Drapes in progress

Drapes? Is that an old-fashioned term? Curtains? Whatever you call them, I'm currently trying to awesome-up our old drapes into something for our new apartment (moving day, T-27 days).

Back two apartments ago (or about 7 months), I had tried to inexpensively decorate our 'industrial' styled apartment [cheaply exposed ductwork and concrete floor]. It was a fun place, but definitely not our style. Anyway, in order to make our first-floor loft a little more homey, we purchased eight panels of curtains from Ikea on sale. They are/were just plain thin tab-top cotton drapes, but they did the trick. Here's what one looks like strung on our current vertical blinds.

I kind of / really wanted to class it up a bit. This next place will be home for a while, and I want it to look that way. I am using the eight basic panels to create four mega-gathered-drapes, with horizontal gather lines every 10 inches and rod pockets in place of the tab top. Here's a glace of what that looks like...

I finished the first panel (of four) today. Yep, it took the better part of two days. But hey, spending all this time on them really solidifies their long-term place in our home, right? And they seem a bit heavier and thicker...good for those chillier climates.

Finish photos to follow at our new place :)

habitat quilt top

I kept right on steamrolling and ended up with the herringbone portion of the top finished yesterday, and I ran out of [some unknown color of] gray at the same time. I have a bit of an instant-gratification problem when I am on a roll with a project, so I set out today to find substitute fabric (knowing full well that I would not find the same gray).

This is when pillowcases from your friendly cheap-o discount store saved the day. They are a deep gray-almost-wants-to-be-purple color. I also picked up a microfiber blanket, a favorite in our household, to use as the quilt back. Fuzzy, comfy, and cheap completely outweigh the boringness.

 

A few quick finishing pieces and I now have a completed quilt top! The entire quilt includes the herringbone piecing as well as the white and dark gray bands at the foot of the bed.

Here is a close-up of the herringbone piecing. The 'height' of the parallelograms vary from 2.5" to 4", and the width of the herringbone bands varies from 6" to 9".

 

Next purchase: batting :)

someone lit a fire!

(potential energy stored during break) + (me time associated with busy husband) + (inspirational goodness provided by Habitat)

=

amazing productivity

 

I am not sure if it was always this fast or if I am experiencing some sort of hyper-drive, but I darn-near have a quilt top.

 

[I may have to purchase more gray, went a little crazy with the size of the quilt] [but I don't remember what gray I bought to begin with] [[crap]]

Happy Monday :)

WIP Wednesday 7.13

It's that time of the week again, and I am decidedly doing my part to help Lee make it to 100 link-ups this week (after dropping the ball the last two weeks!)

Completed
Memorial quilts!

Long-overdue Gathered Clutches
My mother-in-law asked me to make some small clutches for her a while back. Funny thing is, I think she knows me, because she asked for them in March and needed them done by Christmas. Now that's a can-do deadline. I used the infamous gathered clutch pattern by Noodlehead for these.

In process
Hideoscope (pronounced Hide-oscope, not hideo-scope) (thanks to Katie for the name)
Well what do you know, I caught up with the Kaleidoscope QA! I think...should check the last post and make sure I didn't miss a step! Here are all my blocks.

I think my favorite part of the Hideaway line is the little guy in the alpine village who is fishing in the stream and has a quilt hanging to dry. If his house were for sale, I might just buy it.

My very first quilt
No pictures, but I dug it out of hiding. I'm hoping to finish piecing it by the end of the summer. Three years in the making...

Hope y'all are having a great week, and if you get a chance, write about what you are working on, and link up with Lee to help her reach 100!

On Quilt Alongs and Bicycles

Last Friday, despite my iron's free-will choice to fall over on the floor and melt the carpet again, I ironed out some Hideaway FQs and cut my pieces for the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along. Yay!

I decided to use the yellow gingham from the Hideaway line as my 'solid' because I had a lot of it. And I made an executive design choice to use the other gingham prints for the right triangle pieces.

Then I jetted off to take photos of the memorial quilts. And after that, I set up for a nice relaxing weekend. Let me tell you a little story about that.

