Posts Tagged quilting

oh beer, I’ve missed you.

July 8, 2009 at 11:09 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

I’ve had several chilly beers, and that makes me happy… I think I’ll have another in just a moment.  Quite the silver lining — is it not? — that I obtain such great enjoyment out of non-pregnancy-approved beverages. Kinda feels like I’m drowning my sorrows, but I’m washing them down with Heineken (which is all our beer fridge currently has to offer), and it’s just so damn tasty.

I got out the nifty CBE fertility monitor today, read the instruction manual, reset the memory, unpacked my test sticks, and laid everything out precisely like so many surgical tools. Maybe I’m a freak, but I’m kinda excited out the whole little digital screen telling me what to do. No guesswork and stressing about when to test, and “is *that* line as dark as/darker than *this* line?” No, the digital screen will take that burden away from me, and allow me to “just relax.” (That’s what the CBE instruction manual said… that I just need to RELAX when trying to conceive. Suck it, CBE.) Ain’t technology grand?

And I have a confession. I can’t tell Bobby because I’m the financial grinch in our relationship, and I’m ashamed to admit this, not because he would even get testy (he wouldn’t), but because I would feel guilty with my very obvious double standard… I just made not one, but TWO, impulse purchases on ebay. I think it’s a combination of knowing that our mortgage refinancing is finally an (almost) done deal and, well, the beers might have made my finger a little click-happy as well. I love beer. Like really, really love it.

Ya’ll should be proud of me… although I was mightily tempted, I didn’t buy nursery fabric. Oh, I looked at it — I’m drawn to the pastel toiles and fat babies and nursery displays like a moth to its inevitable doom. But I didn’t click purchase. Go me.

So this is what I bought… and yes, in case you’re wondering, I’ve always been like this. I get fixated on a new project or hobby and go balls-out for a while, and then it blows over. I plan (hope) to use this fabric before my quilting obsession becomes a thing of the past.

#1 Secret Purchase: Squares of these fabrics… aren’t they perfectly vintage and charming?

aviary_squares

And #2 Secret Purchase: Squares of these fabrics… fun & modern.

fabric buy

No, Bobby doesn’t read this blog unless I ask him to. So my secret should be safe with you guys. IRL readers, please don’t rat out me & my impulse purchases, mkay?  K, thanks.

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random idea

July 8, 2009 at 11:12 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

I finished my quilt top this morning, and am now working on the backing. Bought too much fabric (as usual) — I’m always afraid that I’m not going to have enough, and then end up with way too much. Also bought batting yesterday. I felt very anti-polyester, although I doubt it makes a difference in the long run — bought Warm & Natural cotton batting instead of the less expensive poly-version.

Also found some cute & colorful bed linens at Good.will yesterday for $1-2 each… here they are all freshly washed & folded, ready to be reborn into a quilt of some sort:

jul7 023

This is a completely random thought, but I wanted to ask…  I’m going to start another birdie quilt when I finish this one, and was wondering if ya’ll would like to do it with me?  I came across this idea at the Old Red Barn Co, and it seems like such a wonderful project for a blog community. Of course, she’s a quilting expert and gave away fabulous prizes, while I’m not and I wouldn’t. But if I going to be doing another quilt anyway, just thought that ya’ll might in interested in learning with me?

Material cost would be approximately $75, give or take $25 based on your material choices. If you use old bedsheets, recycled clothing, etc, it would potentially be much less than this. You don’t have to have a sewing machine — just have to have the patience to do it by hand.

Anyway, it’s just a thought. If you’re not interested, just ignore me, and I’ll continue with Birdies Take 2 as planned… :)

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good things

July 7, 2009 at 12:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , ,

I just had an explosion of good things in the last hour or so… ceeeel-e-brate good times, c’mon!! duh-duh-ta-duh-duh!!

  1. Just got the phone call that our house refinance is going through, and we close on Friday… YIPPEE! This refinance has been pending for months, and I was starting to think that it just might not happen. This is going to lower our mortgage payment by ~$500, which makes our current financial state so, SO much better going forward. Freakin’ YAY.
  2. Spending time with Richard this morning — he’s screamingly cheesy, and half his back-up dancers are overweight (aka “normal-looking”), and everyone is so flippin’ happy. Does a Sarah good.
  3. Keeping Maggie tonight… just got text confirmation from Jennifer. I haven’t laid eyes on Maggie in over two weeks, and haven’t actually spent time with her in almost three… the longest dry spell since she was born. Maggie is a beam of sunshine for me… so incredibly glad that I get to keep her tonight.
  4. The comments you gals have left about my quilt… THANKS. The “you could sell it” comments are too sweet — I don’t know if you’d say that if you could see all the crooked stitches, but your words really made my heart glow. So thank ya’ll!
  5. Using vintage bedsheets in my next quilt… holy lord, what an obvious and fabulous idea that someone else had! I’m heading to thrift stores in a sec to see if I can find some treasures.
  6. A completely random thing that made me laugh this morning, and so I share it with you…  inventive mail delivery at its finest:
    jul7

