in this technique. I need all the space to be creative and explore. Not that anyone is holding me back, but my own sense of needing to be perfect!

Here is my first quick attempt at using the Lite fusible web and machine applique raw edge technique (whew).

I had to mess with the tension a little to get the stitches looking and working how I wanted but I love how soft and pliable this turned out, and I can't wait to keep going!

Works in Progress

The Flowering Vines quilt is mainly what I am working on right now. The applique is where I am stuck, but got some great advice from Melody, an amazing quilter, check out her blog, fibermania.blogspot.com

This quilt is waiting patiently for me to put this lovely flower fabric on the back, so basically finish it. Hopefully I can finish this one by the end of the week!

Photographing and posting amigurumi teddy bears.

I have had these bears done for atleast 6 months. I went on this huge streak of constant crocheting once I learned how to make the crochet stuffed animals. Then I hurt my wrists from too much crochet so I stopped and these got put away in my craft closet. put all three of these teddy bears up on my etsy shop cherryheartdesigns.etsy.com

My makeshift photo studio in the bedroom. I am still figuring out the best way to take pictures of the things I make! This seemed to work pretty well though.

I was able to take some pretty good detail shots of the bears, here is one that I really liked.

My puppy Mason wanted his picture taken to and kept taking the teddy bears for himself when I wasn't paying attention. Caught in the act!

Flower quilt in process

I cut more stacks of fabric for the flower quilt. I have so many quilts in progress, along with other projects, I thought I should go back to this one and see how much I could get done.

I included some new fabrics, like the cherry fabrics.

A snapshot of the progress on the flower quilt and the new fabric stacks waiting to be sewn together.

Crochet Octopus

I am starting a new crochet animal! It's going to be a Quadapus (a four legged octopus) as designed and named by the boyfriend.

He helped me pick out the colors for a crochet bunny that I make and has really been the best selling one that I have made.

I decided to use a darker blue for the Quadapus's sweater. Check back to see his super cuteness come together!

I love my Cherry quilt!

I decided one day to go to Joann's fabric store and buy a fat quarter of all the cherry fabric I could find. Who knew they had so many?! I think I bought 10 different patterns of cherries! 

I wanted to do a diagonal style quilt in strips. It was very simple and went quickly. The strips were cut 3 1/2" x length of fabric. I then added a gingham fabric I had in my stash as a nice accent border. The gingham strips were 3" x length of quilt. I then used deep red Kona cotton for the back of the quilt and binding. The final size of this baby quilt is 38"x40".

Closer detail of the quilt.

Mason being so cute in front of the cherry quilt, which he loves! I think he wants every quilt I make for himself!

Messing with the look.

Blogger has this whole new way to make blogs on blogspot.com look new and updated. I am experimenting with new backgrounds to see how it looks. Have any feedback? Let me know!

I'm back.

I have been gone from this lovely blog of mine for no apparent reason, besides enjoying the summer sun!! Check back to see what quilt projects I have made some good progress on!

Applique part two.

I began the process of ironing on the applique's to my quilt. I tried to sew on the applique but it just made large holes in the fabric. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I continue to experiment and see if I can figure it out.