Log Cabin Quilt

I cannot remember who had the idea for us to sew a quilt together me or Charlie. In September after pinning a lot of patterns we decided to go with a Log Cabin pattern and Charlie helped me do the math and pick out the fabric we both liked. I sewed 29 blocks and he sewed one. Then I realized around block 34 that there wasn't enough fabric so we bought more and I finished the 48th block, bringing my total to 47 and Charlie's to 1. He did help me lay them out over Christmas and decide on a pattern.

We should have done more research on how to sew a long cabin quilt because I messed it up and the blocks ended up not matching perfectly. I should have started each block with a solid as the first color, but instead I did half the blocks starting with solid and half starting with a print, which kept me from getting super bored, but also screwed up the pattern and resulted in blocks that do not match. I'm pretty sure no one would notice but me. Can you tell?

Don't look too close....here's a cute dog on a quilt picture to distract you! 

Then we (I) did the math and we bought the backing fabric. Over a snow day I laid it all out and realized the back was too small so I added some scraps from the quilt to add the last few inches I needed. Moral of this story is that we are both bad at math when it comes to making quilts. Thanks heavens for scraps and fabric stores.

I thought about hand quilting it, then I realized it's a king sized quilt and came to my senses. It's tied, which is super fun and easy and not nearly as time consuming as hand quilting. Sewing the binding took me at least 5 days because my eye kept twitching and a kind sized quilt = a whole lot of freaking binding!

To be 100% honest this quilt is finished about 10 months faster than I thought it would be, so math issues aside it's a total success. I would not have picked out all of the fabric, but I really like how it all turned out. 

Have you finished anything way ahead of schedule recently? 

Lauren 

Baby Quilt

My friends Sarah and Justin are having a baby girl in June. I'm super excited for them. Over February vacation I begged Charlie to take me to a quilt shop in Burlington VT called Nido. A fat quarter bundle of Nursery Versery fabric struck my fancy and I knew it would be perfect for a quilt for the new baby. 

True to my fashion I bought the fat quarters and then realized there wouldn't be enough for a quilt so I thought about it about bought a few grey fat quarters to give me enough yardage. Then I made up the design and sizing via Pinterest and a quilting app for my iphone.

I always seem to go for the triangle quilts. Since chevron seems to be the new big thing that's the path I went with. I sewed up most of the quilt top during a snow day in March. That's my kind of snow day. 

Once the front was done I ordered some Riley Blake Chevron fabric for the back. If you're going to go with chevron's why not go all out right? Since my measuring was off I had one square of each fabric left, which made a good strip to break up the backing. 

For the quilting I used my walking foot and stitched in the ditch. I love the way it turned out on the back. I promise someday soon to start using my quilting foot, but I'm so pleased with how the quilting turned out. 

For the binding I used a Nursery Versery fabric. I kept sending pictures to my friend who is friends with Justin and Sarah as well to show her my progress. It's hard for me to keep secrets so that was good. I also kept telling myself that if I texted Sammy pictures then I wouldn't be able to keep the quilt for myself. 

As with every quilt I've ever made, it's kind of a funny size. I think it will be good for the baby to lie on the floor on. This gives you an idea of the size. 

The baby's name is Norah so I embroidered a little tag for the back of the quilt. 

 I couldn't go to the shower since my Mom and Rich were here visiting, and helping do lots of projects around the house, and also celebrating Mother's Day. I really hope they like it. I had so much fun making this quilt.

Lauren

A Quilt for Kiki and Pat

I bet you thought I would never show you another sewing project ever again huh? Well, I was working on a big one all summer but had to keep it a secret. I made a quilt for a wedding present for two very good friends, Kiki and Pat. Kiki is one of my (only) readers and I didn't want to spoil the surprise so I kept it all a secret, which was very hard.

Without further adieu, the wedding quilt:

 I used a charm pack and light blue fabric for the sashing using a modified version of THIS pattern.

 I like this part, even if as Charlie said, "the writing varies greatly in size."

My only downfall was that I am terrible at math and made the quilt in a very funny size; essentially it's a square quilt. I suppose it would be good for going at the foot of a bed or using on the couch.

I had wanted to machine quilt this one but I got too scared and chickened out, so it's hand tied with red embroidery floss, which I think is incredibly cute, but I might be biased.  I couldn't resist a few shots of the quilt on a rocking chair.

As always, I used THIS tutorial for the binding. I am almost to the point where I don't have to look at the tutorial anymore, but I still check just to be sure.

My goals of finishing the quilt before the wedding, keeping it a secret, and making Kiki cry when I gave it to her were all successful. Yes!!!

Thanks for reading!

Lauren

Voile Quilt- Finished.