Remember how my husband's bike was stolen? If not, that's cool. It was stolen a few weeks ago. Then we replaced it with a fancy new bike which we picked up last week. One with a different frame, one that forced my husband into a new riding position. One that put his center of balance more forward than he was used to.

Now imagine my excitement when we could bike together again on Saturday. About 17 miles in, we are officially booking it. I set the pace way too high [by no means am I gloating here, I was just going too fast for the busy area]. And when another cyclist coming head-on pulled out into the center of the path to pass someone else going his direction, I had no room to squeeze by at my speed. So I slammed on my brakes. And so did Sean. Only I kept moving, while he toppled over his handle bars.

Now, when I said twisted shoulders were all the rage, I didn't mean it literally. My heart absolutely sank/broke/crushed all at once when he answered the question "Are you okay?" with a simple "No." He's tough and always positive, so I knew this was really serious. He broke his collar bone from the impact, and as evident from looking at his helmet later in the day, he took a pretty good hit to the head too [note: buy a new helmet]. Thankfully he has had no headaches, memory loss, or vision impairment. We are so lucky that my stupidity only resulted in a broken bone. Praise God. Someone was clearly looking out.

We spent Saturday at the hospital, and were comforted by some great friends who dropped what they were doing because I was pretty much hysterical on the phone asking where the best and closest hospital is. We also have to thank the complete strangers who gave me a ride from the trail to our car, and who stayed with Sean to keep him talking and alert.

Now my focus is elsewhere. It's fun-and-games-with-hubs around here now. I'm currently trying to challenge him to a left-handed wii battle (we're both right handed, and that's the shoulder he injured). I've also considered embroidering something left-handed. If you have any ideas from past experiences with dominant-hand-injuries, or for cheering other people with such injuries up, by all means, I'm all ears.

AND WEAR YOUR HELMET. And wear it properly, with the chin strap and everything. Have it fitted by a professional. A helmet that flies off before impact does no good, and one that shakes around will do more damage than not wearing one. If you don't have one, BUY ONE. I am positive that it at least prevented a head injury, and could possibly have saved his life.

Much love from the not-going-as-well-as-planned northeast.

WIP...Thursday?

I'm late. Story of my life. I got completely wrapped up in sewing yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that, despite the little setback, I have gotten quite a bit done this past week.

Newbie Bee Blocks
In true late fashion, I finished my June bee blocks for the first-timer bee on June 27th. This month, Carol wanted some black and white blocks with solid color accents.




Memorial Quilts
Three finished. Three basted. Pretty darn good. I know I said these would be done by tomorrow, but seriously, I'm proud of myself for getting this far.


from left to right
pink quilt - finished
green quilt - finished
purple quilt (ochre back) - basted
b&w quilt (red back. yep we're huskers) - basted
everything quilt (blue/green/brown back) - basted
np - blue quilt - finished

woo!

Kaleidoscope QA
AH! I'm already behind. I am printing the template as I type. The good news [and bad...I guess] is that I don't plan to budget for batting or backing until after Christmas, so I am concentrating on piecing tops for the rest of the year. So I've already taken myself out of the running for the end-of-QA giveaway.

That's all I've done. *brow wipe*

Have a safe and FUN 4th of July y'all!

Mary

work in progress 6.22

It's Wednesday again!



This past week, I've been working hard on...you guessed it, the memorial quilts! I love them. Really I do. But I am so tired of them. Light is at the end of the tunnel, I am hoping to have them sent off by the end of next week. Fingers crossed!

I finished this quilt with my sister's clothes for my other sister.




And here is the stack of the grandmother memorial quilts.



From bottom to top...
Blue quilt - finished!
Blue/Green quilt - awaiting quilting
Black & White quilt - pieced, awaiting a border
Purple quilt - pieced, awaiting a border
Everything quilt - currently piecing
Pink quilt (not pictured) - all HSTs made, awaiting piecing

Phew! Since I am going with a basic quilting style, I think my goal of next week will be accomplished. I did a mental count of the HSTs yesterday as I was finishing them up, and I realized that I have made about 640 of them (the b&w quilt is just squares).  Maybe that explains why I am so tired of them...?

