Quilt Progress

I’m making progress on my quilt…albeit slowly. One quilt square is now hand-quilted. Only eight more to go! Yeesh.

Quilting, quilting, quilting…

I’ve made some progress on the quilt! Doing this by hand is going to take for-ev-er. But, worth it I think. I like how it’s turning out so far.

I’ve pinned all three layers together (backing, batting and quilt top). I was lucky enough to get some alpaca batting from my mother-in-law, which is awesome (it’s also a really fine fiber that sticks to everything…). And, for the back, I took the lazy route and am using an old sheet (directions called for a quilted back too…way too much work, I think).

Here are some progress shots. Lola’s a good helper (not).

The quilt that never ends

I started making a quilt in January, and I’m just now finally finishing the top. It’s taken me forever. It’s my first full-size, professional quilt, so I’ve been trying to do things right instead of quickly.

For instance, I’ve been following the directions on my pattern to the littlest detail. I’m following Amy Butler’s Sunshine (free) quilt pattern. The directions include instructions to print out paper patterns and to sew the fabric pieces together with the paper included. So what you end up with is a fabric front and a paper back.

Then, it tells you to remove the paper by “gently tearing all paper from the back of quilt top, being careful not to pull seams.” Wow. Really? This was a dumb idea. Granted, it was great during the sewing process, because I didn’t need to worry about stopping to measure, etc. HOWEVER, it was a huge pain to remove the paper.

It was a messy, messy process that left our living room in shambles for about a week (I’d work on it a bit every night…so no sense cleaning up in between). It drove Brady nuts. =)

Now I need to layer in the batting and the backing and start quilting, which is another reason the quilt will take forever. After consulting with my mother-in-law last week, I’ve decided I’m going to hand quilt it, rather than on the machine. I think it’ll turn out better and more handmade looking.

It’s going to be another looooong process, though! Oh well. You gotta do the first quilt right, right? Right?

Kanzashi-ing

A couple of friends and I went to a Kanzashi flower class at Fabric Bliss on Sunday and learned how to make these.

Ours didn’t quite turned out like that (or as we hoped), but the process was fun. It also so happened that my niece turned the big f-o-u-r yesterday, so the one good flower I was able to produce turned into a barrette for her. Yay!

I went home and tried another with some scrap fabric.

I didn’t get pictures of the second one, but it turned out just as cute. Another yay! So, two hair clips were shipped in the mail. Happy birthday, Gracie girl!

By the way, if you live in Denver and like to sew, you definitely need to check out Fabric Bliss. It’s a cute shop, filled with tons of awesome fabrics and yarns (lots of Amy Butler!) and is owned by a fabulous woman named Aurora. She just opened a couple months ago. Go forth, buy stuff and support local biz! Oh, and here’s Fabric Bliss’ blog: http://www.fabricblissdenver.com/Blog.html.

Neat.