Cat Bed

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make Fancy a cat bed since she so loves each quilt I make.

 Well I think see likes it, she went on it and stayed on it even before I stuffed it.

 I decided to go completely modern with it. I think it turned out really well for my fist modern/improvised piece.

 For the quilting I just did a stipple free motion even though I was considering something a little more complex. I stuffed it with polyfill in plastic grocery bags. All the cats I have had seem to like the crinkle of the plastic bags including Fancy so I decided to add that. It is always something that I can change later since I made it with an envelope back. That was an important design choice because as with babies, cats have a tendency to throw up on things and I wanted to be able to clean it without much problem.

Now I would make one for Goofy too but I really highly doubt he would use it.

Little Goofs:
Actually pretty happy with this and can't think of anything I really messed up. I would change the pink polka dot border on the log cabin center to make it wider but that is the only thing.

Next Up:
Summer table runner
Finishing up Fall Quilt

This next month is going to be a push to finish my summer goals because......I GOT A JOB! Yep! I start on July 24th. So that gives me a few days short of a month to really work on WIPs and other projects I have been itching to do.

Wall Hanging and Other Things

At the beginning of the year I made a few goals for myself as far as quilting goes if you recall...

So to start this new year I have set some goals for myself quilting wise. Here they are in no particular order...
1. Try applique for the first time (that will come into play in eclipse)
2. Conquer my fear of triangles
3. Fully complete at least one lap size quilt (this may seem like a really small thing for some people but on average it takes me a year and half to do this and I have only done it twice)

This wall hanging took on #2 which is to conquer my fear of triangles. This also was part of the small things quilt-along hosted by crazy mom quilts where I made the goal of making a wall hanging for a wall in my living room which was begging for a quilt.

Now this is pretty basic pinwheel type of pattern with half square triangles but I think it turned out pretty well. I did straight line quilting so as not to majorly detract from the pattern.

I love the pattern of the border fabric, it fits perfectly with the color scheme going on in the living room and it's so me.

I also made a label using the alphabet stitch function on my new machine.

Little Goofs:

1. The binding is much better on this quilt and I think that is because I followed the tutorial on crazy mom quilts which I am now calling the no tears binding tutorial. I still had issues with the mittered corners getting too much bulk there making them a little on the pointy side but nothing that I am really upset over.

2. This is actually the second version of this quilt. The first version had many more triangles and somehow ended up being crooked and not really what I had in mind. So that was scrapped and this one rose from the ashes.

3. The small things quilt along was over before I even started this but I am gonna keep on with it because a lot of the things on the list I really want to do and soon because I  keep putting them off.

Now this is the first quilt that I have made completely with the new machine. It was going pretty well until the actual quilting and then something weird was happening with the thread jumping off the guides. I don't know if this is a machine thing that is just now happening or if it is the thread. Hopefully it gets better or better yet goes away completely because this machine cost way too much (at least to me) for this to be happening a month after I got it.

In other news I have graduated and now looking for a job. Anyone know any lab jobs in the VA area?

But since I don't have a job or school I have all this extra time on my hands. I used that time to make bread...

It was amazingly simple: combine flour, yeast and salt, add water and let rise. Then you can either refrigerate and bake it later it or bake it right away. I have already experimented with different things you can do with it since it is simple by itself. The one I like the best so far is rosemary and roasted garlic.

Up next is a small project that I didn't know I wanted to do this summer which is to make a cat bed for my cat. She loves the quilts I make so much. Every time I go to hand sew binding on a quilt she has to be on top of it which makes it extremely difficult. Anyways I have some bright pink plaid fabric that is perfect for this. That should be started tomorrow and I am hoping to make it more modern.

 Long post I know but like I said.....lots of free time.

New Machine!!

So for graduation I got a lot of gift cards and such and was finally able to upgrade my machine. Prior to getting this new one, which I will talk about in a minute, I was using a basic bottom of the line Brother that my mother got me for Christmas a few years ago. Now don't get me wrong, it was a great little machine to learn on, it just couldn't handle the quilting I wanted to do with it.

For the past few months I have been looking, comparing and yes drooling on quiet a few machines online. I thought the one I really wanted was a Brother quilting machine and then I saw this one....

 At half the price and with better reviews this Singer Quantum Stylist was the perfect bet.

It has over 600 stitches and it came with that extension table for quilting.

It also came with all of these accessories which alone if I had gone and bought all of them would have cost well over $100. (Not in this picture is also a walking foot that came with it, that is on the machine right now).

To top it all of it even came with this cover/case. Totally awesome and totally worth it.

As I mentioned before I did half the piecing and all the quilting on the Sophia quilt with this new machine. The piecing went a lot smoother and quicker and the quilting didn't have nearly as many problems. I did have a problem right at the end of quilting where the bobbin thread got jammed and then when I rethreaded it was causing that loopy rats nest problem on the back. After a 1/2 hour I got it figured out. I won't blame that on the machine quiet yet since I am still learning everything with it.

