Small Project Finishes!

I have finished quite a few things in the last week, which is one of the reasons I haven't posted. Been a little busy bee over here!

This one is the pillow cover for my sister. She turns 18 tomorrow and it was her birthday gift (we visited this past weekend so I gave it to her then). She is very into giraffes. I found this little guy online. Definitely not my own creation and I will give credit where credit is due! I made my sister's New York Buildings quilt last year, and this will match pretty perfectly. :) She was excited!

Next I finished my wonderful Mother-in-Law's table runner! I really don't know why it took me so long to finish. She bought the pattern and the fabric. All I had to do was put it together. I had it mostly done - all the cutting and even a lot of the piecing. So I pulled it out and finished basting (and binding before I even quilted! gasp!) in a few hours before we left for the weekend. Then I hand quilted it while we visited.

Finally, I whipped this out today in about an hour and a half. Another pillow to match my parent's quilt that I gave them for Christmas. I still have some fabric left so a third will probably appear eventually. :)

We spent the three day weekend (four days for me, cause I took Friday off, too!) first with my family in Watsonville and then with hubby's family in Stockton. :) It was great. My little sister graduated from high school with honors! So proud! She will be attending Cal State Long Beach in the fall and will be majoring in Criminal Justice! One smart cookie!

Lesson Learned:

Make hubby come along for the quilt photo shoot. :)

I may be good (and getting better) at making quilts. They are fun and cute, if I do say so myself. However...I know almost nothing about photography. Even with a fancy camera like Andrew's...someone who doesn't know how to wield it is not going to get a lot of amazing shots!

I got some ok ones. Definitely acceptable for the first time I've done an actual "photo shoot" for one of my quilts. And in the interest of time, I did it by myself, because I know if I take Andrew, my 10 min walk around the apartment complex and take some pictures is going to turn into an hour and about 1000 shots. :) He takes great photos. Every single one would turn out. But he's a perfectionist and to him, it's important to take 30 different shots from slightly different angles. :P This is where we're different.

I think I've decided to call it Ripple, Baby, Ripple. Maybe :P I was thinking along the lines of Baby's Beach Umbrella...and then when I was taking photos near the pool, it reminded me of the ripples on the water in the sunlight...you know how they catch all those colors...and the quilt has that red and orange and yellow tossed in...I don't know. I also really liked it under the willow tree. 

I did a scrappy binding with some leftover fabric from the fat quarters used. I accidentally cut the strips too thin and had to make up a way to do the binding that I haven't done before. It turned out a little weird, but it works. It was a long process of folding it in half, then ironing it, then unfolding it and ironing in the sides so that they almost meet the middle, then attaching it to the quilt with both sides folded under. I didn't take any pictures and it's hard to explain, but suffice it to say, I wont be using that method to bind again any time soon.

Also, for the quilting I tried a "free motion straight line" method. That basically just means I don't use the walker foot and I try to keep the lines as straight as possible. It gives it an organic feel. I think it added to the ripple feel cause I'm not good at the "straight" portion. :P I was pretty disappointed at first and after several lines thought about ripping it out and doing something else. But...I stuck with it, reminding myself it's never as bad as it seems. And it wasn't! Towards the end I decided with a few of the more open grid spaces to do some back and forth swirls. It turned out really cute! I actually really love it. There is one photo where you can see what I mean. They are like little drops on the water that create all those ripples!

Ripple, Baby, Ripple is now for sale in my Etsy shop!

A Cute Secret

I'm making something for my sister. She graduates high school on Friday, and her 18th birthday is the 31st. I got her some stuff for college (she's going to Cal State Long Beach in August!), but I wanted to do something more personal. I ordered some fabric, but it got delivered to the wrong address and it's not going to get back here in time...so I'm making this! Started last night. A little embroidery. Just a sneak peak today. I'm hoping to get a little quilting done today so I'll have something to show you later!

Top Finish!

Oh man! I haven't posted since the 4th! Time has just been flying by. Sorry guys!

Happy Mother's Day! I got to spend the day with my mom. And she got to spend the day with all of her kids! She just loved it. :) Some of us ran a 10k yesterday...will post pics later this week.

To my FINISH! Well. OK. So I only finished the top. But I also basted it, and now it's just ready to be quilted and bound! I'm hoping for a finish on Saturday. :D Here's a sneak peak...

Last Saturday I had my first day off in two weeks. Hubby and I took a "hike" in the middle of SLO. It's also my favorite place to run. I didn't run very far on this particular trip, but Hubby was photographing the scenery and I sprinted away to keep up the running spirit (in preparation for the 10k yesterday) and he snapped a photo of me. Don't we live in such a beautiful place!?

May the Fourth be With You!

In honor of today and some of my favorite movies, I am spending my morning of quilting watching Star Wars! :D Skipping the first three and going directly to the fourth. I'm going to do some ironing and cutting. Starting early so the movie will finish by the time I have to leave for work. Hubby will just have ot leave or be distracted! :P Ok, ok, I could probably pause it for a few minutes so he can do something other than stand and stare at the TV...

Also, one of my favorite bloggers made some really cute Ewoks in honor of today. Check them out!

Wonky Baby

This is being worked on slowly. I've decided to just make a small baby quilt, instead of buying more to make it bigger, though I would like to experiment with this eventually and build out. Maybe in black and red. :P Tehe. My go to! But I do love this one. I've always considered these more MY colors (even more than yellow and red, which I have really been digging lately...), and I just love the little sprinkles of red/yellow/orange among the teal/green/blue. And so adorable for a little one!

Oh, and yes, I got to paint my toe nails! A very busy night turned into a night off when my three events got cancelled! :P (well, I cancelled one when I thought the other two were still happening...but that's beside the point)

What's Your Breaking Point?

I've decided that when I don't have time to paint my toe nails once a month, I'm too busy. It has been about 7 weeks.

That also contributes to the lack of GOOD posts around here...I'm sorry! I am going to spend the next couple weeks trying to slow down. Stay tuned!