Hurray! The Voile quilt is finally done. It got really hot here for about a week and I (seriously) sat with an icepack on my legs while I finished handstitching this quilt. Oh, the lengths quilters will go thought to get a project done.

I finished stitching the binding just in time for our friends to come and visit. My only demand request was that the friend who did use the quilt take a shower before going to bed...he had just run and gone swimming so it didn't seem like a huge deal but I may have sounded a bit bossy. I've already told Charlie he can't sleep with this quilt due to his excessive drooling.

And if talking about your fiance's incessant drooling wasn't embarrassing enough, I dragged him to the local park this fine evening to snap photos of him holding the quilt for me. When I commented that he was being a stinker pants he said; "I want you to know I would never do this for anyone but you."Awe shucks, thanks Charlie.

I'm trying to not stink so much at taking pictures so I tried some in the shade too. What do you think?

I like this one because you can see all of the circles I spent hours sewing. I really must move away from handstitching...it takes forever!

Last photo I promise. This one shows the backing fabric which I L.O.V.E!

Now I can say that this quilt is officially 100% done, and just in time because I've already purchased fabric to make another one! Add that to the list of 10,000 projects I have buzzing in my brain.

Lauren!

Progress

The other day I counted 9 more circles to quilt. Then I quilted 4 while watching Black Swan. Then I put the quilt out again and counted 10 more circles to go. Sometimes I think this quilt is playing games with my head.

I hope to have it done by the weekend. A friend is coming to visit (that never happens) and I want the guest room to be "done." Nothing works like a deadline to get you into quilting high gear huh?

Working on it isn't such a chore, I love the fabric, still, after 100+ circles. It's so pretty and so soft. Finished pictures coming soon (I hope). 

Goodnight!

Lauren

Outdoor Quilt Photo Shoot

 I've been in Maine all week on my vacation. It has been great.  I've had a chance to see a lot of my family, a few friends, and a new baby. I've also had time to sew! I finished the quilt top and couldn't resist taking it out to the barn for a photo shoot. 

 ********

********

********

I might be mildly obsessed with this barn. I am also very excited to finish the quilt now. Hopefully in time for a spring time barn photo shoot.

Stay warm! Lauren

Chain Quilting

Yesterday at 10:30 while I was working with two students the principal came onto the intercom to announce that there would be a snow day on Wednesday (today). I think my outburst of excitement was louder than the two students combined. I mean, what's better than finding out in the morning that you don't have to get out of bed because there is a snow day? Finding out there is a snow day before you even go to bed. While the two students planned to stay up late watching who knows what on the Disney Channel, I planned to do some serious sewing. 

And that I did. I used this technique and finished chain piecing all of the squares for the quilt I'm working on. I just had to get a picture of the long chain before cutting it apart and making it into pinwheel squares.

Pretty huh? It makes me think of the bunting I have want to make for decorations for our wedding.

Now all of the chained pieces are cut apart and most have been sewn into squares. I stayed up far too late last night working on them, then stayed up even later watching several episodes of "The Office" on Netflix. Did you know Pam and Jim kissed?! We just had to watch more to find out what happened. Today I thought about doing some more sewing but Charlie and I went skiing instead.

Just a few more blocks to go and then I can start sewing it all together.

Lauren!

Charlie's Quilt

A few years ago I made Charlie a quilt. I remember my Mum once saying something along the lines of; if you love someone you should make them a quilt. Or maybe it was; if you love someone you won't mind putting a lot of effort into making them a quilt. Or something like that. This motto, or potential motto, if I could remember it, applied to my situation 2 years ago. I had just graduated from college but unlike my friends I couldn't go out a find a career because I was starting grad school. So like any college grad without a job I moved in with my Grammy. I had a part time job, and a gazillion weddings to go to but I just felt like I needed something else to do with my time.

Also, at that time Charlie had moved back to Massachusetts to do an internship and then once the summer was over he was going back to school to finish up his under-grad degree. This meant that we were "apart" for 6 months (I say "apart" because we still saw each other on some weekends and also at the gazillion weddings we went to.) Any-who, while thinking of something to do with my spare time I remembered what my Mum had said and decided that it was the perfect time to show Charlie how much I loved him and make him a quilt.

I ended up letting him in on the secret and even letting him pick out the pattern. Which is how we ended up with a quilt with houses and trees on it. Charlie is a woodsman by nature and I should have known he would pick the one pattern in the store with trees. In order to make the quilt more sentimental, because lets face it, sentimental is my middle name, I embroidered addresses on a few of the houses to represent the all of the places we had lived, dorm room numbers, apartment numbers and our first apartment together. I also made a few of the tree trunks look like someone had carved into them and added the date we started dating and my favorite part "CT+ LC".
I love the hand stitching. A true labor of love. I have no idea how long I spent hand quilting but I can tell you that my Grammy and I watched an awful lot of Project Runway and 17 Kids and Counting while I stitched away. (This was two years ago so there were only 17 kids, not whatever number they are at now...21 maybe?)

