July Goals Finished

I did it! I finished them the weekend before the wedding. I still can't believe I did it, especially since it was my first time hand-quilting! It feels good to follow through with a plan, even with a little one in the house... it can be done! 

(Thank goodness for naps and Daddy-time!).

 Easter. 

My favorite part is the tone-on-tone white crosses. 

 Christmas.

My favorite part is the singing Santa (Dear Mr. Claus from Moda).

Fourth of July.

My favorite part is the wonky star of course - first time ever sewing one of those!

St. Patrick's Day.

My favorite part is the reverse applique (I found some helpful hints here and here).

Goal Setting Post

Almost Finished Post

Thank you Melissa and Shanna for hosting "A Lovely Year of Finishes;" it definitely helps to have a little extra motivation!

I also have loved the Summer Series at Clover & Violet - so many fun project ideas for when you are on the go and you can't bring the sewing machine with you! I've linked up two of these table runners with them (the Christmas one and the St. Patrick's Day one)... go check out what everyone else has hand-crafted!

Also linking up with...

--------------------------------------

I'm Almost Done! (July Goals)

Yup, that's right! I have a week until my friend's big day and all I have to do is finish the binding on all four table runners/toppers. I can do it!!

I finished the quilting quicker than I expected - it went much faster once I found the right combination of needle to fabric :) I still need to work on getting my stitches to look as nice on the back as on the front, but that did improve once I got rid of the hoop - but once I did that, the table runner got a little poofier. More practice needed I guess! I did like that I could quickly pick it up during Peanut's cat naps without taking the risk of waking her up by turning on the sewing machine.

Now to hand stitch the binding to the back - maybe I can finish a side before Peanut wakes up again!

*Edit from phone: Sure enough, after just finishing one side, I heard some one wake up! She's lucky she's cute :)

To see the entire story on my July goals, see this post...

July Goal!

Finally, I feel like I can join "A Lovely Year of Finishes" with Melissa and Shanna! I have four table runners/toppers that I started in June, but I really need to finish them by July 20 (or maybe a few days afterwards!). 

My usual wedding present for friends/family is a patchwork Christmas Tree Skirt - the pictures above show a few that I've made, including the one I made for myself (it's so fun to see the skirts in use!). This tradition started because it has always been Mom's go-to-gift. Plus, most of my friends don't have a lot of holiday decorations to start their new life with, so a tree skirt helps them get started in that department!

Well, the friend who is getting married on this month knows how to sew (I helped re-introduce her to this amazing hobby last year), and I think she would have more fun making her own tree skirt. Thus, she gets table toppers/runners instead (still holiday inspired, of course!).

I pulled fabric and I started planning. You can see my scratchings above. Grizz's engineering paper is perfect for quilt planning - it's just glorified graph paper, but it makes me feel official :) The plans originally included embroidered borders, but having never embroidered words before, I decided that trying one new thing (hand-quilting) was enough for this project's deadline!

I kept my fabric choices limited to my stash. Other than the Christmas Fabric (Dear Mr. Claus by Moda), all fabrics are either JoAnns or thrift store purchases. Thankfully I kept some holiday fabrics when I sent most of my stash home with my parents when they visited after Peanut was born. Why did I send fabric home? We have tentative plans of moving back to SD this fall!! Whoop whoop! 

Anyways, enough chatter... the details:

St. Patrick's Day.
Reverse Applique (first time skill!).
Hand Quilted with Embroidery Floss.
Left to do? Binding.

Easter/Spring.
Easy Patchwork.
Hand-quilting started with DMC Floss.
Overcame some early cutting/measuring difficulties.
Left to do? Finish quilting and attach binding.

Fourth Of July
Wonky Star (first time try!).
Left to do? Take out the safety pins and re-baste it... I experimented and tried to pin-baste it without taping down the back fabric - yikes! Since then, Grizz has bought me more masking tape and I can try again! I'm still deciding if I want to hand-quilt this one or machine quilt it... I also need to cut the scrappy binding and attach it!

Christmas.
Neighbor (Bride-to-Be) loved this fabric, so I cut into my fat-quarter bundle just for her :)
Machine-Appliqued the Santa and gift tags.
Left to Do? Baste, Quilt (Embroidery Floss) and Bind.



