missed updating yesterday

here's yesterday's work. everything's sewn into 5 major chunks, roughly outlined in the drawings. I was going to start on the green stuff, but I realized the dimensions I drew weren't right. I need bigger graphing paper lol.

Today's Camera Pix

Here are today's pictures:

 

 I got a new lamp for the sewing room, so I finally have some decent light.  I also put up a white board so I can doodle when inspired. 

 

 Grisgris, keeper of the fat quarters.  He swatted at me when I tried to take them out to work. 

 

The preliminary sawhorse quilting rack setup.  I had to add some foam padding to the places where the dowels meet the horses, so they'd stay in place.  

 

It needs a little work, but the idea is there. 

 

All the pieces are cut out!  The middle two fingers don't look as bad as I feared, but I still want to do something to pull them out a little more.  

 

The extent of my modeling career. :-) 

 

The end of the day.  The main hand is mostly done, while the thumb is still in pieces.  Next up: green filler! 

So that's it for today.  I made some good progress, which is great.  It'll be exciting to sew all the chunks together.  Might be another week before that happens.  I'm glad I got so much out of the way before school started up again.  I won't be able to keep up this pace much longer, but I'm not worried about making the Christmas deadline.  I can't wait until Christmas.  :-) 

daily wrap up

Here's the latest for today. the majority of the hand is sewn, though still in 4 different pieces. the thumb is in pieces at the top there, but it's all cut out. I cant't believe I won't be cutting out anymore blue pieces anymore. I still have a ton of blue fabric though...guess I'll need another project soon! :)

Rainy Day Inspiration

It's a pretty nasty day out today, which means I have the whooooollleee day to think about how to make this thing warm and cozy for you. :-)

I'm working on cutting out pieces for the thumb and index finger right now. It's going slower than the previous pieces because these ones I apparently decided to make in weird sizes. Oh well.

This morning I also went to Lowe's to pick up some saw horses and dowels, to make a quilting rack. I had to ask Dad how he made yours, and he suggested this method. I got U-bolts to hold the dowels steady, but I had to sort of modify how I'm going to put it all together. As soon as I find the cord to my camera, I'll post pictures.

Grisgris has become keeper of the fat quarters. He loves curling up right on the fabrics I'm about to use. :-) Pictures of that too, later.

Back to the creativity!

end of the night update

it's coming along pretty nicely! I got the first layer of blue pieces around the heart, and the middle finger done. you can see how I'm a little concerned that the middle fingers might end up blending into the blue too much...thinking about a metallic teal embroidering to fix that.

spinning bobbins

waiting for the bobbin to fill, so thisll be short.

that purple marker thing = le awesome!!!

im working on sewing the first layer of blue pieces around the heart...yikes.

back to it.

Anxious

5 minutes left of work, and all I can think about is what I'm going to get done on this tonight. It's really hard not to daydream about this quilt...it's basically a combination patch object/jigsaw puzzle, and we all know how I feel about both of those. I'm loving seeing it come together, even if I'm still a little nervous that something's going to go terribly wrong and it'll end up looking like something I might have done in 1st grade.

My goal for tonight is to get the middle finger sewn and the index finger cut out. If I can get the latter sewn too, even better. I need to figure out how to make those beads soon, too.

Questions I wish I could ask Mom right now

There will be more, I'm sure. For now, here's a short list of things I wish I could ask/things I wish I'd known before I started on this journey of pieces:

