Finished Curves Projects!

I am so proud to say that I FINISHED the two projects I did for this weeks curves projects! I had a lot of fun making these and it was a nice way to ease into sewing curves.  The first project was baby bibs (how perfect!)

I tried to find gender neutral prints since I do not know whether I'm having a boy or a girl yet and wound up with these two..how cute are those frogs??  These were quick and simple-I definitely plan to make a bunch more of these later.

The second project I chose to do was a clam shell pillow.  This was a bit more time consuming, but I still got it finished in one day and it was good to practice slightly tighter curves.

For sure the most time consuming part was cutting and piecing all these little guys together.  I basically had to do it one at a time, which is not how I like to roll, but the pins were getting in the way if I tried to pin a whole row at once. 

Here it is all finished.  I like to make my own pillow forms as I have plenty of pillows to recover and don't want to spend $15 to buy a pre-made one, so I canibalize an old pillow and use an old sheet or pillow case to make whatever size form I need.  This one I think I over stuffed a little bit (which unfortunately led to ripping the zipper a little bit..gr...) so I might redo the form later on, but for now it works and looks quite cute in my living room! I used the same scraps on this that I used to make my Quilted Pillow and Piped Pillow.  This also had an invisible zipper which I've never done before (using this great tutorial), and all in all it wasn't that hard.  I don't think I sewed close enough to the coils so it's not quite "invisible", but oh well, it works.  I've done regular zippers before, and I think this was a little bit easier and didn't take as long so I'll probably try it again. 

I must say that today was the most productive sewing day I've had in quite some time... Usually my weekends are mixed with house keeping, running errands and doing stuff with the hubby so I don't have but a few hours to sew at a time. This weeked however, I got all my cleaning and errands done on Saturday and hubby went out hunting with a friend for most of the day so I was able to spend pretty much the whole day sewing--something I don't think I've ever gotten to do. It was so nice and relaxing and very satisfying to finish a few things instead of just adding to the WIP pile.  I also got some work done on a paper piecing project that I'll show in a few days that I'm quite excited about! Hope your weekend was as relaxing and productive as mine! :)

Curvy Introduction

To those of you stopping over from the Curves Class, welcome! I'm Jessica and this is my little corner where I share some of my adventures in crafting and sewing. I am SO excited to be participating in this class to get to learn some new skills and hopefully meet some new friends along the way!  I will take Rachel's queue and take this time to tell a little about myself and my sewing journey. I'm not so much a story teller as I am a babbler, so I appologize in advance, but I hope you can bare with me!

I am 27 years old, married and pregnant with our first child right now (though we DO have one furry child!).  I have only been sewing just under a year now and LOVE it.  Before I discovered sewing, I was never a very crafty type person, I always *wanted* to be crafty but just never found anything that stuck...(for instance, I've learned to crochet two separate times, each time with the intent to make my newphew a baby blanket...this started before he was born and he is now 3-1/2 with a 1-1/2 year old brother, neither of whom have crocheted blankets from their aunt...)  Now, my very dear friend has always been quite the opposite of me and is VERY crafty. We lived together during college for 2 years and I always envied her crafty projects, but it wasn't until she had a baby and sewed ALL of her baby bedding and decor last year that I even considered sewing.  When I saw what she was able to do with a sewing machine, I really felt inspired to learn to sew to be able to create things like that myself.  I was nervous to get into it at first, given my poor history with sticking to things and all, but my husband was very supportive and convinced me to give it a go.  I got my first machine, sewed up a really simple pillow, and fell in love!  Since then I've really enjoyed learning different techniques and finding inspiration all over the web through so many wonderful bloggers.  The Curves class will be my first actual sewing class..up until now I've been more "self-taught", reading books and following tutorials to figure out what works.  The only curves I've really done have been in patterns for things like purses, but I don't have much of a concept of how to apply them to "flat" pieces (does that make sense?? sorry...it does in my head at least..) so I'm really excited to learn this technique to help broaden my horizons! Also, I've never made a full quilt, so this class is going to kill two birds with one stone!

Here are a few of my past projects:

Appliqued onsies for my friend's baby (the one who inspired me to sew!)

Quilted pillow, this was my first attempt at any kind of piecing, and I still love how it turned out

"Hip Quiver"..my hubby is in to archery, and wanted me to make this for him. I'm especially proud of this one because I had no pattern to go off of, I made my own by looking at one like this that his friend had bought

Quilted Thanksgiving wall hanging...blogged here

Amy Butler "Blossom Bag". I am obsessed with Amy Butler patterns for some reason...see here, here and here for a few others

Well, that about sums me up.  Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to make yourself comfy and stay for a while, I'd love to meet some new friends and get to see what everyone is up to with the Curves Class! 

