Skittles' Sewing and Stuff...

Ruined weekend...

2012-01-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Things I was looking forward to this weekend:
1) Watching nationals (figure skating)
2) Quilting

Things I did not get to do this weekend
1) Watch nationals
2) Quilt

Why not?
Watching nationals made me nauseated from the movement, if I was even able to sit upright. Quilting was impossible since I can't use my right arm.

Why? Because I took a stupid fall ice skating and sprained my wrist. You always think of a sprain as better than a break, but I'm not sure. I think anything I've called a sprain before may not have been. I've never experienced anything like this. I have almost no movement in my wrist. I fell Saturday, and only now can I totally move my fingers without pain (but I can't use them on anything weight bearing, like zipping a jacket, or opening an envelope.) My range of motion has improved from about 5 degrees downward and 0 upward to about 15 downward, and a little less than 5 upward (though I'm in the brace most of the time). My pain has moved from an 8 on the hyperbole and a half pain scale (10 on the regular one) to maybe a 4/6. (The regular pain scale is all smiling faces, I'm not smiling.)

The lortab + ibprofeun combo seems to fight the pain, but makes me so sick- hence no nationals. Today I only took 1 lortab, so I'm going to attempt to go to work tomorrow on ibprofeun alone. We'll see- I may have to come home mid-day...

If it snows, I'll have to have Kevin to drive me to work. One hand driving is for perfect weather only. Not sure how productive I'll be. I can only type with my left hand, and cannot write at all.

Jelly Roll Race

2012-01-21T10:18:00.000-08:00

I heard about the Jelly Roll Race quilts quite some time ago. The idea is that you take a Jelly Roll (forty 2.5" strips) and sew the strips end to end. Then, you fold the strip in half and sew a seam. Fold the new double width strip in half and sew a seam. Do this again, I think for 5 total seams. You have a quilt top. It is called a race, because you can do it FAST. The whole thing took under 3 hours (including prep time). Most guilds or groups only race on the assembly once you have the big long strip- I've heard women who have done it in like 30-45 minutes!

Now Jelly Roll's aren't cheap, and I am. So I did mine a little differently. I bought 11 different fabrics, and cut 4 strips from each one (44 strips, so my quilt top is wider it finished about 60" square). I got them on sale at Fabric.com so it was $1.49 for each half yard cut, and I have a good amount left over to use for other things. Nice and cost effective!

One of the things I've read on most of the Jelly Roll Race tips pages will tell you to make sure your strip (the long one that is 1600-1800 inches long!) is not twisted. Maybe this helps with speed, but I found there is no reason at all to take the time to care about this. I just deposited my gigantic strip in a big pile on the floor and didn't worry about it. It was MAJORLY twisted. The thing is, as long as you make sure the fabric approaching the needle is oriented correctly, you are fine. At the end of each strip, you have to cut it open anyway- just cut open the twist, and it will untwist itself.

I also did not do any pressing as I went along. On the gigantic first strip, I sewed all seams down, and then on the next strips I just paid attention to make sure they were sewn either facing up or down- it really didn't take much thought. When I pressed the entire quilt after I finished I found I had only done 2 in the wrong direction, which is actually better than my rate for when I DO try to press them correctly!

Any ideas on how to quilt it? I'm thinking a spiral from the middle all the way out to the edges- that will be hard, but might look cool on such a linear quilt.

The only problem with this quilt- it distracted me from homework I really needed to get done, and also from the other quilt I'm working on right now...

Jessi vs. The Models

2012-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

One of my new year's resolutions is to dress more professionally at work. This will be accomplished by not wearing a fleece jacket every single day (I do have two of them... so it isn't always the SAME fleece jacket...). To help facilitate that, I have bought a number of blazers (4 from Coldwater Creek this month- that brings me up to 6 total, though one is really more of a casual jacket than blazer). I just got 3 in the mail yesterday.

For the most part, I like the way I look in jackets. These pictures make me look 200 pounds, but in real life, I find that they are actually kind of slimming. Blazers, unlike pants, make me feel little because I still wear a small (a petite small)! It's actually a little annoying because most of the Coldwater Creek jackets are sized as P6-8, and they are huge on me. I need a P6, and then, just the sleeves are too big.

And thank you Coldwater Creek for great sales! These three blazers were all originally $129. All three together were just under $100 :)

And now, Jessi vs. The Models

(Sorry, I'm linking- photos aren't playing nice with the blog post)
http://www.coldwatercreek.com/product-detail/60095/66666/shimmer-tweed-jacket.aspx?colorid=999&refLink=search.aspx&Skn=outlet
On the model: The jacket seems to be a short cut jacket.
On Jessi: Petty well full length.

However, I LOVE this one. My favorite for sure.

On the model, very slim fit:
http://www.coldwatercreek.com/product-detail/54514/60689/flocked-tweed-jacket.aspx?colorid=999&refLink=search.aspx&Skn=outlet
On Jessi: Boxy and linebacker shoulders. (The back is great though- the shaping makes it look very slim)

On the model:
Young and hip.
On Jessi:
I look like a grandma.

Also- all the models wear the jackets open. Kevin tells me this is NOT allowed. It makes me look wide :( Luckily, they all look cute closed.

I need to find some non-black pants. These don't look great with black pants.

Any opinions on the jackets? Do I look like a little kid playing dress up in my grandmothers clothes? Would you highly recommend I return either of the last two? (They still have tags).

Stupendous Stitching

2012-01-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

My first quilt of 2012. This is an art quilt that will be a wall hanging. Rather than a hanging sleeve, this one will actually be mounted permanently (glued down to foam board, actually.)

This technique is taught by Carol Ann Waugh, and I took her Stupendous Stitching class through Craftsy.com

I said earlier that this technique is so "me" I can't believe I didn't think of it on my own. The instructor gave the following piece of advice (well something pretty similar) "If you are wondering if you should add something else, just do it!" and Kevin (to paraphrase) said "that's for the other people in the class. You should probably stop well before you think you are done." I've always had the problem in art class of adding too much, and that's what makes this so great- I can't add too much!

I created this (18" x 18") in just a weekend. It involves couching trim, using machine decorative stitches, hand embroidery (a first for me- I love French knots!), quilting, and then binding the quilt using rat-tail cording (another first).

Things to improve for next time: pay attention to contrast- 1) a section of french knots nearly blends in and 2) why did the bottom edge of the cording ruffle? I didn't do anything different there!

If you look closely, you'll see three of the trims from the last post- a blue velvet, the gold, and the pink rick rack.

I will definitely be making more- an artist works in series :)

Kevin tells me I need an artist statement, so here you go:
"In this piece the artists expresses the importance of keeping a large thread stash, while simultaneously presenting the futility of man's struggle against insanity" (Kevin came up with that last part.)

A trip for trims...

2012-01-02T15:41:00.001-08:00

I've been hanging out on Pattern Review a lot, since i'm wanting to get back into garment sewing. After the PR weekend, there were a few blog posts about the Austin weekend- and that made me spot a fabric shop I wanted to visit next time I went down there: TexStyles

Turns out it is only minutes from Kevin's parents house, so we were able to make a quick trip over there.

I'm actually on a "fabric fast" until the end of January (possibly to be extended) so I wasn't sure what I'd be doing in a fabric shop, but my Craftsy class "Stupdenous Stitching" has me needing a bunch of trims, and they fit the bill nicely.

I got three different velvet trims- two different blues and a brown, some metallic gold trim, two sequin trims (the pink and the blue), and a bright pink rick rack.

The men who own the shop had just finished a trip to LA and had bags and bags filled with trims and fabric, they were more than happy to let you dig through them, or offered to pour them out. Nothing was priced, so when I had my handful, I went over (a little worried I'd have to put stuff back) and asked: everything was under $1.75 per yard (most around $1.25, rick rack was 75 cents) and the prices were followed with a "does that sound good?" They say they don't mark prices on trim because the stock revolves too fast, so they are open for negotiation.

I'm almost glad I couldn't buy fabric, because it was too overwhelming. Everything is hung- by color. The store is BEAUTIFUL! I would have needed a lot of help to identify what the types of fabric were, and what would work for certain projects- but I have no doubt the owners would have helped me, they were just delightful! Super friendly and very chatty.

I will definetly be back on my next visit. (As for the trim- I'm in love. I think I was supposed to get more rounded trim for my stupendous stitching project, but these were all just so beautiful...)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

We are back from our trip to Texas- with lots to write about. I'm not sure where to start, so I'm going to start with something I did BEFORE our trip, and that has nothing to do with Christmas.

When I got back from Texas I was greeted with quite a few packages on the doorstep. I got a few textbooks, but also a pretty red box marked "Julep". Ooh! My Julep Maven package got here fast.

Inside- 4 gorgeous nail polishes!

You see, just before I left I saw an ad on the internet for a $5 intro code to a nail polish a month subscription. So I bite (the code was maven5, if it still works- I also later saw some 99 cent codes! You'll have to google for those). This $5 even included shipping!

So the deal was, you took a quiz and it gave you your style profile. Mine told me I was "boho glam" but the website lets you look at all the profiles, and even though I did like the boho glam colors, I loved the "it girl" ones more (I am so NOT an 'it girl') so I switched.

In my box I had these 4 colors, a purply/pink (it changes with the light), a deep dark red glittery polish, a gunmetal silver, and a fast dry top code.

I'm wearing the pink, and it applies really nicely, though it needs two coats. It is very matte- so a top coat is needed for shine. I need to clean up around my fingers still, but that's my fault, not the polish's!

Rather than canceling right away (which you totally could do) I am staying on for one more month- I really liked next month's "it girl" colors. They will be $20 including shipping, and while the nail polish bottles are about half the normal size, I think it is worth it. The polish is way nicer than drug-store stuff. I also like that they let you see it before it ships, and you decide if you want your style box ('it girl') or a different one, or you can skip it entirely!

(There is a referral program, so if you try it- will you use my link? Click here for awesome polish)

Christmas is seriously almost done...

2011-12-22T16:50:00.001-08:00

My sister asked me to knit her a coffee cup cozy, but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I whipped one up on the sewing machine...a 30 minute to one hour project.

I used insul bright in the middle for insulation and thin cotton batting on either side to protect her hands. It is reversible, and.the inside is quilted (I quilted one side to all.the batting and then added the other side and turned it) . I just used a cardboard cup cozy as a pattern.

I hope she likes it!

Thanks Kevin for modeling.

Final Christmas gift

2011-12-20T19:04:00.001-08:00

And with this, Christmas presents are done. Here is hoping we have good weather for the drive.

In other news, I am making a pencil skirt and the muslin looks like crap. But I did do my first invisible zipper...just two misses before I got it right. (once I sewed through all the teeth and spent an hour unpicking threads. Then I sewed it to the outside of the skirt).

Are you done with your Christmas crafts?

Two more down...

2011-12-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

Gifts, that is.

Kevin made the older nephews a baseball wall bracket thing (pictures after our trip! They are neat) for Christmas, and they were going to be tough to wrap. I made both of the boys a pillow case, and the brackets fit in them nicely. Added bonus- new pillowcase!

As you can see, both boys are very into baseball right now! (The blue pillowcase is bent a little- the C isn't distorted...)

I had a difficult time hooping the pillowcases. Getting the hoop exactly centered was really rough. Then my machine decided to be a pain in the butt- despite the tension being less than 1 (I normally use 2 for embroidery) and the hole in the bobbin tail being threaded, the bobbin thread was STILL pulling up.

In the end, I did most of the satin stitch for the red by "hand" (machine, but me doing it) and all of the satin stitch for the burnt orange. My machine does a really nice satin stitch- but I still haven't figured out how to make corners look nice.

It is MUCH easier to let the machine put down guidelines to cut on, then try to trace and cut letters myself. That is my favorite part of machine embroidery!

As for school, I have everything turned in but my final self evaluation paper. I am about half done with it, and taking a break to embroider the very last of the Christmas presents (oh, and then I need to knit for Courtney...)

Rylee is getting an appliqued Minky pillow. (Can you tell I like applique. It is so much cooler than regular embroidery.) And- today, my machine is behaving just fine. I used colored isacord in the bobbin rather than the seraline I usually use, just in case it pulled up, but then none of it did! Go figure... The applique is done, so now I need to make up the pillow- but I have to write that paper first! Pictures later this week.

Did I mention I started knitting a sock? I can't remember the last time I did that! I miss knitting- it's fun!

Stressed...

2011-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

The statistics class has definetly been my hardest one yet. I'm still doing well in it, but I'm feeling overwhelmed. For reasons I don't understand the last week is also always the busiest. I'm kind of going crazy.

I'm also not sleeping well, which doesn't really help the stressed feeling.

Then, I have Christmas presents to finish up. Need to make R's gift, 2 pillowcases to wrap the Cs's gifts, and hopefully at least two more kitchen towels.

I'm looking forward to seeing family for Christmas, but wish we weren't going to Austin. I'm so worried about the weather for the drive (17 hours is a long drive- now imagine it with snow...), and upset that I won't get to spend ANY of my vacation from school sewing. If you've been keeping track of the fabric purchases, I clearly have some projects planned. Going home is so tiring- I need a vacation from vacation.

I do have to say, I'm super glad I went with the sewing machine with embroidery (I've been having some buyer's remorse and wondering if I should have gone for the top of the line Brother rather than the mid range Bernina). Here are some kitchen towels I've made. All designs are from PlanetApplique.com

Fabric Mart Order

2011-12-11T10:24:00.001-08:00

I got my Fabric Mart order in (I actually started this post a week ago... but never got the picture uploaded). I have to say, I’m disappointed. More than I’ve been with any other online fabric order. Perhaps it is because I branched out to try new things… Before I’ve always stuck with quilting cotton and stretch knits. I am thinking about joining their swatch club. Maybe it would be a good idea just to learn what fabrics ARE. More than anything, I was surprised by that!

