My second apology

I could sit here and make up excuses all day but the fact of the matter is I've been completely ignoring my blog!  It's been a mix of internet issues, not crafting, and making friends.  Now my issues are solved, I'm going to make an effort to craft more, and my friend is going to help me with it.  EW is my new best friend over here and she has introduced me to the world of cloth diapering!  It's sooooooo much to learn but I am learning and I am liking it.  I always thought of putting Munchkin in cloth diapers (G-diapers to be exact) but when I tried to jump into it I realized it was waaay over my head so I decided not to.  But now that EW has been able to sit down and show me I'm really starting to understand!  So one night we were talking and I told her that I really wanted to try and make a cloth diaper and she totally spurred me on telling me it was a great idea.  So I gave it some thought and went through a list of materials in my head: cotton print, check; flannel, check; elastic, check; left over all natural cotton quilt batting....check!  The only thing I was missing was some velcro but that was all to easy to fix. We went to the thrift shop on post and I found an item with some good ol' fashioned white velcro!  So the next day I did some cutting and sewing and some seam ripping and some more sewing and viola!

I made a diaper.  It totally needs some improvements, like different elastic and pattern tweaking, but still, pretty effin good for a first try from stuff that was lying around!  Not to mention it looks uber cute on Munchkin's little tushie!  I fully plan on making more and refining my technique.

I also finally got my Michael Miller fabric and I do have to say it's super fabulous!  I got it all washed and today so now I'm off to start clipping my tangled mess of fabric!  Wish me luck!

Drum roll please...

Finally!  Here are the pictures from the Summer Breeze quilt!  I'm quite happy with the way it came except for the boo boos here and there.  I also apologize for the low quality pictures.  This was the first sunny day in like 3 days.  It also happened to be the day I needed to send it out and because I have trudge to the laundry mat on foot I opted out of lugging my nice camera there.  Why not take it home and take pictures of it you ask?  Simple answer: our post office is literally right across the street from the laundry mat, so camera phone it is!

Front

Close up of quilting

Back

I've got a couple of projects lined up next, but I'm not sure what order I'm going to complete them.  I got one of the Moda Sudoku kits.  I've already completed the puzzle and I'm sorry to say it wildly unsatisfying.  I mean us quilters deal with these kinds of puzzles every time we try to figure a layout for the quilt.  There were at least 2 lines that were only missing 1 number.  This puzzle was way too easy, I spent maybe 2-2.5 minuets. It is nice that it does come with the pre-cuts though.  This might end up being my cats quilt she seems to like laying on them, or she just likes laying on whatever I'm doing.

These are a bunch of fabrics I got in a care package from my in-laws.  Specifically this is from my SIL stash that she had put in the craft room for anyone to use.  I'm delighted to say I'm going to use several of these fabrics!  The solid white is a nice flannel that I'm going to make receiving blankets that I'm going to trim in the green floral.  I'm also planning on using the Alexander Henry fabric along with a purple velvet in some turtle plushies.  The other fabrics will probably sit in my stash until I get a stroke of creativity.

AND THESE FABRICS..... I'm super excited about!  The prints are from the new Michael Miller collection Peacock Lane.  I paired them with coordinating solids from Kona Cotton and I plan on doing a gray fleece backing.  My plan for these is a hexagon quilt I'm not sure how large it's going to be but I will probably use 3 inch hexagons.  I'm pretty excited about this because hear hexi's are addictive!  Not to mention I'm super in love with these fabrics!

Finally!

I finally got the Summer Breeze quilt done!  Well pretty much done, the last thing I need to do is run it through the wash again to get rid of the blue lines from the quilting.  Unfortunately that's going to have to wait for tomorrow because it's raining in buckets outside!  But fear not!  I do have pictures to share with you today!

I've been browsing around on the web and came across boatloads of embroidery things and it got me all excited!  I don't have much embroidery experience but I'm definatly gaining some.  A while ago I did some note cards for my SIL for her birthday.  The patterns I found were retro and I thought they fit her taste.  They mostly came out pretty cute, everyone enjoyed the cat clock one.  My down fall with this is I didn't take any pictures of the finished product.  :(  Anyway where this is all leading is I got both of the embroidery books that Aimee Ray put out.  I'm really in two minds about these books.  Yes they are very helpful, did I need both of them?  Absolutely not.  If there is anyone out there that's thinking about getting one of these books I would suggest going with Doodle Stitching the Motif Collection.  This book has pretty much exactly the same things as Doodle Stitching does only the projects are different and you get page after page of just designs, which is what I'm looking for in an embroidery book.  Doodle Stitching the Motif Collection also has the added bonus of coming with a CD that contains all the designs in convenient .tif files so you can size and edit to whatever your project calls for.  Although if I were putting books like these out I would make my second book for intermediate-advanced levels and show more intricate stitching rather than having the basics in both books.  One it sells more books and two those who would buy both books don't feel like they wasted money.

This is a design from the Motif Collection, it's a WIP

I made this card for a friend of mine.  She was in a car accident recently and is having a tough time with recovery.  I stuffed her box full of chocolate too!  I think the happy chocolate hippos were the perfect touch.  I can't take credit for the actual design, I Googled 'daisy bouquet' and 'bow' then used Photoshop to combine them.  I added a cute font to follow as well.  I decided to do this on fabric and then attach it to the card.  I haven't quite figured out how to do a proper satin stitch through paper.  I definatly really enjoyed making this.  I just hope she enjoys it as much as I do!

