Boxer Scrapbooks Weblog

Carly's New Quilt

Carly is the 9 month old daughter of some very good friends of mine.  She was born back in March of 2008, and I haven't got to meet her in person yet.  I get photos of her via email quite often from her mom, and of course the Christmas Card Photo was all about their first baby!  Unfortunately, I even missed the Baby Shower, as I was teaching that day at the Portland CK Scrapbook Convention.

However, included with the baby shower gift I sent to them, I included fabric swatches.  I had found a mini-camouflage print in teal, purple and pink, and it was perfect.  Deana and Chad (Carly's Parents) are avid outdoors lovers, and a lot of things on their registry was pink camo. 

I used Triangles on a Roll to make the pinwheel blocks, and then did a simple white sashing around them.  Yellow is such a warm and happy color, that I used it for the background of the blocks, and the borders.  Then--the best part!  I found a Large Pink Camo FLANNEL fabric, which I used for the back of the quilt.  Now it's super snuggly.  I've had the top done for about 5-6 months, but with my quilt stuck on the quilt frame until the machine was fixed, I couldn't get it completed.  On the frame it went on New years day, two days of stitching in short intervals, and VIOLA!  It's done!

I had fun with this one, playing with some different stitching designs and threads.  Very happy with how it turned out!
(Completed 1/3/09)

~~Angie

Ontario, CA Wrap Up...

Our flight was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, which has totally now screwed up our clocks for the week.  We never fly home on Tuesdays, always on Sunday, so it's very weird to be home two days later than normal.

But--we found a FANTASTIC QUILT SHOP on Tuesday morning, and it was less than 10 minutes from our hotel!!!!  It's called The Fabric Patch, and it was wonderful!  Mom and I both got to the business of shopping as soon as we walked in the door, and we left with tons of projects, fabrics, and a renewed sense of what a quilt shop should be!  Next time you're in the Ontario, California area, you NEED to check out this shop if you're a quilter, ever want to be a quilter, enjoy looking at fabric, or just want to check out a cool store!  (Chrys--you would LOVE this store).

We actually hit another one a town or two over, but I really just wanted to go back to The Fabric Patch!

The flight home was long, as we got in early to Oakland, which made our layover longer.  We did finally get home to Portland.

One thing about traveling on a Tuesday, and especially in the afternoon, there is hardly any traffic at the airport.  Security line literally had two, yes 2, people in front of us.  So that part was quick and painless...

All in all, very glad to be home.  George and Cabo both missed me very much.  Cabo wouldn't leave me alone for the first few hours, and even now, is glued to my side if she can be.  Such a cutie!

Have a great week!
~~Angie

Shop Hopping around Ontario, CA

Whenever we're in another city for a day or two extra, we always try to find a few quilt shops.  Mom loves kits (have I mentioned that before?  LOL!) and we always look for ones that are kind of geared toward the area.  Here is how our day went:
1.  The Tattered Rabbit:  Store was supposed to open at 1pm, by 1:10pm we were calling, since we'd been waiting since 12:45.  By 1:20, we left.  Bummed, looked like a good store.
2.  Can't remember the name:  Mom forgot to check and see if they were open on Mondays.  They weren't.  Bummed again.
3.  Bluebird Quilt & Gallery:  Pulled up, and first impression is that it's tiny.  Walk in, and you fall in love!  Great little shop, with tons of unique quilts on the walls, kits available, and great fabric selection.  Walked out of there with some great project pieces.  Mom bought a kit (SHOCKING), but also had a recommendation for another store...
4. Calico Horse: Recommended by an employee at Bluebird.  Good store, great selection, but the staff was rude.  Didn't care to help us at all, was more interested in something they were working on, and could have cared less.  They had a few great quilts that we would have bought patterns for or even had them order, but when asked about the patterns, they just said they were out of stock.  No offer to order it and mail it to us, or call us when it comes in, etc.  Awful customer service.  Wouldn't bother going here again.
5.  Georgia's Quilt Obsession:  Cute store, with lots of patterns, and probably the largest selection of Alexander Henry fabrics I've ever seen.  Basically 4 shelves of them.  Love those, as they're kitschy!  They were out of the pattern of a pumpkin I wanted, but offered to get it an mail it to me.  Got their card, and told them I'd call if I couldn't find it elsewhere.  Very nice ladies.  Shop was packed, as there was a class going on at the same time, and seems like she was the only one working there.

