Wednesday, January 14, 2015

out with the old, on with the new


some of my points are fabulous. Some - not so much  : /


So,
I finished the orange and blue chevron baby quilt
and it is now with its new owner (who deemed it 'perfect' :-)


This was a commissioned project
and I earned enough to buy 80% of a sewing machine!
YAY!!

those tumbling elephants are so fun!

I underestimated my costs
and
underestimated my time, as well.
(I thought I could get it done in 12 hours, but it took me over 14 hours,
not counting the row of hand-quilting
or sewing down the binding - which I did by hand and it took an embarrassing amount of time. 
I think I over-pressed it (who knew?!) and it made it hard to catch the fold just right.
It does look awfully nice, though, if I do say so myself ;-)


I only charged what I'd estimated,
and chalked it up to a learning experience.
I'll eat the underbid materials cost, so I can put all $120 in labor that I charged towards a machine for Rahab's Rope.
I'm hoping to buy them so many machines that they tell me
'Enough!"
Wouldn't that be so awesome?!?


For the quilt, I followed Nettie's tutorial exactly exactly
(Really, I did!)
It would have been better to press the seams open, I think, though,
as there was a lot of bulk at the points.
Of course, that would have added a considerable amount of pressing time.
(It takes me 3 times as long to press open as it does to press to the side - what about you??)


Speaking of pressing, my iron died. dead as a doornail dead.
It put the kibosh on last' night's sewing plans,
but worse, 
I couldn't iron Tyler's shirt last night :-(

A friend is giving me a Bed Bath and Beyond coupon
and I'm going to buy a new one today) 
I bought the same one I had before.

I love the Laurie Wisburn birds :-)

Fortunately, my iron didn't die on Monday, instead of yesterday
(one too many falls of the ironing board)
because
about 2 hours after I pulled the zigzags out of the dryer (on Monday...)
I was spraying my beloved sizing all over the 35 fabrics for my next project :-)


This project is super special to me;
it's for my baby brother and his fiancee!
Yep, Matt and Marin are finally getting married and we are just as tickled as can be.

She 'ordered' a black and white quilt - any design I choose.
ahhh, the pressure ;-)
I said, "And what other color??"
Marin cocked her head the right, smiled her beautiful dimpled smile
and said, "None. Just black and white."
"Lots of black and white prints."


After searching black and white quilts on Pinterest for a few hours, 
and not being inspired by anything I found,
I remembered this quilt I'd pinned, and thought it would look rather smashing in B&W,
so 
over the course of a few days,
I designed my own (much larger!) version.
We'll see how it works....

The wedding is in May, so I best get cracking.



Speaking of weddings,
the girls are going to be flower girls in just a few weeks,
so tulle skirts climbed to the tip top of my sewing  list.
I'd be okay putting it off another week ;-)
but I'm afraid it might make the bride a little nervous...


I think the colors are most accurately represented in this picture.


5 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful quilt! Great Job! Will be looking forward to seeing your black and white quilt.
    ~Corrie

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  2. A beautiful (and underpriced?) finish in which I recognise a couple of the Cloud 9 Organic fabrics I've been working with too. So good to hear of your 'purchase' with the quilt money - very special.

    You knew B&W quilt will be a beauty and for a wonderful gift!

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  3. OOH. I can't wait to see what it looks like. I have a stack of black and whites too, and have thought of doing a patchwork checkerboard type(with white) but haven't been inspired enough by it to actually start cutting.

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  4. It's wonderful! I'm reading on my phone so all the points look great lol. Love the touches of hand quilting. And your goal for rahab's rope, too.

    Darn iron! Mine is leaking and I need to replace it but since it hasn't completely died yet, I haven't exerted myself.

    Excited for the black and white experiment.

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  5. I thought this was beautiful!!! LOVE the corners - so perfect! Colors are bright and beautiful. Lexi's dress is so cute and every girl needs a little sprinkle of fun in it!

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