Quilt top #3 complete!

A month over when I'd hoped to have all four quilt tops completed but I'm very glad that I got them finished before December. 

I learned the hard way with Quilt #3 that you can't sew the two borders together and then sew them to the quilt. Many frustrated stitches ripped out and patched in pieces later it is finished. 

Unfortunately this one has a LOT of tenting going on and I'm afraid I don't know what to do to fix it. I'm sure I probably needed to catch it before adding the borders but oh well. I'll just push forward like I always do. 

Well, on to backing & quilting. I'm sure I'll make all sorts of mistakes with those ;)

Spoonflower Contest results

Doh. Well, I actually did better on my Cameo fabric design than I did on the Advent Calendar one.
Only 76 votes, ranked 34 out of 40.
Oh well. I'll just keep on keeping on and try to enter more contests until I win!! :)
Probably not til I get all my Quilts for Christmas completed though.

Quilt #3 almost done

Another zigzag quilt top almost under my belt. I really like how quickly this no-triangle zigzag pattern goes together. Even when the first 14 blocks get sewn together backwards and need to be re-done. ;)

The fabrics are the same as quilt # 4 except I used the blue paisley instead of green as the 'solid' color.
I think the zigzags would have been more defined and the patterned fabric more of a feature if I'd chosen an actual solid color fabric instead of the blue paisley. Oh well.

So now all I need to do is add the borders and I'll have all four quilt tops finished! Woo hoo!

Quilt-top #4 complete

Whew, I'm very happy to say that Quilt-top #4 is complete.

This one was probably the most challenging to finish because of the wonkiness at the bottom.

It's definitely not perfect but looks fairly decent with the borders added. I wished it photographed better, it looks a little washed out. The fabrics are lovely and I think it looks pretty good in person.

I'm sure there was a better way

I'm pretty sure I pieced Quilt # 4 together in the most time consuming and ill-conceived way possible.

I didn't follow a pattern (I could have), I just planned it out all in my head and a little on paper and figured it'd all work out. That is SO not the way to make a quilt when the total number of quilts you've ever made can be counted on one hand. I'm still a newbie/beginner/novice when it comes to quilting so you'd think I'd use more sense and follow a pattern. Naw, not me, I figure if I can draw it on a piece of paper I can make it with out any issues. Ugh, every pitfall I inevitably fall into is a hole I dug myself.

I was tempted to stop at a certain point so that I could just add the borders and be done but I asked my husband for his opinion, should the bricks be all lined up or off set.

He suggested offset and I agreed.

So all 9 columns are complete, each column has 7 1/2 'bricks'. That's when things started to go downhill.
Each column I would sew on was shorter than the column before it. How in the world can I start off with the exact same dimensions on every piece of fabric and end up with 9 columns each one successively shorter than the one before? HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?!?! It would make total sense to me if I had one long, one short, one long, one short, or some sort of variance but COME ON, every one shorter than the one before it?! Sheesh.

And here it is almost finished:

Now I have to figure out how to square it up a bit before adding the borders

Disgruntled

I have actually made some (little) progress on Ian's Fall (ahem, winter) Wardrobe. I have all the pattern pieces for the one-piece outfit and shirts cut out. Woot!

I am a bit peeved though because out of the 5 pairs of knit pants I made him, 3 have shrunk!

My poor kid looks like he's ready for a flood when he wears them. I really wish I could remember if I pre-washed the fabric or not. Bah!

Well, I did it.

I entered the Advent Calendar contest at Spoonflower with the following entry:



If I get in the top ten I'll be sure to post a tutorial here on how to put it together.

Beautiful Labels

I received the labels from the Twill Tape Guy that I won on the Crafterhours contest.
We had to tweak the design just a little bit in order for them to be legible on the texture of the grosgrain ribbon...they turned out wonderful!

Now I just gotta get the clothes sewing started up again. Ian's fall wardrobe is looking more and more like Ian's winter wardrobe....but we'll see. Who knows when another fire will get lit under me and I get a lot accomplished. The sewing machines are back home now so I can start getting back on track (i.e. sewing like a fiend before December arrives and I start to panic).

ISpy Swap

Crafterhours has hooked me again...this time with an iSpy Spoonflower swap. This is SO awesome because I'll be getting all these great fabric swatches from Spoonflower which is a site I visit daily dreaming of the time when I can quit my day job to pursue my (very recent) dream as a famous fabric designer. I really need to learn how to draw. This swap is going to be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to all the cute/crazy/fun prints that everyone in the swap is selecting.

Here are a few that have caught my eye:

I {heart} Spoonflower & Advent Calendars

I really love Spoonflower and wish I could enter every contest they have (& order tons of fabric). I entered their Cameo contest a while back and had a fairly respectable 150 votes. Which actually put me in the middle of the pack. Not too shabby for my very first design:

I also plan to enter their Advent Calendar contest and am waiting for my fabric to arrive so I can sew it up & make sure it's worthwhile to enter.  I LOVED the Christmas advent calendars we had when I was growing up. They weren't very fancy...just paper with little doors that you could open and read a little verse or story. My Mom crocheted some for us when we were older that you could put candy into. There's something so fun about getting a little something, whatever it may be, each day that helps make the holiday season that much more special.

Broken sewing machine = too much house work

I have three sewing machines and as of Halloween none of them was working. :(
Not being able to sew for over a week while two of them were at the shop getting fixed let me realize just how badly my house needed some TLC. Vacuuming was an eye-opening experience...something I should really do more often. I'd really prefer to sew/craft/read/sleep/anything but housework though.
I was able to get quilt tops #3 & #4 all cut out.

Dollar Store to the rescue!

 I may be a bit biased but I really can't imagine anything cuter than a 30" tall Luke Skywalker.

Thanks to the dollar store we found a cell phone case for a pouch & a light saber that we took apart. Since I had everything else already he's costume this year was $2. Not too bad. :)