All in all, we loved one, liked one, and were disappointed with the other three.  We've already scoped out the two more shops we're going to try to hit tomorrow before we go back to the airport, and they both look very promising!

Have a great night..
~~Angie

Rosie the Quilter

If you stop by the Boxer blog often, you know that mom and I are both quilters.  I show my finished projects when their done, or rather try to.  It's incentive for me to actually finish them!  LOL!

In May, I was able to attend only my second meeting of the year of our regular Block of the month program at Quilts NW here in Sherwood.  They had just got the Rosie the Quilter line in, designed by Bayside Quilting in Olympia, WA (only 2 hours away from us).  I snapped up the large panel, and knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

During last year's BOM program, our fearless leader, Lois, had talked about "easy trapunto".  It's a technique using high-loft polyester batting in only certain places of your project, and then cutting away the excess.  You then would make a regular quilt sandwich of top fabric, cotton batting and backing, and do a small stipple stitch in the areas where you don't have the high loft batting.  This technique has been done for a long time where you cut thru the baking fabric and stuff it with poly-fill, but I was looking for a faster solution, where I could do everything on my machine.

The trick is wash-away thread.  Yes--you heard that right.  You use it only for the top thread, and use white or another neutral color in your bobbin.  I began by safety-pinning the panel top and the high loft batting together in places I knew I wouldn't be stitching.  Then, with my thread all set up like I mentioned, I did a free motion stitch around the areas I wanted to loft up.  I then took the quilt out of the machine, and cut away the batting in the areas I wanted to be relatively flat.  Then I did the normal quilt sandwich of panel, low loft cotton batting and the backing fabric.  I changed my thread at this point to be clear poly on top, and red to match the backing fabric in the bobbin.  Then I began a several evening process of small stippling, and re-outlining where you went over with the wash away thread.  The final step would be to use a spray bottle and get that wash away thread out of there, because it's white, and can show up on colored areas.

Here is the final product, and some close up shots of the stippling, and where you can see the difference of the high vs low loft:

I have this spot by my front door where I put small wall hangings to fill up a blank wall.  It's the same spot that the Christmas Advent calendar quilt goes in December.  I'm slowly trying to make one of these for each month of the year, so that we can change up the decor every month.  Plus--wall hangings are great projects.  There is a sense of completion that I get, and I love that.  Not like the king-bed quilt that is now at the 8-9 month range...

This one (above) is a close up of the stippling and puffiness of Rosie.  The top of the photo (bad shot, I know) is Rosie's elbow, and the red ring is around her.  Notice I've done stippling in both the yellow background and on the white background.  Rosie, the Red Ring around her, and the Red polka dots in this shot are all high loft areas.

This is a great shot of the lettering on the quilt.  (you can click on them and make them larger, too).  The letters, and again the red ring around Rosie, are all high loft.  I outlined all of that with free-motion, and then went back in with a stipple to finish it off.  The lettering turned out to be my favorite part of the quilt.  It just pops off of there, and looks great.

I'm loving panels like this because they are cool, and can be done in this fashion, without a ton of work.  I'd say overall, this project took me about a weeks worth of evenings to complete, although I spread it out over a month.  I've got another one that I've just done the step of cutting away the high loft batting that I'll photograph as I do it, so I can show you the steps once I get it done.

Enjoy!

~Angie

The King Size Bed Quilt

Wow--I can't believe it's been since Dec 16th that I posted a quilting project.  I've finished several tops that need to be quilted, and played with new-to-me techniques.  I've bought my fair share of fabric, some of which I don't know what I'm going to use it in, but I just had to have it.  Fabric is much like scrapbooking paper...sometimes you see it and must own it.

