My First Quilt: Part 4

Once I was organized, it was smooth sailing–er, sewing. Progressing horizontally across the quilt, I sewed pairs of blocks together, and then sewed sets of double-blocks together and sew on (sorry, I couldn't resist). This part went pretty quickly. Once that was finished, I sewed the horizontal bars together and le voilà!

It's not completely done yet. It needs a border, and a backing, binding, and then it needs to be quilted; but it's been hanging out in this maybe-80%-finished state for a while.

These are the fabrics I had originally picked out for the border and the back.

I'm not quite loving them. They just don't quite seem to fit. And I haven't been a rush to find something else, either.

My First Quilt: Part 3

When we left off, I had cut the fabric and drawn myself a map.

When I picked it up again, I realized many of my cuts were off and I had lost my map.

If the cuts were just crooked, I could have made it work. And many of them were, but there were a few that were waves. I'll post a picture as soon as I can find one, but I have no idea what happened. I couldn't repeat it if I tried.

I put on my blinders and kept sewing--despite all common sense--because I could sort it all out later and it would be fine. I was lying.

I had no map. I did not have all the blocks that I started with. I had no idea what I was going to do.

I ripped out most of the seams that had been sewn, and sorted and counted my blocks again. Then I started arranging them on the floor until it seemed to work again. I had to make two important sacrifices:

1. The quilt would be whatever size it wanted to be. It definitely would not cover a queen size bed as intended, and probably wouldn't even cover a twin. It will hang out at the foot of the bed, I guess?
2. Apparent randomness went out the window. The blocks would have to follow a certain sequence so that one block didn't touch any two of the same.

That is how we arrived at this picture:

I didn't just draw a map this time. Oh, no. I drew a map, and labelled it, and stapled a swatch of each fabric to the map. Then I took about six dozen pictures. You know, just in case I accidentally deleted 71 of them.

When I put the blocks away, I kept them arranged in their rows, paper clipping a scrap of paper with the row number written on it. The rows were then stacked chronologically--it would be smooth sailling from here on out.

Ten o'clock on a Friday night. Bo was almost as tired as I was. Almost.

My First Quilt: Part 2

When I started planning this quilt, I knew I couldn't sew a straight line to save my life. I wanted to keep it simple, I wanted to enjoy the process (ha!); which, in my mind, meant not ripping out and redoing every single seam until it was perfect.

I decided on an off-set brick pattern, in order to avoid an almost-four-corners situation. You know, when there's a little jog because (Oops!) Arizona is crooked. And wide seam allowances, so that when I got of course, I could allow for it and hide it.

I wanted the pattern to be somewhat random, but I did not want any one square to touch two squares of the same fabric.

I wanted this (above) as opposed to that (below)

Although based on my sketch, I'm liking the latter better.

Anyway, I cut my fabric (6" x 4" rectangles), drew myself a map and called it a night.

My First Quilt: Part 1

Back when I worked at a fabric and craft store, I loved helping customers choose fabrics for quilts. Loved it. Almost as much as I loved putting the fabric away. Okay, maybe the quilting thing is actually second the putting-things-away thing. I loved my job.

Somewhere along the line, I decided I needed to pick out some fabrics for myself.


Picking the fabric was the easy part.

Picking the fabric was the only easy part.

This was the first pick I took, roughly half-way through. At the time, the only thing preventing me from chucking the whole thing was my own pigheadedness. But more on that tomorrow!

Using a Dress Form

I haven't gotten the chance to play with mine yet, but here are some useful tutorials for getting started:



The Problem With Dress Forms

How To Use A Dress Form

How To Drape Fabric On A Dress Form

How To Alter Patterns On A Dress Form

Padding A Dress Form To More Closely Match Your Body

New Roommate!

We have a new roommate!

I named her "Imelda." I don't know why, it just came to me.

My mother-in-law rescued her from a thrift store. She needs a little TLC, in the form of Febreeze and dusting and a couple tiny bolts that need to be replaced, but she was a great buy–just $50. New dress forms usually start at about $150.