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Birdie quilts, babies, & birthdays

July 6, 2009 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

UPDATE:
 In this post a few days ago, I mentioned that Tiffiney had gone into preterm labor at almost 25 wks. Sadie Mae was born on Saturday, July 4th, at 1lb 8oz, and 12.25in long.  I’ve been stalking facebook obsessively… based on status updates & comments, it appears that all is well with both mother and daughter, although obviously Sadie Mae will be spending a while in the NICU.  The suddenness of change, of things going awry or “different than planned,” is just so… shocking.  One day, everything’s fine. The next, everything’s upside down. I know I don’t have to explain that to ya’ll, of all people.  I miss the days of childhood, when I planned to execute my life like a checklist… grow up, get married, have a baby, and live happily ever after. Was so simple without the worry of what-if.

THE WEEKEND:
So since Saturday morning, when I woke up mid-meltdown, I’ve just been staying out of my head. On Saturday, we cooked & cleaned & did yard work for Saturday night’s birthday cookout.

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And Sunday, we skipped church* and had a quiet day. Bobby worked on a website redesign, and I worked on my birdie quilt. I don’t have complete confidence in how the fabrics compliment each other, but I just dove in and started cutting… figure that this is my first quilt, so I’m allowed to screw it up. My sewing skills are sub-par — couldn’t sew a straight line if my life depended on it, and sewing around curves? Um yeah, it’s laughable. But whatever. It’s addictive and rather therapeutic… nothing else matters except the repetition, and focusing on the grains of the fabrics, and measurements, and sewing straight-ish seams.

*More on this later.

PROJECT BIRDIE QUILT:
Just a few notes about the process, what’s gone well & what hasn’t with Project Birdie Quilt:quilt grid

  • In my opinion: Making a chart is a good thing. I drew a grid (kinda like the one to the right), and made notes in each square. This helped keep my squares in order, plan the position of the birdies, etc.
  • Cutting the squares: First, I cut 9 squares of fabric measuring 20″x20″. Learned the hard way that you have to measure from the selvage edge (the outside edge of the fabric), NOT from the cut edge. The little fabric-cutter ladies don’t always cut in straight lines, so using the crooked edge to measure is pretty much a bad idea.
  • Added an extra row: Once I laid all 9 of my fabric squares on the floor, I decided to add another row of squares for a total of 12. This will make a full-size quilt, instead of a throw-size quilt.
  • Fusible web novice: I’ve never used fusible web before, but it’s super-easy. Traced 12 circles using the template in the kit. Apparently the fusible web makes fabric stiff, which would make the quilt less snuggly, so I cut the middle of the circles out, leaving only ~.5in. of web *inside* the traced circle.
  • The great stitching decision: Ah, sewing the circles on. Sewing and me don’t jive. I thought I should do a zigzag stitch, which I’ve never attempted before. Practiced and practiced to no avail. Googled and discovered I needed a little gem called an “applique foot” for my sewing machine — it’s clear so you can see what you’re stitching. So I sat and debated, and finally decided to just scratch the zigzag idea this time around, and go with the plain ole’ straight stitch. After much indecision, finally just sewed the circles on.
  • & the birdies were born: Traced, cut, appliqued, and sewed birdies. I used a neutral khaki-colored thread throughout, but it looked horrible on the dark brown birds… highlighted how uneven and messy my sewing truly is. So I picked the stitching out of the brown birds and redid it with chocolate brown thread.
  • Putting it all together: I’m now in the process of putting the quilt-top together. The recommended sewing order is horizontal, then vertical. Sew block #1 to block #2, then block #2 to block #3. This completes the first row. Repeat for rows 2, 3, and 4.Once all horizontal rows are sewn together, go vertical. Sew row 1 to row 2, row 2 to row 3, and so on until quilt-top is completed.

I’m heading back out to the fabric store tomorrow to buy batting (the fuzzy stuff that goes inside a quilt), and backing (the fabric for the reverse side).

jul6 001

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afternoon update

July 2, 2009 at 3:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

Thanks for thinking of Tiffiney and Sadie Mae. Just got another update that they’ve done two steroid shots, Tiffiney’s stable, and the contractions have slowed down drastically. Hopefully this is a sign that little girl is going to stay put a while longer?… god, I hope so.

I’ve been fairly worthless today — just refreshing facebook for a baby update, and listening to Bobby conduct business from home. Is fatigue a side effect of progesterone supps? Because I literally feel like I could curl up on the floor and take a snooze. Need to look that up.

