It's Been A While!

The very first quilt that I pieced was for my oldest daughter, Kendall.  She was born on Christmas Day, and so when I decided that I'd pick up quilting, I thought I'd start with one for her - a Christmas quilt - and then see how I liked quilting. 

Well, a year and a half later, and that quilt is still not finished!  The piecing came together pretty quickly.  And I actually sandwiched it pretty early on, too.  But other things kept popping up to keep me from finishing it.

Sometime last year, I did start to quilt it, but 1) my tension was off, and 2) I didn't like the way I was quilting it.  Which meant I had to rip.  And I hate ripping!  Until this past weekend, the last time I even touched this quilt was last Christmas.

But I finally got all the bad quilting ripped out, and restarted! 

After my Solids Challenge Quilt, I can't even believe I've come back to pebbling.  I swore I would never pebble again!  But, I'm only going to pebble in the white sashing.  Everywhere else, I'm straight-line quilting.  It's a twin-sized quilt, so it's kind of slow-going, but I'm really liking it, and it may even be done in time for her birthday/Christmas Day!

Merry Early Christmas!

I officially finished everything that I needed to make for Christmas gifts a few days ago. Even the thing that I was saving to make at my mom's house, because I didn't think I'd have time to make it here! I'm proud of myself for actually getting everything done on time, because I have a history of not meeting deadlines.

Since I use our dining room as my sewing area, I'm packing everything up and putting it all away in a closet, because tomorrow is my oldest daughter's 3rd birthday party! I don't want to tempt little 2, 3, and 4-year olds with beautiful fabric, sharp needles, and spools of thread, you know.

Early next week, we leave for Florida until the New Year, so this is pretty much my last post until then! It'll be weird to not sew for that long, especially since I've done so much sewing these last couple of weeks. But I need the break, and I'm really looking forward to it. I will be taking Kendall's quilt with me, because I started quilting it, and didn't like how it was turning out, so I figured this would be a good time to work on ripping it out.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I've already made out a to-do list for 2011...Have you?

Check It

Emily posted pictures of our last LAMQG meeting. For show and tell, I brought in Kendall and Cami's quilts (I won't even talk about how nervous I was to stand up in front of everyone, because that's just silly), and she got a couple of pics. Check out her post that has tons of pictures of everyone's projects - someone even brought in quilt tops made by her great grandma that were sitting in a garage! I'm always amazed and humbled by the talent in that room.

Character

I've been so busy working on both quilts that I haven't had time to blog! My new machine came in last week, and it's definitely been getting a workout. I love it! Check out my messy workspace. I am by no means a neat, organized crafter...or person, for that matter.




To sum up, I've finished Kendall's quilt top, and I've done this week's quilt along assignment.

I was talking to Melissa the other day, telling her that I'm not super happy about some of the imperfections in Kendall's quilt, to which she assured me that those "little" imperfections give the quilt character.

Well, let me just say, both of these quilts will have oodles of character! They are far from perfect, but I'm trying to be okay with that.

Anyways, here's Kendall's quilt top. I don't know why, but I don't feel like showing the whole thing. I think I'll wait til it's all done.



And here's Cami's.

I Got Busy!

I hit a stand-still with my quilt along (I didn't buy enough of the orange fabric), and since my jelly roll for Kendall's quilt came in the other day, I thought I'd cut out my 125 2 1/2" x 5" pieces for that.

Except I didn't stop there.

I then cut the fabric I need for the corners (the red fabric).

Then I cut out the fabric I need for the top, bottom, and sides (the pink fabric).

Then I cut out all the white sashing.

Which means I'm done cutting all the fabric I need for the quilt top!



I even laid out the coin pieces in the way I want for all 5 rows, and stacked them in order in piles. Now I'm ready to sew it all together!

Oh, and I have some very exciting news. Well, it's exciting to me anyway. I ordered a new sewing machine from overstock.com, and today's the day it comes. I'm so excited! My little White Classic has been good, but I'm ready for something better.

Now, what to do with the old one? If you've gotten a new machine, what did you do with your old one?

Fabric!

