I went on vacation and it was totally awesome and relaxing. I haven't stitched a thing in like 1.5 weeks. I have to finish up my obligations to Hive 21 for the 3x6, and then I'm set! I opted not to join the October NuBee round so that I can start working on Christmas presents and that sort of stuff. My daughter's birthday is in November and the DH is hinting none too subtle that he wants to throw a big party for her. If that ends up being the case, I should have started Christmas last month given all the planning that takes, LOL!
Seriously, I think I may have to reschedule my NaSewMo this year ;)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
An Unproductive Week
I'm honestly surprised how much busier I am this year than I was last year. Sewing wise, this has been a very unproductive week. I managed to sew all my rows (10) and pair them together for my daughter's quilt. I had hoped to have them sewn together (aka finished!) today, but that didn't happen. Instead, I spent 7 hours muddling my way through TWO blocks for the NuBee block swap. Granted it wasn't 7 continuous hours, but whenever I had time to sew, I opted to work on that. I think my energies are off when it's coming to sewing. Everything is seeming a tad more tedious than it should be. I am disappointed that I didn't reach my Week 1 goal for NaSewMo. At least I did manage to finish those 2 blocks and I cut for a 3rd. I need to finish all my blocks by Thursday afternoon since that's when I'll be going out-of-town for a long weekend.
Monday, September 5, 2011
NaSewMo - Week 1
I finished sewing my do.Good stitches blocks today.I had to remake one of the blocks because when I measured it today, it was nearly a .25" shy on one side. I also started on my Hive 21 blocks for 3x6. I did one practice block and it was a failure. Well, not complete failure. I just forgot to change a fabric placement and so it didn't work like it should have. And with it laid out, it wasn't quite what I wanted--even if the colors had been in the right places.
I have a small, but growing, collection of blocks that don't belong to anything. Either they were the wrong size and had to be cut down, or they just weren't what I wanted. Here is a sample of the most recent additions:
I decided today that I'm going to cobble them all together and make a truly scrappy patchwork. I don't know how long it will take to save up enough pieces. I know I have a few more blocks hidden away. Or I might just use this selection as a base. I'm finding I really like the bright aqua/teal, pink, yellow, green combination.
I know I probably should have started NaSewMo's first week *last* week since the 1-3rd was then, but I had too many things going on with the power coming back on the evening of the 1st and what not. I'm still boggling of the sheer amount of laundry my little family managed to produce in 5-6 days. I never noticed before since I wash a load sometimes every day to keep the DH in clean scrubs. Now that I'm more (or less) caught up on household obligations, I find my eyes turning toward the sewing machine. It is my goal to complete my daughter's quilt top. I am still divided on the thread situation, so I won't be quilting it just yet. Not that it matters since I have 2 other quilt tops ready to have that treatment already.
I have a small, but growing, collection of blocks that don't belong to anything. Either they were the wrong size and had to be cut down, or they just weren't what I wanted. Here is a sample of the most recent additions:
I decided today that I'm going to cobble them all together and make a truly scrappy patchwork. I don't know how long it will take to save up enough pieces. I know I have a few more blocks hidden away. Or I might just use this selection as a base. I'm finding I really like the bright aqua/teal, pink, yellow, green combination.I know I probably should have started NaSewMo's first week *last* week since the 1-3rd was then, but I had too many things going on with the power coming back on the evening of the 1st and what not. I'm still boggling of the sheer amount of laundry my little family managed to produce in 5-6 days. I never noticed before since I wash a load sometimes every day to keep the DH in clean scrubs. Now that I'm more (or less) caught up on household obligations, I find my eyes turning toward the sewing machine. It is my goal to complete my daughter's quilt top. I am still divided on the thread situation, so I won't be quilting it just yet. Not that it matters since I have 2 other quilt tops ready to have that treatment already.
