12months12quilts

Huzzah!  The Baby Quilt is done!  Thanks to the sewing machine and Camille Roskelley’s (I’ll be reviewing her book “Simplify” in an upcoming post) Raw Edge Binding Instructions, I flew through the last few steps of the quilt!

I chose to tie the quilt, here’s the first step:

Here’s the raw edge binding detail:

And here’s the finished product:

The next quilt on the list to be finished is the Cat Quilt!

Time, or lack thereof, has forced me to bust out the sewing machine in order to finish up the Baby Quilt.  My last few weeks have been scheduled to the minute, and it isn’t letting up anytime soon.  If I try to finish the quilt by hand, the kid will be all grown up before she gets the quilt!

So, despite the fact that I wanted to try and do everything by hand, the time has come to admit that right now with 3 major productions looming I need to use all the tools I have to finish my projects!

I spoke with my step-mother yesterday and the baby’s arrival is imminent!  Mom is in labor and the baby may have already arrived.  Time to kick the Baby Quilt into high gear to get it in the mail next week!

I started sewing my chuppah tonight.  I have to use my break time at work to work on this since I don’t have enough floor space at my house to lay it out.  That and I don’t need Desmond’s “love” to be sewn into this project.

I’ve added in some cream fabric to the already purchased green and am using that as the base of the chuppah.  The green is going to border the cream and the lace will be the edging.  I was able to cut the main part of the cream fabric and put the green on the short ends.  I got one end all sewn and hope to have the second one done tomorrow!

The maintenance team at work is helping me with the wooden structure of the chuppah and will be figuring out the best way to attach the fabric to the top of the frame.   I’m hoping to have photos in a couple of weeks!

As I have mentioned before, I do pretty much all of my sewing by hand.  I will be piecing a quilt by machine before the year is out, but for the most part all of quilts will be hand sewn.  Why?  I am an expert multi-tasker.  I have reached the point where I can’t just do one thing (unless I am at a movie or live theater).  So what else is going on while I am sewing?  Here is a short list:

1. The most common thing is watching TV.  Usually I am parked on the couch or in bed and sewing while watching History Channel or something like that.  OK, many times it’s total trash like “Toddlers and Tiaras” or “Bridezillas,” but the point is I am watching TV while sewing.  I do have a wonderful craft corner in my bedroom, but it is used more for marking lines and using the AccuQuilt than it is for sewing.  The couch is my number one spot for working!
2. Working.  Yep, at times my job allows me to have time to sew.  That usually happens when I am directing a Purim Spiel rehearsal, waiting to greet people at the Synagogue or hanging out on Wednesday evenings with my teens before school starts.  That’s why I love the Hexagon quilts, easy to start and stop as needed.
3. Babysitting.  I still babysit.  It’s great money and allows me time after the kids are asleep to get some work done.  I have a cute little sewing box that I stock with my tools and switch out the projects as needed.  The Cat Quilt and the Baby Quilt got the benefit of babysitting nights which is why I am as far along with them as I am.
4. Rehearsals.  As an actor there is a lot of downtime once run-throughs start.  Especially if you have a smaller part.  I have made curtains for the king, skirts for elves and trunks for elephants while at a rehearsal.  Now that I am co-producing a show, I usually have a baggie with Hexagons ready to go while I am observing a rehearsal.
5. Sitting in the waiting room.  I don’t sew while waiting for the doctor, Kaiser doesn’t give me much downtime in the waiting room!  I have sewn while waiting for my car to be fixed at the Toyota Dealership.  They always offer to drive me home so I can wait there, and I usually turn them down.  I’ll sit in the waiting room and get some work done instead.

I bought “The Quilter’s Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide” by Meg Cox several years ago when I went through my first phase of quilting glee.  It sat on my shelf for years, forgotten, until last December when I decided to browse through it to look up a term.  I couldn’t put it down.  I read the book in about a week.

This book is chock full of great information, stories from the authors life, tips, patterns, teachers and places to buy fabric.  As a novice I found lots of great tidbits and kept marking pages to go back to.  There is a whole section on the history of quilting and how fabrics developed, recommendations for further reading and simple patterns.

All my bookmarks.

This book also has information for the serious quilter- there is a while section on computerized sewing machines, quilting shows and trips, along with more difficult patterns.

I highly recommend this book to any quilter.  It is an invaluable resource to have on their bookshelf.