Monday, March 1, 2010
(close up - shows the cloud quilting job)Last week I completed a major accomplishment. I created my very first quilt! This has been in the making since November and required several lessons from my mom and aunt and its now finished!!! I'm so proud of this and I'm very excited to gift it out to a very special little girl.
I used a nine patch pattern as well as a simply triangle square pattern to create this. My mom had quite a large staff of the birdie fabric as well as the coordinating blues, greens, yellows, and white so I didn't have to buy a whole lot. I went to a local quilt shop in my hometown (website can be found here). This is a great little shop with a huge selection of trendy, beautiful prints. I wish there was a place like this closer to home but its a great place to check out when I'm visiting my parents. I purchased the red and green border fabric as well as the white polka dot fabric used throughout the quilt.
(finished project!)
My mom had a local long arm quilter do that actual quilting work and she completed the job in about a week. Once I got it back, I learned how to do the binding and finish the quilt up. At this point, I simply need to put on a label and I'm finished!
This quilt was made as a Big Sister Quilt for an amazing 4 year old girl. Unbeknownst to me, her favorite color is blue so the blue bird print works perfectly! I hope this will become a favorite of hers and that she understands how very special she is even though she won't be the baby anymore.
This quilt was made as a Big Sister Quilt for an amazing 4 year old girl. Unbeknownst to me, her favorite color is blue so the blue bird print works perfectly! I hope this will become a favorite of hers and that she understands how very special she is even though she won't be the baby anymore.
Novice Attempt: Quilting
Results: Intermediate. I learned a lot during this process but still have much more to learn. I'm signed up for 2 beginners quilting courses beginning in April which should help me fine tune the skills I've already learned. This was a really fun project and you can hands down bet I'll be doing it again!
(back of the quilt showing and binding)
Monday, February 22, 2010
I'm currently working to finish up my very first quilt and it should be completed within a week with pictures to follow. Along with this quilt, I'm making a quilted pillow to compliment the larger gift. I decided to use the same Disappearing Nine Patch pattern (instructions can be found here). Since I'm comfortable with this pattern and I felt like it would highlight the larger birdie fabric well, it seemed like a good choice. This pillow is 18x18 so its rather large but I bought a pre-formed pillow in that size which only cost me about $6. I already had the fabric left over from the associated quilt so I'd say I made the pillow for less than $10. 
This was actually very easy to do and the only head scratching moment was trying to figure out how to fussy-cut the larger fabric to properly showcase the pattern. This wasn't difficult by any means, it just required a bit more thought. I'll finish this pillow up with an overlapping open back so this will be a washable pillow case. Find the instructions for this type of pillow sham here. I figured parents would appreciate this since its going to a 4 year old little girl. No sense in having a pillow if you can't lay on it and drool from time to time without the option of washing it later!
Novice Attempt: Quilting pillow case
Result: Completed and surprisingly easy! This will be a great accent to the "Big Sister Quilt" I'm making and should hopefully be well received.
It's been quite some time since I have posted and its a combo of laziness, lack of time and also lack of photos. I have a camera as well as a camera phone but up until this weekend had no way of actually getting the photos onto a computer. Anyway, problem solved!
I've been working on a owl applique pillow and finished it up a couple of weeks ago. I'm giving it as a gift for a new baby expected around April. I found this pattern in Better Homes & Gardens Patchwork and Quilting Magazine a few months back and thought it was just super adorable. I just had to give it a try. The great thing about this pillow is that it doesn't require a lot of fabric which makes it a relatively inexpensive gift idea. You can mix and match patterns colors, etc and really come up with a unique, creative and fun little owl that I think any baby, toddler or child would love!
I've been working on a owl applique pillow and finished it up a couple of weeks ago. I'm giving it as a gift for a new baby expected around April. I found this pattern in Better Homes & Gardens Patchwork and Quilting Magazine a few months back and thought it was just super adorable. I just had to give it a try. The great thing about this pillow is that it doesn't require a lot of fabric which makes it a relatively inexpensive gift idea. You can mix and match patterns colors, etc and really come up with a unique, creative and fun little owl that I think any baby, toddler or child would love!
(close up of eyeless owl)
This was a relatively easy project once I got the hang of it. The toughest part was doing the faux stitching around the edges of all the pillow shapes. Essentially, all the shapes were already attached to the pillow with fusible webbing but the stitching around the edges gives it a really polished, nice look. Because its such a small pillow, the pieces were pretty intricate to cut as well as stitch around but I ended up shortening the sewing stitch which drastically slows down the machine and makes it more manueverable around the individual pieces. I also changed the stitch so it was much more dense so I was able to only stitch one time around and leave a very solid looking stitch rather than spread out. I think the result is perfect! Of course, because this was such a dense, short stitch, the thread broke every few inches which mean I had to constantly rethread and start over. This was extremely frustrating but the result was well worth it!