So, I have a lot left to do, but I have three weeks of nap time and daddy-time-with-Peanut to do it! Wish me luck :)

Also linking up with Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday...

Table Runner!

I started this project last Wednesday, and it's been horrible hiding it from here! While I'm pretty sure Neighbor doesn't read this (she just found out I blogged a few weeks ago), I couldn't take the chance.
You see, she's a Valentine's Day Baby, but we celebrated her birthday last night. Grizz and I hosted, and it went really well! I'll post about all the fun party details later... but here's what I made my friend (aka Neighbor).

When it was my birthday, Neighbor weaseled her way into seeing my "list." The fam knows about the list... it's my super-long Christmas list that gets updated throughout the year. (It may be long, but I try to remind them, that nothing on the "list" is necessary, it's just things that I would enjoy or put to good use.) Anyways, since she saw my list, it was only right that I saw hers, right? Much to my surprise, at the bottom of her list was this...

How could I turn her down? She had seen me make this for a friend for Christmas...

But I wasn't in the mood to work with all those pointy edges, so last Wednesday, when I didn't get called in to sub, I found this inspiration. Since it was my first time doing a project like this, I decided not to quilt and piece at the same time like she did. I will probably try it next time though! I was really happy how quickly it came together.

First step: decide how long and wide you want it. It is completely adaptable to whatever you need. I knew Neighbor was at a PT appointment, so I scampered over with our spare key and measured her table :) She had said she would like one that hangs over the table some, so I added to the length. I ended up cutting the strips 13" long and I cut enough strips to make it 50" long.

 I grabbed my cutting tools...

And cut the strips 13" long and various widths - my smallest strips were an inch wide while my biggest strips were 3". I had all of these fabrics on hand (my stash is growing, yay!), and I wanted to do blue because she has lots of blue glassware and pottery that will go great with this!

I lade them out, trying to alternate lights/darks and widths.

Trimming the top was one of the more difficult tasks - you always worry that you're not going to cut it straight - especially when its 50" long! But it turned out great! I found a black and white dotted fabric (yay, fabric stash!) that would be great if she ever needed a quick change in decor - this is a reversible table runner! I did have to piece the back together, since the remnant I had wasn't long enough, but it barely shows.

 Here it is, all laid out, waiting to be quilted...

I saw a picture of someone quilting and her quilt was safety-pinned. I'm positive this is not a new advancement in quilting, but I had never seen it before. Yay for safety pins!! They were perfect for keeping the quilt layers together during the quilting process.

So... I guess my machine came with a walking foot. I've never even seen one used before in person, but I've read up on them a bit. Since it came with the sewing machine, I'm sure it's a low-end walking foot, but hey, it works for me! I only quilted on the seams, so it wasn't that difficult, but I'm already in love with this walking foot - the layers stayed put and didn't slip! 

Here's a Iphone pic that I sent to Mom. (She gets all the updates via picture texts... I thoroughly appreciate her enthusiasum for my crafty adventures!) As you can see the binding is already put on. The walking foot was great for that too! I used the same white fabric for the binding as the white strips on the front. It works great with the top and with the dotty backing. This picture shows how I ended my Wednesday - thus I started in the afternoon and took breaks for supper, choir practice and a movie with Neighbor, so again, I am amazed by how quickly and easily this came together.

Here's the instagram you saw yesterday - on Thursday, I knew ahead of time that I'd be subbing for a math classroom, where 4 out of the 5 classes would have work-time and that I'd have 2 prep periods. Um... can you say sewing at school?! Ha, yup, I split my time between crocheting and hand-sewing the back of the binding (note: I updated my memory on sewing a quilt binding here...). Highlight of my day? Sewing this, while a student knitted (she had finished her assignment early). Loved it.

Another Iphone pic - update to the Mom, telling her that I was done! After sewing a bit during my prep period and study hall on Friday, I finished it Friday night before another movie with Neighbor. I was so happy to get it done in time! 

PS: during the early planning stages, I had thought to do strips in the back in Christmas fabric, so then it would definitely be reversible. I changed my mind though. Perhaps I'll try it next time... this fabric is just waiting for me to cut it up :)