The good thing is Fabric Mart is really inexpensive. Not cheap- most people rave about the quality (and quality isn’t really what I have a problem with). So it was a good lesson, and while I might not buy from Fabric Mart again in the near future, I will likely sew with at least some of what I bought.
Here is the run down. I got 2 yards of everything, except the last thing.I paid $8 in shipping.
Stretch Poplin (Brown) $1.49/yard Stretch Poplin (Purple) $0.74/yard I didn’t really know what Poplin was, but a pattern recommended it for shorts. I got the purple (cheap) for a muslin and the brown (well, still cheap) for the actual shorts. This material is really thin. Not sure how these are going to look. I expect something a little heftier. I’m kind of disappointed.
Trendy Cotton Bold Paisley $2.25/yard In the picture this looked like a cute print. In real life it looks like a grandmother’s couch. YUCK. Muslin material for sure. It also has the hand of quilting cotton, not something I think of for clothes.
Flocked and checks cotton $2.63/yard I underestimated the “checks” of this fabric. It looked nearly solid in one of the photos, and was the fabric I was most excited about. In real life, it looks like gingham and feels like quilters cotton. Not sure if I’ll get a nice skirt out of this or not. Major bummer.
Polyester Charmeuse $1.88/yard So I guess I didn’t know what Charmeuse is, but I didn’t expect it to just look like lining… Maybe this will make a nice blouse, but I’m not sure. It sure is shiny!
Crinkle Chiffon $1.49/yd This is a sheer material, and I hope to use it to make a peasant blouse to wear over a tank top. This one is good.
Polyester Lining $1.49/yd (2 colors, so 4 yards total) Yep, this is poly lining. I’m happy with this.
Trendy Knit Animal Print $1.49/yd. This material is exactly what I wanted- 4-way stretch, nice hand. Problem is, I ordered the wrong thing. This is an ugly as sin multi-animal print. I meant to get solid black. Oops. BUT I am going to use this to make a muslin of a wrap dress I’ve wanted to use expensive fabric I got a few years ago, but have been scared to try. So really, it works out fine.
Quilting Cotton $1.49/yd I saw this and thought “I got orange? I thought I got pink…” But sure enough, I did get orange. This will be just fine for a quilt back. That’s why I got 3 yards. I’m quite happy here.

Sunday Sewing...

2011-12-04T14:21:00.000-08:00

Got some towels embroidered and made Kevin a Kindle cover. I was testing this pattern to make as a Christmas Gift. It's a fun one!

Here is my Pattern Review. This used up 3 of the fat quarters I just bought. Yay for actually using stuff. Also, I love my walking foot. It makes me so happy.

Now, I really need to get to homework and laundry folding!

Connecting Threads!

2011-12-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

My Cyber-Sunday order FINALLY arrived! (I'm spoiled by Amazon shipping. I guess 1 week really isn't that bad- remember the days of 6 to 8 weeks?)

I got 4 sets of 12 fat quarters each, 1 10" stack of 24 Christmas fabrics, and then 2 packs of thread for quilting.

I am in love! The fat quarters I got are fabulous. Kevin picked out which ones will be his Kindle cover, and I have some for my Mom's. (Need to get on that! Christmas approaches!)

I embroidered my Dad's Christmas gift today. I need to get going on the things for everyone else. Oh, and do my Stat. project...

Also- internet karma has circled back to me :) Recently, I sent off an envelope of selvages to a blogger making a selvage quilt, sent a book about serging to a woman on ravelry, and mailed off some of my unloved stash yarn to some people on ravelry. Well- I was posting on pattern review asking questions about the Bernina Invisible Zipper foot. A woman offered to mail me hers to "try out"! She said if I liked it I can pay half retail and keep it. Wow! That is really nice.

Plenty of TV...

2011-12-01T17:06:00.001-08:00

Got lots of dvds in the mail (and animaniacs in the mail...) Cost well less than a month of cable :) and will rot our brains just the same (well, maybe not quite as well as TLC would)

Stashing away...

2011-11-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

I am really trying to NOT become a hoarder. As such, I am going to be transparent about my purchases (Kevin reads the blog...) One of my favorite blogs posts pictures along with prices of her stash. I'm copying her.

This is my order from Fabric.com. I got an additional 20% off the prices listed, and did not pay shipping. I actually ordered everything with a project in mind.

The Bengaline for a skirt, the gray suiting for a jacket, the crepe for a skirt, the seersucker for shorts, and the whites because I am collecting whites to make a pictorial quilt of Elsa (my dog).

I got half a yard each of the white quilting cottons, 1 yard of the seersucker, 1.5 yards of each of the purple suitings (the blue looking one is really more purple), and 2.5 yards of the gray. I now wish I had gotten the Bengaline for a jacket, and the gray for pants. I might use the gray for pants anyway- it is a gorgeous fabric, nice soft hand. Definetly my favorite.

The seersucker is the only thing I'm disappointed in. Maybe this is basic fabric knowledge, but seersucker is all kinds of bumpy/puckery. The pattern suggests it, but I can't imagine shorts made out of this. Not sure what I will do with it instead...

Really cool!

2011-11-29T19:08:00.001-08:00

I think I mentioned Kevin recently got a lathe. He made his first pen tonight. It is pretty awesome. Sometimes I wish I was good at everything I try like he is...he is really really talented at most things he does. Maybe he just picks all the right things to try.

Only problem with the new hobby: our pen drawers are already over flowing... But really the pen is very nice! So cool.

Cyber Monday...

2011-11-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

So did you buy anything in the sales? Fabric.com said they were having a great sale, but it was a pretty big dud. Same with Fabric Mart. Good thing- as I have orders from both coming already!

We did buy some DVDs off Amazon. DVD watching is essential for us when we are cable-less. We got the first season of Arrested Development (thought about getting all 3, but we decided we'd rather have variety), the second season of Modern Family, the 5th season of the Flintstones and the 2nd season of Animaniacs. All for $50!

And Kevin's pajama pants are officially done! I had to hem them another two inches from this picture. I really don't like hemming, but I used my #10 edge stitch foot, and it made it it so perfect. Well, assuming I measured and pressed perfectly, the hem is perfect- haha. I basted the hem for Kevin to try on in the #11 needle position, then sewed it one position to the left, and the lines never crossed each other. I love that precision! So while the hem may not be perfectly even, it is perfectly even with my pressing.

Kevin is pretty happy with the pants. He doesn't gush about how wonderful they are and how marvelously talented I am like I think he should, but he seems to appreciate them. The fly worked on the second try- I think I followed the (incredibly confusing) directions wrong on the muslin, when I sewed the fly shut. I still think that the fly is too high- on his boxers, it is closer to the seam where the backs/fronts/sides meet. When I cut off 3" from the waist, I did move it down a little, but I didn't want to mess up the crotch curve, but now I just think the curve is too long.

(back view so you can see fit...sort of. These are clearly too long- this is with a 4" hem. This pattern is drafted for a high waisted giant.)

Oh well, he rarely wears pajama pants anyway- he sleeps in shorts because he gets too hot (which doesn't make sense as he is always complaining he is cold...) But for when he needs them, these are better than the pair from last year.

BTW- are you wondering how the change from the muslin went? This picture illustrates pretty well how WAY too high the waist was.

Do you think the fabric is too girly? We decided to call it "regal" but really, it's just fabric I had in my stash. Seemed using up what I had made more sense than buying new when it is just a pair of rarely to be worn pants. (Honestly though, I think they are awesome and he should wear them daily!)

I love it!

2011-11-27T16:21:00.001-08:00

Look what Kevin made me! A 90 spool thread rack! We worked out that with a coupon I might as well have bought it, but everytime I look at it I am going to smile because my husband made it for me. It will be wall mounted because I have no space. I told him he should probably start another because I really hope to get embroidery thread for christmas, and have more quilting thread on the way.

What kind of thread do people use for garment.sewing? O mostly have dual duty, but the Bernina people tell you not to use it (I do anyway, at least until it is gone...)

Kevin's pajama pants turned out well, will post once I get a photo shoot, but he is busy cooking tonight.

Well, that's what a muslin is for...

2011-11-26T19:42:00.001-08:00

Kevin wants a new pair of pajama pants. The last pair did not feature a fly. So I found Simplicity 4381 which does.

The waist to crotch of the pattern looked huge, so I used some scraps to mock up a pair of shorts. Well, I was right. Kevin tried them on and the two of us were ROLLING in laughter. I mean, if you wear the waist at the waist (or just below) these pants are for a man with a package the size of an elephant! I'm going to remove 3" in length.

The other problem discovered, when the directions are followed exactly, the fly is a mock fly! It gets sewn shut, but I figured out easily how to fix that.

Tomorrow, the real thing.

Feet for sale...

2011-11-25T17:45:00.001-08:00

I bought this 4 foot quilting set for $40, the open toe darning foot has been used, the walking foot (with guide bar) gently used, and the open toe foot and stitch in the ditch foot have not been used at all.

They are for Kenmore machines with horizontal bobbins. This foot set revolutionized my sewing, as it started me really quilting, but they do not work for my current machine.

I'm hoping to get $25 including shipping in the US. Interested?

Black Friday...

2011-11-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

So, did you wake up at o'dark thirty this morning? I did, but not for shopping- to watch figure skating! I was up a little before 5:00 a.m. to watch the Rostlecom Cup ladies competition. I skipped pairs (will watch it recorded later) and took a nap, and woke up for the 8:00 men's competition. Both were well worth the lost sleep, but man have I been tired today.

To do my part for the economy I went up to North Liberty to Common Threads Quilt Shop (I refuse to write Shoppe- I hate that, it almost makes me not want to shop there) where she was having a 20% off sale. I wanted a Quilting Celebrations magazine, but she was already all out. I ended up getting Patrick Lose's "Poster Quilts", which was an expensive book, and I'm kind of thinking I shouldn't have gotten it, but I hate leaving a little store like that empty handed. I also bought a kindle cover pattern. I have so many Christmas gifts to sew now!

On the way home, I went to Walmart. It was DESERTED. No one to be seen. I bought some towels and pillowcases to embroider.

I also stopped at Hobby Lobby (there were more people there then Walmart, but not by much) and got a Fons and Porter Half and Quarter triangle ruler. I'm excited!

I haven't placed the order yet, but I plan on taking advantage of Planet Applique's awesome sale too. 70 cent appliques and $3.40 alphabets!

Why in the world do stores open so late at night? Is it so we can get our shopping done in time to watch football games? I drove by the mall last night, just to see the line, and the line for best buy circled all the way around outside almost to the Children's Museum (that means nothing to you if you haven't seen our mall...). Whatever deal they have- there is no way 3/4 of those people were getting what they were hoping for! Heck, even if everyone just wanted 1 DVD I doubt they have enough! Target also had an insane line. What's the point?

This year, I skipped Joann's flannel sale. Skating was just more important, and I am looking forward to Connecting Threads and Fabric.com's Cyber Monday sale (CT's starts Sunday...) I promised Kevin new pajama pants though. I have some "regal" purple flannel from last year, and he said that was okay. It's not manly, but he isn't wearing them outside the house.

Right now I'm quilting guild charity quilts. When I finish this one up it is time to start Christmas gifts! Oh, and do a little more homework...

Yahtzee!

2011-11-24T10:48:00.001-08:00

The first annual we have no friends game day has begun! Unfortunately all of our friends have moved, or traveled out of town to visit family, and we cannot travel.this thanksgiving, so it is just Kevin and I today. We are enjoying each others company, and are thankful for many things, though we miss our family and friends!

Really oreo?

2011-11-23T08:25:00.001-08:00

So I've never been a fan of oreos, but Kevin got some recently and they were yummy. While shopping I saw mint oreos that are yummier. I checked the calorie count on them and it was slightly lower.

BUT they having a serving size of 2. Regular oreos have a serving size of 3.

That is just plain annoying.

Kevin does the grocery shopping...

2011-11-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

So yesterday, I went to Hyvee. This was my grocery list:

4 things of coke ($11, plus deposit)
A gallon of milk (about $3)
15 powerades ($10)
2 cans diced tomatoes (about $3)
Frozen Corn ($2.50)
Peppers (70 cents)
Onion (70 cents)

And yet, my bill came to about $100.

This is why I should not grocery shop. I also got:
3 packages of frozen stir fry vegetables
Pasta sauce
Nutella
Fruit Roll Ups
2 cans Tomato Sauce
6 kool aid packages
Pasta Shells
Raisins
Cereal
Oreos
Tikki Masala Sauce
Popcorn
Mango Salsa
Tositos
2 cans of Wolf Chili
Apples
Croutons

These things were not on my list. But all very yummy. And really, only the Nutella and croutons were things I shouldn't have bought...

Finishing quilting...

2011-11-20T09:35:00.001-08:00

And turning the quilt over to see this stinks!

Stress free weekend?

2011-11-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I hate week 4 and 8!

You see, in every class, in Week 4 and Week 8 I have to write a self-assessment paper. I would much rather write a test. Or a paper about a topic of the class. But a paper about my own learning, so not something I like to do.

I have been putting it off ALL day. In fact, my general process for writing these is to sit and stare for about 5 hours, then spend 2-3 writing. Well, my sit and staring process has gone on for more than 5 hours now.

Fortunately, I have something great to stare at. The Grand Prix of Figure Skating is going on right now and while I got to watch a little bit of it yesterday at work, today, I watched a lot! I woke up at 6:30 this morning to watch the men's freeskate (a disaster), then missed the pairs while I went and skated myself (knee is bothering me, but it was good ice), then came home, determined to write, but watched ladies instead. I skipped the first group of dance, but watched the second. For the past four years, I haven't had an icenetwork subscription, but instead just read play-by-play posts on FSU. Now, for men's and ladies, I really like writing PBP. I'm so not good at calling jumps, especially when half asleep (I did much better later in the afternoon). I like to compare to the protocols to see how I did. I do better with clockwise jumpers too.

Only then did I write my paper. I now have everything but the introduction and the conclusion, but what am I doing? Watching America's Next Top Model...

I have no discipline! I need to get it done today, or else I won't get to quilt tomorrow. Weekends shouldn't be for homework.

I give up...

2011-11-17T18:28:00.001-08:00

I missed blotting yesterday and have nothing to say to day. I am a blog post writing month failure.

