donner mine music camp week 1's quilt raffle prize - triangle quilt along

this is another quilt that i'm super excited to share!  after last year's two quilts raised a decent amount for the donner mine music camp, i was asked again to do another two quilts this year.  we still had pieces and parts left over from one of the quilts that could be repeated, but the second quilt still had to be decided.  i stumbled across a cute little quilt using just triangles called "alphabet blues" by waggonswest on craftster, and i had to run with the idea.  initially, i had a different color scheme in mind, but after a trip to beverley's in rocklin and mom cruising through their fat quarter collection combined with other fabric chunks we had in the great stash pile that is our house, we formed about 10 or so different prints.
the pattern used was from the "triangle quilt along" put on by the sassy quilter.  granted, i didn't do this with them in true quilt along style, but it was still a great set of directions that was super simple to follow.  6" wide strips, then cut down to 60 degree angles with a 1/2" trimmed off one tip to help with lining up the pieces.  204 triangles later, it was game time.
17 triangles across, 12 rows down.  the trickiest part was laying them all out in various ways to keep certain prints away from repeating to give more of the "scattered" look i was hoping for.  and then keeping them in that same order as i sewed them together row by row.  i ended up taking a picture from my phone and printing it out full page to have as a visual, then crossing each row off as i finished things.  i only had to redo a few pairings, so that was pretty exciting.
i tried something a smidge different for the quilting versus what i have usually done.  it was the same way waggonswest quilted her "alphabet blues" and i just loved it.  i aligned my foot with the diagonal seam and just sewed down the row.  then, i aligned it with the opposite side of the foot, and did the second side.  i love how it looks versus stitching in the ditch for this one.
to keep with the overall look of the quilt, i did a scrappy binding of the fabrics used.  which was a good choice, since it really helped me get the fullest out of each of the fat quarters purchased.  as you heard in one of my weekend wips posts, i spent the time in reno really busting out a good portion of the binding on this quilt while kicking back and relaxing.  win, win, win situation.  i finished this quilt in it's entirety late tuesday night with minutes to spare before midnight... you can't really tell in these pictures, but i swear i de-furred quite a bit of it.  between our house of cats and amy's house of dogs & cats, this black backed quilt was doomed.
pretty sure velcro is partially to blame...
he's pretty much failing as an assistant.
i just love detail photos... it makes me swoon. the cat fur is just the bonus gift for the recipient.
and there's that official tag meaning it's done!  it's become my officially unofficial tradition to post "tag" photos the moment i finish sewing them to the quilt on my instagram feed.  which is always entertaining since it acts as a sort of time stamp for people to see that i'm crafting at all sorts of obscure hours of the night.
this quilt was for week one of camp, which ended last friday night and got raffled off.  not sure how well it did, but apparently someone from the camp wants to pay me in cookies in order to have me make a quilt like this for her.  i might just make that happen... i do love chocolate chip cookies!

365.2014 - week 30

classic winnie the pooh "daisy chain" quilt - baby jason

as you saw on friday, this baby gift was a double feature.  and i wasn't just going to give it away to you all in one post.  where is the fun in that?
so basic rundown, incase you missed friday's post (which you should go back and view anyways)
meagan.  she's awesome.  i've known her since i was but a wee freshman in high school.
she's got a super cute baby boy & a winnie the pooh themed nursery (allegedly)
i like to make things for the awesomest of friends.
so now you're caught up.  mostly.
originally this quilt started out as a different pattern, but it just wasn't doing anything for me.
no matter what, it always came back to thinking about the wedding quilt i made for meagan when she got married in 2011, and that a mini version for little jay would be super cute.
the quilt was off the amy butler "daisy chain" pattern, and i used fat quarters (since that's what i bought for the original pattern idea) instead of yardage.  i used 2 FQs of each color except for brown i think... one of them i couldn't find a second FQ for since i originally only bought one.  the classic pooh fabric was purchased off ebay, as is much of my disney fabric finds.  instead of having it be 6 whole blocks down, i decided to chop a set of them in half for the top and the bottom pieces to keep that center diamond where it's at.
i really like how this is hints of winnie the pooh, without being in your face super cheesy about things.  to me, it feels like it has the perfect balance of pooh bear and boyish colors.
meagan's original wedding quilt had a scrappy binding to it, but i feel like that would have been TOO much on this quilt. the green binding is different than the one used in the quilt, but still holds the color that blends with them. it is the same fabric that was used on the backing though.  i decided for green so that the blue variegated thread would show up a bit more on the back than it would if the back was blue.
each color used in the blocks has it own individual print to it that does not repeat in any of the other colors.  it was quite tricky to find the perfect colors to coordinate with the pooh bear fabric (and lots of pacing in the FQ section of joann's) but i have to say... not too shabby, right?  the trickiest part of this quilt is laying all the blocks out and making sure all the points are different in each section.  easier said than done for sure.  in the larger quilt, i think it was easier to fudge with since there are SO many blocks to work with that a lot of them can be swapped out.  but i was quite limited due to fabric supply and block numbers.
tagged!  these are my favorite photos to post on instagram because it means a project is DONE and i can move on to the next.  this, along with the cross stitch, were hard to keep subtle without showing off the dead giveaways in the project.  clearly the feature of winnie the pooh were the give aways in both of these projects, but seeing when i got a <3 from meagan on something related to a project that was going to her made me want to give myself a high five.
so many photos... i just couldn't decide what to leave out... so you get LOTS.
and there you have it!
a cross stitch & a baby quilt.
a match made in heaven.
okay, maybe i'm biased... but this is one of my all time favorites right now.
thanks for stopping on by!