One thing I talked about in a post was that I was working on a king size quilt for our bed.  I finished the piecing before the end of the year in 2007, and put it on my mom's quilting frame sometime in January.  With CHA and Show Season starting, I've only been able to work on it in short bursts of time.  Here is what it looks like on the frame:

 

If you've never seen a quilting machine, here it is.  This is considered a "mini-long arm" machine.  The quilt is stable on the frame, and the machine is on a moving area of the table that moves the entire length of the frame.  It's so much easier using this, than trying to roll up the quilt and try to quilt it on a standard sewing machine.  It can be done, but this is easier.

It also has a laser pointer on it, and what you can't see is that on the back-side of the frame is a table, where I have the quilting design laid out.  I follow that with the laser guide as closely as I can, and it sews that design (which you'll see down below).

The fabric is the "Metro Blue" line from Marcus Bros. Textiles.  Took me awhile to round up all the fabrics, as many of the local stores didn't carry it at all, or only carried parts of the line.  In the above shot, I'm just at the midpoint of the quilting.  It's going slow, because the bobbin thread only lasts for about 2/3 of a pass from right to left.  So I feel like I'm constantly stopping to change the bobbin.  (The quilt hanging on the wall was made by my great grandmother Helen.)

Above is a look from the left side of the machine & frame.  I've done a log cabin quilt, and I can't remember the design that I laid the blocks out in.  Once it's on the bed, I'll re-shoot it, and show it in the room.

A closer shot of the fabrics.

This is a close-up shot of about a 4x6" of the stitching design that I'm doing.  It's considered a medium stipple with a flower design thrown in for fun.  Shot is a little blurry, but it gives you a general idea.

As of today, I only have about 3-4 rows of stitching left to do.  I had hoped to finish it up this past Sunday, but was having problems with the machine breaking my top thread.  I changed a tension setting and went back to work.  Unfortunately, I didn't check it, and ended up with a huge birds-nest on the back of my quilt for about 2 feet.  It's nasty!  So--I'm spending about an hour a day with a seam ripper pulling those threads out, and going to start that row over.  This time I'll check the tension, and make sure everything is OK....

Happy Crafting!

~~Angie

The Christmas Spirit!

Finally--I'm posting the photos of Tree Skirts that I have been promising for so long.  Finally got good shots of them to share.  Here are the breakdowns on them.

Gingerbread Treeskirt #1:

This is the first one I made, from an old pattern my mom has used before.  I love the skirt, but the pattern was awful.  Horribly written, and bad templates included.  When I was making this one, I actually bought enough fabric to make 3 of the near-same thing.  You'll see improvements shortly.  Can't say who this is for, but it's for friends of mine who just celebrated their 1 year anniversary (I have a few of those, so it will still be a surprise!).  Notice it only has 5 diamonds.

Focus fabric (gingerbread men) and the candy cane fabric are from South Sea Imports.  Rest of the fabrics are just general fabrics I found at my local Quilt Store, Quilts NW.  The ruffle is Costume Satin that was on sale right around Halloween at Joann's.  Next year I will be stocking up on that (IE--buying it by the bolt probably), as a ruffle uses a lot of yardage, and I would make it just a tad bigger next year.  I'm happy with how it turned out, and hope my friends like it.  Mailing it to them on Monday.

Gingerbread treeskirt #2:

This is the first treeskirt where I used my own method, and I'm in the process of writing up the instructions, and having them tested by a few friends.  I've created a few patterns this year that have tested well, and we'll see what happens with that.

Sure--the construction was different on this one, but the fabrics are all the same.  Also did 6 diamonds on this, which makes it stick out from the tree a little better.  Instead of a ruffle, I put on what I call dingle-balls.  It's a trim you can buy by the yard at Joann's.  You want to have that coupon when you buy it, cause it adds up quick.  Course, I bought 13 yards when I bought mine, but that was for a lot of projects I had going!  LOL!  This is also for some friends of mine, who are pregnant with their first child (fortunately--there are a couple of them in our lives, so still not giving this away)!

