176 Half Square Triangles....

I had a really productive weekend!  I was able to work on the blog, work on unfinished projects, and just hang out and relax with the family.  I love weekends like that!  

Sunday, I was reorganizing all of the projects I have in progress and pulled this one out. 

I stopped working on these little beauties a couple of weeks ago.  I have 9 of 20 stars done. 

Sunday, I worked on them for about three hours. 

I got all of the squares sewn together:

Cut into half-square triangles:

And finally, pressed. 

Each star is now in it's own little bag ready to be sewn...

...and that makes me happy

I honestly can't get enough of this fabric! I LOVE the vibrancy and fun floral patterns in each fabric.  I have quite a bit leftover, so I am really debating if I want to use it for a whole new project.  Or use the leftovers for the backing, borders, or binding....

hmm...

such hard decisions...

Parties I'm Joining:

Anything Goes by Stitch by Stitch

Show and Tell Tuesday by Fresh Squeezed Fabrics

Fabric Tuesday by A Quilt Story

Tuesday by Free Motion by the River

Wip Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Wow Me Wednesday at Polkadots on Parade

Whimsy Wednesday at The NY Melrose Family

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Cottage

We Did It Wednesday! at Sew Much Ado

Really Random Thursday by Live a Colorful Life

Needle and Thread Thursday by My Quilt Infatuation

Thursday Threads by 627Handworks

I Quilt by Pretty Bobbins

Link Party Palooza at Today's Creative Blog

Modern Trees Quilt Along Part II

I am doing the Modern Tree Quilt Along hosted by Christa Quilts! 

Last week she posted how to make the trees.  Saturday I finally had a few hours to get going on this fun quilt! 

So here are my trees:

When I was laying out my trees, deciding on the best layout I realized one of my trees has a problem.  The pattern on the fabric goes one way and so my snowmen on that one tree with the arrow is going the wrong direction.   I will have to sew a whole new one because I can't just unpick it and turn the triangle around, I will have to cut a new tree out.  Which isn't a big deal, but it still stinks! 

The trees came together quickly, and I found out that the ruler set I bought is pretty nifty! I have a ton of ideas that I want to try out using those rulers.  

Can't wait to see how this weeks tutorial on putting the top together! 

Thoughts... and Works In Progress....

I have been thinking a lot lately about this blog. 

Mostly about what direction I want to take this blog. 

I have had a lot of ideas and brainstorming the past couple of days.

I want to really start fresh.

Start new.

Come up with new ideas and get my creativity flowing again.

I am working on an overhaul of my blog. 

Everything from the design to the content. 

I have already updated my {about} page. 

But I have a lot more to do.  

I have a mind that is always going.

Full of ideas and creations just waiting to come to fruition.

I stay up at night just coming up with new thoughts, notions, ideas, projects...you name it, I'm probably thinking about it! 

I love creating. 

I love inspiring others.

I love teaching.

So with those things in mind, I hope that I can steer this blog into a new direction.  

Now onto my works in progress:

My very first quilt is coming along...slowly!  I finally got the fabric for the borders this week and was able to sew them on.  I chose a dark small border for the inside border.  I wanted it to be dark so it would frame up all those pinwheels! I then chose a larger print that is much lighter for the outer border. I love the floral print on the outer border.  It kind of ties all the colors together that is in this line of fabric.  I am hoping I have enough of the darker print to use for the binding. I think I will, but I think that will tie everything together nicely. 

Now to find the backing!  

Some of the stash that my friend Kathy gave me included these cute Christmas prints.  Last night I started to cut out the triangles and started sewing them together.  It's definitely a slow process because you have to press your seams after every triangle.  So I ended up chain piecing them by twos, then I will connect the twos and chain piece those and so forth. 

It's going to be a smaller project.  I am thinking a small table topper/runner.  I don't have a ton of the fabric, and those wedges are really small.  

Since I have taken a half hour to blog this post my little monsters have:

Unfolded all my folded laundry,

spread cracker crumbs all over my bedroom,

pulling all of my husbands ties off his tie rack, 

and have been fighting over a game of CandyLand! 

Time to start cleaning up... :)

Charlie's Finished Quilt

My blue-eyed cowboy has his cowboy hat and his cowboy quilt and is ready for some cuddles!