weekend wips

alas, this time around i don't feel like my week was very wip-fil.
i was at the state fair friday evening after running errands, and saturday i photographed a wedding in plymouth, so two of my typical crafting times got used in other ways.  not complaining about those ways, because they involved my adorable minions on friday & a fabulous couple on saturday... despite the heat.  that's my only complaint.
but perhaps after i see everything all typed out, i'll change my mind.
so let's get going in (mostly) the same order as last week:
music donations quilts:
one down, one to go!
i finished the triangle one on tuesday - binding completed, tag on & attempted to remove the cat fur off the back of it.  i swear cat fur is magnetic.  especially to black fabric.  so after photographing it on wednesday, it made it's way off to camp to be raffled off the following friday at their end of the week concert.
for quilt 2, i attached the binding, and then procrastinated to start the hand sewing until sunday.  since i drove to the wedding saturday, dad said he would drive to donner mine on sunday (week 2 camp photo day) so i took the quilt with me and started sewing the binding on.  in the car ride alone (about 2 hours total) i probably got about 1/3 of the binding finished off.  i've come to appreciate crafts that i can do in the car.  reading used to make me woozy, so i haven't tried it in awhile.  i remember cross-stitching aileen's bazinga wall hanging on the way to vegas, and that kept me occupied & content.  hopefully i can find a craft that will be airplane suitable when i head to colorado in a little under a month... eeps!
baby girl quilt:
so i forced myself to actually get something done on this yesterday.
my original plan was just to cut the strips out so i could be good to go once i finished the next music quilt.  but i had no desires to hand sew anymore today, so i said "okay... i'll just pin these together" and that turned in to "i'll just sew the outside pairs together to be ready for the middle strip."  11:45 rolled around, and i had all five strips connected and ready to chop up in to blocks.  i have a feeling that after i run a few errands after work tomorrow, i'll be back to sewing central to knock this sucker out.  i knew it was going to be an easy pattern, it just took convincing myself to get down to it.  my machine was acting a little wonky, so luckily i'll be able to use my mom's since she is at music camp all this week as well.  i'd like to predict i'll have the top of this quilt done before next monday's weekend wips post, if not more.  positive thinking.
room extravaganza:
i can't remember the last updated photo from this you saw... so there's a closet angle.
the bed is now the least of my worries, considering it isn't going to move anywhere now.
this is still inching along.  i got a lot moved around in one day last week, and managed to eliminate an entire set of plastic drawers from my closet so far.  as desired, i did get the cabinet to fit in my closet, totally emptied out of clothes (they all fit in the drawers!) and ready for some comic book boarding of fabric.  i was hoping that would have begun yesterday, but i slept in pretty long & solid after a day of wedding shooting, and then went off to photograph the campers...  anyways...  all my dvds fit in a drawer and a half, and i squished my box of patterns in to one of the drawers in my closet.  i still have 2 1/2 empty drawers in my bed, plus i think 3 drawers in the closet where my clothes used to be... as well as 4 plastic drawers where things like dance clothes, socks & underoos used to be.  chugging right along for sure.  once i get the time to wrap some fabric, i'll have 4 tubs emptied from my doorway... which will be nice.
sewvivor:
lastly, we come to sewvivor.
i FINALLY have all my projects figured out.  some i have fabric for, some i have the color inspiration for.  and some i have 50% of what i need for.  regardless, i am ready to go with these projects.  since entering, i still planned to sew along whether i got in to the competition or not, so i wanted to ensure that i was doing projects i would actually enjoy and use whether they were contest winners or not.  rachel, the contest host, had been dropping hints all weekend over instagram & facebook, and some of them were quite hard to decipher... or even try to remotely relate them to mine (except the ones that were saying "at least one bag made it" or "an entry between numbers 20-29")
but today was the day things were announced.
and i made sure to check it as soon as i woke up.
the verdict?
i still don't know!
i was almost certain i read somewhere it would be announced at 9am eastern time, which would be 6am pacific and i was in the clear.  but i rolled out of bed at 7, refreshed the family ever after home page, and still nothing.  guess i'll have to check in when i get a break at work today and see if there is any update :)

