Watermelon Table Runner

I took a second quilting class over the summer. I only got around to finishing the quilt a couple of weeks ago... I'm a terrible procrastinator :)

But it looks fantastic! I'm pretty proud of myself :D

I think I might put some loops or something on it so that I can hang it on the wall over the kitchen door.

I'm taking some other classes at the quilting store so by the end of the year I should have some fantastic full size quilts! I'm making a barn quilt and a quilt with different star patterns. I'm pretty stoked!

Cheers,
Red

January 2, 2012

Today's sketch is a little bit of a cop-out.
He's just a little puppy-dragon. These guys are my "I don't know what to draw" sketches.

Here's another puppy-dragon from last year:

And here's one from even earlier than that!

Clearly I have a thing for furry, horned, winged dragons... Or maybe it's just the same dragon... You decide.

I think it's just a whole breed of them. I call them.... "Furry wing horns".... On second thought, maybe somebody else should name them. What would YOU call this breed of dragon? (They're based off of Chinese/asian style dragons.)

But on the second I also did some sewing! I made a fabric flower pin! I found directions for these guys online last year. They're super simple and look really beautiful.

The photo uploaded sideways for some reason and I have no clue how to fix it :(

Want to make your own fabric flowers? Here's the tutorial: Pink Paper Peppermints. Very easy and very cute. You've got no reason to say "no"!

Two days down, 364 to go!

Cheers,

Red

Finished Quilt!

I finished my quilt from quilting class! It's a bit small, only a twin where we have a full bed and a queen, but it still looks pretty awesome.

Darling Ned gracing the new quilt with some hair

I'm really proud of myself, this was a huge undertaking! I have also discovered I really like quilting! Its really nice to work with the fabrics, the textures are pretty awesome. But it's also really difficult since the projects are inherently fairly huge so I still have to figure out how to deal with that.

Cheers,

Red

Move, move, move...

We're currently in the final stages of moving so all my stuff is all packed away and I have no where to work.

BUT! I am almost finished with my quilt from quilting class! I am working on the very finishing bits. I am hand stitching the binding down and I have 3 of the 4 sides all done. I have discovered why people have thimbles... My fingertips are all pink and hurty from all that sewing! I am very much not a fan of hand sewing but it looks so much better than using the machine on it...


As soon as I get more moved in and have an internet connection, I'll have photos.


Cheers,
Red

Quilting Class: Grandma-tastic

There is a really nice quilting store in the city AV works. I've been in it a few times (approximately as many times as I have been in that city...) and I've been wanting to take a class there. They do a table runner class which I'd really like to do but there isn't one scheduled until next month. So instead I decided to do the "Take 5 Quilt" class. It's a set of three, three hour classes. So today, I went to my first quilting class!

I really loved it, but I do feel a bit... old... now. In the three and a half hours I was there, I was by far the youngest person in the store... by like fifty years. At a few points some younger people came in, but only because they were visting/talking to the store owner who was their grandmother/mother. So, as the stereotype would suggest, quilting is for grandmas.

Any way... When I got to the store I had to pick out 5 fabrics to make the main part of my quilt. I picked different blue/green/purple batiks in the hope that my quilt would look a bit like water. We shall see...

The class was taught by the owner of the store, and since the other woman who was going to attend was unable today, I got private lessons! I learned how to cut out squares of fabric today. The way she showed me is so much easier than how I would have done it, she had me fold the fabric twice then cut instead of trying to do each block individually. CRAZY!

After I got all my pieces cut, we laid them out and started to make the bigger quilt squares.

Some pieces laid out at the quilt shop

Next I made up all the big squares which will make up the quilt, twenty in all.

All my blocks laid out!

Now I have to decide how to set them out for the whole quilt. The directions specify which way to put them out but I'm not sure if I want to do it that way. I'd hate to spend all this time on something I won't like.

This is how the directions specify the blocks.

But maybe turn them around a bit more?

I want to have more of a "wild" look I think, since I want it to be a bit like water. I'll just have to keep playing around. Next week I'll be making the rows and then connecting them into the big square for the center of the quilt.

Exciting!

Cheers,

Red

Learning new skills!

I just signed up for a quilting class. It'll be somewhat expensive, but I'm not nearly as good at learning from books as I am learning in a class/hands-on setting.

I am very excited!!

Cheers,
Red

Let's Go to the Beach, Baby

I also finished a toddler outfit today. This isn't 100% finished actually, but since I don't have a toddler with an upper thigh and waist I can measure, it's done*.

The outfit includes a diper cover, a little sun hat, and a sundress with adjustable straps.

The front of the sundress.

Back of the sundress and the hat

The straps cross across the back and have button holes for a hidden button located on the inside of the dress. I worked really hard to match the pattern along the bottom of the skirt on the back seam. I would say I did pretty excellently :D 

Again, I apologize for the sideways photos, I don't know why this is happening...

Cheers,

Red

How I did it:

McCall's Pattern M4424 in XL

*The diaper cover requires elastic in the waist and legs but the pattern tells you to measure the child and add an inch to the measurements. So, short of completely making an arbitrary guess, I can't do that part.

Sweet Sweet Sleep

I just finished a pair of flannel pajama pants. You know, so I can wear them during the frigid 70 degree summer nights...

The pattern was actually a pattern for scrubs because I like my pjs with pockets so I can keep my agenda* in there.

The print is a bit busy, so you can't really see, but there are normal pockets AND cargo pockets near the knees.

I left the legs fairly long since they're just for lounging around the house anyways and I prefer them to cover my feet.

I did make a size too large so I had to take it in on both the front and back center seams. It worked surprisingly well. I started by taking it in about an inch at the waist on those seams then gradually came back to the original 5/8 inch seam near the curve of the crotch. Normally, I would take it in on the left and right sides, but I went and got all fancy with the seams there so they wouldn't be rubbing my legs and it would have been awful to have to take those out.

The left photo is the pocket and side seam, the right shows what the seam looks like on the inside of the leg.

I thought these were called French Pressed seams, but when I looked that up the seams they were making were slightly different.

You might have noticed my helpers in the photos... I can't do anything without some extra aid anymore.

Sorry about the sideways photos, the uploader is doing something strange to them and I can't figure out how to remedy it. I've rotated the photos in Paint Shop but for some reason they're rotated back to the original format when I upload them. I'll try to fix it on a different computer.

Cheers,

Red

How I did it:

Simplicity 4378

Flannel fabric

 

*This is in reference to a Dimitri Martin stand up comedy act. The specific one of which I cannot find on YouTube... but the point being:

I got some new pajamas with pockets in ‘em. Which is great, because before that, I used to have to hold stuff when I slept. But now I’m like, ‘Where’s my planner? There it is. “Keep sleeping.” All right, perfect.’

Thursday Project Update

I've been finishing up a lot of projects lately! Today I clear-coated a pair of little girl's dress-up shoes and two light switch covers. The other day I finished a pair of heels and I figured out what I was doing wrong on a dress I'm sewing. I also started working on a toddler's jumper set complete with hat and diper cover; all the pieces have been cut and the hat is almost complete!

Tomorrow I'll unveil the Fairy Tale Princess Dress-Up set!