January Guild Meeting

Yay, guild meeting last night!  I dropped a large bag of stuff (fabric, books) on the freebie table and most of it got taken.  I took a few new-to-me back issues of magazines to peruse.  I also turned in round two of the Round Robin project, and picked up my third round.

Here's what I turned in:

Apologies for the wonkiness of the picture - it was breezy this morning.

The center appliqued block was what was turned in.  Last month one of my guildmates added the blue and green diamonds border.  I flailed about until I found the pale grey marble remnant in my stash, then I machine-appliqued the scrolling bias vines, and pulled the leaves out of a bag of leaves and hand-appliqued those.  Looking at this picture now, I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's out of my hands and I have another to work on this month.

I did take in Jazzy's Galaxy Quilt and Squiddle's Tinkerbell quilt for Sew'N'Tell.  Good thing, too; the walls were pretty bare this month.  I guess most quilts that my guildmates might have made for Christmas presents probably left their houses....

Christmas Sewing, Done Done Done!

Got up yesterday morning and trimmed the Tink quilt.  Found the Tinkerbell-dress-green remnant I'd set aside for binding.  Prepped that, and sewed it on:

Wrote out a label.  Stitched that on by hand.  Pulled together some leftover fabrics and whipped up matching pillowcases for each quilt.  During the middle of which, my 401 developed what I'm assuming is a timing issue.  Switched to the 15, finished things up, wrapped some presents, went to bed.

*thud*

(Also did other stuff - last bit of grocery shopping, dinner at my parents', post-sewing-jag cleanup, etc.)

Quilting, Done!

No pictures again, because I was jamming on quilting the Tinkerbell quilt yesterday, and was up until half past midnight doing so.  Bad Kristin!  But it's done and dusted and just needs trimming, binding, and a label.  And, honestly, the label can wait until after Christmas if needs be.

Also done: 90% of the grocery shopping, and converting some of that shopping into three batches of gurka (Scandinavian pickles) for smorgasbord with my aunt and uncle's family on Christmas Eve, and smorgasbord again with my parents on Christmas Day....

Finally!

I got the Tinkerbell quilt basted yesterday~!  And Wonderful Husband distracted Squiddle by playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild while I did so, so despite my basting area being the living room floor right next to the sofa where this video gaming was happening, it's entirely possible Squiddle still hasn't seen the quilt. 

I then dragged the 15 over to the big sewing desk, getting my quilting setup ready... and we decamped to get more work done to my car (worn rotors) and to go to Boomers, a mini-golf/arcade/rides place near my parents.  We drive past it almost every time we go to my parents' home, and Squiddle has been asking to go there for months.  So we finally did!  My mother joined us there and we went on a couple rides (Wonderful Husband and Squiddle on the bumper boats, and myself with both boys on the little train, since we did not trust Jazzy to ride it without an adult).  And then we mini-golfed.  I'd forgotten how much fun mini-golf is!  Squiddle kind of got it (he did best when an adult showed him how to hold the club and helped him, though he was fuzzy on the "don't pick up the ball until you've got it in the hole" bit.  Jazzy, being two, didn't get it at all, but he didn't mind, either, until it was time to leave.  Which is why I carry around packets of fruit gummies in my bag....

After picking up my car, and getting home, and dining, though, I finally set to quilting!  I'm doing free-motion quilting in the center panel, in the pink squares, and I think in the turquoise cameo border as well.  I got most of the center panel done - I just need to do the flowers on the bottom right, then I can move on....

Short Post

No pictures today because yesterday's main sewing was Wonderful Husband's Christmas present!  and he might peek at this blog, or see it on my monitor.  But it's successfully done, dusted, and wrapped.  He is taking this week as vacation time and did me the favor of taking the boys to the Long Beach Aquarium for a couple hours while I sewed.  He also bought Christmas cards and made sure we got them written, addressed, and sent out.  Hooray!

I did get the backing for the Tinkerbell quilt sewn together, but that was all quilting-wise.

A Finished Flimsy

Sorry for there being no post yesterday.  I had worn myself to a cross-eyed frazzle, and after pinning yet another border in backwards, I threw in the towel and went to bed.

But!  Yesterday morning I pinned the last border on the Tinkerbell quilt the right way, and got it sewn, so it's now a finished top!