I have another little tidbit, but it seems completely insignificant when there’s so much going on in the baby-world… holy crap, is it just me, or has there been a serious rash of pregnancy announcements these last few days?!  (Sprogblogger, Mo, Bella, Niki, Andrea… did I forget anyone?) See, sometimes sperm+egg really, actually DOES work. Hooray!!

Oh, about my random non-baby tidbit… I bought the fabrics for my Birdie Big Blocks quilt. I wandered around the fabric store for two hrs before finally making my selections — I’ve never done this before, and have very little feel for how the colors/patterns are going to work together. Might be great, might be fugly.

So without further ado (look at me using the mosaic maker all snazzy-like):

mosaicbaed831c0cac15280aac2adfd05d1606535bd35f

They’re all 100% cotton, and the brown in the lower left-hand corner has pink dots, although they look white in the pic.  Got a nasty surprise at the cash register when they rang it all up… everything was 30-50% off, and I was only buying .5-1.5 yds, but it added up quickly to $50. And that was *just* the fabric — still gotta get backing and batting.  So I’m thinking about dragging myself away from the computer and starting the cutting-out process… wow, I really, truly have no clue what I’m doing. This should be interesting… heh.

And one more thing — Bobby’s working from home seems to have affected his head. This is my dear husband on Maggie’s horse 5 minutes ago. Oscar appears to be unimpressed… I, however, found his antics quite amusing.

jul2-bobby 001jul2-bobby 002

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Tendin’ to my knittin’

June 27, 2009 at 4:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

Ever heard this phrase? As a child, my grandmother would tell us grandkids to “tend to our knitting” whenever we would tattle on each other or eavesdrop on the adult gossip sessions… translation: mind your own business. Makes me laugh…

And yes, “tendin’ to my knittin’” is precisely what I’ve been doing this week. I mentioned in this post that I’ve been attempting (& reattempting, & re-reattempting) a baby blanket. It’s taken me FOREVER to get this far, since I pretty much have not a clue what I’m doing.

But here’s a picture of what I have so far… it’s still not done, but I’m getting close, I think.

jun26 002

And I found a super-cute blog with all sorts of sewing/quilting/fabric ideas and tips… bought this:

birdieblocks

It’s a fusible applique quilting pattern… pretty stinkin’ cute, is it not?! Click here to see what it looks like when it’s finished. I don’t know what kind of fabrics I’m going to use, but I’m looking forward to heading off to the fabric store this week.

And I bathed the Chins… I know, I’m scraping for news, but you gotta admit, these pictures are kinda funny. The bulging eyes, the downturned mouths — that’s some serious Chin-style distress there, ladies and gents.

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A lovely lady named Sue

June 10, 2009 at 1:46 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

Last week, I was completely distraught about packing up my mother’s clothing and personal belongings. Bree, who has lost a parent as well as her baby daughter Ella, left a very thoughtful comment about how she had a quilt made from her father’s shirts.  The idea immediately appealed to me — makes the task seem a little less permanent, because I know that I’ll be able to still keep her favorite clothing close by.

So I popped an email to the local quilting guild, and asked if perhaps there was a member who would be willing to help us make 3 quilts — one for each of my mother’s daughters — and that we would of course pay whatever was necessary. The next day, I received this response from a lady named Sue:

I am sorry for your loss.  Eight years ago I lost my son and used his shirts to make comforters for my daughters, using  the scraps to make one for myself.  Having the comforters is a great source of comfort for us, as we can  feel his love for us when we wrap up in them.  I would be interested in speaking with you about the project.  I am not interested in being paid — just would appreciate it if you covered my cost (for any supplies that have to be purchased).

I immediately welled up with tears… although any quilt made from Mama’s clothing would be perfect, the fact that this lady has also suffered a heartbreaking loss just seems so appropriately aligned.

Today, Jennifer and I met Sue for the first time. She’s a lovely lady, probably around Mama’s age. She brought the quilt made from her son’s flannel shirts — it was beautifully made and so soft and worn, like a hug. On the back, she had the story of the quilt, a tribute to her son’s life, printed on a piece of fabric and sewn into the seams. Her 24-yr-old boy, her oldest child, was killed in a boat fire — although it’s been 8 years, she talked like it was yesterday. It really was the perfect hand-crafted memory.

And tomorrow, I’m going to spend the day in Townville going through Mama’s things. It’s been a week since it was originally scheduled, and I’m so grateful that I’ve had those days to process the idea instead of just jumping in when the task was so raw, like a fresh wound. Being the planner/organizer that I am, I’m glad to have this goal of picking out the “quilt clothing.”  Of course, the emotion surrounding this project is still very palpable, but I’m trying not to let myself anticipate or envision the actual process. It’ll be hard enough to actually do it without imagining it for days ahead of time.

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