I've moved!

Hello! I just wanted to pop back over here on blogger and remind everyone that I've moved to wordpress. You can now find me at scrambledmeggs.wordpress.com. Check it out:

interpreting shapes

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started up on this baby again. I finished the straight lines a few months ago, and it has been lingering.

delay of binding

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So, I really hate making binding. I actually hate almost every part of binding that I do by machine (which might explain why I haven't touched this project in more than a week). Sewing it onto the back is soothing, and can be done while drinking a beer and catching up with TiVo.

 

progress update

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So when I wasn't obsessively following a local murder trial, I got some sewing in today:

I picked up the backing for this quilt fabric yesterday from the stitch lab. It's pretty sweet when you walk into the local fabric shop (which I will be able to ride my bike to when I finally buy a bike) and the owner recognizes you. the dark blue isn't quite as dark as it looks in this picture, but you can see the quilting really well. next up: scrappy binding.

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impulsivity

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triangle top – and boomer[

One thing I love about quilting is how multifaceted it can be. Sometimes it involves intense planning, and other times you can just figure it out as you go.

Last week, I was in desperate need of a new project distraction. I had a little bundle of fat quarters from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow line that I had picked up at a quilt shop back in February.

I had recently seen this lovely quilt on pinterest, so I grabbed my 60° triangle ruler and just started cutting. Of course, in my impulsivity, I cut a couple of pieces wrong, so there are fewer of the darker prints. But I was rolling with the punches on this one, and I just made as many triangles as I could.

After getting some input on Flickr and from the Austin Modern Quilt Guild, I assembled the top Monday (just barely) before work. My roommate's dog, Boomer, got in on the picture, and he's just too cute to crop out!

Nuts and bolts: This will finish at about 28"x42" and will probably become a wall hanging? I'm really not sure yet.

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Today I hemmed a pair of jeans

note: I actually wrote this about ten days ago. On an actual piece of paper. With a pen. It was kind of a breakthrough moment for me, and I want to share it with you.

One of the reasons I started quilting again a year and a half ago was that I wanted something in my life that no one could take away from me. It's the same reason I started volunteering with GENaustin. Whatever might come my way, whether I lose my job, have a falling out with a friend or get dumped — those outside things didn't define me.

No one but me could take those things away. Today, I realized I had taken something away from myself. It had been more than two months since I turned on my sewing machine; my desk was covered in a fine layer of dust. Hemming those jeans, taking a step back and seeing tangible results of my time and effort, made me realize all I had been missing.

A lot has happened in my life over the past few months to make me rearrange my priorities. But in the rearranging, I lost balance. I lost part of myself. So I've started a new blog with the intent of finding balance. Balance between work and play, academics and creativity. It won't be just a quilting blog, but if you're solely interested in that, there will be a separate RSS feed and archives page.

I will be double-posting in this blog as well, at least for a while. And I'll still be posting updates to Flickr. (My next post will be about this project I've been working on.)

don't even know what i was afraid of

maybe that it's addicting? I may want to start hand quilting everything.

stubbornness pays off

I fully own my stubbornness. If it weren't for my stubborn (sometimes bordering on obstinate) nature, I probably never would have gotten these blocks pieced, much less assembled this quilt top. (My last post about this project has more info on fabrics and the pattern.)

While making this (which I'm calling "drunkard's garden"), so far I have stabbed a bone in my finger with a pin — it kind of felt like hitting my funny bone, but very precisely, and in my finger (no blood) — and used my seam ripper more times than I care to remember. And I haven't even gotten to the fun part yet! This will be my first attempt at hand quilting. I bought some DMC Perlé 8 in black, some crewel needles (size 2), and an 11"x17" Q-snap frame. Though after reading a few more hand-quilting tutorials, I think I need to pick up a rigid thimble. My nimble thimble may not cut it.

This is where the stubbornness comes in again. Sure, I've never hand quilted, but I'm determined that it will happen. Just like I was determined I could conquer curved piecing. Wish me luck!

like sands through the hourglass

Wow, I got so much done during the Austin Modern Quilt Guild retreat last weekend! In an effort to avoid an overly lengthy post, I'll just show you one project today, and I'm linking up with Workshop in Progress. I meant to post this on Wednesday, but it slipped my mind with the many trips my poor car has had to make to the mechanic.

in the works

Rather than lay out the 80 double hourglass blocks that have been patiently waiting on my table for a week, I've decided to embark on two new projects.

First, I finished cutting my Kaffe Fassett fat quarters, using the template from this free pdf pattern, and got the pieces all laid out.

it's about to get autobiographical, y'all

So a little while back, my friend Jimmie gave me a blog award. Blog awards are kind of like the new chain e-mails. Maybe this was just being at the right age with the right technological advances, but when I (and I'm wiling to best many others born in the mid-80) was in junior high, my friends and I would circulate chain e-mail "surveys." This was back in the AOL 4.0 years. We would e-mail asking a bunch of questions (ranging from what color you wish you could die your hair to who you had a crush on, etc.) and then demand that the recipient reply with their answers and then forward the questions on to X number of other people.

