Obsessed Much?

Last Tuesday night I had an urge to sew. I think I had been doing too much reading and pinning about other people crafting and I was at the point where I had an urge to create something now. Anyone else relate or is it just me?

So, I dipped into my stash of fabric, pulled out my It's a Hoot Layer Cake and started sewing squares together. Totally random and without any kind of a plan.

By the end of the night I had this quilt top pieced. After I shared this on Instagram the bunch of pink and red in the upper right started to bother me. But it was already late and I told myself to sleep on it.

It still bothered me in the morning so I spent some time with my seam ripper and moved a few blocks around. Much better :) Truth be told there were still a few more blocks bothering me but a sweet friend encouraged me to move on and let it be.

Before we headed out for some swimming and fireworks (it was the 4th of July) I pieced together the back.

Up to this point everything had gone pretty well. I should have known I would spend Thursday fighting with the quilt. At this point I was obsessed with finishing the quilt and ignored my usual ground rule of not trying to accomplish anything crafty when the kids are awake/around.

I'll think twice next time. Since I was distracted, as a Mama should be, I didn't think my quilt sandwich all the way through. I was trying a new (to me) technique where instead of binding the quilt you sew the edges and then turn right side out similar to a pillow. Let me tell you if you ever try this make sure you lay batting, backing, then top NOT backing, batting and top. When I went to turn it right side out my batting was on the outside and I had the opportunity to spend more time with my seam ripper.

That night I tried another new (to me) technique and tied my quilt instead of quilting it. That was super easy and very fast.

Friday morning I ran the quilt through the wash and had it out in the sunroom by lunch. At first I thought this was too girly for this boy house but the smile on my face everytime I walked past proved me wrong.

So last Tuesday night through Thursday night I was a woman obsessed. And this is why I stay away from any potential vices, I have a smidge of an addictive personality :) But why can't I get obsessed like that with cleaning my house???

I have a few more layer cakes in my stash so I wouldn't be surprised if this happens again. The post and subsequent pin that had me itching to take on this project can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great weekend! I'll be back next week with Week 22 of Project Life which has six inserts. Yes, I know that is a problem which is why when I finished Week 26 last night I had zero inserts.

Monica

A Quilt for baby Travis

Earlier today......It's 3:33AM and I should really be asleep. But after Travis' 2AM feeding I found myself lying in bed unable to sleep with all the things I want to do during the day but don't because I'm chasing around three little boys.

So, before my eyes get heavy or one of the above mentioned three little boys wakes up for either a feeding or a walk down the hallway I wanted to quickly share what I have accomplished this week.

Just now.......Hello again. It's now almost 12 hours later and I'm just now sitting down to finish this post. Promptly at 3:50 AM Owen woke up in bed screaming and while snuggling him back to sleep I also drifted off. Today has gifted us with the littles refusing to nap. I've finally put Travis in his swing so he will get some rest. Owen on the other hand is playing next to me as I type. Maybe this means he'll go to bed early? I sure hope so.

Last weekend I shifted my focus from Project Life to the quilt I started for baby Travis back in February. For four months my sewing machine has gone untouched but on Saturday Mitch took charge of Garrett & Owen so that I could go to the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild's Saturday Sew to finally quilt the top I had made for Travis oh so many months ago.

 

When I got home all I had left were a few lines of quilting and the binding.

I was so excited on Tuesday when I called it done and put it in the wash.

I am happy to report that this quilt is already getting lots of love from its new owner.

There is not a pattern but it I was inspired by the Patchwork Squares Quilt I saw at Pottery Barn Kids. The fabric is a combination of Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane, Denyse Schmidt's Fairgrounds & Picnic from her DS Quilts Collection at Joann, some reclaimed bed linens from Whimsie Dots and a few random prints from my stash.

And now Travis is awake.....until next time my friends. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer.

Monica  

Bait & Switch

I know I promised to share Week 41 of Project Life next but I've been distracted by Christmas. Since Sunday I've been working furiously to put together a quilt top for my husband's Christmas present. I was very excited to get it done last night!!

My husband's first comment was that it really fits into the color palette of our house. I would love to say that I planned it that way but since I pulled fabrics for and began this project last Christmas I have no idea what I was thinking :)

My favorite print is the chicks which I pulled in because I wanted to use gray. Love. This is the first quilt top I've taken the time to iron my seams so they "nest" in order to get my points to match. The kicker is that it worked!! I was so afraid I'd get off track since this design really needs them to line up and was tickled with each row to see it come together. And here is the inspiration for the quilt from Film in the Fridge, same but different.

