Sewing/Quilting Archives - Page 11 of 17 -

Unfinished Stars

June 9, 2012 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

As I’m sure I’ve said before, I may not have been here, but I have been sewing. I have a lot of finishes chalked up lately, and also have yet to find my camera card! We are packing to move to southern CA so I’m sure I’ll find it. If anyone would enjoy pictures of boxes, just let me know. 🙂

Here are two things I am done with, but the pictures were before I finished. They were made into floor pillows, 27″ square. I pieced the back and also learned a new (to me) way to make pillows. I used this tutorial, that includes measurements for various sizes of pillows, to do an envelope style back. I’m thrilled I found this because my issue with pillows has always been how can they easily be cleaned.

Snow Week Quilt – WIP Wednesday

February 29, 2012 by Tsoniki 9 Comments

What does a person do when they have a snow day? If that person is me, they sew. And if you get another snow day, they keep sewing. And then it looks like the snow and ice are there to stay until the rain comes to wash it all away and we ended up with a snow week!

This post is late. The snow I am speaking of is the snowmageddon everyone in Seattle was talking about in January. I’m north of there a couple of hours and we got a week off of work and school, and then Friday night that week the rain came and we haven’t seen snow since!

I am thrilled to say I finished an entire quilt during my snowed in time! I just mentioned this and shared my fabric choices when I posted my first WIP of 2012. I stayed off the computer and really enjoyed sewing and watching tv. I am kind of shocked, in a pleasant way, that I was able to finish this! I thought this would be the quilt along I worked on throughout the year (like last year). I’ve been steadily busy around the house and with my outside the house job so I love that I finished a quilt so fast. I loved being able to take advantage of this time to not read (for school), not have to write, not have to study, and just sewed and quilted! It was awesome.

Since I didn’t have charm packs, I had to cut fabric into squares first. Not a big deal, I own this fringe ruler which made the time go a little faster. A few years ago I learned how to stack fabric and cut four pieces at a time, so that also helps.I decided to chain piece since the process would go quickly.

Chain piecing always looks pretty.

As boring as it can be, squaring up your blocks really does make a difference. Sometimes I skip this step, in this case I did not. And to show how hard it can be for quilters to throw material away, I saved the strings for my Mom who will use them in a landscape quilt she is planning!

I have to admit that along with cutting the fabric, I enjoy the ironing. Everything ends up crisp and neat.

One block!

The quilt!

This is laying outside on my back patio. I used one of the patterns from the original quilt along blog post and I love it. I need to add borders. I wanted to add white but could not fight the white on white print I used anywhere in town, so I grabbed two batiks instead.

First WIP Wednesday of 2012

January 11, 2012 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

The break from school (for the kids) and classes and work (for me) and daycare (for JW) was awesome. I loved just being home. I told my friends I loved being able to take a shower and just put on clean pjs again. I spent most of our vacation in pjs. I look forward to the next one!

For the first WIP Wednesday of 2012 – I am working on a few projects!

Here are my fabrics for the older (2010) quilt along I found:

The fabrics are not a charm pack like the author is working with and I’m okay with that. I love these fabrics, but after looking at this picture I realize I should probably replace the two with light backgrounds. I don’t want them blending into the white on white background. I can’t wait to get started on this quilt, I am going to work on cutting everything out and maybe some beginning sewing this weekend.

I haven’t picked out any fabrics for the HST BOM yet, but I am thinking about what I want to use. I have a lot of fabric and it’s not out on shelves so it can be tough to remember what I have. I end up with boxes and bins open all over my sewing room and it becomes a mess that I don’t want to go through, I just want the room clean again! I take this as a sign to clean up the space and have a better system for my fabric. I don’t want it tucked away never to be seen again.

I also commented on Amy’s one week challenge and am working on an oven mitt. I am using the pattern from this blog post and these fabrics, I stitched them last night and will work on cutting them out, etc., throughout the week.

