Blog Blast

Donnie and Troy came over tonight and it was pretty fun times. Donnie brought over his fabrics he got over the week, oh boy was there a ton! We sorted out the ton of cut squares he had (9 big bags!) and laid them out over my bed. DANG! that was pretty impressive! I think he has watercolor quilt in mind...but I am guessing he will need to see what other fabrics he has. Troy and Eric were talking computers or programming or something almost the whole time, but I dragged Eric in to see what a whole load of fabric on the bed looked like. He was in awe.

I had made 3 bags, one for me for cosmetics to hang in the bathroom, a drum stick holder bag for Eric, because they were EVERYWHERE (...and getting chewed by Jazz), and a school bag for Noel. Here they are. I found the fabrics all at Joanns. I wish there had been more of the squirrel flannel fabric (they were all made with flannel and lined with fleece.) I need to find a good pattern for a tote, there are several people I want to make bags for, but don't want the insides to fray. I will be posting it once I find a good one.


Also, I have started making real progress on the friendship wall hanging I started. I will post the progression later, too.

And just for posterity, here is a picture of my tiny wee quilting area:


- Helen out

Purse all finished

Purse all finished.

Tea Coasters & Purse

Here is a set of 3 tea coasters and a purse in the making.

Donnie

Quilted Quilters Apron

Here is a project I did today. I ended up with an oil spot from the machine, but for the most part, this came out great! It's very strong and durable, and quite comfortable when on, standing and sitting. I also sewed my first piece of lace, which turned out fair. I think I will probably go sparingly on the lace in the future projects :)
-H out

Minutes 2-22/23-08

Friday 2/22 - Donnie came over to my house Friday evening and we watched several episodes of Simply Quilting that I had recorded. Also, Donnie brought over his books and fabric that he received in the mail earlier. He gave me several pieces of batiks of various colors and I gave him a yard of the Shimmer Sea by Robert Kaufman I had got earlier in the week. Concluded meeting around 10:30 p.m. after agreeing to go fabric shopping next morning.

Saturday 2/23 - Donnie and I went to Bernina's for the first time. I learned about the sewing machines while Donnie shopped the fabrics. After drooling over the sewing machines and listening to the salesperson's lesson on how to do the different design stitches, I joined Donnie and got several pieces of fabric, mostly fat quarters. Cut yards were $6.00 each and half yards were $3.00 each. I think FQs were $1 each, but I can't remember. I enjoyed this store because it had several fabrics I had never seen before, and although a tiny bit more expensive, it looked all like very nice quality stuff. Donnie got several pieces of fabric as well and a book on quilted travel bags.

My First Two Projects

A small owl wall quilt I made for my mom and a small wall quilt I made for my friend Elizabeth.

I am working on several more small personalized black and white quilts like Liz's that feature the art nouveau prints.

The thing I like about these quilts is how easy it is to get the strips to pretty much do what you want.

Today Donnie and I plan on going to a few stores and checking out some fabrics!

-Helen out

the final block for my kids

Here is the final block for my kids, not perfect but close to it.

Donnie

Making a block for the kids

We were using shapes today in class to make well shaped objects. So one group of the kids made a nice arrangement with some triangles, a hexagon and some rhombus'. So I figured I would make it into a quilt block and show them how you can use shapes in "real" life. So I am trying to get this done for tomorrow. When I get it done I will post it on here.

Donnie Out

Made my first Asian Purse tonight

Well I tried something different tonight to get my mind off of the family drama I have going on right now. I decided to rip a friend's old purse to pieces and take the zipper and some of the fabric lining so I could make a new purse out of some very pretty red Asian fabric I have. SO I Made it and it mostly came out very well. However, I did kinda make one handle a little bit bigger than the other. But overall I was very pleased with how my project turned out.

I talked to Helen just a few minutes ago on AIM and we are going to get together Friday night as planned. I will be going to her house instead of her coming to mine.

Then this weekend on Saturday afternoon I will be headed home to Greenville to see the family and try to make sense of everything that is going on and I for one will be writing my congresspeople about changing child abuse laws to really offer protection to our children because the current laws we have in place are failing our state's children, one of them being my niece. But I want get on that soapbox right now.

Donnie

New Stitch

Today I learned about the satin stitch. I have been looking everywhere trying to figure out what it is called. I knew I wanted to do it, but just didn't know how. I got some embroidery thread when I made my first visit to Thimble Pleasures in Carrboro. I recently decided to order some Kona Bay Fabric panels and had the idea I wanted to satin stitch some of the edges, especially since I found out about the amazing variegated thread! Too awesome for words! Hopefully Donnie and I will get to meet this Friday, but not sure since Eric's uncle died today :( and his family is coming in to town tomorrow night. Donnie just reminded me on chat that there is a lunar eclipse!

-H out

Quilty Pleasures

We came so close to using that name, but someone had already taken it for their business site. Oh well. Half Square Triangles it is - and I'm convinced is more fitting and clever.
HST is a combination of Donnie and myself, both married and a little fabric crazy, who are both novice quilters. Somewhere along the way I'm hoping we will be able to see our progress and be able to get really creative, and possibly even sell a few things here and there. Donnie sells his stuff on Etsy under Half Square Triangles and I sell under my own Etsy account Medusafrequency.

Tonight I found an item I really want to try out, called Creative Feet. One of the things I most covet from really good quilters I've seen is the ability to embroider. And I could never turn down learning piping and embellishing!

Going to go work on some personalized wall hanging quilts I've started.

-Helen out