You can see in the lower right purple strip where the brown spots stop... that's my substitute strip after I ran out.  I can say it proves it's handmade! :)  The quilt turned out a little larger than I'd planned, finishing at 76"x68".  Well, it's not like Squiddle's going to be getting any smaller....

And I thought, why not post a picture of my original sketch, for the record.  This is my "back of the envelope" (literally) planning!  It's almost all in here, except for the two thin dark blue lines that led to me widening the purple strips, to make up the numbers:

And this afternoon we stopped by M&L Fabrics so I could get some flannel for the backing.  Since the quilt is for Squiddle, I let him choose.  Initially he chose a baby-print pink, but I offered this one as an alternative and he liked it as well:

Someday, when he's a teenager, this quilt, predicated on his loves of Tink and pink, may embarrass Squiddle.  But I kind of hope not.

Also today, I found these books at the thrift store!  For three dollars each.  Score! *happy dance*

Tink, Again

Today was a bit of hustle and bustle of housecleaning in the morning, then getting out so two sets of potential buyers could look at the house.  While we were out and about, we helped my mother get her Christmas decorations out of the rafters, as well as setting up her tree for her.

But I did get a bit of sewing in.  Here's the quilt top as it stands (lays?) now:

I am a bit miffed that I cut one Tink cameo in half (seam on the upper left) but given I didn't realize it until I had sewn that entire side... I was not going to rip out 56" of seam, cut a new piece, and sew it in, not when I was going to be the only one who cared.

On the other hand, this pleases me:

See the seam?  Where is it?  No?  Good.  Looking at it from the other direction:

 Aha, there the seam is! I tried out a new pattern-matching technique and it worked like a charm.  Both the top and bottom border have two joins in them, and they're effectively invisible.  What you do is: 1) find the matching point for two strips; 2) iron the fold of the match point on one of the strips; 3) place it atop the second strip and glue it down (I have some fabric basting glue); 4) when the glue is cured, open it up and sew right on the fold line; 5) trim away the excess and press.  I can't remember where I learned the technique, other than it was on one of the blogs in my sidebar, but it's genius and it works!

Domestic Goddessery

No pictures today.  A good deal of yesterday was spent doing house stuff - cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc.  Then I took the boys to the zoo for a couple hours, as I'd promised them.  And after that I was wiped.  To the point where I was laying down in a darkened bedroom when Wonderful Husband got home.  Fortunately I'd thawed some chicken, so he took care of cooking that and some mac'n'cheese for dinner.

I did finish sewing the second dark blue border onto the Tinkerbell quilt, and half of the turquoise one that was next.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done this weekend....

Tink!

Yesterday, as events allowed, I chugged away on Squiddle's Christmas quilt.  I made things more difficult on myself, of course, by adding two more borders to the scheme.  Which, to make the math work, adds another 4" to both length and width from my initial design.  But it just wasn't going to look right if the dark blue framing the center panel was only used in that one spot!  So here's the quilt as it stands right now:

The top and bottom dark blue strips got pinned on, but I decided a relatively early bedtime would do me good.  I'm actually quite pleased by how it's turning out - if I didn't know the first dark blue border was pieced, I would think it was part of the panel.

(And Wonderful Husband said that if he didn't know better, he'd think the whole thing was a panel!  Which I suppose means that my workmanship and color choices are good on this.)

Final Christmas Quilt, Go!

Squiddle has at various points asked for a Tinkerbell quilt, a pink quilt, and a quilt that is blue in the middle and pink on the outsides.  He does not want to help me design the quilt, he wants it to be a surprise.  And when it's done I should give it to Santa to give it to him.  So, with that in mind, here's my rough layout:

It will radiate out in concentric rings, starting from the left.  The Tinkerbell panel will be the center, with a narrow border of dark blue to bring it to the size I want.  The blue might be too dark - thoughts?  But that's followed by a border of 4" pink squares.  Scrappy, because I don't have enough of any single pink to make it work.  Then a narrow border of the purple fabric (which has coffee beans on it... ^_^;;), 4" of the coordinating Tinkerbell print, another narrow border of the purple, and a final border of scrappy 4" pink squares.  And I plan to bind it in green the color of Tinkerbell's dress.

If my math is right and the creek don't rise, it should finish out at 64x72"....