I tried making an oven mitt myself during the holiday break and it went horribly wrong.

That oven mitt, it only fits my kids. This is my lesson on using a pattern. I haven’t even finished it because I was frustrated. Now I think it’s funny and I’ll get the binding on this weekend.

QA, BOM, & Being Crazy Busy

January 9, 2012 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

I am going to be crazy busy for the next few months, the entire spring semester actually. I am taking five classes this semester. Five. FIVE! I know it will be okay because I am taking two and then three, because of the way UMUC has restructured their semester (they offer 8 week semesters now, which makes you a crazy person working on classes, but then you are finished after two months. This new structure allowed me to take more then two classes a semester in the fall, and again now.). Once I am done with these five classes, I am done with my undergraduate studies.

That blows my mind. I am excited way deep down inside. The excitement will come to the surface the closer I get, or maybe not until I apply for graduation? It’ll happen though. I have to get through these classes, but this has been a long time coming. I can not stress enough the importance of finishing your undergraduate degree in a timely manner! I am so ready to move on with my studies.

I am still working part time and the older kids are currently in basketball. The baby will probably go to daycare an extra day of the week so I can get my schoolwork done and also attend a couple of classes in person (I am taking two classes locally, from NWIC, which I am transferring to UMUC). Once basketball is over, the kids will play soccer. We are starting the semester off by not watching tv, this happened in the fall and the winter break was plenty of time to get caught up on my favorite tv shows. TV is something I can definitely sacrifice.

But I did want to find another quilt along to do this year. Last year I did the postage stamp quilt along, and it was so much work – and so very worth it. I loved making that quilt, even if it took much longer then the initial quilt along. I haven’t finished it beyond the top, but I think I will send it out to be quilted. I found an old quilt along – the Charm Pack Quilt Along that was posted in 2010. The link will take you to the blog posts that are all labeled with that, so start from the bottom and go up. I have my fabrics picked out and cut into squares already. I’ll post a picture on Wednesday for WIP Wednesday’s!

I also found the HST BOM:

This looks very fun and since it is one block a month, this is easily do-able despite my crazy schedule. I will have to have some down time otherwise I will just be crazy, and not crazy busy. I haven’t picked my fabrics for the HST BOM, but I am going to do so before Wednesday so I’ll share then!

Classes start today and I am working all week because we are implementing a new database program in my office. Here’s to being crazy busy!

W.I.P. Wednesday Three

November 16, 2011 by Tsoniki 3 Comments

Nothing like some motivation to get a lot of sewing done! Two of my classes ended (I still have one more this semester) and it seemed to open a huge block of time! Add to that my Dad came for a visit and so JW was interested in Grandpa so I was able to nab time here and there to sew and I really finished a lot over the past week and a half.

I posted about my postage stamp quilt a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been working on this since January! I started the quilt along when it was posted but one thing I did was made the mistake of buying yardage for my neutral. For some crazy reason, I thought it would be easier! Ha! After cutting it into strips, I took a break rather then getting started sewing. Once I finished the blocks, the top came together so quickly. This joins my quilt stack now, I don’t have any plans of when I can finish it and I have other projects I want to get done before the holiday season.

I am thinking of quilting in a diagonal, to go against the squares.

I also put together a quick and easy Halloween table runner. This was super simple, I used the fabrics from a previous W.I.P. post and they are all fat quarters. I cut varying widths on the 18″ side of the fat quarter. The one on the top is my original table runner, and the bottom is intended for the back. I wanted to use up the fabric and this way I can have a reversible table runner. I don’t have any plans to quilt it anytime soon, but when I do I want to use glow in the dark thread.

A little hand snuck in the picture! Table pictures are always terrible, so I’m sorry for that. I need to figure out a better way to take pictures, I live in Washington state where it rains a lot so I can’t do many outside pictures in the winter!

A late W.I.P. but it’s still Wednesday where I am! 🙂

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