My First Quilt- next steps.....

I might have made it seem like in my last post that all the cutting and work just happened but I actually did all that last summer and set it aside.  Then when my dear cousin got pregnant I thought I better get a move on and finish it to give to her.  I don't think she reads this blog.  If so, surprise! I missed your shower but your gift is on it's way.  And, before the babe is born, unusual for m.

Progress yesterday after I got my car washed and detailed, grocery shopped for the week and walked my tiny dog, the nerd in me stayed in, stoked the fire (ok, it's a gas insert but flipping the fireplace switch sounds so lame) and assembled the quilt front and back.

Green Quadrant

Orange yellow quadrant

 In novice quilter fashion, I was not good at keeping my 1/4" seam allowance and that made my color quadrants a little wider than the white portions.  I realized when I set them in the arcs of white that they were slightly bigger. You can really tell on the green that it's bowing out.

Blue purple quadrant

Red pink quadrant

So my remedy was to wet a towel and steam them so they laid flat.  I wasn't about to go back and resew them all.  That's the beauty of cotton, you can steam it to shape.  That is the reason the quadrants look damp.  I threw them in the dryer and then assembled them all together.

Front of quilt assembled.  Parting shot before bed.

The assembly was easy- sew two quadrants together making a half.  Repeat, making another half and then sew both halves together making the whole.  I'm very pleased with the visual of the colors.  I tried really hard to not repeat any print in more than one color although that option was available it felt like cheating.  There is only one solid piece: red- that I used from another project, blogged about here.  I didn't photograph the boy version that I made with the red, but the pinks and brights from the girls versions are here too.  The boy version was red, denim and baseballs was super cute and made more sturdy for jumping.

Today, Super Bowl Sunday, or in my house, doggie playgroup day and quilt layer assembly day.  Ok, also I need to run two miles as I'm training for the Shamrock Run in March.  This is Portland's first big run of the year- something like 30k people.  Huge.  Fun.  Good thing it's sunny and bright today- perfect for a brisk run.

Fun Sewing Related Birthday/Christmas gifts

Yes, it's true, recently I had a birthday.  It was in fact a big decade number.  Yay!  Blank age is the new _______!  Never mind.  Anyway, I got a few very nice gifts that are sewing related.

Ceramic spools of yarn and herringbone tape, lift off the lids and they are candles!

Here's the top of the herringbone spool. 

My best friend gave me the green one for my birthday and then I got the blue one from my sister for Christmas.  Do these ladies know me or what?  The candles can be purchased at Anthropologie.  I'm sure there are many colors and sizes, I haven't check but I think I might need one more to make a little trio arrangement.  I LOVE them!

Another gift I got was this adorable book- Sew Retro! It's a history of home sewing in the US.  Who knew that Ebenezer Butterick was the first one to put out a sized pattern?  Well, some of you might have but I didn't.

Cover of Sew Retro: A Stylish History of the Sewing Revolution by Judi Keiteler

Time line of history of home sewing and the sewing industry along the bottom of all pages

History by decade or era

This book is full of projects that home sewists can do today!  So popular right now: aprons!

This is a really cool book with little projects throughout.  The projects are a little more on the crafting side than the fashion side, but they definitely take me back in time- that's for sure!  Great gifts from my great friends and family. Thanks y'all- no, I'm not from Texas but really, sometimes ya gotta y'all.
Ok kids, I'm off to bequeath my old sewing machine to some cute little nieces and give them their first sewing lesson- a patchwork pillow- on this snowy/rainy day before new years eve.

Gumdrops for birthdays

I finally have time to blog about the gumdrop pillows.  More on the reason I've been absent later.....

Here's the unwrapping of the pillows.  Because of their size, I wrapped them in queen size bed sheets.

ONE for Lu Lu............

and ONE for Cece................

And they look great in their rooms

ta da!  So cute.  Now their little brother might need one that has baseballs and basketballs.

In other news, I got a new job!!!!!!!!  The interview process was really long and my nerves are/were fried.   But further to that, my assistant resigned while I was interviewing so I was doing her job and my job while waiting to hear about my new job.  Needless to say, I'm very tired.  Finally, my last day at the old company was Friday and I have two weeks of vacation till I start the new one.  Hurray!!  While I'm off I'm making some work outfits and visiting a friend in NYC!  Yep, that means, fabric shopping!

If all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrop(s)

pillows....oh what a world it would be........

Yep, making the Amy Butler Gumdrop pillows.  24" madness.  First let me say these are totally easy to make and adorable.  But, holy cow they take a ton of poly fill.  Right now, the whole back of my bug is full of bags of poly fill.  And the reason is, that I don't really have room for it to be loose in my apartment.   AND, I had to make one and wait to make the other till I'm done with my sister's dress.

So during my adventure to Hollyhill, I chose these fabrics:

Eight fabrics for Lulu's Room match her pillow sham and comforter

4 fabrics for Cece's Room that has a surfer girl theme.

Two birthday girls, one month.  In classic me way, I left the inside pattern pieces at home and just took the outside specficications with me. They outline what to buy if you are doing 2 alternating fabrics or 1 fabric, but again I'm me and decided to do 8 fabrics and 4 fabrics and it would have been great to have the pieces to know how much of each fabric to buy.   Luckily there were only two one way prints, and for both of those I just pieced them together.   Otherwise I would have had about 100$ bucks worth of fabric and lots left over-which could make a cute baby quilt of some kind later on.

Lulu's is the 8 piece jobbie.  The fabrics were all 5 on one shelf and I just scooped them all up and said cut'em baby.  Then I had to find 3 more that coordinated.  I think it turned out well.  Here's how it came together so you can see how easy it is:

Inside view of four sections

Here is the first section of four sew together.

Outside view of the four sections

8 sections sewn into two sections of four.

This is so easy to sew if you just sew the seam allowance each time.  Now you sew half of the two main sections together across the top from side to side.   Then apply the top piece by top stitching it to the outside of the pillow.   Notice that for some reason the edges of the octogon don't all line up with the sections- darn.  Not sure why that didn't happen.  But no matter, it's still super cute and really doesn't bother me.

Not completely stuffed but almost.

The other is not cut yet, so I'm not sure what my issues will be but they are florals so hopefully they are not one way- of course I didn't  check.  der.  1 down, 1 to go.....stay tuned.