Finally Sewing Again!!!

I have finally made it back to my machine! Well, to the cutting table and ironing board anyway, but that means that I will be sitting down at the machine really soon.

I would have LOVED to be in the sewing room all last week once we got home from my daughter's hospital stay, but, while we were gone, my husband and older daughter gutted the older daughter's (SingAndDance) bedroom for a room re-do/tween update.  It was a logical (ummm, sort of) time to do it, with MonkeyNinja being out of the house.  She shouldn't be exposed to great amounts of dust, paint fumes, cleaning stuff, etc...and all of that was involved in the room re-do.  And, since I wasn't home, either, it was logical (ummmm, sort of) to move everything out of SingAndDance's bedroom and into the sewing/crafting/toy room.

So, after 12 long days in the hospital, I arrived back home to find my entire upstairs, especially MY space, filled with the belongings of a wonderful 11 year old who was making her very best effort to sort through everything and purge/donate before moving things back into her room which still wasn't quite ready yet, despite her father's very best efforts to get it done.  It was hard to be upset.  But really, seeing my space filled up like that when my nerves were already raw was unsettling.  I might have cried (a little).

It was kind of comical how they had just tossed stuff in, and piled it up, too.  I should have taken a picture to show you but, honestly, I think I might still cry, looking at it, even now.

All's well that ends well, though.  My husband finished a self-designed, custom built loft bed for SingAndDance.  They worked together to paint her room a really lovely shade of blue with orange and pink accents (she had a plan, he dutifully followed it).  And she and I sorted through her "stuff" and packed up and put away a lot of keepsakes that she just doesn't need on hand, sent a few boxes full off to be donated and are working on setting up and accessorizing her new room.

ALL THAT to say...I have my space back!  I am celebrating by starting a quilt that has been on my mind for months, since SingAndDance commented, "You should make a Pink and Brown Chevron Quilt.   That would be really pretty."  After that, chevron quilts and patterns seemed to be everywhere I looked.  And she's right, I DO love pink, brown (and cream) together.  So, I've been keeping an eye out for a few pink prints, and I pulled some pinks and browns/neutrals from my stash, and here we have:

...the start of something pretty!

I am using this tutorial from Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation.  It's her Easy Peasy Chevron pattern, and I like that sound of every single bit of that!!  Yesterday I was able to get all of my fabric pulled, decide on an order and get 9 inch squares cut from each fabric.  Kelly's tutorial involves making 4 HST's at a time from 9 inch squares.  I haven't done HST's this way before, but I love the idea!

It was a very tight squeeze getting enough 9 inch squares from some of my fabrics.  My "stash" includes really old and really random pieces that have come from garment sewing, doll making and other odds and ends so there were some pretty weird pieces.  In fact, both of my neutrals ran short, so I am mixing and matching a bit.  I'm not sure I'll like the effect, but this is supposed to be a stash buster, not a stash filler (I did buy new pinks, but only fat quarters so they are pretty much used up...) and it's a charity quilt.  We'll see how it turns out!  

I am really hopeful that I will be able to finish the top by Friday.  Because that will be August 1, and I have a DOOZY of an August to-do list!  

I am off to carve out thirty minutes of sewing time before the piano teacher gets here and before I have to start dinner...  Hopefully I will be able to post progress pictures soon!  (HEY!  The piano teacher is running late!  I think dinner will be late, too!  More time to sew!)

Happy Sewing!

Baby Quilt Finish

Trying for a pretty picture here.  Think I
have a lot to learn!

Yaaaay!  Its a finish!  Finally! 

I really had intentions of getting into this blogging thing "Big Time," as my daughter might say, but that just hasn't happened the way I planned.  I have done some sewing.  Bits and Pieces, here and there.  And I have some pictures, so I am hoping to create a few posts over the next few days.

But something always seems to happen on the way to the computer.  *sigh.

However, I do have a finish to write about, and that's pretty exciting.  This is an OLD UFO.  The top was pieced more than a decade (gasp!) ago.  The intended recipient will start middle school in the fall.  He was born just a few months after my oldest daughter.  That, not-so-coincidentally, was right around the time that my sewing came to a screeching halt. 

His nursery, if I remember correctly was done in greens with a vintage Winnie the Pooh theme.  This really would have been great in there!  Oh well.  He's grown into a fine young man without a quilt from me. 

The quilt is about 42 x42.  The print is called Winnie the Pooh's Day at the Park, according to the selvedge.  It is used on the back, too.  I machine quilted in the ditch between the pieced blocks, but then decided that the center stripe should be quilted too.  Lesson learned: Try to make those decisions BEFORE starting.  Going back and adding lines quilting between lines that had already been done added some puckers, but its really not too bad.  And once its washed and dried, I am sure it will be full of soft, crinkly goodness, and the puckers won't be so bothersome.

This was my first attempt at a binding done entirely by machine.  It went OK.  The first part was great, except that I twisted one strip and didn't double check before I stitched them together.  Thank goodness for seam rippers.  Also, I think I will stick to hand stitching the back of the binding.  Especially on a small quilt like this, it doesn't really take THAT long, and it just gives a much nicer effect, I think.  Or, maybe I will keep practicing putting them on by machine. 

Either way, I am pleased with the overall look of this one, and glad to have a UFO finished.  Part of this return to quilting is to use up or finish stuff I already have before buying or starting something new.  And I am just ITCHING to start something NEW, so I need to crank out a few more finishes, fast!

Given that I seem to be struggling with getting in to the swing of sewing and blogging consistently, I am curious....How do YOU do it?  Is there anything that helps to make sure you get to the computer to write about what you've been doing?  I'm hoping that it comes with time!

Here's one last picture of the quilt, with a buddy.  The quilt will be Project Linus donation, but the buddy is still too loved to be given away. 

I am going to try to link up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, but I admit I'm not really sure how to do that...  we'll see!
Happy Quilting!

- Tami