secrets secrets...

how sad is it that I'm packing up my sewing room to make it look like I have less fabric than I do, solely so you won't ask questions I'm dying to answer? sigh. also, this is a strategic angle because my dumb kitty was licking himself in the corner and wouldn't move. maybe it's better to have the fabric covered...

first attempt at fashion

there is just an absurd amount of fabric here. I'm making dad some shorts (and you some pants) for when you guys come visit in 2 weeks. the pattern is air force jets. :D

impending doom

I think he thinks its a runway...

Pushing Buttons

I'm pretty sure it's against some kind of cardinal rule to sew buttons on quilts, espcially if the quilt's purpose is as a throw blanket. but I'm gonna do it anyways. so there.

I haven't forgotten, I promise!

It's been a crazy busy week and weekend, and I needed to work on something smaller for a bit to let my mind rest.  I'm still toying with ideas for what to do about the big open spaces that aren't quilted yet, and I need to do the binding...other than that, this thing is done!

I've been working on Grammom's bag.  It's been a fun project, and I think I might keep doing small stuff like that in my spare time.  I really need to finish the quilt and then focus on school though...maybe not in that order lol. 


Anyways, I haven't quit yet, and there will be more pictures when more are ready.  You're coming to visit in a month or so, so I'm kind of hoping to have it done by then so it's easy to hide.  :-P

Taming the Beast

I can't believe I'm saying this already, but I think the machine quilting is...done!  It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, once I got started.  Admittedly, my stitching looks like crap next to yours, but you know what?  For a first attempt (and with no Momisms to guide me) I think I'm doing pretty well! 

I started making the ladybug buttons last night, and I got maybe 2 to come out even remotely cute...most of them were just black and red blurs.  We'll see if I decide to keep going with that one.  There's a big open space with no quilting above the thumb, so I might need to figure something out for that. 

Anyways, without further ado, here are the latest:

The back, midway through.

The back, done!  I outlined the hand, heart, and borders.  All things considered, it looks ok.  There are a few areas that could have been better, but I'm sure you'll advise me later on how to improve.  :-)  I'm proud to say though, that there's only one small strip that has any kind of double stitching across it, and most of this is continuous...like, just kept going around the corners, stuffing the quilt through the hole that seems so much bigger without half a quilt stuffed in it.  The borders were a piece of cake compared to the hand!

And, of course, the front all stitched up.  The pins are still in, as you can see.  I can see the stitching the most in the borders, but that could be just me.

Anyways, the next steps are whatever hand quilting I decide to do (I'm still not sure what I want to do yet), and the border. 

I've also started working on Grammom's bag...it's a fun spatial puzzle to figure out, especially the drawstring closures.  I'm thinking about putting some kind of "hook" on the corner of each compartment too, so she could put a little loop of yarn there to hold it while it's not part of the pattern, but so it'd be easy to grab when she's ready (as opposed to digging through to find the end of the skein). 

Anyway.  Bed time!  I can't believe how quickly this came together!  I thought I was going to be down to the wire, but it's really not so bad at all...but I gotta say, I really do have a deeper appreciation for all the quilts you've made me over the years! 

Last Night's work

It was about 4 am before I went to bed, so I didn't get around to posting pictures...sorry.  :-)  I got a lot done last night though!  I got all the borders sewn on the front:

Then I got the back panels sewn (in two strips...I didn't relize you're technically not supposed to have the seam down the middle, to avoid wear.  Note to self):

Once all that was done, I cleared out some space in my living room:

Then laid things out to pin together:

 

The batting is thinner than I expected, but I think that's good.  It'll definitely work better for grammom's bag, but once I rolled the quilt up, it seemed like it would be heavy enough to keep some heat in, but not so heavy it'll be hot at any given point.  I think that it's intended to be a full-sized couch quilt lol.

Let it never be said that I didn't use my textbooks after college.

It turns out that the backing, while I thought I bought more than enough, shrank a lot in the wash.  It fits with the front, sort of.  I think I'm going to end up putting a layer of the yellow rose stuff around the outside to make sure it's big enough to cover everything.  Right now, 3/4 of the quilt is pinned though, so I think I'm going to just measure things and keep it pinned.  It's sort of easier to deal with when it's rolled nicely anyways. 

You can see the pins, sort of.

Anyways, that's the latest.  It won't fit at all in the sewing room, and it barely fits in my bedroom.  I had to move furniture to lay it out in the living room (which was the best place anyways, since the floors are hardwood there...no kitty hair, and no chance of accidentally pinning the quilt to the floor). 

first glimpse

here's the first attempt at the bag for grammom. nothing spectacular yet, but it has potential. the wash is done though. so I'm gonna put the backing for your quilt together.

final frontal stiching

just 2 more borders to go!

Keeping Mum

ARGH!!!!  I talked to you today and told you about my design for Grammom's bag...and I felt SOOOO bad because I couldn't reassure you that I'm making you something way better!!  I should have sent you a decoy pair of happy pants or something to throw you off the scent.  I feel so terrible!  I hope you've forgiven me by the time you're reading this though...I hope it's worth it! 

KEEPING THIS A SECRET FROM YOU IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!! 

Love you lots.  :0D

Quick Update

The more I looked at the rose fabric, the less I liked it...it didn't seem...whimsical?  enough somehow.  So I found some fun stuff that's a light blue background with ladybugs and little flowers on it instead.  I also picked up some pink stuff for the edging and (drumroll please) I committed to a batting!  It's the queen-size polyester low-loft (1/4 inch I think?) stuff that's Joann's preferred brand.  I also snuck a peak at some "how to quilt big projects" books and picked up some basting pins (now I get it!).  I might even try doing some of the "stitching in the ditch" (I think that means sewing right along the seams...right?) by machine.  Thinking about stitching around the edges of the hand and fingers so it shows up on the back of the quilt too. 

