chimesblog

I’ve been reading the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book that Adria let me borrow and saw the heating pad project and just HAD to do it. I hardly make anything for myself, but it annoys me that I have my heating pad out in the middle of my living room and it’s so not cute. It had some weird 90s pattern on the cover.  Not a fan.

Well, now, it’s stylin’!  I used the original cover for insulation and quilted the patchwork piece to it. The original cover had a snap closure on it, so I didn’t have to mess with putting a closure on the new cover.  Pretty smart, eh?

My grandpa had given me a bunch of things that my granny (great grandmother) had left behind when she passed in 2002.  I’ve been using some of her materials (embroidery thread, fabric, pins, etc.) to create some of the things I’ve been making.  I’ve had 10 quilt blocks that I’ve been hoarding that she had made a long time ago.  The fabrics were impossible to match with modern-day or even reproduction fabrics.  The block pattern was too complex for me.  So, I’ve been sitting on them.

Last weekend my mom and I went to Valley Junction and found some really amazing vintage blocks that matched pretty well.  So, I finally got out the blocks and made a quilt top.

Here it is!

Since I’m feeling sassy, I’m having a February $5 off sale on all my wallets on etsy!  Also — if you follow me on twitter or if you found this sale through my blog, convo me and I’ll give you free shipping on your wallet.

Check it out!

Oversized Clutch Wallet — $35

Funky Patchwork Wallet — $25

Wonderland Patchwork Wallet — $15

Funky Patchwork Wallet — $15

Funky Patchwork Wallet — $15

Large Park Slope Patchwork Wallet — $20

Large Park Slope Frog Closure Wallet — $20

Medium Echino Wallet — $15

Enjoy!!

I made this quilt out of two tops I had lying around for my niece for Christmas. I had planned a cuter quilt, but I didn’t have the money to get it professionally quilted, so I put two of my tops together and qulited this blanket with wavy stitching. The stitching is pink on one side and yellow on the other.

AND surprisingly, she loved it. She’s one.  I figured she wouldn’t care, but she picked out all the patterns and she wrapped her dolly up in it. Super cute!

Here are some photos and of course, action shots!

Check out my Cyber Monday sales on Etsy:

Birdies and Coffee Cup

Flower Fiesta Bowl (Gold)

Butterflies in Wonderland Baby or Lap Quilt

OBEY Andre the Giant Men’s Winter Set

Mention the code mrfidgets and receive FREE SHIPPING on any order until December 15.

Finally finally finally finished my wonderland quilt (ie. the first quilt top I made ever).

I had it professionally quilted with a butterfly pattern in yellow thread. The back is pink.

I LOVE this fabric line. It’s sold out pretty much everywhere though.

Anyway, my camera died when I was taking photos, so here’s all I  have:

I got photos professionally taken!  I had been asked to send some photos of my work to The Nest magazine, so I had a local photographer take some photos of my work to send them.

I blogged earlier today about the 2nd hardcore quilt top that I made.

Well, I took the plunge ladies and gentlemen.  I officially quilted a full-size quilt.

I took photos of the process. One thing I learned — I desperately need a walking foot. I couldn’t find one for my machine (they were sold out in two places, so I gave up since this was just a practice quilt anyway). Also, quilting on t-shirts is difficult when you come across larger patches of screenprinting, especially when it’s a newer shirt.

Here’s what I did: I got some backing and batting and made a quilt sandwich. I basted it with large safety pins. I took tape (artists tape would work the best but I only had athletic tape at home, so that worked) and created uniform lines to follow with my stitching….and I was off.  I only had to reload the bobbin once, which was awesome because I hate doing that (I’m lazy. if I had a self-loading bobbin or never-ending bobbin that would rule. also — self threading needle).  I trimmed it and sewed the binding on (backwards I believe) and since I’m really lazy, I zig-zag stitched the binding to finish it.

Anyway, here’s photogs of the process.

basting and taping before quilting …

the whole safety-pinned, taped-up mess before I started (note — I taped in one direction at a time because I didn’t want to sew through the tape)

here’s where the bobbin ran out of thread. I took a much-needed walking break and came back an hour later refreshed and ready to conquer the rest of this thing.

ta-da! finished quilt. took me from 1 PM to 9 PM to finish top to bottom (minus 2 hours for supper, walking and errands)

okay… so the back picked up a ton of fuzz from the batting and a bunch of threads that were randomly strewn about my floor. I’m washing this thing tomorrow. Hopefully fix that problem.

And … DONE!

A while back I made a “hardcore” quilt top out of a bunch of band t-shirts I had lying around. It was sort of practice for piecing since it was one of the first things I pieced.

Anywho, I only used half of the 50 blocks I’d created for it and shoved the rest of them in my closet to be used at a later date. Well, today was that later date.

This quilt top isn’t as cool as the other one, however; I did find one of the blocks I’d started embroidering back when I was all “ooh I should embellish these all with embroidery!” Not so much. Would have been cool, but too time-consuming for the likes of me.

Here’s a closeup of the embroidery.

what I love about these two quilt tops is that any-which-way is up.

Yay!

Now I’m off to Hancock Fabrics to get some batting, some backing (I think I’ll use the backing to bind in this case), some contrasting thread, a walking foot, some artist’s tape and a bunch of safety pins. You guessed it. I’m going to use this guy as my practice quilt to actually QUILT.

Wish me luck!!

I’ve been working on a string quilt for about a month or so now… annnnnd it’s pretty ugly.

Well, that started out being kind of the point. I wanted to make an ugly quilt for my sister to practice doing the string technique, but I realize now that I have invested so much time in this project, and that maybe I should have done a “for real” string quilt instead (next project — black and white string quilt — a for real one).

Anywho, I’ve got block A all put together and am working on block B. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make an X out of block B or if I’m going to make it the same directional pattern as block A.

Here’s the blocks. My scanner wasn’t big enough to scan the entire block in, so I just scanned a square and duplicated it in photoshop (all quilters need photoshop!).

Block A

Block B (version 1)

Block B — version 2 (I like the first one better, but this works better in the layout)

And here’s why I say ALL QUILTERS need photoshop! Mock it up before you sew it so you know it looks fabulous (I will be doing this for my next serious quilt).  That way you’re not investing a ton of time in something that ends up looking crappy.  I mocked up a bunch of fabrics for my coin stack quilt…and it turned out fantastic.

Possible Quilt Layout…

Thoughts… suggestions? I thought about putting 3-4 inches of white sashing between each block so there’s an area of rest. It’s just soooo busy.  A string quilt would work best I think with solids… or maybe I’m just looking at it on screen like a design and not as a quilt so I’m overthinking it. Either way. I’m not looking forward to pulling all the paper off block B.  Argh.

In honor of the 3-day weekend and of our forefathers… I’m having an Etsy sale! As always, shipping to Des Moines and Ames is free, just contact me beforehand to arrange a pickup/dropoff.

Feel free to share this around!

Here are items that are on sale:
Wonderland Quilt

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27132485

Lotsa Hearts Bag

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26505809

Flowers and Music White Fiestaware Cup/Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25808834

Birdies and Coffee Cup

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25807559

Flower Fiesta Bowls

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796749

Tea Time with Gram Cup and Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796541

Birdies and Coffee Cup and Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796407

Custom Etsy Banner/Avatar

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22289621