W.I.P. Wednesday-Slow and steady...

So it's W.I.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and as usual, I don't have much to report.  I feel like I have been doing alot, but don't have much to show for it! 

I've mostly been trying to catch up on some Christmas items that never got made and I've tried to keep myself from starting anything else before I get them done (hince the lack of things to show...) I've got one purse I'm working on now, and one to start that will actually wind up being a birthday gift instead. Her birthday is in March, so I should be able to get it done in time.  For some reason, the purse I'm working on now really has me dragging.  It's another Sophia Carry All by Amy Butler (you may recall my previous experience with this bag...) The difficulty I had the last time is probably what's keeping me from getting into this one, but I'd already cut out the pieces and hate to waste it so I'm forging ahead.  There are 2 things that I've learned while making this pattern that I wish I had remembered this time around....
1) Label the darn pieces.  There are ALOT of pieces to this one, and last time I used the wrong piece to make the handles and had to do alot of seam ripping.  Of course I didn't learn from my mistakes and didn't label them this time and as I was applying the interfacing I realized I may have cut something wrong, so now I've got to re-trace my steps and see what I've got...maybe now I should label them to save my self any more heartache? yeah...we'll see about that...
 2) Don't bother with fusible fleece, it's a pain in the butt.  I've been using Pellon brand, and man it is hard to get it to actually fuse.  I've used the non-fusible kind before and just used a spray addhisive to apply it and it was fine, so I'm totally doing that from now on. Not only is the non-fusible kind a little cheaper, it also would save alot of time to spray baste than try to fuse the darn stuff...

Another WIP that has been keeping me occupied:

Yeah so it's not sewing related..but it is DIY! We've been redoing our guest bathroom, and I suppose you could say this is my longest running WIP right now.  We actually bought all the the stuff to do it back in the beginning of September, I started then by ripping down the wallpaper border with the intent to start painting, but then life got in the way and everything sat around in the garage until about 3 weeks ago when we finally decided to go ahead and get it done.  We are not redoing the tub or shower tile as it was in pretty good shape, but we have done all the painting and tiled the floor.  These are terrible pictures, but the second one shows the color a bit more accurately.  This grey was actually the 4th color I tried, I'd originally picked out a purple back in September but when I busted it out to start painting a few weeks ago I H-A-T-E-D it.  So then I decided I wanted turquoise and tried two different shades, both I liked but just wasn't sold on either of them.  Finally I gave in and decided to go with something slightly more neutral and got this grey that has just a hint of blue to it.  I never thought I'd be a grey person, but it just looks so fresh and clean with the bright white ceiling and light colored tile...perfection! This weekend hopefully we'll get the baseboards back on and install the vanity and put the toilet back.  We have been mostly confined to working on it on the weekends, so it's been taking a while to get it all done and man am I ready to get everything back in order!

I did manage to finish some stuff in the last few weeks, but of course I was in too big of a hurry to get it sent out that I forgot to take pictures.  I made little blankets for my two nephews and my sister-in-law says they love them! They were very simple, I just got some Cars fleece (they are big fans of the movie) and coordinating flannel for the other side. I applique'd their initial on one side and made it as kind of a "Self-binding" blanket, with just straight line stitching to give it some detail.  I actually wound up making three of these because the first one I made I attached the fleece backwards and it wasn't until I was completely finished with it when I noticed the print was inversed...oops!  (This was  one of the times that I've enjoyed being able to blame "baby brain" rather than "Jess makes silly mistakes")

That's about all I've got to share...I have this giant stack of brand stinkin new fabric that I washed and folded last night that I just can't wait to use! Curves class (held by Rachel at Stitched in Color) starts this week and I've been holding out on cutting into any of these yummies so I can use them for the class, so hopefully I'll have something fun to share in the next week or two!  Also on deck is some experimenting with paper-piecing and attempting to refashion some clothes into maternity clothes.  I bought some t-shirts at Joanns the other day ($3 each, can't beat that) with the intent to add some rouching to the sides, and to cut one up to make some rolled flowers or perhaps a ruffled neck line to fancy it up.  I've never done any kind of clothing before, so we'll see how this goes!  If anyone has any tips on rouching, I'd love to hear it! I've browsed a few tutorials but right now I'm probably going to just wing it...

So, what have you been up to? Be sure to hop over to Freshly Pieced to link up and see what other's have been doing!