Failing at blog writing sucks less than I imagine failing at novel writing would. Glad I didn't try that.

I am so looking forward to next week and a long weekend of sewing. This week has sucked, and this weekend is shaping up to be sewing free :(

Last of the Halloween candy...

2011-11-15T18:45:00.001-08:00

Is this a respectable amount of time through November?

So tired...

2011-11-14T16:18:00.001-08:00

Tonight is the monthly quilt guild meeting, but I am so tired I don't think I will enjoy it at all. This makes me mad because I wait all month for things like this. Why am I always so tired?

Don't say low iron. Last time I tried to give blood, my iron was fine!

Edit: I'm glad I went. It was a good program, I picked up 3 charity quilts that need quilting, and I won 2 fat quarters as a door prize. The program was "naked quilting" which is the next short cut from strip quilting. It was all about taking traditional construction and reducing seams. I've been doing this for years, if only because I didn't know the traditional way. Turns out my laziness is a technique. (I don't think it always works though. Sometimes missing seems changes the look of a quilt. Maybe not from a moving horse, but when is that ever how we really view these things?)

Curly hair day...

2011-11-13T16:29:00.001-08:00

When my hair is long, I always wear it up. It is just a pain to have it down. I just never know how it will dry...puffy? Frizzy? Triangular? But too be different today I wore my hair down. Kevin says he like it better than when I wear it up. What do you think?

(sadly, it is impractical for work...it took 3 hours to dry)

Kevin has a new toy...

2011-11-12T17:05:00.001-08:00

He got a lathe. I have no idea why! But he turned this nifty little Christmas ornament.

That's all for today. I am so unbelievably tired.

Embroidery Trick!

2011-11-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

This hoop was filled with sticky stabilizer, and the design has already been pulled off.

The large hoop that came with my embroidery machine is indeed large. I'd like to get a smaller one so I don't have to waste so much stabilizer. Stabilizer is expensive- but honestly, so are hoops!

Joann's has Sulky stabilizer on the notions wall, and recently it was half off. Before I buy the OESD stuff the dealer recommends (WAY expensive) I wanted to try this stuff. So far, I really like it.

I bought 8 1/4" width, because my hoop is just slightly smaller than that. But I didn't take into account the over hang needed. Uh-oh. 8 1/4" is just a little too small.

But I found a way to make it work. Tape a line of packaging tape to the edge (about 1/2" in) of the stabilizer. Turn it over and tape down another strip to de-sticky the tape.

Hoop up the stabilizer! The packaging tape works as the over hang. In most cases, it doesn't even get into the "free" area of the hoop, instead being below the upper hoop, but if it hangs over at all, it is just barely- so as long as you aren't planning on embroidering all the way to the edge of the hoop, it works.

This is going to save me a bundle, because wider stabilizer would be more expensive, and create more waste, but packaging tape is cheap.

Knitting?

2011-11-10T13:52:00.001-08:00

I actually did some knitting today. This sock has been stuck at row 1 of the gusset since April, and now it is on row 10. Metal needles hurt my hands. I have no idea why I am using them. Are all my wood 1.5s taken?

Kevin just got a lathe. Maybe he can turn me new ones...

Why is Internet so expensive...

2011-11-09T16:22:00.001-08:00

...and why do they insist on playing games with price.

Our bundle deal ran out so we canceled our cable and phone, but intended to keep the internet. The price quoted by mediacom was about $70. No way. Kevin called a few times to try to get some other deal (even if it meant we had to get cable) but no dice.
After the frustrating experience of trying to find century link's prices, we finally went with them (no additional phone required, like quest used to). Kevin calls mediacom and they offer us about the same as century link...to little to late guys!

So now Kevin is trying to get our old modem to work. Thankfully I finished homework early, so if Kevin needs to mess up the internet he can.

Day 8: I've got nothing today

2011-11-08T17:27:00.001-08:00

I am busy doing homework. I am taking statistics this session, and it is a weird class. The course load is really light for two weeks, then insane, then light again. We get homework for 3 weeks at a time, which you would think would allow me to work ahead, but you need all 3 weeks worth of information to complete the homework, so you basically HAVE to wait until last minute to do it.

In other news, my knee is not good right now. I've made it almost all year without going to PT, so I hope it just gets better, but I have my doubts. I did NOTHING to it. I have no idea why it hurts so badly. But it does... I can't walk on stairs, sit cross legged, stand up out of my car, or jump in ice skating. The only thing I can think of is that my knee is allergic to the Bronze freestyle test, and it knew I was getting close to meeting the passing standard :(

Oh well, off to homework.

Day 7: another cool embroidery thing...

2011-11-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

Quilting in the hoop.

No stabilizer required. Just place the quilt sandwich into the hoop and get your quilting design started. the bottom looks as good as the top. I am loving this for quilts I want a really nice look on, since my FMQing is still not fantastic. They say you can do really large quilts too. I plan to try a twin (the top I finished ages ago) when my CD of designs comes in. I had to get my second choice CD though...my first choice was download only so it wouldn't count towards all the awesome promotions they were running.

I did a trial run of one of my Christmas presents last night. Hope to make it this weekend. Applique letters!

(Edit to add: wow, that is an awful picture. Sorry folks!)

Day 6: Applique

2011-11-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, back off the machine embroidery again, I'll have more to show tomorrow (I think there are 2 more projects left). This is a 12" x 12" applique quilt I made yesterday. This design caught my eyes months ago, it is from the magazine "Quilting Celebrations" and I just love the designer, Patrick Lose (he designed the fabrics too!).

I finally had the guts to make it. This is my second satin stitch applique project, you might remember the "let it snow" mug rug. I can't believe how much better I did this time around.

This quilt was so easy to make, and I think it looks amazing (oh, and the walking foot really does make binding so much easier- I can't believe the difference). I made this little wall hanging yesterday afternoon, just a few hours!

I'm going to hang it up at work next to my Coneflower wall hanging (I'll be the crazy quilt lady in no time!)

In other news, I had a 25% my entire purchase coupon at Joann's so I went to go see if they had stabilizer. Not only do they, it is part of the notions wall, which is always 50% off!!! So I got it 62.5% off with both discounts combined :) I bought the sticky kind and the wash-away kind so I can make towels, and also bought some tear away for other projects. It was SO much less expensive than what the quilting store sells, so I am excited to play. I only have a large hoop, so there is a bit of waste, but at this price, it makes more sense than buying a smaller hoop (expensive).

But first, laundry....

Day 5: Cool Embroidery Thing #2

2011-11-05T10:51:00.001-07:00

This is an embroidered towel, but even more than that, it is an appliqued towel! The fish is made with super soft Minky fabric.

The embroidery machine can do applique, but I need better scissors to do it well. You do not precut the shape- the machine sews an outline of it, you place your fabric on top of the outline, the machine does another outline, and then you clip the fabric as close to that line as possible. You may be able to see some yellow past the outline stitching- that is because I did not clip enough. After clipping, you put it back into the machine, and it does all the embellishment.

This was a really cool technique. And if I can ever afford stabilizer, one I see myself using more in the future.

One website I found: PlanetApplique.com has adorable alphabets and designs, so I will probably make some holiday towels as a Christmas present.

I need more thread!

Day 4

2011-11-04T17:02:00.001-07:00

...and already I have nothing to say. I have more embroidery to show, but I am so tired I have not taken pictures yet.

I listened to the Book of Mormon musical today. Most of the songs were really good. I imagine the show has some great dance numbers, based on the music. I definetly want to see it. One song, which had a great beat, was so vulgar I nearly turned it off. Unfortunate because it may have been one of the best songs otherwise.

Day 3: Cool Embroidery Thing #1

2011-11-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently one of the things that can be done with my embroidery machine is free standing lace.

I actually didn't get to make this one in the class, but everyone with fancy machines did. Those of us with Aurora's that connect through laptops weren't able to. They uploaded the designs to our machines using a *gasp* non-Bernina USB stick. Oddly enough, it made a difference. The design would not transfer to our machines. Once they got a Bernina USB and retransfered, it worked fine, but this design takes about 40 minutes to stitch out, and there wasn't time left.

I made it as soon as I got home, and it worked perfectly.

I mentioned that I got some free Christmas collections, and I didn't take any of the lace ones. I didn't think it was something I'd want to do at all. However, now that I have my bookmark- I think this is SO COOL. I wish I had been able to stitch it at the class, I may have made different decisions for my freebies.

For those who have no idea how this is done, you use a water soluable stabilizer - 2 pieces for strength, there are A LOT of stitches in this, almost 20,000- and sew the design onto it. Then you wash it away and all you have left is the lace.

You can make three-dimensional things by joining together the lace (like Christmas ornaments) or use these to adorn clothes (like a lace applique on a skirt). This is a bookmark.

The yellow piece is some fabric that is sewn into the lace using the applique technique we learned. I actually don't like that part very much, but the bookmark is cool, and the Isacord thread is a beautiful color and sheen.

In other news, I got home yesterday and had a check in the mail from Bernina. Apparently my machine had a $100 rebate on it. So I take back all the mean things about yesterday being too expensive. Apparently, they covered it :)

Day 2: Bernina Mastery Class

2011-11-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

It's November 2nd and I'm still doing National Blog Post Writing month! Woo, that's commitment.

Today I spent the day in Cedar Rapids learning how to use the embroidery module on my Aurora 430. Let me tell you- this thing is COOL.

When you buy a Bernina, one of the selling points is lifetime "free" mastery classes. Pine Needles kind of sells this in an off putting way. They tell you "all your classes will be free". But they don't mean all the classes they offer, just the Bernina Mastery series- and many of them (heirloom sewing, garment sewing, home decor) are rarely offered. The "Meet My New Bernina", the embroidery class, and the class for the Bernina Stitch Regulator (which I don't have) seem to be the most common.

Anyhow- after waiting a few months for the embroidery class to show up on a Saturday, I gave in and took the day off work to take it. Of course, the calendar for November was put out yesterday and the weekend after Thanksgiving, the class is offered on Saturday- sigh.

So, they tell you that these classes are free. And yes, the classes are free ($75 if you bought your machine elsewhere). The supplies, are not. Which is to be expected, but they are EXPENSIVE. The kits for the class (you need 3) are 8.95, 12.95, and 5.95. The bonus is that if you got your machine at Pine Needles, then it is 20% off. Okay- so $22.28 plus tax for kits- I can totally stomach that.

But unlike the Meet Your New Bernina class, this class's kits didn't come with thread or needles. So I bought Isacord thread online to save money- I got an assortment, as required, but I only used 3 today, so that's another $12 (more if you bought them in store, plus you have to use Seraline bobbin thread and that is $9.95 . Then the needles are $5.25 for a pack of 10 Organ brand embroidery sharps (only need 1). So now the kit price is up to $49.30, plus tax. Still- reasonable for an all day class, I think. (The kicker: we never even used one of the kits! Ran out of time and got sent home with instructions!)

But here is what has me annoyed. They never mentioned when telling me the price of kits that I'd also have to buy a CD of embroidery designs specifically for the class (which means they aren't ones I necessarily care for). The price: $55! Fifty-five dollars for 10 designs, of which we used 4, and have instructions to use another 1. The software that comes with the machine comes pre-loaded with designs! Why not use those?

So now my class is over $100!!! Over $100 for materials for a single class is just too much!

But, I actually spent twice that, and I'm pretty well over the cost of the embroidery designs due to a deal they were running. They had all their embroidery packs on buy 2 get 1 free, and our class kit counted as 1. Then, all their premium packs were $30 off.

So, I got an adorable set of Current Calendar designs (99 designs) for $100, and a set of quilting designs (you can quilt in the hoop!) for free ($55 value). But they also had a deal where every $60 you spent you got a pack of 13 Christmas designs for free. and for some reason they gave me credit for buying the free pack, so I got three sets. Two of the three are actually really cute designs, so I'm pretty pleased with the value. (They are marked $89, $79, and $25)

All told, my day at my free class cost me $200, but I came home with a lot of designs,

So, now I have a ton of embroidery designs, but no money to buy stabilizer, and a quilting design CD on order- and that one I could actually use- you don't have to stabilize quilts to embroider.

I bet you want to see pictures of everything, but, well, I have a lot of blog posts to write this month, so you will just have to wait.

Also- if you hear me talking about buying ANYTHING else this month, yell at me. I need to start saving money again!

National Blog Post Writing Month...

2011-11-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

So I think the entire internet has heard of NoNoWriMi, or however you abbreviate it. But I'm not about to write a novel this month, I have no time for that, and no ideas.

But I did read a few blogs that plan to post everyday this month- I don't think I'll be able to do it, but might as well try to get Day 1 done!

Right now I am putting off homework that I should have done last night anyway- but Halloween was a really good reason to put off homework!

You know what the problem with my blog is- not enough pictures. Anyone have content ideas for the next month? I'll write about any good ideas commented. Want a tutorial on any of my sewing things? Except the pictorial quilts, because I can't give away someone's class, I'll make one.

My first pictorial quilt!

2011-10-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished Coneflower quilt...

The fabrics in the picture are just various things from my stash (for pictorial quilting, you really need tons to choose from). The border is a Robert Kauffman (I think) print that I got in my Fabric.com grab bag. I was iffy about it when I first put it on, but I really love it now. The only things I had to buy for this quilt was the decor bond (a fusible that you put behind the glue-basted picture before you start sewing), clear thread, and gold thread.

The clear thread was surprisingly easy to use. I've heard horror stories, but my machine didn't have any problems with it. I used it in the bobbin for the quilting with the metallic thread, and also in the top/bobbin when doing the zig zag applique of the shapes.

The only thing I do not like about this quilt is how lumpy the decor bond got when quilting. There is no way to not manipulate the quilt a lot- it has to be rolled up or folded to get through the machine. And this is a tiny quilt- it would be even more so if you made a larger one. I think putting all the pieces together like a puzzle using traditional applique techniques would be extremely difficult so the decor bond might just be something I have to live with, but this reminds me I want to go on craftsy and ask about it...

