Covered in Threadmalaka’s adventure in sewing

I’m super excited about my first full-sized quilt.   My mother-in-law was making it with me, but I had the instructions and I forgot to tell her how to Seminole Piece it -  cut down and set back together by staggering the block, creating a band of the design.  This made her rows too short, which is totally fixable but something I have to get creative with!  I’ll take pictures of the whole thing once I fix that and add the borders.  For now, here’s the gist of it..

Then.. I have to quilt this sucker! I’m scared!  But, I’m taking a free-motion quilting class on Thursday this week, so I’m gearing up for that and hope that I don’t screw this quilt up when I try to quilt it.

Speaking of class, I need to whip up and easy 30×30 quilt before class.  I know it’s going to be quick but I have so many projects right now I haven’t yet had time.

My sister decided that I needed to make her two more Amy Butler Birdie Slings, this time in Spring colors.  She sent me the fabric but good lordie those bags take forever to make.  I embellish them a lot (zippered pockets, etc) which takes all the time but I don’t want to make a bag that isn’t usable.  Of course, she gave me exactly 3 weeks to get them finished, and the first week I had surgery and the second I was out of town, so sewing wasn’t in the equation.   I have them almost finished, with 5 days to spare!

I have also been working on a bag for my friend Eleanor.  She wanted something ‘not huge’ with a zippered closure.  Ok I’ve done zippers every which way but I cannot seem to get the zippered closure correct.  I tried once and ended up with this:

Although it’s not completely obvious from this perspective, the zipper looks wrong, and unprofessional, and I’m just not going to put it out into the world like that.  So I went and bought a pattern for a bag with a zippered closure.  I made it up, and it looks cute and functional and right..

But, because it was totally different than any other bag I’ve made (and boy have I made a lot of bags) I totally forgot that I needed to be careful around that zipper (one thing I KNOW, I’m not sure how it slipped my mind) so the fabric is too close and it impedes the zipper from sliding smoothly.  I was so frustrated with this that I moved on to the Birdie Slings instead of fixing it.  I’m still not sure I’m going ot fix it.  To be honest, I’m not in love with that fabric anymore since I’ve been staring at it for 2 bag fails so far.

I DID learn a lot from this pattern, though!  I learned how to make a bag witha  zippered closure, which is a big hooray.  I think I’ll try to make it again, but use the top of this bag’s pattern and the bottom of another pattern (or make my own) since I’m not in love with the roundness of this bag.  Of course, I probably just have bad taste because everyone loves those friggin Birdie Slings and they make me want to stab my eyes out.

My sister also commissioned a few large baby bibs.  She thought giving one to her best friend as a baby shower gift would be great and that maybe I could put her friend’s baby’s name on it.  Put it on it? Like applique? Oh, how exciting!  I think these bibs will be super easy to make, but the applique might take me a little bit since I haven’t done it in forever.  These projects are also due in less than 5 days.

Let’s see.. I have to make a 30×30 quilt,  finished 2 Birdie Slings, and make at least 2 bibs.. all before Wednesday of this week.  I was thinking I had until Friday but we leave town on Friday, I have work then quilting class on Thursday.  Of course, I bring this upon myself and I love deadlines, but boy life sure gets in the way of sewing!

Ahh!! and I wonder why this blog never gets updated.

I just realized that I have made so many different things in the last few weeks, but I didn’t take pictures of much of it!

• The Stepping Stones quilt top should be about finished.  I completed most of it then sent it off with my mother in law to put together.  I need to cut out the borders but that’ll only take a minute.  It’s adorable! And, it was so super easy I want to make another one!!

Actually, I have a different jelly roll that I can’t wait to get started on:

What will I do with it? I don’t know, but I love working with 2 1/2 inch trips.  I’m sure I’ll find a great pattern to compliment the warm colors on this one.

But, I want to get the stepping stones quilt finished, or at least sandwiched, before I start another one.  I’m going to piece the backing of the stepping stones quilt out of 10″ squares, it shouldn’t take long and I think it’ll be super cute.

• I have made a ton of bags lately!  I haven’t taken a picture of any of them, though.  I’m not sure why, I just haven’t had time to even think about it, lately.  I even made one for myself that I’m loving.

• Curtains! Finally!  While in Houston last weekend, we went to Glick discount fabric & upholstery shop.  Oh my! Iwas in heaven.  Rolls upon rolls of fabric, everywhere - more than I could even comprehend.  I was looking for drapery material for my double-decker livingroom windows.  Thankfully, my mom and sister were there to help me, and we picked out a beautiful green taffeta and crossed our fingers that it would work with my house.

I got home that Sunday and started on them immediately.  Taffeta is easy to sew, but hard to work with.  It slides off any surface, which meant measuring, pinning, and cutting 17 feet of it was a nightmare.  Although I considered quitting several times, I didn’t - I finished them by Monday and Richard was brave enough to hang the curtain rod for me.  Voila.. my living room came together just like that!

• After the painstaking process of removing a bazillion stitches from my nephew’s quilt, I decided to take a formal class on free motion quilting.  It’s not offered until March 26, but I’m really excited about it.  I’m going to do some more practicing so that the instructor can help me figure out what I’m doing so incredibly wrong.  My stitches are different lengths and my curves are always wonky.

I’m having minor surgery this week, but taking a few days off work.  Hopefully I’ll be up to sewing, I have tons of projects that I want to play with.  And I’ll take pictures, promise.