Home Treeskirt & Yo Yo's:

This is my love.  I have never done traditional holiday colors, mostly cause I prefer silver to gold, and most everything out there in red & green has gold accents.  So, many years ago, I had found some holiday stuff that was purple, blue and silver, so I tested some of those drop-and-swirl ornaments (clear ornaments that you drop acrylic paint into and swirl) with those colors, and LOVED the look.  So, I made 24 of them, and have added to the decor since.  So--for our home treeskirt, I went with blue and purple, and definitely tied in the silver on the ruffle, and tons of decorative stitching.

So this is a quilt as you go pattern, but I went back with metallic thread, and did a stitch in the ditch with a decorative stitch that looks like a snowflake.  Very fitting for this.  There were also some metallic accents in a few of my fabrics, and then I used the satin for the center diamond, as well as the ruffle.

Using those same fabrics, plus white and a silver fairy frost, I created a yo-yo garland for my Christmas tree.  I made 500 yo-yos.  It was a lot!  But it was great to work on during long plane rides and car rides, and with just a little work at home, I was able to get it done!  And for professional yo-yo makers--I did use the new Clover Yo Yo Template.  LOVE THAT THING.  Foolproof, and gives you something that you can hold onto on the airplane!

This photo shows the yo-yo garland, next to an ornament that I cross-stitched back in the 90's when I was into that.  Another good hand project that is easy to do during long trips.

This second shot of the yo-yous also shows those painted glass balls that I made so many years ago.There were a couple years in a row where I made them for all of my friends and family.

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In a couple of days I'm going to share some of the favorite ornaments on my tree!

Happy crafting!

~~Angie

These are done!

So, as promised a few posts ago, I finally got shots of two projects I have recently completed. 

First up is the Rose Fusible Applique wall hanging that I took a class for back in May.  I chose orange for my color scheme, as I was trying to match some actual roses that I love.

This was a fun technique to learn, as it's fusible, and then raw edge applique.  The instructor taught free motion edge sewing with clear top thread, but I didn't like the size hole the needles were making in my fabric (and I was using the smallest needle size possible).  So, I decided to use embroidery thread, and satin stitch this baby.  Here is a close up look at the satin stitching.

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I love this technique, and have figured out a ton of ways that I can use it.  No, I did also make this at 50% of the size as a gift for my good friend Laura, in yellows.  I love how it turned out, but she's already got it hanging in her scrap room, and I forgot to take a photo.

Next project is an advent calendar.  This was a panel I bought, and put together in about 2 evenings.  So cute, but then I went nuts with the free motion sewing, and the iron-on crystals!  Love those things.  Totally have to stock up on some other colors, but since it was my first time using them, only bought the colors I would need for this project.  I've got both the full shot, and a close up:

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That's all for today.  Busy packing orders, and need to get back to that!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend!

~~Angie

Superbad?!?

Pretty uneventful weekend here, because I wasn't feeling well on Saturday.  George and I were on our way to a poker game, when I had him run me back home quickly.  My tummy just wasn't wanting me to be away from home, so Harley and I got to spend some quality time together Saturday night.

Sunday, I was feeling better (although now having bad cramps--Yeah--love being a girl), so I stayed in bed pretty late.  Can you say LAZY???  I can!  LOL!  However, we did get off our butts, only to sit on them for a few more hours while we went to see Superbad.  Why?  Because I have the hots for Seth Rogan.  I thought he was the funniest character in The 40 Year Old Virgin, and loved his chemistry with Katherine Heigel in Knocked Up.  Plus, we keep hearing that this movie, while vulgar, is super funny.  I walked out of there and told George that Knocked Up was better.  My stomach hurt after KU.  Superbad certainly had it's funny moments, but like a lot of movies, a lot of them are seen in the TV previews.  There were few stretches that were just too long without a laugh, mostly transition areas, that just took too much time to make a point.  I guess I could say I was disappointed.  Definitely there were some very funny parts that you'll never see in a trailer because of the graphic nature, but I expected more laughs than I got.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cooking dinner, and working on the KB (King Bed) quilt.  Doing a log cabin, which I have never done before, and am loving it!  I wish this pattern was what I started my quilting life with.  It's the Log Cabin Book from the Quilt In a Day series by Elanor Burns.  Mom and Aunt Kim used this book with their beginning quilt class last fall, and basically I stole the book from my mom, and am making a new quilt for our bed.  Love how quickly it's going together, and hope to have the top finished within the next two weeks.  I did finish a Christmas advent calendar wall hanging last week, so I'll take it to work with me tomorrow, shoot a photo and post it here on the blog.