Just a random card I did a while back, can't remember where I found the design

Almost there

I feel terrible for not keeping up with my blog, maybe if I had more followers I'd be more inclined to update *hint hint wink wink*  No but really, I do feel bad specially because I have been working on things.  I'm nearly done with the Summer Breeze quilt although I guess I should call it the modified Summer Breeze.  I changed the layout of it and I think this way complements the fabric designs better.  I'm much happier with it now.  For the back I decided to piece the remaining cut pieces to form a long strip and then I put it off center.  I'm really happy with how the back came out.  The actual quilting, I took the star-burst design my SIL did on munchkin's quilt, I'd have to say it looks good and was much more fun than stitch in the ditch.  Also, to add a bit of interest to it I used a hot pink thread on the top and then just plain white on the bottom.  I made bias tape out of a coordinating green print with the same motif as the pink and white print.  I used my SIL tutorial for making bias tape to refresh my memory.  I attached the binding this morning thinking I got off scott free from any major mishaps.  Boy was I wrong.  I ended up being about 18 inches short of bias tape!!!!  This is when having a quilt shop with a decent  fabric selection would have been helpful.  I can't take the time to order more fabric and I didn't have enough of 1 print to make enough, so I ended up making some quick bias tape out of the pink and white with the same motif.  I think it gives my quilt erm.... character.  Yeah!  That's it, CHARACTER!  Well at least it's all the same pattern!  So now all I have left is hand sewing the bias tape and burying threads, I'll probably give it another wash too to get rid of the lines I used for quilting.  Hopefully I'll get a post up with some finished pictures tomorrow!

Ooo look a giveaway!

Hey guys AllFreeSewing.com is doing another one of their book giveaways.  This time it is Everything Alice by Hannah Read-Baldry and Christine Leech.  This book looks like a ton of fun.  It's perfect if you love whimsy and Alice in Wonderland related things.  It's also a great book for variety offering a bit of everything from sewing to baking in 50+ projects.  I think even if I don't win this I might buy it!  To enter this contest for yourself follow the white rabbit!  Ha ha I couldn't resist, just click here.

Also visit the website of the book EverythingAlice.co.uk.  They have a couple freebies on their site including some delicious looking red velvet cup cakes!

Picture courtesy of  EverythingAlice.co.uk

PS-  Tomorrow there will be a real post!

My back burns like the fires of hell!

The munchkin and I spent the entire day outside today at a pool.  At the community pool.  I'm really glad I can adapt well to different cultures because WOW the pool experience alone is a huge culture shock!  I remembered to put sunscreen on which is a step in the right direction however I didn't get my entire back so now I have a nice large lobster red area.  One step forward, two steps back.....


Today I'm going to share some handy Android apps with you.  These are all free apps.

The first of these apps is the Robert Kaufman Quilting Calculator.  This can be found here or by entering the search terms "quilting calculator" into the search box in the Android Marketplace.  This is by far the best app I own and I use it so frequently when I'm picking fabrics for my next project.  I really like this calculator because it offers so much in just one app.  Here is a rundown of the different calculations it can do.

Taken from the app description

Fabric Measurement Conversion: Converts between measurement in decimals and fractions.
Backing and Batting Calculator: Determines how much yardage from a bolt of fabric is needed to make the backing for a quilt.
Piece Count Calculator: Shows the number of fixed-sized pieces of fabric that may be cut from a larger piece.
Pieces to Yardage Area Calculator: Indicates how much fabric is needed in order to cut a given number of fixed sized pieces.
Binding Calculator: Tells you the amount of fabric required to bind your quilt based on the quilt’s dimensions and the binding strip width.
Border Calculator: Shows the amount of fabric required to create borders, based on a quilt’s dimensions and the width of the borders.
Square in a Square Calculator: Works out all the key dimensions of a square in a square block.
Set-in and Corner Triangle Calculator: Determines the size of the square piece you’ll need to cut in order to create both unfinished set-in triangles and unfinished corner triangles.

 

The next app is the "How Much Thread Does it Take" app by Superior Threads.  This can be found here or by entering the search terms "Superior Threads" into the search box in the Android Marketplace.  This app is only semi useful as it can't tell exactly how much thread you're going to need but it can give you a ball park.  Just follow the prompts it gives you and it might save you an extra trip to the quilt shop for more thread.

The third app is a "Thread Selection Guide" again by Superior Threads.  This can be found here or by entering the search terms "Superior Threads" into the search box in the Android Marketplace.  This app I don't think I've ever used other than playing around but I think this is mostly because I've never used Superior Threads.  I assume this would be a perfect app for beginners and those who don't know one type of sewing thread from another (like me!). 


I also have a color wheel app but to be honest I'm not that impressed with it so I'm not going to take the time to write about it.  There are a ton of color wheel apps out there, I say find one that's the easiest for you to understand.




Are there any other to-die for apps out there on the market?

Where has all the thread gone?

After all the washing, clipping, ironing, cutting, more ironing I go to start piecing and I can't find my thread!  It's missing in action.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go to the local craft store and get a new spool! :-)  But the good news is that I did all the washing clipping etc...  The one thing I hate about shopping online for fabrics is that you can't see in large scale with true colors what everything is going to look like all together.  I'm struggling with colors/prints working together in this quilt.  If I had gotten the chance to see everything all together I probably would have swapped around a few of the fabrics.  I'm at a place now where I am OK with them and the layout but by no means am I in love with this quilt.  I'd replace the fabrics I'm not happy with but I'm not trying to wait another 2 weeks for fabric for a quilt that technically needs to be done by the 10th.  Maybe this just is not a good quilt for this fabric.  Maybe it's just going to look terrible until it's done.  We'll just have to wait and see!