Purple and Green Taffy Pull Quilt

IT'S SPRING BREAK!!! YAY!!!  I have a huge list of things I am planning to SEW during my free time.  This morning I slept in while the hubby got up and went to work.  It was great.  I think I'm actually glad we are not going anywhere for Spring Break this year.  The relaxation and free time will be MUCH appreciated!  Hopefully I will be ready for the home stretch (testing) when school starts again next week.

Anyway.

I finished my first BIG quilt!  It has been a long time coming and I have already posted lots of pictures of it in it's various stages of completion.  But now it is officially FINISHED!

I started this one in the summer - probably July or August - back BEFORE I had my own rotary cutter and mat.  Can you believe it?  All the pieces for this quilt were cut BY HAND.  With SCISSORS.  I must have been crazy!  I was tired of borrowing my mom's stuff, but I was still new to quilting and didn't own many supplies.  Plus, my birthday is in August and I was pretty sure I had convinced mom to buy me a cutter and mat - I figured it would be dumb to go out and buy some myself when I could just wait for my birthday.  However, I did NOT want to wait to get started on this quilt!

 SO, using THIS pattern (hence the name "Taffy Pull Quilt") as a starting point and a couple of fat eighth bundles from Joann's (because I was still afraid of mixing and matching my own fabric combinations and had to have someone else do it for me - I'm still not sure if I'm completely sold on these colors though), I meticulously planned, measured, and cut so that I could get the absolute most out of my fabric.  And I think I did.  Look at what I had left over!

(Do you think my hands are wrinkly?  Hubby always makes fun of me for my old lady hands, but I think they are just normal and HIS hands are the funny looking ones.  I promise, I am most definitely NOT an old lady!)

I also took a leap and pieced the blocks randomly.  I put all of the different colors in bags and randomly drew for each block.  Of course, I couldn't give up complete control and chose the colors beforehand - just not which print in that color.  Still, it was a pretty big leap for me because I tend to plan things out to the finest detail.  To me, that's part of the fun in quilting.  But I'm learning that spontaneity is also fun.  I did end up with a few repeat fabrics right next to each other that I didn't catch in time... oops!

I put off the quilting for the LONGEST time because I just couldn't decide how to quilt it!  Finally, I decided it was just too big to do anything fancy and tried my hand at straight line quilting (I think I was inspired by Rita's blog - she does a lot of straight line quilting and it just looks so clean and fresh).

 Maybe straight line quilting was a bad idea, because there are TONS of puckers!  All over the place!  I must not be very good at basting.  But the hubby said he couldn't see any puckers and even though I'm pretty sure he was just trying to make me feel better, I decided NOT to do it over again.  Sigh.  I figured, once I washed it, it would get all puffy anyway and the puckers wouldn't stand out so much - right?
I did learn a new trick while quilting this one.  When I was rolling up my quilt to fit it under the machine, I had the brilliant idea to pin quilt roll as I went!  I wish I had taken a picture, cuz to me it was pure genius.  Probably nothing new to most of you out there, but it sure made my life easier.

 I found out that it is very hard to take pictures of such a huge quilt!  I suppose I could have gone outside - but I didn't.  (This is my ironing board, by the way...)

I did find one place that was big enough for the whole quilt.  Doesn't it look nice on my bed?

I tried my "traditional" picture on the couch, but the quilt just didn't fit like the other quilts I have made, so I had to improvise.

And here it is fresh out of the drier!

Whew!  NOW.  Do I keep this quilt for myself, or give it to someone - a sister, perhaps?

Quality or Frugality?

A long time ago, I decided I wanted to make a quilt for my in-laws' 30 year anniversary.  I have had my design picked out for forever now and just needed to buy fabric and start cutting into it.  This "buying fabric" process has been SO HARD!  I don't know what my in-laws will like!  I know what I like, but I don't want to overwhelm them with my love for all things bright and colorful.  I scoured the online fabric world and finally came up with these four prints from Kate Spain's Fandango:

Not too bold, right?  Well, then I scoured the fabric stores some more until I found a killer deal on these.  Buying fabric online is expensive!  And I am not too familiar with any quilt stores in my area yet.

SO.

