W.I.P. Wednesday

Today I was cutting and cutting and cutting and sewing and sewing and ironing and ironing and ironing. Thanks to Bobbi for a great afternoon! This one should be quick and its already lovely. :)

I'm not losing a WIP, I'm gaining a living room floor...

I'm not gonna lie to ya.  The reason I finally finished this quilt is because I had THREE self imposed deadlines.  One, I really wanted to work on the binding during our loooooooong car trip to Illinois and back, so I had to have it ready for binding by June 17th.  Two, it was meant as a birthday gift for Brecken who was 1 year (holy cow, how did THAT happen?) on July 9th.  Three, I wanted to show it off at the South Jordan Modern Quilt Guild meeting on July 19th.  Done, done, and DONE!  Yay!  (Although, truth time again, I took the quilt on my trip with every intention of finishing it and then got distracted with family fun and ended up finishing it up the two nights before Brecken's birthday!) 

My inspiration for this one came from Jess over at Urban Patchwork.  She has an awesome tutorial posted that I referred to MANY times.  I just took a few pics as I went.  You can get the detailed instructions on her site.  :)

Here is the stack that I started with.  A lot of the fabrics are from Sanctuary by Patty Young.  My fave at the bottom is Dahlia Lama in Seafoam.  It was the print I wanted to showcase on the back of the quilt.  I didn't end up using that alphabet print.  I didn't want it to always be a "baby" quilt.  Once I got going I added in some other prints with similar colors and the solids are Kona White, Kona Coal, and I think the turquoise was Kona Lagoon.

It took me forever to cut all the pieces.  I basically fussy cut most of the diamonds instead of doing strips because I wanted all the prints with squares to be straight and not on an angle.  Then I laid them all out on the living room carpet in the pattern I wanted and left it there on the floor for about a month, no kidding!  After all that cutting I was a little afraid to start sewing because I didn't want to screw it up and unpick everything.  Also, I'd heard that diamonds are hard to sew without stretching out of shape.  And also, maybe I was being a tad lazy.  ;)

Piecing, piecing, piecing.  Trying so hard not to stretch the fabric!

Sometimes I had a helper.  This is where the photos came in handy so I could see how I needed to put the pieces back together!

Hand sewing the binding.  I really liked this tutorial and this one. 

Finished!

The back is the Dahlia Lama print with a few other faves thrown in.  And Paul was actually the one who decided that the purple polka dots needed to be on the back and I love it!  This was my first time piecing a backing.  It wasn't as bad as I thought!  Maybe I can piece the back to my hexagon quilt finally!

Another view of the front.  This one was hard to give away, but at least its owner lives in my house so I can visit.  ;)

A Whole lot of Rearranging going on...

My sister Debbie moved out yesterday. She has been living with us since we moved to Utah in August. It was so fun to get to live together! The last time we lived together she was 12! The girls are really sad that Aunt Debbie is leaving us but really excited because that means they get to have their own rooms again. In concept I like the idea of them learning to share and be kind and grow their sisterly bond or whatever. In reality they made each other nuts and in the process drove me nuts as well. Skyler likes to get up early and Alina found that super annoying (and I don't blame her one bit!).  :)  So after helping Debbie move her stuff over to her new place we got started rearranging the girls. They are both really enjoying their space and Paul and I are enjoying the peace & quiet!

If you come to visit us {please do!} this is where you will stay so I hope you like ponies.  :)

Bonus:  While we were at Ikea looking for bins & stuff I found the perfect table to use for my sewing machine and it was only $20! So after the girls were in bed I rearranged the whole sewing room too!  Ok, my sewing room is really the living room which I sorta took over because we really only use it for the piano. 

See?

Man, I have got to get some photos on those walls.  I'm kind of scared to put holes in the wall though since we're renting.

My own little corner.  Much better than sharing the dining room table.

Did you notice my hexagon quilt in progress up there on the chair to the right of my sewing table?  This is some of the fabric for the backing & binding.  Yum.

Fabric shelf.  On the left are half yard cuts of cotton.  The middle is cuts of a yard or more and fabrics like flannel.  On the right are fat quarters & charm packs.

Half yards.

More Fat Quarters.

Vintage Sheets.

The bins have 1.5 inch & 2.5 inch strips, scraps & selvages.  That pile on top is the stockings that I almost finished at Christmas.  {They are just waiting for the binding but once the deadline was over I kind of forgot them.  Oops!}

I think my next post should be a list of Works In Progress so I can keep track and maybe be held accountable for finishing them someday!

Can't wait to sew in my new space.  :)

Potholder love...

Am I not totally lame if I post my pics of potholders while jamming to Justin Timberlake? Still lame? Oh well, I'll embrace the non-sexy. :)

I entered these in a contest over at Prudent Baby in the hopes of winning a sweet new sewing machine that does more than my current 3 1/2 stitches. I did not win. But I impressed myself that 10 years after graduating college I can still meet a deadline if I have to... or if the motivation is big free enough. :)

Pieced & quilted...

Backside...

Terrycloth with stripes is washrags from Walmart.  Ruffle on pocket.  Hand-made, hand-sewn binding.

Quilted back...

Pocket...

Oh yeah.  These are never getting used. 

You can go see the other 900+ entries here and the winners here.

The Enlightened Placemat

{or Pretty Pillows for Pennies}...

So last Tuesday I turned this...

Into this...

and then I went about exclaiming how I was a GENIUS the rest of the day*.  {OK, ok, I'm no genius.  I got the idea from these amazing ladies:   SuperLOVE their website!}  But the husband was suitably impressed.  Although that could be 99% percent due to the fact that I came home with the makings for a project and then finished that project within the hour.  Hmmm...  And it only cost me $2.99!  Thats two dollars and change people!  Less than a Big Mac!**  

So here is what I did, which is exactly what I learned here:   ;)

Pick up cute Spring-y placemat at Target that will help you feel all warm & cozy even while it is snowing buckets outside.  Placemat cost:  $2.99.

Use seam ripper to make 4-5 inch hole along whichever side will be the bottom of pillow.

Use Poly-fil to stuff until bursting.  I used an entire bag that I already had but the bag said $2.99 so if you're keeping track my total cost is still $2.99.  But even if you need to buy the stuffing you are only at $5.98!

I meant to go back after sewing halfway across the hole and make sure those corners were still stuffed.  I forgot.  I got over it. 

And I was too lazy to pin the hole closed before sewing.  I just held it but holy cow I do not recommend that!  My hand was hurting bad from holding that seam closed against the stuffing.  Take the 60 seconds to pin it. You're welcome.

See.  Looks fine.  But my hand is a different story.  I now have one hand and one claw.  No lie.

Prop that baby up on its new home and take 57 pictures...  :)

...of your pillow that only cost $2.99.  :)  LOVE that!

*You should not have to look up how to spell the word "genius" if in fact you ARE a genius. See, I ain't no genius.  Seriously I just spelled it wrong AGAIN!

**{Yum.  Big Mac.}

Makes me miss film class back in my art school days. :)

Wow. Just wow.



And just so that this doesn't turn into a music only blog, (although that could be great too) here is a pic for you.

My sweetie girl.

Right now my soul is very happy. (Pause the music in my sidebar before watching). Of course my oft spoken of desire to learn to play the cello just grew a couple of sizes.

Simply amazing.

Come to mama!

Acrylic Stamp Storage

I finally got around to a project that I have had in mind for awhile. In the past I have kept some of these stamps (still in packaging) stashed in a binder and the rest piled in a basket on the shelf. They were never getting used. Now this...

plus this...

plus this...

equals this

Lovely.