Craftsy!

Have you discovered Craftsy yet?  I've been taking a few classes on this site lately and am learning so much.

The first class I took was Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space.  Angela is a fabulous quilter who's designs really blow me away.  It was awesome to spend some time just watching her quilt.  I learned a few new designs and used one of them to quilt this quilt.



This quilt will be shown at quilt market in Fabri-Quilt's booth.  I am in love with this quilt.  I really don't want to give it back to them.



You can see the quilting I did on it a little better in this photo.  I used Angela's tiling method and filled them with the swirl.



Angela recommends the So Fine 50 weight thread.  I decided to try it on this quilt.  As far as I can tell, though, it only comes in the large cones.  During my trolling on pinterest, I found somebody who had shown using a coffee cup as a thread holder.  I tried that, but the thread kept getting stuck and needed more of a guide.  I used a few index cards and some masking tape to make a better track for the thread to follow.  It worked like a charm!

I'm currently taking Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting A Sampler class.  When I first started experimenting with free motion quilting, Leah Day's website is where I went to find ideas on what kind of designs to use.  I'm not very far into this class, but I've already learned so much about how to baste a quilt using a new method for securing the backing to a table.  And who would have thought to starch a quilt before basting?!  That never occurred to me, but makes perfect sense!  I can't wait to keep watching and see what else I learn.

Are you a fan of modern quilting?  Craftsy is offering the lectures from QuiltCon for free!

There are several mini courses you can take to test out the site.  There is a block of the month available.  It really is a neat way to learn new skills.

Snow Hike

Just a little something silly and fun to maybe warm your day...

We went on a hike in the woods in the snow.  It was awesome.  

Remember the mei tai I wrote about recently?  That's what Daniel rode in. 

Our little man is such a ham.  Look at him making a silly face there in the corner.  

Fist bump!  Little dude is awesome.  Our hike was a lot of fun.  The snow made it something different than our normal hike.  

-Jessica

QuiltNon

Have you heard about QuiltCon?  It's surely awesome and I'm jealous of all my quilting friends who got to go to Austin to partake.

Some of us from the KCMQG who didn't get to go got together to sew downtown and called it QuiltNon.  



There were lots of scraps brought to share.  By lots, I mean probably multiple buckets worth.  



They may have been tossed around a little.  



That's where I sewed!  Nice view, huh?



And these are some of the girls who were there with me.  Thanks to Lesley for arranging it.  We had fun.  :)

-Jessica

Stay tuned...

I've been thinking. Lately I have spent a great deal of time thinking about blogging. I delight in the idea of blogging with my daughter. Like Jessica, I make stuff. Lots of stuff. I am hesitant to blog because quite frankly, I lack some computer skills. But I am ready to attempt this. After all, I am the gramma hen and I have stuff to cluck about. So stayed tuned..I plan to blog in the near future.

Rainbow Bright Quilt

I'm not 100% sold on that title, but it does kind of suit this quilt.  Feel like looking at some in-progress shots?  I'm not finished with it yet, so you can't see a completed photo.  

I love this fabric line by Ro Gregg for Fabri-Quilt.  It's called Marblehead in Global Brights.  



I figured out how to strip piece this quilt.  It went smoothly.  



I cut the strips into blocks.



Assembled into bigger blocks.  From there I ended up making it into quadrants before finally sewing it all together.  



Don't you just love it?  Also, I'm in love with instagram photos.  



I am also having a new love affair with pressing my seams open.  I think this might be a permanent thing.  We seem to be hitting it off.  



I took Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space class on Craftsy and learned this tile and swirls design.  I'm liking it.  Also loving So Fine #50 thread by Superior Threads.  Angela is right, it does melt into the quilt.  



So, that's what I've been working on.  How about you?

-Jessica

I made a mei tai and I love it a lot.

Do you ever make something and wonder how you ever got along without it?  That's how I feel about my mei tai.  I use this thing probably at least twice a week these days.  I love wearing my little guy.  When he was teeny tiny I loved the moby wrap.  As he got bigger and heavier and the weather got hotter, I loved it less and less.  I feel the moby stretches too much with a bigger baby.  He got so heavy I felt like he ended up around my knees after wearing him a while and the wrap stretching.  And it gets so HOT!  Not fun in a super hot summer.  

After the moby got less and less comfortable, I made a simple sling out of some fabric I had laying around.  I loved the look of it.  It was easy to make.  I probably would have really loved it if I had made it before Daniel wanted to sit up and see what was happening in the world.  I followed this tutorial I found on pinterest.  It's been almost a year since I made it, but I vaguely remember it taking roughly an hour to do.  

I still keep it in Jason's car just in case Daniel is in the mood where he needs to be held and we need to stop by the grocery or something.  Even though I don't love this one, it is nice to have it available just in case.

The photo above is the first time Daniel was ever in the mei tai I made.  We really love this carrier. It's a simple design and I find it very comfortable to wear.  

If I'm by myself, the front carry is the easiest and most comfortable.  I can also get him into a hip carry by myself, but it spreads the weight to one side and my shoulder usually ends up pretty sore from carrying all of the little man's weight in the one place.  It is nice to put him on my hip if I need to use my hand and would like to keep his reach a little further away from what I'm working on.  The boy has monkey arms!

He really does love to be strapped to me.  

The fabric I used was an awesome striped denim somebody had given my mom.  It's so soft and breathes nicely.  It's sturdy.  And I think it has kind of a hippie aesthetic to it that I think suits it's purpose.  


We didn't even take a stroller on our Colorado vacation.  We brought my mei tai and a backpack carrier that is more comfortable for my husband and just carried him up every mountain we climbed. 

The back carry is the most comfortable for me to have him in, but it's the most difficult to get set up.  Daniel is so wiggly and I'm not confident enough to do it without somebody helping me make sure he isn't going to take a dive off my back onto the pavement, so I really only do it when I have a helper.  

I think Daniel likes this carry the best, too.  He can see out over my shoulder to look at what's happening in the world.  He can see what I'm doing from my angle, too, instead of having to crane his neck around to scope things out.  





































Works well as a teether, too.  Popped 2 new teeth on this trip!

The tutorial I used was from pinterest.  It calls for 2 1/4 yards of fabric.  I only had 2 yards of the denim, so my straps are a little shorter than ideal.  I'm not a huge person, so it works for me.  I also didn't have quite enough fabric to make the hood in the tutorial.  I do see the benefit of it (see photo above) and think sometimes it could come in handy.  

Babywearers, don't worry.  My tying has gotten much better and tighter and Daniel doesn't sag quite as much as in the photo above.  I'm now able to tie him on so his butt sits just right and we're all comfortable.

Also, Happy 30th birthday to my fabulous husband, Jason.  I love you!

-Jessica

Puzzle Balls

I just finished up a fun little project for Fabri-Quilt's Quilt Market booth.  I love making these little balls.  They look a lot more complex than they actually are.  



They're definitely more time consuming than I remembered them being from the last time I made them, but they're fairly simple and fun.  This time I made them using some of Fabri-Quilt's flannel (so soft!) and following the Sew Fun pattern.  This was the start of the substantial list of things I have in line to make for Fabri-Quilt for Spring Quilt Market.  Next up... 3 quilts.  And that's not even from the line of fabrics that is the majority of my list!

Happy sewing! 
-Jessica