Wednesday, August 31, 2011

butterfly baby quilt

awhile back, and i mean nearly a year ago while back, a friend of mine that i've known since we first moved to the area had her first little one. before her little one was born, i decided i would make her a quilt with some fabric i have had for AGES, but had no clue what i would do with it. turned out, it was sheer perfection for this quilt! originally, i had the plan to do a standard rail fence quilt like i had done in the past with the butterflies in the middle of the "fences", but with an oops in my fabulous assembly line procedures, pieces got put together in the wrong way... instead of grumbling and ripping everything apart, i kept with it and got this fun pinwheel type pattern instead. sad thing is, i didn't get the quilt finished until JUNE of this year. once suzanne recieved the quilt, she tweeted me this adorable picture of it already in action. super cute!

Monday, August 29, 2011

weekend wips

another week gone by, and a good selection of productivity to say for myself. i know, i know... i should really try and update a bit more throughout the week, but i'm working on building up projects that i can show off to you. i have bumped the things that have not been worked on period (i.e. my own tshirt quilt, wedding gifts a & k, and the scrappy square quilt) so you can see what all is in progress.
wedding gift e: more strips sewn, gearing up to switch over back to this one to begin piecing some more this week due to the next project now being at a stand still.
wedding gift m: this is my excitement right now. i went from having just strips cut out last sunday to being completed with the block piecing at about 10:00pm saturday night. i have the iron burn battle scar to show for it, but i'm super excited to move forward with this one once i can get my hands on the square ruler from my crafty cohort, lisa. mom is pretty anxious to see how this one turns out as it keeps going too.
onsie set: all that has been done with these this week is one of them have been dyed very blue. kinda splotchy at first, so it was redyed saturday night in hopes to even it out. debating making an applique for one of the designs instead of painting both of them... so we'll see how things unfold!
t-shirt quilt j: still sitting... waiting for the kablam of a labor day sale at the happiest place in town to get the next fabric to go with it in order to complete this sucker. once that is purchased, it's all smooth sailing from here!

Monday, August 22, 2011

weekend wips

after a friday night of joann's shopping, followed by a weekend of cutting, ironing & sewing... i have things to check off from the previous list! here is what has been completed/begun:

wedding gift A

wedding gift E - all fabric has been purchased, prepared, & cut in order to continue on this next week!

t-shirt quilt E

"thank you" onsie set - onsies & paint have been purchased

t-shirt quilt J - this was the biggest overhaul this weekend. everything went from being full t-shirts to quilt strips in a matter of two days. it is currently on hold in order to obtain the next set of fabric for sashing and backing.

scrappy square quilt - my mom has dug through her scrap stash and weeded out a whole lot of fabric, leaving pieces for me to cut squares from. since the last update, i have added a whopping 71 squares to the pile, now totalling 383 squares!

baby boy shower quilt - done and delivered!

wedding gift K

wedding gift M - i now know what i'm doing, and have hopefully purchased enough fabric for it. it is waiting to be pieced together, using yet a pattern i have never done before. eeps!

i'm hoping for another super productive week this week, between one project or another. i find that being away from the computer longer turns for a happier me by feeling a sense of productivity and having something to physically show for it. hopefully more craft ideas will churn out soon!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

when life gives you craft projects...

grab them and RUN before you lose the excitement.  seriously though... what started off as one project to keep me busy has spiraled in to nearly half a dozen, if not more!  not that i am complaining though, since the entirety of yesterday was spent cutting, sewing, or piecing something together and NOT sitting in front of the computer on facebook.  not to mention the night before was a 3am bedtime thanks to marathon sewing.  i'm telling you... one idea and now i've gone crazy!  here is the basic run down (in order of idea formation) of the craft projects so you can see the project evolution:
stash busting quilt
wedding quilt A
wedding quilt E
t-shirt quilt E
"thank you" onsie set
and then i got asked to do:
t-shirt quilt J
baby boy shower quilt
PLUS the looming in the back of my mind:
wedding quilt K
some form of wedding gift M
as you can tell, i've got an onset of wedding quilts in the works.  some are just ideas and future planning, while others have become planned, purchased, and in process.  t-shirts for both quilts have been washed, dried, and stacked to be flat until the cutting process of those can begin.  i can flex my crafty muscles and say that i knocked out the baby boy quilt in one sitting of SYYTCD finale watching, and now it is just awaiting becoming one final product.  my desire to keep going is ticking.  being in a computer chair totally does not appeal to me at ALL right now!

Monday, August 15, 2011

my teenage self

if there is anything i have a whole lot of, it would be t-shirts. you know, the fun graphic ones with cartoon characters, movie heros and silly saying. yep, I've pretty much got a truck load of them. for awhile now, i have been collecting shirts that have shrunken over the years of washing and keeping them in a box beneath my bed. waiting for the day to revisit them and give them a "second chance" at life. haha, that does sound incredibly cheesy. but included in this box were shirts with memories packed behind them that I couldn't see myself letting go. including shirts that were worn...
to meet & greet concerts
back to school shopping
spending time with friends
and a whole lot more every day occasions.
the last time i made a t-shirt quilt for myself, i was still in high school, and still wearing at LEAST 95% of these shirts. but now the time has come, in my transition from college student to real world "adult" to clear space and give these shirts a final resting place AND a new look! i'm a little hesitant to hack in to some of these shirts because of the memories they hold, but know in the long run it will be so much easier to relive the good times if they are out in the open to see instead of in a box. Once the first cut is made, I will feel a little bit better, and be able to continue on ward!

Friday, August 12, 2011

introductions

welcome!  incase this is your first experience with me, my name is emily and this is my "hodge podge" about life blog.  i needed a blog that was more all inclusive as well as was more "me" than my previous craft blog was.  on this blog you'll find crafty things, happy things, random things, and everything else in between.  since this blog is more about me than anything else, i can't say it's going to be very exciting.  haha!  i'll try to come up with some posts for the upcoming days.  but that would mean either doing something exciting, or busting out the sewing machine.  a side note, the only thing that will be kept seperately - for the most part - will remain my photography page, but other than that, this will be pretty free range and random :)