My other favorite part is this bear. Charlie and I went to The University of Maine and the mascot was a black bear so I wanted to have a bear on the quilt. I joked with him once the quilt was done that making the bear square took me longer than the rest of the quilt. Even though it took me forever to make and I can remember ripping out stitches left and right, and shelling out expletives left and right, I love it. It reminds me of who we were and where we met.


Oh, I almost forgot my other most favorite part of the quilt. I stitched this into the top so Charlie could see it every night when he went to bed:

I asked him if he liked looking at it when he used to use the quilt and his response was; "No it was always dark when I went to bed so I never saw it." Oy! My talents are wasted.

I realized the other day that since we have moved and also have gotten engaged there are more important dates and addresses to add to Charlie's quilt. Hopefully I can finish that up tonight. Embroidering a quilt that is already put together without the stitches showing on the back is a huge pain.

Off to stitch. Too bad I can't watch trashy TV with my Grammy as I work.

Lauren

Sew N' Tell - The Peacock Quilt, Finally!

The other day Lorelei sent me pictures of the quilt she has been working on while she is deployed. Seeing all the work she has done on her beautiful quilt did a great job of lighting a spark under my bottom and getting me to bind the quilt I have been waiting to bind for about a month. (Progress on this quilt can be seen here and here.) I typically dread binding because my bindings always look...well... absolutely awful. I once asked my fellow Sew N Tellers what advice they had for binding, I went over those and found this awesome tutorial. I mean awesome.

I once got lazy and sewed both side of the binding and I have been kicking myself ever since then. It took a while, but it was worth it to hand sew the binding for this one; I did it while watching LOST, because I don't understand what's going on in the show anymore anyways. The first picture was taken outside on the clothesline, but it was so windy the quilt blew off and onto the ground! Charlie held up the quilt for the second picture, but I had to wait for him to get home from work so it was a little darker and the colors look less vibrant, but you get the idea. (I remember someone on the sew n tell a few weeks ago was taking photos of their quilt and it almost blew into a pool! eek).

This might be my favorite part of the whole quilt.
It always feels so good to get a quilt finished!

Check out the other finishes today



Happy Friday!
Lauren

Quilt Tying...

It is a lot faster than the hand-stitching that I usually do, but my fingers still feel like bloody stubs. At least that feeling won't continue for the next month. Here are some close ups of the results.
I was able to get the inside all finished last night while watching LOST. Charlie seemed happy that I was doing something that didn't involve making a racket with the sewing machine (Although the machine has been fine tuned/ fixed and should not make such god awful noises anymore. Thanks Mum!)
Now I just have to figure out how to tie or otherwise finish off the border, but that can wait for a time when the weather isn't so nice and I don't have friends to go visit (and Powerball tickets to buy)!

Enjoy the sunshine!
Lauren

I Must Be Crazy

I love sewing, and making quilts. I have only made 2 quilts but I really loved every second of it. When I realized how close to being done with my quilt I was, I panicked! "What will I do? I'll be so bored! I'll have nothing to do but clean and cook, EWW!" So I did what any crazy sewing fanatic would do, decided to make another quilt. My cousin is having a baby in September, a girl, yippie. I was debating what to make her, and so when I was faced with the quilting dilemma I jumped at the opportunity to make a baby quilt. There are only 2 weeks until I start school again, I might be crazy to make another quilt, but at least I realize that it needs to be a small one. (I also am lacking funds, which makes a baby quilt very smart). However, on the tails of calling myself smart I should mention that I don't have a pattern for this quilt! I saw a picture of a super cute tiny quilt on a blog and it really inspired me. I figured out dimensions, and colors, and yardage pretty much on my own(Charlie helped me a little with the yardage part). 

So yesterday when I should have only been going to the fabric store to get thread to finish the first quilt I also bought fabric to start another one. Geeze, just writing it makes me realize how silly I am. I must say that picking out fabric was the one of the easiest thing I have ever done. Typically looking at the pattern or picture on the pattern overwhelms, and confuses me in regards to fabric color choices. But when you make up your own pattern you only have your own vision in your head to go by, no confusion, it was great. Perhaps I should always fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to quilting and purchasing fabric. Perhaps I will wait until the quilt is done to see if that is a good idea. 

Here are my fabric choices:

I bought baby blanket binding because I think it is so soft and snuggly, and I have fond memories of how soft my baby blanket was with this type of binding on it. 

And here is my rough design for the blanket. I did all the cutting last night. The pieces are pretty big so it didn't take long. 