As for craftsy- if you can get the Pictorial Quilting class at $30, I HIGHLY recommend it. Completely worth the money to learn this technique and have the ability to ask questions. However, I don't think it is worth it at full price...

Up next: learning to use my embroidery module. I have an all day class on Wednesday at Pine Needles in Cedar Rapids. I'm a little annoyed about it- the supply list, before purchasing the kits, is a mile long. Then you have to purchase the fabric/stabilizer kits. I have heard that embroidery is a money sucker, so it looks like that is true. But at least this will teach me what I've got, and then I can figure out where to go from there.

I am collecting fabric for the dog quilt. It will be awhile, as I need like 20 different whites...

All glue basted...

2011-10-26T15:46:00.001-07:00

This is the back. The next step requires clear thread, so I need to wait to go to the quilt store.

Pictorial quilt...

2011-10-25T19:16:00.001-07:00

Here is my pattern! I'm going to have to collect a lot of whit and gray fabrics!

The coneflower is now glued.together. I need to pick blue fabric for the sky, and buy clear thread before proceeding...

Start of next quilt...

2011-10-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a pictorial quilting class on craftsy.com. We are making a coneflower quilt.

She provided the pattern, but the class teaches you how to make your own from pictures. Step one- line drawing, cut it out on freezer paper, and then iron to the TOP of the fabric.

Quilt for Acorn...

2011-10-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is the weekend of all done! This weekend I finished up two classes (a new one starts tomorrow) and finishing those classes bumps me over the halfway mark for my Master's degree- wah hoo!

To celebrate, I finish piecing the baby quilt I've been working on and spent this morning (I woke up ridiculously early) basting the quilt. I've learned a basting lesson - STARCH!!! I've had a lot of problems with loose backing, puckers in the top and the bottom, and OMG- starch fixes it all. Thank you to all the bloggers who mentioned it. (I also taped the backing to the floor- I actually read a quilt teacher recently who says not to do that, but it worked for me.)

This is also the first time I've used Hobb's cotton batting. The fabric hugged it nicely, making it easier to baste than the cheap battings I've used. It is almost TOO thin for a baby quilt- you want something cushy for babies, but thin quilts seem to be in right now.

Once again- STARCH!!! Do it!

This quilt was inspired by a Fons and Porter TV show the pattern was called Twirling Triangles, and I had to get a Pyramid ruler to do it. I didn't get the pattern, because it was from an old magazine, so I made up the measurements myself (they don't tell them in the show- want you to buy the magazine). The pattern is actually very simple, but I had no idea what a challenge equilateral triangles would be. Please don't look too closesly.
(you should be able to click for a bigger picture if you want to see the quilting)
My quilting plan was to stipple in the hexagons and then put a picture or filler into the purple triangles. This is actually my first time just stippling- it is quite fun. My tip to anyone trying this- have an exit plan. I connected the hexagons together in quadrants, and everytime I entered a new one, it was important for me to pinpoint where I was going to get out of the hexagon- this kept me from ever quilting into corners, and since I always ended off the quilt, it minimized ends.

The fillers I decided on were a flower (easy), a triangle spiral (straight lines are hard, but I think I did okay), and an acorn. It looks like an acorn right? The parents have nicknamed the baby Acorn for now, and are decorating in a woodland theme (hence the back of the quilt).

This quilt is all from ConnectingThreads.com - fabric, batting, and thread. Very nice quality, and while quilts are expensive no matter what, I got good prices I think. It is 36 x 38, so on the small side, but can be tucked into a stroller (I hope). I've washed it, so wrinkly quilt photos will come later, probably. (I love the wrinkly look.) For those wondering how the cotton batting shrinks- it started at 39 x 42 (cut down a bit from where it was before I squared it with Kevin's T-square...love that thing!).

The only negative today: my walking foot was a disaster. I must be doing something wrong, but even after posting photos and a video to quiltingboards, I don't know what. Hopefully a friend will be able to help me Thursday, otherwise I have to drive up to the dealership. It is like the foot sits too far back, so the arm can't hold onto the needle bar. Kevin managed to get it on once (and it worked beautifully, but the needle was striking in the wrong place, then the arm fell off the needle bar, my needle broke, and neither of us can get it on again.) I was almost in tears over this... a $200 foot should not cause this amount of trouble! Thankfully, I finished the binding with my regular foot- it has a few puckers from stretching, but mostly okay. I do love how the Bernina can sew over hugely thick seams with no trouble at all.

In other news, I wanted to share a video. This is my FAVORITE (yes, I'm a simple person) feature on my new sewing machine. The bobbin winder turns itself off!

Breaking into Kevin's workshop...

2011-10-23T10:49:00.001-07:00

Quilting rulers are not sufficient for.squaring quilts!

Pinwheel

2011-10-16T18:44:00.001-07:00

The baby quilt is now in 4 strips of pinwheels. Look how nicely this one comes together :)
Unfortunately it is next to the worst aligned purple.triangles (so far, with 3 large seams left, there are plenty of mistakes to be made...)

It really surprised me how forgiving the pinwheel were in the alignment. Even the ones that are off look great. The purple triangles, however, are brutal. That is where the mistakes shown
Can't wait to be done piecing so I can quilt.

Once this is done I am going to volunteer to quilt tops made for charity through the guild. I like quilting best.

Peak inside my craftroom...

2011-10-09T19:17:00.001-07:00

Making some progress on a quilt for the little acorn my SIL and BIL are expecting in February.

Only a few of the seams are sewn the "triplets". I have to say, triangles are HARD. I don't think many of these are going to be lining up... but the quilt should still be pretty.

Mug Rug Swap

2011-10-08T11:52:00.001-07:00

If you recall a little bit ago I posted the mug rug I sent out for a swap ("Let it Snow").
Here is the one I got in return. The theme was fall or winter, and this person was so clever to do it double sided to be both!

Towels

2011-10-07T16:48:00.001-07:00

The towels I wove a while ago are getting pretty dirty- we use them as our primar kitchen towels, so I wove up some new ones. I think I posted about warping them, but I finished them awhile ago. Since I have the new machine with the pretty decorative stitches, I decided to give them some borders (I mean, when else will I ever use those stitches?)

Aren't they pretty? One of them is already pretty dirty... apparently our kitchen is messy or something...

Here is a close up of the stitches. One nice think about my Bernina, the bobbin side stitches are just as pretty as the top side. My old (cheapo) machine was NOT like that.

New Wave Quilt is done!

2011-10-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

My quilt is finished!

The pattern is New Wave. It finished at about 47" x 55". (I lost a few inches while squaring it...). Cutting using the template was a PAIN, so using a tumbler ruler (or a die cut) would definitely be a better idea...

The main fabric is from a discontinued fat quarter set I got from Connecting Threads last Black Friday (I hope they do a half off precut sale again!), and the backing is Thin Ice Frost (which I love as a backing- although my back stitches are quite beautiful, if I do say so myself, they get lost in it and just the texture shows, which is SO pretty- there is a picture later on down. And it was on sale- under $3 a yard is awesome!) I used essential thread in white, about 3/4 of a spool!

The way I quilted this quilt was to stitch in the ditch all the white lines, and then do free motion filler designs in the colored areas. I had some major basting issues that resulted in insane amounts of shifting during the stitch in the ditch part, so I actually had to undo three lines and then re-baste. I should have undone another two and rebasted the orange middle section as well, as when I got to the free motion part, that part is kind of a disaster (the back is filled with pleats, the front, a few). For as much trouble as I had with it (when I decided it was too late to do anything about it), it looks pretty good once it was shrunk in the wash.

The picture I posted a few posts ago with the quilt shoved in the machine shows the way I did the FMQ, I don't roll the quilt, but accordion it together. Here is a picture of me doing stitch in the ditch, I rolled it up, and let it sit on my shoulder (I got the idea seeing someone do it in the documentary "Stitched"). Normally I would have turned it in the middle, but with all the shifting (and the hours of ripping because of it), I wanted everything shifting in the SAME direction. This worked GREAT except the one pin that decided to jab me in the face.

This quilt was a seam ripping nightmare (I have a blister from it.) I undid at least two full sections of free motion when I decided I didn't like how it turned out. First, the whole orange section when I didn't like the design I chose once it was translated to a large scale (and when I realized how badly it was puckering...the orange looks bad now, it looked HORRIBLE then), and then the pink section when rather than quilting across the long side of the quilt (see previous post with picture of entire quilt shoved into the machine) I decided to take a short cut and quilt shortways- well, turns out I can't do the zig-zag design the same from two directions, so that ripped out as well.

As readers of this blog know, I love Leah Day's designs. I've been practicing many of them, on a small scale (though not as small as she quilts). I wanted to try translating them to large scale (so the quilt doesn't stand up on its own), and well, it didn't go too great - I ended up going with "inspired by..." - but I'm happy with that. My original thought was a different design for each section, but in the end, I went with four designs, each used three times.

The first one I tried was Wiggly Woven lines. This is not on the finished quilt. (see above). This is my favorite filler design, and I wish I could have used it. On a smaller quilt, I'm trying again!

Then, I went with Radio Static. I only did 2 sets of lines, And because of the visual orientation across the whole quilt, it just looks like zig-zags! But I like it.

Then, I just wanted a meandering design, and asked Kevin to pick a doodle shape (you know, one of those things girls draw over and over and thus can draw in their sleep) and he said Daisy. I tried to do mostly 5 petal flowers, but also threw in some 4 and 6 petal ones.

I made up my own filler (though I've seen scallops before so it isn't really original), and I call this one "Mermaid Tail".

Finally, I needed a filler to replace the failed Wiggly Woven Lines. I auditioned and practiced about five different designs and settled on Falling Stars, except I made mine a little easier. Instead of worrying about the fill in space, I just echoed the previous design any time I hit it. Her design is more defined than mine is.

I have to say: I LOVE the way the back of this quilt looks in this picture. I think the different fillers give it SO much texture. Almost like the back is a whole cloth design. This is why I really prefer fillers over all over stippling.

I think I am quilting too fast, as my stitches are a little bigger than I'd like, my open toe foot kept getting caught (and then I'd have to rip back and restart) and I broke 4 needles on this one...

The ONLY thing I don't like about this quilt is where the binding joins itself. I went with a few of the unused fat quarters to make the binding, and put them together in blocks. The blocks that join ended up with two different colors: one less than an inch (!), the other just a few inches long. I hate random chance, it never goes my way. I also need a lot more practice binding. It is really uneven on the back.

Up next: either a twin quilt for my Mom or a baby quilt for Acorn. Depends on when Acorn's fabric gets here.

Wow! That was fast!

2011-10-01T13:06:00.001-07:00

I got my new Gidget sewing table! I got it from sewvacdirect.com, and it had a great price, I found a $5 coupon online, and the shipping was free...I did not expect two day, weekend delivery!

The table is a teen bit wobbly, as you would expect a 2 leg table to be, but unlike my old table it does not vibrate or cause my machine to bounce at high speed. It will take some getting used to as the sewing surface is lower, so I need to get used to the eye line, but it should really help my shoulders.

I will review it after a few months of use.

Doing some quilting...

2011-10-01T09:19:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to show how much quilt can fit under my harp. No need to pivot and do half the design upside down!

SPOILER ALERT

2011-09-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

If you are my partner from the Mug Rug Swap on Ravelry, do not read any further! (I doubt this person reads my blog, but who knows. Maybe I am further reaching than I thought...)

To make sure that person has backed away from the blog, let me tell you about shopping today.
We went to Target and rebought the rug that goes in the living room. Elsa has torn up so much of it, and we needed something to go under the dining room chairs, so we moved the old rug over to the dining room and have a pretty new one for the living room.

I also got a new laundry basket. I can carry 2 bushels of laundry now. It really cracks me up that laundry baskets are measured in bushels. I don't know how many bushels my old basket held, but it was less than 2. My old basket has been duct taped together since 2000, when I dropped it my freshman year in college. And yet, that was my favorite one. The other one we had was this awful wicker basket that Kevin got when he moved to his first apartment. Wicker is horrible for laundry- it catches on the clothes, and the curved sides make it difficult to stack things.

Okay, swap partner gone? Whew! Not much else to say about laundry baskets!

Here is my Mug Rug (smaller than a placemat, larger than a coaster). This is my first time doing satin stitch applique, and it isn't perfect...but I think it is cute.
The back is very simple:
And not to brag, but look at how nice the BACK side of my quilting looks on this super close up.

Loving my new sewing machine. Just wish I had more time to use it! Only 4 more weeks in this session, then back to taking just one class at a time...

Battle of the Sexes

2011-09-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

I posted this to the wrong blog last week...

Kevin lunch vs Jessi lunch.

I am guessing our house is opposite of most.

Repeat after me:

2011-09-20T18:50:00.001-07:00

"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."

Uh, but there is an amazing sale here: Go Baby

"But really, the Big Shot is probably better, it can cut pretty much every brand of die. That leaves you more flexibility if you go back to stamping."
"Besides, dies are super expensive. Think of all the Bernina feet you want. Now imagine if you had all those dies to choose from too. Where is this money coming from?"

"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."
"Jessi, you do NOT need a die cutter."

Decorative Stitch Wall Hanging

2011-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

I saw this blog post which has an adorable little wall hanging at the end of it- showcasing the decorative stitches on your machine.

My machine has a bajillion decorative stitches (the higher end ones have a gajillion) so I thought this would be a fun way to use them. Because really, when do you need them? It is a SUPER easy project- just pick stitches and sew straight lines. (Patience required- even at top speed, and I used less than that, this takes longer than you feel like it should. The blogger recommends not using top speed, but a snails pace. I didn't think that was necessary, although you can see I have a few puckers. I actually blame wrinkled interfacing for that, but maybe speed was the culprit.) The only planning I did for the project was trying to alternate the satin-stitch and open stitch type stitches, so the overall look was balanced.

I made the lines about 3/4" apart using an air soluble marker. The marker says it disappears in 24-48 hours. It must still be really humid here because the lines were pretty well gone by the end of 10 hours! At least they disappeared!