Other than that, been working on a bunch of new products at work.  LOTS of new papers, stamps and a few new cool embellishments, all of which I am hoping will be out by the end of SEPTEMBER!  Also starting to talk about classes for consumer shows next year, so if you have special requests for topics or projects, we'd love to hear them!  Last year when we were teaching a dog class, we had tons of requests for a cat class, so we did a cat class this year!  However, now we're being asked where is our dog class?  Should we just be doing a new dog class each year???  I need to know, as we have to plan this stuff so far in advance.  We do listen to what our customers say!

Oh--have pretty much decided on the Mac Book Pro.  Thank you so much for all the comments and email I got.  The best one I got was from CathyZ!  I'm so not into the whole scrapbook celebrity thing, but I like her so much for many reasons, one being I think she and I could sit down, have a few 'ritas, and hit it off.  She reminds me so much of a few of my friends, that having her join the girls night would be fun.

That's about it from Boxer-land.  Off to see if I have any Skinny-Cow Mint Ice Cream Cones left in the freezer....need me a little treat before I go to bed!

Have a great week!

~~Angie

I ran out of thread...

So--I've been on a quilting kick lately.  OK--I've really been on a fabric purchasing kick, but that's only because so many Christmas fabrics are hitting the stores right now.  SO FABULOUS!  I never thought I'd want to make a Christmas quilt, but right now I have 4 different panel prints, and lots of cute coordinates in my sewing room to do just that.

I recently got a ceiling fan for George to put up in my sewing/scrapbook room, but he wants me to CLEAN it before he'll put it up.  How dare he!  Apparently just having enough room for a ladder isn't quite enough room. 

Because of that, I'm actually working this week on finishing up a couple of quilts that have been piling up in my room.  First up is a flannel quilt that I found the pattern in McCall's Quick Quilts magazine.  It's made with 26 fat quarters, and I only like about 2/3 of the fabrics I ended up using.  Do you know how hard it is to find 26 different flannels???  At the time I was looking it was really hard, cause I was looking for brights.  Since then, I've found lots of them, but the quilt top was already put together.  Anyhoo, I basted the quilt on Sunday, and I worked on Machine Quilting it tonight for about 5 hours.  Didn't even get half of it done, but I'm liking how it's turning out.  Playing with free-motion quilting and continuous line quilting a little.  However, I had to stop, because I ran out of thread.  DUH!  I'm so used to buying these 1000 yard spools of thread now, and I had found this thread on clearance that was variegated, so I thought I'd just grab it for this quilt.  I neglected to notice that it only had 225 yards on it!  Oops.  Anyway, I ran out while winding a bobbin, so I've got some left.  Going to hit the local quilt store tomorrow and pick up a spool of the good stuff so I can finish it this week.  I also made a small scrap quilt out of the left over squares from this that I will finish some day this fall and drop off at one of the local quilt shops that gathers blankets for the Linus Project, or a similar charity.

Next is the Red Poppy Quilt.  I've talked about this one a few times, and it's time to finish it.  Literally just need to put the binding on, sew it down, put a label on it, and it's good to go.

Finishing a quilt with the binding is my least favorite part.  I don't know why.  I guess I love the piecing part, watching it come together, and when the top is done, if it's one I love, then sending it out to the long arm quilter.  But I'm a little slow when it comes back from her.  Why?  No idea.  George's I finished pretty quickly.  Mom's I did in just a few days, but it had to be done for Christmas.  It must be all the hand sewing involved that takes a long time, but with anything, the more you do it, the better at it you become, and the quicker you become.

My first real quilt project was a crib quilt for my friend Jessie in Kansas (HI JESS!).  That was 8 years ago for her third daughter, Christyn.  I still have scrap fabric from that quilt, which is just crazy!  But I loved making it.  I remember being so scared of machine quilting it, so I did yarn ties on it.

