Almost there!

Well, I've got the Mario quilt completely top stitched and the binding has been sewed together, trimmed up and ironed in half. Now just for the last steps! I'm so excited to have this quilt completed, so I'm probably going to end up stitching through the night to get it done. What a great birthday present for me tomorrow! :)

Speaking of great presents, today's the last day to sign up for my giveaway. You can find that post here. Good luck everyone! Happy crafting!

Conundrums

I know I'm right in the middle of finishing my Mario Quilt, but I'm starting to look forward to one of the next projects I'll be working on. I'm making a beach blanket for my friend who just moved to Miami, so I just put together a really simple quilt from a jelly roll and some white sashing. The problem is that I bought the jelly roll from JoAnn Fabrics, so I don't think it was cut very straight and my seams aren't lining up as well as I want them to.

This picture might not show it very well, but the two middle striped sections line up great. The two edge sections are a little off. The one on the left by about a 1/4 inch and the one on the right by about a 1/2 inch. I'm debating if I should just leave them as is and it can be a little "organic" or if I should rip them both off and line them up with the seams and sew the back on.

What would you do in this situation?

A Special Package

Yesterday I received an overly generous thank-you package in the mail. It was much more than I expected to receive, and I may have squealed once or twice (or thrice) in the process of going through everything in the package. So, a big Thank You to Kris at krislovesfabric (go check out her blog, it's fantastic!) for this special package.

First, she sent me a very nice card. I just wanted to share what it looks like since it's so quilty in design. I love it and may have to look into getting some of these of my own.

Second, she sent me an awesome book - "Sew Fun , So Colorful" - which is right up my alley. It's from Me and My Sister Designs and I'm already hunkering to make several quilts included inside. (I squealed over this for sure.)

Third, she sent me lots of teal/aqua fabric and a piece of fusible interfacing to try out. Teal is my favorite color and somehow she picked up on that by reading my blog. I love each and every piece, and I may have squealed when going through them all. My favorite is the white polka dot fabric right on top. It is so playful! I'm going to have to come up with a special project for these fabrics - something that I'll love and cherish for a long time.

So, thank you again Kris for the fantastic package. Happy crafting everyone! :)

P.S. I've got all of my stippling done on my Mario Quilt and am just finishing the detail in each character. Hopefully the binding is getting sewn on tomorrow! :)

Oops!

Yesterday I spent all day working on the Super Mario quilt again. I think I need between 12-15 more hours to have the whole thing completely done! That is so exciting considering it's been a WiP for about 9 months!

Here's a pic my lovely husband took of me while I was wresting with shifting the quilt. Sorry my eyes look possessed and it's so blurry, but I'm quilting in action with no time to stop for the camera! Stitching in the ditch around all of my characters took a really, really long time. The "Angry Sun" took the longest since it has the most outlying parts. I think I spent an hour just on that one alone. With the quilt being so heavy, it is really hard to move it easily. I've definitely put my little Janome to the test with this quilt!

The fun thing yesterday was that I also started stippling in the blue background part of the quilt. I've never really stippled before, but it is so much fun and I love it! I did some practice squares at the quilt retreat I went to earlier this year, but my stippling wasn't very good. I did some more practice yesterday, and liked what I was doing, so I braved it and went all out on the quilt. I am soooo happy with how it is turning out. I've got about 1/2 of the top stippled and it will probably take another 2 hours to finish the rest. From there it's smooth sailing to the end (I hope)!

Unfortunately, I ran into a little snag yesterday... Just as I was nearing quitting time for the night my left pointer finger got nabbed by the needle! (I've never done that before, so I guess I can cross that life experience off the list!) I was fortunate that it didn't go through the bone and just went through the tip of the finger. It did go through the finger nail, which was not pleasant, but I'll survive. I even got my husband to help me put on a band aid. :) Want to know the best part? I had to go right back to quilting because I wasn't in a good place to stop yet! After checking to make sure I hadn't bled all over the quilt, (phew!) I had about 5 more minutes of stippling before I could call it quits. My finger was howling the whole time, but it's doing better. It's just a little sore now, but I guess this is going to make practicing for my violin lesson on Tuesday a little harder... Oops!

Happy crafting!

The Joys of Quilting

Yesterday I finally got my Super Mario Quilt top completely assembled, ironed, sandwiched, pinned and even some of the quilting done! It was a long day, which started at 8am and ended at 10:30pm with a small hiatus for both lunch and dinner. (I treated myself to some much needed coffee in the morning though while enjoying the new posts from the Red, White & Blue Blog Hop!)

