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!

Sewing Saturday!

Happy Saturday!  

Today is the first day of Autumn!  Wow...where did the Summer go!  I love the bright blue skies and the cool, crisp mornings!  The leaves have not started to change here yet, but it won't be long!  I always love the beautiful, bold colors that the leaves bring!

Today I am going to try to get a lot of sewing done.  I have binding to do for a friend and I have charity blocks to sew together, so a quilt top can be quilted.  After I get all that done, I have a tote bag, a scrap swap project and another quilt to start.  

Here is some more juicy fabric I picked up last weekend.  They are batiks and I figure I can make some kind of cool Tennessee project out of them!  :)

Going to be a busy weekend!  Of course, there will be football involved too...Go VOLS and BRONCOS!

Happy Autumn!
"Autumn mornings: sunshine and crisp air, birds and calmness, 
year's end and day's beginnings." 
~Terri Guillemets

Have a great day!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday!

Today is Thankful Thursday!  

I am very thankful today for family and friends who support me in sewing and quilting endeavors.  I love to sew and quilt so much that I have become very passionate about it.  I am hoping one day soon to start a business, but first I want to learn more and become really good with my techniques.  I have come a long way from when I started  three years ago.  I love the modern techniques of quilting tied into the traditions of old.  I have learned so much, but one thing I definitely want to get better at is free motion quilting.  I have got to start practicing, so that I can learn some patterns other than stippling.  Now, I love stippling, but I am still not great with it and need more practice with it also!  

Below are two projects that I did with free motion stippling.  They turned out pretty good and the good thing with stippling is that it is very forgiving.  I am going to keep practicing this and also try to learn a couple of new patterns to try along the way!

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Fun Friday!

It's Friday!!

 

Time to have some fun!  I have finally been able to get back to sewing!  Last night I made a mug rug for a gift and I will post it soon.  It has to go to it's recipient first!  Then, I was able to get the binding on a quilt and that will be posted soon!

 

Today has started off with a great walk of three miles on a greenway and I am going to be working on my table runner.  I am so excited to finally get this started.  I will take pics and update you on it's progress.  It's going to be fun!

 

As summer is about to officially end soon, I was thinking about our beach trip and all the fun we had.  I took this picture of all the colorful beach umbrellas and it's just a fun and happy reminder of why I love the beach!  Such bright and colorful fun...It makes me happy!

 

Have a Fantastic Friday!!

Tuesday Talk

It's Tuesday!

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!  My day is a busy one, as I am working on a big card order, so there will not be any sewing, unless I do a little tonight to relax. 

 

I wanted to share a quilt that I quilted for a friend this past weekend.  She put together the quilt top and decided she wanted me to quilt and bind it.  Now, I just did some simple straight lines and in the ditch quilting, but it turned out really great!  You can't see the quilting very well in the picture, but it is simple straight line diagonal criss-sross from corner to corner in the middle heart section.

I love the heart shape design and I love these colors!

 

Close up of basting

 

Quilting in the ditch around borders

Pinning the binding

Finished quilt

 

Yesterday, one of my blocks was featured on The Modern Quilt Guild Blog for the QuiltCon Block Challenge.  There were some wonderful blocks in that post that were similar.  Today, they are featuring Scrappy blocks!  Go check it out and get some inspiration! 

 

Quiltcon Block Challenge

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

 

Big Hugs,

Stephanie

Fun Friday Reveal!

TGIF!  It's Friday!

 

Whew!  It has been a busy week and I am still going strong.  Got lots to do today!

 

I wanted to finally reveal the tote bag that I made and sent to my partner for the Sew SwapIt Tote Swap!  She like bright, bold colors and loves floral prints!  This was a great project for me, as I love to work with bright colors and I have not made a tote in a while! 

 

She received it yesterday and loved it!  Here is the final project!

Front

Back

Inside Pocket(fabric was wrinkled in pic..really isn't bunched like that!)

Close-up of quilting

 

This was such a fun tote to make and it turned out pretty big.  I think it ended up being about 18" wide and 20" high.  It' is definitely bold and bright.  I used the floral print and match Kona solids to it.  I really did not want to send this one away!