How Jess got her groove back

At the end of last year, I had signed up to be part of the charity quilting bee, do.Good Stitches.  I got placed in the Imagine Circle, hosted by Amanda of My Sewcial Hour and our quilts are being donated to Threading Hope, an organization that donates the quilts to children/families in underpriveleged countries.  I'm so excited about this cause and about the very talented group of ladies that I'll be working with, in fact I was quite intimidated when I started looking at everyone's flickr pools and what kinds of stuff they can do! Happily, everyone is very friendly and supportive and I'm looking forward to making some new friends.  For our first block, Amanda chose the Sawtooth Star, which I was happy with since I have done these before and it would let me kind of get my feet wet without getting too crazy.  We were asked to make the blocks in pinks, whites, reds and accents of greys, and we could do whatever variation of the block we felt like.  Here are the two I came up with:

Like most things I make, my ideas for these started out much different, but I do love how they turned out.  I had gone to my LQS to pick up a few fat quarters to make these as my stash is lacking in these colors, and those little birds immediately caught my eye! Aren't they so cute? I wish I knew what line they were from.  The sashing in the middle of that one was improv'd as my small squares turned out slightly too small to make a full 12.5" block, but I think it actually looks better with the sashing anyway.  I'm not really sure why my points got cut off and I'm a little disappointed about that, but oh well, such is life.  The second one was totally not what I'd planned.  I didn't even know I had these reds in my stash until I was looking for some white to use, and I found a small scrap of that center fabric that I had gotten in a stash bag a while back, and luckily I found that solid red which I don't even remember buying.  Anway, not as creative a block as I had originally planned, but I love the pop of color in the middle. 

After I finished my blocks I felt like I was starting to get my groove back, so I decided to whip up this cute little stuffie for my good friend's little girl. 

Is this not the cutest thing ever?? It's going to be very hard to part with when I mail it off with my friend's gift this week (yeah, we're still not done with Christmas!).  I was able to use leftovers from the FQ's I bought for my blocks, some yellow felt I already had, the white for the eyes was in my stash, and I actually got the black from some random scrap of "cow print" that I somehow wound up with a while back.  Also, the filling is from a pillow I took apart a few months ago. Woo, all scraps!! 

This little guy was really quick to put together with this tutorial, only taking about 2 hours including the time it took to cut out the pattern and gather fabrics.  I'm not completely convinced I did the tail right, and will probably alter it next time (yes, there will be a next time as I plan to make a whole parliament of these little guys! And yes, I had to google what a group of owls is called...) I did skip the step about adding felt inside the wings, but I will try it that way next or add a little stuffing to them. 

After this weekend of finishing this stuff up, I feel totally ready to get back in the swing of things and complete some bigger projects that are still in wait!  Now the trick will be focusing on those projects that need finishing BEFORE starting new ones...I've already had to fight myself from buying this pattern from Tickle and Hide for her drawstring quilts, they are super cute and I'm excited she is now selling the pattern for them! She's also having a give away at her blog to win a copy of the pattern along with a jelly roll to make it with, go check it out!

So, what kind of projects do you find help get you out of a rutt? 

New Fabric = Love

I am giddy as a school girl...why? Because I just got my first package of fabric in the mail! Man I tell you this may have created a monster...there's so many great fabric shops out there with so many pretty things and it's SO easy...uh oh, someone better cut me off from the interwebs...

This all started while I was over at Stitched in Color and Rachel so non-chalantly mentioned that if your stash was needing solids, than the Baby Bottled Rainbow Bundle at Marmalad Fabrics was just the fix.  Turns out, I *was* in desperate need of some solids, so I popped on over and immediately saw the bundle had to be mine.  This bundle of Kona Solids was put together for this shop on Rachel's suggestion, and there are two versions.  I have never gotten to use Kona Solids but I always love the richness of the colors and have heard great things, so I was pretty pumped about this.  While I was there, I hit up the sale section and grabbed a couple of fat quarters and headed to check out.  As I was looking at shipping costs, I realized that I could either pay $10 for shipping, or spend $10 more to reach the free shipping threshold...so yeah that's kind of a no brainer! It took me forever to narrow down my selections, and man was it a hard choice.  I almost wound up with about twice as much as I got, but I had to cut myself off and I LOVE the choices I made.

Kona Baby Bottled Rainbow Bundle (they came labeled with the color name on it...isn't that great??)

Ty Pennington's Impression-Water Flowers, Khristian A. Howell's Theory-Sierra Leaf and Forrest Wheels

Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2- Sparrows, Ty Pennington's Impressions-Kimono Spice, Foliage and Lace

I had no idea that Ty Pennington actually had a line of fabric out, and actually I didn't even know it was his when I ordered and just noticed as I was organizing my photos, but bravo, Ty! I'm diggin it. I love that even though these are from 3 separate lines, I can mix and match them together.  I'm dying to cut into them, but they're being saved for the e-course that I signed up to take which is the Curves Class taught by none other than Rachel at Stitched in Color (yeah, I've gotten into a lot of trouble over at her blog lately...but I adore her so it's okay!)

