Silly Worrying

I realized it had been a month since I had quilted anything.  It's crazy how time flies.  I finally started quilting my Blogger's BOM quilt.  I started with Flower Power in the center of the quilt.  Well, it's slightly off-center (I realized that fact 3/4 of the way through with the flower), and I was irritated that one side of the flower looked stumpy compared to the rest.  It's ridiculous, but last night I went to sleep thinking of the easiest way to fix the one side without tearing the whole thing apart.  I woke up determined to fix it, and then reason finally found me.  I thought, "For the love, Becky!  You're not even keeping this quilt.  It's not that big of a deal.  Leave it alone!"  I mean seriously, is the person going to see the flower and say they don't want the gift because the flower isn't symmetrical?!

Luckily, I saw the Invasion of the Pods post and realized I could easily make my flower the center pod and echo around it.  It worked beautifully and it's really hard to even tell which side was shorter than the others.  Perfect? No, but I'm happy with the effect.  It also takes up the majority of the quilt, so that was really nice as well.  It feels good to be quilting again.

A Few Firsts

I completed the November blocks for do.Good Stitches this past weekend.  This was my first time making the Simply Woven block.  It seems deceptively easy, but you have to be really careful with how and where you rotate and cut this block, because it's really easy to cut it in the wrong place and have to start over.  A couple of girls in the sewing circle had this issue, so I was forewarned and paid close attention, so that I didn't cut it at the wrong spots.

I also finished up a bib made from an old shirt.  This was my first time sewing velcro, and it was surprisingly painless.  This is from the charity sewing circle at church.  It's part of boxes were forming for mothers in need.  The boxes contain pretty much the baby's first year of needs in terms of lightly used clothes and a few extras like bibs, blankets, books, and toys.  It's called a Loved Twice Box.  We're trying to put together a box for a boy and a box for a girl. 

 Linkin' up to BOMs Away.  Happy Monday! 

Blanket Woes

As part of the charity sewing circle, I was given an already made blanket, and asked to add a flannel border layering it under the entire blanket.  This is supposed to make it a little bigger and little more cuddly.  I thought, "How hard can it be?" - Famous last words.

Oof.  I way underestimated the amount of stretching the blanket would do as I sewed a blanket stitch on it.  The flannel does not lay flat at all.  I was so irritated that I had to walk away after sewing 2 sides.  I came back the next day and just finished it, so that it would be done.  I tried pinning it tons, but it didn't really help.  Yarn doesn't pin well.  I don't particularly like how it turned out, but it was a good experiment.  

The back doesn't lay very flat either, but since it's going to someone in need I'm not going to whine too much about it.  I'm sure they'll be happy to have a blanket for their baby.

A Little Bit of Progress

It's been several weeks since I've bothered doing a WIP Wednesday, because I haven't really been doing much sewing.  I'm finally getting my mojo back. 

I finished the Blogger's BOM quilt top last night.  I think the border totally makes this quilt.  I did a modified version of Jackie's tutorial. 

Meanwhile, I've got to get this bib finished up for Thursday morning.  A few ladies at church start a charity sewing circle.  We've been putting together boxes for children.  We needed some bibs, so we're using an old shirt and using it to make bibs.  It's kind of a cool idea.  I just need to sew it up and add velcro.

Other projects
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Christmas blocks - No progress-  Oh man, is it seriously almost Christmas again?!!
Do.Good Stitches - need to do November blocks


Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 5

On Point

I'm finally getting around to framing my Blogger's BOM blocks.  This is the first time I've put my blocks on point and I think it changes things up a bit, but it is also a tad more work.

Now I need to add the border.  It's a scrappy border using some of the fabrics used in the blocks, so it's a little time intensive.  I only hope I have enough fabric for the border.  I was using scraps as it was to make the blocks. 

Linking up to BOMs Away

The Winter Sea

source

This past month's book for book club was The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.  After several months of "heavy" reading, mostly about World War II, we decided on a lighter read.  Here's a brief description:

"It is 2008 and Carrie McClelland can't hit the right note for her next novel, but an unplanned detour in Scotland, and a stop at the castle that inspired Count Dracula, sets her on a different path; a path that took her back in time exactly 300 years, to that same castle, and to a rebellion doomed to failure. Alternating between the contemporary setting and the past, The Winter Sea takes us at every turn into little known worlds; historical footnotes writ large, a history of Scotland and the Jacobite rebellion of 1708 and the possibility of genetic memory."