I finished his quilt last night and he loves it! I was kind of mean and didn't let him sleep with it last night because I wanted to make sure I could get some pictures of him with it in the morning.  :)

This was my first time machine binding. It was not perfect.  In fact, I'm sure a quilting expert would give me an epic fail on my binding on this quilt.  The corners turned out beautifully mitered, but when I went to stitch it to the quilt, my stitches on the front did not line up with the seam on the back. I did 2 1/2 inch binding strips.  I am not going to say I'm never going to machine bind a quilt again, but I do like the look of hand binding much more.

A full view of the front of the quilt:

For the back of the quilt I just pieced all my of my extra fabrics together as well as some black flannel to tie it all together.

This was kind of my "practice quilt" I tried new things on this quilt that I have never done before and it's definitely not perfect!  But it is perfect for my little cowboy, who I hope with love it and hopefully will replace his current blanket (which has seen much better days)  with this warm and snuggly quilt! 

Trying out my first Quilt Along...

Since I have discovered quilting, I have found tons of quilting blogs.  I love reading them and seeing all of the pretty quilts everyone is making.  Reading these blogs,  I found that a lot of bloggers do "quilt alongs."  That really piqued my interest because I am a visual learner.  I learn by seeing, not by reading.  I find it very hard to read instructions and follow along.  I prefer seeing pictures and videos that explain how to make something.  

There is one blog in particular that I happened to come across (Who is actually a friend of my sister's) does awesome quilt alongs.  I went back into all her archived quilt alongs and saw how thoroughly she explained each quilt and how to make them.  She even goes into the detail of the actual quilting, which is really helpful.  

It just so happens that she is starting a new quilt along this week!  I really liked the design she came out with and I knew I wanted to try this quilt along thing out! 

This is the design that we are doing:

{Modern Trees Quilt Along By Christa Quilts}

I ordered my rulers that are required for the quilt.  You can find them here.

Over the weekend I went shopping for the fabric I wanted to use.   I live in a really small town, so I have mostly been buying my fabrics online.  However, for this project I knew exactly what fabrics I wanted to use and I knew my fabric store in town had this line by moda. 

So these are my fabrics I decided on:

I love the color combo in this line.  I ended up getting a bundle of 6 fat quarters at my fabric shop for 15 dollars.  I thought that was a pretty good deal! I added 3 more fat quarters to go with it so I would have enough variety.  Looking at the fabrics on my pictures I realized I might go back to the fabric store and get another green.  I got two of the same green for some reason and now that I am looking at it on my computer, I think I need to have another green that's a little less busy.  

As we do the quilt along I will blog my progress each week! I am so excited! 

DIY Sewing Table and First Time Free Motion Quilting.....

It was the perfect weekend to stay inside and sew.  The cooler temperatures really got me excited for fall!  

I ordered a new sewing machine a few weeks ago and I finally got it last week.  I decided on a Brother HC1850.  I decided on this model because: 

1. It was in my price range.

2. It can do free motion quilting

3. It has the needle down feature as well as speed control. 

When I got my sewing machine I wanted to try free motion quilting on it.  I have only tried it once before and it was on my mom's machine and I only did it for like 30 seconds! So I practiced on a bunch of scrap fabrics and sewed for about an hour just trying to get the hang of it.  After an hour I came to a couple of conclusions:

1. it really hurts your back and shoulders because you are leaning in a very awkward position

2. it takes a lot of adjusting and time to get your stitches to look good.

So after my hour of sewing I knew I needed to convince my husband to build me a sewing table so it would alleviate some of the awkwardness when FMQ (free motion quilting).  

We found a great tutorial.  You can find it here.

We turned this walmart desk into:

{Desk found here}

THIS:

Didn't my husband do an awesome job?  It fits perfectly in the table.  The dowels underneath are a little long and he needs to cut them down so I don't bang my knees on them.  Other than that small detail everything is perfect.  Having the sewing machine flush against the table really alleviates some of that awkwardness when FMQ.   

After he was done building it,  I decided to FMQ my first quilt over the weekend. 

My friend Kathy was so generous and gave me a tons and tons of fabric.  Some of the fabric she gave me was cowboy themed flannel fabric.  Perfect for my little cowboy:

Saturday night I was ready to quilt.  I basted my quilt. (which took way longer than I though it would)  I made sure everything was ready to quilt and I put the middle of the quilt in the machine and started to quilt and it was so easy that I fell in love instantly. 