Other projects
Kaleidoscope QA
I am SO looking forward to the Kaleidoscope QA starting tomorrow over at Elizabeth's blog, Don't Call Me Betsy. This will be my third QA, second with Miss Elizabeth. It is so much fun to work on the same project as other folks and to be able to share tips and tricks!

Habitat Diamonds
I have a FQ set of Habitat by Jay McCarroll that has been calling my name since Atlanta. I also have a diamond shape cutter thinger that I got for Christmas. Put the two together, and BAM!

Other than those two, I will probably mix in a couple of smaller projects. Will inform as they happen :)

Happy sewing, y'all!
Mary

works in progress 6.15

It's that time of the week again. You know, when I look around my sewing area and tell myself that I am in fact getting things done. Bahaha, gotchya! That's why I am thankful that this linky is about progress.



I'll admit, my primary focus has not been sewing. I spent some time in DC this past weekend with some friends. It was a nice distraction from the extreme heat that kept me from leaving our basement last week. [I  tripped the breaker trying to sew in our basement. Not happening]. We have been doing more bicycling than usual because the off-road paths here are so much better than those in Atlanta, and me and my clip-in pedals like the off-road business. All in all, finding a nice balance I suppose.

Enough rambling. I have managed to keep on trucking with the grandma memorial quilts. I finished most of the piecing on the purple one (yep, pretty much going to refer to them by their color now). I actually completely finished the blue one. I'm waiting until they are all done for a big "yay they're finally done!" reveal, but here's a little peak.



I finished piecing my sister's memorial quilt (the last of them) and I decided that, with its total randomness in pattern and texture, it would be best to finish it by tying instead of machine quilting. Insert: sore fingers and hands, broken needles, and lots of cuss words. Can't wait for this to be over.



Sometimes when I look at this quilt, I see certain patterns and wonder "what was she thinking?! please tell me she did not wear that in public." Like that lime green / blue / pink flower number....? Really? Then I remember there are other shirts that she straight-up stole out of my closet. Shirts that I was positive my mom had lost in the laundry. And then there are the shirts that I so desperately wanted to steal out of her closet, but I knew the consequences, and I wasn't going to go there with her. Oh the perils of older sisters. ;)

That's all for now. Wishing y'all a great week :) Stop on by Lee's place to see what everyone else is up to!

Mary

throwing my hat in the ring

I've been looking for something to do with my Hideaway fabric. After all, it's been on my WIP list for...ever.





I am excited to join the fun over at Don't Call Me Betsy!



In the mean time, you will have to excuse me while I embrace the 100 degrees with no AC in the main living area.

work in progress 5.25

I'm back! Thank goodness. Still haven't accomplished much, but I encourage you to check out how everyone else's week was over at Freshly Pieced.



Seriously, the most I have gotten accomplished in the last three weeks really does not involve sewing. It did involve a week of this...



then a fun pack drive up the east coast for our move to Baltimore. We probably looked like crazy people with all our stuff. Our car looked like we were trying to be low ridin' except we weren't trying to at all. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't want to admit it looked that bad for fear that we would blow a tire or a shock or an axle or something. I'd say about a third of the car (a grand am) was filled with sewing stuff. Sean and I each had about a carry-on's worth of clothes. The rest was camping and miscellaneous stuff, plus two road bikes strapped to the back.

Onto the fun stuff. Thanks to my hard-working husband, I now get to sew a LOT in my new floor workspace.



The ironing board did not make the cut, and since we have roommates, I don't feel right taking up the entire kitchen table. I worked for the past couple of days to finish one of the memorial quilt tops.



I plopped it in the pile with the blue quilt from this post. Lack of AC on the main floor means I have to really be in the mood to quilt or be willing to sit in our cave of a bedroom for a while.

So...where does that put me in my list? Not sure, so I am starting over.