Isn't the thread beautiful? It is Essential from Connecting Threads. At the Bernina dealership she was looking for an example of "cheap thread" so I gave it to her and it was deemed "pretty good" (though not as good as the ones they sell, of course). However, since it was not deemed "crappy" (no one had the brands she was looking for as "crappy") I plan to continue using it in my machine. Way inexpensive, and TONS of colors (sadly, no variagated.)
I plan to hang this at work, so I can see some sewing, which always makes me smile.

Humbug bag

2011-09-17T15:42:00.001-07:00

I traveled up to Pine Needles Sewing Center for my first Mastery class on my Bernina Aurora 430. MOST of what was covered I had already figured out- but it was WELL worth the drive. I learned a few things that were really incredible. The course was project based- we made a Humbug Bag. The bag is okay, but not my favorite. It has a lining in it, but exposed seams, as the lining is just overlocked to the edge of the outer fabric to hide the "quilting" (basically we tried tons of decorative stitches, used the twin needle, and did some couching)- I also don't care for how the zipper sticks up. But it is SUPER easy to make, so a good little gift, I think I would do it with a proper turned lining though (to be fair, we barely referenced the pattern, so maybe it calls for one and we just didn't do it?)

Although the class was "free" ($75 if you didn't buy your machine there! Do this enough times and I'll earn my money on that purchase, haha), I thought the kit was kind of expensive. It was probably a fair cost for what was in it (2 mettler threads, 1 YLI variagated- though mine you couldn't even tell it was variagated, I was disappointed, a twin needle, a jeans needle pack, 2 Fat quarter, one backed with interfacing, some cording, and a zipper), but it still seemed expensive. I think I was mostly annoyed my variagated thread was goldenrod and sunshine- if you looked closely at the spool you could tell there were 2 yellows, but you can't tell at all on the sewing.

#1 The reason the threader is so freaking hard to use is that I was doing it totally wrong. Doing it right makes it way easier. The right way is very different from my Kenmore. It is exactly like the video the Bernina sight has, I just didn't process what happened in the video.

#2 The reason my bobbin case kept falling out was user error (I figured it was). I put it in, and it clicks. I figured that was right. It really has to CLICK. I mean seriously CLICK. Then, it doesn't fall out.

#3 The reason there is a screw on the back of all the feet is for the seam guide. You can use it on any foot, not just a walking foot. Seriously awesome.

#4 I don't think I really need a 1/4" foot. The straight stitch foot seems good enough for me, for now.

#5 I totally need a free motion couching foot. Before this class, I didn't really even know what free motion couching was (although I had seen it in a video, and just though "neat") now that I've done it- amazing. See the cord in the bottom left corner of the bag? That's done with free motion couching. SO COOL.

#6 Heel Tap really is difficult. They actually should rename it heel stomp. I'm still not sure why I would want that.

#7 Knee Lift isn't that useful for most sewing. I never used it today, despite them telling us "you won't be able to live without it". Still, I'm very glad I have it. I like it for freemotion quilting, and it is good for pivoting on garments.

#8 Bernina Bobbins are expensive. But I bought a tube of them. I'm done for now.

Quilt Guild and Art

2011-09-13T04:53:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to my first guild meeting. I joined the Old Capital Quilters Guild
I am pretty sure I was the youngest person there (and mistaken for a high schooler, as they were expecting some girls from 4H!). There were a few women who looked to be in their 40's or 50's, but as expected, the crowd skewed towards older women. I sat at a smaller table of ladies, and the women were nice and chatted with me. My goal of this is to meet some people in the area, but the set up is so huge (about 100 people) that I think that would be tough if you don't already know each other! There are 'small groups' and I might try to join one of those.

The guild seems to do a ton of charity work. They collect quilts for the hospital, they do a block a month (I'm going to try this) where someone assembles the blocks together. This meeting they also talked about place mats for meals on wheels and stockings/pillowcases for the troops. If I have some quilting time this month, I might try either of these.

Each month, the meeting has an activity. This month we watched a movie called "Stitched". It was a pretty spectacular introduction to art quilting. I know what art quilting is, but I have never seen it to this degree. It is truly amazing- the men and women who do this sort of quilting are without a doubt true artists, their medium is fabric and thread. I think it is a little frustrating, because I doubt the typical "quilter" (uh, me...) could aspire to this level, you just need formal art training.

The video showcased the pull between art quilting (many of whom do NO patchwork or applique, but paint their quilts) and traditional quilting. Things like "why would you put that on a bed?" (um, you wouldn't) or that these people shouldn't even be called quilters (uh?). I'm wondering how they found people to be interviewed because they come off sounding like ignorant old biddies.

I've known for awhile that while I like some traditional quilts, and like piecing, I lean towards modern quilting, mostly in color. However, seeing all these award winning traditional quilts, and award winning art quilts, I realize that I really lean away from traditional. Maybe after I finish my Master's degree I'll have to go and try to do some art classes, and see if I can transfer some of the information to quilting. Heck, even a color theory class would be nice!

For those reading my blog who don't know what art quilting is, or only barely know (like I did), here are the three artists/quilters featured, and a work that I loved by them.

Hollis Chatelain: Innocence (this quilt didn't even get an award at the show featured, but it got viewer's choice.) If you click on the link to the side, it will show the detail: all over the quilt, images of children are stitched into it. Amazing quilting. (Since last night I've been very inspired to learn more about show quilting- and this one seems to come up a lot in the "Why didn't my quilt get a ribbon" -FAQ authors will say "this one didn't get a ribbon either" - it is clearly a very highly respected quilt, I still don't know what the judges were thinking. The winning quilts were very good, but this is just an amazing piece of art.

Another quilter featured was Caryl Bryer Fallert. I didn't know it at the time, but I had actually heard of her. Leah Day mentioned her in a blog post just a few days ago (about using clamps in the ceiling to support the weight of the quilt) and I've been eying a line of fabric called "Gradations" that she apparently designed. (Funny thing about fabrics- I have a line of fabric I love- Mixmaster's, apparently it was designed by Patrick Lose- a quilter I also admire.) Feathers in the Wind was the quilt featured in the show. I love the sense of color she displays in her works. And look at this gorgeous dance quilt.

The final quilter featured was a man named Randall Cook (each was kind of related in the art world to the other. Caryl mentored Hollis, Hollis mentored Randall. Guess Caryl is just top of the chain!) Each of the quilter's had caused a stir in the world of quilting: Caryl being the first to win a major show with a machine quilted quilt, Hollis for winning with a painted quilt (no piecing or applique!), and Randall for his "pornographic" (haha) work. Here is the stunning quilt he made. I guess they are right, you don't see too many nudes in the quilt world. I think I have the smallest draw to Randall's art, but it is also just amazing. I tried to find one of his quilts that most caught my eye, and when I did, I realized it is one of Caryl Fallert's designs... What I find most interesting about him is he does traditional quilts too, and was shown doing hand quilting (though I think he mostly machine quilts).

Overall, the quilt guild meeting was inspiring, and has me really wanting to try some new forms of quilting. And to get to go to the Des Moines quilt show later this month. I was already to not go, but now I want to see what show quilts look like in real life!

Embroidery!!!

2011-09-11T13:50:00.001-07:00

Picked this (and a quilt kit) up at the Bernina dealership today :)

Anyone have any idea how this works? The class I need was yesterday, so I'll have to wait a bit... It came with a carrying case, but I don't see a manual...uh oh (ETA: The manual is in the regular one...so hopefully I can figure this out a bit.)

Mmmm...yummy

2011-09-11T09:44:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a week long trip to Texas (17 hour in the car yesterday!) It is SO nice to be home. The quilt store called and my embroidery module is ready to be picked up, so I need to finish all my homework so I can get into the car again and drive to Cedar Rapids. But first, I am enjoying one of my favorite Texas treats: New Caanan Farms Jelly (and mustard!) on crackers. We bought 6 jars (3 for me, 3 for Kevin, but I bet he eats my mustard too) and in my opinion, that wasn't enough! Yum, yum, yum!

Our trip was more than just jelly though. We spent a few days in Fort Worth with my sister. I am so thankful for that time. Her kids are growing SO fast. Getting to hang out and play with C., B., and L. was just fantastic. C. is in Kindergarten now and is a baseball champion. I already can't keep up with him. (Quote of the week "Get under the ball, Aunt Jessi! Move your feet!") B. and L. are almost 2 years old now and just adorable. Chasing them around was the highlight of my week.

In Austin, we got to visit with my parents, including a day of wine tasting (not my thing: but it is Kevin's thing: he picked up 4 bottles!) and we got to see Kevin's family. Michael and Rachel, who went on the cruise with us, are now pregnant (mostly just Rachel), and Jill's and Kelly's children C. and R. are growing up fast too (though we just saw them for graduation). This C. also loves baseball, and R. just loves everything: she is smiley and expressive (oh but if you tell her "no" she has an amazing glare.) We played lots of games together, one of our favorite family traditions. We didn't get to see much extended family, but thankfully, we got to see Nan (she stopped by the bowling alley, and also brought us some pie before we left). Oh- and at the bowling alley, C. managed to get both a spare and a gutter ball: behind the bumpers. What a feat! (I think he did about as well as I did- I play with bumpers too :) Funny though, I found that when the ball hits the bumpers, I pretty much never hit a pin. Might as well get the gutter balls, as my good throws never need the bumpers.)

Mod 6 Done!

2011-09-02T18:04:00.001-07:00

I finished the Mod 6 quilt last night. It is a sixty-inch square (a unit we call "One square Jessi") and the biggest quilt I have done. As I've mentioned, I did it in 4 pieces and joined it together quilt as you go, with sashing. This was MUCH harder than I anticipated. I wonder what it would have been like on my old machine, because the Bernina was not interested in feeding it through- as it was sold to me on being able to feed anything through, I was somewhat surprised (seriously- it went over 6 layers of denim without hesitation, why was this so tough?)

This was also the largest thing I have ever bound, and I cut my binding thinner, as I don't like it when it was so thick. This turned out to be a mistake, as I didn't have a deep enough seam allowance on the back, so some of the binding didn't actually get sewn down to the back of the quilt, and frayed when it washed, I just zig zagged that down.

This is the very first project I've free motion quilted. Each of the quadrants has 5 squares with filler designs (that I've been showing) and there is a loopy meander over the entire quilt. I am in LOVE with FMQ. (Which Kevin says he always reads as F my quilt, I suppose because of FML that people use on facebook? I'm not one of those people.)

Isn't she beautiful.
(You should be able to click to enlarge it)
So here's a question- should I sign it? People always say you should sign your quilts, but I never do. I kind of consider this my first "real" quilt, do I need to start?

Welcome Nina!

2011-08-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

What was the teaser about yesterday? Well, my Kenmore 16221 can't do alphabets- but my Bernina Aurora 430 can! I got a new sewing machine!!!!! (Or "sewing computer" as the manual says)

On Saturday Kevin and I drove up to Cedar Rapids and spent some time at the Janome and Bernina dealers, asking lots of questions and looking at a few different models. On Sunday I drove up and spent about an hour at each sewing on different fabrics, and then another hour at Bernina talking with the salespeople, waffling about an upgrade, and talking about prices/ packages. (Friday I also went to Brother, but I ruled them out before I test sewed.)

So after looking at the three dealers near here, I narrowed it down the the Janome Horizon 7700 and the Bernina 430. Honestly, I think I'd be pretty happy with either machine. I feel like on the internet you get lots of "my machine is best!" but very few people who have used lots of different brands and can really say best.

So why did I go with Nina here?
Although people say Bernina's are really expensive, I felt like it was a great value for the money. (Also- I don't want to sound "rude" talking about money, but it is really hard to find pricing information about sewing machines, so I will say that I paid $2099 pre-tax, with trade in for the Bernina. I think it was $2600 without trade in. The Janome was listed at $2999 and I was offered $200 for my trade in.)

Here are the major differences I noticed:
The Janome Horizon has a HUGE throat space. The quilt shown above barely even touched the inside of the machine when I was sewing on it (though not in the absolute center)- on my Kenmore, I was having to bunch it up already! This was something that really drew me to the machine. It also has an automatic thread cutter, which was really nice to use (but not a deal breaker), and MUCH better memory than the Bernina (something like 20 "spots" of memory where you can put in quilt labels and such. The Bernina has 60 spots of memory- each holds 1 letter, or stitch. It's just not comprable, Janome wins here.) It also came with many more feet (but who ever uses half of those?). The dealer was going to "throw in" a sewing table ($500 value, but you can get good ones like Gidget 2 for $250ish) a rolling travel bag, a cone stand, and for me the free motion bobbin case ($60 value).

The Bernina felt better sewing- it could really fly and the stitches were beautiful. It didn't even notice the seam as it jumped it for jeans. You can wind the bobbin while still sewing. The dealer offered stronger support. It had more throat space then I had, and the dealer (and the internet) said that king size quilts were definitely doable on it (and I don't make those...) It had all the features I wanted (the Janome had them too) - locking stitch, basic alphabets, needle down, good lighting, knee lift, lots of decorative stitches and buttonholes, good free motion quilting. The thing that sold me was the price- the Janome might have more features, but not $1000 more (for me)

And then this: Bernina's special offer: the embroidery unit. It's $800 if you add it when you buy the machine, almost twice that if you add on later. That was HUGE value for me, as embroidery was something I kind of wanted to look at (and while Janome offered a good amount of stuff, it wasn't quite the same level of stuff). Getting it free: big deal. The Janome doesn't have embroidery capability, you can't add onto it later. (Kevin did point out: something you can never add: space. But I actually think he prefered the Bernina, they really sold the mechanical features, the motor, the Swiss quality, that is what a guy looks for)

And last, at least in that dealership the Janome 7700 was as good as you get, absolute top of the line (not sure if that is true of the brand). For Bernina, the 430 seems to be mid range. There is room to move up, and they offer good trade up, even years down the road. I've always been told Bernina has "expensive feet" but I found most to be reasonable, and to be about the same as Janome anyway (though maybe you can use generics there?) I've seen mixed reviews on the Horizon but pretty much no negative on the 430 (well, except that while they really hype "Swiss Made" the label say "Made in Thailand" I had a heads up on that thanks to patternreview.com, but their website says assembled there with swiss parts. I'm thinking it is a non-issue, but salespeople should be more careful with their talking points. )

So after test sewing, I decided Bernina: all I had left to think about was: do I upgrade to the 440? It comes with the BSR (stitch regulator for free motion quilting, it senses how fast you move the fabric, and stitches exactly the same size each time), walking foot, 1/4" foot, an extra alphabet, a good number more decorative stitches, but was essentially the same machine. Once I heard the price, the answer was NO (can't recall what it was, maybe $3,400?).

