making progress

Well I've been working like crazy to finish my quilt for my 25th birthday.  I got the quilt top done this afternoon and I'm basting it tonight.  If all goes as planned I'll have it quilted and be cuddled up in my new quilt by my birthday this Thursday.

Thought I'd give you a quick update on how its going.  Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Update

So apparently this has become a "once a month" blog.  I'm gonna try to work on that and be a little more consistent.  Anyway here is an up date of what been going on.  Christmas was SO great.  I love the holidays and spending time with family.  There is no better feeling than giving someone a gift that you know they will love.  I got to experience that feeling this Christmas.  I gave my best friend Hannah the polka-dot quilt!

I also got a darning/free motion quilting foot for Christmas so I've been practicing my free motion quilting almost every night.  It was pretty hard at first but I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Hopefully I'll have it down when it comes time to quilt MY quilt. 

Its a twin size and I've finished about 40% of the quilt top.  I made a promise to myself that I would finish it for my 25th birthday.

I'll try to keep you posted on my progress.

Happy Monday!

Wow its been awhile.  Almost a month since my last post.  I've been pretty busy though, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook and I of course ate way to much and promptly fell asleep after dinner.  Now I'm in full Christmas mode!  I have a rule for myself, more of a law if you ask my husband, I can only watch Christmas movies from Thanksgiving to New years.  Otherwise it would be non stop and drive him crazy.  But that's fine with me, it makes this season even more special.  I love the holidays more than any other time of year.  Just to give you an idea, I started making my Christmas list in June.  I save it on my computer and add to it whenever I think of something new.  I also keep a list of ideas for what I'm going to get everyone else.  It keeps me organized or I would go crazy shopping almost every day and spend way to much money.  Anyway, my husband and I did Thanksgiving with his family so we're doing Christmas with mine.  Which means prime rib and my Grammy's mashed potatoes, yum. 

As far as my sewing is concerned, I have not spent as much time quilting as I would have liked.  I finally finished my black white and yellow quilt and put it for sale on Etsy.  I would have finished much sooner but I got frustrated and took a two week vacation from my sewing room.  But I fought through it and now I'm working on a few projects for Christmas gifts.  I can't say anymore on here just in case they read this.  Once I finish my current projects I'm going to try and make some more quilts to sell.  I would also like to make a little something for me.  I have till January 27th to finish my quilt for me, I figure since I'm turning 25 (yikes) I deserve a quilt!

Well, I've done my best to catch you up on the last month.  I'll try to post a few pictures soon. 
Happy Holidays!

Oh wait... here's the link to my Etsy shop McBlogshop

busy busy busy

Well it's been awhile since I posted anything on here so I better catch you up.  I'm half way done quilting my black, white and yellow quilt.  It has been a struggle, I got a cotton polyester blend batting and I will NEVER buy it ever again.  I've had to re-baste three times, its a pain in the but and my cats really like it so give them little pieces of leftover batting to play with so they don't go after my quilt.  Once I have it quilted I'm selling it on etsy.com.

I also finished one of my quilt tops from the quilt along.  I think it turned out really well!

I'm thinking about selling this one too once its done but I'm not sure yet.  I just love the colors!
But I've decided to quilt my polka dot quilt next!  I need to work on something that really bright and colorful.

Well that all for now.  If I don't post again before Thanksgiving I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Update

Well I've been working on a few projects this last week and I think I've made some good progress.  I've done a few more squares of my Granny square Afghan.  Also made some more blocks for my fuzzy flannel curves quilt.  I learned how to make a new dish, Carnitas are actually extremely easy, and super yummy if I do say so myself.  But for the most part I've been trying to finalize the layout for my two colorbrick quilts.  This is always the hardest part for me.  Don't get me wrong its also one of my favorite parts but its just so time consuming.  I literally spend hours and hours moving squares around, it drives my husband crazy.  So after a full afternoon of moving things, including the furniture, I finished the layouts for both quilts.
There is also going to be sashing between the rows.

I can't wait to finish these up, I'm hoping to sell at least one, maybe both.

I also got the backing and batting for two other quilts I'm going to start straight line quilting tomorrow.

I'm keeping the polka-dot one but the black white and yellow one I'm going to try and sell as well.  You can see these two quilts in more detail Here.  Once I have a few things done I'm going to put them in my Etsy shop. 

Fall is here!

I love the Fall.  Don't get me wrong I love Summer too, but the Fall brings with it some of my favorite things.  Football, Halloween, watching the leaves change, sitting in my sewing room watching the rain.  And before we know it Thanksgiving and Christmas are here.  I'll miss the warm sunny weather but now its cold enough to pull out my flannel quilt I've been working on. 

The pattern is called fuzzy flannel curves and its by Elia's Backporch.

I bring it out every year when the weather gets nasty.  It gets really hot working with flannel.

Along with my flannel quilt I've also been working on some of my other projects. 

I've cut all the bricks for the colorbrick quilt along, 

added a border to my polka-dot quilt,

took our broken couch back to the store and exchanged it for a new one (thanks mom and dad), made a cake, and I made an Etsy account so that I can start selling my quilts. 

Etsy is like ebay except everything is either handmade or vintage.  I already have some ideas for what I can sell besides quilts.  But for the time being I have one quilt top that's done and ready to be quilted. 

I made this for a store sample but never got around to having it quilted.  Its 72"x61".  I'm hoping to get it done in a week or two so I can try to sell it for Christmas.  I'm also planning to make a few smaller things to sell on Etsy too, table runners, fabric bundles, pot holders, coasters, stuff like that. 

Overall a pretty productive weekend.

 



Lately...

Wow time really flies when you have so many projects going on.  It has been a very busy week, my cat Potter and I have been fighting off a cold, I finished my husband Matt's quilt, and the color brick quilt along has officially started. 

My husbands quilt is only the second one that I have quilted myself.  I normally take my quilts to a cute little shop in Lebanon to be quilted.  Since I recently got a walking foot for my sewing machine I thought I should give it a try.  The first one I did was a large crib quilt for my brother's friend who just had a baby boy.  Matt's quilt is a size up (60"x60") but I felt like I could handle it.  I'm only doing straight line quilting but both have turned out pretty great. 

As well as quilting for myself I also tried spray basting for the first time, and let me just say it was SO much easier.  I will never go back to pinning ever again.  Not once did the layers shift (even when my cats decide to wrestle on it).

I read that painters tape helps keep your lines straight when you

 are new to quilting.

I decided to do diamonds since the whole quilt is squares.  And Matt wanted black thread so that it would stand out.  I wasn't sure how it would look, but I really like it and so does Matt

 After I finished quilting it I had to get myself excited to do the binding, which is my least favorite part of the quilt process.  Normally I take it to my Mom and have her sew the binding on.  (Thanks Mom, Love you!)  But I really wanted to finish this 100% on my own.  So I went out and bought a new movie!

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!!!  I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet but I am a huge Disney fan.  Some might say I'm obsessed but I think I'm just a kid at heart.  Also I can't work on a quilt unless there is a movie or a show on for me to listen to.  I have quite a collection.

In alphabetical order.  I'm OCD about my movies.

Once I had a new movie to watch I was ready to get started on the binding.  I have decided that the reason I don't like to do the binding is because I'm not a big fan of hand stitching, so I used one of the "fancy" stitches on my machine to sew it on.

Got the binding on,

fresh out of the dryer,

Potter approved.