So that I keep my word, something my six year old keeps me honest on, "a promise is a promise", here are pictures of my almost finished Week 41 of Project Life.

This is most certainly one of my more random posts but I've only given myself a 10 minute break from Mid Year Evaluations at work so it's time to get back it. Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Monica

Ahead of Schedule

If it is socially acceptable to recognize Christmas in July then I vote it's A-OK to share Halloween in May.

Last week I had my machine out to work on some quilt blocks for a friend & decided to finish the quilt that has been haunting me since October. OK that was a really bad play on words; send your sympathy to my husband who gets it all the time. I think I'm pretty funny at home.

This was my first go at machine binding using this Pat Sloan tutorial & I'm pretty pleased. My only complaint is that it takes alot of thread. Also, on my machine I wasn't able to adjust the stitch length for this stitch & I would have liked it to be a little longer.

The quilt was inspired by this one on Flickr & I added my own little twist. I pieced together the binding from my scraps & I think it turned out OK. I'm not crazy about the backing fabric included in the binding. It disappears a little too much for me.

I love that this quilt was started with the intent to finish for Hallween 2010 and is now only completed in May. I did have the piece topped that week & the quilting partially finished but I lost motivation to finish it once Halloween passed.

Several sweet friends have pointed out that I'm ahead of schedule now & I'll take it! This will be the last quilty thing I have to share for awhile because I have challenged myself to be "real time" with Project Life at the halfway mark, June 26th. And, I will be working to meet my deadline of June 3rd for my first ever Big Picture Classes Self Paced Project, which is exciting & scary all at the same time.

Have a great, Tuesday! Is it really only Tuesday?

lovemon

Learning Curves

It's been a little over a year since I jumped into the world of quilting and I really am enjoying this new hobby of mine. What first drew me in was the online modern quilting movement (and beautiful fabric) but it has been the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild that has encouraged me to grow as a quilter. This group is beyond talented, inclusive, down to earth, sincere and fun.

At last month's meeting I was super excited to show off Owen's finished quilt! This was started in the Fall & was intended to be a playmat. I was disappointed I finished after the "we've gone mobile" milestone but Owen doesn't seem to mind. He is a nut about this quilt. If he sees it out he dashes to it like a maniac & throws himself on it. Turns out its perfect for peek-a-boo & general rumpus! In fact, Owen was with me when I took this to the guild meeting & everyone thought it was hilarious how he went after his quilt during show and tell.

The quilt was built on the disappearing nine patch block that I learned from a class at Bernina, taught by my friend Michelle. I felt a real sense of accomplishment in finishing this but to be honest was disappointed when I pulled it out of the dryer to find that it didn't lay flat.

Mitch assured me that it wouldn't make a difference in the end & I've come to agree that he's right. Not really a surprise as I've learned in almost nine years of marriage my husband is usually right :)

While I certainly want to improve my technical skills it's important to remember we all start somewhere. It will only be with practice and through my mistakes that I will improve. When I sit with that perspective I am able to see how far I've come from Owen's first quilt and I'm pretty happy.

In the craft room I have a Halloween quilt that is waiting for binding & hope to share that with you soon. Of course, now that I've learned to make sure my quilt is "square" before binding I'll be doing a remeasure before I attempt machine binding for the first time!

I've also learned that more than one quilt in progress overwhelms me so I'm going to be a one woman quilt from now on. At the top of my list is piecing Mitch's quilt top; I'm excited to pull it back out. And until then, I'll keep my eyes open for fabric that I have to add to my stash.

About a month ago I had the best fun hunting these Denyse Schmidt fabrics in town with my girlfriends. You would have thought it was some sort of elusive drug we needed a fix of from our emails.

The alarm has just gone off for me to wake up so it's time to get ready for a day of meetings. I've actually been up for awhile since I don't sleep well without my husband which means I was pretty much awake around 2:30 when I received this text from Mitch "The little guy climbed out of his crib". Seriously? He becomes an escape artist when I'm not at home!

My first question of course was if he was hurt. Nope, just sitting at his door waiting for someone to come get him. Oh, Mr. Mischief.


Have a wonderful Wednesday!

lovemon

Show & Tell

I am super excited to share with you what I've been working on during my maternity leave. Of course you guys now about this little project of mine. Its been such a joy spending the last four months getting to know Mr. Owen.


In the moments in between I have been working on a big brother quilt for Garrett. This is my first large quilt & I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.


