quilted bags

I finished these two bags a couple of weeks ago, but it's taken me weeks to get them photographed and posted.

These are my first attempts at designing a handbag template...a little off as you can see. I think I'll just copy a pattern from Machine Made Patchworks 2 for my next bag so that I don't end up with huge, too wide, too floppy bags.

I suppose making a muslin sample first would have shown me that the pattern I made was flawed, but then again...I don't do trial runs. : ) These bags are too wide to keep their shape (the bag bows in half when there is anything in it) and they just turn into sacks with a strap once their in use.

But, I really like the fabric that I used and the quilting turned out well, so they are both in rotation until I make another replacement for them.

On a lighter (or heavier note)...Jon and I started the cider mill rounds this weekend. First we made a trip to the Rochester Cider Mill on Saturday by ourselves before a wedding reception and then we went to Yates Cider Mill on Sunday with some friends. We're both still recovering from our sugar and doughnut rush...perhaps this could be the problem:

jon's birthday

We celebrated Jon's birthday on Wednesday at my parents' house. My mom outdid herself by cooking a wonderful lasagne...so delicious.

Jon opened up his gifts with his new buddy, Riley the cat, at his side.

He was especially excited to open this gift...a new gps for his car. I think it was especially appropriate as Jon drove past our house on our way home from my parents' house. Let's just say that he's a non-linear thinker and the line of work he's in is perfect for him! : )

I was excited when Jon discovered that the GPS has a feature where you can plug in coordinates, which means that we can finally try out geocaching!

I have been improving on my birthday mound of 2005 and made this red velvet cake for the occasion. I loved the red color of it...so much more exciting than a yellow cake!

fall is coming

enjoying some of the last signs of summer in our garden.

on quilting

Turning Twenty quilt pattern with fabric by Anna Maria Horner "Bohemian"

A few readers have left me comments or emailed me about how I got into quilting and how I learned how to make quilts, so I wanted to share a little bit of my background with you today.

Denyse Schmidt fabric, loosely based on her Day at the Beach pattern

The single most helpful book that taught me the basics of quilting is The Modern Quilt Workshop. I have yet to make a quilt from one of the patterns in this book, but I've got quite a few patterns on my to-do list. This book has an excellent how-to section that details what tools you will need to begin and walks through the steps of making the quilt from preparing the fabric to cutting to piecing to quilting to binding. I'd recommend this book to anyone learning to quilt or looking for some fresh modern patterns. I'm not much of a class taker, as I can usually figure out how to make something faster on my own by reading a book or watching online video tutorials.

Moda fabric "Chocalate" charm square lap quilt

I bought my sewing machine just over a year ago in August 2006 and I made my first quilt a few weeks later. I bought everything on the list of suggested items from the book (rotary cutter, cutting mat, bias tape maker , clear ruler, etc.) for quilting at a big Joann's quilting sale that happened to coincide with my new hobby.

Brick Road pattern with fabric from Joanns

I'm not much of a perfectionist when I work. Sure, I like things to look nice. But I'd rather get something done than get it done perfectly. It's definitely a fault of mine, but it also means that I don't obsess over things if they don't look right. I just try to make do with whatever is messed up or try to patch it over as quickly as possible. On the positive side of things, this means that my quilts have gotten progressively better with time as I've picked up new techniques and practiced more. My free motion quilting isn't so jerky anymore and the binding doesn't come off the quilt because I've sewn it crookedly and the stuffing is coming out, etc. The one thing I'm still working on is getting the darn quilt to be square - it's quite embarrassing when they're all folded up. And I'm still working on matching up corners perfectly and creating nicely mitred corners. My favorite part about the whole quilting process, other than picking out the fabric, is the quilting itself. I have found free motion quilting to be so incredibly relaxing and meditative. I rush through the beginning steps of the quilt just so that I can get to the quilting aspect of things.

Baby quilt with fabric from Reprodepot.com

Other than the book, I did find a lot of helpful information at Pattern Review and some of the quilting pages on about.com. I would also recommend the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I really like the style of her quilts and I also appreciate that she uses lots of solid fabric in her quilts (cheaper fabric = more fabric that I can buy while staying in my budget = more quilts to make). She also goes over the quilting process in her book, but I just prefer the method laid out in the Modern Quilt Workshop.

Any Way you Slice It quilt pattern from Denyse Schmidt Quilts

And, next up on my quilting to-do list is teaching myself how to do some hand quilting. This Bunch of Squares quilt from Denyse Schmidt Quilts would not, could not, fit through my sewing machine neatly, so I'm going to have to do the quilting by hand if it's ever going to get done...another project for fall and winter.

What a Bunch of Squares pattern in progress

jumping on the granny square train

I cannot tell you how many times I have started and stopped a granny square project in the last 10 years! My aunt, Dani, and friends, Harriet and Kate, have taught me how to crochet and make granny squares multiple times. I’ve picked out the yarn to make an entire afghan and then just given up on the project months later. The Salvation Army has received all of my yarn and crochet donations over the years each time after I’ve abandoned ship.

This time, I’ve decided, things are going to be different. I’m actually going to finish this afghan! So I've jumped on the granny-along train that lots of craft bloggers joined months ago.

I went into Michaels last week to buy a cake pan for Jon’s birthday on Wednesday to no avail and came out instead with a bag of yarn and some cute crochet hooks. After a few trial run squares that looked pretty scrappy, I stocked up on the library’s collection of crochet how-to books and realized that I was doing the double crochet completely wrong. Thank goodness for how-to books and online video tutorials!

I’ve been catching up on podcasts and enjoying the breeze coming into our living room this afternoon while hooking these squares. I didn’t realize this when I picked out the yarn, but the five colors that I chose (cream will be the border around all the squares) are all colors that we have painted rooms in our house or used as accent colors in each room, so this should be a pretty versatile afghan when it’s finished.

fruit smoothies

Jon and I are constantly making fruit smoothies as an afternoon snack. We usually mix yogurt, orange juice and some berries of choice and end up with a yummy treat minutes later.

Last night we were feeling quite inventive in the smoothie department pulling bits of fruit from all over the kitchen and placing them in the blender.

This might have been our worst smoothie ever...

Let me tell you...cantaloupe, grapes, blueberries and raspberries do not a good smoothie make. What were we thinking putting grapes into a blender? Two words: grape skin!

chainsaw aftermath

Last Thursday evening Jon and I were enjoying a leisurely dinner, when we heard a knock on our side door. Our neighbor was at the door with a chainsaw and wanted to help Jon cut down our two overgrown arborvitaes. Jon agreed and they got to work immediately (who can resist freely volunteered help afterall?!).

before

For the next hour loud chainsaw noise and gas fumes filled the air. They cut down two overgrown, 15 feet arborvitaes and left the backyard strewn with branches.

The following day we spent a few hours bagging the lighter branches and stacking the larger logs. We ended up making multiple trips to Lowes because we kept running out of lawn and leaf bags. All in all, we used 27 bags to dispose of the tree! All of this yard waste will be turned into free wood chips and compost that we can get for free next summer.

In addition to getting rid of the trees, we ended up getting multiple loads of compost from the city on Saturday morning to smooth over our bumpy, dead sod (dug up from the garden spot) and we planted some grass seed on top of the new dirt. Hopefully it will fill in nicely in the next few weeks!

after

We're glad to have the trees gone and to have another item left off of our list, but it's a bit disappointing to have so much open space left. I hit the big fall sale at Bordines and bought a cute little Snowball Viburnum to fill the space the arborvitaes left. It's not going to provide much privacy from the neighbors for a few years, so we might add a trellis or two with some vining plants behind it next spring. We'll see.