Books quilts and sewing

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Archive for the month “November, 2010”

29 Nov 2010

Peppermint Christmas

Okay, so the pattern that I found was from Red Rooster Fabrics and it’s called “Peppermint Christmas”, here’s the link: http://www.redroosterfabrics.com/content5743.html

The directions weren’t as clear as I would have liked and I obviously used different quilting material, but I’m not unhappy with how it turned out.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the rotary cutter? These are the pieces for the star block that is the center of the quilt. I changed my mind so many times while trying to figure out which fabric would be used for which shapes. In the end, I completely went off the reservation for everything except the star block. Below is how it’s supposed to look:

Instead my star block ended up looking like this:

I started cutting the pieces at 9am and finished the quilt at 5pm. When I say I finished the quilt, I mean the facing and backing is done and the batting has been cut to size. We had purchased a lot of “Warm and Natural” cotton batting from Joanns for a steal on black Friday. I should also mention that I really increased my skill at seam ripping. I started off sewing the wrong direction and was hoping it wasn’t a harbinger of things to come with this quilt. Honestly, I should have been able to finish it a lot sooner than I did.

Here is the finished quilt front and back, I’m currently going over ideas of the quilt pattern I will use. Any ideas?

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged beginner, crafts, Quilting, Quilts, sewing

28 Nov 2010

Let the Quilting begin

I couldn’t help myself, I went back to the fabric store to get some patterns and quilting material. The Butterick patterns were on sale for .99 which from what I read is a great price and next week the McCall patterns are on sale for 1.99 and there are a few that I definitely wanted to try.

I should back up a little and say that I intend on starting on one of the Butterick patterns next weekend, something I didn’t mention in my earlier posts is that I also picked up a lot of Muslin to try out the patterns on. When I was asking which supplies that I would need, I already had it in my mind that patterns would be a great idea. I’ve read a lot of review on pn which I used as a guide, I also thought that by buying the Muslin I would be able to practice before I ruin perfectly good cloth. I ended up with the following patterns:

B5259, B5277, B5349, B5431, B5461, B5538, B5746, B6601, and B5307… From Simplicity: 5189, and 2288. Any thoughts on which one to start with? I’m leaning towards the 5307 see & sew.

In another turn of events, our daughter is living in Japan at the moment and is bringing back some material from a fabric store near Misawa. I am uber excited to see what she brings me!!

Any way, back to today’s shopping excursion. I saw a Christmas pattern for a quilt that looked fantastic and ended up buying 11 yards of fabric for a quilt that I’m going to start tomorrow. I think this will get me familiar enough with my sewing machine that I won’t be completely inept when I start on the dress. I plan on using the Muslin and then if the fit looks good to go with my wife to find out what material she wants.

Here’s the fabric I picked up, it’s all flannel because I like the feel of the quilt when finished. I’ll post up the pattern tomorrow that I chose.

Another sale at the fabric store

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged beginner, crafts, sewing | Leave a comment

27 Nov 2010

Sewing and quilting supplies

We started off doing the normal shopping for clothes that was a must have for our black Friday excursion. We were up at 2am and at the stores by 3:30am and to our surprise, there was no one in line at the store… It had been a balmy 80 degrees in the Dallas area until Thanksgiving and I was wrapped up and ready to do 10 hours of shopping.

I have to say at this point I was so excited about the sale at our local fabric store that I was having a difficult time enjoying the sales for the clothes I needed to buy. The fabric store didn’t open until 6am, so we went to all of the other sales beforehand. I was so worried that there wouldn’t be anything left when we arrived though. I knew I needed everything and kept picturing a single spool of white thread being the only thing left!! I knew it was ridiculous of me.

When we arrived the parking lot was full, but much to my surprise, it wasn’t as busy or as barren as I had feared. I bought 18 spools of 500 yards of thread made by coats and clark. I knew I needed a stash of basic colors and it was buy one get one free… I’m trying to convince myself that $32 isn’t a horrific price. I also picked up some spring-loaded scissors that a friends suggested and another pair for good measure, some quilting needles, buttons, tape measure, simplicity patterns that my wife and I wanted to try,

Sewing supplies

and other items pictured…

Let me know if there’s any essential supplies that I missed, please!!! Until next time, have fun with your needle and thread!

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged beginner, crafts, sewing | Leave a comment

25 Nov 2010

Sewing supplies

Well I am going shopping tomorrow for sewing supplies. Considering that I only have the sewing machine and no material, notions, or scissors, I have a lot that I need to purchase. Any suggestion?? That’s it until the weekend folks.

Posted in Daily and tagged Sew, sewing, shopping | Leave a comment

24 Nov 2010

Sewing for the first time!!! This is some weird stuff…

The first stitch I’ve made

Okay… I’m not trying to make a big deal of this, but needed to have a record of my learning curve (read steep) on learning how to sew. I’ve done two quilts before, stitched by hand almost 10 years ago and now have set my sights on learning how to sew outfits on a sewing machine. I have to say I’m not a beginning sewer, I’m completely new to it.

I started two weeks ago reading about it in an article online which translated to reading some blogs. They really piqued my interest and before I knew it I was buying a sewing machine. I spent the last two weeks in preparation reading and thinking about what I wanted to do.

Tonight I learned to thread a bobbin and thread the needle on the machine!! At this point I should mention that the sewing machine I bought is a 6180 from singer. I wanted to start out with something that could do a little bit of everything and if my interest holds in a year purchase something else.

I was so excited to find some material lying around to put my first stitches in and then called it a night. I’ll post a picture of it, but for me it might as well have been the greatest thing ever sewn.

Good day and enjoy the needle and thread!!