Let the vacation begin!

Today is the first day of my week long vacation. I originally had plans to tell no one about my vacation and stay inside my house for nine days and do nothing but sew and listen to podcasts. But that is unrealistic, isn't it?

Last night I spent some time doing some cleaning that has been on my list for months. I organized my pantry.

I can see everything that is in my pantry and get to it without knocking other things over!

I cleared off my patio and threw away the old, dried out firewood that has been sitting out there for way too long. I still need to clean my chairs and pillows and hang my bird feeders. I may get a rug to put out there, and I also thought about hanging a large screen to block some of the afternoon sunlight. I feel like the big sliding glass doors let so much heat in to the apartment, and a screen could cut back on that somewhat.

boring, empty patio

I squared up the big, heavy T-shirt quilt that I am working on for a client and cut binding strips, but have not sewn them together yet.

This morning I planned to go to the gym for their bootcamp class, but my wrist is hurting a lot. I have an old sprain that bothers me sometimes and on the Fourth of July my cousins and I played tetherball. Sometimes I get so involved in something that is a lot of fun, and I forget to be careful not to aggravate these kinds of injuries. So I have decided to wrap my wrist, skip the class, make some tea and sit down to write a short post.

I do have some fun things planned for this week:
Saturday - I am getting a manicure, then going to my grandpa's 90th birthday party in Rockne. My family is expecting over 400 people to be there for his celebration and Robin and I made a quilt to give him, we each pieced one side, similar to my grandma's birthday quilt.

sneak peak of Grandpa's quilt, blog post coming soon

Sunday - I have the morning and afternoon to sew and to work on Robin's wedding paper system (it is almost time to mail invitations out!), I need to get a few things from Ikea, and then I am headed to Texas Old Town for my cousin Judith's wedding. I am making these place mats for the wedding gift and will have them ready by the time they get back from their honeymoon.

Judith's citrus place mats

Monday - first personal training session at the nearby powerlifting and bodybuilding gym, Big Tex Gym. (did you know that I was a powerlifter in high school?) Then bootcamp at Austin Self Defense if the morning workout hasn't taken me out completely.

Tuesday - physical and donation at the plasma bank, lunch with friends, and an afternoon with my stepson Xavier. I am planning to go visit fellow local art vendors, Ian and Megan of Plaid Pigeon. They sell adorable potted plants, and they are going to put some succulents in to some pots that I have on my fireplace hearth. I also have a handyman coming over to hang some shelves in my sewing studio and try to fix my washing machine.

image by Plaid Pigeon

Wednesday - sewing! Lots of sewing planned for today, including sewing some pillow cover samples for a class that I will be teaching in August at the amazing fabric store, Remnants:fiber[culture], and then bootcamp in the evening.

I have plenty of sewing projects to keep me busy

Thursday - another plasma donation. Plasma saves lives and I am using the money that I make donating to save for a new car. More sewing, I also have things to do around the house like cleaning, organizing, sanding and staining my antique chair, updating my Etsy sites and editing photos for this blog. And there is an Austin Modern Quilt Guild meeting in the evening, we will be voting on new officers and announcing committee members.
Friday - I'd like to spend some time painting, I have so many blank canvases on the walls of my studio and it would be great to take some new work to First Thursday next month. More sewing and cleaning up around the house, in the evening I will drive up to Fort Worth to spend the weekend with my dad's side of the family.
Saturday - My aunt says we are going to the Peach Festival in Weatherford. I don't know anything more about that. Hopefully I will feel like getting some sewing done when we get back to the house.
Sunday - Sewing and visiting with the family, then driving back home in the evening to get ready for the work week.

I already know that I probably won't accomplish as much as I hope to, but I'm going to do my best. I work such long hours during the week and my commute to work is about an hour each way, so I have gotten behind in sewing projects, household tasks and my online commitments like blogging and keeping my Etsy shop updated. I'm using this vacation time to work on all of this and try to get back to a place where I feel like I am no longer drowning in my to do list.

Have a great week at work!

