Sneak Peek: Denim Picnic Quilt

 
As I sorted through my old stash recently, I found some old jeans I was converting to skirts. It occurred to me that I’m never actually going to make those skirts (they’ve been sitting, pinned together, for around 4 years) so I decided to use the denim for a picnic quilt.

I used a seam ripper to take apart pretty much every stitch in 3 pairs of jeans and a mini skirt I’d been saving for a purse. It was worth it. Every fold yielded surprising tonal variations. This is what I have so far, roughly a 12”x18” block. I’m considering adding other fabric to make it bigger without having to tear apart more clothes, but I really don’t want to take away from the patterns and tones that are emerging. We’ll see!

Blue Scrap Quilt

    

I just completed my blue scrap quilt. Ignore the fact that the quilting is pretty awful and that no threads have been clipped! In the future I want to focus on becoming better at quilting, but it was nice being able to just zip through a quilt.

Creating this quilt was such a soothing experience. There was virtually no planning involved. I chose blues and greens as my palette. I then went through my scraps, selecting pieces that were big enough to cut blocks that were 4 inches wide with varying lengths. The fabrics are from leftover projects, hand-me-downs from my Grandma Ona’s stash, and recycled clothes. I just cut pieces until I was certain I had enough. Then I started sewing the blocks into strips.

In the middle of sewing, my husband claimed the quilt 🙂 He’s 6’9, so I ended up making the it about the size of the top of our king size bed. It’s the largest quilt I’ve ever made. Sewing the top was no problem, it was very relaxing. However, quilting the mammoth was not. I definitely want a long arm sewing machine now :). The quilting is ugly, but I think the pattern hides it well. All that matters is that Alex loves it 🙂

Don’t be an idiot (like me…)

I’ve recently come across some great sewing blogs. This week I stumbled upon a post about cleaning your machine… which made me realize I’d never cleaned the inside of my current machine. Which I’ve owned for roughly 3 years. Oops. When I opened it up there was a good quarter inch of lint. It’s now clean and sporting a shiny new needle.

I’d gotten used to my machine thrashing and bouncing when I sewed. Now I know it’s not because it was aging. It was just super dirty! It runs like nearly new after its cleaning.

If you can’t remember the last time you cleaned your machine, do yourself and your machine a favor… JUST GO DO IT!

I'm back!

My husband switched me over to Windows 7, and I’d never had to type in my blog password because I saved it! So after the change I couldn’t remember it… After some months and some trial and error I finally got it 🙂
Update:
This weekend was Dexter’s 1st birthday! It was crazy and fun and tear-filled and happy 🙂 I decided not to make him a first year blanket because he already has so many quilts. I decided to wait until he’s a little older and moves into a big boy bed.
I’ve been sticking with my New Year goals. I think I’ve read 13 books so far (yay!) and I’ve lost roughly 7 lbs (also yay!). Plus, I decided to make my sisters quilts instead of shirts. They’ll get them at Christmas.