Things I {heart}...

 ~Shout Color Catchers~



{The pink fabric that started it all.}

 I made the mistake of washing this quilt on Friday night WITHOUT a color catcher.  Why? because I was out of them, and it was late and I just wanted to see it all washed and crinkled.  When I pulled it out of the dryer there were nice pink smears all over the green Kona solid.  UG!  What was I thinking?  My husband (all heroic to save the day) ran out for me to get some and I ran it through the wash again.


Still pink after the second wash!

 Note to self, if ever using a batik (which I usually don't) or heavily dyed fabric be sure to prewash! The quilt came out fine in the end, you can still see some of the bleed marks, but it kinda gives it that fresh homemade look (maybe if I say that enough I will believe it.)

PS- Shout is not paying me a cent for my shameless endorsement of their product.  It just works how it says it should, therefore...I {heart}

Kinda like a paper cut

I guess I got a little too carried away last night.  Over the past 3 years I have done all of my quilting on my sweet Craigslist find, a $60 used Sears Kenmore sewing machine.  I have made it work, and even taught myself how to free motion quilt on that machine.  All being said I think the results have been great.  It is a living example that you don't need a fancy machine to get started. Not saying it was always easy.  I had the occasional fight over tension, it doesn't do a very good satin stitch, and there is no fancy needle down feature.  However, now that I am back in Michigan...I call dibs on my mom's Bernina!  Last night while finishing the free motion quilting and ENTIRE 40x40 quilt in about an HOUR (that would not have happened on old Kenny), I managed to run over my finger!  Who does that?!?

Sorry if this is too graphic :)

It just looks like a big paper cut now, but it was a bleeder.  And for all who are wondering...the quilt is just fine, and waiting patiently to be bound.

Running Squared

For my very first Mother's Day my beautiful 8 month old knew her mommy enough to buy her an assortment of Moda Charm packs!  Well, OK...I can thank my husband for those, but I am thankful for any day that I get fabric great fabrics.  Today it is a few weeks later and I have only made a dent.  I have so many projects all at different stages at the moment I can barely keep it all straight.  I am working on writing 3 different quilt patterns and finishing up a few quilts to post on my shop and get that started. And on top of it all I have all these pretty fabrics calling my name wanting me to create something...I {heart}them.
 The first charm pack I busted open was Flurry by Katie Spain.  It is a fun assortment of Christmas themed fabrics.  I decided to cut them all up and make a table topper of some sort, and this is what I came up with, I call this pattern...


~ Running Squared ~

I think I am going to practice my hand quilting with this project.  Since it is a smaller project, and hand quilting is new to me, I think this will be a good place to start. I will keep you posted on my progress.