My First Quilt - Part 1

All through my childhood, my mom sewed all kinds of clothing and costumes, for herself, and my brother and me.  In high school, I took a course called Clothing.  It taught me the basics of using a sewing machine and we completed several little projects over the course of the semester.

Fast forward (*cough*) 20 years (*cough*), and I found "Quilty", a quilting magazine.  The orange and white quilt caught my eye on the cover of the Winter 2012 issue, so I scooped it up.  I figured that I could probably sew a straight line, and be good to go.

After flipping my way through that issue, I wandered around the Quilty website and found this awesome quilt:  the Blonde Redhead, made with the Sister's Choice block.  It looked like the perfect choice for my first quilt.  I could make it for my sister.  She had a birthday coming up, so it would be perfect!

Blonde Redhead

I downloaded and printed the instructions, found the local quilt shop, purchased a cutting mat, rotary cutter, ALL kinds of fabric and matching thread.  Yay!

More to come,

Claiming My Blog

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12010447/?claim=75d7sjst3ez">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Are You Happy?

I think I am generally happy.  Of course, we all have off days, but on the whole, I am happy.  There are many things in our lives to be happy about, but often we don't acknowledge them on a daily basis.  Acknowledging what makes us happy is the premise behind 100 Happy Days.

100 Happy Days

According to this HLN post, #100HappyDays: Who is behind the challenge?, this project was initiated by Dmitry Golubnichy who started recording what makes him happy in November 2013.

I started the challenge after my sister posted the link on Facebook, and here is what I have been happy about since last Wednesday.

#happyday1

#happyday2

#happyday3

Hahaha!  I went looking for #happyday3, and it turns out I missed it!  Oops! :)  I did post this picture on what would have been day 3, though, and I am pretty happy with it, so I am going to count it.

#happyday4

#happyday5

#happyday6

So, that is my 100 Happy Days Challenge progress so far.  I hope you find something to be happy about every day, and that you take a moment to acknowledge it.

More to come,

The House Page - Part 2

Picking up where I left off from The House Page - Part 1, here is the continuation of my first time applique adventure!

After conquering the curves of the sun and cloud, plus the added challenge of the terry cloth cloud, I felt pretty confident with the straight lines of the house.  This should serve as a lesson for me in the future!  Read on...

House 1

Straight lines, not a problem...it was following the tutorial instructions that were apparently a problem for me when appliqueing around the door...

House 1 - peek!

On my first go round house 1, I skipped stitching the inside of the doorway, and the door hinge!  Just zipped right across the bottom of the peek-a-boo piece!  Not a tragic error, but an error, nonetheless.  So I zipped around the doorway after.  Applique at the house/cloud border was not a problem.  

So, lesson learned, on to house 2!

House 2

House 2 - peek!

I remembered to stitch around the doorway this time!  But as you can see at the bottom right side of the doorway, I was a little offline.  Oh, well!  As a first timer, I'm pretty happy with my attempt!

Thanks to Sherri at Thread Riding Hood for this great sew-along, which is already increasing my sewing skills!

Have a great weekend!

More to come,

The House Page - Part 1

So I started the House page from The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along by Thread Riding Hood!  A quick peek at the main sew-along page will show that Sherri did not start at page 1, but page 10.  I am hoping that is because the House page is the easiest of the 12 pages.

For me, this was the first time that I tried my hand at applique.  The main pieces of the page were pretty easy.  The pattern pieces provided by Sherri are straightforward and just a simple cutting exercise.  From there I followed Sherri's tutorial directions and was able to get 2 (almost) matching pages started.  Here are pics of the pages BEFORE I did the applique stitching.

House 1

House 2

It turns out that I did not cut the cloud out of the terry cloth properly.  I figured that on house 2, there was enough room between the sun and the house to keep the incorrectly cut cloud.  On house 1 there was not enough room, so I had to cut out the fabric and fusible web again.  This will also help tell the difference between the books.  One finished books is for my nephew, and one is for my own little one, as mentioned in my second post, Getting Ready, so being able to tell them apart will be important!

With the fabric fused together, it was time to try my hand at applique.  On house 1, I tried a double zig-zag stitch, but I found that the holes the needle left from multiple insertions were too big for my liking.  For house 2, I used the regular zig-zag, and like it much better.  The difference is obvious in the picture.

House 1 on top, House 2 on bottom

(I haven't been able to figure out how to get my pictures in a different orientation.  I will work on it!)

Next up was stitching the cloud.  I was concerned about the curves and the terry cloth fabric...it turns out, with good reason!  Here is the result:

House 1 - Back

House 1 - Front

To say it is a hot mess is an understatement!  At the time, I wasn't sure what caused the thread mess on the back side, but after consulting my sewing machine owner's manual, I figured it might be the tension.  So for house 2 page, I adjusted the tension, practiced on some scrap terry cloth and cotton, and went for house 2's cloud!

House 2 - Back

House 2 - Front

Clearly, still some problems, but much better, in my opinion.  Lesson learned about tension settings!

More to come,

More Shopping!

Shopping!

The shopping list from Thread Riding Hood looks like this:

Week #2 Shopping List

Most of the fabric came from the quick cuts and fat quarters bin at my local Fabricland.  Here's what I chose:

Sun & sky

Options for the grass

Teal for the door & brick red for the house

Options for the peek-a-boo behind the door!

More to come,

Diving In!

Diving In!

Okay, water metaphors stop today...promise!

As previously mentioned, the inspiration for starting this blog is my participation in The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along by Sherri at Thread Riding Hood.  This week was Month One: the House Page, and I dove right in!

For the first couple of posts, Sherri provided us with shopping lists.  A favourite activity!  Yay!

Shopping: Week #1

Here's what I ended up with after Week #1 shopping was complete:

Cow Print from Old MacDonald by Nortcott

I love the cow print!  I wasn't sure what color of binding I was going to use, though.  Instead of using pre-made bias tape, I decided that I wanted to use a rainbow striped fabric.  There is a stripey fabric in the same Northcott line, but my local quilt shop did not have any in stock, so I had to go searching elsewhere.  Here is what I found:

Quick Cuts from Fabricland

The large zig-zag is Chevron by Riley Blake, as per the selvage, but neither of the the smaller zig-zag cuts had a selvage, so I am not sure what it is.  I guess it could be Riley Blake, as well.


I'm not quite convinced that this is the fabric that I will use for the binding; I'll keep you updated.


More to come,

Getting Ready

Getting Ready

Post #2!  Already double the posts I published on my first blogging adventure.  Woo hoo!  

My main inspiration for starting this blog is to share my progression as I participate in "The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along" by Sherri at ThreadRidingHood.

Near the end of January, she shared the quiet book that she made for her little ones.  I was hooked!  Since my sister-in-law just had a baby and I am due to have Butternut in 4 short weeks, I thought this would be a great project to work on as the year progressed, and the babies grew.

Baby Lucas

Butternut

More to come,

Taking a Dip

Taking a Dip

I have been inspired to start this blog by the many blogs that I have discovered while wandering aimlessly around the internet looking for quilting inspiration.  I have found Bloglovin', which makes keeping track of all the updates my favourite blogs soo much easier!

In one of my daily jaunts, I came across a sew-along that REALLY interested me.  I figured that I should try to keep the world wide web apprised of my progress, so...

                     ...here I am...
                                           ...dipping my toe in the sea of Blog.

More to come,

P.S.: As I am new to Blogland, please let me know if I have used or credited borrowed material incorrectly.  Like the above picture, which I grabbed off of Creative Commons.  I have linked back to the original site with the caption, which I am hoping is the correct way. :)