edit:
so the verdict is that i was not selected to be in the top 16, or as one of the runner ups.
oh well, no harm no foul.
as much fun as it would have been to get back to my middle school sports competitive roots, this could be a blessing in disguise.  this summer is already planned to be fairly eventful before school starts, and adding deadlines would have added more chaos.  plus, i would be nagging people for votes like nobody's business!  ha.  nevertheless, i still plan to craft along with the challenges to the best of my abilities... especially since i already have fabric purchased for some!  in a few weeks, you'll be seeing my "nautical" sew along entry, so i guess i better start getting the ball rolling on that!

classic winnie the pooh cross stitch wall art

i'm so super excited that i can finally share this project... and it's not even a quilt!
my dear friend meagan got married back in 2011, and this past spring welcomed a new little baby bundle in to their family.  when she first announced she was pregnant, she tried to keep the gender a secret, but i was able to finagle a theme of their nursery to go with to make her a little something.  they were going with classic winnie the pooh, and considering meagan is a disney addict, nothing could be more perfect.  i decided to super go for it, and found this adorable cross stitch pattern on e-bay.  it was from a magazine in europe, so the floss brand & colors were different than what we carry here in the US.  thanks to google, i found a conversion chart and went on my merry little way converting the colors to what we have here.
now you should know, i am quite notorious for leaving cross stitch patterns unfinished, so the fact that i got this one done WITHOUT any oopsies was quite a feat.  and SO HARD to not post a photo on instagram proclaiming that to the world...  it's quite difficult when you make things for people who follow you... let me tell you what.  i know there is a photo of the balloons on there, but that's about as subtle of a post as i could pull off.  this was also my first time using french knots in a pattern, and i'm quite pleased!  well, i'm sure they would have been in other patterns that i have done. they just remain unfinished in the drawer... someday...
so there you have it.
one finished cross stitch, signed (not really), sealed (eh), delivered (yes!) and off to be loved.
other than hand cramping, i enjoy cross stitching quite a bit, and hope that i can convince myself to do more of them sooner.  or at least finish one of the ones i've had started for quite some time now.  it's even on my scrolling frame and everything (i loathe embroidery hoop marks...)  seeing a real end result (besides the ones i made aileen) is quite a feat.
wait... you think you see something in that last picture?
something... something that could be quilty?
consider it a hint at what is coming next week ;)

just an average day

quilt. camera. cat in the way.
just another average day here at the house.
and yes, this is a hint at what is yet to come.
a handful of finished project posts are on the way :)

