Where did this week go?

I'm linking up with my fellow UFO Busters at Blackberry Creek.

I can't believe it's Friday already! I had another lofty list of goals for this week. The only thing I did was to take a picture. And I was barely able to do that! Between school and work and yoga (keeping my sore back strong!) and preparing for our camping trip this weekend, I was too busy to get to my sewing room. *slow tear escapes*

But I do have a FINISH to show! You've seen this beauty before. It's Our Wedding Quilt. You can read more about it here,here, here, and here.

I started two of these quilts last summer. The first finish went to our Reverend as a Thank You gift. The second one we get to keep!

The label is a piece of scrap from the first Wedding Quilt backing. I cut a heart and turned under a 1/4 inch seam allowance. I just wrote my name and the date on the label in archival ink. Then I started hand sewing it down. It looked horrible! So I pulled out the stitches and picked out a decorative stitch instead. I think it turned out really pretty.

The binding is a pretty tiny print calico. I know calico is not IN right now, but I like this fabric! That's all that matters. It's also used in the border.

I hand-stitched the back of the binding down. It went a lot faster this time, so I must be getting faster.

I have no self control. I took this picture during class. I'm so bad!

So that's my quilt! Just in time too. Our first wedding anniversary is today! (Love you babe!) We will be spending a weekend under the stars by the lake snuggling under Our Wedding Quilt. Gotta love it!

Blogger's Summer Fair

Ah, the Fair! My favorite time of summer. Corn dogs, corn cobs, quilts, cotton candy, quilts, hypnotists, games, giant stuffed animals, quilts, sno-cones, over-priced beer, and, did I mention, quilts?!



This Summer Fair is for bloggers. You don't have to leave your house to see all the beautiful quilts and drool over the yummy food! I worked on my submission all day today! May I present to you:

Mack and Jennifer's Wedding Quilt

This is actually a replica of the quilt I made and gifted for our Reverend. We got married in front of this quilt at the Burning Man Festival (the most awesome Summer Fair in the world!) last summer. I free-motion quilted large feathery hearts around the heart blocks.

I love how this design expands beyond the square. Like our love is too big to box! In the borders I did a free-hand loop-de-loop and hearts. I also quilted our first names at the head of the quilt and our last name at the foot. On the sides I quilted "Forever and Ever," "Eternal Bliss" (that's engraved in our wedding rings), "True Love", "Love", and "Bliss."

In each corner I quilted a special date. The day we met, the first time we said "I love you," the date he proposed, and of course, the date of our wedding, Sept 2, 2010.

In the border I quilted our sweet special nothings we tell each other constantly. "I love being married to you," "You are the love of my life," "We were made for each other," are just a few of the phrases.

I know it's hard to see the red thread on the red fabric, but I told my husband it was more private that way. It's kind of like our sweet secret.

Have I grossed you out with all this LOVE yet?! I finished the quilting in a marathon quilting session today and then made and attached the binding. It still needs to be sewn down and the label added, but I was so excited to show everyone! It's approx 45 inches across by 60 inches tall. Here's its cousin at our wedding:

Ahh...aren't we cute?! I am completely in love with this quilt and can't wait to finish!

Go to Gen X Quilters
blog right now to check out all the other entries! (WTF?! Blogger won't let me type links in line right now, ugh!) If you'd like to link up, post a submission to the quilt show by August 3rd. Coincidentally, we are going to the California State Fair tomorrow. We will be the ones holding hands and being blissfully in love! <3

FNSI Results: FAIL

What?! It’s already Monday? Where did the weekend go? I was soooo lazy this weekend. I spent 80% of my time surfing Failbook.

Weekend Fail.

What a booger.

I had some problems with my quilt and Friday night did not go like I thought it would. This is what happened:

1.Spend a few hours marking quilt
2.Decide I did it wrong. Spend 2 minutes ironing marks out.
3.Spend a few hours marking quilt
4.Quilt a block
5.Decide I don’t like it. Change the thread, quilt another block.
6.Decide it’s not the thread. It’s the design. Change the design, quilt another block.
7.Decide that’s too much quilting. Quilt another block, this time not so much.
8.Perfect.
9.Spend 30 minutes sitting on the bed next to husband agonizing over which block design and thread combo works best.
10.Decide on the Perfect one from Step 8.

Geez Jen. What a total waste of FNSI. There wasn’t even wine involved. Maybe that’s what went wrong. This is all I got done:

I quilted six of these. Here's a pic of the template:

I thought I would make up some time on Sunday, but this is how that went:

1.Walk into sewing room refreshed and jazzed. Spend an hour marking quilt, all the while jumping up to do laundry or dishes whenever my timer went off.
2.Lunchtime. Hmmm…maybe I’ll check out Failbook while I eat my rice.
3.Spend the next 4.5 hours on Failbook, sitting on the couch with my rice plate on the coffee table.
4.Finally tear my eyes away from my phone (yes, I read 250 pages of Failbook on my iPhone, what a loser!) to watch Harry Potter and bind my Bliss Quilt.
5.Last hour before bed, run around like crazy packing my lunch, picking out clothes, and gathering everything for work today.