But they offered me a deal to add the BSR to the 430: $2999- that put it in line with the Horizon (they say buying it on it's own later is like $1400). After playing with it for awhile, I decided my money would be better spent on a few feet for the Bernina (I got satin stitch, open toe darning, and whatever the #10 is...it was recommended) and fabric to practice on. The sales people were very helpful, and didn't pressure me, just pointed out the reason that this line is great is these things can always be added later (for a higher cost). Already, I am very happy with my decision. I came home and immediately started free motion quilting (as seen in picture) and I LOVE IT as is! My stitches already look pretty even, I'm not getting eyelash pulls on the back. With the BSR it was always beeping at me that I was moving the fabric too fast, with the machine- I can set the needle speed, then play with the pressure on the foot pedal, and go as fast as I want. I finished a portion of the quilt that would have taken me 3 hours on my Kenmore in about an hour. This baby flies!

The embroidery unit wasn't in stock, so I get to pick that up later. I'm nervous about it- I really don't know anything about embroidery. It does not come with digitization software, and apparently that is expensive- but I can use pre-made designs.

I'll post a more thorough review later when I've had it for more than a day, but I think I'm going to be very happy with Nina! (And that's pronounced in the spanish way. Kevin said to me "Bernina is a swiss company, not spanish- stop saying it like it is one of Columbus's ships." That made me decide my actual machine was likely Spanish.)

Another FMQ post

2011-08-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

I actually did these designs before I did that Halloween wall hanging, I just never posted.

This one is based on Monster Teeth, but I chose to do curves instead of squares. I think they remind me of amoeba.

And this is the one I designed myself. I am happy with it, but I wish I hadn't chosen to make the heart in the center. Although I love the heart in the center, I don't like the line to get it there. I also need to work on keeping my lines parallel!!!!!!!

Here is a close up on the front.

Finally, something exciting happened this weekend. I'll post about it soon, but here is a hint. (This also shows off Kevin's amazing Macro tubes- this yellow fabric is the same as above, what an amazing close up...the weave of the fabric looks like it is loose, and it is NOT.)

Lastly, I start class tomorrow. I am taking two classes again, which pretty much takes up all my time when combined with work and skating. I won't be sewing much :( Though I definitely will be making time for it on weekends when I don't have big projects due!

First Applique

2011-08-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

Last night I attended a class at my local quilt shoppe (Common Threads -I will note I almost refuse to shop there because of the extra "pe" on the end of shop, but they are really great, so I forgave them)

We did raw edge applique with this adorable Patrick Lose design. (I was kind of disappointed because I wanted to learn to satin stitch, but it's such a cute project, and the raw edge is really good for it, that I'm okay with it.) I learned how to use steam-a-seam (just like fusible interfacing, really) and then, it's covered with a thin layer of tulle and quilted down.

I also learned how to add a hanger holder in the back, so I will hang this in my office in October. I love it so much! I hope I can go back next month for another project. And I'll probably get into applique at home too!

I'm looking to buy a new machine, and Kevin says to go ahead and just go fancy to avoid paying the "beginners tax". But fancy machines are SO expensive. I'm really conflicted on what to do...

Tonight's progress...

2011-08-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I think I will have the whole math quilt done by the weekend, but I'm going to need more thread: spool number 1 (and a big one) is empty, and the only other one I had was a small one. I've done half, and have less than the amount of thread I used left. The math quilt tells me this means I don't have enough. (Though maybe if I rip out less? Of course, I already had to rip out tonight.)

I haven't tried the hearts yet, but do plan to do the converging heart pattern tomorrow. Tonight I tried two more designs based on Leah Day's designs (I promise I'm not a stalker! Seriously best FMQ resource ever).

The first design is based on Spiral Illusion. I love this design (one of my very favorites I think), but I've tried it before and keeping the second spiral straight is HARD. So I cheated a little and changed it. I call my design "Double Spiral". It has the base of a square spiral, and then from the middle I come back out with a round spiral. I'm getting better at straight lines- I found out that if I space them the size of my foot I can use the spring as a guide. Very nice short cut.

(Funny- I left a comment on her blog, after skimming the comments there. Then I read them again and realized the comment right before mine actually says they did the same thing as I did here. Guess my idea wasn't too original.)

I also tried my first stem centered design: Leaf Vein.
I kind of forgot to tilt them upward. I like how it looks, but it doesn't look like its inspiration.

If you can draw it, you can quilt it...

2011-08-23T11:15:00.001-07:00

I have a feeling this will prove not to be true, but I have been doodling hearts since I was a little girl. My hands know.the motion, so quilting them should come easily, right?
Here are two heart based designs I doodle at lunch. Which should I try to quilt? I think maybe the stacks will be really hard...but I worry I'll loose the echo on the other design too fast, so it won't show up well...

More free motion quilting

2011-08-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

So just a few days ago, Leah Day blogged this design Channel Weave and I love it! The problem is: I am really really bad at straight lines (the design is rated "intermediate" and yesterday I failed massively at one that was "beginner"). So I decided to come up with my own design based on it. I named this design Stalagmite/Stalactite, because, well that's what I think it looks like! It reminds me of the caves we used to go into when I was a kid. (Before I was scared of everything...not sure I could do that anymore, even the big ones like Carlsbad.)

Well, the drawing looks really good.

I think the back is a little wonky, but Kevin thinks it looks okay. (He's looking at the design, I'm looking at the stitches.)

The problem is the front. The design just doesn't go well on the block I put it on. The block is in thirds, the design in sixths, so you'd think it would work, but it just gets lost on the pink parts. The blue stalagmite (swoops) looks nice, and you can even see the stalatictes (the wavy lines) on the sides, but then in the pink you just can't see what is happening at all.

Still, this quilt is all about practice, and I think this design is better than the one I had there that I ripped out.

Also, I am incapable of taking a good picture on my phone. I need to stop being lazy and start using the camera.

In other news, my first nephew just had his first day of school today. I talked to him about it for about 30 seconds before he lost attention on the phone. From what I know, it was "good", he sits at a table, not a desk, and he liked eating in the cafeteria (but his Mom packed his lunch, however my sister told me that part, he ran off before he answered the question. Phone skills still need a bit of work!)

Free motion

2011-08-21T19:20:00.001-07:00

No class this week! So the goal for the week: quilt as much as possible! And to enhance this goal, the LQS called and told me the small Machinger's gloves they ordered for me are in! (They do help grip a little bit...free motion is still insanely difficult- hurts the wrist, and this is with a small quilt. I can't imagine the force needed to move a large quilt. Need to get my table made so that I can use the supreme slider.)

So anyhow, yesterday I tried to do some simple straightline quilting: absolute disaster. The basting must have been off, huge puckers and TERRIBLE drag. Today I changed direction and started quilting the pieces of my math quilt. When I quilt the four pieces I'll sash them together. I am doing a combination of filler designs and an all over design. There are 4 white squares in the center that get a design, plus a colored square in them. The all over design is a loop-meander.

I've mentioned Free Motion Quilting Project before. This woman is amazing- so helpful to the begining quilter. I really didn't even know I could do things other than meander. She's really inspired me.

One of the designs I tried is "Super Daisy"- I didn't want to outline the square on the side, so once the Daisy filled the space I just stippled the remaining background. She also stacks her threads, something I'm not too good at, so I didn't trace back more than just a little bit.

And this is the BACK (the back never looks as good as the front)- the front was white on white, so I had to show you the back. I did this design four times, and this was the best one, but the others aren't horrible. I am hoping that the designs even out a bit in the wash...

Also- I'm using cotton thread for the first time (Gutterman's) and I don't know if I like it a lot. I've gotten a lot of skipped stitches and thread puke. I've never had that problem before. I also changed to quilting needles- and I don't know if that is the problem. It seems too big for this, but it's the smaller one. The woman from that blog recommends a non-cotton thread- I might need to try it, or try the knitpicks thread. I really liked that for piecing.

Pets on Quilts

2011-08-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

Looking for my Dogs on Quilts Entry: Find it HERE.

So I've had a bit of insomnia tonight, and I can't sew when I'm tired.

So I surfed the web and found an online quilt show: Pets on Quilts. The show closed in just an hour from when I found it, so I didn't have time to search for the absolute perfect picture of Elsa "helping" but I entered her on R.'s quilt. (She's helped with almost all my quilts. I don't let her lay on baby quilts for non-family babies though, even if I do wash them.)

Go over and check out all the adorable pets! Elsa probably got entered too late for her picture to be seen by many- but I love the idea of an online quilt show!

I'm off to look at pictures!

The school session ended today- one class goes until Sunday, so I have a paper to write tomorrow than a week off! In that week, I hope to get at least ONE of the tops I've made quilted.

Another Quilt top!

2011-08-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was JUST for homework. No sewing allowed. I couldn't do it. All I had to do was put the yellow sash onto this quilt. So I sewed for just a few minutes and finished this top up.

This top is from Quilt June/July 2011 magazine called "Skinny Dip". I hate the name but love the pattern. It is twin sized and I have no idea how I'll manage to get it quilted on my machine, but I love the top.

Other activities this weekend: lots and lots and lots of homework. Also a midnight canoe paddle on Saturday night. It was a lovely night and a nice paddle. We should do that more often!

And now, back to homework. This is the last week of the session and I have SO much work to do.

What does 3 pounds of quilting fabric look like?

2011-08-11T16:26:00.001-07:00

Well, I don't know because Fabric.com shorted me the weight. LOL!
But the 2 pounds 13 ounces I got sure is pretty!

In my last order of backing fabric, I also threw in an assortment.

Joking about the weight shortage aside- I think the majority of the fabric I got is fantastic. There is actually only one I am displeased with- and it is extreme displeasure. But overall, a great assortment.

I estimated the amounts of each fabric and then looked them up on Fabric.com to see if I could get an idea of the prices. Most are not available anymore (a few were) but other things from their line were still available.

First, my favorite: The Girl Scout Fabric!!! I got 1.5 yards of this. It is Robert Kaufman fabric, and originally cost $8.98/yd, right now other fabrics from this line are $4.49.
Next up, I love the giant flowers. This is "Large Modern Floral" by Michael Miller. It is still available for $8.98/yd. I got 1/2 a yard of it.
Then, I love the Beige/Blue Fabric. This is from the More Antique Treasures line and other fabrics in the line are $5.98/yd. I got 1 yd.
I also love the aprons. They are part of the What's Cooking by Dan Morris line, other fabrics in the line are $7.98/yd. I got 1 yd.
The Tiger is by Timeless Treasures. I couldn't find a price for it.
The first set of Animals is from the Alphabet Soup by Stella Blue line. Other fabrics in this line are $8.98/yd and I got 1 yd.
I also got another animal fabric and called playful pups by Benartex. Other fabrics in the line are $5.98/yd and I got 1 3/4 yds.
The fabrics that did not have anything on the selvage were the maroon plaid (1 yd) and blue plaid (1 yd) - these both feel more like napkins than quilting cotton, the star fabric (1 yd), and the Peach fabric ( 2 yds). The Peach fabric is the only one I don't like. It feels like Chiffon and is completely see through. This is NOT quilting cotton. I realize the fabric just said cotton remnants, but it is in the quilting section, so I feel like it is a reasonable assumption that it is quilting cotton!

Based on these estimates, I think I got 12 3/4 yds. That's $1.57/yd. If I take out the crap 2 yards I got, then it is still only $1.86/yd.
Just on what I found prices for, I got $50 worth of fabric, and then there are the ones I couldn't find prices for!

DEFINITELY a good way to build up a stash! I'll throw another one in an order in the future if I need to bump up to free shipping. I just wish they had a $10 bundle...
If you order a fabric.com bundle- make sure to post what you get!

More quilt tops

2011-08-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

So SOMEONE needs to build me a sewing cabinet, until then I'm too nervous to do much free motion quilting, because of the weight of the blanket off the edge of my machine. (Someone knows who he is- but if you, the reader, want to build me one, that's good too.)

Anyhow, in the meantime, I made another quilt top.

This design is called New Wave (also, this blog is brilliant- a must read!) and was much harder than I thought it would be. I don't know if it is my cutting or my sewing off (I'm inclined to blame the cutting) but I had a hard time lining everything up. When I squared up the blocks I realized that that meant the top/bottom of the block was now wider/narrower than it should be (because it is shorter) so now it won't line up with the matching strip. But, in the end, as long as you don't look too closely I think it actually looks pretty good. It is lap quilt sized. I can't wait to get it finished and cuddle up with it on the couch. The patterned fabric was all from my stash, the white I had to purchase (I need to stash more solids- and quilt backs! I need to order backs for 4 tops now!)
This was my first time using a template. I found plastic material at fabric.com for a really cheap price, so making the template was no problem, but lining it up with my ruler was tough. I ruined my cutting blade (which needs to be replaced anyway) because I kept slicing off edges of the template. There is apparently a ruler that has a very similar shape that can be used for this- it changes the proportions of the quilt a little, but I think it would be worth it.

To quilt this, I thought I would just run straight lines parallel to the seams inside the color patches, and then do some sort of loopy free motion design along the white strips- what do you think?

I also finished up my "Skinny Dip" quilt that I showed fabric for a while back. But when I put it on the bed I thought it was too small, so I visited my LQS and bought fabrics for borders. No pictures until I do the sashing.