365.2014 - week 29

cheers to the weekend

originally i was just going to slap this in with yesterday's weekend wips post, but decided it had enough going on that it needed a post all to itself.  this weekend was pretty eventful in its own right, so here's a little run down of everything that went on.
friday was the first of three state fair performances for our studio (one of two days that i would be there) and my littlest of dancers performed today.  in total, i had 13 kidlets sign up for state fair, and they did AWESOME.  they were so great backstage waiting their turn and not causing too much of a fuss when it was time to get their shoes and costumes changed.  next friday my big kiddos perform (along with myself) so it will be a whole lot more action packed than things were this last friday.
after the fair, i headed home, picked up jenny and we were off to reno for the weekend.  made the two hour drive (without using a gps, might i add) and got to amy & luke's in no time.  hung out for a smidge, but then crashed in to bed.
saturday was tubing day.  we got up (earlier than desirable... blah) and amy made pancakes.  headed off to wal mart to get a few things, and then we were off to the river.  we tubed the "short route" twice waiting for sarah & raymond with an ice cream & nachos break in between.  during the third round, there was a rain storm coming in, and the water was a whole lot more rough than the times prior.... i have the welt on my back to prove it.  no joke.  anywho.  we made our way back to the cars and then back to luke & amy's for hamburgers & brauts.  delish.  there may have also been some blowdart shooting in the kitchen.  just because we could.  this would then be followed by busting out the handsewing and stating to work on binding as we played rummikub.  i would hope that my grandma ruth would be quite proud of my winning the first round, as it was a game i always remember playing when i stayed over at grandma myrna's house when i was younger.  lisa seemed to have gotten a kick out of the fact i won while simultaneously sewing on binding.  luke & amy started to teach us cribbage, but then it was decided it was hot tub time.  late night turned in to crash time, and everyone was out pretty quickly.
sunday was a pretty adventurous day.  after a morning of raymond made pancakes & two games of rummikub (which amy won.  she claims to NEVER win that game) it was decided we would get motor cycle rides.  i'm pretty sure this was something i put on my bucket list years ago, and my day had finally come.  granted, i didn't bring clothing for the occasion, so i ended up in jeans over my shorts, and socks under my toms.  amy's helmet squished my cheeks like a chipmunk, but at least i knew it wasn't going anywhere.  luke took me on a cruise around town, and then back again.  i had the wind screen up for awhile and my eyes were watering like crazy.  once we got back, it was jenny's turn and while they were off, amy & i went on the quad runner.  apparently i drove quite the opposite of how jenny did... amy was a little nervous at times.  ha.  it was quite fun, and i would absolutely do both again.
jenny & i headed home, by way of donner mine music camp so that i could take their weekly camp photo.  we headed to the traditional nyack burger king stop and then made it back home around 7 or so.  all in all quite an eventful weekend, and a nice little break from the every day routine.  next weeked we're at the state fair again, then i'll be shooting a wedding on saturday.  busy busy busy, but that's the way i like it :)

weekend wips

another week, more WIPS.  here we go!
music donation quilts:
considering one is due to be raffled off at the end of this week, it was crunch time.
i got the binding sewn on the triangles one for the first week, and spent my weekend in reno powering through the hand sewing.  on saturday night, between winning a game of rummikub, attempting to learn cribbage & sitting outside by the hot tub, i got about a side and a half done.  yesterday i powered through most of another side before heading homeward.  i'm certain it will be done very quickly, no problem.  i've sent the camp photos off to be printed, so currently there is nothing standing in my way.
quilt number 2 is coming along swimmingly.  i powered through the top assembly last week, followed by quilting it as well.  all the quilting is complete, and it is currently waiting for the binding to be attached and then in the hand sewing phase.  once that is all done, it will be time to head forward to the next projects... FINALLY.
baby girl quilt
this will probably be the next thing i power through after getting the music quilts done.  the pattern blocks are fairly simple, which will lead to easy quilting and such.  all these "work" quilts before i get down and dirty to commit to the fun of the next ones...
sewvivor
the auditions close TODAY.... FINALLY.
the first week, it seemed like top 16 would be an easy pick, and that it would be a small crowd entering...  but this second week, the entries have BOOMED daily.  the last time i checked, there were over 50 entries.  it makes me even more anxious to get selected in the top 16.  i currently have the nautical & hexagon projects completely planned out (as well as fabric selected & purchased) and the pattern i intend to use for the bag challenge.  not sure on the fabrics for that, but i feel like the quilt projects will take longer than the bag.  i still have NO CLUE as far as what to do for the lap quilt project... i guess it is a good thing that is the last one on the list, hoping i make it that far in to the competition.  fingers crossed...  i'll be able to rest easy once that auditions are closed and it cannot keep growing for the week before the top 16 is announced.  eeps.
room cleaning o-rama
my replacement part finally arrived on thursday, so i wham-bammed put it together before and after i went to work.  one set of drawers got put in simply to clear the path for my mattress to be put on.  once i got mattress & sheets put on, it was claimed in the name of mushu bean.
last night i busted out the second set of drawers, and managed to fit my shirts in to 3 of them.  i threw some out for the donation/shirt quilt pile, but that is yet to be sorted through completely.  my bookshelf is shoved against what used to be my shirt cabinet, and stacks of books spewed out all over the floor.  my computer currently resides in the den/markham's room since i have a perimeter of stuff that needs to go somewhere around the room.  the plan is to get stuff moved around this week, and think real hard about the idea of putting my fabric on comic book boards to change that storage situation up as well instead of having all my fabric in tubs.  serious thoughts.  to be determined.
happy monday, y'all

