Feeling Crafty

Thanks to reading Kara's blog, I have been feeling inspired. Kara is a scrapbooker and seamstress. She makes some clothes for her cute daughter and she also makes quilts. She made a really cute one out of clothes her daughter wore. So creative! (If you click here, you can see her quilt.)

So I was inspired to get out my machine and sew. I put together the squares for the humanitarian baby quilt pretty quick and decided to keep going! (I still need to put the layers of that one together but I am waiting for a big chunk of time to do it - ie, Preston's nap time on Tuesday.)

This is my sewing machine.
I love it. It's a Brother. A few years ago my friend Danielle helped me sew a Halloween costume. It was a beautiful medieval princess dress in brown crushed velvet. Danielle was great about showing me what to do and making me do it, not doing it all herself. We used her machine since I didn't have one. Well, guess what I asked for for Christmas that year? Yup, a sewing machine. My dad looked all over, trying to find a nice one that didn't cost an arm and a leg. He was a little disappointed in the nice Singers etc because even the student models were pricey and do much of anything. We finally found this one at Costco and I jumped up and down. It is so nice! And at the time, it was just over a hundred dollars. What a deal! It has all sorts of fun stitches and an automatic threader. So fun. Anyway. Suffice it to say, I love it.
I had bought this fabric a few years ago. I had a grand idea of making a quilt for Bradley. I liked the red and blue and he mentioned he liked cow print. I think they go well together, don't you? I cut a bunch of squares and put together a few blocks (my version of a nine patch) and then quit. They all got tucked into a tote and forgotten. Until a couple days ago. Yay!

I came up with a good system of putting my blocks together. This is a shot partway through. I keep them all connected until I sew the three rows into the block. Keeps me organized and goes much quicker that way.

Here is one of the blocks. I will lay them out so that the cow print runs in diagonal lines through the quilt. That way, I will get the look of thicker red and blue diagonal lines. It looks really good. Next time I lay them out, I will take a picture. I think I will just tie this quilt, not "quilt" it. I think the fun pattern lends itself to tying. Probably a tan yarn to match the paisley. And I am going to have Ginny show me how to bind it. That should be an adventure!

Here is my stack so far. I have about thirty done and figure I need 54 for a twin size quilt. When I get those done, I will see how many more I could make and decide what size the quilt will really be. I am hoping twin so I don't get too overwhelmed on my first big project. If this goes well, I hope to make a crazy quilt for our bed - king size. So yeah, I need something smaller to get my feet wet.

Wish me luck!