Archive for 2014

Home Archive for 2014

Confessions Of A Scrap Hoarder

Guys. I hoard scraps. I LOVE scraps! And I can't Bring myself to toss them! Even the smallest of pieces I can't seem to get rid of!

I tend to like really scrappy looking quilts. When I shop for fabric I buy mostly quarter yard cuts because I can get a lot of variety pretty cheaply. I use a little bit of a ton of fabrics and that means I end up with a lot of small leftovers.

When I either get somewhat sick of the fabric or I have a small strip that I just don't think makes sense to keep as is anymore I cut them into 2 1/2 inch squares.

I sort all of these into two sets - warm colors vs. cool colors. I will be making one quilt from each set.

Then I arrange them into these scrappy trip around the world blocks.

Now, because I'm meg, and nothing can ever be simple in my life, there are rules. Yes, more than just the warm color vs. cool color rule. Then, also because...it's me people...I broke basically all my rules at one point or another! Let me just say one more time thank you to anyone who has sat with me and helped me make blocks. Also that I'm sorry for any yelling or...fabric throwing...that might have happened while we were making these.

Rule No. 1! There are two sets for a reason....they do not co-mingle! These blocks are all organized and ready to go. I keep the bags close to my sewing machine to use as leaders and enders :)

Rule No. 2! Each block should have two colors (This one is blue and green)

Rule No.3! Whites, Grays, and Blacks are considered neutrals and may be used in any block.

These are the only really official rules. Then I would arbitrarily make decisions during the process. I'm not sure how my friends and family have been putting up with this behavior but some of them have voluntarily done this with me more than once!

Oh hey look....I cheated in this one...it only has one color.

Oh and look....This one ended up looking like pink and green....you know...a warm color and a cool color....playing together?! I have trouble with authority...even if it's my own.

So here are some of the finished cool blocks

And the warm ones.

I had originally thought to do two lap size quilts. But the piles are growing rapidly so who knows how large they will end up!

See you later!

Meg

Christmas is Coming!

I'm not sure if the exclamation point in the post title is meant as excitement or panic....how about you guys?? I cannot believe that It's already December! Sometime last monthish I decided that this year I was going to make quilts for all of my siblings........There are FIVE of them people! FIVE! Now I'm thinking that this was a bad idea but I'm committed and so it's happening...hopefully.

Here's Where I'm at so far!

My brother is 13 and when asked about favorite colors told me Seahawks colors....I am not exactly a Seahawks fan and I didn't want it to be a couple years from now and he's got a new favorite team and won't use the quilt anymore (ok that's probably just me being paranoid he would never dream of that...he's super sweet to me!) So I made it Seahawks colors but no Seahawks fabric and added in the black to make it even a little more different. This one turned out awesome! There are mustashes and lions and i'm seriously in love!

The next two are for my 16 year old sisters. They are SUPER close so I decided to make them matching quilts!

This one is for the older of the two girls and I LOVE this background color! In person it is so dark it is almost black.

The second sister is a bit more whimsical than the older one so she has those cotton and steel lions from before. (my brother got her leftovers hehe) I really really hope that they all love them!

The next two quilts are not quite coming along as quickly as I had hoped.

For my two eleven year old sisters I am making two penny patches. I had a great/way easier/way faster idea for some really big HST's placed in cool designs but one of them saw the fabric I had picked and when I explained my vision to her she said "meh...it's ok" So I let her help pick different fabrics and a new direction (This was maybe a bad idea)

Here's the basic color scheme and some of the blocks for the older of the two. I realized after piecing all the blocks (really quickly too...just saying) That I LOVE to piece penny patch blocks! I also realized however....I HATE sewing the rows together! It's boooooring! It takes FOREVER. and you have to pin a lot! Oh well. I've made my bed as they say. So all of the blocks are ready for this one it's just waiting on me to get my act together and finish sewing the rows for the other one so I can get this one up on the design wall.

I couldn't get a very good picture of this one up on the design wall so I settled for this detail shot of the Horses that started it all. Once my sister saw these cotton and steel beauties nothing else would do for her quilt. So we built her colors around them. :)

Now I'm super proud that I have three tops done...but I'm sure you're thinking...uh Meg, you only have three weeks to get all of those finished...and you I say Don't You Think I Know THAT! Then I throw fabric at you. Later I will come back and say sorry and bring chocolate though.

Oh! Since I know you're DYING to know....here's the original fabric pull and idea for her quilt!

I was going to do 18" HST's and arange them probably in the mixed up diagonal lines second down on the left. It was gonna be kinda cool...Oh well. Maybe I'll just make one for me!

See You later lovelies!

Oh Hello!

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. That meant that I didn't have much to post about. I've been thinking about what I want this blog to be and how I want to manage it. One of the things that has become very clear is that I need to have better pictures. The phone pictures suck. Unfortunately I don't own a better camera and on top of that I was having A hard time taking pictures that weren't at night!

My awesome friend came over (well quite awhile ago but whatever!) and helped me take some good ones with her camera. So I do have a bit of something to show you today!

(You can tell how long ago this was since i'm in a skirt and a t-shirt at 6 at night! Right now as I type it's only 43 degrees out...I know this might not sound bad to some of you but i'm COLD!)

But mostly this is a post to tell you that I might not be blogging for a little while again while I try to work out what needs to be done. This is my way of trying to be accountable. I'm writing this here in hopes that it will keep me motivated to get it together!