365.2014 - week 28

weekend wips

here we are back at it, after a week full of crafting eventfulness and construction chaos.  this week has been mighty busy, and it is absolutely just an indicator of the weeks to come.  here's a look at whats been going on since last week, and a hint of what is still yet to come.
music donation raffle quilts
once i got down to it, these quilts zoomed right along.  yep.  progress made on both.
the triangle quilt is nearly done.  after sunday, i got the 12 rows sewn in to one big quilt top and trimmed down to size.  i had everything laid out and pinned to baste and when i picked it up, it was horrendously wrinkled on the backside.  so the next day it was unpinned, ironed, and duct taped down to the floor so no shifting would occur to the back.  i got most of the way through pinning before i ran out of pins.  saturday i bought another box of 300 and ran out (again... ugh) but was able to fudge it and get the basting going.  saturday was also the first time in a long time that i intentionally saw 1:30 in the morning.  i was determined to get this quilt basted, and once i got it basted, i found myself determined to get it quilted.  and it happened.  i spent yesterday pulling out all the basting, and whalaa, it is waiting to have binding made.  which i am waiting to do until i finish the quilt top for week 2 of music camp.
this one was easy to bust out.  i only had to make 3 more pinwheels since it is a repeat of one of last year's quilts, and then connect everything together.  by 11 or so last night, it was an entire top now just waiting on the 2nd border.  i am certain there are a handful of fabric store trips that will happen due to needing to get these quilts finished, but hopefully the pieces that i already have in my stash will help out as well.
my goal is that when i am in reno this weekend with amy & luke & jenny, i will be able to do some (if not all) of the hand sewing for the binding on one of these quilts.  i know, it sounds super classy to hang out at my friend's house and sew, but that's how i roll.  the first week of music camp starts next sunday, and i need to have that triangle quilt completed for when my dad goes up to camp midweek.  it would be even nicer to have it done when i am up there sunday to take their camp photo.  it should be no problem at all, but it is crazy how fast it all came together (once i got my act together of course)
baby girl quilt
some progress was made on this quilt.
as i was pacing joann's last week, i settled on a piece of fabric for the back but had yet to determine the front.  scrolling quickly through my pinterest, i found a block i became intrigued by, and decided to make that the official decision.  the fabric has been pre-washed, but that's about it.  but hey, it's progress, right?
sewvivor round 3
last monday the auditions for sewvivor 3 opened.
i had my entry all written out, but i wanted to wait and see what other people were writing before committing to it.  well, i decided to just go with my gut and keep my entry as it was, with all my back story and good stuff like that.  last night when i looked, there were exactly 16 entries, and still a week to go in the auditions.  my fingers and toes are crossed to get in this competition, so i have been painstakingly planning out what i will do for each of the challenges.  today my goal is to shop for the fabric for the first "nautical" challenge and get the ball rolling for that.  i've realized how chaotic my next two months are before school starts, so i really need to be on my crafting game and not get lazy with working on these projects.  especially if i end up in colorado next month for a week.  i have loved seeing all the different entries so far, and will probably be pinching myself if i get selected for the top 16.  stay tuned for the results on that.  i won't know until the 28th if i get in!
room cleaning-o-rama
oh this project.  things were going so well.
when i ordered my new bed, the company said it would arrive by july 21st.  figuring i had time, we weren't exactly in a hurry to get beds moved around.  i got an e-mail from sears saying my bed had shipped on the 8th, but no tracking number had shown up.  my mattress arrived on wednesday, and i thought i would be waiting forever to get the bed. on a whim, i checked it the morning of the 10th (last thursday) and it said it was out on the truck for delivery.  things got moved around while i was teaching that evening, and the bed had arrived while i was out.  i came home, and started moving along with putting the bed together.
this is where what it started like:
things went smoothly, attaching the drawer parts to the bed frame.  super easy.  ran to wal mart to get a mattress cover, and then came home to start getting the big pieces together.  and then we hit a road block.
this is where we're currently at:
when we were screwing the side parts to the top of the left side, one of the stabilizer nuts rotated and busted up the corner of the particle board, making it unable to get put together.  i filled out an online form for a defective part, and had to leave my bed as is.  so now i've been sleeping in joshua's old room (which i call the craft room now.  still hoping it will catch on) and my computer resides in markham's "when he's home from school" room... i guess it should be called the office then.  basically, i am in 3 rooms of the house.  it sounds bad, but really i only use one room for sleeping, one room for computerizing, & my room still holds all my junk.  my junk that is waiting to be able to be moved around and put in its new place.  perhaps i'll at least assemble some drawers in the next few days to figure out what exactly i can fit in each of them.
stash buster quilts
the most that happened on these quilts is that i cut a few more squares from fabrics my mom found in one more place, and then put the rest in the donation pile.  we had over 3 kitchen sized garbage bags full go off to the humanitarian group.  i hope that they'll be able to do something with even the smallest of scraps in there.
speaking of humanitarian, my mom shared this photo on my facebook page.
do those top quilts look familiar?  they're my winnie the pooh ribbon block quilts from last year!
it was great to see them in the pile of quilts completed, and somewhat inspired me to do some more stash busting quilt tops to donate.  we'll have to see where i stand once sewvivior is complete though ;)