That said, this week is going to be a crazy week.  It's college application time, so I'm going to be helping Mai with hers for the next few Tuesday/Thursdays.  Monday/Wednesday are class nights, Friday is date/relax night, and Saturday we're heading up to VT for James' birthday.  If I get time to put the border strips on, I'll be happy.  If not, there's always next week sometime. 

Also, I started scheming about what to do for other people for Christmas, once I've got your project tamed.  I'm thinking about making a yarn bag for grammom...wish I could get your help on this one too, but I'm not sure I can ask you about it without either a) giving away your gift or b) making you think I'm NOT doing anything that special for you this year. So I think I'm on my own for this too.  I'm going to doodle some ideas later and post them for posterity.  I'm thinking an over-the-shoulder bag with 3 or 4 compartments inside for separate skeins of yarn, with little drawstring closures at the top of each to keep the yarn inside.  There'd be a little skinny pocket on the side for spare needles, and a 4th or 5th inside pocket along the width of the bag to keep her current project in.  That way, she could easily bring a small project with her to doctors appointments, etc.  I think I might be able to use some of the extra batting I'll have to make it more sturdy.  I'm not sure if I can use the same fabric though, since it might not be sturdy enough for everyday use.  Maybe it will, I don't know.  I'm not sure what pattern I'd do on the outside of the bag, but if I could use fabrics from your quilt, that would be good.  Maybe I'll just do hearts in blue, the same pattern that I did your heart in, and then green around the heart?  Or the reverse?  I dunno.  Anyways, new project in the pipeline once this is further done. 

Better Frames

There we go, better resolution.  First layer is all cut and sewn into strips...I bought WAY too much fabric for this, but that's ok...I have stuff to play with now.  Unfortunately, it's all in 2 1/2, 4 1/2, and 8 1/2 strips.  Oh well.  Next.

 Playing around with the other fabrics to imagine what it's going to look like.  Not bad, not bad...but...

drumroll please....

....

....

....

Boom!  There it is!  I ended up swapping the light blue/green, and I think I like it way better this way.  It looks more like a picture frame, I think.  I wish you could get a sense of how big this thing is, but for reference, that's the foot of my full-sized bed right there.  That bookshelf is also about 4 feet wide I think.

But anyways, this is so cool!  This is literally all there is to the front of this quilt!!  (Minus the binding, of course, but that's coming later.)  I wish I could email you this picture right now, I'm so stoked!!!

framed!

I'll have bigger, more detailed pics up soon, but here's the latest!

backing materials

I got these yesterday...gonna do a frame of the blue around the yellow, since it's the yellow rose of texas...so much subtlety in this thing! :)

The end of chaos

It's done!  The complicated (visually) part is done!  It's after 3 am, so I'm trying to remind myself that this'll look better when I've slept on it...some of the vertices are disasters, and it took a lot more ripping/resewing of some seams than I wanted, but here it is!

 

The middle two fingers look better than I thought they would (yay!), and working from the center out wasn't as bad as I anticipated...thank God for that.  I need to reiron the back so it lies flatter, then I can start on the borders.  That'll probably be sometime this week though, because tomorrow I need to get some homework done.  

At some point I need to make the ladybug buttons too...that'll be an adventure I'm sure.  :-)  

It's bedtime...long past it.  I'm so excited to show this to you though...I wish I could send you this picture right now.  Oh well...only a couple more months.  Gnight!

The end of an era

No more triangles, squares, parallelograms, or funky fabrics.  That's right, folks, the middle section is all cut out and, mostly, sewn!  It's still in a few major chunks, but it looks like it's supposed to!

 

First, here are all the rest of the pieces cut out.  That bottom left (ok, top left in this picture) square was the last piece to be cut.  It took me a few minutes to decide what fabric should get that honor, so I went with one I haven't used as much.  Man, I have a lot of fabric left over.  

Drum roll please.....

......

......

......

 

Here it is!!!!!!  I can't believe it's already at this point!!  If I had some spare time, I might even be able to get this done for your birthday...but then I wouldn't be able to see you open it, so it's SO worth it to make this a Christmas gift.  

Anyway, I digress.  

The chunks are the same as the last post, plus a few more between the thumb and forefinger.  I am TERRIFIED to start sewing this all into one big chunk...I need to work from the center out to get it done right.  I'm still debating embroidering the middle two fingers, too...they look great in the picture and they actually look pretty ok in person, but I'm not sure.  I guess the doubt should say something...I'll let them be.  

It's 10 pm on a Saturday, Nick's in Boston having a business meeting all night, so I'm gonna keep going.  

I'm so psyched it's coming along!!!!  I want to call you SO BAD!!!!!!! :-) 

Sewing Lines

These are the lines that I still need to sew.  Should get some work done tomorrow.

Homework

Ahh, the inevitable has happened...I just took a look at my impeding homework due for my classes...yikes.  I guess progress is going to slow down a bit for a while now.  Hopefully I can get the rest of the fill at least cut out this weekend, maybe even sewn.  Probably won't have a chance to do much before Saturday though...*sigh*.  I miss it already lol. 

All Boxed In

Got the bottom two corners done, so now 3 of 4 are sewn

All 4 corners are cut out!  Still got some pieces to cut for the middle though.  :-)  It's after midnight, so I'm giving up for the night.  I called you today, and it was all I could do not to tell you about this!!!  I'm dying here!!!! :-D

Playing with Colors

Still trying to figure out what to do for the binding.  I played with some colors in Paint, and this one intrigues me.  I think maybe a slightly less harsh shade of pink might tie things in nicely.  I'm thinking maybe that lighter blue would work well for the backing too.