Wow! I know, you’re totally jealous of my fabulous life. “How does she do it all?”

If you’re thinking about clicking on this Failbook link, I’m warning you now: Don’t do it!!!

Woo-Hoo! Let's Sew!

It’s Friday Night Sew In! It’s also UFO Weekend Party, and it all kicks off tonight! I’m super excited.

I pulled out my Love Quilt. This quilt is very special to me. I gave the original quilt to the Reverend who married us, and made another copy for us to keep. At the last moment, we decided to hang the quilt as a backdrop for our wedding ceremony. We’ve been married for almost a year now. I think it’s time to get our Love Quilt quilted up!

The first copy hanging behind us at our wedding.

Last night I picked a quilt design from the book 501 Quilting Designs. I traced the design onto freezer paper and made a basic stencil. I cut the away the outside and the inside of the stencil and traced a few blocks last night. I still need to figure out a way to trace the inside lines.

So that's my plan tonight: trace and quilt! I'll be impressed if I can get the whole quilt traced, but I'll be pushing to start the quilting!

I'm linking up with other UFO Busters at Blackberry Creek Home Arts. I don't have a bust this weekend, but I have a start, and that's just as important!

Woo-Hoo! Let's sew!

Friday Night Sew In Results

How fun! I had another fabulous Friday Night Sew In! This time, my husband joined me! Well, kind of. He sat in my sewing room as I sewed and he played computer games. Ahh...my perfect Friday Night!

I'm not doing any homemade Christmas gifts this year. Instead, I thought I would work on getting closer to finishing some of my UFO's. It seems like I'm full-steam ahead on patchwork but once I hit borders, basting and quilting, I run into a snail trail. Stuck in my own path. I put it away and forget all about it. So I've decided that this month I'm going to concentrate on my 2 B's. Borders and Backings. I hate Borders and I hate Backings. Whenever I get to Borders and Backings I somehow convienantly forget about my work-in-progress.



So I pieced together the backing for my Bliss quilt. I had got this really soft, thin blanket from somewhere that I really wanted to use. Only problem, of course, was that it was too small. Maybe I should start making quilts that fit my backings. Hmm...there's an idea.



So I used my leftover Bliss squares and some pieced triangle scraps to make my back bigger. I might cut it again to make the Bliss run down the middle. RIght now I'm feeling a bit lazy. Maybe if I put it away for a few weeks, I'll find the motivation.

Wait, that's how I got into this situation in the first place!

I also put a border on my second Love Quilt. This is the one we are keeping here in the house. It's a good copy of the one we got married in front of:



That's all I did. I chatted with my husband, drank some wine, snacked on chocolate and lazily pieced. Like I said, a perfect Friday Night!

Love is in the Air

Hi Blogworld! If I sound a bit breathless, it's because I've been running around town (and the house!) like a new father on Christmas Eve, scurrying through Wal-Mart and frantically trying to pack everything for our upcoming Burning Man trip. We officially leave Monday, but will be leaving early Sunday morning for a night at my awesome Mother's house. She lives out in the sticks and doesn't have internet or cell phone service, so this will be my last post for a long while!



Well, I got my hair did. We are camping for a week in a dry, dusty lakebed, with no showers provided (you build your own), so I like to get my hair braided for low-maintenance and also for beautiful decoration! The colors in this picture are off, that orange color is really a dark neon pink.

I got all my amazing costumes packed. Even managed to slip in one last project, some red and black furry leg warmers. No time for a picture (I'm exhausted!). Today my best friend and I put together my bouquet (fake flowers, the only way my bouquet will survive in the desert) and decided how to wear my veil. I have all my somethings (old, blue, new, and borrowed) in a row. The car is packed except for our toothbrushes. Still have to spend some quality time with my sweet kitties, though!



They look sad that I'm leaving them, right? That's what I tell myself anyway!



I did manage to finish my quilt. I'm pretty happy with it! I still need to practice my freehand quilting, but with every project I get better and better! When I get back from vacation, I'll start on our matching version. I quilted Love sayings in the borders: Love, Kiss, Forever and Ever, Crazy in love, etc. Also some Burning Man tidbits like Burn Baby Burn, Thank you Revered Lala, and so forth.



Then I quilted a heart stencil in the blocks.



I had a lot of fun doing this quilt. My favorite part was when I measured for the borders. I usually take three measurements, both ends, and across the middle, then average those numbers. Well, surprise, surprise, all three measurements were the same! *Gasp* Yup, my piecing is getting better.