365.2014 - week 27

audition for sewvivor round 3 - emily carroll

hey howdy hey.
my name is emily, and i'm auditioning for the part of super awesome sew-vivor 3's top 16.  super exciting, that's for sure!  my cousin lisa auditioned for sew-vivor's round 2 last year, and made sure i knew about this uber cool quilting round this year.  she's all about kids clothes & that fun stuff, but i'm all about quilts.  so what the heck.  why not audition.  so here's a smidge about me before i get to sharing my entry piece :)
as you learned, my name is emily.
i am a 25 year old with a bachelors degree in photography & soon to be an associates degree in early childhood education.  i've been a dance teacher for nearly 10 years, and adore working with kids.  i love disneyland, mexican food, and late night oreo sundaes.  i have a grumpy black & white cat named elroy who lurks in the shadows, plus a desire to always pick up pennies off the sidewalk.
i'm well versed on television shows with top 16s, but modeling & singing just aren't my style.
i took my first sewing class many moons ago, and somewhere in my hodge podge of a room, still have the first quilt i ever made.  someday i'll have to locate that little bugger and blog it.
i come from a family of crafters, and have always been doing something in one way or another.
both my parents sew in one way or another, as do various grandmas & a few of my aunts are crafty in their own rights.
my mom has headed up the costumes for our dance studio for what feels like forever, and my dad makes soft puppets that he uses for ventriloquism.  i mentioned my cousin lisa, who is also an avid sewer, and both of her parents are crafty in their own rights.  p.s. our dads are twins... which makes our cousinly-ness even that more awesome.  we always planned to open a mall kiosk to sell our crafted goodies... but will have to settle on using our etsy site for now.
i'm sure you're thinking "but emily... why quilts?  you're 25..."
just kidding.  you the judges are above the average person.  when people ask what i do in my spare time, and i answer that i make quilts, i usually get the response "oh my mom/grandma does that..." with the undertone of "you have the hobby of an old woman with a house full of cats"  well...  yeah.  but i'm awesome.
i'm not really a fan of yarn crafts.  i can crochet a smidge, but never really picked up on knitting... perhaps that could be because i have a "teach yourself how to knit" book that has never been opened.  i bought that in 2010 i think.  oops.  i cross stitch a little bit here and there, and since my mom generally made all our christmas & easter dresses, i never really desired to take up clothing construction.
i made that first quilt when i took a "kids can sew" class probably around age 7 or 8, but then never again until my senior year of high school.  i had to do a senior project that benefited the community in one way or another.  i swore up and down that i would NOT just make quilts.  well, after two other failed project attempts, what did i do?
i made quilts.
27 very basic, but very quilty quilts, that were donated to shriner's children's hospital in the end.
this was in 2006, and after a lot of ins and outs of being crafty and such, i feel that now is better than ever to really continue to push my quilt creating skills even further above and beyond where i was 8 years ago.  i've gone from these basic 9 blocks & t-shirt quilts, to log house cabins, railfence quilts and much, much, more.  things progressed from simple yarn knots to keep the layers together, to having my grandma quilt things for me.  this past august my grandma broke her hip, and at the time she was going to quilt some projects for me.  whelp, that wasn't exactly doable, so she talked me through the process and i started to quilt things myself.  so far, basic stitch in the ditch or straight line designs, but i have already made plans to take things on my own to the next level in the coming months and take a free motion quilting class at a local store.  i've harnessed a real enjoyment for the craft, and finally feel like i truly found my niche in with my crafty family.  without further adieu, i introduce to you judges my 2014 sew-vivor entry:
this past december i participated in the catvent quilt along put on by elizabeth hartman of oh, fransson!
we are very much cat people in this house, and this was a fun project that gave me something to keep doing while i was enduring finals at that point of time as well.  i feel like this help showcase what i am capable of, as well as hints towards the potential i could have in this competition.  this quilt was entirely done by me: fabric selection from a box of inherited batiks, piecing each cat, completing the top, ALL the 1" quilting, and blind stitching the binding to finish things off.
i cannot imagine another quilt at this moment that better showcases everything rolled in to one.  this quilt to me helps show how far things have come, and my determination to the craft.  i love trying new things, and having a challenge/competition aspect to it all would just make things extra exciting!
i would absolutely love to be a part of this competition and to meet some new individuals out there in the crafty quilting community.  cannot wait to embark on this journey :)
i'll try not to cry too hard if i get voted off the island.
but hopefully, it won't come to that ;)  even making top 16 would be a dream.
thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting!

