Clamshell Club - 12/31/2010

As expected with all the Christmas preparations, I didn’t get as much done on the clamshell front in December.  But somehow, I managed to baste a few more shells.  There aren't many left to baste!  This project will have to be put aside for a bit longer as I try to finish up my sister’s quilt and work on two baby quilts for dear friends, but after that, some hand piecing might be just what the doctor ordered.

Sorry . . .

I haven’t been around much this month.  Part of it was due to trying to get Christmas presents sewn, and part of it was due to just general life craziness (including 9 people in my family getting the nasty stomach bug that’s been going around in the days after Christmas).  But I am here now, so I’ll try to do a little catch up on what I’ve been up to and try to get back on the posting bandwagon.

 

January is going to be a very busy month for us, so I’m not sure how much sewing/crafting will get done.  If I don’t post much, it’s because I’m going pedal-to-the-metal from dawn ‘til dusk (and beyond).  Hopefully by February I’ll be back to more regular posting.

Baby Doll Dress #352

. . . is another wadder.

Okay, so maybe not 352 tries, but I am so.done.with making doll clothes.  Can I please just finish these last couple and move on to better and easier things, like grocery bags?

Clamshell Club - 11/30/2010

 142 clamshells basted in November.  A weekend trip with built-in babysitters really helped me make some progress.  Whatever is left in the stack on the right is what I have left to baste. 

December will probably not have much progress since I am busy working on lots of Christmas sewing.  After that I can let myself work on these while watching TV.  I'm excited to put these together and see how it all looks . . .

Progress

Just a little sneaky peek at one of my Christmas projects . . . a cookie if you guess what it is.

Goodies!

It was quite the package day today - diapers for Sam, the comic book backer boards I ordered to use for fabric organization, and my Connecting Threads order.  I've been really good the past few months, not buying much of any stash and only a few bits and pieces for upcoming projects (and everything on sale).  So I was very excited to open up the box and find:

Bed & Breakfast 2.5" strips (for The Farmer's Wife quilt)

Golden Afternoon 2.5" strips - just because I've wanted them or a long time

Christmas 5" Squares

Quilters Candy Solid 2.5" Strips (to use in a Paintbox Quilt a la Oh Fransson!)

And this quilt kit - it's a crib size, but I thought it was cute.  It will go in the guest room.

And some progress shots - I can't divulge any details of this project, but you can see I've made 4 of these particular nine-patches.

Sewing Time

A couple random shots . . . not much blogging, some sewing . . .

Barbie dress

And more in progress

Taking a trip to Sew Biz tomorrow . . .

Clamshell Club - October Update

Better a little late than never . . . we were out of town this weekend, but I wanted to wait until we got back, since I actually got to ride in the passenger seat this time . . .

In October I managed to baste 87 clamshells.  I didn't get to work on this as much as I had hoped, but still, 87 is not bad for a few here and a few there.  The new stack is on the left.  I guess altogether I now have 199 clamshells basted.  There's still a good amount left in the box to work on.

And here are a couple of my favorites - actually, there are a lot more faves than just these . . .

Reusable Grocery Bag

 

This is the sample I made of the reusable grocery shopping bag I'm making for Christmas presents.  I found the tutorial here, and I'm glad I made up a sample one.  The big things I learned are: 

1) don't worry about topstitching the handles

2) pin a LOT

3) match, match, match and pin handle seams (my anal retentiveness attention to detail demands it)

The coolest thing about this, for me anyways, is that you use an actual grocery bag to make the pattern.  Pretty neat.  Look for multiples of these in cute designer fabrics sometime in the next 58 days or so.

61 Days Until Christmas

Isn’t that scary!?!  I’m adding a countdown ticker because I need to feel that pressure or I’ll keep being lazy.

 

Anywho, here is a picture of the completed Patriots fleece scrap baby hat.  Same pattern as the Celtics one, but one is large and one is another size (medium/XL – I can’t remember).  The scraps worked out better on this one. 

Here is my new fabric that I ordered last week.  First up, the fabric for Christmas gifts: 

I am sooooo excited about some of these fabrics – I know they’re considered “old”, but it’s the first time I’ve been able to justify spending the $$ on them.  I’m so excited for the scraps I’ll get to keep.

 

And more Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt stash.  2011 is going to be fun. :-)

Okay, off to clean and sew, among other things.

 

TTFN

State of the Studio

Studio – ha!  I mean my little spaces of sewingness spread throughout the house (I don’t really have a dedicated sewing area right now).  Anyways, here are pictures of what’s been going on, since there hasn’t been much actual sewing.

 

Barbie dresses for Christmas presents

 

Fabric for more Barbie clothes

 

Partially cut out grocery bag a la craftster.org (my “sample” before I start in on the gifted ones)

 

Basted clamshells – I think I have 57 more basted so far this month.

 

*Two* of my many projects-in-waiting

 

I also have 10 yards of fabric coming my way soon – 7 yards of it are for gifts, the other 6 half yards were on sale and are for my Farmer’s Wife Quilt stash.  I heart Fabric.com.

 

Perhaps I should quit blogging and get sewing?

Baby Hat #1

Okay, so it’s just a small finish, but I feel better getting something done.  Here is one of the baby hats.  Hubs asked who it’s for, and I told him I was just trying to use up the scraps from the Celtics and Patriots fleece blankets.  I added the pom-pom to the pattern.  It’s Simplicity 3582. 

 My model didn't want to cooperate.

And I basted 8 more clamshells last night while watching TV.  I had to do something quilty before my sewing mojo completely abandoned me.  Next up is Baby Hat #2, then Barbie clothes for Christmas presents.  I’m trying to finish some projects that have been sitting around, but it’s hard with Christmas coming and limited sewing time.  I’m going to tape a copy of my sewing/quilting list above my machine to try and keep myself accountable.

