My Helper

Meet Murphy.  Murphy loves quilts.  Even if they are currently being quilted.  If you look at the top of the picture, you can just see the fmq foot of my machine.  While I was working on this quilt (quilting it in the Seafoam pattern from Angela Walter's book- aka the best quilting book ever), he decided to jump on my lap and visit me.  As soon as he saw the quilt on my lap he settled right in... and all quilting stopped.  He was just so happy!  And he never wants to sit on my lap.  He wants to be with me and next to me, but rarely ever wants to be on me.  How could I deny that cuddley little kitty a chance to snuggle :)

Do you have any quilting "helpers"?

Basting

I'm lucky.  I know I am.  When my fiancee and I moved to Central Florida we decided to rent a 3 bedroom house, giving us a master bedroom, a guest room, and allowing me to have a dedicated sewing room.  As luck would have it, it is also the only room in the house that the owners decided to forgo carpet- giving me a perfect basting spot!  The room is a little small so basting big quilts is still a pain, but this little lap size quilt was a perfect fit (after I moved out the coffee table that doubles as a cutting table). 

 

A peek at my sewing space.  A little cramped sometimes, but a HUGE step up from my last sewing area (a tiny bistro table that held my sewing machine and nothing else.  When quilting, I would pull a chair next to the table and lay the quilt on it to help distribute the weight.

 

 

 

This quilt- made primarily of Tula Pink Salt Water prints- will be going to live with my mom when it is finished.  She is redoing her living room for the second time in four months and requested new quilts.  I believe her exact wording was "if you make me new quilts, I'll give you back the two I swiped the last time I visited."

 

 

My favorite basting trick!  I think I figured this out on the first quilt I basted, though I won't assume I am the first to come up with this.  It certainly does help though.  I use a crochet hook to hold the bottom part of the safety pin, then I just have to push down on the top part and pull the hook to close the pin.  Definitely saves the fingers when there is a lot of basting to be done. 

Do you have any tips or tricks for basting?

 

 

I Admit It, I am a Quilter

After years of lurking on sewing/crafting/quilting blogs I have finally decided to take the plunge and start my own. 

I started sewing/quilting back in the Summer of 2009 and became an avid reader of quilting and crafty blogs around then as well.  I have toyed with the idea of starting my own blog for some time but always put it off thinking that I wasn't good enough.  Three years after that first quilt, I'm finally taking the plunge. 

No, I'm still not a perfect sewer/quilter.  Sometimes seams don't match up.  I don't have the most accurate 1/4 seam allowance.  I am definately not the most accurate cutter.  But I enjoy the process and have finally learned to look past those little imperfections.  Besides, isn't that the beauty of washing and drying a quilt- all those little imperfections get hidden in the crinkles :) 

As a testament to how far I have come, I present to you my first quilt and my most recent quilty finish.

The first quilt- which really is symetrical (let's hope my picture taking improves!).  It was simple kit from Jo-Anns with no batting involved, just right sides together, sew, turn, and topstitch.  This quilt did, of course, present challenges as any first time project does.  The main one being that the solid brown fabric is minky!

 

My most recent finish (quilting-wise, there have been some pillows and quilt tops since then but this is the most recent quilting finish).  I saw a photo on Pinterest- my apologies as I do not know the source- and decided to play around and make it my own.  Most of my changes were made in regards to the bow.  This was also the first quilt that I designed on my design wall!  There were so many small pieces that I knew I would need to layout- some batting nailed to the wall ended up being the perfect way to arrange all the pieces (with no worries of kitties messing them up!).