Showing posts with label Fabric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fabric. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tuesday Talk

Happy Tuesday!
 
Hope you are having a wonderful day!  It's Tuesday!  Time for a little talking time! 
 
What part of quilting or sewing are you passionate about? 
 
For me, I am passionate about the whole entire process of quilting.  From the concept of a project or just the site of a particular fabric I have to have, the passion starts there.  If I have a particular project in mind, then I go on the hunt for fabric, if I don't already have what I need.  We don't ever have what we need though, do we?  LOL  That's why we have to buy fabric!  :)  Sometimes, I see a particular fabric and think "That would be perfect for a purse, quilt, baby quilt, etc." and sometimes I see fabric and just know that it will become something beautiful at some point. 
 
Anyway, I am very particular about every part of putting a quilt together.  From cutting, to piecing the quilt top, I just love this process of seeing it come together.  I have learned so much in the past few years.  Cutting correctly and learning to sew the 1/4" seam straight and correctly are so important to make your project turn out well.  I am a bit of a perfectionist on this, so it sometimes take me a while on a project, because I take my time.  I make mistakes all the time, but I have learned to live with the small ones and the ones I can't, I redo if possible.
 
I also take a lot of time to sandwich and baste a quilt, because I learned early on, that puckers can happen easily.  Now, I just take time to pin, pin, pin!  I pin baste with curved pins.  I do not like spray basting, as I think it does not hold well and I think it gunks up your sewing machine.  Pin basting does take time, but I love the outcome.
 
As far as quilting goes, I love quilting.  Most all the projects I have done have been lap/throw size or baby quilts.  I have never made a queen or king size quilt to date and I am not sure how I would handle doing that on my machine.  I have only had two quilts quilted by a long arm quilter and they were special quilts.  All others I have done myself.  I do a lot of straight line quilting, because I love the clean lines.  I am now practicing to do more free motion quilting, but this takes a lot of practice.  I do OK with stippling, but I still need to learn the movement and speed better to have better results.
 
I also love the finishing of the quilt with binding.  I love binding!  I know some people hate it, but I have learned to do it well and I do it on my machine.  I have never done hand binding and do not plan to.  I am a modern quilter and that is how I roll!  LOL  I use a feather stitch, as some called it, to do my binding, because I like to be different.  I also use lots of pins in the process of binding, so that I don't have problems with it not staying in place while I am sewing. :)
 
Here is some my pin basting!
 
 
Here is one of the quilts I had quilted by a long arm quilter. I wanted a citrus pattern to go along with the fabric. This is my personal quilt and it lays across the foot of my bed for now and I use it to snuggle with. I love it! You can also see the binding I did.
 
 
Here is an example of my free motion quilting.  I did this on a t-shirt wall hanging.  I am using this project as an example of t-shirt quilts.  You can see my binding method here also!

 
Here is an example of my straight line quilting. 
This is a patriotic wall hanging and I did wash it so it would be crinkly.
 
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Here is another example of straight line quilting on the diagonal. 
This project is also a wall hanging with my favorite colors of aqua blue, bright pink and lime green. 
It is going to hang in my sewing room!

 
As you can see, I just love the process of quilting from beginning to end!
Tell me what part of quilting you are passionate about.  I would love to hear all about it!
 
"Our passions are the true phoenixes;
when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes."
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 
Have a Happy Tuesday!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Fun Friday!

It's Friday!
 
Welcome to Friday and to the end of another week!  I wanted to quickly share with you a cute piece of fabric I received in a swap recently!  It is the cutest fat quarter of sewing machine fabric!  It is so FUN!  I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet.  I have to find the perfect project for it.  It will probably be something for my sewing room, but I don't know what yet.  In the mean time, I am going to hoard it and wait til I get a great idea, because it is just too special for just anything!  If you have any ideas, please let me know!
 
 
Have a Fantastic Friday!
 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Fabric Mayhem

Happy Tuesday to all!

I hope your day has started out to be a great one!  It is kind of gloomy here today in East TN.  We had some rain earlier and with a possibility of more to come.  So it looks like a great day to get some things done....like sewing.  I have already been to the gym and I am back with some candles lit and ready to begin a productive day!

Here is some fabric I picked up at our local fabric store that will be closing soon, unfortunately.  I really hate that she is closing, as she has not been around very long.  She is so sweet and had some great prices.  I picked up several orange prints and a solid, for my Vol projects!  I got a couple of cute boyish kid prints, since I now have a nephew.  I figure these can be some future projects for him.  I picked up some more lovely Lark by Amy Butler, a batik, a print that looks like batik, but is regular cotton, some Michael Miller fabric and a lovely pink print.  Not sure what I will do with all of this yet, but some of these go with things I already have.  They will go into my stash for now and I will pull them out one day for a rainy day!


Hope you have a terrific Tuesday!


Monday, August 6, 2012

Monday Mayhem!

It's Monday, time for Mayhem!

I am back from a little break, a much needed vacation break to the beach! 
I love the beach because it is so calm and soothing to hear the waves crash upon the sand. 
It makes me feel relaxed and rejuvenated. 

Now, time for mayhem!
I have a lot to do this week. I have a tote bag to make for my SewSwapIt Group.  My partner likes bold and bright colors like me, so I picked out this fabric earlier.  Hope she likes it!



I have three QuiltCon Blocks to make in the next few days.  I just could not get to them before I left for vacation, so now it is time to kick it into high gear and get those done over the next few days. 
I am so excited about QuiltCon and I can't wait til February!

I also have some handmade card prototypes to make for a potential order and other cards to start on for two other different orders.  Looks like August just might be a very busy month!  :)

Have a great Monday!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to Thankful Thursday!

On Thursdays, I will be talking about things I am thankful for in the sewing world and beyond.  I welcome you to comment and let me know what things you are thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for colorful, bright fabric!  Below is an example of the the doll quilt I made recently.  I made it from a Moda Charm Pack and Kona Orange.  The charm pack had lots of different prints that I improv pieced and then I used Kona Orange for the background to make it pop.  I don't usually use a lot of more earthy, nature tones, but this was a great charm pack and I think it turned out really nicely.  My swap partner really liked it. 


Here is an example of bright colors I love and tend to use a lot! 
My favorite colors are bright blue, bright pink and lime green.  I tend to gravitate more to these type of bright colors for a lot of my projects when I can. 

When I decided to do my wall hanging, I knew I had to do it in the colors.  I used Kona Bright Pink, Kona Chartreuse and Kona Aqua and then paired it with Kona Coal.  I will be hanging this in my sewing room soon.  I just love this...so bright and fun!


There are so many fabrics on the market from solids to prints and soon I am going to go through my stash and take pictures of some of the fun fabrics I have, so that I can share with you. 
I have lots of projects in mind, but now I just need to find the time!  LOL 

If you are thankful for bright, colorful fabric,
leave me a comment and let me know some of your favorites!

Have a great Thursday and be thankful!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Quilt Ramblings Starting Tomorrow

Hello!

     I have decided to focus my blog more on my quilting and sewing adventures.  Since we start the next half of the year tomorrow, I plan to start posting pictures and quick posts about all things sewing and quilting.  Some days my posts will consist of my past projects.  Some days, you may see projects in progress and other days you may get some kind of information from the sewing/quilting world.

     Please join me on this adventure as I try to grow to be a better quilter! 

Lets have some fun with all our projects!