Something New

Because I don't have enough hobbies, I decided it was time to add another one! I've always wanted to learn to knit or crochet, and two weekends ago my friend brought a crochet hook and a ball of yarn over and sat me down for a lesson. She taught me Tunisian Crochet, which looks like knitting, but is done on a long crochet hook. I'm not very good at it yet - left edge edge all wobbly! Lots of weird knobby things in the back! This will be a scarf eventually. I'll probably be done with it just when winter's over! But that's OK - it's fun to learn new things, and I have grand plans of learning how to make crocheted Granny Squares, because I think those are the cutest things.

North and South: All Together

Well, almost halfway done getting the top sewn together! All this happened last night (Saturday), over the course of a few episodes of the "Heaven's Gate" podcast I've been glued to. I keep sewing in order to listen to one more episode, and next thing you know whole quilts are sewn together. I'll be able to look back later and think "oh yes, I made this quilt whilst obsessing over doomsday cults and whether or not brainwashing is a scientific fact". Weird.

I've deviated a little from the pattern in order to save time. As it was written, the grey square blocks were supposed to be made from two triangles sewn together. That made zero sense to me - why not just cut a grey square and be done with it! So that's what I did, and I'm very pleased with myself for saving some extra steps. So far all the bias edges on the pieced colored blocks aren't giving me too much trouble. I'm spotted a little bit of bubbling and buckling here and there, but overall, this is coming together really nicely.

North and South

After finished up the "Endless Summer" top, I moved right into a new project called "North and South". I got word last week that I'll be doing a solo quilt exhibit at my church this fall, so the pressure's on. How will I pull everything together that I want to exhibit in time? Most of what I think would be cool isn't made yet, so that's kind of a problem. 

This North and South quilt might be part of the show, depending on how it all turns out. Making the blocks has been fast, which I love! They're are made out of Half Square triangles, which I made quickly by slapping together two fabric squares, sewing around the perimeter, and then cutting them crosswise on the diagonal. I love this method, but it's not always an optimal way to make triangles, as all the edges are on the bias and prone to stretch. Time is key here though, so I decided to go with FAST and deal with whatever weirdness resulted later. So far so good, and look how it's all coming together!

Endless Summer...I wish

We're right in the middle of Endless Winter here in MN - temps have been down in the single digits or below for days on end (although we're getting a little break this weekend!), and pretty much all that's been going on around the house is this sort of thing:

Working on a quilt called "Endless Summer" is pretty ironic right now, but I've been hitting it hard this weekend and am almost finished with the top! I love how going from stacks of assembled units can turn into assembled blocks so quickly, and then 2 more hours - poof! A finished top.

Friday Finish: Preppy Whales

This quilt has been earmarked for a friend's baby...and when I realized that friend is having her baby next week I knew it was time to scramble and get this one finished up and out the door!

I holed up in my sewing room over the weekend and completed it by Sunday night. That's the nice thing about baby sized quilts - they're small! Basting took all of 20 minutes, and I quilted it in figure 8 loops, which I think is the fastest thing for me to quilt.

I was a little concerned about how the quilting would go, as the grey background material is a pima cotton. It's very densely woven, and I was worried that I'd have to deal with lots of thread breaks and frustration, but as it turns out - not a one! I also used two layers of cotton batting for extra coziness, and my machine did just fine with all that.

The backing is a Riley Blake print of lots of colored gears that I just liked, and the binding is a sort of variegated navy blue. Mom seemed to love this one - I hope baby will too!

2017 in Review

Thanks to promising to finish 6 projects before I started any new ones, I actually ended up with a pretty good show of finished quilts in 2017, and I hope to carry that forward into 2018!

Here's a recap:

I  also completed some cross-stitch projects, I'm  proud of too:

My goals for 2018 include:

• Continuing to finish up projects 
• Using what I have before buying more new stuff 
• Buckling down and figuring out what needs to be done for my solo exhibit this fall