In Progress
memorial quilts (2 pieced, 4 to go) - definitely a top priority

To-do
hideaway quilt (one day I will actually get the courage to cut into this fabric)
May bee blocks
lots of other stuff...

Work in progress Wednesday [4.13]

It has been too long since I linked up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

It has been a fun week. My mother-in-law visited, so of course I had to bring her to the Whipstitch Fabrics store, where I promptly purchased a fat quarter set of Habitat with a groupon from hubs. We had a baby shower to attend on Saturday, and I kind of waited until the last minute to make a gift [I had already given the mommy-to-be a quilt, so I didn't feel too bad for waiting].



I swear I saw this little diaper-and-wipe holder someplace, but I cannot find it. If you happen to remember where I might have seen it, please let me know...I don't want to rip someone else's work off!

Besides that little gift, I also finished a skirt, and continued to work on the QAYG monster.



Seriously. A basicgrey backed monster.



I can't even get a good clear picture of the whole thing in our little apartment. But the good news is that it's done and on its way to its owner! Check. For the QAYG, I machine-stitched the backs together, then folded over the seam on the front and used an edge stitch to finish it off.

Perhaps a tutorial? A very nice person left a comment on my last post asking about it, but they are a no-reply commenter, so I can't get back to you!! Sorry!

Anyway, I don't even know where I am at with my list, but I know my next project is to create some samples for my parents for their little business, Philly's Inc. Also need to help the Easter bunny fill a friend's children's baskets. Then, back to the memorial quilts :)

Happy WiP Wednesday, y'all! Have a productive and fun week!

Mary

Weekend progression

Eek. It's been a long time since I posted. Guess that means I've been getting a lot done, right?



Right. My primary goal these past couple of weeks has been to get a move on with the memorial quilts. All 6 of them.  They all have a 'theme' of sorts...this one is the Blue Room quilt. My grandmother had a blue guest bedroom, complete with blue shag carpet. Just another memory :)



Here are some HSTs for the green/teal "Farmgirl Fancy" quilt (on left - grandma left the 'big town' to live on a farm when she married my grandfather) and the purple quilt for my sister (on right - no story for this one, she just likes purple).

I have also been working on a queen-sized quilt for a friend's sister's birthday. She gave me a couple of tablecloths that she really liked to incorporate into the quilt. I commend all of you who quilt a full queen-sized quilt on your machine. I knew that it was either my sanity or the quilt, so I opted to try quilting-as-you-go. I'm hoping to turn all of this....



...into a stack of these.



And one day, these will be sewn together into a very large, very lovely quilt. And by one day, I mean ASAP because this gal's birthday is next weekend.

I'll try not to crawl back into a sewing cave for too long.

'til next time :)

Mary

work in progress wednesday

I'm a little late again, but dang the people linking up at Freshly Pieced sure do have a lot going on!



This past week has been a little uneventful with respect to sewing. I got to meet my sewing buddy in person this week (whom I got through Whipstitch), and let me tell you, I could not be more inspired to keep sewing. She is incredibly talented. She deserves her very own post one day.

I spent most of my weekend working on some hemming for a friend-of-a-friend. I started free-motion quilting my sliced coins quilt after that, and I have been doing so every morning before work. A nice little creative pick-me-up for the day.



I'm maybe a third of the way finished on the FMQ - I'm taking the tortoise path for this one :)

I also worked on cutting the last bit of clothing for the memorial quilts, dividing all the squares up for each quilt, and then finalized a design for my sister's version. Note to self: rayon and Mary do not work well together.



On Saturday, I got to babysit for some friends who are newly parents ("got to" :) yes I wanted to hang out with the baby!), and I brought along some hexagons to keep me entertained for a bit. I ended up going with different fabrics for each hex, and since we are making two blocks each, I am making one 'warm' version and one 'cool' version. I think they will look cute.



New:
-Nothing! What? How did this happen?!

