Granny Squares… I mean, Cousin Squares

*I can’t start today without saying a huge thank you for those of you who have donated to my sister’s fundraising efforts.  Especially those of you who have more quilts and fabrics than you know what to do with!  It’s made me realize even more how much love and support there is in my community of friends.  You all are amazing.*

This week, I put Janice’s wavy tutorial to the test and I LOVE it.  I literally sat my computer on my sewing table and scrolled down as I completed each step.  It was like she was there holding my hand.  The whole time.  Yep, I’m that student in class.

I’m so glad that Michelle over at Factotum-of-Arts encouraged me to give this quilting style a try and shared this tutorial.  Plus, my mom told me to put on my big-girl panties and moveon.com from just straight-line quilting.

Baby steps, friends.

Here’s a preview of the quilting!

I just love the texture that this brings to the quilt!

I even got to put my label on a quilt for the first time:

You love it, right?  I got them from Ananemone Labels over on Etsy!  She was amazing to work with, and she quickly had 24 precut labels in my hands.  I know I’ll be using her again!

Now the quilt is sitting here, looking almost ready to be shipped off to my adorable little cousin.

Off to finish the binding!

Happy quilting, sweet friends!

My First Finish

Today is a day for celebration.

While I still have many WiPs:

Hey, Honey Honey, Scraps for Me, Sister’s Ten BOM

and a stack of quilt tops to baste, quilt, and bind…

I finally have a finished quilt!!!

So, here we are…

• 55 blog posts
• 7 finished quilt tops
• exactly 5 months since purchasing my sewing machine
• 5 sewing lessons
• endless ripped seams
• more ironing than I’ve ever done in my entire life

LATER… there is finally a finish!

Monday night I had my last quilt class with Melanie where we focused on binding.  Seriously, seeing everything in person helped so much.  She shared many tips that I’d seen online, and new ones, too.  I am such a visual learner so this class was extremely helpful.

The wine was helpful, too…

Here I am at the end of class… it was so hard to leave that night, but 9:30 was pushing my limits.  Can you tell how happy I am?

I totally stole this photo from Melanie, so be sure to check out the other finished quilts!

Then Melanie set all her little birdies free to do their thing… binding.

Let’s just say that hand binding will be reserved for baby quilts for now.

This is how I spent my nights this week:

Housewives for the win.  Can I get an amen?!

And, drumroll please…

I would like to thank…Oh wait, this isn’t the Academy Awards.

When I first started this journey, I read a quote that said, “A house is not a home until it has a homemade quilt.”  While we are lucky and blessed to have quilts by our grandmothers on our beds and couches, it was truly special to see this on my way to work this morning.

Happy WiP Wednesday, sweet friends!

Hot damn, I’m a quilter now!

WiP Wednesday

Quilting Alert!  Quilting Alert!

I have now officially machine quilted – successfully.  The mod patchwork baby quilt from my Quilting 101 class taught by Melanie is now quilted!  I am beyond ecstatic!  So, from my previous disaster with machine quilting to now, I can say that a walking foot is a god-send, and that it helps to keep the weight of the quilt on my upper body.  It was also more than helpful to have Melanie there to tell me that every thing was A-OK.

For this quilt we practiced straight line quilting a quarter inch from each seam.  I love how this looks on the front:

My husband loved how it looked on the back.  I thought, great, could have just used this fabric on both sides – it would have been a whole lot easier!  Haha.

I just love the little boxes that form in the corners:

Now that it’s quilted, I have a confession.

I was afraid of quilting.

But, I’m really afraid of binding.

I’ve bought the fabric and I’ll make the binding this weekend.

We’ll see how this goes…

On a brighter note, I can start quilting some of the tops I’ve made!  However, I have this sick addiction to buying fabric and making quilt tops.  We’ll see if I can overcome!

Happy WiP Wednesday, y’all.  I can’t wait to see what you’re up to…

WiP Wednesday

Whew, today I just have to say that I’m a work in progress.

After 5 months of working with my machine, I just figured out how to make it back stitch.

Better later than never, right?

Monday night, I had week 2 of my quilting class at RPS with Melanie.  After holding off for an entire week, and not doing anything with the squares we cut from last week, I finally got to piece everything together!  I have to say, small brag coming, my piecing is getting so. much. better.  A few seams are still off, but overall I’m so happy with this quilt top!

Last night, my goal was to get this puppy basted.  So round and round I went…

…until I had a zero-calorie quilt sandwich, friends!

Sorry for the lighting, but it was already dark outside and my hair was a sopping wet mess.

This will have to do:

The back is a large piece of the printed fabric from the patchwork.

(Which I may have bought 2 more yards of this week…)

In other exciting news, this book also came in the mail!

