Katie II

So here's the finished project. Like most of my projects she ended up looking completely different then I had planned, but still cute. I included a picture of the "real" Katie, so you could compare. Sorry about the low quality of that picture, it's the only one I could find. My Katie turned out a little more squashed ball, then round ball, but besides that I'm pretty pleased. I haven't showed it to husband yet, but I'll let you know how hard he laughs. She turned out so roly poly and fluffy I decided not to add her legs. What do you think? Does she need her little hoofs?

Katie

Today is my sweetheart's birthday. So I thought I'd share my unfinished present with you. He loves the movie Horton Hears a Who (the new one from fox animation), so it was a Horton themed birthday. I got him the movie and the original Dr. Seuss book, which he doesn't remember ever reading. (I'm gasping in shock.) I also wanted to get him a little stuffed animal of his favorite character, Katie. For those of you that have seen the movie you know she's this minor, rather bizarre little fur ball. My sweetheart thought she was one of the best parts! Of course because she's such a minor character you can't actually find any Katie paraphernalia. So I'm making one, this is the work in progress. It will be a late present, but I'm pretty sure he'll laugh, which makes it worth it.

Alphabet Soup

So this weekend I had an idea. I'm sure others have probably done it before, but I thought it sounded like fun. So here's the idea. I loved the quilt festival, that so many quilters became connected so I thought about doing an alphabet quilt swap. Here's how it works. 26 people sign up, each person is randomly assigned a letter from the alphabet. Each person makes 26 quilt squares of their assigned letter. When they're done everyone sends them to me along with the "story" behind their design. I repackage them and send each participate an alphabet soup kit, complete with one square of each letter and it's story. Voila we each have the makings of fabulous quilt full of stories and friends. What do you think? I know I don't have 26 readers of this blog, but I figured if you signed up and told your friends, we'd eventually get the 26. So here's the "rules"......

1. Each square should be 10" x 10"

2. Each square should have the letter somewhere on it with something that starts with the letter (a for aardvark, b for butter, you know how it goes)

3. The squares should be completed and returned to me by Dec. 1, 2009 (that gives us plenty of time AND a fun Christmas gift to ourselves, or anyone else we like)

4. There's nothing else I can think of, but if you can let me know.


So there's my idea. I'm all in of course, so we've got one. Who's going to be #2?

Hummm, not so much...

So kinda funny story. Yesterday while quilting with the beast I decided that I just had to make a skirt. I have this one knit skirt that I just LOVE. I'd wear it everyday in the summer if my kid didn't render that impossible within the first five minutes of the day. So I decided I need to make more. The picture in my head goes something like this...nice simple black knit circle skirt with appliqued red flowers. Well as you can see from the picture (don't look to close, it's really not that flattering) there are no flowers; and here's why. I've never made a skirt in my life, nor have I ever worked with knits before. What made me think I could do this I don't know, probably insanity. It started out okay. I pulled out my favorite skirt (or as I like to call it, my lollipop skirt), used it as a pattern and just started cutting and sewing. Well, it doesn't fit quite right, due to a cutting error, but I at least know how to fix that part, and I wished every other minute that I had a serger, but what gets me is that I couldn't for the life of my hem the darn thing. Is there some secret chant you need to know in order to hem knit? At first I thought that it was the curve of the bottom that was giving me problems. After unpicking the hem twice I decided to just cut it off and have a straight hem. Well I couldn't hem that either, not to mention the fact that apparently I can't cut straight and the hem had a couple "peaks" to it. (Luckily that doesn't show too much.) So way too many hours later, most of which was spent unpicking, which is probably my least favorite activity in the world, I had a skirt that I couldn't hem, didn't fit right and really is basically see through. Sigh. I tried. My dear husband made it a little better with his suggestion of lining it with a fun color and then making those "peaks" more prominent, so it looks like it's on purpose. Which is a great idea, if only I knew how to line things. So really the up shot of all this is 1) I need serious help in the knit department. 2) I should think before I cut. 3) That picture is one I'll stash away and never show anyone ever again. And.. 4) This would be a lot easier if I had a serger. Anybody know where I can find a cheap one, or someone want to donate to my pathetic cause?


PS. Sorry for the long, rambling post. As you can see I have yet to make peace with the skirt. Maybe tomorrow.

Motivated

The response I got with my one measly little quilt was so overwhelming and unexpected I was actually motivated to get up off my duff and pick up work again on another quilt. My husband is shocked! He came home last night from work and I was actually at the sewing machine, not passed out on the couch recovering from chasing around our sick two year old. I tell ya it's a miracle. If I keep this up I'll have another quilt to share in no time! (Crossing fingers, toes and just about every other thing that's flexible enough to cross.) Well I'm off to visit "the beast" my beautiful, really old machine. But here's a little snippet of the quilt I'm working on. What do you think?

Quilt Festival

This is first post of my new blog. I love applique/fabric art, so I'd thought I'd start sharing. I figured joining in on this online quilt festival was the perfect way to start. So here's my current favorite and actually also my first applique quilt I've ever done.

Front

Close-up Front

Back

It was a baby gift for a good childhood friend of mine. It definitely was an adventure. The poor kid was over six months old when I finally finished it, even though I started six months before he was born! I sure learned alot during the process though and I love how it turned out. I'm now nearing completion of his little cousins quilt and will post that when it's done.