While going through the process of finally having the top ready to be quilted, I revisited some things I haven't dealt with in a while. I haven't completed a large quilt in years because baby quilts are so much easier and faster (and I've had a lot of people in need of baby quilts)! I'm sure you can commiserate with one if not all of the following "joys of quilting," but in the end they'll lead me to appreciate my finished quilt even more when it's all done.

#1: Cats - I've posted before about how my cats like to play with destroy what I'm working on. Shasha, the one pictured here, particularly loves to be with me in whatever room I'm working in, preferably on the same table or on my lap. When I'm sewing, this is very bothersome, but she's just too cute to keep throwing her out of the room! Sometimes she just sleeps in the windowsill or sits right next to the sewing machine pedal - I'm OK with those two things But, when she starts batting at the needle or clawing up my fabric I have to shoo her off the table and into the naughty kitty corner. I do think  it's adorable that she wants to be near me, but I really don't want to sew through her paw! So, there have been many sewing breaks to ensure cat safety in the making of this quilt.

#2: Large quilt means large work space - I've used my sewing room floor to lay out a bunch of quilts or projects before, but it has carpet. I didn't want to pin on carpet and not be able to tell if I got through all the layers or if I was catching carpet with the pins. So, with the help of my lovely husband, we rearranged the living room for about 3 hours while I laid out the back (pictured here), batting and quilt top and proceeded to pin everything in place while he played an NBA video game. He was a very good sport about my head being in the way most of the time. :) He helped me move all of the furniture twice, sweep the floor, and vacuum the rug when we put it back in its place. And, not to forget, he was on cat detail while I was pinning to make sure they stayed off of the quilt! The quilt is for him, so maybe he felt obligated, but I love him so much for helping me today! It made the process go so much smoother.

 #3: Sore knees - I forgot how sore your knees get when you pin baste! On the last baby quilts I've done I could either pin on the kitchen table or I used fusible backing and didn't have to pin at all. I've been spoiled by the ease of it all! All of the seams in my quilt kept leaving little grid lines on my skin. So, now I've either got to find my really old volleyball knee pads, or maybe go out and get a new pair. Maybe I could even make some! (note to self to look into that...) It felt so good to sit down on the couch for a minute when I was all done. :)

#4: Other sore body parts - Starting with my left thumb, I forgot to wear a thimble, or even a bandaid, while pinning the quilt. Really I forgot I would even need one until I was about 3/4 done and started noticing that little bits of my skin were gone and my thumb was a little sore. Oh well, such is life! Moving on then to my wrists, shoulders (arms in general) and back. I mentioned that I've started actually quilting the top now. This quilt must weigh at least 15 pounds, maybe even more, which makes it really difficult to move around. (All those seams from the blocks really add up!) I'm starting with stitching in the ditch around each character which means a lot of rotating - pretty much every inch is a new direction. I'm using my walking foot so I get consistent stitches, but wow, I didn't think it would take as long as it is! I've only completed 8 characters today, and I had hoped to get them all done! Whoops, so maybe another 8 tomorrow since I won't have to spend the time pinning and ironing like I did today.

And what have I learned from all of these things? I need to get back in the swing of quilting and finishing larger quilts! All of these little headaches will make the quilt that much more special when it's all done. I'm so close to finishing it now that I'm really motivated to keep going. I hope to have it completed, with maybe the exception of the binding, by my birthday on the 13th. So, stay tuned because this quilt is getting done this month no matter what! :)

June Package Pals

Last month I signed up for June Package Pals through C.R.A.F.T. We were given the name and email of another person who had signed up and were asked to send them a little crafty package by the end of the month. My partner and I got to know each other a little and then we were supposed to put together a little crafty package to send to them by the end of the month through emailing back and forth. I sent my package off a little over a week ago, so I think my partner should have received her package by now, and I should be safe to post about it.

My partner told me that she likes to paint and has done some cross stitch and that she's interested in trying just about everything. But she's also had some health complications which makes things hard for her. So, I tried to put together a little package that would include some things she could use as supplies and some things she could use in their final state. So, here's what I put together:

The pillow probably looks familiar to some of you since I used the block in the Red, White and Blue Blog Hop. (For that post and my giveaway, click here.)

The yellow fabric is actually a homemade heating pad. It can also double for a cooling pad, so you put it in the microwave or the freezer depending on how you want to use it. I filled it with rice so that it would keep the heat/cool but also mold around wherever you're using it.

Some supplies I included were 5 colors of embroidery thread and an embroidery hoop. I also gave her three ceramic heart-shaped buttons that I found at an estate sale.