W.i.P. Wednesday 10

Hello! Wednesday again! This keeps sneaking up on me; I took some photos last night, but I should of done it during the day. These photos aren't great.
Regardless, I have been very busy and I have a lot to show you. I just had a four day weekend which was really great. I spent most of my time working on this t-shirt quilt. I will be quilting it on Saturday. There is still a lot of work to do, I may have a late night Friday night, but it will get done. It is becoming more of a horizontal layout than I intended, I may have to take those four big pieces on the right side and line them up in a horizontal row at the bottom to create a more vertical layout.

custom order t-shirt quilt

Every so often I needed a break from this quilt, so I worked on a few other things this weekend. These are some half square triangles for my cousin's quilt that I mentioned last week. Robin and I created a layout with 90 friendship stars, which means we have to sew 180 pairs of squares and then cut them in to 360 half square triangles. So far I have sewn and cut 20 squares, and squared up two HSTs. So...there is a long way to go!

half square triangles for Ron's quilt

I also worked a little more on this Lego bag. These strips for the outside of the bag have been sewn together in groups of four, leaving me with 10 big pieces. There is still a lot of work to do on this.

Lego bag

Here is the mess next to my computer desk as I work on Robin's Save the Date cards for her September wedding. I got my desk for free (found it next to the dumpster!) and I am thinking about buying a new one from Ikea with some of my birthday money. This desk is big enough for my computer and nothing else. I don't have room to write or even set my printer. The printer lives in the closet and I get it out and set it up on the floor when I need it. I think I am overdue for a new desk.

working on Save the Date cards

I ordered this coral stamp from Stamp Out Online, an Etsy shop that was incredibly helpful and accommodating while working with me to get the coral looking just right for the wedding stationery. The shop has several great stamps and can create custom orders. I plan to order a stamp from their girly business section soon.

second draft of STDs

Recently, I joined the Scrap Attack, hosted by Stitched in Color. There I read about this scrappy piecing method. I tried it out last Wednesday and came up with this ten by ten inch block. I will eventually contribute it to the Austin Modern Quilt Guild's Block Swap, but I need to make it bigger. I really like this method and how crazy the block turns out. I pulled out scraps randomly and only paid attention to not having the same color next to each other. I plan to make more of these scrappy blocks using a monochromatic color palette.

Scraptacular block

Here is my sister's table topper. I pieced the back over the weekend without planning it out, I just added fabric until it was big enough. I am still thinking about how to quilt this and whether or not I will add heat resistant batting to it.

Christmas table topper

I am linking up today with Freshly Pieced. Stop by and take a look at some other crafty blogs!

Linking up at Jay Bird Quilts for Scrappy Sunday. I am so excited about the scrappy block that I made, and I am going to use this link up opportunity as a motivation to continue building those scrappy blocks.

I am also linking up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts. Click the button and support a few other small blogs with views and comments. If you find something that you love, become a follower!

My first quilt, for the Pay

In July of 2009 my friend Abbey had her second baby, Bruce. A few months before that I made a small green and brown blanket and gave it to her at the baby shower. Her oldest daughter, Macey, promptly took it and claimed it as her own. So I decided to make a quilt for Macey so that she would return the blanket to her baby brother.
I bought four fabrics from the remnants section of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft, cut them in to 6 by 8 rectangles and took them up to Fort Worth to get help from Aunt M and Grandmother. They explained to me the problem with the fabric I had chosen and then helped me rework my quilt design. I originally bought the pink polka dot that you see in the quilt, a yellow and white striped knit fabric, a green fleece fabric, and the cotton butterfly fabric that is in the quilt.
I learned that it doesn't work well to combine different types of fabric and that it is best to use all cotton fabric when quilting.

Aunt M has lots of bolts of fabric in her sewing room closet and she gave me the green polka dot fabric, the light pink swirl fabric,the dark purple backing, and the solid white. I bought batting and more of the butterfly fabric from the store and set aside my knit and fleece fabrics.

My aunt C does not sew but she has a great eye for color and layout. She and I laid the blocks on the floor and tried arranging them several different ways. We eventually ended up on these diagonal lines of color and I was very happy with that solution.

I had not planned on adding these three borders or the white sashing in between the blocks, but I am glad that my grandmother suggested it. She is a traditional quilter, as is Aunt M, and they love to add a border to a quilt. Or two or three borders.

Aunt M has an embroidery machine so I used it to embroider Macey's name on the lower right block of the quilt top.

I pieced the top with their help and supervision and then Aunt M taught me how to sandwich the quilt and baste it with what seemed like a thousand safety pins. She showed me how to stitch in the ditch and gave me some clear thread for the top and I used a dark purple for the bobbin thread. You can see my stitch in the ditch lines on the back of the quilt.

After that I learned how to square up the quilt, piece the binding together and sew it on to the front of the quilt and blind stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. Piecing the binding strips together was the most difficult part for me. You have to get them lined up just right and I was always off just a bit. Aunt M would look at it and say, "No, rip it out. Do it again." She said that so many times during my first few tries at piecing binding, but practice makes perfect and these days my binding looks pretty goo...moat of the time.