if you want to cruise some of my other quilts, click here!

weekend wips

lets try and bring back something that hasn't happened in quite some time, shall we?
the last time i did weekend wips posts was in 2013... but really in 2011/2012 they were more regular.
now that school is currently out and i've got a whole lot of crafting going on, i'll try and revive these types of posts (at least for the summer).  in reality, this is all that happened in the last week, not just over the weekend.  plus i'll properly tag things so they don't end up mixed in with my "weekend" fun posts.  so much confusion!  so here's a quick run down (some photos included) of what's happening:
music donation raffle quilts
another year, another round of donation raffle quilts.  last year's raffle quilts turned out to be pretty successful, so my mom decided we should give it another go this year.  i still have blocks and pinwheels to duplicate the one quilt, and after much cruising of craftster & pinterest, the second quilt this year is going to be all triangles.  starting off with 204 of them to be exact.  so far the only progress has been on the triangles, and by following the triangle quilt along from the sassy quilter, i've completed through "week 3" and have all my triangles sewn in to 12 rows.  basically, that's how i spent my entire sunday...  besides sleeping in & getting my hair cut.
baby girl quilt
this just keeps getting pushed off longer and longer.
i need to stop that.
guess i'll hit up joann's this week and take advantage of the student discount month to get this ball rolling.
sewvivor round 3
lisa auditioned for sewvivor round 2 last year, and when round 3 was announced, she made sure i knew about it.  it is all quilting themed, and right up my alley.  yes, i plan to audition (that post coming tomorrow as i make some final touches on it) and if i don't make it in the top 16, i plan to still do a few of the projects.  yep.  even with my current chaotic sewing plans, i still want to make that happen.  just for kicks.  read more about sewvivor here... and be ready to vote when i demand it ask you nicely.
room cleaning-o-rama
i know, this sounds totally un-crafty, right?  but deal with it for just a sec.
my room went from it's normal messy self, to a little bit better, and now back to chaos.  why?  i ordered a new super awesome bed, and need to make space for it to fit in my room as well as eliminate some of the storage i had under my bed since things will drastically be shifting around.  so far already 3 trash bags have gone away, as well as a few bags of donation stuff.  there is still a long way to go, but it already feels like it's come a long way...  which this introduction leads to this
stash buster quilts
yep.  the quilt i keep talking about working on, but then never get around to doing has now multiplied in to two quilts.  how?  why?  well, this project idea that began nearly 3 years ago (oddly titled "making things happen" because clearly i haven't...) has now become more involved.  when i began pulling boxes out from under my bed, i realized that my flannel box was 95% pj pant scraps... stuff i was really never going to use, or even had much to use to create a complete project.  so in addition to my 3" square quilt, i decide to chop some 5" flannel squares... which turned in to my mom pulling out her giant box from the garage and cutting squares of her own, plus tossing stuff in to my pile... it was all one big chain of events.  i haven't done a final count yet, since i finished chopping things last night.  but there was enough fabric to fill 3 garbage bags to send to the humanitarian efforts at my parent's church.  and i haven't even gone through my cotton prints box again.  yeah.  it's crazy.  but a whole lot of space has been made, and at least the squares are more contained now.
so that's what is up right now... for the time being.
happy monday, and onward to more sewing!

365.2014 - week 26