Digging in

Alright, its been CrAzY busy around here lately.  I helped plan and then attended a conference for my work group, end of the year PD has been happening, I'm trying to build a timetable and then I got sick.  Boo!  I think that much of this crazy however, was an effort to avoid doing a couple of really scary things.

The first thing was that I needed to do was learn how to use my hand-me-over serger that I got from my awesome grandmother (shout out Nan!).  I've been messing around with it a little to get comfortable but it still had the four cones of brown thread that it came to me with and I have been way too scared to attempt to change it.  Look at this:

Do you see how complicated this is!?!  I have been studying ALL week just to be able to work up the nerve to change the threads!

 I really think if the machine is going to be this complicated, it should come with a man-servant to change all the threads for me.  Then I might sew full time!  So I read the directions about 50 times and followed all the threads through to get it down pat.  Then I changed them to new threads.  This is what happened:

That's RIGHT!!!  Success on the first try!!!!  I ROCK!

So once I got the serger thread changed, I was off to the races with my next project -- making a competition suit for my friend who competes in figure (read body-building but slightly less intense) competitions.  She is coming up to provincials on June 1st and asked me to make her suit for her.  Uh.....no pressure, right?  So I have never made garments of ANY sort before (except for most of a shirt that I started last weekend with a sewy friend of mine named Marie).  Nothing like biting off way more than you can chew.  I also have no pattern and am working from her old suit which I took apart.  If I screw this up, I am in BIG friendship-ending trouble.   Most of the suit is serged first with elastic, then the elastic areas are rolled under and zigzag stitched.

Step one, serged bits complete...

...And then rolled under and zigzagged 

I'm getting this puppy finished by Saturday night so I can start to add the jewels.  Bedazzle style!  Should be a fun process...except for the fact that I need my friend IN the suit while I glue crystals to her boobs and other lady-parts.  Its a damned good thing we've been friends for so long.  No shame, right?

K, up early tomorrow.....nite!

Inspiration and catching up

Um....what the heck happened to April?!?  Jeez Louise.  My springs are always busy but I feel like I lost a whole month in there somewhere!

I'm behind on the two BOMs I'm registered for.  Yikes!  I hate being behind.  I had to start  catching up.  So I did....today.  You know, after volunteering at and visiting the Brampton Quilt Guild show yesterday and cleaning my house from top to bottom.  I have actual work to do - you know, the kind from the job that I get paid to show up at every day.  I think I'm procrastinating.  The report I have to write is a bit of an unsavoury task.

Anyhoo, I took some pictures of an ultimate skill I would LOVE to develop.  I definitely don't think I'm there yet...but one day.  Look:

A woman from the guild made a portrait quilt of a dog!  So cute!  Need to learn!

And this one is an inukshuk - its BEAUTIFUL!

Last but not least, this one is based on a Group of Seven painting.  You should see it close up - its breath-taking

To me, this is SUCH talent.  I'm still in the squares, circles, and triangles phase of my quilting life.  I can't even imagine being able to turn fabric into these amazing pieces of art.  One day though.  One day.

I took a photo of this one simply because the colours make me so happy!  The background is gradiated and the  circles have so many colours.  Happy!

 Anyhoo, I got home yesterday afternoon and figured I would get some sewing done....you know, after I tackled my house cleaning.  But then it was too late so I saved it for today.  I finally got the April block put together for the Sugar Block Club.  I wasn't too sure my fabric selections would work out but I have to say I'm pretty happy with the end product.

My picture is kind of bluey toned - I have every window open in my house.  Probably too much sunlight.  Yup, tough problem to have.  :)

And here it is with my progress so far:

Not too shabby.  Now, if I can get the May block done before the month is over, I'll be all caught up.  As long as I do the same for the Lucky Stars BOM too.  *sigh*

I guess now I'm off to do the darned no-fun-report.  I really need to win the lottery.

Tula Pink!!!

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I get REALLY excited about a couple of things when it comes to fabric: Amy Butler and Tula Pink.  In fact Amy Butler was my first fabric obsession.  A little Midwest Modern in the Ohio Sky colourway anyone?  I have to admit though, my love affair with Amy has been waning over time. She used to be at the top of the pantheon when it came to fabric designers but since she has NEVER replied to my tweets and Tula has replied or retweeted Every.  Single. Time.  Amy has officially been usurped!

Tula's fabric is epic.  I love that its a little bit cheeky and the colours are so vibrant!

Anyhoo, Tula has come out with a new book called "Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks" and I was sooooo excited about it that I pre-ordered it over what feels like a million years ago and then waited impatiently for it to arrive.  There was obsessive website checking and rechecking and refreshing and re-refreshing. Sigh.

It finally arrived!

I have already thumbed through the whole thing and decided on my favourites.

I'll post up a picture of the cover as soon as I get home tonight!

SOOOOOOO Excited!!!!

Yay!