I wanted to get some good pictures of the finished quilts that I've made and still have at the house with me. So here are a few of those with a bit of story. Most have their own post and I'll link those here too :)

Here is the WSU quilt that I made for my husband. I learned a lot about what NOT to do when sewing with minky! I haven't tried another since but I think I know some different things to try next time! Maybe I'll do a post sometime about my struggles. I should probably find some solutions first though!

Here is my finished Penny Patch quilt. I realized when we got back inside and I looked at all our photo's that I hadn't gotten a good shot of the full quilt for this one! GRRR. Oh well. I got some cute draped ones on this bench so that's fun :)

This is the first quilt I ever made! The picture could use some editing buuuuut.....I'm really super awful at that. So maybe if someone wants to come and teach me?! K thanks!

I've been making a TON of these bags lately! Mostly for family (The one in back moved in with my mom) They are super great and super fast and AMAZING scrap buster projects! I started with the thimbleblossoms Rainy Day Sewing Patern and then changed the dimensions to fit my scraps and the sizes that I wanted. The pattern is wonderful! I've been sorting and ironing all my scraps the last couple days because I have the urge to make a TON more!

And here's a picture of me and the Husbeast. You can see that he is very impressed to be dragged into quilt pictures. (Don't let him fool you. He actually loves helping out!)

Until Next Time!

Six Bags In Four Days

Remember the bags that I made for shop hop??

Here's my super blurry picture of all six once I finished them. I knew I wanted to make bags for everyone but it took me awhile to get started (I have large procrastination issues lol!)

I used this sassy summer tote tutorial from Fort Worth Fabric studio but used a different decoration instead of the dresden.

For my mom, two grandmas, and myself I made a stitch block from Fig Tree and Co

I ironed over a quarter inch and then used a cute decorative stitch to applique them onto our bags.

Here are all the piles as I was making those

and the snacks I needed to keep myself motivated

I got a little lazy with my sisters bags. Ironing over those quarter inches took forever so I decided to just raw edge them on with a zig zag stitch. Neither of them are big sewers (though little keeps saying she's going to be) so I wanted to pick more meaningful patterns for the decorations on their bags. I ended up REALLY loving their bags!

I made some raindrops for one sister using the pattern pieces from the rainy day bag pattern from Camille Roskelley

For the last bag (the pink one) I used a red letter day mini block

Isn't she adorable?? Well she thinks so anyways lol!

The Husbands Quilt

My Husband begged for a quilt from the moment that I started my very first one. He wanted a blue one. I didn't feel like making a blue one. Blue is not my favorite color. Aqua I love! Royal blue? No. He will still get a blue quilt (with gray and black and maybe a bit of green to lessen all the blue) but for now I made him his OTHER quilt request.

A WSU quilt! Those are his toes you can see. He absolutley loves it. That's the important thing. But I have to be honest...this thing was AWEFUL to make! First of all those half square triangles are pretty big..but there is still a TON of them on that thing. and sewing that many squares together into rows got REALLY monotonous. Especially since I couldn't chain piece because I KNOW I would have messed up the layout...and that's kinda the whole point of the quilt ya know?! So that was my first problem...severe boredom...

Next problem?? I used the stich and flip method. The backing is minkyish and so it didn't need any batting so this seemed like a great idea right? NOT IF YOU LIVE IN AN APARTMENT! There was NO good place to lay it out and smooth it down for each row. so there are puckers. Some are very large. Some I managed to mostly tame when i flipped the back over to bind (nevermind how much trouble the minky was for binding the corners!)

THEN! it came apart at some seams in the wash! He still loves it, and I learned a lot...but this was seriously the quilt from hell for me!

Was that sufficiantly whiny?? If you didn't quite understand how aweful that quilt was just let me know...I'm sure I can think of other things to complain about ;)

See you soon! (with a less whiny post probably)

Shop Hop!

Hey guys! I'm back! Shop hop was AMAZING! SO.MUCH.FUN! Also...spend all the money...oops!

My Grandma flew in from Kansas to do this with us. Mom rented a mini van and my two grandmas, two younger sisters, mom and I all piled in! 1300 miles, 5 ferries, 5 major bridges, 2 hotels, 6 people, 51 quilt shops, in 5 days!!

Here we are (minus Grany she had to take the pic) outside the first shop! I made the bags for each of us (post coming soon with all that info!) (also doesn't middle sister look so thrilled! She's not a morning person)

There was A LOT of this!

This book helped a lot!

Here's some picture overload of all the shenanigans:

We love ferries!

Bonding with middle sister (don't tell her I posted the sleeping picture!)

I need both of these things in my life! ;)

Bought mommy flowers to say thanks for driving! (isn't she gorgeous?!)

Here we are in front of the last shop!

Annnnnd.....since I know you're dying to know!

here's all the stuff I bought!!

Penny Patch Progress

I have made progress on my penny patch quilt!

I finally got all the rows done first

Then pinned them together (this took a lot of time and dedication...I got bored in the middle!)

Then they sat like this for awhile before I sewed it all together. Now it's all basted and ready to be quilted! I'm practicing my FMQ to hopefully be able to finish it that way!

Where In The World Is Nutmeg??

Oh hello!

Are you still out there my dear quilty friends?? I guess things have been a little crazy lately. But really...mostly...honestly..I got a little discouraged. I didn't feel like anyone was listening and talking to an empty internet wasn't much fun. Only guess what! In order to get people to follow your blog...you have to actually be writing one! Isn't that weird?! Anyways....lets try this again shall we?!

So! What HAVE I been up to? Well here's a quick summary and I'll get some posts up with some details starting tomorrow! I'm gonna be so much better about blogging this time I promise! (I mean probably. Maybe. Possibly. I'll try OK!)