Oh and did I forget to mention that it has the really cool autopilot function where all you press is this start/stop button and it just goes automatically, so cool.

Anyways I'll stop now because I'm in the honeymoon stage with it right now and thus could go on and on!

Sophia

Front

A girl that I went to school with is having a baby and is due anytime now. I started making this quilt about 5 months ago when I found out she was pregnant.

Back

It has gone through many iterations trying to make it what I thought of in my mind. I wanted to base the quilt around this print that I found at JoAnn's.

Now lets see if she holds on a couple more days so I can give it to her in person on Monday!

Little Goofs for this quilt:
The binding!! I can't seem to get it right. This time seemed to be a little better than the last baby quilt I made but not perfect. I have no idea what it is I am doing wrong.


Oh and I would be remiss to mention half of this was done on my new machine! I will post about that this weekend and tell you all about it then.

Fabric

Last weekend was my birthday and my totally awesome fiance took me over to to my LQS and let me go on a shopping spree for my birthday present. I bought this fabric with baby stuff on it for a baby quilt I am making for a girl in the Human Genetics Department at VCU who is having a baby girl at the end of the month.

I'm half way done with the top. I'll post pics once I have it all done which will hopefully be in a few days so it can be done before the baby comes.

I also got these fat quarters....

I was kinda falling in love with these color combos in the store and I think they would be perfect for a fun summer table runner and if there is enough left a mug rug or two.

While there I also got some Kona White and Black for other misc. projects.

I also went over to Hobby Lobby and found these in the remnants bin...

I don't know what it will be but I couldn't resist the combination.

I also go this thread for quilting the baby quilt....

Doesn't everything look so inviting all stacked like that? Can't wait till I'm done with the baby quilt to really get into the other projects I want to work on. And since I neither have school or a full time job at the moment then I won't be short on time either.

Small Project Sew-along

I'm going to take part in my first sew along since in the first time in my life practically I now do not have the burden of school work. I wish I could replace school with an actual job but until then I will keep myself busy with the sew-along that is being hosted over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I think this will be the perfect first sew along for me as it is focusing on small projects and there is no set time table. I've had to think about what I would want to accomplish as most of my project goals are lap size or larger quilts but I think I've come up with a few ideas that have been percolating for awhile. Here is what I've come up with:

1. Finish the Eclipse wall hanging quilt
This has been an ongoing process (here and here) and it is really stretching my thoughts on quilting and allowing me to learn a few things as well.

2. A pincushion
I know that most people cut their teeth with pincushions when they first start sewing. I on the other hand jumped right in for a lap size quilt. I think it is now time to maybe retire the tomato pincushion I bought years ago and have something a little more stylish and me. I'm thinking about making it something like this (here) or maybe if I am really ambitious this (here)

3. A summer table runner
I found this really awesome fabric at my LQS and I think that the few fat quarters I bought are screaming to be made into a really fun table runner and possibly some mug rugs as well. See tomorrow's post for the fabric.

4. "Hemming" a skirt
I found this really awesome skirt at goodwill a few years ago but it really needs to be "hemmed". I put hemmed in quotation marks because really what it needs is about a foot off the length to be anything that can be worn by me (I'm 4'11'' so long dresses and skirts are a big problem). I have never officially hemmed anything in my life so we will see how this goes.

5. Making a skirt
Since I have never hemmed anything I have also never made anything that can be worn as clothing. I would really like to make this skirt and then work my way forward with making simple and stylish clothes.

6. A throw pillow to match my quilt
The quilt I finished last fall which I have started calling "cat magnet" since whenever it is out the cat has to be on top of it is begging for a matching pillow.

I have enough leftover fabric from it to a ticker tape style pillow cover. It shouldn't be that difficult and really won't take that long but is something I have been putting off now for awhile.

7. A Entryway Wall Hanging
I left this one till last because in a few months I don't know where or if we will be moving so it may or may not be needed. This is something I have been thinking about for months but have never really come up with a good idea on what I want to make except that it would be a quilted wall hanging for next to our door. This one deserves more thought and might not happen this summer.

There are a few other ideas that have come into my head since writing this but I think I will stick with this list for now. Be prepared though that if I don't get a job by the end of the month that the list might grow because I will likely be extremely bored and going crazy in the house. We won't go into the fact that if given enough time away from school/work I might just apply to go for my PhD.

A Major Finish

While it is not a quilt or in any way remotely related to crafting, I couldn't not post about finishing my thesis.







The experiments that are the meat of this thesis took me over a year to complete and the writing took just under a month. In all, the last year of my life is in those 103pgs.