The last 3 things all go together. I put together some blank coasters made from tiles and felt on the bottom. Since she likes to paint, the little note on the top says that she can decorate them however she wants and then to finish them off she just needs to cover them in a couple layers of Mod Podge with the sponge brushes. I hope she has fun with them!

So, I hope she enjoys what I put together. I think C.R.A.F.T. will be hosting another Package Pals sign up for August (to be announced some time in July I believe), so if you want to participate next time, sign up for that blog and keep an eye out for her post. She only takes the first 100 people to sign up, but it's a lot of fun! Happy crafting!

Spiral Tutorial

I received a couple requests for a tutorial of my second block from the hop - the spiral block. It's not too complicated of a block, but I'll give you all of the measurements for things and how much to cut and how to sew it all together. I hope you all enjoy the tutorial, and if you're looking for my original post about the hop you can find that here.

Supplies needed:
* 8 different fabrics for the front - a fat quarter of each will yield several blocks
* backing fabric
* binding fabric
* items to cut your fabrics
* items to sew your fabrics together

Directions:

Step 1: Selecting your fabric and planning your block
I wanted my block to feel like it was flowing smoothly between all of the colors. So, I wanted you to look at the red fabric and then have it slowly transition into the blue fabric and then slowly transition into the white fabric. If you look at this picture you'll see that I have a couple fabrics with all three colors (red, white and blue), I have a couple that are only red and white or only blue and white, and I have a couple that are just red or just blue. Then I laid them out so that they would be in this order:
                             1) white with red and blue accents
                             2) white with red accents
                             3) red with white accents
                             4) red
                             5) blue with red and white accents (I wanted this one to be evenly
                                 both red and blue with some white, but I couldn't find a fabric
                                 to get this perfectly)
                             6) blue
                             7) blue with white accents
                             8) white with blue accents

Step 2: Cutting
Once you've got you fabric pre-washed (if desired) and ironed, you're ready to cut! I figured out that I needed 9 triangles for each color. The finished half square triangles need to be 2.5" x 2.5" in order to get a 12.5" block. I am still a little bit afraid of putting HSTs together the wrong way or cutting things too small, etc, so I cut the fabric into 3 inch wide strips and then cut five 3-inch squares for each color. Once you have your squares, cut them all in half on the diagonal. This will give you 10 triangles of each color. (Save the extras, we'll use them on the back!)

Step 3: Lay out your block and start sewing
This is what your block will look like when you have all of the triangles laid out the way you want them.

Sew them together, square by square, on the stretchy diagonal side of the triangles, right sides together. They'll look like this once they are sewn together into squares. :)

At this point you should iron each square and then square them up to be 2.5"x2.5".

Step 4: Sew together the block

Sew each row together. I pinned each time I sewed a new pair together to try to keep things lined up. It means less seam ripping later - which is always good! Once you have all of the rows sewn together, you need to iron again. I ironed all of the seams to the right for the first row, then to the left for the second row, to the right for the third row - so on and so forth.

When you sew the rows together, you can line up the seams perfectly because you've ironed them in different directions. I pinned each seam before I sewed the rows together to make sure everything stayed in place. This helps all of your points turn out! :) I didn't get all of mine perfectly, but I came pretty close. When it's all sewn together, then you can square it up to 12.5"x12.5" and it will look something like this:

Step 5: Finishing the block
If you want to finish your block off the way I did, then keep following along. Otherwise, have fun turning your block into whatever you want it to be. :)

I used the left over triangles to mirror the very center of the front of the block and put them in the very center of the back of the block. I bordered this out in a festive fireworks print and squared it up to 13"x13". This gave me a little room in case things shifted while I was quilting them. The border is 5 3/4 inches on all sides of the middle block. When you sandwich the pieces together, you'll have to eyeball lining up the middle of the back with the middle of the front. If you use thin enough batting then you will probably be able to line them up by feeling where the seams are.

For the quilting, I used my walking foot and stitched 1/4 inch away from the edge of each spiral arm on all sides of the arm. I used white thread so it shows up in some blocks and doesn't in others. This stitching pattern then showed up on the back, so you could see the spiral motion on either side. :)


For the binding, I used a red, white and blue striped fabric. I cut the binding to 2.5" strips - I think it took 2 strips to go all the way around the block. Once I had that sewn together into a long strip, I folded it over on itself and ironed it down. Then i sewed it to the front of the block, (mitering the corners) turned it over and whip stitched it to the back. Voila! You're done! :)

So, let me know if you have questions, and I'll do my best to answer them. I haven't had much practice putting together tutorials that people can follow along, so I'm happy to clear up any misunderstandings or goofy wording. Happy crafting! :)