Ugh! The reason I haven't been blogging

Oh don't you just hate it when you screw something up so badly that you don't know what to do next so you just put it aside and act like it's not there. That's what I've done and it's gotten me so bummed! I love my orange quilt and while quilting it, I've screwed up. First of all, I should never have chosen to quilt as much as I have... second of all, I just wasn't paying attention! I can't decide if I should take out about 5 or 6 rows or what I should do.... I'll post pics later. It just depresses me so I haven't been wanting to blog about it.

I have been working on that advent calendar and that's going along good so far. I've also started a strip quilt that looks like the one on Old Red Barn's quilt along. It's all red and white and I love the fabrics I've chosen! Again, I'll post some pics later.

Still here

I'm still here... I just found it was boring to blog more about quilting my quilt that I'm doing straight lines on yet again. I'm still working on getting it done. It's taking a long time but I'm still pleased with the texture and how it's going to look in the end. I'm also coming along on my 9 patch. I honestly haven't been sewing long enough to have a really good stash of fabric to choose from so I may have to buy some fat quarters while I'm at Joann's today to work in some more fabric.

I'm also going to the fabric store to look for some Christmas fabric as I've added yet another item on my to-do list and that's an advent calendar. It's so cute! I'm not really a fan of the pink in Christmas things so I think I'll stick with more traditional red and green but I love the idea with the pockets!

So as a review, right now I'm working on the 9 patch quilt, finishing quilting the coin quilt, I started on a red quilt (not sure where that's going or how big it will be... totally winging that one), and I've also got a pair of pajama pants for my daughter that I have yet to finish.

I will try to get some pics of my 9 patches posted here later today or tomorrow.

I've now actually started!

Just a quick shot of my 9 patches that I've started on for the quilt along!

I like it so far but can't decide if some of my patches will have the constant pink swirl fabric in the position of 5 squares or always just 4 squares... hmm... something to consider.

Also, I have worked on quilting my coin quilt... it's just a long slow process. I have about 13 inches out of 55 done.

I've "started" on my quilt along

I used quotes in this title because all I've really done is started cutting out the fabrics since I'm still waiting on my fabric to come via mail. But I'm glad to say I've gotten started! So far a lot of the pieces I've cut are also from my quilt that I'm working on. I'll just be sure to spread those out so they're not near each other.

Here's how the quilting is going on my quilt as of tonight... ugh! This is going to take a while! It's about 55 or 60 inches long.

What have I gotten myself into???

I couldn't bring myself to free hand a whole quilt just yet... I don't feel great about it yet and need to maybe do a small wall hanging or something and practice some more. I've seen the type of quilting I've chosen to do before on a couple other people's blogs and thought it would be great for this quilt.
I used a piece of painters tape as a guide since my coins don't line up exactly and since I'm going across the rows and not with the rows.

Holy cow! This is going to take a LONG time!
Here's the back. I've done a total of 10 or so rows and it's very time consuming. I'm going to have to do a few rows at a time.

As far as the quilt along goes, I'm still waiting for my fabric...

I'm nervous!

I picked out the back of my quilt and I got my quilt sandwich made which means I should be ready to quilt. Only problem is that I can't decide how to do it! I love the stippled look but it's free motion quilting and I have only practiced a little bit and while I'm getting better, it's still not great. If I don't do stipple, I don't know what else to do... Here's how much I pinned it together. I now know why people have bent safety pins.



Here's a shot that shows the back I picked out.

It's week 1 and I'm already behind

On my 9 patch quilt a long that is. At least last night I finally picked some fabric that will be in each 9 patch and around the edges. I wanted something to be the same for some consistency... we'll see how that turns out. Here's what I bought on etsy yesterday.


I think today I'll start cutting my 2 1/2" squares of my stash fabric for my 9 patches that I'll work on first when this fabric arrives at my doorstep! Today's the end of week 1 so I'm not too far behind but still! I'm sure it's easy to fall behind and I don't like starting behind already!

I had a friend over the other day that wanted to be inspired to use her sewing machine. She has a daughter just 4 weeks older than my youngest and so we made her a tag blanket. She loved it and it turned out nice.

I started on a 3rd quilt while on vacation at my brothers and I'll post some pics of that when I get a chance to work on it again... hopefully soon but I need to finish my 2nd quilt first! I finally found just the right background for this quilt top.
It's orange with a speckled pink dot on it. I looked for an image on line that I could share but couldn't find one. I'll post pics when I'm done. I think it's going to turn out nice!

Joining a quilt along

Amanda Jean at Crazymomquilts is hosting a second quilt along for a 9 patch quilt that will turn out to be about a twin size. I think this is a great opportunity to work on Sarah's quilt that I've been wanting to make. She has details on her site but the gist of it is that you make one 9 patch every day for 70 days (5 days a week) and you'll be done! Except for sashing, sandwiching and binding of course :) But she gives you all the directions and everything which is so nice! Check it out if you get a chance! It starts today and I don't think I'll start on it just yet as I'm still on vacation. My sister-in-law doesn't have a rotary cutter and mat and with quilting it's very critical to get it all the right size so I'll start when I get home.

Each 9 patch uses (at least in all her examples) just 2 different fabrics and I thought about picking one fabric to use on each of the 9 patch squares and then I'd use some from my stash for the other fabric. Make sense? I thought it would provide some continuity to the quilt. Of course since it's for Sarah, I'll use some variety of pink I'm sure. Maybe another trip to JoAnn is in order... :)

Am I in heaven??? No... it's Indiana

I'm at a family reunion at my brother's house this weekend and so I've been a little light on sewing and posting. I'm in heaven though because my sister-in-laws sewing/craft room. It's part of their basement and it's wonderful! A great island to spread your fabric out and so much room, I LOVE IT!

My SIL likes to make clothes for my niece so she has a nice stash. I showed her a pillowcase I made for my daughter and she loved it so I made two matching ones for my niece for her room.

They turned out cute! They're flannel. We've got coupons for JoAnn and the girls and I are staying until Tuesday or Wednesday so I'm sure we'll be making a few trips this week and more sewing will be taking place before I come home... I'll keep you posted.

Let me introduce you to my new friend

Have you met my new friend??? I don't know her name just yet but we met a few days ago and already I like her a lot! She's so versatile, easy to work with, nice to talk too! Here's a picture of her.


I was borrowing my mother-in-law's sewing machine and although it was working just fine for me it was a very basic machine with really no extras. My new machine is completely computerized and so much quieter! Before, my husband couldn't hardly hear the TV or music that was on if I was sewing and now it's no problem! Have I mentioned that I LOVE my husband? On my way out the door to pick out a machine he says to me, "Don't go cheap. Get whatever you want and spend some money." What a guy :) I could have gone well over $1,000 but I didn't even go close to that. I think I got a good price for a good machine and I'm happy. I got it from Winston Sewing Center and it comes with free classes that are really just 1:1 tutorials about the machine.

We're all sick at my house but I did manage to make a pillowcase tonight. It's the one in the picture above. It's my first flannel one as we've got some birthdays this fall to give gifts for! Again... I really need to work on the pants... maybe I'll do that next.