Life, post Ugly Quilt

I finally got around to working on something that I promised myself I wouldn't touch until good old Keystone Lodge was done (did I mention that it leaves to its forever home on Friday?).  It was the small version of the practice block for Don't Call Me Betsy's Lucky Stars BOM.  Like all months previous, I had made the big version already.  Also like the others, I was determined to make the small version from the large version's scraps rather than waste a ton of fabric by cutting out for the small as well.  Lets call that a lesson learned through experience after the first month.   You know what that means though -- for the last month I have been sitting and sewing with a random pile of scraps next to my machine....that I couldn't touch or clean up or throw out.  For those of you who know me, you can imagine how annoying that was.

Well....good news!  Today, I made the little version.

This is it in progress - I overlayed the little onto the big while I was sewing to keep track of what went where.

I STILL have scraps left over!  Not too bad though.  You can just imagine the waste if I had cut out pieces for the small instead of just using scraps.

And finally, because its so pretty and I want to love it forever - here is some fabric I picked up at the Creative Festival's Spring show.  Its from a local online shop called The FabricSpot.  I discovered this awesome shop at their booth -- the fabrics were right up my alley!  Not that I want to go on and on about this place but they have free Canadian shipping if your order is more than $100 and flat rate $5.99 shipping otherwise.  Yay!  Anyhoo, I think I might be in love.  Its from Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees collection.

I love the purpley-bluey mix.

Well, time to cook for the week.  I'd rather be sewing!

Keystone Lodge - A finish!

I give immense thanks to the universe for being finished this quilt!

So this is it.  The whole thing.

Close up of the front.

The back

Detail of the quilting as seen from the back.

Folded up and ready to be OUT OF MY LIFE!!!!

If you couldn't tell, I'm all kinds of stoked to be done the damned thing.

Please excuse my pictures....it is intensely sunny out today....which is almost as awesome as being done this quilt.

Now, my shoulders hurt.  I'm going to drink.

Productive day

I'm happy to report I have spent the day working on quilting the Keystone Lodge quilt!  Hooray!!!  I chose to do a two-inch grid but to leave the circles empty since they're kind of intense to start with.   I got the grid all quilted and stitched-in-the-ditch on both sides of the narrow inner border.

Here is my progress.  I used 2-inch painters tape to accurately grid my quilt.  Bulky...but helpful

Here is the immense amount of garbage I created.  It was incredibly fulfilling to rip off all that tape every time I finished two rows of sewing!  :)

And this is my new favourite tool/toy.  Its a mechanical chalk pencil specifically made for quilters.  Its made by Bohin (a French company).  It made marking my grid SO easy and they chalk comes in multiple colours.  I got it off Amazon.  Get one! 

Anyhoo, that's all my progress for today.  I'll be back at it tomorrow.  I'm contemplating machine sewing the bindings on this one just to get it done all the faster.  I'll letcha know how it goes.

New fabric LOVE!

Last weekend, I kind of went a bit mental with a project that's been marinating in my brain for a while.  Its a quilt I want to make for my sister before she moves to the Netherlands at the end of the summer.  I have mentioned it before.  This project will be personally meaningful for her as both the pattern and the fabric represent why she is moving there in the first place.....to get her PhD in Astro-Physics.  The pattern is Space Dust by Tula Pink (LOVE) and the fabric is Constellations by Lizzie House.  She has been enamoured with space her ENTIRE life.  I particularly remember one instance from my university days when she looked at my friend (who was over for dinner) with her gigantic sweet eyes and asked with a slight lisp "What's your favourite type of galaxy?"  He looked at me, imploring for some kind of answer he could give her while not looking like a total idiot but I had nothing.  She might have been nine.  I should have known then.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this project and realized while I was window shopping on various websites that its getting harder and harder to get a hold of the whole line.  Since the quilt requires 22 different fabrics, I kinda realized I had to act soon or risk not being able to find what I needed.  So I took the plunge, and bought it.  From the U.S.  Its NOT on sale.  Shipping is ri-DONK-ulous.  But who cares - she's my sister and she's worth it and she will love it forever.

Anyhoo, the point of my little story here is that the fabric arrived yesterday.  Yup...all 17 yards of it!  Ha.  I LOVE it. So pretty!  I pet it for a while this morning before I decided everyone else should share in the joy of it too.  I'm hoping to have enough of the scraps to make a whole bunch of Half-Square-Triangles after so I can have a little something out of it too.

Here it is:

This is every fabric laid out in a stack.  The colours are from the same family but there is enough diversity to get the look that I want.

And although the lighting isn't ideal, here is a view of all the fabric.  I rounded out the line with some Pear Bracelets in coordinating colours and some solids too.

And just becaase its Saturday, here is the Moosh, having a lovely nap.
I have no idea why but he is obsessed with pillows.  He ALWAYS sleeps on pillows.  Its kinda cute....unless its my pillow.