The first thing I have to say is that if you're a romantic at heart, then you will absolutely love this book.  It is romance and historical fiction at its best.  I absolutely devoured this book.  The history is intriguing, and there's not 1 but 2 romance threads throughout the book.  I appreciated that it was a clean romance, and also that it was based on real events in history.  My only word of caution is that the first 100 pages are a lot of set up and history, so don't get too discouraged, because it takes off like crazy after that.  I had a hard time putting it down.  All of the fabulous one-liners have be to my collective "favorite part" of this book.

I really enjoyed Susanna's Kearsley's writing style, so I was curious to see if I would like her other books.  They all tend to be historical fiction with a connection to modern day with some sort of romantic interest.  So far I have read 2 of her other books, The Rose Garden and Mariana, and I definitely like The Winter Sea by far the best, but they are still good reads.

Finishing It Up

Things have been a little crazy around here.  My poor Little Lady had croup this weekend.  It scared me half to death, but she got a dose of steroids and she's doing amazingly well now, so we're all doing a lot better.

Now that life is decidedly more calm and manageable I'm turning my attention to the last step of quilting.  I promised to give some information on how to bind a quilt for the ladies who have been attending my beginner's quilt classes.  I was going to do my own tutorial, but I've seen so many wonderful ones out there that I feel a little like it would be re-inventing the wheel.  So instead, I'm going to share with you a couple of different options and provide links for you, so you can decide what works best for you.

I personally like to hand bind my quilts and machine bind smaller projects such as table runners and doll quilts, but it's all a matter of personal preference.  A good beginner's guide on how to determine how much fabric you'll need and such can be found here. 

I like to change up what I do on a regular basis.  It keeps things interesting for me, but here are a couple of ideas when choosing fabric for your quilt:

When I make a baby quilt that has an inner border, I often match the binding with the inner border.

Sometimes, I like to use multiple fabrics that I used within the quilt itself.  I feel like this works particularly well with solids, but I've done it with patterned fabrics as well.

If it's a scrappy quilt I often like to make my binding scrappy as well:

A couple of other things to toss out there.  Think about whether or not you want your binding to stick out.  For example, sometimes I want my binding to blend in with the quilt, because it would take away the effect of the quilt, and sometimes it needs that bold framing to make the quilt fit together.  Here is an example of both:

If you like the idea of your binding blending in and matching the colors of your quilt, you should check out Debbie's really cool tutorial on lining up the fabrics to match.  Go here. 

A machine bound table runner

I typically cut my strips 2.5" wide when hand binding and 2.25" when machine binding, but that's also just personal preference.  There's a really good tutorial for hand binding that I recently saw on another friend's blog here and here's a couple of great machine binding tutorials here and here.  Just remember that there are so many different ways to bind, so if one doesn't seem to make sense to you, Google it and I'm sure you'll find another way that works for you.

An important reminder:  If you are hand binding your quilt, you will initially sew on the binding from the top of the quilt.  It is the exact opposite when machine quilting.  You attach the binding from the back of the quilt, so that when you fold it over your final machine stitch is on the front of the quilt.

One last great tutorial:  Amy gives great tips on getting the perfect corners when hand binding.  Go here for the tutorial.

I hope this is slightly helpful in getting your wheels turning and initial thoughts on binding your quilts.  If you have any questions please let me know.

Non-Edible Cupcakes

I finished up a cute, little baby quilt this morning.  I originally made it for a beginner's quilt class I taught, and then I used it to practice some FMQ, so I thought I should finish it up, because you never know who's going to be needing a baby quilt.

The Autumn light plays all kinds of tricks leaving long shadows on my quilt, but I kind of like it.  Here's a view of the back:  You can see the FMQ a lot better on this side. 

It feels nice to get yet another UFO off the list.  I'm making slow but sure progress.
Linkin' up to TGIFF and 2012 Finish-A-Long (original goals post here).