I put the Fandango fabrics in my cart and left them there for a few days.  I wanted to go to JoAnn's JUST to be sure I was getting a good deal and that I couldn't find anything similar for cheaper.  BIG MISTAKE.  I spent, like, an hour in there perusing all sorts of different combinations of fabric.  I realized that, even with the great deal I found online, I could still save a bundle of money by shopping at JoAnn.  So I set about looking for something ELSE that might match my in-laws' "mystery" style.  And do you know what I did?  I ended up buying bright fabric!  Stuff that I like!  I hope it's not going to be too much for the in-laws, cuz I really love them and want them to be happy with the end result.  This is what I came home with:

 

Pretty different, eh?  I KNOW!  As much as I love these fabrics, I'm starting to wonder if I made the wrong choice in ditching that beautiful Fandango fabric.  I just have a hard time justifying it when it costs twice as much (okay, not TWICE as much, but close to it!).

So what do you do?  Do you choose quality fabrics that cost more, or do you go with frugality to keep your marriage in good standing?  My husband is still getting used to this new-found hobby of mine - I don't want to overwhelm him too much by spending hundreds of dollars on fabric.  I probably could have gotten away with the expensive fabric if I were making a smaller quilt - but this quilt is planned to be queen size.  Sigh.

What do you think?  Did I make the right decision?

On an unrelated, but slightly related note (think "frugal"), look what else I did!

This picture is from our engagements (sorry it's not the best one...).  I was looking through them the other day and I just can't believe how little we were then!  Most people would probably still say we are "little" (as in - young) but it seems like we were just kids back then.  Not to mention the fact that both of us were a "little" bit... smaller.  

See that blue shirt the hubby is wearing?   It has been one of my favorites of his for the past 5 years.  So he kept wearing it.  The other day it finally suffered a terrible fate.  It just doesn't fit anymore.  There were rips in the sleeve.  Hubby was going to throw it away and I made some side comment about how I could cut it up and add it to my fabric stash and he said "go for it."  So I did.  I know this picture still looks like a shirt, but it is not anymore.  The fabric is still in really good shape.  I felt bad cutting it up - I've never cut up clothes before.  I'll have to use this one is something good.

One Week!

A week ago, I decided I wanted to take on Amy's One Thing, One Week challenge.

I finished quilting my purple and green quilt on Sunday night and had ALMOST enough fabric to do the binding but not quite.  I know I should have made finishing the binding a top priority, but I didn't.  Instead, I got this hairbrained idea that I wanted to make a new tablecloth for our table.  Our table is square and it has always driven me nuts that all of our table cloths are NOT square.  We always have to fold one side under to get it to fit and I hate it.  SO I am making a quilted tablecloth - since that is the only thing I know how to do...

I decided right away that I wanted to do Elizabeth Hartman's Kitchen Window quilt.  I LOVE this quilt!
At first, I wasn't sure what colors to do it in and almost decided to go shopping, but then I figured I better shop my stash first.  I put together a bunch of different color schemes and this is the one the Hubby picked.  I think he picked this group because it was the mellowest of the bunch.

I'm glad he picked these too.  These fabrics are all part of the giveaway I won from Quilty Pleasures and it's nice to know that I found a place for them! 

My goal was to finish the top by today.  I made a lot of progress cutting and even sewing last Sunday and Monday.  Things were going great - I got to do lots of chain piecing, which sure helped things move quickly!  But then Tuesday came.  And Wednesday, and Thursday.  Things were kinda stressful at work this week.  I started to get nervous that I wasn't going to make it.  But then my husband got offered a super cheap ski pass.  We couldn't get another one for me and I decided that (even though I love skiing) it wasn't justified to spend 80 bucks to get me one.  Plus, the hubby likes skiing more than I do... so he went skiing all day and I stayed home, cleaned the entire house, and finished the topper - just barely.  I have about an inch and a half of the brown fabric left over - and that's AFTER piecing together small pieces.  But I made it!

Even with the little glitch of forgetting seam allowances when I sewed on the cream sashing and having to add another inch...

Yay!

Now I just need to quilt it.  I'm thinking of trying my hand at quilting pebbles to keep the quilting nice and tight.  I hope it doesn't end up too bumpy.  I put it on the table and it doesn't seem too bad.  I think I will either back it with flannel and NOT use batting, or use the flannel for batting and add a layer of backing.  What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday: At least that old bike is good for something...

Puff Quilt!