The woman who runs this store is so nice- they didn't have the Machingers gloves in my size, so she is ordering them. She also helped me with some free motion advice last time I was in there so I brought in my sampler to show her, both the owner and another woman in the shop didn't believe that was really my first one. They said that tension on the back doesn't count when you are learning :) and that my stitch size on the front was really uniform, and they could tell the tension on the back got better as I went along and did more squares. Once I do some free motion at home I do think I'll sign up for the long arm class. Unfortunately, almost all the fabric is $10 a yard, so I won't be able to shop there too much. I am going to try to take a class about applique though. Sadly, I have to take off work to do it, so I won't be able to go much (they do a project a month- cute wall hangings)

Math Quilt

2011-08-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

One of my assignments this week was to do an art project representing modular arithmetic and transformational geometry. I immediately jumped at the chance to do a quilt.

If you imagine a coordinate grid, the 4th quadrant contains the mod 6 multiplication table (mod math is like going around a clock- so if it is 11:00 and you add 3 hours, it is 2:00 now, not 14:00, unless you do 24 hour time, but that even wraps around after a bit.) So you can read the bottom corner by seeing that anything times 0 is 0 (all white rows), anything times 1 is itself (the first non-white row and column both go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). So what's 5 x 5 (mod 6) check the bottom corner- it's 1 (mod 6).

Then, I rotated it about the axis 3 times to fill out the other quadrants.

I did this all on Friday night and Saturday- but it's not actually the final product, just the picture I turned in. I ripped out the two center seams and am going to quilt the four squares seperately, then piece them back together using quilt as you go. So there will be blue sashing down the middle to break up the white a bit. Then, i'll bind it in blue.

I need quilting ideas. Should I just use my walking foot and make a grid? Or should I try free motion and stipple all over? Or should I be even more brave and try to quilt each square? I seem to like filler designs more than just stippling- but that would be very time consuming. Not to mention I would DEFINETLY need Kevin to build me my sewing table (he's cutting a hole into an old desk and then building a support to hold the machine. Seems like a fine solution. Just don't tell my Dad! It's his childhood desk. But hey- new life! It was destined for the trash heap.)

Elsa says this quilt is for her!

I Spy Swap: SPOILER ALERT

2011-07-31T09:55:00.001-07:00

What's this stack? Well, it's an I-spy quilt in the making!

I learned about I-Spy quilts recently when a long time friend posted about one on her blog. (I actually didn't see this original post, I only found out she had a blog a few months ago. But she mentioned it recently.) I just loved this idea. The idea is that you make a quilt with a huge number of patterned fabric, then, you can play I-Spy with it, the Mom gets to sit on the couch, the kids on the floor racing to find the right fabric.

I don't have any kids, but I do have a bundle of nephews, a niece, and another one on the way. Surely one of them would love to play with this quilt. (I'm thinking maybe two somewhat, but not exactly, matching quilts for the twins? They never got quilts as babies.)

But how to get so many different fabrics? The same way I got all the yarn for my mitred square blanket (which has been set aside until the winter- too hot!) Ravelry swap! I started an "I Spy" swap, and now there are 2 groups of 12 spots, each of whom will send 12 5" squares in 5 different fabrics. At the end of this swap- I'll have 120 different fabrics (I bet there area few repeats). That's plenty to make a quilt, and maybe enough to do 2.

So which fabrics am I sending? Well, I'm in both of the groups, so I have to swap 10 different fabrics. Here are the ones I picked:

Also, I apologize. I can't hold my camera phone still to save my life.

Quilting Weekend!

2011-07-24T16:16:00.001-07:00

So even though I had a ton of homework this weekend, I managed to fit in a quilting weekend. (The quilting served as great procrastination yesterday as I wrote a paper, and even better today as I didn't get any work done at all on this week's assignments- oops.)

So I posted a while back about some fabric I bought for a quilt from Quilt Magazine. I finally got some assembling done, and all the blocks are built and I just need to assemble now! That is exciting.

I also am a "real quilter" now, as I finally got a large acrylic ruler. My yardstick just wasn't doing it anymore for long strip cutting. I also learned during my binding class that you really shouldn't rely on the measurements on your cutting mat, so this ruler is an exciting treat for me. When I went to Joann's to get it, I also picked up some batting that I can use to practice free motion quilting (and it came with a small square ruler- exciting). Because they were on sale I decided to get curved safety pins to try for basting- maybe I'll stop pricking myself so much. And then I bought some Gutterman thread to try. I hear it is a lot better than Coats & Clark...

I also got in a book I ordered a few days ago from Amazon, it was free with points, but I got it used and it was only a dollar and shipping, so about $5. The book is about time saving quilting, and it is nothing revolutionary (though it may have been when it was published) using many of the strip piecing and flag-strip sewing techniques I've always used. There were a few new ideas in it (like wacking off the side of a unit block when set on the diagonal, rather than quilting individual pieces for those areas) and a few cut patterns. More "traditional" than "modern" quilting, although a lot of modern quilting seems to just be color choice (lots of white!)

Finally, on Friday I stopped off at local quilt store. The lady at the shop was fantastic, very nice, very helpful. Many young quilters report that stores aren't welcoming, but this one was. I didn't really look at the fabric prices, but found out that their long-arm "license" class is an even better deal than I thought. Once you are "licensed" it is only $35 for 3 hours of use. The sad thing is most of their classes are Wed. at 4, when I'm just leaving work, so that only leaves me their Sat. classes, which aren't very many to choose from. I went in to find a marking pen, but she recommended NOT marking. Instead, I bought a book she uses for one of their free motion quilting classes. It is a tracing book (dry erase marker on transparency) of different meandering designs. It's a neat little booklet, and more about all over designs. (Most of my ideas of Freemotion Quilting come from Leah Day's awesome blog -freemotionquilting.blogspot.com - and she mostly does filler designs.)

Now, I am putting together some quilt sandwiches to practice the free motion quilting. Then I'll decide whether to FMQ my new top, or to just stitch in the ditch. (I gotta say- I am LOVING it. Every block I pick up and think "ooh, I love those colors")

Chain piercing blocks

2011-07-23T05:13:00.001-07:00

I am up early so I am sewing before skating. Either I don't cut accurately, sew accurately, or press accurately, but my pieces are not lining up well... I dont think it will matter for this one. Loving the colors!

Piecing commences

2011-07-22T18:13:00.001-07:00

I bought this fabric quite some time ago and have had it cut for awhile. I finally found time to sew (a little).

Sewing upstairs with the iron downstairs is kind of a pain, but Kevin says I am too messy to bring more up here.

Off to do homework, and hopefully sew more later.

Invading the garage

2011-07-16T15:27:00.001-07:00

The garage is Kevin's domain. His car, boat and tools. But, today I found a new use for his router table and work bench: warping for dishcloths.

The Geek in Me?

2011-07-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

By chance some friends of ours from Ohio were stopping in our town while moving from Colorado to Washington DC (ah- military life! Since Ohio, they've also lived in Florida...in the mean time, Kevin has been separated and we've enjoyed the steadiness of Iowa life.)

After coming across on facebook that we live in this city (apparently it was a "Kevin lives in Iowa doesn't he? Checks facebook...hey same city!) They called to see if we wanted to get together. A chance to see old friends- of course!

So we planned to get together for dinner, and a little wayside trip. These are our "geeky" (kinda...) friends who introduced us to the awesomeness of games like Settlers of Catan and Munchkin and the like. They are apparently Star Trek fans. So we went to Riverside, Iowa- the future birthplace of Captain Kirk (well, depending on which storyline you follow, apparently).

My life long avoidance of all things Star Trek has ended. (I've done slightly worse on Star Wars- I actually own some of those movies, and I think I've seen all of them, or at least pieces.) I don't think I'll be getting a geek card anytime soon though. While looking up information on this place (which is really odd, btw- doesn't it kind of look like a grave?) I said "William Shatner played Captain Kirk? Really?"

Oh- and the dinner out. We had sushi and it was fantastic- though the wait for it to be made was LONG.

New toy...

2011-06-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

I got new skates so Kevin had to one up me. We are calling this his 30th birthday present. He is thrilled, and it is a hybrid, so I'm happy.

Some quilting...

2011-06-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Quilting is something that I've liked to do for awhile. I like piecework, and have done some more complicated things, but I tend to go with simple. I like for quilting to be a quick finish, so I stick with mostly baby quilts with rectangles and triangles. (I also stick to baby quilts because quilting anything bigger is really tough!)

One thing I'm not very good at is binding. I always cheat. So I signed up for a binding class at Home Ec Workshop. It's still kind of cheater binding, because it's all on the machine, but I figure it will look more polished than what I normally do.

For the class, you have to bring something small to try to bind. So I made a placemat out of scraps. These scraps are from the quilt I am actually making- well, was going to make until this new session of classes started and I realized two at a time was insane. It will have to wait.I made this one and just did straight line quilting. In the ditch, and then Xs onto each of the different squares. I did a bunch of various sizes, but there wasn't as much variation as I hoped for.
This is the back of the colorful one. Kevin told me it was a little too "out there" so I made another one, with more basic colors. I did two things wrong: first it is still a bit too "out there". Second, I decided to try free motion quilting for the first time!

You'll notice the "crop" of it is a little odd- the top row is super skinny- I'll explain why later. The free motion quilting was REALLY hard. For those that don't know, when you do that you set the stitch length to zero and put down the feed dogs. This has two results 1) the machine just runs away- it is very hard to control and 2)you control the stitch length by moving the fabric. It was very difficult to figure out how to move it, I was either too slow and the stitches were way too long, or too fast and it looked wonky. You have to also make it go with the speed of your needle. I thought a slower needle would be better, but while it was harder to control, the faster needle speed looks better.
IU had just planned on going up and down the rows, but then I got a little more wild overlapping into the other rows, going back on it. One quilting rule is supposed to be not to overlap threads. I accidentally did, but thankfully there was no Ghostbuster's style "crossing the beams" incident. I think it looks pretty good for a first try.
This is why the crop is wonky. I quilted more than I needed so I could square the edges. I was going to take a little off each side, but in the end I decided to try to free motion sign my name. I thought I did pretty well, so I didn't want to cut it off- so I had to take it mostly off the top.

Camping Weekend...sort of

2011-06-27T06:30:00.001-07:00

Kevin and I really like to camp, but we haven't gone in a long time. First, with preperations for my skating competition, I couldn't give up a Saturday (when my lessons are). Then, I'm just super busy with school, and a lot of that work takes place on the weekend. My first summer session ended Friday, and the new one didn't start until today, so I had a weekend off. I canceled my lesson and we headed out to Lake Macbride to go camping.

I'm not sure you can call it a success, but it wasn't a failure either.

Last year, Kevin bought a dutch oven. And we never used it. We still haven't. We packed it up,ready to make cobbler, our plan for Friday night, but when we got out there Friday night, we were tired (I had stayed up super late on Thursday finishing a paper that was due Friday night, but I wouldn't be around to submit) and hungry (it took us longer to pack up than I was expecting) so I mentioned we should just have our (incredibly yummy fajitas) and make s'mores. Dinner was delicious, and then I went to bed while Kevin played with the camera.

Here is where the fail comes in: Lake MacBride apparently does not have ANY flat campsites. Our campsite was quite sloped, which is fine, just point the feet down the hill. Well, it turns out it was really sloped in two directions. It was impossible to sleep without falling into the corner of the tent, because you'd roll both sidesways, and slide down. Additionally, we need to work out a better cushioning system now that we are old. It was not a comfortable night.

Now, when camping, you always wake up earlier than normal- usually at first sunlight. Nope, Kevin and I were both awake at 4:00. Absolutely ridiculous, but it turned into a blessing in disugise. We went on a walk, came back, Kevin had breakfast while I tried to sleep some more (I was still full from dinner! I've been doing shakes for meals, so having real food really filled me up!) Then Kevin went kayaking while I played with the dog, and then we took a nice little hike along the road into the camp. He said the kayaking was nice, but there isn't much to see along the lake, or hiking (there were people fishing everywhere!)

Well, around lunchtime (chili dogs) it started to rain. It had been cold and dreary all day, and the rain was just another annoyance. Kevin and I discussed it and we decided the weekends are short enough- except making cobbler we had done most everything we came out to do (kayak, eat, hike) and since it wasn't a Scout trip with a purpose there was no reason to sit all day in the rain. We packed it up and went home :(

So Saturday night was spent doing laundry, a little bit of sewing (another placemat- I need to quilt it for my class on Thursday), and watching Saved By the Bell (Season 3 and 4 on DVD- love it!). Sunday I spent getting a head start on my classes (I'm taking two- it's going to be killer!) and I went and picked up my new skates (very nervous about trying them out...)

Of course, Sunday was a LOVELY day, would have been nice to have it while camping (although the thunderstorms were awful at night, so that would NOT have been good).

And now, it will be at least 8 weeks before I can go camping again... taking two classes at a time is going to be rough.
Oh, and we did have the cobbler when we got home: and it was SO good. But we still haven't used the Dutch Oven.

Thanks work!

2011-06-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Spending the night at the ballpark courtsey of work. I'm cheering for Wisconsin because they are in maroon, . They were doing really well, but the kernels are making a comeback.

Kevin is spending the game working on his sports photography (this photo is NOT his) and I am enjoying popcorn and missing Aggie baseball, which is way more fun and interactive.

Swap!

2011-06-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about the internet is meeting other people with similar interests. For me, this means a lot of time on revelry, skatingforums and twop.

A knitpicks group.on revelry did a "rehome your stash" swap, and my swapper spoiled me. It sounds like the bare yarn and the dye is rehomed but the rest seems brand new! For my part, I passed on about 14 skeins of yarn I bought for melting but probably won't have ever gotten too and about a pound of merino roving! I hope the person. who got my stuff likes it as much as I liked the package I received.

Freeskate Dress

2011-06-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

So this was Another weekend filled with glueing rhinestones. This one for. My freeskate program. My intention was to really bling up the red dress and do this one lighter, but apparently I spaced them too far apart on the red dress because the opposite happened. This one has about twice as many stones.

