Little Projects

I've been very busy with Swoon Quilt #1 this week- On Tuesday, I put together blocks 2 and 3. On Wednesday, I put together blocks 4 and 5. And then I wanted to shoot myself in the face, because I was so tired of swoon blocks. Two a day is very difficult, especially when one block takes the better part of 3 hours to put together. So I put aside the Swoon quilt and made myself a new case for my camera!

It still needs a snap, but I haven't found the drive to go out and find one.

I consulted a few tutorials on how to make a camera case, particularly allpeoplequilt.com's and Amy A La Mode's. In the end, I made my own patterns (to better fit my camera) and followed the instructions on those sites to put it together.

I ran into some snags, but because I am crafty and smart, I was able to put everything together and make it look nice. Huzzah! And I had enough of my quilted material and binding left over to make a tiny pouch for my extra batteries. 

Fits very nicely.

I also found the mojo to finish up my Scrappy Trip Along quilt! I found a very colorful batik for the back and a blue batik for the binding.

I quilted it with dark blue thread along the blue diagonals, and then quilted smaller diamonds in the center of each set of 4 blocks with white thread. It gives the quilt a nice 3-D quality that works well with just how busy it is. 

Then I got back to work on the Swoon Quilt. I needed a good break from it, but was happy to pick it back up.

Block Number 5!

I totally picked the WRONG purple for Block Number 6. For shame.

Surrounded by Swoons

Yesterday was a VERY big day in Blacksburg- the little girl that my Cheery Squares quilt was made for joined this beautiful world! Now both of my friends have had their daughters, and I'm just sitting here sewing.

It took me a few days to get through the first Swoon block, but each one since then has gone much easier. I've completed blocks #2 and #3 and have #4 laid out on the floor.

Number 2!

Number 3!

Wait your turn, block #4.

I'm visiting my mom in Nashville right now (Bellevue, for any of you locals out there), and really need to find a good quilting fabric store. I want to make a camera case for my new Fujifilm X20, but I didn't bring enough of my stash with me across state lines to make it. FOR SHAME. So, a little shopping trip is in order. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday!

Swooning over the Salty Sea

Well, I've had a fairly productive week. I cold called some firms in pursuit of internships, I got my first credit card, and I have been sewing my butt off. Well, I guess technically I've been cutting my butt off, but that's not really something people advertise on the internet.

I cut all the pieces for ONE of the two swoon quilts I'm doing, and I finished my first block!

Pardon the shadow.

It surprised me just how BIG these blocks are. 24 inches is not tiny. 24 inches is VERY not tiny. I can't believe I'm making 17 of these.

I also finished piecing my Salt Water Triangles quilt together! I'm very excited with how it turned out. And it came together so quickly, I think it took maybe 8 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to piece it all.  I think I'm going to put a couple borders on it, though. It's a little small for my taste. But I've been brainstorming, and I think I have a battle plan.

My dream quilt :)

POINTS THAT MATCH UP ARE THE BEST.

Hardly a finish, Definitely the beginning

Oh my lord. I just spent a good 4 hours cutting just the background fabric for ONE of my swoon quilts. Remind me again why I'm making two? I need to take a break, I've watched too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer for my own good while cutting all of this fabric.

The pretty piles are deceiving; these were a pain to cut out.

I laid out all the pieces to my Salt Water Triangle Quilt on the floor last night, all it needs is sewing together. That's an exciting place to be! I started thinking about the backing, and decided to piece together some of my scraps and incorporate them into the back of the quilt. I had a few half triangles left over, so I made this with them:

A nice little strip!

I'm thinking I may put in in the lower third of the quilt, but that all depends on how I piece the rest of the back. There aren't any solid plans, but it just felt so nice to make something without a pattern for once. I had the triangles, I had an idea, and I made it happen. Definitely a nice creative outlet.

AND ALL OF MY POINTS ARE PERFECT.

Salt Watery Goodness

I've settled in (for the most part) to my new room at my dad's new house, and I was able to FINALLY sit down and cut into the Salt Water Fat Quarter Bundle I got for Christmas. I've been saving it for a while because it's just so beautiful and I didn't want to ruin it, ha ha! But I've decided to cut it into triangles. I think it suits the patterns of the fabric well.

I laid them out in the empty bedroom. I'm noticing that the rows are a LOT smaller than the columns are- I might have to switch up my layout or I'm going to end up with a table runner!

I finished my July Blocks for the Sister's Ten BOM as well- I really feel in the groove this week! And it's only Wednesday! Here's to a productive rest of the week!

Steps Towards a Swoon

Anna emailed me very excitedly a week or so ago about FairyFace Designs' Swoon 2013 event. I've mentioned before on here about how I want to make a Swoon quilt, and Anna so wonderfully remembered and thought of me when she heard about the Swoon 2013. I had originally put it out of my mind to do the event, since I just moved and I'm going to be overseas from August to November, but my local quilting store had a fat quarter frenzy event where you could get 10 FQ's for $15.

And I couldn't pass a deal like that up.

I've decided to embark on the impossible task of making TWO swoon quilts- one for each of my stepsisters. I picked up two sets of fabric for the quilts, so each girl will have a different color scheme.

The first quilt is made up of Flea Market Fancy prints and some coordinating solids.

The second is made of some very loud pink and yellow prints.

I think they'll suit two little girls very well, especially the pink one. Flea Market Fancy is more up my alley, whereas the violently pink one is a little... not up my alley. So we will see how much I can get done in 6 weeks!

Bonus photo of my new batting roll.

A visit to Grandma's House

I'm moving back to Richmond from Blacksburg this week, and I drove down to grandma's on Friday to store some of my furniture at her place for a while. I'm spending a year away from Blacksburg before finishing my degree (study abroad and such), but I'm planning on coming back, so I just needed a place to put my bedroom furniture for a year. Grandma kindly offered her spacious basement, so I loaded up a Uhaul trailer and headed down to her place! Boo and Flash joined as well, which was super fun.

I found out about a week ago that my uncle John was going to be there as well- the same uncle who commissioned me to make this. Since it's been sitting unquilted and unbound in my closet since April, I decided to pull it out, get my butt in gear, and finish it in time to give it to him on Friday!

(Joann's had a fantastic Fourth of July sale where I bought a 90" x 25 yard roll of batting for more than half off. I was going to just get a full sized batting, but I couldn't pass that deal up. It was the best impulse buy I've had in a while.)

I don't have a name for it, but that doesn't make me any less proud to have finished it. My uncle is a runner/biker/hiker/triathlete, and he had boatloads of race tshirts that he wanted to put to better use than sitting in his dresser. So I cut them all up and sewed them back together!

I used a full size bedsheet for the backing of the quilt- no piecing! And it was a nice plaid pattern too, so it gave me some great lines to quilt along to. 

John loved it, and I loved finishing it up finally! Now that I have batting, I think I'm going to finish up my other quilts too- like my Scrappy Trip Along and Quilt Barf.

I started cutting into my Salt Water Fat Quarter Bundle, too. I'm cutting them into triangles :) I'm really excited to make a triangle quilt, I've seen them around blogland (Cut to Pieces, anybody?) and I think that the Salt Water line is going to suit that pattern well. 

I'm also planning on making a pattern for a quilted camera case. I've seen a couple around blogland, but I may modify it to fit my camera better. Oh I'm excited to finally have time to sew again!! Maybe I can start on a Swoon, too!!

The happy customer :)