Decisions, decisions...

I think the hardest part of the quilting process for me is deciding how to quilt a quilt!  That's why it takes me so long to finish!  (Well, that and basting...).   I've been debating how to quilt my twin rainbow quilts.  Ever since I finished my Free Motion Quilt Along, I have wanted to actually incorporate some of the designs in a real quilt!  Look, I even came up with this:

I tried about half a block, using my white thread, and it looked terrible!  I should have taken a picture.  The white thread just stands out way to much on the solid colors.  I never really anticipated the solids to be a problem.  I have a few colored threads, but I REALLY don't want to have to switch thread colors every 3 minutes, plus most of them don't match too well.
SO.  I had this great idea to try rainbow colored variegated thread.  I must have bought the wrong kind, because it was having ALL KINDS of issues in my machine.  Finally I relented and decided this thread will have to be for hand sewing ONLY.
I even tried hand quilting a few blocks:

This took FOREVER!  I'm just not that patient - plus, I REALLY don't have the right tools to hand quilt.  I suppose I could do it if I really liked the way it looks... But I'm not completely sold.  I feel like such a pessimist!
I think what I will do is get my white thread out and just do an overall meandering pattern that won't detract so much from the solid colors.  Maybe I could throw in a few stars or loops.  I can do a fancy pattern on some other quilt...

On another note, I made my first pieced backs!  I was very much set on using fabric I had ON HAND for these quilts.  I didn't have much white left, so I supplemented with the cheapo fabric I used to make my classroom's chair pockets several years ago.  This stuff has gone a long way for me!  It was kind of fun to work on the backs.  It was a good chance for me to experiment.  The whole thing was pretty improv.  I just kept adding more until I filled the space that I needed to fill.
The pictures might look a little funny - I laid them on top of my quilt tops to make sure they were bit enough.  I kinda like them!

Some of my current favorite fabrics...

I've been playing with different ideas for baby items lately.  I have so many favorite fabrics right now!  Mostly anything by Anne Kelle:

 I just LOVE these little cars/planes/trains/helicopters!

And these are my favorite animal prints:

Also, "All Star 2 from My Minds Eye":

Here are a bunch of other cute things I found:

Have you guessed yet?  Yep - the doctor thinks we are having two BOYS!  It's still pretty early, but my doctor seemed pretty confident.  I'm excited to start making things with boy fabric!  Yay!

Twin Rainbow Quilt Tops Finished

I finished my two quilt tops today!  I took some advice from a couple commenters and mixed the blocks up a little bit.  After a couple days of playing around with them, this is the arrangement I decided on.  I am just now realizing that the second quilt has a lot more green in it than the other.  Ah well.  I still like the way they turned out.

I took a bunch of pictures but wasn't quite satisfied with any of them, so I finally got the nerve to venture outside and take pictures.  I know it looks better to take pictures of things outside, but my house is kind of on a main road and our neighbors are always playing outside.  Plus, today is my day off so I don't exactly look my best.  But I did it anyway - I went into the backyard where the grass is really ugly, but at least no one could see me.  It made me kind of nervous setting my beautiful little quilts on the dirty ground, but they survived and I think the pictures show off the colors very nicely.  I guess I can do it again in the future...

Now I am going to let them sit for a bit while we go on vacation (YAY!!!), then I will come home and figure out how to quilt them.  

I'm already planning a bigger quilt using the "out-of-the-box" pattern.  I got the fabric yesterday!  I had to work a little to convince Hubby to let me buy it, but in the end - he was the one who helped pick it out!   It's from Kate Spain's Fandango line.  I LOVE it!  Isn't it pretty?  This is the first time I have actually purchased designer fabric (as in - not from Joanns).  But I think it will be worth it since this quilt is going to be for two VERY special people!

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot to tell you!  I was featured on "My Domestic Design" today.  Wahoo!  And just for fun, I'm linking up again...  Thanks Becky!

Making Progress!

I feel like I haven't done nearly enough sewing this summer!  I like to blame in on the fact that I haven't been able to pick myself up off the couch.  I was super tired, kind of sick, and just had no motivation to do anything.  I feel like I have a pretty good excuse (see my last post...).  But still.  How hard is it to do a little sewing?  (I DID finish my beanbag, which took quite a bit of sewing time.)
And then I won a giveaway - from the Ribbon Candy Quilt Company!  I was super excited.  Just in time to start a new quilt!  I have been dying to get back into making QUILTS!  I cut into it pretty quick and forgot to take a picture, so I'm stealing this one from the Ribbon Candy Blog:

It's perfect, isn't it!  I knew right away what I wanted to use it for, but I couldn't make up my mind between a regular square-in-square block and the more complicated out-of-the-box block.  So I decided to do them both.  Of course!  I am having TWINS, after all (yay)!  So I decided to make two matching baby quilts.  The colors are perfect, since we still don't know if we are having boys or girls.
And then Amy announced that it was time for another "One Thing, One Week" challenge.  It was just the boost I needed to get myself off the couch and moving around again.  I wasn't sure how I would be feeling (as far as morning sickness), and summer school has started up, so I only committed to making one set of blocks. 
Luckily, I have been feeling MUCH better lately!  I think I am moving into my 2nd trimester.  Wahoo!  I have a little bit more energy and I don't feel sick anymore.  So I got lots of stuff done this week, AND I finished EARLY!
I managed to make ALL of the blocks for both quilts.  Here they are:

 Looking at them now, I think I like the second one the best.  I found this block somewhere online about a year ago and now I can't find it!  SO I just made it up based on the picture I saved.

