Sewing in the Purple Room

Pinwheels

2009-03-14T14:46:00.001-04:00

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!

Botanical Pop

2009-02-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

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???

Christmas Quilt finished

2009-02-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

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

Bee Inspired!

2009-02-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

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.

Kimono Top

2009-02-22T11:51:00.001-05:00

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! :)

New Bag!

2009-02-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

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! :)

Happy Customer!

2009-02-05T11:24:00.000-05:00

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!

New Fabric

2009-01-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

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!!

Finished Quilt top

2009-01-25T14:23:00.000-05:00

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?

Kimono top

2009-01-20T19:16:00.000-05:00

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.

Purple machine for the purple room!

2009-01-19T18:51:00.000-05:00

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!!

Karla and Pammy's day of Sewing

2008-12-04T18:52:00.001-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving, my mom and I decided to spend the day sewing. Our day began at 5am as we headed to JoAnn Fabrics for their "Black Friday" sales. After multiple purchases, and a great breakfast out, we headed to my mom's classroom where we did nothing but sew for 6 hours straight. It was so much fun! We worked on a couple of my mom's quilts that she's made awhile ago but never finished, and then we worked on my Christmas quilt. We've decided that it will become a tradition from now on, but that each year, we can't work on something we worked on the year before. We need to start finishing our projects! Here are a few picks from the day.

Mom working on her star quilt

Me and my Christmas quilt

Fingers crossed!

2008-11-18T16:27:00.000-05:00

A fellow blogger, Film in the Fridge, is celebrating her 100th post, and hosting a giveaway! Boy am I in need of those prizes. She's giving away potholders, produce bags, and cloth napkins all made by her. She's also giving away a ton of scrap fabric! I'm dying to win! Monday she'll announce the winner, so until then, keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Here's pics of her prizes!!

EDIT: I didn't win :(

Another update....

2008-11-18T08:44:00.000-05:00

I'm a quilting machine......Friday I'm purchasing fabric for the edging and the backing. Will hopefully get a lot finished on Karla and Pammy's day of sewing on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I have to say, for my first quilt ever, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Justin says this quilt has nice feet. :) hehe Big thanks to my hubby who has been my ironing helper. He rocks my world!

Christmas quilt update...

2008-11-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday Stash #2

2008-11-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

My Spare Change squares have arrived!! Not exactly sure what I'm going to make with them just yet. The patterns are really cool, and I'm very excited to work with them!! I like that the majority of the squares have pink in them. I love pink, and some of the squares are fabrics I have seen in the stores that I have wanted to buy.

Sneak Peek...

2008-11-12T21:07:00.000-05:00

at my Christmas quilt.....

Sunday Stash #1

2008-11-10T14:04:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing a lot of people posting their fabric stashes on Sundays lately, and Tamara over at 1/4 of an inch has started a Sunday Stash group. Here is my first contribution for Sunday Stash. This isn't a fancy piece of fabric, actually just something I found at Joann's that I couldn't pass up. I've got plans for it, eventually.

Mountain Stitches

2008-11-05T11:57:00.001-05:00

While in Gatlinburg for an anniversary vacation, J and I came across Mountain Stitches by Susan a cute little quilting shop nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains. While there, I discovered this great Christmas fabric called Merry and Bright by Moda. I absolutely loved the fun graphic prints. Susan had just finished this quilt, using all Merry and Bright prints. I was inspired by her quilt, and purchased a pack of fat quarter to try and make my own quilt. (It may not be as big as hers, but I'm going to try and give it a shot!) While discussing her quilt, Susan so graciously offered to give me her scrap fabrics from the quilt! How awesome is that!!

Susan's beautiful quilt!!

My purchased fat quarters, and Susan's scraps in the back!
I'm nervous to start working on any project involving these prints! I'm scared I'll cut something wrong and ruin the whole piece! AHH! Wish me luck!! :)

Thanks again to Susan at Mountain Stitches! If you are ever in Gatlinburg, be sure to go to the Arts and Crafts district and check her shop out! I know I'll be back!

Pillow pictures!

2008-11-02T17:52:00.000-05:00

Thankfully, Megan took pictures of the pillows I made for her! I have stolen them off her blog so I could show them to you!!!

Finished!!

2008-10-27T17:14:00.001-04:00

The past few weeks I have completed two projects that I have been working on. For my friend Megan, I recovered some pillows for her. She and her husband had recently purchased a couch that came with some interesting pillows. I used my trusty seam ripper and took of the front panel to add a very cute new print. They turned out really nice! I only wish I had taken pictures of them!!

I also completed another pair of baby shoes for my friend Betsy and her son Owen. Owen is going to be a pirate for Halloween, so I made the perfect pair of shoes using this pattern from Stardust shoes.
A few weeks ago I mailed in my 5x5 squares for a swap I'm participating in called Spare Change Swap. I had to send in 24 squares, and in return, I will received 24 different squares to make a quilt of my choice using my squares and white. I don't know if I'm quite qualified for a quilt just yet, but it will be fun to try!!

New projects!

2008-10-17T17:08:00.001-04:00

It seems like everyone is making an apron on all the blogs I read, so I decided to join in on the fun. This apron is called Friday Night Apron by Vanilla House Designs.

It was came together pretty easy;I only had to rip out a few seams in the neckband. The fabric is by Amy Butler, and I was really excited to use her fabrics. She uses such bright, vivid colors.
Here's a bag that I made from my own design. It was one of the first things I made when I started sewing a month ago, and needs some tweaking, but it makes a great bag to take to the library for my books, etc. The fabric is a fun print from Joann's.

Welcome to my blog!!

2008-10-16T20:32:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my blog! As many of you know, I have recently started sewing again, and instead of filling my "life" blog up with sewing projects, I thought I would start a new one! Stay tuned for pics of my previously made items, and new projects I'm working on.

I participated in my first class tonight at a local quilt shop called "Always in Stitches." The class was called Basic Machine Quilting, and it lasted two hours. Pretty informative, but I'm not quite ready to quilt a king sized quilt. I also am in need of a new sewing machine. My sewing machine was my mom's, and has been used quite a big. It's been a great machine for me to "learn again" on, but if I'm going to keep up this hobby, I'm going to need something new.