Not much progress this week

I started the week off with a runny nose, scratchy throat, changing of the seasons cold.  Which meant crashing at 9pm, reading on the couch in the evenings, and not much else.  I did sew a few seams on the fleece baby hats, got some cute FQs on sale at JoAnn's for Barbie clothes Christmas presents, and get the new issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  But nothing to show . . . maybe in a few days.

But here's a picture of what I did last weekend - it was Little One's first birthday.

Clamshell Club - September 2010

I made good progress during September.  I started the month just trying to finish cutting out the clamshells.  At some point I realized I didn’t have enough red fabric (I had more yardage of green and cream and had just small amounts of the different red fabrics).  So I found more.  I still am not exactly sure how many clamshells I will need for a throw size quilt, but I’m thinking several hundred, and I’m pretty certain I have enough cut out. 

Last weekend I was with the ladies of my mom’s family at a house in the mountains of North Carolina .  I started on some more basting.  Not wanting to set up the ironing board or mess with glue, I decided to try that nasty thread basting technique.  Wonder of wonders, I actually enjoy it!  Here’s my stack of thread basted clamshells, just from the weekend and car trip back home.  There are 112 of them.

I’m trying really hard not to work on the clamshells at home, since they are supposed to be a travel project (and since I have lots of other projects to sew at home).  It’s hard, but I will be good.  This weekend starts our fall of traveling.  I’m not sure there will be much/any sewing since I have a library book I need to finish.  But I think by next weekend I’ll be done and ready to dive back in.  Teehee.

An Ocean Odyssey

It's finished.  What I've been calling the crab quilt.  It measures approximately 36"x42" and was made for our friends who own and operate a seafood restaurant and are expecting a baby this fall. 

I attached the binding incorrectly, so as I was hand-stitching it I had to rip out and redo all the corners by hand.  That'll teach me to rush. 

The main fabrics are "By the Sea" by Johnny Karwan for Clothworks.  The plaid I used for the binding is a designer fabric fabric from JoAnn - the blues and greens matched perfectly. 

Close up of the quilting - I used a horizontal continuous line pattern that looked to me like water, and of course I had to quilt a VT into one corner.

The quilt's off in the mail now, since I won't be able to make the shower - I hope it gets lots of love and use!

What I was doing this weekend . . .

The women of my mom's family all joined up at a house in the mountains of western North Carolina last weekend.  This is how I spent most of my time around the house:

 

I was trying to finish up a project, and once I did, I moved on to another:

I'm on the right, with my cousin and my aunt on the deck.

 

Don't worry, we did some shopping and touring as well!

I even found some fabric, but I don't have pics of it yet. ;)

I'm Still Here!

Just busy.  Lots of life happening.  Let’s see . . . Kiddo had some sinus/allergy head cold last week, this week I had the same thing. 

 

I got all the rest of the fabric for my clamshell quilt – I actually had tons of cream and green and not enough red.  Extra clamshells will be made into another little project once I’m done with the throw quilt.

 

I worked on organizing my patterns by type (and weeding out ones I don’t want anymore to sell).  I started an Excel sheet to keep track of them and help avoid double purchases (it doesn’t happen often, but it has happened in the past), so I’ve been working on that.

I got the crab quilt basted, marked, and finished quilting it last night.  I should finish up attaching the binding by machine this evening, and I'll hand stitch it in the car tomorrow. 

I cut out two little fleece baby hats from leftover Celtics and Patriots fabric.  I’m hoping to get them sewn up early next week.

 

This weekend is a ladies’ weekend with women from my mom’s side of the family.  It will be the first time I’ve been away and having fun by myself since Kiddo was born (and he’s almost a year old).  We are just going to hang out and work on crafty projects, so I am taking: the crab quilt to bind, clamshells to work on, and the fabric for the guest room quilt to cut for my next leader-ender project.  Plus a couple of romance novels for when I’m tired of fabric . . .

 

Lots of other things going on (including a butt-load of new and continuing projects), but that’s for another post. :-)

Keep on swimming, keep on swimming

As I was sewing the crab quilt top together this week, I wound up at the bottom of my leader-ender pile.  So I had to dig into the project tub and get the other squares out.  I was so happy to be on the last bit of component piecing.  Since then, I've finished all those and have started making up the little four patches that will become 16-patches.

Once I finish this leader-ender project, I’ll have to figure out another one!  I have several possibilities from which to choose.  *I thought I'd use the proper grammar to make my English-teacher Mom happy.*  

The crab quilt top is finished, the bias binding cut and pressed (I hope I have enough - there's extra fabric if I need to make more), and the back components are pieced.  I'm hoping to get the back pieced this evening.

I found that I had the perfect baby/toddler hat pattern in my stash, so I cut out the needed pieces and will be sewing a couple up with the leftover Patriots and Celtics fleece scraps after I finish piecing the crab quilt.  I ordered the stencil, but it's not here yet, so the actual quilting will have to wait.  Please hurry stencil, I'm working against a deadline here!

WIP

Blocks finished, squared up, sorted, and in the process of becoming a top . . .

Pats & Celts

These are for some soon-to-be new members of our family (not immediate family - I'm not making that kind of announcement, I promise!).  The parents are big Patriots and Celtics fans, so Hubby thought it would be a good idea to make a blanket and burp cloth for each team.

I have an extra fleece blanket for each team - a yard makes two, at about 29"x30-couple" or so with rounded corners.  I made a Hokies one for my son when he was born, and they are the perfect size for snuggling up a newborn.