So...I'm leaving for a week. I'm getting married (I can't wait to marry this wonderful man!). And I'm gifting a quilt. I'm going to Burning Man. I will be spinning fire and hula hooping and sitting around campfires and howling at the moon! And, oh yeah, I'm getting married! Wish me luck!

Love Quilt Progress

Although I haven't been busting out the quilts double time like I thought, I have been making some good progress on my Love Quilt. This is a very special quilt which I am giving as a very special gift. This as a gift to the woman who will be performing our wedding ceremony. That's right, the official announcement: We are getting married on September 2, 2010 (in just a few weeks!) at Burning Man. Burning Man is a week-long festival that happens annually in the desert about 100 miles north of Reno, NV. Our officiant, Reverend LaLa, will perform our ceremony for free as our gift and our gift to her will be this Love Quilt. I'm also making one to keep for ourselves, although at a much slower pace.


Me and a friend keeping warm at Burning Man, a few years ago.

Since moving to Sacramento almost two months ago I've also gotten in touch with some local quilters through Meetup.com (try it, I love meeting people this way!). Nancy invited the group to her house for some Saturday morning quilting. She has an amazing house, with tons of room to baste a quilt on her tile floor! That's what I spent half the time doing (pin basting, which I'm starting to rethink since everyone was looking at me like I was nuts).



I spent the other half of the time using a stencil Nancy lent me (my first time using a stencil) to make chalk marks on my quilt and then quickly quilting it on my Bernina. I really didn't like using the chalk, since it came off almost as fast as I put it on. There are a few places where I had to free-hand the design because the chalk had already rubbed off. Since I was borrowing the stencil, I tried to quilt as fast as possible. It was Super Speedy Quilting.

I'm using King Tut thread in Red, so it's a bit hard to photograph the quilting. The stencil I used has a circle of six hearts. Most of the stencil fits on the block, though it does extend a bit into the sashing. I looked for more stencils to use on the border, but couldn't find the perfect one, so I played around with a few ideas until I found the perfect idea! My cursive is very pretty, so I wrote in cursive around the border. I wrote words like Love, Thank You, Kiss, Burning Man, Burn Baby Burn, Two Hearts One Love, Forever and Ever, and of course, Thank You Reverend LaLa. In between the phrases, I free-handed a heart. The heart acts as a separator between the phrases and also a great connector to keep it continuous line quilting. It turned out beautiful!

Oops, except for one thing. I accidentally quilted a bit of the backing into the quilt.



I cut it away a bit, but I'm kinda stuck now. I'm pretty sure the only way to fix this is to pick out the quilting stitches and then redo that part. If there are any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Just another silly mistake in my quilting adventure. Did you check out my backing fabric? It's so perfect! It's pink and red so it matches the front. And the red lines of the fabric totally hide my beginning quilting. I love it! That was definitely dumb luck! Sometimes dumb luck works against you, sometimes it works for you!

New Project: Love Quilt

I've started a brand new project! Actually, like most quilters, this project has been on the back burner of my brain for quite a while, just simmering and bubbling quietly. I first saw this quilt at a Desert Quilters of Nevada Quilt Show. It's gorgeous! Sorry about photo quality, my camera broke and I'm working from my Iphone.



Unfortunatley, this is the only picture I took, I didn't get the quilter's name or the pattern. So last week I pulled out all my red and pink fabrics and dug out my giant piece of Kona White and got to work.

I see that this block is made of four main pieces, two of which are the same design. The top piece was obvious to me and I cut a 3.5 inch red square with two 2 inch white squares. I drew a diagonal line on each white square from corner to corner. I pinned the white square to the corner of the red square and sewed ON the diagonal line I drew.



I trim the excess fabric and then press the white squares up so that I have one 3.5 inch square with two white triangle edges.



The bottom pieces were a bit harder for me to figure out. I know they are HST's, or half-square triangles. I know there is a mathematical formula for making perfect HST's, so I googled it. The formula, as I understand it, is 3.5 inches (that's what I want the finished size to be) + 7/8 inch. So I cut out that exact size, drew a diagonal line from corner to corner on my white square, and sewed a quarter-inch on EITHER side of the line. I cut the square on the line, pressed it open and measured it.

Way too big.

Sigh. This is how I quilt. Everything makes sense until I cut and measure, or until I match seams. Then it all falls apart.

So this is how I fix it. I cut all my squares to 4 inches. Do the HST dance. Then, I get out my handy dandy 3.5 inch square ruler and cut around it. Perfect 3.5 inch square, little waste. Still, it would be much easier to have perfect pieces without trimming.



So that's where I am. I've sewn and pressed and now I need to trim my squares down.

If you're wondering where I'm quilting, I've got my trusty Bernina set up on a corner of the dining room table and I do everything else from the living room couch. I drag a TV tray out to use my rotary mat and put everything away when I'm done. It's a pain, but there's no way I'm going to give up quilting!