I think overall this project turned out well for my first try at making a quilt. I gave it to Macey for Christmas in 2009 and she LOVES it, even now two years later. She calls it her Jessica blanket and has it in bed with her for naps and night time.

I am not sure who "owns" the green and brown blanket these days, but it is about time for me to make a quilt for Bruce. There is a third baby in the family by now and he and Macey each have quilts from me, Bruce needs one too.

I am linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday, go check out some other great projects made with fabric!

W.i.P. Wednesday 08

There are so many projects going on right now, I will do my best to make a complete list.

I just finished the custom order of note cards this week. They will go in the mail soon.
I never did find time to make Valentine's Day cards to send out to family. That was disappointing, but I have to stop giving myself so much to do at once.

in progress

Finished!

 I took on a t-shirt quilt custom order, I plan to have it ready to quilt on February 17th. The woman gave me the t-shirt that her husband wore on their first date and I am planning to put it on the back of the quilt next to the label. She is also giving me fabric that was the backdrop in their wedding reception photo booth that I will use in the back of the quilt. I am excited about this quilt, it has so many sentimental elements.

My mom brought me a stack of my brother's t-shirts from his high school days of choir, drama, and national honor society. He has two shirts from his senior year that she was hesitant about cutting up without knowing if he was finished wearing them.
So she called him and they had the following conversation, which I think is hilarious.
Mom: "I am thinking about using these t-shirts in a project that I am working on. Is that all right?"
Ivan:  "What do you mean, you're having Jessica sew them into a quilt?"
Mom:  "What?? Never mind about that thing you just said, just let me know if I can use these shirts."
Ivan:  "Sure you can sell them at the garage sale or whatever."
I told my mom that the next time she sees him she should hand him $3.75 and tell him that those shirts were a hit at the garage sale.

Robin and I are making arm chair and head rest covers for our grandparents new recliners. The home decor fabric is difficult to work with, but really we are just making six squares so it isn't too much of an undertaking.

I quilted the Zoology quilt for my friend's baby last Saturday. I was getting frustrated during the quilting process, but it looks fine. I just need to sew on the binding and make a label. The baby was born on Monday, and I went to visit them at the hospital yesterday.

I am still working on Valentine's Day towels. My plan is to finish those this week. Robin isn't shy at all, at my house last Friday she said, "Can you finish up those towels for me because Valentine's is only two weeks away." Yes ma'am.

This Friday Robin and I are going to get busy cutting fabric for her brother's new quilt. I'll post more about that later. 

This Saturday I am going on a quilt retreat for the day. I have several piles of washed and ironed fabric that are waiting to be cut for particular projects. I think it will be tiring (and boring) to cut fabric all day long, but it really needs to be done and I know it will be rewarding to go home with several projects that are ready to be sewn together.

Yesterday morning I got a phone call about another t-shirt quilt, that has a May 19th deadline.

I got an exciting new book for my birthday, Bags - the Modern Classics by Sue Kim. I chose the first bag that I want to make and bought fabric last weekend. I'll cut out the fabric on Saturday but I probably shouldn't start that until I finish my carrot purse. I have not made any progress on that since the last time I posted about it.

I am working on two quilt blocks for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. We are having a six month block swap. I will make one block to swap with another guild member and another block to contribute to a future donation quilt.

I am making a floor quilt similar to these that I have made in the past. The difference with this one is that both sides are made of laminate fabric. I plan to put it on the ground in my booth space when I sell at art shows. I have a great antique high chair and baby buggy that I will put on the quilt and display my floor quilts in the antiques.

I quilted Kitchy Kitchen fabric on Saturday to make new potholders. Eight of them have binding machine sewn on and four of them still need binding. Then I will hand sew all of the binding to the back. I will be selling at an art show this Thursday evening, that is a great time to work on binding because it brings people in to my booth. They wonder what I am doing and they come over to ask about it.

A list of projects that are on my work in progress table that I continue to make zero progress on. I am hoping that by listing them out here, I will be motivated to work on them and get them off of this list.
fall leaves pot holders
apple pot holders
coffee cup pot holders
fabric for new textile wall hanging
sample onesie quilt
pine cone ornaments
watermelon table topper
four drawstring toy bags
firewood bag for the hearth

There are probably more things to add here that I am not thinking of now. I will try to keep this list updated.

I am linking up today, go visit these linky parties and support other creative blogs!