I’ve been so inspired by Cath’s paper pieced stars over at one of my favorite quilting blogs, that I decided to buy the book for future reference. (The linked post has many of her stars together, but click on the category for Paper Piecing to see all of the stars she’s made!  Do it.  Inspiring.) The two paper pieced star blocks I’ve made my for Scraps for Me quilt have been so much fun, but I’m hoping to start a larger project at some point.  A point in the far future, after I finish my fabric diet.

Now that this quilt is basted and ready for class next Monday, (Mom, where was this motivation in High School?!) I’m ready to start on this quilt! The white fabric came in the mail today, so I hope to have some progress soon 🙂

Happy WiP Wednesday friends – be sure to check out the other projects!

(Have I mentioned that I love Wednesday?)

A Quilt for My Own (Non-Existent) Baby

Say, what?  It’s OK, mom.  Breathe.  No baby for the foreseeable future.  However, if there was ever a quilt to inspire your future grandchildren, this would be the one.

Back up.

Late December I started this crazy sewing journey with a 4-hour lesson and many lofty dreams.  The quilt I decided to do as my “starter quilt” was probably way too advanced, but it got me hooked, and I’m still going.  Fast forward five months, and I’m finally taking a class – so thankful!  The stars aligned and my favorite fabric store Rock Paper Scissors is holding a beginning quilting class taught by my quilty friend, Melanie!  During the class, we’ll each make a 32in x 32in baby quilt – the perfect project to practice on. One, I’m happy because she’s inspiring.  Two, I’m happy because the store is inspiring.  Three, I’m happy because I’m going to learn how to actually finish a dern project.  Hey, girl, heeeeeey.

So, anyway, onto that offspring producing baby quilt!

For months I have been eying this fabric:

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know this is my “style”.  If you’re new here, Welcome, I like bold, colorful, and obnoxious.  Hey, it’s better than the days when I wore something tie dye every.single.day.  (No, really, that was a phase.)

Previously I just couldn’t justify buying this fabric because I didn’t have a project in mind. (This doesn’t usually stop me, but I’m glad I resisted earlier.)

Then, came the class list.  A charm pack and a coordinating solid.

So, I got it backwards, and I bought the fabric, and some coordinating solids.  

42 different solids to be exact.

Again, bold, colorful, and obnoxious!

I’m so digging the Kona solids right now.  Stocking stuffers!

I had this vision in my head, and I was just praying that it worked.  During class we learned the proper technique for cutting fabric which was really helpful.  This lesson also included ironing, which I have been forgetting.  Eh.

I hate when small steps make a big difference… gotta get on that.

So, I cut up some fussy cuts:

Laid out my solids:

And got to work.

This quilt just came together.  It started making sense.

This quilt is magic. (To me)

Another view, because it’s so big you might have missed it!  (HA!)

Have you ever seen something so beautiful? 

(JUST SAY NO!)

I am so excited about the next three weeks of class to piece this baby together, quilt, and bind it.  I’m even more excited that this will be my first “finished” project because I absolutely love it.  Love.it.  Melanie made me promise not to sew it together until the next class, but that’s not going to stop me from looking at it!

Tonight when I showed the hubs this quilt he said, “Whoa, I love that!  I hope you’re keeping this one.”

To which I replied, “I am.  For our baby.”

Heeeeeeeeey…

Can you imagine if that was how I told him I was preggers?

(I’m not)

As a side note: How trippin’ is my baby going to be looking at this thing?

 

Quilting with Friends and Friends

Whew, I am loving this weekend.  One of my favorites, practically a sister, is here to visit, and we’ve been doing a lot of eating, sight seeing, and drinking wine.  Sounds about right.

Which means that the design wall looks the same.

But, for a good reason.  I love having my people here.

The four final blocks are made, and they finally incorporate my two favorite colors that were seriously lacking so far – red and purple!  These blocks include many of my family members – and me – for my sweet cousin to know how much we love her.

For my uncle and Pappaw, two proud Navy men:

For my mom, who loves Ladybugs.  I call every one I love “Ladybug” because it reminds me of my mother.  Love:

This block has “me” in the center:

And, for this one, I just liked the colors!

Whew, I cannot wait to finish this baby!

Annnnnnnd, hold the press.  But I took a quilting class!  Melanie taught a wonderful class on free motion quilting, and I’m definitely not a master… or even good, but it was addicting and I can tell this is going to be something I want to practice.  It probably won’t show up on a quilt for a while, though.

As  a teacher, I really appreciated how hands on Melanie was!  She was so encouraging and basically the whole class allowed us to just practice and find our rhythm.

Which Emma found instantly.

No, seriously, instantly.

She wrote her name.  I wanted to hit her (in a totally encouraging way!)

Meanwhile, I was over here doing this:

So, like I tell my own students:

Practice.

Today I’m linking up with Plum and June’s Let’s Get Acquainted Link Up over at Simply Miss Luella!