I used the same fabric (Robert Kauffman, by designer Monaluna from the lines Metro Market and Mingle) & pattern as I did for Owen's quilt. However, the result was very different.

I adore the movement in the quilt. For the first time I used a quarter inch foot on my machine and it made all the difference in my piecing. I credit that & the bigger pieces for the top actually resembling the pattern :)

I started to quilt with straight lines and then ripped it all out. Instead I went with stair steps that followed the front. So happy I decided to start again.

I went through the same process with the binding. I had about a quarter of it done & hated it. So, I ripped it out & followed this tutorial. Again so glad I took the time to redo it when I saw I wasn't happy.

There are two things I learned from this process. First, I will get better with every quilt I make. I can already see such improvement over Owen's stroller quilt. Two, this is a slow going process for me. I think I'm going to enjoy the slower long term pace of these projects.

I've been working on another quilt top for Owen to use as a playmat & have plans to cut fabric for a quilt for Mitch so expect to see more quilting craftiness in the future.

Have a beautiful weekend!

lovemon

Show & Tell

For the last few years I've grown accustomed to helping Garrett pick a show & tell on Friday morning to take to school. With him being home this summer I've missed this little routine of mania as we flurry out the door.

In hopes of filling that empty place I introduce Show & Tell as a regular Friday feature. This will be where I share what is keeping me crafty. To kick things off I'll explain how I've come to be consumed by fabric & quilting right now.

I made my first quilt, a rag quilt, about seven years ago. It was fun and then I made about four more as Christmas gifts. Not so much fun. However, since I had the technique down the mini version became my go to baby present.

It wasn't until a few Christmas' ago that I made an adult version again. Because I procrastinated & was rushing it was again a frenzied experience.

Last October I took Garrett to a craft fair and was collecting the cards of inspiring local artists. One of those cards was that of a quilter who had a pillow I adored. She had a blog & I began to follow her. When she posted in January about starting a Modern Quilt Guild in Dallas I was excited enough to not only attend the first meeting but volunteer to be the Historian!

The last seven months have been full of inspiration, new friendship & fun. My favorite part of our meetings is show & tell . This is truly a talented group of ladies. My other favorite, the Saturday Sew. It's like going to a crop!

Between the pregnancy & Owen's arrival I've only managed to finish one quilt. It was so exciting though because it was my first pieced quilt that I quilted the three layers at once. Since the rag quilts are quilted at each block this was a big step for me.


Since that accomplishment I've learned to piece my first block together. I was spurred by a fellow guild member's call for help. She had a friend in need and asked for assistance in making blocks for a quilt she was going to gift the family with.

Here are the blocks I sent .



She finished piecing the quilt top together this week and it is so beautiful. I'm in awe of how so many different fabrics can come together as one. I think that is my favorite piece of quilting.

Today Owen & I are heading out to my first ever quilting retreat. So excited to enjoy the good company of new friends and to indulge in a weekend of sewing. My project is to complete a quilt for Garrett. When I made Owen's quilt my intention was to have a big brother version for Garrett.

Since the rows are pieced I should be able to have the quilt top pieced shortly. Then it will be time to quilt and bind. Sounds easy enough but if I hand quilt the binding this could take all weekend.

I'm also taking with me this fabulous find from last weekend's adventure in Canton.


It is a 1930s/1940s quilt top. My plan is to hand quilt all of it. This is a project that may take mw until Christmas to complete and I'm OK with that. It's just so beautiful. I'm excited to show these seasoned quilters & to get their opinion on the backing. They've already been amazing sharing all their tips on hand quilting.

This week was more tell than show so I want to leave you with my two of my favorite quilters right now. I adore everything over at Film in the Fridge & Cluck Cluck Sew. I gather all of my quilting inspiration on my tumblr blog. Head over here for tons of eye candy.

You may say I'm a scrapper not a quilter. True but I encourage you to look beyond the quilt and find inspiration for color schemes & design.

Have a beautiful weekend my friends!

lovemon

A Little Bit of This & That

The camera is back! I highly recommend taking your camera in to be cleaned. I am certainly noticing a difference.

I've been turning the camera on Garrett & am reminded to do so more often. Here he is playing Batman Lego & just looks so big. This very grown up version of him is not the one I carry around in my head. But here is the proof, he is definitely growing up.

Now this is the version I carry around. So thankful that yes, he still exists too!

I'm still working on the braided pillow & Garrett's quilt. I was pulling the whip stitch too tight and the braids were starting to curve. So, I took some apart and now it is staying a bit straighter.