Friday, September 2, 2011
September = NaSewMo
It's NaSewMo, again! I cannot believe it's been a year already. I decided this year, I am going to work on completing my 'in-progress' projects and maybe one or two small ones. While my power was out, I worked on my daughter's quilt. Not sewing, but the layout (I had luckily finished block construction the night of Hurricane Irene), and here they are:
I wish, hindsight being what it is, that I had just done the scrappy purple for the bows. I think it would make the first option look better, instead of like a scrappy snowball. Even so, I think both arrangements are handsome. Since I couldn't really decide, I showed the pictures to my daughter and asked her to choose her favorite. Without a second of hesitation, she chose the second layout. I think that, when it comes to bowties, the angled bow looks nice with the solid bow/scrappy background and the joined/latice version looks nicer with a patterned fabric for the bow.
Now that I had my layout, now I needed my thread. I had ordered some real-thread color cards. They arrived while I had no power. I admit, I was very taken with the idea of varigated thread before I had even started the quilt. That's what prompted me ordering the color cards. I wanted to find a nice one to coordinate. Superior threads recomment using a 50 wt thread for the bobbin, so I ordered the Masterpiece color card, too (only the one with the applicable colors, though).
But since I do a lot of ordering on-line, I splurged and bought a Mettler silk-finish real thread color card, too. I'm a recent (as in last month) convert to piecing with cotton instead of polyester. I haven't been quilting long, and really, it didn't seem like it mattered. Now I know differently. It helps that my borrowed machine loves Mettler (I'd heard people say things like that about thread before and never got it. And then I did.).
I love color cards. I have a folder of bookmarked sites. I'm gradually building a collection. I already have one for Kaufman's Kona Cotton and Moda's Bella solids. It seemed kind of 'duh' that I finally got around to buying a thread card, too.
Back to the quilt. I can't decide if I really want varigated thread or not. The color I want is King Tut's Egyptian Princess.
As you can see, it's a tone-on-tone varigated with color change every inch, but it's subtle. I wonder, if it's so subtle with all the patterns I have in the background is it worth it? You'll only see it on the bow ties, and that might not even stand out. Which makes me ask myself: do I even want it to stand out? I don't want to be so in love with an idea that I can't see the forest for the trees. I think I've spent more time debating the thread than sewing at this point. Honestly, I don't know that I'll have a solution anytime soon.
I wish, hindsight being what it is, that I had just done the scrappy purple for the bows. I think it would make the first option look better, instead of like a scrappy snowball. Even so, I think both arrangements are handsome. Since I couldn't really decide, I showed the pictures to my daughter and asked her to choose her favorite. Without a second of hesitation, she chose the second layout. I think that, when it comes to bowties, the angled bow looks nice with the solid bow/scrappy background and the joined/latice version looks nicer with a patterned fabric for the bow.
Now that I had my layout, now I needed my thread. I had ordered some real-thread color cards. They arrived while I had no power. I admit, I was very taken with the idea of varigated thread before I had even started the quilt. That's what prompted me ordering the color cards. I wanted to find a nice one to coordinate. Superior threads recomment using a 50 wt thread for the bobbin, so I ordered the Masterpiece color card, too (only the one with the applicable colors, though).
But since I do a lot of ordering on-line, I splurged and bought a Mettler silk-finish real thread color card, too. I'm a recent (as in last month) convert to piecing with cotton instead of polyester. I haven't been quilting long, and really, it didn't seem like it mattered. Now I know differently. It helps that my borrowed machine loves Mettler (I'd heard people say things like that about thread before and never got it. And then I did.).
I love color cards. I have a folder of bookmarked sites. I'm gradually building a collection. I already have one for Kaufman's Kona Cotton and Moda's Bella solids. It seemed kind of 'duh' that I finally got around to buying a thread card, too.
Back to the quilt. I can't decide if I really want varigated thread or not. The color I want is King Tut's Egyptian Princess.
As you can see, it's a tone-on-tone varigated with color change every inch, but it's subtle. I wonder, if it's so subtle with all the patterns I have in the background is it worth it? You'll only see it on the bow ties, and that might not even stand out. Which makes me ask myself: do I even want it to stand out? I don't want to be so in love with an idea that I can't see the forest for the trees. I think I've spent more time debating the thread than sewing at this point. Honestly, I don't know that I'll have a solution anytime soon.
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