Which one is it?

Chuck or Phil? The big news today is .... are we going to have 6 more weeks or winter or is spring approaching. Sorry, but I vote for winter. Living in Houston Texas I cant see starting spring already, do you realize how HOT it would be this summer if spring officially started now. Although I can deal with our weather for a few more weeks I know how it feels to suffer the freezing cold because I grew up in Michigan, and got out as soon as I could!
Sorry Mom, but I vote for Winter! Only since winter for us means 50's and 60's for a few more weeks with the occasional chill here and there.

As for quilting goes, I have been working on things, I have been practicing my free motion quilting on scraps quilt sandwiches and lets say I'm getting better. At least now I know what the tension needs to be for my machine (took me a while to figure that out) and I have some practice under my belt. Not enough practice to take on the project I tried to take on....whew I really took three steps forward on that one! I attempted to quilt my Valentines quilt with feathers and some crazy hard quilting designs and wasn't quite ready to take on that adventure yet, lets just say I stopped mid quilt and put that project in the closet for a rainy day.
Today I will show you another part of my workspace, well its my sewing machine and my favorite accessory....my extention table. Its 24x24 and I really don't even notice that I don't have one of those fancy tables, this thing is awesome! Gives me the flat sewing surface I need and I love it. If you are looking to buy one of the name brand sewing machine tables, think about getting a sturdy table and an extention table first. You may find that you love it and it could save you a pretty penny. (or a pretty thousand dollars or more!)
This is everything I need! Well, except a table that doesn't vibrate at high sewing speeds....lol


........And YES! I love my Janome!!

Well today was a fun day, after being at home with my daughter and no car for the past couple weeks my husband finally got a day off of work and I got to take advantage of a sale at my LQS. I really had a hard time finding fabric that I loved, but ended up finding some that I liked...so today was a stash building day for me at $6.49/yard. Not too bad.

Also today my daughter was laying with my husbands new quilt and she told me she wanted a quilt too. She has tons of quilts from Grandma but none from Mommy, so we sat down and designed this little quilt (of course it will have her name at the bottom, I just left it like this for blog purposes). This is a sample coloring and I have a few details I have to fix on the blocks yet, but you get the idea. Its a Princess quilt, every little Princess should have one of these.

I am still new to quilting and designing so please, any constructive advise would be wonderful and I want to perfect this quilt before I make it. Thanks again.....and please do not steal my designs without written permission.

Still working

Well I do have some more of my Valentines Day Quilt finished, but didnt get a picture taken of it yet. I am going to wait until its finished to take a picture. Yesterday was spent going through all the fabric I have (its not very much) but I sorted it by color and size. I was looking for a background fabric for my Valentines Quilt and seems like none of my peices were big enough with an exception of a few. I did manage to find a green background with little white hearts all over it, so it will be my Christmas/Valentines Quilt...lol. I have it all ready for machine quilting.

Here are some pictures of what I am working on. I usually have an applique that I can do while watching TV in the evening when my husband comes home and wants to spend some time together. It keeps me busy while watching "manly" TV shows. Here is the fabric I am using for the quilt.

And here I have cut the peices for the block out of freezer paper and selected the colors to use this month. The greens and yellow will be in all the blocks but I have different shades of blue, all on the white background.

Also on the To Do list for today is read up on my quilting basics. After making my Valentines Quilt I know I am doing something wrong because I didnt sew in perfectly straight lines. Well its just a practice quilt so its ok, but I need to study up a little....and here is my study material.

Thanks for reading,

Amy

Oh and if anyone knows how to add a siggy at the end of my blogs I would love to know...thanks.

Monday's are good for me

Since I am staying home with my daughter I get to do the things I like to do (quilt) whenever I feel like it. Of course I had some breaks throughout the day.

My little AllieKat got to go outside to play in the 70+ weather and this is her adventure, at least part of the adventure.



While AllieKat was having her Great Outdoor Adventure, I was having a scrap adventure inside. I had some strips (5") from a swap that I was part of once and the theme was red. I figured with Valentimes Day comming up I would made a scrappy quilt with all my red strips. This is the progress. I need to practice my quilting so this will most likely go to a charity later, but so far I like it.



Oh, and excuse the messy post today, I seemed to insert the pictures different. Not as pleasing the the eye as I would like but you still get the idea.

New Curtains

Jo Ann's was having a fabric sale this week so I went to get my fabric for my curtains and the skirt I am making for my cutting table.
I completed the curtains tonight since it was a easy project and hopefully I can get the skirt done tomorrow, only I need to get some Velcro so I can attach it to the side of the table. I may wait on those until I get my sewing table next month.
But here are the curtains, what do you think? Open or Closed?