It was a nightmare. 

I thought I was going to pull my hair out.

I quilted one rectangle and it looked like crap and so I started unpicking it.  I was sitting there unpicking all my hard work when my husband came over and gave me a pep talk! 

He told me that it was going to be hard and it wasn't going to look perfect.  I shouldn't unpick it and I should just continue where I left off and keep trying.  

After taking a break and adjusting my tables so that it would work better with the heaviness of the quilt I decided to try again.  

It took about an hour, but I finally got the hang of it. 

{The arrow is around the area I started}

I decided on a meandering pattern for this quilt because there's really no pattern, just moving around in u-bend shapes.  

{The back of the quilt}

I still need to figure out my tension.  The back stitches weren't as even as the front. 

I also need to work on keeping my stitches even.  There are points where my stitches are itty bitty and then there are times when I have larger stitches.  

Overall, I feel like for my first quilt I did a pretty good job. I still have a lot to learn! 

Tonight I will try machine binding for the first time so I can finish this baby up! 

Parties I'm Joining:

Anything Goes by Stitch by Stitch

Show and Tell Tuesday by Fresh Squeezed Fabrics

Fabric Tuesday by A Quilt Story

Tuesday by Free Motion by the River

Wip Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Wow Me Wednesday at Polkadots on Parade

Whimsy Wednesday at The NY Melrose Family

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Cottage

We Did It Wednesday! at Sew Much Ado

Really Random Thursday by Live a Colorful Life

Needle and Thread Thursday by My Quilt Infatuation

Thursday Threads by 627Handworks

I Quilt by Pretty Bobbins

Link Party Palooza at Today's Creative Blog

A Smattering of Projects...

I have three quilts in the works right now. 

This is my first quilt that I have ever made.  The pinwheels are done and sewn together. I just need to add borders.  I am waiting on the line of fabric to come out in yardage so I can finish this baby up! 

I love this line of fabric! It's so happy and bright! I especially love the florals in the line.  I am thinking of doing one of the borders with one of the florals that is in the line.  

When I saw this fabric I instantly fell in love.  The colors are so vibrant and they really look great combined with the neutral grey colors.  I have about 8 starts completed and 12 more to go.  :)

I ordered a Christmas layer cake and got it over the weekend and put this quilt top together.  It's a giant star within a star.   It came together really fast because the pieces are so big.  I am not in love with the fabrics in this line.  I feel like the colors did not translate from my computer to what I got in the mail.  The fabric is pretty, but I wasn't completely taken with it.  That being said, I definitely want to make another giant star quilt, but use fabrics that are more my cup of tea! :)  

{excuse the wrinkles!}

I am currently working on the back of for this quilt.  I had so many pieces of layer cake left over that I knew I could make a pretty cool back piece.  

Quilted Halloween Owl Table Runner

I am not even sure if anyone knows this blog exists anymore! 

I haven't posted a real craft for years. 

I haven't really created anything for the last few years.

Life happens, and we get caught up in all sorts of things and things like crafting gets put on hold.  

In my case it was put on hold for a couple of years.  But I just fell in love with a new type of "craft"

I just discovered quilting.

I'm hooked.

I have always claimed that I am not a sewer! I can barely sew a straight line!  But a few months ago, my mom and her friend got me hooked.  I learned everything about quilting from the most amazing lady.  If you haven't heard of The Missouri Star Quilt Company you are living under a rock! They are the absolute best! I love their tutorials and I have basically learned to quilt by watching their videos.  Jenny teaches them so well, anyone could follow them! 

My first project was a little owl wall hanging, which I did a total hack job on the binding. 

This was my second project and I am happy to report that the binding turned out beautifully because I followed this tutorial. 

I am pretty darn proud of the fact that I did this entire thing by myself.  I designed it, quilted it, and I did the binding myself. 

I love Halloween.  It's my favorite holiday to decorate for. I love the bright oranges, purples, greens, and yellows.  So I gathered a bunch of fabric scraps and bought a few fat quarters of fabric and put this together for Halloween. 

It's a fun table runner, that will brighten my table during October! I can't wait to have it out and enjoy it all October long! :)