So, do you shop for fabric online, or do you prefer to see it in person first? And where are your favorite online places to shop for fabric? 

Before and After

For Christmas this year (er...last year I guess?) I got a lot of fun sewing goodies, including new a quilting table.  In case you missed this post, here is a reminder of how terribly messy and non-sewing friendly my "craft room" was. 

This room did not start off as a craft room.  It actually started off as my husband's office where all of his computer stuff was set up, along with our printers and other random "guy" stuff.  When I first started sewing, I set up my machine on my little desk that I had in the guest room-not a whole lot of space but it worked at first.  A few months after working in there, my dear hubby suggested that I move my desk into the office since he has a laptop and doesn't use the room that much anyway and that way I'd have a little more room to work...little did he know this was the beginning of the end of his "office"! I slowly but surely took over most space in that room, including the computer hutch which was not at all functional for cutting fabric on (anything bigger than a fat quarter was usually cut on the ground...).  Though inefficient and cramped and at times frustrating, it's what we had and I made it work.  Well for Christmas, my grandmother-in-law, mother-in-law and hubby went in together and got me a giant quilting table!

 

 

This photo shows some of the loot I got for Chrimas also, but more on that later.  Check out the size of this table! No more cutting on the floor for me...that blue cutting mat is 36" x 24" and as you can see it doesn't fill up the full table.  The table also opens up and has a little table top meant to put a serger on, but since I do not have a serger I will probably use it to put patterns and such on to easily see while I'm cutting and pinning.

When I got this it was in a great big box and still needed to be assembled.  Unfortunately, I had to go back to work the week after Christmas, so I was bummed that I was going to have to wait until the weekend to put it in action.  Happily, my husband still was off work, and I came home that Tuesday surprised to find that he had spent the whole day building it, dismantling the horrible hutch and removing it from the house, and cleaning and straightening up the room.  I love that man! Later, he also helped me hang my thread holder on the wall so it wouldn't take up space on the desk and he also added a shelf to the wall (made with wood from the dismantled hutch!)

I clearly have not finished organizing yet...it takes me some time to settle in and "nest" in a new area, but it's coming along and I'm loving working in there now! Also, I have to add to please ignore the awful colors in that room.  The people before us for some reason thought it was a good idea to paint two of the walls purple and two of the walls green...oh, and the ceiling is green! We've been here over 2 years now but have been too lazy busy with other projects to repaint. 

Also for Christmas as seen in that photo, I got some new books, the cutting mat, a mini-iron, new rotary blades and a new die for my AccuQuilt Go!Baby cutter.  I actually got a mini-iron from both my parents and my husband, so the day after Christmas my mom and I went to the craft store to return one and I got a great big ruler and the gripper for it which is great! 

I finally got back to sewing the other day and started making my bee blocks for this month.  I am almost finished with them and once I can get some photos I'll share those.  Also, my fabric that I ordered comes in tomorrow, woohoo! Is it weird that I'm litterally giddy about getting a package of fabric?? *sigh* feels good to be getting back in the groove :)

Big Reveal (and why I've been a slacker)

Well, Happy New Year everyone!! It's been quite some time, but I'm back from my hiatus with a big reveal!

Look Mom, it's a frog! It's an alien gummy bear! No, it's a baby!  We found out we were expecting our first baby just about 2 weeks before Christmas, I was about 6 weeks along when we found out.  With that came the "morning" (should be called 24-7) sickness and tiredness...Most of December for me was spent sitting on the couch, not feeling like doing much of anything.  Because of this, I really did not get a whole lot done the past few weeks, and unfortunately had to give a few people some "IOU's" for Christmas! Oh well, once we told them the news they were excited and understanding. At first I was pretty upset I couldn't get up the energy to finish things, but realized I really just needed to rest and not let myself get stressed out.

I am almost 10 weeks now and starting to feel a little more human again, so I am trying to get back to my sewing (and cleaning...but where's the fun in that??) but am having to slowly work my way out of my rut.  I know I have quite a few projects left to finish, but I need something quick and small to get me back in.  My group for do. Good Stitches starts this month, so today I went out to my LQS and picked up a few fat quarters/fat eigths and will do those blocks tomorrow. I'm hoping this gives me the kick I need to get back into the swing of things! I also ordered some fabrics on-line the other night (a first for me!) and signed up for a class (another first!), but I'll share more about that later, for now, its nap time! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!