Saturday, March 14, 2009

Pinwheels


Pinwheels
Originally uploaded by sewinginthepurpleroom
Here's my first block from my "Bee Inspired" swap. Rachel sent this awesome fabric from Pat Sloan called "Nikki", and requested pinwheels. I have never made pinwheels before, so it was fun to learn a new technique. Thankfully, I made a practice block before I cut into Rachel's fabrics, because I messed up horribly! I hope she likes it! To see more of the blocks everyone has made this month, click the "Bee Inspired" block on the right hand side!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Botanical Pop

I have been wanting to make a "gray" quilt for sometime now. At my local quilt shop, I saw these beautiful fabrics called "Botanical Pop" on clearance and I knew I had to have them! I bought 6 prints, one yard of each, and when I returned home, noticed that I already had 2 fat quarters of the same line. These fats are shown on both ends of the picture. How's that for meant to be?? I don't know what pattern I'm going to use, or even when I'm going to get started, but I couldn't pass these babies up!

Quilters....any suggestions on what pattern to use???

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Christmas Quilt finished

Remember this post? Well, finally, the quilt is completed! I finished hand sewing the binding on Sunday night. I have to say, for my first quilt ever, I think it turned out pretty great! I know Christmas has come and gone,but I think this one will be used year round at my house, or at least until I make another quilt!

This quilt has been so close to being done for quite some time now...I hate hand sewing the binding, so that's why I kept putting it off. Now that it's done, I wish I had finished it sooner. I did all the quilting myself...for those who know....I echo quilted vertical lines on either side of each block.

the pieced back.....I love a pieced back!


It's already getting some use! that's me, curled up on the couch, hiding from the camera

Monday, February 23, 2009

Bee Inspired!

I've been picked to participate in a International Quilting Bee called "Bee inspired." I'm really excited. How this "bee" works is that there are 18 members, with each member assigned to a month. On each person's assigned month, they send fabric to all the other members with instructions for what type of 12.5x12.5 inch quilt square they would like. Upon receiving the fabric, I make that quilt square, and send it back, and they piece together the 17 received blocks into one quilt top. My month is going to be either September or October. I'm going to have to decide what I want my quilt to look like, and what fabrics I want it made from. This "bee" is international, and some of the participants are from Norway, Germany, and New Zealand. I think it's going to be really fun, and I hope to learn some new techniques along the way. I'm going to place the above "button" on my side bar. You can follow our progress along the way by clicking the button to look at our Flickr photo group.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Kimono Top





Here are pictures of the Kimono Top that I made for my cousin's daughter Mia's 3rd birthday! I think it turned out pretty great! I need to adjust the pattern for myself and make a bigger one. Size 3T is hard to work with! :)

Friday, February 6, 2009

New Bag!

I purchased this Mail Sack pattern from Pink Chalk Studio before Christmas, but never had the chance to get it started. I had been searching for the perfect fabric for the bag for quite awhile as well, and finally found Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos and thought it was perfect for this bag!
I changed the bag up a little bit....the large size was supposed to have a zipper pocket in it, but I didn't want to wait till the next time I made it to JoAnn's to buy a zipper, so I made two divided pockets.
I absolutely love this bag! I can't wait to show it off around town and in the local fabric shop. I originally made it to use as my work bag, but I'm thinking I'll need to make another for work. I don't want to get this one dirty yet! :)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Happy Customer!

Here is my niece, Keeley, sporting her Kimono shirt that I made her for Christmas! Isn't she a cutie!? I'm happy that it fits her so well, seeing as this was my first piece of "clothing" I've made since taking my Mom's sewing class in high school!

I made another top for my cousin's daughter's birthday, so I'll be posting pics as soon as I download them!

Monday, January 26, 2009

New Fabric

These beauties arrived on my doorstep the other day. Bee Square Fabrics was having a sale, and I couldn't pass them up. The designer is Heather Bailey, and the fabrics are Peonies, and Pop Daisey. Love them!!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Finished Quilt top

Today I finished the quilt top for my Crazy Eight's scrap quilt. It came together pretty quickly! It measures 37X44. I think it will be the perfect lap quilt.

I need to decide what color to back it with? I thought maybe a pale pink? What are your thoughts? For quilting, I'm going to try and free motion quilt it with my new sewing machine.

I think this quilt also needs a name......any suggestions?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Kimono top

I made this Kimono top for Christmas for my niece Keeley. She's a total girly girl, and she loved the bright pink and the flowers. It was really fun to make. I found the pattern on this website.

I'm need to make a few more. The great thing about this pattern was you can make lots of different sizes. I'm wanting to expand the pattern enough to make one for myself.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Purple machine for the purple room!

I'm been meaning to post pictures of my sewing room for weeks now! For Christmas, J made me an awesome table for sewing and cutting! He had been working on it in the garage for weeks, and kept telling me he was making a tool bench for the garage. I completely fell for the trick! He had it all put together on Christmas morning, and boy was I excited! My parents bought me a new sewing machine for my birthday, so now the sewing room is well stocked! My new machine is the Quilter's Companion by Janome, and it rocks my world. It's so much quieter than my old Brother, and has so many cool features! The blocks you see on the floor are for a new quilt I'm working on. It's a Crazy Eight's quilt, using 8 fat quarters from my stash. I'm making it to use for my first try at Free Motion quilting, so we'll see how that goes eventually. I love how everything is so organized in my sewing room. I keep the iron and ironing board in there, so it's so easy to press my seams.
The purple room had a lot of my things from college in it, that I didn't want to part with, or didn't know what to do with. J and I spent one whole day organizing, trashing, and donating a bunch of old stuff. It was awesome to get it all cleaned out!
In case you can't tell, the machine is purple! Perfect for the Purple Room!!