1st finished quilt of 2010

I finished the quilt for Jimmy's Birthday. He is in Galveston working this week so I dont know when he will be able to see it, but I hope he likes it.

I finished the quilt using fleece as a backing and it turned out really nice. My quilting isnt perfect because this was hard to quilt, being my very first quilt thats larger than a baby quilt I am pretty happy with it.

The binding turned out the best! It looks great!

Overall the quilt is very warm and thats what I wanted to achieve. Now I know that I need to try to take some quilting classes, might make the process easier next time I quilt something like this.

Enjoy! Im so glad its done :) Off to the next project!

Hmmmmm....

Well, I have lived here for a few months now and I have my stuff unpacked and I really want to concentrate on getting my sewing room up and running the way I like it. Its somewhat functional at this point but I still need a few things to make it perfect.

So far I bought some fabric for curtains, Im just using regular cotton fabric. I'm also going to use that same fabric to make a skirt for my cutting table so I can store things under it and it will look finished.

I am going to get my husband and brother to build me a custom shelf for my closet where I will store my fabric and then all I need is some hooks for my rulers and a desk for my sewing machine.

You will have to wait until its complete to get pictures because I cant seem to find my camera (a little girl did something with it, I think) so hopefully I will have everything finished by the end of next month. Seeing how the only need to buy the desk and build the "fabric" shelf for my closet. Wish me luck :)

One more today

I was surfing some of my favorite blogs yesterday and found a new guild that looks like tons of fun. There are small branches popping up all over the world and one started in Houston just yesterday. I am pleased to say that I am going to be part of it.
Its the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and you can find a link to join on my page

(if I can figure out how to do it, wish me luck)

Holidays are over....

and I have gotten used to my "new" everyday life staying at home with my daughter while I study for the HESI and pray I get into nursing school this fall.

I am working on finishing a quilt right now. The top has been done for a while but decided to finish it for my husbands birthday. He keeps taking my flannel quilt so I decided its time to make him a quilt of his own.

I had the top done before and not finished, this gave me the push I needed to finish it because he had suggested making it our bedding set for our bedroom (so I know he likes it).

Quilting this has been a challenge! Lets just say that I like to try new things and my husband wanted something warm and I first thought I would back it with flannels so off to JoAnns to get some backing fabric, and lucky for me they were having a 30% off sale!

Except while I was there I didnt think the flannels would give him the warm and cuddly feeling he wanted so I decided to take the challege of using fleece as a background. Ok, I am new to quilting and I wanted to try something unheard of, at least to me.

So far I have about 1/2 of it quilted and I am just quilting in the ditch so far so nothing special. Then I am just putting squares inside the squares that need some extra quilting. And let me tell you, my quilting is not all that, my squares are off but this thing is 3 layers (yes, I still used cotton batting) and its pretty thick and can be hard to manage on my little machine, so Im not shooting for perfect. Im shooting for "Get 'er done!"
I will post pictures when I am done with the quilt, and I do like the fleece backing and will be using it again but maybe next time with no cotton batting and just the two layers.

Also....I got a G.C. for Christmas from my loving husband so I designed a new quilt, inspired by Sue Garmens BOM quilt. I used EQ6 blocks but changed them to be more my own.

I also got blues and yellows to start this quilt, and plan on doing my own BOM this year.

I do needle turn applique to finish it, and I finished my first block but not sure I like it yet so I might redo it.

But I do like the design and I will show you the colors I picked out a little later. I do have to do some touch ups on my EQ6 and I realized that after finishing the first block, but its my first one so I am pretty excited.

One last thing that excites me :)
I got my 24x24 extention table and my Darning foot so I really want to start to practice free motion quilting soon. Now I need to get a real table to sew on instead of my card table that likes to bounce and vibrate when I go full speed...lol

Until next time, happy quilting.

Its been a while

Its a wonderful time of year, I really do love this time of year.
Thankgiving was divine! I loved every last bite of the 22 pound turkey and all the accessories.
My baby girl turned 4 years old, she was extremely excited for her birthday and now she is very much into the Christmas celebration.

School is almost done. I should actually be studying for a Microbiology Final at the moment but cant seem to get into the groove. Hopefully I get into the groove enough to get a high 80. I have two more classes I need to prepare for, finals next week.

Then its time to enjoy a long break, and hopefully do some reading or quilting. I am excited to have a break from the long drives to and from school, and excited to transfer to a University in the spring. Hopefully I will be able to sign up for the classes I need.

Until next time, Merry Christmas!! Much love.