For my birthday this year, my mother-in-law wanted me to buy myself some fabric and I decided I just had to have this Pure fabric (I especially love the pieces with words on them).  I wanted to make something with colors that would work for a boy.  So I bought some fabric and set it aside, waiting for inspiration to strike.
Well, it did!  I discovered HoneyBear Lane's Puff Quilt and I KNEW that was what I wanted to do!  (Check out her website - she has lots of cute stuff!)  At the time, Heidi had a series of free tutorials on how to make the puff quilt.  I guess her puff quilt became so popular that she decided to make it into a pattern to sell, so it is not free anymore.  Sad.  Lucky for me, I downloaded the tutorials while I still could - Wahoo!  This quilt was a lot of fun to make!  I want to make more in the future - I just need someone to make them for!
Isn't it great?  Don't you just love the fabrics?  I do.

p.s. Sorry about the crappy pictures.  I'm just not home in the middle of the day when the sun is shining.

Major UFO

For my non-quilty friends, UFO means UnFinished Object.


Way back in August, Christina at A Few Scraps announced that she was going to have a quilt-along.  And not just any quilt-along.  A free motion quilting quilt-along.  It was perfect!  Exactly what I needed since I was just figuring out this whole quilt-on-a-regular-sewing-machine thing.  So I jumped on board (except, I never actually signed up - I guess I am more of a stow-away...).
The plan was to make an ugly quilt top using only fabric from our stash.  NO buying new fabric for this one!  So I put together this quilt top:

Looking back, I really should have just used solids for the whole thing.  I LOVE this blue dots/squares fabric, but it is way too busy and now I can't see the quilting designs over it.

I should have used the blue for something else.  I guess I was worried I would run out of solid.  Well, I still have QUITE a bit of it left...

I didn't have enough fabric for the back, but I DID have a ton of totally randomly shaped pieces of heavy duty green "upholstery" fabric that I figured I would never ever use otherwise.  So I pieced them all together for a very heavy quilt back.  (Don't judge too harshly...  It's not like I was planning on giving this quilt away to someone.)

And here's the best part.  At the time, I also didn't have enough batting but I DID have a ton of left over felt from a time when I made a horrible miscalculation and bought about 4 times what I needed.  So... don't tell anyone... but I used felt (also pieced together) instead of regular batting.  This turned out to be one funky, heavy, stiff quilt.  That's for sure.

Here is the final product:

What?  You can't see any of the quilting?  I KNOW!  So here is a picture of the back:

I have officially decided that I am NEVER going to give this quilt away.  I would be too embarrassed.  Instead, I am going to keep it for my own reference.  There are a LOT of flaws - TONS of places where my thread tension was bad, not to mention the fact that I ran out of blue and green thread (which is really hard to see on a green back anyway) and ended up using a whole lot of yellow and red - with no particular rhyme or reason.  And for future reference - I should NEVER use two different colors for the top thread and bobbin thread.

The quilt-along consisted of lots of different types of quilting and it was really interesting to see what worked for me and what didn't.  There were a few surprises - some of the designs I hated seeing on paper turned out great on the quilt, others turned out much worse than I expected.  I am definitely not good at anything that echoes the shape of something, and meandering is still the easiest - although there were a lot of line designs that I think I could use.

With that said, here are a few close ups of designs that I am now able to quilt:

Feathers

Pebbles (these are my good ones)

Sprirals and more Spirals

I really liked this flower and sun, but the thread tension was REALLY bad and I REALLY didn't want to undo all of it.  Another reason I can't give this one away.

Meandering

Square meandering

Scallops.  I didn't like these as much as I thought I would.

Lines.  If you look really closely, you can see the (upside down) treble clefs and stars

Loops

And words...

Since these are backwards, I thought I would show you one of them front the front.  Look closely!

And there you have it!  Now I can start a NEW project.  Yay!

March is Lucky!

Here is the wall hanging I made for March (I'm trying to make my house cuter by making one of these babies for each month - it's a good chance for me to try new skils).  I think it is my best one yet - probably because I decided to try stitch in the ditch quilting and it gives it such a nice, clean look!  I wanted to practice making pinwheels and they were a lot of fun to make.  I think the double pinwheel in the corner is my favorite.
And, yes I realize that three leaf clovers AREN'T lucky.  Oops.  Should have made a four leaf clover.

p.s. The fabric I used for the clover comes from the giveaway I won.  I thought it was PERFECT!

I'm linking up with my good friend Becky today.  Go check out her blog!  It is super cute!

 

I'm also linking up with Clover and Violet, since this project was made completely from my stash!