Stash Share 11

Since I have the time today, I thought I'd make a stash share post, and give a shout-out to Alyssa at Pile 'O Fabrics for getting this weekly share going. I found this last week, and challenged myself to share each week.

Here is a link to this week's selection: Stash Share 11.

Here are my selections:

Thanks for reading!
Cassie

A last minute WIP post

Normally, I post something for WIP Wednesday.. so today, I think I'll make a last minute post before bed.

I have a few things I've been working on this week: First- the Craftsy BOM 2012... this one has taken WAY longer to complete than I wanted, so hopefully I can finish it soon; that's what I get for not buckling down and finishing, I guess!

So here are the two drunkard's path blocks that I made for the BOM. I started moaning about making them here, but by the end, I didn't mind them so much.  Maybe I'll do another curved piecing project in the future. 






I also joined in on a Mug Rug Swap today here.  I started pulling fabrics that I wanted to use for that.  I made a grand mess of my workspace, but it was fun!



I made a shopping trip to search for brown fabric, and came back with all this - (I got a GREAT deal on all this fabric, too. I think I paid something like $0.80/ea. for the rolled remnants on top of the stack!)



At 5, I got a call from my realtor telling me that they accepted our bid for the house that we are trying to buy (are buying)!!  SQUEEEEL!  I can't wait until we close and move in!  Plenty of ideas for my new sewing room!

Then after I calmed down, I started working on my first Mug Rug for the swap.  My own design that I sketched out, and am hand appliqueing.


Notice: I did bring home brown fabric ;)

Thanks for reading!
Cassie

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesdays. :)

Stash Share Compilation!

Hi there!

Yesterday was my first day as a framer/painting instructor. I'm beat.. but I thought today I'd join in on the Stash Share over at Pile 'O Fabric.

Anyway, I'll cut right to it - with a little background on my stash share today. I blogged about my mom giving me much of my stash when I started quilting/sewing. So I really have no idea where most of it came from - but I love it even more because it was hers. So today, my stash share is from the pieces of fabric that my mom gave me.

{#10}These were my initial fabric choices. The tan fabric is actually much, much lighter, I just could not get my photographs to cooperate, and I'm too tired to figure out why!

{#10 - 2} I chose an alternative to the tan, with a pop of green for my custom bundle. I'm not sure which I prefer.. I don't really have another that fits better than either one at the moment. My creamy neutrals are wiped out at the moment!

I guess I will go back and do prior weeks, I'm on a roll!

 

{#9}

{#8}


{#7}  The fabric to the far left is a piece of vintage sheet that I found.  So cute :)


{#6}


{#5}


{#4}


{#3}



{#2} I have several yards of the back fabric.


{#1} The middle piece is another vintage find. 

Well, that's it for my first official stash share. Linking up with Alyssa at Pile O' Fabric - and it just so happens that she's doing a giveaway of her custom stash. If you have time to do it today, you might want to join in :)

Thanks for reading!
Cassie

Tutorial Thursdays!

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So, this week I've been kind of lazy.  My husband and I started watching Breaking Bad (from the beginning), and that has distracted me - so I've only been working on the Craftsy BOM from 2012.  I blogged about it yesterday, in fact!

I have to say that Craftsy's BOM class - for the sake of Tutorial Thursdays, we'll call it a tutorial "series" - has been very good so far.  I have not really learned a new technique, but it has been good practice, and I've been forced to kind of think about color matching as I go along, rather than just having all the fabric for the entire project laid out at the start (I went with the stash rather than purchasing a new bundle..)


That being said, I'm NOT going to actually post the tutorial, since I can't.  You have to register on Craftsy to actually take any of their classes (it's free to register).  However, I will post my finished broken spider web block :)



I just hate that my final point was off by like 1/8 of an inch.... I might unpick some of the stitches and try to fudge it a little.  I haven't decided yet - have any of you had any success with doing that?  Yes, it is a string block, so none of the seams are supposed to match other than around the center star. 

Hopefully next week I'll have a better tutorial for y'all.  Until then, share what you've been working on from a tutorial (or your own tutorial)! 

Thanks for reading! 
Cassie

Stash started!

I have been really fortunate in my sewing escapades so far.  I got a huge old Hon desk from freecycle.org which is large enough to host my cutting mat and my sewing machine, plus it has tons of storage for whatever.  As the name suggests, the desk was free!  I just had to pick it up.  Then the husband and I had to maneuverer  it into my art studio/craft room.

My mom has been accumulating a fat stash of fabric for quite some time.  I had no idea how much she actually had in her craft room.  I had been talking to her a lot about sewing, post catching the sewing bug - she seemed mildly interested, but humored me by listening as I gushed about being so happy that I'm finally getting the hang of the techniques and the latest idea I had for a project. 

She and my dad happened to be around town a few weeks ago, so I made the hour trip to visit them.  To my surprise, she shared her stash with me.  No, literally, she halved every piece of fabric that she had and gave me half of her stash.  When I got home and asked my husband to help me bring it all in from the car, he gave me this accusing look like I had spent a fortune.  When I told him it was from my mom, he looked relieved. 

So, here are a few pictures of the "stash" I got from my mom, combined with what little I had leftover from my Victorian Modern QAL (found here). 

 

For someone who has only been "collecting" for a month or so, I don't think my stash is too shabby!

 

Now for another project I'm working on: 

 

I found this tutorial in the Moda Bake Shop.  Baby Lattice Tutorial

 

My mom gave me some super cute flannel for a baby boy.  My sister-in-law is pregnant with her first baby (and my first nephew!), so like any loving aunt, I'm going to make plenty of goodies for him.  :)  I pored over hundreds of baby quilt designs, both free, and paid.  Of course, after my experience with the first quilt top I made, and the crooked corners, I wanted to find a more forgiving design.  This one was perfect!  And it was free. (Thanks Moda Bakes Shop!!)

 

So I made the quilt top out of these fabrics:  

 

I had to devise a sort of design wall for this project, since it called for a bunch of littler squares that were random in placement.  So I put up a piece of batting (next time I will use all cotton or fleece, I think) on the wall to figure out my placement of the blocks and start piecing them together. 

 

The piecing was definitely a breeze without the guesswork of where each piece belongs.  I was able to complete the entire quilt top in a few hours (not sure if that's good or bad - I'm a newbie (: )

 

Here is a picture of the top completed.  (Sorry, it's basted in this picture, going to take a stab at quilting this afternoon!) 

 



I also did something a little creative with the back.  Since we live in Texas, and it's a thousand degrees here, I made a cotton back for the quilt, so it can be used year-round.  This picture is also of the back post-basting.. sorry again.  You get the picture though.   

 

The fabrics I used for the back were a yellow and white striped and a random baby footprint fabric.  I think post-quilting, the back will be nice.  I was picturing something much cuter in my head.

 

Anyway, this is how this one stands right now - I'll post (hopefully better) pictures of the finished product once it's done.