Part 5: Along for the Project - My First King

I felt like I was making great progress, then I started the quilting.

You see, the kids and I cleaned the playroom in the basement, vacuumed and all. Now I had a place to pin the quilt layers together.

Check.

Next, I make sure I have at least 5 bobbins loaded up, and I'm ready to roar on this thing. I made sure that I finished all the smaller projects to clear off my sewing table. Lets rock.

This is what is looks like to machine quilt a King at home, with just a regular sewing machine... Only half of it made it into the photo. Feels like madness. haha (in my best pirate-y chuckle)

Now, I've quilted enough of the quilt to use up 2 bobbins, and now I'm second guessing my thread color choice.

I really want to pull it all out and switch to white. I feel like the variegated blue is just taking over, not that I think the blocks need to really stand out, but I feel kinda like they're getting lost. And, the back was just white with 2 stripes of the scraps towards the edges, and I am just not liking it with such dark thread.

Err, decisions decisions.

Sidetracked

I got a little sidetracked lately...

To top if off, I didn't even stick to my commitment to finish the King (dun dun dun) before starting any more projects. But, the One Million Pillowcase Challenge was just too good to pass up. So, I busted out some of my ugly-er fabrics that I had lots of thanks to some old 3 lb. assortments I ordered from Fabric.com (there's something really exciting to me not knowing what fabric I will get), and away I went.

I mad 8 pillowcases, 4 were finished and 4 were mostly finished at the last Girl's Night I went to at Chicks N Stitches.

It felt really nice to hand Edna a stack of pillowcases, and I was adamant to make 4 girly and 4 boyish ones. She was surprised to get so many boy ones, now I feel like I should make more... so addicting.

Check it out:




Not only was this a good enough reason to be sidetracked, by the Delaware State Fair is up a roaring! I just love cotton candy, and all the other yummy carnival food.

Unfortunately, I didn't find a fried pickle, but I did try some fried oreos, not as great as I expected. I truly was a little disappointed, I mean, something as great as an oreo should be even better after being fried, not so much.

To top off the week, when I went out to water my garden yesterday morning, this is what I found:

I'm so very excited!!

We Make A Mean Team

My husband, Wes, and I that is.

I feel like all I'm blogging about is my King I'm working on, so here's a little more about something else....

My husband and I bought our first home this last September, and we have been steadily working on it (bathroom and flooring-you can see the floor unfinished in this photo...).

I was so excited to get a yard and be able to have my first garden. So, last fall I built a raised bed about 2 feet high, I know a little much, but I have 4 kids 7yrs and under. The middle two kids are boys, and I just know they would accidentally trample it if it weren't obnoxiously obvious. I love it. I think my green beans are mocking me, each time there are some to pick it's only about 5. And, then there's me standing by my garden wondering what to do with only 5 green beans... I've thrown them in a few things. The tomatoes are going to be coming on soon with lots and lots, hopefully I planted enough Romas that I can can a bunch. Got a few zuchs and see more coming, looking forward to some muffins, mmm,

Oh, don't let me forget one of the most awesome projects that the hubs has done. Now, I love my husband, and I think he's extremely talented, and I think the dilemma is that he is just like me in this aspect: he had like 4 or more unfinished projects (I have tons more (like 20-30 at least), but mine don't stick out on a day to day basis...).

Sorry, back to his project. Wes built these racks for storing firewood, see:

And, he managed to find tons, at least 2 1/2 cords, of FREE wood to fill them. Now, it's he just amazing?! Last year we went through quite a bit of wood trying to offset the cost of our oil. But with the original single pain windows that are from when the house was built in 1977, I'm not sure if anything we try to do will really help. Fun times. Bring on the down comforters!

Each morning, when I look out of our back door, I have a sense of accomplishment. Outdoor projects have a good way of doing that since your results are both immediate and long-term at the same time. Above all, it just feels good to have a tiny little bit of land that's finally "ours" (even though I am constantly dreaming of our farm we will someday have).

Part 4: Along for the Project- My First King

Yesterday morning, I was sewing along (3:30am when I started). Double checking my organization and photo to make sure that I was putting all my blocks where I wanted them and in the right orientation. Check and check.

Everything was in the right place, just not where I expected it to be.

 (That's like a whole inch off...)

Now, mind you, when sewing a KING there are about 120 inches of error that can be incorporated into this in either direction.