We have another baby joining our family soon!  In September, my cousin Jena will be having a little boy.  We still haven't heard the chosen name, but both Wyatt and Logan are favorites of both parents.  I can't believe that Emma is going to be a big sister.  She's gonna be so bossy--she'll be great at it!  LOL!  Mom and I are hosting a baby shower for Jena later this month, and we're so excited!  Boy stuff galore...I've already been having fun shopping....

That's about it for tonight.  Will post some photos of the quilts as they get done, but as usual, don't hold me to any kind of time lines on these "free-time" projects.  HA!

Take care,

Angie

My other passion...

My close friends know that I've gotten back into quilting this year.  I love it.  Like scrapbooking, it's very much color and pattern based, that can easily be manipulated with texture, thread, and even your batting.  It's my other creative passion.

I've finally finished the Steeler's quilt for George that I've been planning since summer.  Here is the finished quilt.

I had it quilted by a lovely woman here locally, that has done the last 3 quilts I've done (buy yet have to have the binding added).  Here's the close-up view.  She did footballs all over, and it's just awesome.  If you click on the pictures, I think they will show full size.

And the last photo for today....This is one of about 40 pictures that I took trying to get Harley in front of my Christmas tree.  This is about the only usable one...but he looks cute.

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Today is mom's birthday--Happy Birthday Mom!  Love you!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Angie

Update on the old Viking...

Yesterday's visit to the repair center did not go very well.  That place, which is not an "Authorized Dealer" of Viking sewing machines wanted $360.00 to start, and if they found any other problems, they'd let me know before fixing it.  Then they proceeded to tell me that if I bought this Pfaff machine for $1799.00, they would keep the Viking for about 45 days, and fix it for free.  The Pfaff was nice, but really--this didn't even do embroidery, but did have about 85 stitches.  I just wasn't very impressed, and I certainly wasn't going to whip out my Visa in a flourish screaming, "Oh yes--let me take her home!".

One of the local Authorized Dealers said it would only be about $200.  I'm worried that there are more problems with this machine--it's like a car.  Once they open it up, they'll find a bunch of stuff wrong.  Just not what will make me happy.  So, I took it there, and wouldn't you know it, they could make me a deal on a new machine.  However, their deal was way better than the first place I went, so I'm really considering it.  The machine is a Pfaff 2027 ClassicStyle Quilt machine.  Regular price of $1099, but with trade in of my machine, they'll do $899.  If mom and I both buy one (since I've sucked her and my aunt Kim into the quilting world along with me), mom trades her machine it, they fix my machine for free labor--I pay for parts only, and they'll go down to $799.  Both deals include the 3 year full warranty from the place we're buying it from (not to mention the pretty good warranty from Pfaff).

My dilemma is that my Viking has sentimental value.  I rescued it from my grandmother's farm house, where it had sat in a back bedroom for about 20 years with no use.  I wanted to sew and it needed a home.  It would barely run, so I found a repair center in Overland Park, KS (this is back in 1999 when I was living there), but the estimate was around $300.00.  I told my dad that I wasn't sure about it, and he said, "Ask the guy if it's worth fixing.  If it is, I'll pay for the repair".  The repairman said because it was all metal parts, and just really needed a good cleaning, that it would really out-perform anything on the market I could get for the same money.  Would actually take about 4 times that amount to replace the quality of the machine.  It took 4 weeks or so, during which time I read a book on quilting (how the obsession flickered to a beginning), and planned some projects.  So my sentimental value is that it's a connection to my dad.  In fact, when I brought it up to mom today, she said that dad was thrilled that I was sewing again.  I think he knew that it just fuels my creativity in everything that I do.

My best friend Karen and I talked about it tonight.  I asked her, "Would dad want me to keep the machine because it's a connection to him, or would he want me to get a better deal by trading it in?"  She said she understands the sentimental value, but dad liked to make a deal on anything.  He got a charge out of it.

Still don't know, but I'm pondering....  Depends on what mom decides to do, and the whole sentimental value of the machine.  I'll see how I feel about it in the morning.  If you have thoughts, please share.  I'll always read advice...