I'm hoping to be finished with the pillow soon. I have been distracted lately by running errands to pick up last minute things, packing the hospital bag & putting on the finishing touches in Owen's room. I'm really loving his room. I think it may be the calmest place in the house.


These came in the mail yesterday from The Pecking Order. First I laughed because they are so stinking cute and then I started crying.

I'll blame some of the crying on my wacky hormones right now & the other half on my usually overly sentimental heart.

When we first got the positive pregnancy test I sent this very simple prayer to God, "Please let me hold this baby." I am overwhelmed that in two short weeks my prayer will be answered. The enormity of this takes over me on a daily basis.


So, it may have been a few weeks ago that I shared a sneak of a layout. Well, it's up at Ella's blog!


We were lucky enough to team up with Cosmo Cricket for a blog swap. Make sure you head over to Ella to see all the projects & enter for a chance to win one of three goody boxes. The giveaway closes, Wednesday, May 19th at noon MST.

Journaling: We spent 3 months together and then it was time for me to go back to work on March 1, 2005. Although it was time for me to leave you I wasn't ready for you to leave the house just yet. You seemed just too small to leave the safety of home.

I was also struggling with the guilt of leaving you for the first time. I always knew that I was going to go back to work, that was what was best for our family. However, my mind knowing that didn't help my heart feel any better.

Luckily, we had the foresight to recognize that this was going to be a hard transition for me. So, while we were still waiting for you to arrive we called in the reinforcements.

We were able to work out everyone's schedule so that you had around the clock care from family members during the month of March.

Granny & Paw Paw spent the first two weeks in March with you. Then Grandma & Uncle Marco took a week and since Grandpa's Spring Break was different from Grandma's he kept you the last week.

In the end, the transition I had worried so much about went just fine. You my sweet boy loved all the attention from your family and my heart was calm knowing that you were in the care of people who loved you. Remembered 5/2010

I have two new loves, my google reader & my tumblr blog.

You may have noticed that some of my links to the right have disappeared. I've decided to consolidate & update into my google reader. I'm in process of bringing to you via the sidebar some of my new favorite finds through an import from my reader.

I love having everything in one place and in specific inspiration categories. When I find something I love, I send it to my Tumblr Blog which is my new inspiration file. I find I'm referring to it more than I ever have a paper inspiration file. You can see what I'm loving by visiting me here.

Ahh and now it is time to go to work. Yesterday I kept having tightening of the belly & then last night threw in some back pain for good measure.

This has me hopeful that I may actually go into labor on my own this time. So today's task at work is to tidy my office just in case. Also, I can't stop tidying. I even have the urge to vacuum.

Maybe we are getting close to time??

lovemon

Addicted

to sewing & quilting.

I'm still riding the high of finishing Owen's baby quilt. In fact, I've taken the plunge & upgraded my sewing machine.

I've said goodbye to my trusty Singer that has been with me for 8 years & only cost $100. I was so happy that it was able to find a home with a little girl that is a new sewer. I hope having the machine at home fuels her interest in this craft.


After much discussion with Jim, at The Sewing Room, I took home with me the new Janome 3160 QDC. I'm in love.


I had no idea that a machine could be so great. This was the middle of the road in terms of price & worth every penny so far. I can't wait to keep working with it to see all it can do.

I'm cutting & piecing together Garrett's big brother version of the quilt I made Owen & it is coming together so much easier. Thrilled that I have this little workhorse to help me on the big quilt.

I also threw in another project for the nursery. I saw this gorgeous pillow at one of my new favorite blogs, V and Co. and ran off to buy the pattern at her Etsy shop.


My next stop was of course, City Craft to pick up fabric. The pattern calls for a Jelly Roll but I decided to pick out individual fabrics & make my own jelly roll.

Next time I'm definitely using my pinking rotary cutter. The unraveling when braiding was driving me crazy.


I've finished all the braids & have started to piece them together.

I'm getting to the point in the project, as I always do, where something is going a little wonky & I start to panic just a little bit. This then leads to me altering the project from the instructions & ending up with something a little bit different.

I have a feeling my finished project won't look exactly like the one I started but that is so me.

My camera & all lenses are being cleaned in the shop right now or else I'd show you what I mean by wonky. It should be ready to pick up either today or tomorrow. I hope by then I have a finished product to photograph & share!

lovemon

My Quilting Adventure Seeing Light

I have mended the quilt.

I went ahead and took it apart in order to fix my pattern and reinforced the seams that were coming undone.

Now I am off to fringe very, very carefully!

Here is the front all pieced together & cut but not fringed.

Here is the back all pieced together.

lovemon