In the big pink rectangles at the top left and bottom right I am going to embroider or put appliques of something. I am having a difficult time deciding what to do though. I was thinking either a black scottie dog or a white lamb. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. 

Now I am off to enjoy the sunshine.

Lauren!

The Last Stitch

I am home from vacationing and have been sewing up a storm since. Last night I sewed the last stitch on my quilt. Boy oh boy did that feel great! I even slept with the quilt last night (in the summer I find it impossible to sleep under the covers). I love it!

Here is the quilt on our bed. *Notice the new sky light! Ooo La La (Thank goodness I was gone when this was being replaced because the roofer thought it would be funny to take out the old skylight and wait a day until installing the new one. Poor Charlie had to sleep on the couch so birds wouldn't poop on him in his sleep.)

Here's my signature. My Dad had to remind me it was 2009 while I was stitching it, if he hadn't I would have stitched 2008, I think that just proves that my brain needed a vacation.

WARNING: Cliché quilt hanging on a clothes line photos ahead.

I wish I had some profound words about quilting, but I don't, so instead I'll leave you with these two quotes I like: A quilt is a treasure which follows its owner everywhere. Blankets wrap you in warmth, quilts wrap you in love.

Enjoy the sun and heat!

Lauren

Getting Paid to Quilt??! Could Life Be Any Better?

I love babysitting at night. The kids are asleep, you have free rein over the fancy flat screen TV, and you can quilt uninterrupted for 3 hours, all while getting paid. I finished the 3rd of 7 rows of the quilt while watching Sex and the City on the fancy channel. Here is the close up of the stitching I promised. I don't think this picture does it justice. Although hand stitching takes a long time (much longer than machine quilting) I think it is worth it, even if I am the only one who appreciates it.

Here is the back side. I would like to tell you that I had planned for this cool 8 sided star design to be on the back, but it was just a very happy accident. I love it.
Also, yesterday Charlie came home from work with this free hat. The velcro on the back had come unstitched and so someone returned it to the store and the company didn't want it back so Charlie brought it home. I fixed it this morning and ran it under cold water....that kills lice right? (probably not, oh well, I don't feel itchy) I wore it running today, and I felt like a real runner. I think it was the little logo that gave me the extra umph. 

Now I am going to try to read on the balcony, lets see if this can be less of a catastrophe than last week.

Lauren!

Updates on Life

Hello everyone!

My long weekend was quite eventful, and long. I decided not to check my e-mail for 4 days and came home to 47 new e-mails. I think some people were kind of mad at me, but oh well. Everyone needs so time off every now and then.

Some updates on life:

1. I did get the note back. I used some duct tape wrapped sticky side out around a broom handle. The mission was accomplished at 5:42 am, when I woke up to go running and before the obnoxious neighbors were awake.

2. I painted a picture. I gave it to my mom. She said she'll hang it in her office. Here it is:

3. I went to Orono and saw my old school buddies. One friend is pregnant, the other is her husband. They have a house, two new cars and good jobs. They make me feel very unsuccessful. But I am happy that they are happy, and their baby will be extra cute.

4. My other friends decided to get engaged and wait 5 months to tell me. Hum.....Congrats to you two forgetful people. 

5. I have decided to stop watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I think they are dumb, and I don't agree with them using their lives and, sadly, their children's lives to make money. This goes along the same lines of me not reading magazines about the Octo-mom. People can be so outrageous in their attempts to make a buck. I am thinking about canceling the cable to keep me from breaking my promise. 

6.  The biggest update of all my Mom and Grammy and I went to a quilt shop in Madison Maine. It was lovely. I wish to own a quilt shop someday. The women who worked there were very nice to me. One particularly nice woman asked me if I needed any help, then she was roped into guiding me around the store for 20 minutes asking ''How about this one?" and hearing me give some excuse like: "I hate Batik" or "Um No" or "That color makes me want to barf". Finally we found the right combinations, much to my mothers delight (Grammy had retired to the car to read the Rolling Thunder, and avoid being bothered by my picky-ness.) Upon returning to the house I quickly laundered the fabric and stated working. After 6 hours I had the quilt all put together and I have one whole row hand-stitched together= Great satisfaction. This picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. I love the back fabric, it's a very pretty dark pinkish/purple. The hand-stitching looks very pretty, and very hand-stitchy, if you get my drift (I'll post more pictures later of the stitching). 

7. My last life update is that I have been assigned clients for clinic!!!! This starts next Monday. HIPPA prevents me from divulging confidential information on my blog about these said clients but I am excited about starting nonetheless. 

Let's hope the sun comes out sometime soon, I am beginning to go a little crazy.

Lauren!

P.S .the fused plastic giveaway is still on so become a follower of my blog and you could have a chance of winning it when I am done!