Lesson learned: pin vertical strips to match in the middle, that way they'll only be off by a little bit on both ends. That is, unless you are anal (I am) and feel the urge to take apart the WHOLE THING and get it to be exact. I am going to fight the urge on this one just because I don't want to do all that work again... I know, I'm horrible, and may just be embarrassed to give it now, errr.

Saturday, 3:15pm.

What were you doing??

This is what I was doing:

I forgot how much I love being on a boat!!

Friday Find: Tea Rose Home

It's FRIDAY!!!

I can't tell you how much I love the internet, or how much I love blogs. Sometimes when I read someone else's blog I almost feel like the author wrote it just for me. Does anyone else ever feel that way??

Well, Sachiko over at Tea Rose Home did just that, she wrote a blog post just for me (not literally).

Her post titled "Clothes - Memory Blanket - and Mini Clothes" was incredible. So wonderful that I felt it needed to be shared!

(This photo is direct from Tea Rose Home blog)

Part 3: Along for the Project- My First King

This summer is just kicking my butt it feels like...

Progress on this quilt feels really s-l-o-w, maybe it's because it's a freakin king-sized quilt. (Please remind me to rethink doing a king next time...).

Does it feel slow cause I'm in the middle of doing my least favorite part?? Uhh, yea. I like making the blocks and quilting it, not so much the in-between, or the hand binding for that matter.

After I finished framing all my blocks with a finished 3" border, I got out my original sketch to figure out what I wanted to do with the sashing.

What do you think? I think I forgot how much I love coloring, and sketching... (I know, my sketch isn't square... just run with me)

I didn't want to do anything typical, like keeping it simple and making all my sashing one color. No, why would I keep a king-size simple???

Anyway, I really like how it's coming along. I have all the horizontal sections of the sashing sewn on, and I'm about 1/2 way through sewing the blocks together vertically. Sorry, forgot to get a picture of that.

Wow, typing it all up makes me feel like I'm making progress, and the pics help a little too.

Off to take my Amish Friendship Bread out of the oven... (I made coconut this time, yum!)

Happy Sewing!

Part 2: Along For The Project-My First King

This is what my progress looks like while trying to entertain the big kids on Sunday:

I have decided to commit all of my crafting time to this quilt, it needs to be finished. I am the queen of unfinished projects that just linger... yea.

Starting from where we left off before, I am not going to send this quilt to a long-arm quilter, since it will be about $200 to have it done. Apparently I need to be in the long-arm quilting business...

Back to the whole sashing issue as well, I am still not sure what I want to do. I bought some yellow, dark blue, and darker green to play around with. My only issue is that they are "new" prints, meaning they aren't in any of the blocks.

So, I was originally thinking about bordering each block with a 2 inch sashing, alternating between the blue and yellow to make almost a checkerboard effect. Then I didn't like that so much. Now, I'm thinking of making somewhat of a cross in the corners of the blocks, using an angle to join them mid-block instead of a straight seam. This way, I could use the yellow, blue, and green I bought, and even throw in some gold or other colors too. I'm really liking this idea...

Yesterday, I laid out all of my blocks and played with them until I had it all the way I liked. The middle block is missing, I know, haven't gotten there yet. I'm planning on doing applique of the bride and groom's names with a heart or two. Here's how it looks:

With each of the blocks that are not symmetrical, I tried to have them be different orientations within the quilt, the only one I didn't do it with was the bow tie block.

Oh, a little trick to keep your blocks the way you want them when you stack em up: start from one side and pick up the first block, lay it on the next one, then pick both of them up, put them on the next one, and so forth until you just have one pile for the row. Do this with each row, you will now have a column of piles. At this point, I like to use pins to mark which # row it is from the top. The top row gets one pin, the second row gets two, etc. Then I just stack them up with #1 on the top, #2 under that, etc. Now you have a pile of blocks, and you know where you want them!

I'm really hoping to get this quilt done soon, I have a baptism dress to make (LOVE this baptism dress), a bathing suit cover-up for the baby, some pjs, and lots more Christmas gifts... oh the list is even longer I think...

Friday Find: Geta's Quilting Studio

I haven't done a Friday Find in, well, forever it seems. Having 4 kids sneeks up on you sometimes, and has a tendency to obliterate things like regular blogging, at least when only 1 of your 4 is in school.

So, on to my incredible find!

Geta's Quilting Studio had a wonderful tutorial for a quilted basket. I think her design is adorable, and her fabric choice is great. Definitely going in my "projects I must make category."

I mean, just look at how cute her basket is: