A Christmas present for my niece, she loves Minnie. I'm so excited about this, it makes me feel so professional! The bow is even attached with a hair clip so she can wear it separately if she so desires. And get this, the ruffle at the bottom wasn't in the pattern, it's my own idea AND design. I am a professional!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Crocheted Hat
Merry Christmas, little sister! I finished my first long-term crochet project. I must admit I never thought it would turn into a hat as I was going along. I am definitely proud of it, and the finished project resembles the finished pattern, however, my stitches don't resemble the pattern stitches, like, at all. Thank you, Vickie Howell, for the pattern, however, if she saw my interpretation she may not want her props :)
One Christmas present done, too many to count left!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Baby Outfit
I made the dress and headband, recognize my newly crocheted flower accent? The outfit is completed with orange tights, too cute! Actually, completed would be with shoes... whatever happened to my baby shoe endeavor?
Friday, October 28, 2011
Christmas Crafting Begins
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Learning to Crochet
This is the 7th or 8th flower attempt. I enjoy crocheting but not sure if it enjoys me yet. This is the final attempt for this project. New baby girl no-name will not mind it, I'm sure. Welcome to the family, little one! I'll post the entire gift when it's finished.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Knitting? Been there done that
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sadness
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Next Project Begins
Monday, March 28, 2011
Produce Bags
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Birthday Cake
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Finished Quilt!
I'm happy with it! Here's a close up of the train, my original from over a year ago!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Final Steps
Picture of my batting hanging to dry. This took remarkably long to do, despite it being pretty thin. Probably 48 hours-ish.
I sewed my edges onto the front sheet first. Just thought it seemed right. I cut 3 edges so that they folded over. The last had to be sewn together. I wanted this to be on the bottom. OF COURSE I did not leave extra seam allowance here and had to manipulate the sides to meet up with this one.
And, my very first 45 degree corner cut on the top edge was the wrong way. Fixing it meant I did not have enough fabric and had to patch a piece in the middle. This was now my bottom and the sewn edge is on top.
This is pinning the batting onto the front sheet. Apparently something was not square, either the batting or my quilt, I'll let you decide. There is a Frankenstein fix where the uneveness meets.
Here's my biggest accomplishment so far: I finished an ENTIRE spool of thread! Had to go buy more. How many people can say that? I'm sure millions of quilters and other crafters worldwide, but until now, not me.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Moving
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Back is Done
So... the back is done! That about says it all. Diagonal squares are not my favorite. Running out of fabric mid blanket is not my favorite. Not being able to find the old fabric is not my favorite. But all in all, it worked out and looks swell to the untrained eye. The edges are already cut, so I guess that's next? Or the batting? I don't know. Perhaps it will come to me in a dream.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Fitting the Back to the Front
Does everyone suppose this is how the professionals do it?
I told you I was trying diagonal squares on the back. The patterned ones were quite fun to cut. By fun I mean not so much. The red ones are just normal cut squares. So anyways, I used my 9th grade geometery (thanks Mr. Keyserling!) to determine the hypotenuse (have no idea if that's the right term or spelling). a squared + b squared = c squared, right? This horrific math was used to determine how many squares I would need to meet my blanket dimensions. It's working! So weird, but it seriously is about right. Now I'm just laying it out on the front sheet so that I know where I can use the pieces of un-squares (it seems that cutting diagonal squares uses much more fabric, so add that to the fact that I NEVER measure prior to buying fabric and I didn't have enough - go figure!) and know where to sew another one and how big to make it and where to cut it. It will all work out in the end. I promise. I think.
Friday, February 4, 2011
I have begun!!
So I have gotten all the large squares of the front of my quilt sewn together! See, I keep calling it a quilt, but when I pick up a book on quilting, it is and will be significantly different than what I'm doing. I'm really just making a blanket out of squares. If you call it a quilt I'm probably doing it wrong.
Speaking of wrong, here's my first gigantic mistake. I had cut all my large sqaures 12x12. I had started it before a year ago, but had no real idea how to cut. They were 13x13 last year so that left me some room to play when I restarted this year. The deal with actual quilt cutting is that you must cut to near perfection and sew a perfect 1/4" seam, which means at the end of the day all your squares and corners and triangles or whatever else you cut match up. My squares from last year would have left me with a triangle shaped blanket I'm sure. Just horrible. Ok... back to my mistake this year...I cut my big ones 12x12 and wanted to use more of the discontinued fabric (cuz its in my train) so I decided to make the periodic smaller squares. I cut them 6x6... half right? Ha. So after I sewed them all together using my perfect 1/4" seam, guess what size that square was? Snap. Not 12x12 anymore! My whole thing will be off and I'm out of that fabric! I could have gone back and cut all my other ones, but if you haven't learned that I'm lazy yet, you will now know. I don't think so. I tried my darnedest to fix it by using a 1/2" seam on the big squares while piecing it all together. A real quilter would probably be grimacing right now.
I would assume that one is supposed to sew all the peices of the rows together and then sew them into rows. With perfection as discussed before, this would magically make a quilt. I learned quickly that my squares were still not cut perfectly enough and that my 1/2" seam here and 1/4" seam there made for some not so perfect sewing. I sewed most of the pieces one by one so that I could stretch the appropriate side just enough to get seams to match. Fun.
Anyways, bottom line... it don't look so bad! Moving to the back; and taking on diagonal squares! Oh ya, no large, boring single piece of fabric on the back of my quilt! Ha ha ha!