An Idea Is Brewing...

As my most recently-completed project is being quilted by my new best friend -- a local long arm quilter -- I find myself toying with ideas for another quilt. Oh, that doesn't mean that I don't have other quilts in progress or in planning. But my problem is that the more experience and practice I get quilting and sewing, the more challenging and creative projects I want to try. Today, I received an email about an embroidery contest from Sublime Stitching. The contest didn't really interest me, but as I was looking around at the patterns, an idea for a really cool quilt came to mind. My next project for myself will be a quilt that will be decorated with hand-embroidered pin-up girls on solid white blocks. Come on, that will be great, huh? I really like the old-school pin-ups, and the embroidery patterns that I have include space girls, cow girls, and old fashioned pin-up girls like you see in vintage posters and magazines. They are all modest, while still being edgy and fun. I will have to choose fabrics, and then maybe find a way to coordinate the embroidery floss colors to the fabrics, but that should be fairly easy. I think it will be a fun project, and at least in the case of the hand embroidery work, it will be something that I can carry around with me and work on even when I'm not sitting in front of my sewing machine.

So that's all for now. Just wanted to get that idea out there. I should jot it down in my craft journal, but this one was too good not to share. And who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and get a REAL embroidery machine for my 10th Wedding Anniversary / Birthday / Christmas later this year. But then again, the machine embroidery wouldn't really give my quilt the same feeling, so no use drooling over an embroidery machine quite yet. I still like the look of the hand work.

Hooray!

I know, it's a lot different than the title from my last post. Not only did I finish hand-stitching all of those origami stars, but I also finished the quilt top AND the backing. My Sweet Honey Hubby is en route as I type to deliver my quilt to my newly-found long arm quilter friend. Seriously, this lady is a trip, and I was so incredibly glad to find someone locally who would not only take my quilting work, but would also be another source of encouragement and guidance as I continue to learn and improve and try new things.

This quilt will be a birthday present for my niece, Mamie. I really should have taken a picture of the quilt top to post, but the lighting was horrible yesterday (storms all day) and then today I was in a hurry to get the quilt on over to the LAQ. So, no pictures yet. I'll definitely post one of the finished quilt. Maybe one before I put on the binding, but definitely after it's all completed.

Next up in the parade of quilts will be to sew my Shoo-Fly rows into the finished quilt top. I'm still not completely set on a border, or what kind, for it, but I talked to the LAQ today in the shop and she does pantograph quilting, so I'm even more excited to get this one finished up and quilted. I want either a butterfly motif or bumble-bees for this one. Julie may have another suggestion, which would be great too. It's so cool to find someone who can share their opinion and help guide me. I am so new to all of this that I don't really know what questions to ask or what to try or what works and doesn't work, but she was really great with me today, talking through lots of ideas.

Then I have Gunnar's I-Spy quilt, which is ready, other than the border, so I'll probably take that one and the Shoo-Fly to her at the same time.

After that, I have a baby quilt to make for one of the make-up women that has befriended Erick when he is on set. I already have the fabric for the top, and the pattern that I plan on using goes on sale in two days, so I'll be ready to get started on that one by the end of the week.

It's funny to think how much I've already learned. Even more amazing is to think that only four months ago, I didn't even know how to thread a machine. The quilting/sewing bug has definitely gotten hold of me. It's so thrilling to start with fabric from a huge bolt and see it become something beautiful under my hands. I have the same feeling when I'm knitting, except I still knit WAY slower than I can already sew. Obviously, that is probably always the case, but I get to see things taking shape almost immediately when I am sewing. I really enjoy the process, but I definitely get a kick out of seeing the thing through to the end.

That's it for now. I'll update with a picture when Mamie's quilt is finished.

Aargh

For the record, hand sewing is NOT my talent-gift. Ugh. Aargh. Ick. Harumph. 

I am working on a quilt for my niece's birthday, which was actually a couple of weeks ago. The quilt pattern looked deceptively simple. What I thought would be the hard part was the origami style folded stars on half of the blocks. Well, that went incredibly smoothly, but now I am at the point of hand-tacking the star shapes to their blocks so that they stay folded, and I am just beginning to get the hang of it. My first block looks fine out the outside, which is good, but the back side looks like a drunk woman did the sewing. Each block is getting easier, however, and I guess by the time I finish all ten star blocks, I might actually have a feel for what I'm doing. Ha! The tricky part is two-fold. One, the stitches actually have to be positioned so that they hold the stars in place. I mean, it's no good making a cool origami quilt, only to have the stars come unfolded at the first washing. Second, the stitches all have to be hidden. It's equally crummy to make a cool origami quilt and be able to see tacky stitches running around on the outside of the blocks. So it's just slow going for me -- one who is definitely NOT a seasoned hand-stitcher. 

Never fear, I'll get there eventually. The quilt construction is not complicated at all, and I've done all the rest of the cutting, so it should come together quickly... once the star blocks are all tacked down. Ugh.

And here is a weird question. How come I loved the hand-stitched binding that I did on my first quilt, but the hand sewing for these stars is such a pain in the butt? Seriously, it makes no sense at all. 

Back to it... ugh.