There was no clear way too adorn this dress like the red one, so I did a lot of sparkle on the straps, and then random outlining of the curves of the flowers. My coach had suggested i outline one or.two flowers but it looked weird and fought with the velvet design so I did this instead.

It looks kind of goofy up close, but when I take off my glasses and its a bit blurry, it just adds all over sparkle, so i'm hoping that is how it will translate from a distance.

Competition is this weekend! Then onto quilting! (except next month I am taking two graduate classes, so I will have even less crafting time.)

All Finished (I think)

2011-06-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

I usually keep skating updates at my other blog, but this one was crafty, so I thought I'd add it here.

I bought this dress from FigureSkateWear.com You can see the front and back "before" views at their website. I got the stones from Beadsfactory.com their prices were the lowest I found for 10 gross. (I went with Preciosa instead of Swarvoski, as some people say they actually sparkle better from a distance, and well, they are a little bit cheaper. Having seen them side by side with the Swarvoski ones I had from something else (just one or two) I will tell you I can't tell the difference. A warning about Beadsfactory- their shipping is absurd, although, even still the rhinestones were the cheapest I could find, just beware.

I did also order a test cross from an ebay seller that were represented as "crystal, a good substitute for Swarvoski" and while Kevin never took them to the lab to test them, they look like plastic, so I'm glad I didn't go with that avenue- although those were cheap.

I used Crystal AB 20ss, and as I said, ordered 10 gross, although it turns out I would have been fine with 5 gross (I used just under 3 gross for this dress, and wanted some for another dress), so since BeadsFactory only sell by 10 gross, I spent more than I had to. But- who doesn't need rhinestones! I see lots of sparkly decorating in my future.

Doing these dresses took a weekend, as I had to wait for the back to dry overnight to do the front. It was super easy- about 1/3 of a bottle of E6000 and 19 toothpicks were used. There are a few stones where the glueing is a bit wonky, but from a distance they all look good.

A bit crafty.

2011-05-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've started putting the crystals onto my skating dress and its going faster than I thought it would.

I cut the colored strips for the quilt, but need to do the white ones and those will be more of a pain.

And, pictured, I made a fabric belt.

Body by Vi day 2

2011-05-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today instead of a milk shake I had a fruit blender (not icy, so it wasn't really a shake.) I had milk, my powder scoop, a banana, and 5 frozen strawberries. It was infinity more drinkable. No forcing it down at all. I could taste the powder, but the strawberry banana flavor was excellent. And, it kept me full until bedtime, a big plus.

Not a good shopping trip

2011-05-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Joann's for their memorial day sale. I spent WAY more than I planned, and not on exciting stuff. I thought interfacing was on sale (the whole reason I went) and got interfacing for two of the Amy Butler bags. It was not on sale. It cost $30.

Then, they didn't have the size magnetic snaps I needed :(
And I didn't get elastic for my skating pants...

Finally, I got the same pattern TWICE. I keep a google doc spreadsheet to make sure I don't buy duplicate patterns. This does not help if you are an idiot who takes the same pattern out of the drawers twice. They are even the same size...
At least it was only $1. I guess this way if I cut it and then want to make it again, I can just cut it again rather than try to get the pieces flat again. Or if I need another size I can do that without much trouble. I never trace $1 patterns, it's just not worth the effort.

This is supposed to be a crafting weekend, but I'm stuck on a homework assignment and have done nothing. Tomorrow I need to put rhinestones on a dress. Maybe I'll have time to cut out pieces for the quilt, or get started on one of the bags...

Body by Vi

2011-05-27T17:25:00.001-07:00

So I started a new diet program on the recommendation of a facebook (previously splitcoaststampers) friend. You can see in the picture the shake mix, half of my dinner shake left, and 5 packets of "flavor".

It is the Body by Vi Shape Up Shakes. They are meal replacement shakes- 2 a day.
They are kind of expensive for a bag of powder, but not too bad if they are really replacing the meal- like $2 a meal, including shipping.

The slogan on them is "the shake mix that tastes like cake mix" and it is nearly impossible to find a negative review. Well, there is a reason for that- it is a multi-level direct sales program. AND customers who aren't distributors can get a free month if they refer 3 people, so everyone* will benefit if they can get someone to sign up. Well, if you read the asterick, you know I don't actually benefit- so here's my honest review. It tastes good, for a diet shake. (Like "skates really well, for an adult...") The flavor is good, but at the end of every sip, it just tastes like powder. It's not overwhelming, but I can taste the sucralose in it. I hate sucralose. By the end of the shake- it tasted pretty disgusting, but the first 2/3 of the shake were okay..

I made my first shake just with skim milk and ice cubes, tomorrow i'll add frozen strawberries in, and see if that improves the shake. There are also the flavor packets- but why use those? Just add in real fruit, not more powder.

Quiet honestly, if it helps me kick start the weight loss, I don't care how it tastes.

*Right now I won't actually benefit because I don't have an auto shipment set up. If you want to try it, comment and I'll give you my friend's link. They automatically sign you up for auto ship which I do not like, so I cancelled it immediately. Which was easy to do. If I decide to stick with the program i'll go back on autoship, and i might even post the link for referrals, but I promise I won't pester.

Weekend Plans

2011-05-27T04:52:00.001-07:00

Assuming all homework gets done, my weekend will be filled with quilting (probably mostly cutting). My connecting threads order arrived. I love the colors! (I also got fabric for a bag that is not pictured...)

Mmmm...Spaghetti

2011-05-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Spaghetti is pretty much my favorite meal. One of the only things I would eat consistently growing up, and still my favorite thing to eat.

In college, I learned a new variety called "noodles". Noodles is usually shell pasta, but if I don't have shells on hand, I'll use spaghetti. It consists of pouring in a can of Hunt's Tomato Sauce and a spoonful of butter. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll add some pepper and garlic. This disgusts Kevin, but if my favorite way to eat pasta now.

However, I have a feeling I'm in for something a bit more fancy:

For graduation, my parents got Kevin a pasta extruder (think play-doh factory) for his Kitchen Aid stand mixer. He made Rigatoni the last night my Mom was in town, and last night he made me half-wheat spaghetti. Of course, I could probably do the typical "noodles" sauce on this pasta, but since he's making it, he's also eating it, so we are using real sauces (store bought jars still- I can make a great spaghetti sauce but it's a PITA!)

Last night we bought Cheddar and Fontina to make Macaroni and Cheese. I bet the homemade macaroni are awesome.

The best part- unlike normal pasta, which I think is maybe too thin, this stuff reheats really well. At least the rigatoni did. It tasted as good, if not better, after reheating.

The worst part- no Angel hair, Texas, or shell attachment. (Texas shape? For some reason, Skinner Texas pasta is the absolute best. Angel Hair is my second favorite. Then shells...)

Wow, Amazon! That was quick.

2011-05-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, I was thinking about a free PDF from Sew Mama Sew- The Blossom Bag. The bag is INCREDIBLE, so much so, that rather than just make it up from the pdf, I wanted the author to get paid for the work, so I bought the book.

I ordered the book from amazon yesterday a little before lunch. And today, I assume a little before lunch (because that's when Kevin brings the mail in) it arrived at my house. We do have Amazon Prime- but that's 2 day, not overnight. What speed!

So, what do I think of the book? Well, the Blossom Bag is without a doubt the best project in it. It's not a very expensive book (especially considering how expensive Amy Butler patterns are), so it might be worth it just for the pretty pictures, but there aren't too many projects that jump out at me. But- the Blossom Bag is advanced, so I plan to make one other one first. And there are two others that I like.

The book's subtitle is "12 easy ways to 26 wonderful bags"
It might as well say infinite wonderful bags, because what it considers a variation is very slight- in most cases, it is a change of handle, possibly a change of size. If a long handle vs short handle is a variation, so is a fabric change- that's how I calculated infinite!

The book contains a pocket in the back with all the pattern pieces, full size. It will be tough to get them all back into the pocket after unfolding, but a much better idea then printing the patterns scaled down in the book- scaling up is a PITA.

Here are the 12 bags, and my thoughts:

Cosmo Bag - I loved this bag on first sight. On second sight- it's HUGE! I wonder if there is a way to scale it down. It has two variations: long handle, short handle

Reversible Everyday Shopper- Cute pattern, probably one I will make. No variations, but it is reversible.

Origami Bag Set- Six different sizes of zipper bags. These don't seem too different from the zillion different zipper bag patterns you can get on the internet, but a lot of variety all in one place means you won't google forever for the perfect pattern, I suppose.

Beautiful Balance Checkbook Cover- An outdated idea (not many people use checkbooks anymore), but I'll probably make this one just because it's cute. Right now I just have a loose book of checks floating in my skating bag.

Perfectly Pleated Clutch- A cute purse, but I'm not a clutch person. It looks very formal, and cloth bags aren't formal- are they? 3 size variations.

Teardrop Bag- a cute bag, I'll probably make one of them. It has 2 size variations, but no handle variations. If they had done short handles, they could have claimed 28 bags. Short handles would look good.

Key Keeper Coin Purse - This is kind of goofy looking because it's the same shape as the teardrop bag, but it's a coin bag. It looses cuteness in the scale down.

Fringed Hobo Bag - This bag is absolutely absurd. Who needs a bag this big? Available as small or large, but both sizes are huge. And the fringe is so not my thing.

Blossom Handbag/Shoulder Bag - the bag from the pdf above- Gorgeous and a must have! 2 strap size variations available.

Everything Wristlet -This appears to be a formal clutch with a wrist strap. I think there is a disconnect between formal clutch and cotton print fabrics. I expect to see this in bridal silk or something. Two sizes.

Miss Maven Ruffled Handbag- I like the idea, but it's not my thing. Again, it's a very large bag for the style. (2 sizes, but both seem big). Maybe if the person carrying it was a very stylish person they'd pull it off, but I'd look silly.

Take Flight Handbag/Shoulder Bag- I love this one, but the retro look is something I'm unlikely to actually do. Comes in 2 sizes.

This chapter is closed....

2011-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Kevin!!!!

I can't even tell you how proud I was during the commencement. And a little jealous; growing up I always wanted a PhD. Oh, and freezing. But I don't think freezing is an emotion. (Kevin says it was insanely hot down on the floor.)

The first chapter of our marriage was in Ohio, where Kevin was in the Air Force. When he separated, we began the next chapter, here in Iowa. And after about 5 years, this chapter is closed. We both have jobs here in Iowa, so it looks like the next chapter will continue here in Iowa. I'm not sure what that chapter will be... but I'm sure whatever it is, it will be great!
(I'd say an adventure, but man am I boring, I'm not sure anything I do can be called adventurous!)

Product Review: Olay Massaging Soap

2011-05-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that I am obsessed with soap. I like to buy handmade soap from a few different places (and shampoo bars) but I'm not anti-store bought soap either (even though it's really detergent).

I also am a lover of a good massage. My back and my legs are in constant pain. So when I saw the massaging soap bar commercials, I thought that might be something good for me. (I've seen forms for handmaking this kind of soap too.)

Compared to handmade soap- around $5 a bar- the stuff is down right cheap. I got 4 bars for about $6.99 at the grocery store. This is in line with the other bars I like, Dove Winter Care (so moisturizing!) and Dove Gentle Exfoliating (I like the scrubby feel, and it's fairly moisturizing too.) The comparison prices I found on amazon for winter care were 8 for $9.99 and for exfoliating was 2 for $4.40. Not sure what they cost in store, but it's about that.

So what did I think of the soap?

Well first, the massage feature is divine. It felt AMAZING on my legs, but it was too painful on my arms (which have some pressure/pain issues). I can't really reach my back well enough to use it there, so for my arms and back I used the smooth side of the soap to wash, hoping to not wear down the massage nubs.

And that's the main problem. The massage feature only lasts for maybe 3-4 washes. And that was using it JUST on my legs. After that, you have a normal bar of soap.

The scent I got was "Purely Pristine". I have no idea what that means, but it was vaguely floral. It was nice, and not overbearing, but I almost think it wasn't strong enough to create a pleasant shower experience. I'm not a real perfumey person, but this you practically had to sniff the soap to smell it.

It lathered really nicely, and the soap looks like it's fancy. It has glycerin insets so it looks like something expensive from a bath and body store.

I don't think I would use this as a winter soap, because while my skin doesn't feel dry after using it, it does have that "tight and clean" feeling. Iowa winters demand major moisturizer, but Iowa spring you don't need quite as much.

Final verdict: I like it, but not as much as the other two soaps I mentioned. Will buy again if the price is right.

No fabric this weekend...

2011-05-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Although I did round 2 on the leggings (looking better, need round 3) this week, I didn't do anything crafty this weekend.

I had an ice skating show that went well, and am starting on my second class towards my Masters. Those take so much time! Only 10 more classes left to go -hahaha- I JUST started.

Sewing today...

2011-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a lot of sewing done this weekend (we had a fondue party last night, so we spend the day prepping.) But I did sew today.

First, I made another umpire bag for my nephew. The ones I mailed last Monday still haven't gotten there yet, and to will the post office to deliver them, I decided to mail a new one out tomorrow. This time I remembered to take a picture. You can see the lining in this one.

Then, I worked on my leggings muslin (a muslin is a practice garment). The good news is I made something that resembles leggings. The bad news, is these are NOT my size. I guess it's nice that i'm not as big as I thought I am (the pattern just has a waist measurement). So I'm going to make the next size down, plus get rid of some of the extra width (I already cut 5 inches off- but these are extra long to scrunch up on the leg...I though some of the extra length would be good for the skates.) Before I make the next pair, I want to ask people on Pattern Review if the baggy crotch will be fixed by having the size right, or if I need to alter the pattern shaping in some way. I didn't put the waistband elastic into these ones, because that seemed too hard to take out if I needed to remake them (and I assumed I would.)

I'm hiding in this picture because OMG ugly. But they do resemble leggings, don't they?

One or two more tries and I'll decide if I want to buy the expensive Under Armour fabric. Even leggings at Target are like $20, so making them myself would save quit a bit.

In other news, Kevin spent the day making a bed. Like actually making a bed. He is building a twin bed for our guest room.