Today, the LA Modern Quilt Guild took a field trip! We first met at Starbucks, where one regular (I'm guessing) customer said it was about a decibel louder than normal. Then it was off to Michael Levine's to take a tour and browse their beautiful and plentiful fabrics! Did I mention we were given 20% off our purchases? Yeah...

I did good, though - I didn't go overboard. I bought fabric that I needed for Kendall's Christmas/Birthday Quilt (what was supposed to be the original "first quilt"). The pink and red will be used for the front of the quilt, and the other two will be for the back. I've ordered the jelly roll I need for the coin part of the quilt, so I'm pretty much all set.



When I bought my fabric for Cami's quilt, I had no idea what to do for the back, so I only bought the fabric I needed for the front. Now I know what I'm gonna do, so I was really on the lookout for more of the Apple Collection fabric at the store. Unfortunately, I only found one of them, but I bought what I needed of that.

My one "splurge" was this darling fabric that I couldn't resist! I have absolutely no idea what to do with it, but I just had to have it.



After shopping, we went to lunch at Clifton's, which was unexpected, weird, and fun! I had a great time finally getting to know some of the ladies, I officially became a member, and I'm looking forward to our next get together!

When I came home, I learned about Kendall's new hat (in case you can't tell, it's her panties).



And I was greeted by this little monkey.



Life is good.

The story

I just have to say, that hopefully, the title of this blog will be a misnomer at some point, because I'd like to do more quilts (I think), and would like to document all of my quilting experience here.

That said - let me give some background...

A few years back, when we were living in Ohio, my mom came to visit, and I decided it was time for me to buy a sewing machine. She went with me and helped me pick one out. It's a White Classic 312. I got it for around $60. I used it a couple of times - I made a couple of purses, a couple of sets of pillow cases, and maybe a few other things here and there.

Then I didn't use it for a looooooonnnnnnggggg time.

I would break it out maybe a couple of times a year, at the most.

Now, in 2010, I've used the machine more than I've used it since I first got it! I made a camera strap, a couple of blankets, a few burp cloths, an apron, and I think that's it.

So, I'm feeling it right now. I've always been so intimidated by sewing, but I'm not anymore. I mean, for some things I still am...but I know more about my machine, so I'm more comfortable with it all.

However, I was not at all interested in quilting. I think I even said those exact words to my husband..."Trust me, that's one thing I won't do!"

Until...

Melissa invited me to the May meeting of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild. I told myself that I would go just to go...gets me out of the house for a night, I get to spend some time with Melissa, whatever, it would be fun. But, in the back of my head, I had this nagging little voice that kept telling me, "You're going to leave that meeting wanting to make a quilt."

That voice was right.

I was so inspired by these women and their beautiful quilts! I always thought of quilting as so old-fashioned, but this is the modern quilt guild. And I'm a modern kind of girl!

I walked into the store where the meeting was being held, (Home Ec, which is in Silverlake on Sunset), and I saw the total cuteness of it all, and even before the meeting started I was asking Melissa how much it cost to be a member, because I was more than likely going to want to join.

After the meeting was over, I asked the president of the guild what would be a good starting quilt for me based on my experience. She recommended I start out with a coin quilt.

I had no idea what that was, so instead of seeming more clueless than I already was, I nodded my head, and made a mental note to check out what a coin quilt was as soon as I got home.

I did that, and excitedly told Grant that I wanted to join. But I didn't really know what I wanted to make. As I was showing him pictures of quilts that people from the guild have made, I saw what really inspired me - a Christmas quilt! I would make a Christmas quilt for Kendall's bed! She's my oldest daughter (she's 2 1/2), and was born on Christmas day.

The next day, I was completely obsessed with the idea. I found a tutorial for a coin quilt, and found the fabric that I wanted to use.

The tutorial for the quilt is for a crib sized quilt. I want to do a twin size. So, I figured I would just use this tutorial, but then add some borders around it to make it big enough for a twin. But how to do that?

I printed off some graph paper, and went to work. I've never done anything like this before, so it was a little challenging, but I'm happy with my design.



So, that's what I have so far. An idea and a drawing. I want to use this blog to show the whole process from start to finish. Seeing that the fabric I want isn't even in stock yet, I'll have to wait a bit. But in the mean time, I'll post other projects that I do. I already have another one all drawn up.