Processing:
-sliced coins quilt
-monochrome quilt (due March 31st.)
-memorial quilts (finally underway!)
-March bee blocks
-DC quilt
-Hideaway quilt

I took a few things off this week...decided that this list should simply be things I have actively worked on in the last 3 months :)

I hope y'all are having a wonderfully creative and productive week. Til next time...

Mary

adventures in quilt backing

Anyone else have fond childhood memories of "Adventures in Babysitting?" This post title reminds me of that movie... Did you know Vincent D'onofrio (Law & Order: CI, the alien in Men in Black) played Thor? WHAT?! I had no idea.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. After buying a whole bunch of batting on semi-sale, I decided my sliced coins quilt had been abandoned long enough. I already missed the deadline for the quilt along at Don't Call Me Betsy. Before I could quilt, though, I had to make the back.

Side story: I already purchased enough backing fabric, but then my friend's birthday snuck up on me, so I had to use some of the fabric to make her a last-minute gift dress. So then I was short about a yard...

I was determined to not buy any more fabric. I grabbed a few coordinating pieces from my stash, and this is what I came up with (the upper portion is all snowy white).



Ew. This is the first time I have ever ripped apart something I didn't like. Normally, I just go with it. You know, "Make it work" as Mr. Gunn would say. But this time I put my foot down. I took the bottom portion apart and reworked it by matching same-color pieces to make bigger color blocks (who cares about a little seam?)



Much better for me. I basted before work yesterday and continued free-motion quilting today. After a little more practice, the FMQ is going much better. I just need to buy a little more thread than I thought!



Looking forward to finishing this quilt up and using it for many picnics in the park this spring :)

What are y'all up to this weekend?

Mary

works in progress 3.2

It's been another week...yikes! My husband accused me of adding things to my list just to procrastinate to the extreme because I miss being in grad school. No. I don't miss school, but old habits die hard.


I finished three more coats.  And now I am fully prepared to do some quilting. I started making the HSTs for the memorial quilts - this one is for my sister Nicole. The purple fabric (a.k.a. the material that my feed dogs just slip over) is from an outfit that our grandma wore to her wedding.



I ordered a bunch of my favorite batting yesterday, so I have no excuse to not get rolling on these quilts.

I also got all of the blocks from my First TimerBee group. I mentioned a while back that I had given the group a few photos of DC metro stations as inspiration, and look what these rock stars came up with!



Now all I need to do is fill in the spaces, add some sashing, and enjoy this work of art! I also need to get rolling on the March blocks. We are doing Grandmother's Flower Garden...my first hexagon experience.




recap
Finishes:
-three more runabout jackets
-home management book

New:
-DC quilt
-March bee blocks

Processing:
-sliced coins quilt (purchased batting...soooooon!)
-crochet scarf for just me (back burner. probably will fall off the list until the fall)
-monochrome quilt (due March 31st.)
-first quilt
-memorial quilts (finally underway!)
-Hideaway quilt

Thanks for coming through! Head over to Freshly Pieced to check out what everyone else has been working on!

process, practice, pillow

For a brief moment as I was finishing this pillow this morning, I thought to myself "This sucks. There's no way I'm going to share it with anyone."



Don't get me wrong, I still don't love it, but it is all about the process, right? And this is my process in learning what the heck I am doing with a lot of things. A BIG thank you to the folks that offered advice last week on FMQ! I practiced and practiced on scraps, but I wasn't taking it seriously enough. So I whipped up a pillow to practice more using Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy's tutorial that she shared on Sew Mama Sew's blog. I improvised a bit because I didn't have long enough scraps.



I'm hoping to retry this in the near future, the paper piecing was so quick and easy! Here's a better view of the FMQ from behind.



Looking forward to practicing more. I need a better feel of the pace and tension (lots of ripping out!) and just in general, the flow. You'll notice a lot of inconsistency in spacing and loop size/shape :)

Here is the finished product with my matching postage stamp quilt (Dad note - remember dad? We talked about how the "postage stamp" is just a pattern style? Not real stamps. You can't mail anything with this quilt. Love ya!)



So there you have it. A pillow. Thanks for reading :)

Mary