Quilt Teaser

Last week I was hard at work on my sweet quilt and amazingly, it is all finished....all except for hand sewing the binding on. So instead of spoiling the surprise of the finished product, I am just going to post this, a hint of the glory that is to come:

laptop case

As promised, here is the laptop case that I made for the husbands new laptop. I used a pattern found here, and he picked his fabrics and I went to work. I'll tell you, my sewing machine sure did not like the zig-zag stitches to attach the velcro, but I made it through. I did have my needle snap in half when I was sewing all the bottom layers together at the end which was odd. Anyway, the big point here is that the bag actually fits the laptop as intended! This is a totally new thing for me since I am so bad with measurements, no matter how hard I try. It was a fun project though and it went quick and with all the pieces cut, it was sewn in an afternoon.





Today I will be cutting fabric for a quilt that I have been waiting for months to make! I can't start sewing until I get my new thread (finally making the switch to cotton....which I should have done ages ago but I didn't know) but once I get it, it shouldn't take too long to make. It will be my first attempt at making my own bias tape binding, and probably hand sewing the binding on. So on second thought, maybe it will take a bit longer than I'd like haha. I also have another quicker project I may sneak in, but I guess we'll see :)

Cat Quilt

Well here I am again, back from a long break from crafting, necessitated by a long stay in NJ, including a wedding and honeymoon that were delightful :) The past week or so, after we finally got all our new things settled and got back into our routine, I was able to start back on my projects. I decided that I wanted to try binding a quilt, and that instead of starting with something that I really liked and was afraid to mess up, I would start with a scrap quilt for the cat. I had been thinking about making something for a while to go in his little cube, in case he ever decides to use it or something. So I designed a simple pattern, which incidentally did not use nearly enough of my scraps, and off I went. It is a 26"x27" quilt that when folded fits perfectly in his little box (it was supposed to be 27"x28"....close enough). I just stitched in the ditch around the rectangles for the quilting and used pre-made double fold bias tape from Joanns for the binding. It worked surprisingly well and I think after reading a lot and after this practice run, I am going to try to make my own bias tape and I am going to hand sew the back of the binding on my next quilt. More on that when I get to it. Anyway, aside from a few..um...imperfections (*ahem* crooked rectangles...and borders...*ahem*) I am really proud of it. It is small and was a great step for my quilting.







There are about a bazillion and six other quilts I now want to make and I know that every time I will get a little better at it. I have to be willing to overlook my inability to cut or sew straight, but other than that it is getting easier and more fun even :-P Tomorrow I have a laptop bag that I made to post, and get this, it actually fits the laptop! So there you have it, something to look forward to.