* Who knew you had to wash the fabric before you used it? Not me. Wish I could ask if they're supposed to fray/tangle that much and what you're supposed to do about it when the whole mess of fat quarters comes out in a big, colorful ball of thread.
* How do I make quadrilaterals? I can't figure out for the life of me how to make them the right size, short of using trig...there has to be an easier way to do this. All it is is two triangles (right ones at that) pushed together...how hard can it be, seriously??
* That flying geese template still confuses me. It doesn't seem like a terribly efficient use of fabric for what I'm doing...but then, I'm probably doing it wrong anyways.
* How do most people pick out fabrics? I'm just grabbing ones I think are pretty, but I'm sure there are other schools of thought out there. On that note, is it generally frowned upon to mix fabrics? I can see where it would be...polar fleece to cotton stitching is...interesting.
* Am I the only one who's wary of cutting off the corners of triangles before sewing them to other pieces? I just can't bring myself to do it, even though I know it's spare fabric that I'll cut off afterwards anyways.
* I had to ask Dad how to build a rolling quilter thingy like you have. He suggested two saw horses and some dowels, with the dowels wrapped in drop cloth. I'll be attempting that feat of engineering this weekend. Wish me luck.
* What's the best way to make sure corners line up? I've been just pinning them together and pinning outward from there...it works for me, but I wonder if there's a better way.

I wish I could be sharing all this stuff with you directly...I'm having so much fun! I know you'd be so happy to talk about it too. Ah well, just a couple more months (gulp!) til Christmas.

latest picture update

here's the picture from the end of today. I've got the pinky and ring fingers done, as well as the heart. I'm starting to think of how to do the fill and the backing...kinda nervous. oh well, one bite at a time, right?

Pictures

Here's a picture of the most-liked design. The heart is different now, but for posterity I'm recording all the steps for you.



I tried counting the shapes, but it turned out that it's easier to break it in to chunks and cut pieces as I need them.



First attempt at the heart.



Laying out the pieces for the heart.



First layer of blue around the heart. And my toe.



Laying out the pinky finger.



Pinky with heart.



He's kept me company a lot.



Another good, intentional corner. :-D



Yup...he's helpin'.



He likes the pink fuzzy stuff.



Piecing out the new version of the heart.

Corners

Oh, one quick addition:

This is the best corner I've done:



















Best part is, that was not only totally intentional, but on the first try, too!! It was shortly after doing this that I decided to redo the heart - before I'd used some boring fabrics that didn't really make it stand out for what it was. I went back to Joann's to find some other stuff and got inspired by some polar fleece remnants. I debated doing a similar style the flannel quilt you made me, but I figured I'd just stick with the basics for now. Corners involving quadrilaterals (not squares) still give me issues, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm so excited to give this to you. I can't wait til Christmas!!!

Dear Mom, I made you a quilt

Ok, well I'm *making* you a quilt.

I feel like I'm doing you a disservice by not allowing you to be a part of my first major quilting venture. However, it would be pretty hard to keep it a secret from you if I asked questions.

I've actually been working on this for a couple months now. I have the heart, the pinky finger, and the ring finger done so far. Oh wait, I haven't told you the design yet. Let me back up.

So you've made a lot of people a lot of quilts (not to mention bags, clothes, etc.). I don't know that anyone has ever made YOU a quilt. You were generous enough to give me your old sewing machine, and I knew trying to give you money for it would be insulting. Instead, I decided to make something for you with it. I designed the quilt pattern myself, as you've probably realized.

It's an "I Love You" hand with a heart in the middle. The heart is made of pink polar fleece and the hand is made of blue cotton materials. The fill is green cotton material. I'm going to make my own buttons out of Fima in the shapes of ladybugs...they'll be hidden throughout the quilt in random places. I've picked fabrics that are roughly floral to go with that theme. Not all of them are floral though. I've also added some fun on the heart: one of the fabrics had words on it, so the triangles say "Faith", "Hope", and "Love". The other one says "Live for today", but it got cut off so you can't really tell. I'm going to add some metallic embroidering around the middle two fingers to make them more distinguishable from the rest of the quilt. Also, all the shapes are those you would find in a tangram: squares, triangles, and quadrilaterals made of two triangles put together.

Here's a picture of the heart before I sewed it all together:














I'll upload more pictures as I get them onto my computer. Needless to say, there are more than a few with Grisgris in them...he really likes the fuzzy heart idea. Mostly though, he just likes to sit exactly on the pieces I've laid out, right when I need them. He's good like that. :-)