Now all I need to do is just add white sashing and sew them all together.  And quilt them.  Any suggestions on how to quilt them?   I am thinking of doing big stars or flowers inside the inner squares on the first quilt.  Other than that, I have no idea - less complicated would be better.  I think I have enough fabric left for a scrappy binding too.  It feels good to be making quilts again!

I'm linking up to Amy's Challenge.  You should go check out what everyone else did!

The Real Reason I Started Sewing...

It's time for the truth to come out!  My whole life I have wanted more than anything to be a MOM.  When the hubby and I first got married, we knew we wanted to wait a little while to have kids, though.  We were both still in school and I was going to be a teacher - not the best source of income, plus I wanted to have a year or two to try it out and see if I really liked it or not.
WELL.  About two years ago, I finally sat him down and we made a plan.  We weren't QUITE ready (hubby still had a long way to go in school), but we made a PLAN!  That was a good feeling.  And then the time came when it was almost time to start trying.  I was so excited I almost couldn't stand it!  Hubby went to China for two weeks and I decided to occupy my time making a few baby sized quilts - just for the fun of it.  I had already made my first jean quilt a few years before and remembered some research I had done about rag quilts.

So that is where I started.  This is what I came up with first.  I'm kind of embarrassed by it, but there you have it.

Then Hubby came home and I convinced him to let me make another one - he even came with me to pick out fabric.  This was my second shot at a rag quilt.  Much better.

And from then on, I was hooked.  I discovered the world of quilt blogs and haven't turned back since!

But the whole obsession started with a desire to make something in hopes that we would have a baby soon.
Well, now we are another year later and I am happy to report that my second dream (second to marrying my sweetheart) has come true!  I'm going to be a mom!  And the best part is... there are two!  I couldn't be more excited.  I just started a new quilt project - matching baby quilts.  Rainbow colored for now, since we don't know the genders yet.  One of these days, I will have to try making some little clothes!  I hope we have at least one girl...
I made these little stockings to tell our parents with.  We gave two to each of the Dads for Father's Day.  It took both of them awhile to figure out what they were for, but once they did, they loved them!  I'm due right around Christmas, so I figured this was the perfect way to make our big announcement.  Plus, I got to try out freezer paper piecing for the first time - it went great!

And for those who want to see, here is our babies' first picture.  Aren't they amazing?

Bean Bag!

I finally finished it!  This should have been done a week ago, but I haven't been feeling the greatest - with headaches on top of everything.  I'm feeling much better today, so I finally got the zipper on this baby.
For those who are curious, this was supposed to be a wonderbag, but I realized that it was going to be much bigger than I originally thought, and that we would probably never use it.  Unfortunately, I ordered enough filling for 3 sets.  So I decided to use my scraps from the original bag, plus all that filling stuff, to make a bean bag instead!  It was hubby's idea, actually (the wonderbag looks like a funny shaped bean bag to start with).  He thought I would be able to make two - but he wanted them pretty big.  Well.  Turns out this one took all the filling we had.  But that's okay.  Now I get to make something else!
I made an inner bag, filled it with stuff, and sewed it up.  Then I used the scraps I've been piecing together to make the liner, which turned out a little bit big - better too big than too small.  Plus, it gives the bean bag plenty of room to be smooshed around.  The beads that we filled it with makes it a little stiffer than a regular bean bag, but I think it will be fun.
Here it is!

A Work in Progress

A couple of months ago I got myself into a project before learning what I was really getting into.  To make a long story short, I ended up not liking it AT ALL.  So I tore the whole thing apart and decided to use the fabric (and other supplies I had already paid for) to make something a little more useful to me.

This fabric has been cut and sewn back together so many times that it is impossible to tell what the original design was (which actually included a whole bunch of wonky four patch blocks in various sizes)!  Plus, I threw in ALL of my scraps from the previous project (plus a few more to make the fabric go a little farther).  It has been quite the process and I am going to end up with a VERY wonky and randomly pieced project!  I can't wait to show it to you when it is finished.  As you can see by the fabric choices, this project was originally intended for myself...

But for now, I thought it would be fun to share the re-pieced (and re-pieced again) panels.  Can you tell what it is going to be?  I still need to make a few more - but I actually ran out of fabric.  Oops.