This project will definately stay in my aresenal of great gift ideas. It was inexpensive, had room for creativity and was a pretty quick project. I think if I make it again for any older children, I may personalize it with an emboidered first name initial.
Novice Attempt: Applique
Results: I DID IT! Super cute project, not very hard, fun fun fun! Definately on my "Will do this again" list.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Do you remember this song? I'm pretty sure it was by Snap! or something like that. These guys were Amazing back in 1994!
Anyway, I forgot to update that I tried my hand (and feet and head and booty and lots of other body parts) at an African Dance class with my boyfriend's mom, Gloria last week. I've got to say, it was my first African dance class ever and it will most probably be my last African dance class ever. It was not at all what I expected. I'm sure there are some classes that I would have a blast with but this one was comprised of lots of teaching with very little music. HELLO!? It's a freakin' African dance class! I want to feel the rhythm damnit! I want to get in touch with my roots (I know...I'm Irish, but still...I've gotta have some African roots somewhere right?!).
Gloria ended up giving me the money she was going to spend on my dance lessons so that I could put it towards my new gym membership. I'm very excited about that since it will probably pay for about 2 months of the gym.
I'm still wanting to try maybe a hip hop class, yoga and kickboxing. I've also been informed that cycling classes can be pretty fun and are obviously good exercise.
Evidently, no matter how much rhythm my white ass has, African Dance is just not for me. Bummer deal too cause I really was hoping to bust out with some sweet moves at some point.
Novice Attempt: African Dance Class
Result: I tried it. I don't necessarily think I failed since we hardly learned anything at all. I just discovered it wasn't for me. I guess this means I'm still a Novice.
Anyway, I forgot to update that I tried my hand (and feet and head and booty and lots of other body parts) at an African Dance class with my boyfriend's mom, Gloria last week. I've got to say, it was my first African dance class ever and it will most probably be my last African dance class ever. It was not at all what I expected. I'm sure there are some classes that I would have a blast with but this one was comprised of lots of teaching with very little music. HELLO!? It's a freakin' African dance class! I want to feel the rhythm damnit! I want to get in touch with my roots (I know...I'm Irish, but still...I've gotta have some African roots somewhere right?!).
Gloria ended up giving me the money she was going to spend on my dance lessons so that I could put it towards my new gym membership. I'm very excited about that since it will probably pay for about 2 months of the gym.
I'm still wanting to try maybe a hip hop class, yoga and kickboxing. I've also been informed that cycling classes can be pretty fun and are obviously good exercise.
Evidently, no matter how much rhythm my white ass has, African Dance is just not for me. Bummer deal too cause I really was hoping to bust out with some sweet moves at some point.
Novice Attempt: African Dance Class
Result: I tried it. I don't necessarily think I failed since we hardly learned anything at all. I just discovered it wasn't for me. I guess this means I'm still a Novice.
P.S. That picture is not of me. Nope, I wasn't rockin' it THAT hard in a downtown Vancouver dance studio.
So, I haven't posted a new blog in over a week at this point. I'm not entirely sure why this is. I joined a gym over a week ago and I LOVE it! Yay 24 Hour fitness. I don't have The Biggest Loser lofty goals but I do just hope to improve upon myself and be the healthiest person I know how to be. This entails lots of salads and early AM fruity shakes. Yum! It also entails spending at least an hour doing the Hamster Wheel/stationary bike combo. I'm working to build up my confidence in order to be comfortable enough to use the weight equipment as well. My boyfriend Trav, who used to be a personal trainer, offered to come with me for a few days (on a free guest pass...bonus!) and help me out with the weight machine stuff. He's been super duper supportive in a loving, not "honey your ass is fat" sort of way. My coworker Sara has also been a huge support and she recently just joined 24 Hour Fitness as well. Every day at work we're pumping ourselves up to go once we're off the clock. Very helpful!
Anyway, for some reason, this new endeavor has seemed to suck any spare time I've had. It's amazing how I have gotten NOTHING done since joining the gym. I feel great and I have tons of energy but I get home from the end of my day and it's already time to go to bed (at least it seems that way - I swear I don't curl up for bed at 6pm)!
Needless to say, I'm just about finished with the top of my table runner. It looks Aaaa-Mazing and I'll post pictures just as soon as I figure out how to upload them to my laptop from my camera. I also finished the borders to the quilt I started on back in November. Its my first one and its ready to be sent to the quilting machine. That should be ready to finish with the binding in just a couple of weeks. I've attached a photo of that right after I finished the borders last weekend. (P.S. I just got my do cropped and colored back to red. Looooove it!) 
Needless to say, I'm trying to work on things but at this moment I'm working on myself which is probably the most important. Anyway, more to come...soon, I hope!
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