I'm looking forward to figuring out how to use her!

Collapsable Shopping Bag

I made this collapsable shopping bag, from One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.

I'm still learning to sew, but this was probably the easiest thing I've made yet, despite the fact that it involved French seams. I didn't need to rip out a single stitch! Minor victories, they matter.

I used this white-on-gray flowered print I got at Crafty Planet years ago, which, coincidentally Hoskins is co-owner. These were originally make-shift curtains in my first apartment.

Make-shift because there was no curtain rod, and it's really hard to put holes in a brick wall. I ended up attaching them with Velcro: one side on the top of the fixture for the blinds, the other side on the curtain. Thankfully, my landlord didn't notice the added velcro when I moved out so I got my full deposit back.

Somehow, every time I hand my husband the camera, pictures of our dog *magically* appear.

With 'nary a wrinkle

I started a sewing project today, the Hot Pad Apron by Destri Bufmack, from "Fabric-by-Fabric One Yard Wonders." I am not an accomplished sewer. I am not even a competent sewer. I am a "...but I tried so hard!" sewer, however, I felt good about this project. I LOVE the fabric (and it was on sale!), and the apron is awesome. Hot pads for pockets! Genius!

I washed and dried it, I squared the grain, I measured and measured again and cut, piece by piece, with nary a wrinkle. I get to the last piece to cut, the very last one. I need to end up with four 9 inch squares. I measure once, I measure twice, I measure three times but it's just not going to happen, the laws of geometry are against me: my fabric is one inch short.

I really wanted to do this tonight, but I absolutely do not want to go back to the store tonight. And my husband doesn't want to, either. I cut two 9 inch squares out of the fabric I have; I'm planning to get some coordinating solid fabric for the other 2 squares and put those on the inside. Disappointing, but it is what it is.

Time Struggles

It's been quiet on the blog lately. I do have several projects in the works, but nothing's ready to show yet. And it doesn't help that the two projects that are making the most progress are the only two that have to be kept secret. One of those is a pattern that I hope to release mid-August, the other is a gift I hope to finish around the same time. That will then free me up for other things, I hope.

I'm at a point where it's hard to plan what to knit, and when and where to knit it. For the first time since college, I have a job that affords me the opportunity to knit at work (we'll call it Baboushka). However, if I knit something of my own design at work, it would legally be Baboushka's intellectual property. I doubt Baboushka would choose to take any action unless it involves lots and lots and lots of money, but I don't want to take that chance. (And if I do somehow make lots and lots and lots of money from knitting patterns, I think I would like to keep it.) So better safe than, sorry, right?

So in my head I have two knitting queues: Baboushka knitting and Creative knitting. Knitting other people's patterns, and knitting what I make up. And there's also the queue of things I'm dying to make, like Array and Color Affection. I've even bought the yarn for these two. But how do I manage my time so that I can get everything done?

Right now, the Baboushka knitting queue consists of two overdue baby sweaters, and a scarf. The scarf was tacked on recently by the request of a coworker, who has been teasing me about knitting him a scarf. I thought he was just messing around, until he facebooked me outside work and was more direct about it. Which is fine, I don't mind. He's offered to cover the cost of the yarn, the project itself shouldn't take too long. But now that I've taken this request, will there be others? Will they keep me from knitting the projects I see on Ravelry and have a burning desire to make? Don't get me wrong, these projects are all things I genuinely want to do. I'm not sure how to do it.

Because I also have non-knitting projects I'd like to do. I want to sew a jacket. I have a pattern, I have the material. But not the time. I also want to make a quilt for our bedroom, to tie all the colors together. Same thing, I have the fabric, the pattern, just not the time. Because I also have to sleep. And eat. And spend time with my husband and my other people. And attempt to keep the home place reasonably tidy, and keep us in clean clothes. And work. Working does come in handy when it comes time to pay for things. Somehow I'll figure it out. Someday.