So, with a blogging award, I'm supposed to:

1. Thank and link back the person that awarded it to you.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their blog award.

And just to break it up some, I'll include some completely unrelated pictures.

Kaffe Fasset fat quarters I got at a local quilt shop.
These will become a wall hanging for my bedroom.

how many hours does it take to make 80 quilt blocks?

So keeping a time log has been an interesting exercise. If you read that last sentence and thought it sounded about as exciting as busting out the seam ripper or basting a quilt, just click away from this post now.

Last we left off, I had cut all my strip sets into 320 quarter-square triangles. I spent half an hour pairing those triangles up to be sewn (and owning Jeopardy — there was a category about Texas today!)

harsh clock

I, just like many of you, I'm sure, repeatedly get asked "How long does something like that take you?" Now, my usual answer is something to the effect of: "I don't really time myself. I do this for fun, and I don't want to turn it into a chore." But over the holidays I got asked that question so many times, I actually started to get curious. So when I started working on my doube hourglass quilt, I decided to pay attention to the clock — or to how many episodes of This American Life I listened to while doing something.

Here are the somewhat depressing results:

thrifty tip

I know I don't have to neatly lay out my paired-up strips in even rows... but I kind of like it.

Today's entry truly lives up to the name of the blog. Sadly, I can't take credit for it. I read it in the February issue of BHG's American Patchwork and Quilting.

I save the extra backing and batting that I trim off a quit before binding. Why? Well honestly, just 'cause I'm a packrat. Also, a woman in my quilt guild collects that type of thing to stuff pet beds that a group she's in makes and donates to area shelters.

So what can you do with those extra 2-4 inch strips of batting? Dust! That's right, y'all. Batting is just as good as those Swiffer cloths. I used a piece to clean my ceiling fan last night:

cathedral windows

after seeing so many beautiful things like these last week...

1. Cathedral Window Quilt (with background light), 2. Gail's Cathedral Window Quilt, 3. img 4052.jpg 4. cathedral windows

I decided to try my own.

insomnia

I work nights. This means I don't really have to wake up before 2 p.m. on any given day. (I try to wake up before noon, though!) I get home from work around midnight, and I'm usually up until around 3 or 4 a.m. Lately, though, I've been unable to fall asleep until 6 a.m. or later.

I made this little birdie using the Sublime Stitching Kurt Halsey transfer and the floss Candi sent me. I think I'm going to add a few little details (maybe some of the stars from the pattern sheet?) and hang the hoop on the wall somewhere. I need to go to Jo-Ann's to get a bunch of cheap wooden hoops, so my walls can look like Heather's.

I'm planning to quilt this sucker today (or at least get the process started)

I keep going back and forth on whether to echo the diamond shapes (which would take longer and mean I have to go back and hide a million thread tails later), or just do organic, straight-line quilting (which I think would look awesome with the vertical print I'm using for the back). Thoughts?

the quilt that kept me away from the blog

This quilt was a lot of "firsts" for me.

First time using only solid fabrics (Kona's Poseidon bundle and Burgundy yardage for the back/binding).

First time sewing curved/wavy seams. (I used Kathy's tutorial and my Curve Master presser foot.)

First time overdoing the basting process. I spent more than three hours basting and less than an hour and a half quilting.

First time I couldn't blog my progress, 'cause this one was top secret.

First quilt for my little brother.

my love/hate relationship with scissors

The dresden I showed you in my last post was a warm-up for my bee block this month. Joanna picked out some beautiful fabrics, and her dear, patient husband cut plastic templates for us each to use (and keep).

This brings me to my love/hate relationship with scissors. I decided instead of tracing the template and cutting it out by hand, I would layer a ruler on top of it and use my rotary cutter. Looks like I may want to pick up one of those Easy Dresden rulers for future dresden adventures. I did, however, have fun using my fancy new pinking shears (Christmas gift from the little brother) to cut out the circle. Apparently pinked edges on curves help the seams lie flat.

For the first time, I got my fabric out of the mailbox and finished the block on the same day. I found it easiest to sew the wedges into quadrants and square those up before moving on. I had to trim a bit, but it lies nice and flat now. I also opted for a zig-zag stitch rather than a straight edge stitch or an appliqué stitch.

Now onto some handiwork...

just playing around...

... with scraps ...

... and my camera app ...

... on Wednesday afternoon.

I used the Elizabeth Hartman tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! and shrunk the template.

Next up: cathedral window practice block. After seeing this post from Heather (toward the bottom), I must learn.

favorite finishes of 2010

1. happy campers, 2. whirligigs, 3. potholder pass round 3,
4. potholders, 5. finished wall hanging, 6. new purse,
7. robot pillow, 8. Pure wall hanging, 9. hexagon QAL front,
10. garden windows, 11. mug rug for Julie, 12. front