Angie

Viking in need of repair...

So...my 35+ yo sewing machine is having issues.  I'm craving quilting time right now, and am smack in the middle of quilting some poker placemats (will of course post photos when they are done).  I figured it was a great size of project to practice lots of different quilting techniques.  Well--I went to change the cam for decorative stitches Monday night, and I just heard clunk, clunk, clunk.  Then it would only sew a straight stitch in reverse for a bit once I finally got the cam out.  So--today I'm working, but also trying to find a local repair center that can get it in quick.  While I dream of owning the Viking Quilt Designer II, I just don't have $3500 to spend on a new sewing machine right now.  Buying a new machine is an option, but when I pick what I want, that is what I want.  May have to go signifigantly lower level, but hopefully this is a quick/cheap fix (yeah right!)  We'll see....

Off to find a dealer with a repair center....

Angie

Bad Blogger...

So it's been awhile since I've blogged, but for me this time it's good news.  I've been keeping busy trying to get re-energized about scrapbooking, and somehow fell back into quilting. 

My cousin Jena and I took a beginner quilt class 4 years ago, and neither of us finished our quilts.  We didn't enjoy the teacher, in fact I remember thinking she was trying to be the Quilt Police.  Literally, she'd come around to our stations, and if our seams weren't 1/4", she'd bark at us to tear them out, and re-stitch.  The instructions were terrible, which I remembered when I pulled this box of stuff down from the garage 2 weeks ago, and tried to get it finished.  4 pages of handouts, with little or no info on them.  There is nothing that frustrates me more than incomplete handouts, with few pictures.  Nothing on border fabrics, binding, hand or machine quilting.  It was like, "Here's the middle of the quilt--MAKE SURE YOUR SEAMS ARE 1/4", OR YOU"LL HAVE TO RIP THEM OUT!  Now you're on your own."

What made me pull that box down?  I was feeling blue, bottom line, and when I do, I like to shop (what girl doesn't).  I know better than to go clothes shopping, cause that will just upset me more.  With a Target just over a year old right by me, I can usually find something.  But that day, I remembered that a new quilt shop had opened in the Target center about 6 months ago.  I grew up loving fabric (my mom always sewed stuff--clothes, costumes, and the most amazing tree skirts).  Needing a little pick me up, I walked in, and asked for a class schedule.  It's one of my favorite things to do when I'm needing inspiration, is to take a class.  Well, just signing up did the trick.  Course, I picked up my fabrics for the project as well, and I have to say, I love them (I'll take a photo in the next few days).  Red Poppys, with lots of black, yellow and green.  I cannot wait, and yet, it's created a monster!

I went home that night, and pulled the beginner quilt out.  I layed everything out, to figure out where I was, and amazingly, I had over half of the piecing work done.  Granted, I wasn't too thrilled with the fabrics, as tastes change over time (it has a strong Mary Engelbreit theme--which I still love her stuff, but this is overkill).  I felt I needed to finish this, before I could move onto my class.  This was a wednesday, and by Sunday, the quilt top was done.  Thank goodness for a book I had on quilting, which gave me an idea of what I was supposed to be doing for the borders.  In that same box, I found fabric for 2 more quilts:  six fat quarters for a baby quilt I was going to make, and some random yardages that were final cuts at Craft Warehouse (oddly enough--two ME fabrics again).   

What did I do when that first top was done?  Started a second of course.  This one I love!  It's got a tiny green gingham, medium blue gingham, black based ME fabric, and a white fabric with all of Mary's flowers on it.  I had a pattern in the box for a Fat Quarter Yellow Brick Road qulit, and went to town.  Only took me 2 evenings of cutting, and 2 days of piecing, and it's almost complete.  I still need to add the border material, but it's going to be fabulous!

Mom is going to help me, and we're going to attempt machine quilting both of them together.  We'll see how it goes....should be interesting.  Simple stitch-in-the-ditch for the first ME quilt, and I might try some free-hand on the second.  We'll see how the first one goes...

Now I just need to wash and do my pre-cutting homework for the class I signed up for.  It's on 6/24, and I can't wait!

Wish me luck!

-Angie