 

Well, I am off to work on projects today.  I am almost finished quilting a quilt and then I am working on cards.  I have a busy weekend ahead, but I plan to have some relaxing time in there also!

 

Have a Fantastic Friday!

Work Wednesday!

Hey all!  Happy Wednesday!

I started the morning early and haven't stopped since.  It has been a wacky day.  Had errands to run and had to meet my college boy to get some new shoes and stuff.  We did get to eat lunch together....at first he said no, because he had too much to get back to campus and do, but I enticed him with some Japanese stir fry.  He cannot pass up Japanese or Chinese food!  LOL  :)

Now, I am home home, starting laundry and getting ready to start working on some more card samples.  Later...it will be sewing time.  I had to run to Joann's after I ran out of the color of thread I was using last night.  UGH...unfortunately, it was a special color I was quilting with and I didn't have any more.  Of course, I was almost finished quilting when I ran our!  Murphy's Law, I guess!  LOL

Well, back to it!  Have a great day!!!!

Thankful Thursday!

It's Thankful Thursday!

Hi everyone! 

This has been a crazy week.  I forgot to post yesterday, but today is Thankful Thursday! 

I am very thankful today for sewing time.  I have learned to sew and quilt and it has been wonderful learning experience so far!  It is like a little escape when I get to sew.  I am doing something I love and I can be creative!  While I do not have a dedicated sewing room at the moment, I sit at my kitchen table a sew away!  I know its not the ideal place, but I am working on it.  I love it though.  I will sit and listen to Pandora radio sometimes and jam away while sewing. 

There are days where I can just sew away and then there are days that I cant seem to bring myself to work on anything at all.  That's OK, because sometimes after a big project, you just have to relax and stay away for a few days.  But then, my sewing machine and projects rope me back in!  I love it! 

I have worked on a project this week, that is now gone, but I may do a reveal on it soon.  I had fun with it and am looking forward to quilting and finishing up a few projects soon! 

Below is one of many blocks I did for a quilt this past year. 

I will show you the entire project one day soon!

 Sewing time is so relaxing to me...like some say, it's therapy! No stress, just sewing!

Let me know what you are thankful for!  Have a great day!

The Beginning of a New Adventure

Quilt Beginnings

My grandmother used to make quilts way back when.  I remember my summers growing up and going to her house in West Virginia, and it seemed that she always was sewing or quilting.  I think she made a lot of quilts and they were beautiful.  I never really thought a lot about it or really appreciated the fact that she made them...until a few years ago.  I will always have great memories of those days of visiting her house. 

Years ago, I used to work for a very well known cable tv network company whose focus is on home and garden.  I think you know the network as HGTV.  In the early beginnings of the network, there was a show called "Simply Quilts" with Alex Anderson.  One of my first jobs in the company was to watch show episodes as they came in to the library, before they aired, for any technical problems.  As one of the only girls in this department, I often had to watch all the craft shows, because the guys did not want to.  That was perfectly fine with me, because I didnt have to watch as many of the remodeling shows!  I used to watch this show and just be in total awe of all the quilts that were shown.  I thought to myself, "I would never be able to make a quilt myself!"  I never thought, all those years ago, that it would have such a profound affect on me.

  Well, that was back in about 1998.  In November of 2009, I bought a sewing machine.  My only purpose at the time was to sew on my handmade cards. LOL  Little did I know that I would soon start sewing and quilting.  I have come a long way since then and this is where you will hear all about my quilting adventures from the past few years and into the future!

Please join me on this adventure of doing something I truly love!

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!

Tote Bag Time!

As you may or may not know, I have recently started sewing and have made several small baby quilts for charity and several things for swaps at our Modern Quilt Guild.  This is a Market Bag Tote that I made for our swap for Shop Hop!  I love this fabric, but had to swap this tote!  I do have just enough to possibly make me one that is a little smaller.  LOL 

I am really enjoying sewing and quilting. I am working on two different Block of the Month Blocks from different different quilt stores. I have also finished a vintage sports baby quilt top, just need to quilt it now. I have plenty(and I mean plenty) of fabric!   LOL   Don't we all? I have lots of projects planned and will be sharing these as I do them.

Hope you have a great night!