Meet My Babies

I don't have children. I have dogs. Same thing, right?

Today I want to take a break from my sewing posts. I have been working on a few things around the house, most notably my very bountiful garden. After my crazy working hours last week (over 20 hours between two days!), I've done a little sewing too, but definately don't have much to share. I have decided to join in on another online quilt-a-long, which I will introduce tomorrow after I get the supplies.

Anyway, on with introducing the important beasts (and man) in my life.

Meet Jameson. He's almost 4 years old, a Boston terrier, and a huge baby once he gets to know you. Unfortunately he suffers from fear aggression so more people don't get to see the soft side of him.

Next, meet Angus. He's 3 years old, a Scottish terrier, and has a huge personality. He also costs an arm and a leg thanks to grooming needs.

Expect to see more of them. They are usually by my side when I'm home and crop up a lot in my art work.

As far as introducing Chad, well he hasn't given me the green light to post photos of him, so you'll have to use your imagination. We've been dating for two years and living together for 9 months. He grew up on a farm in North Dakota and is very creative himself. He can also fix nearly everything and amazes me every day. Too sappy? Like any couple, we have our troubles from time to time, but I really am lucky to have found him.

Kaleidoscoping

I finally finished cutting all the pieces for my kaleidoscope quilt. I haven't used a rotary cutter much, and when I did, it was more random cutting of strips. I found it more enjoyable than using a shears for cutting pieces like these.

The wind picked up a bit while I was outside shooting, so I went inside to play around and photograph arrangements of the prints. The one I'm settled on for now is this one.

Like I do with most creative decisions, I let it sit for a couple days and then come back to it. This is one of the most important things I've learned being back in school. I used to always go with my first idea and at times would think of a better way after I was almost finished. With the pace of this quilt, I can take the time to sit on this until the weekend when I'll have time to start sewing it together.

That brings me to my little dilemma that happens from time to time. I know that lack of time is a problem for everyone, and I'm really blessed right now being it's summer that I have many hours during the day to do what I need and want to do. I work part time at night, which sucks at times because Chad and I see each other usually on the weekends only, but it does afford me time to read, garden, play with my dogs (who I will introduce soon), create, cook, clean, or whatever. However, this week my free time is cramped. I'm working more because of the upcoming holiday weekend and also because of the flooding in Minot, ND and in Bismarck, ND. This morning was spent in the garden doing some much needed weeding and trimming. Tomorrow I'm hoping to tackle the cutting for my zig zag quilt. Slowly, but surely.

Quilt-a-Long Updates

I've been meaning to update on these sooner, but I was waiting on the postman to deliver my fabric for the kaleidoscope quilt. Look at the pretties he brought me:

A nice bundle of 1001 Peeps and Kona solids! I ordered the purple colorway, but there was an error and was sent the dusk colorway for one of the prints. However, the mango Kona didn't look so orange on my monitor, so now it has something to go with in the rest of the quilt. A happy accident.

I have additional purples from the bundle that I purchased that will go into the back if all goes as planned. I'm hoping I have enough fabric from the top and the extra 1/2 yards to do a pieced back. After I do the cutting I'll have a better idea.

I sketched out my color layout for the quilt. I'm not going the scrappy route and want an orderly pattern so this was very necessary for me.

As far as the zig zag quilt, I decided on how I'm going to make the backing (another pieced backing) so I went shopping for fabrics. Apparently I have an aversion to solid backings. Here's a scan of my sketches, with the final choice being the bottom one.

Since I haven't shown my plan for the top yet either, here's a scan of that sketch:

And finally, the rest of the fabrics for the zig zig quilt:

The blue, white, and red are for the backing. The eagles with flags are for the appliqued stars and the stars are for the binding.

Cutting for both of these will happen either tomorrow or Monday. This may make a good task to do while watching NASCAR with Chad in the afternoon.

I'm thinking I may have to split updates on these two quilts into different posts from now on, as I'm not going to be working on both of them on the same day. This may be the start to some kind of schedule for myself.

Finally, an update

I'm not going to lie and say I finally have found time to blog. Honestly, spring semester was over mid-May, and after catching up on life, I could have been posting for the past month. It boils down to not being in the habit of doing this. I do want to share what I create with more people. Currently my creations are viewed by people in my real life, and here and there on Facebook.

At any rate, I'm going to commit to posting here every few days. To help me with that, I've decided to jump into a couple quilt-a-longs. First is the zig zig quilt at Cut to Pieces. I love the rainbow theme, but want my quilt to be used on our bed and Chad is not a rainbow kind of guy. I pondered a color scheme for a couple days before coming up with a patriotic quilt. Here's the fabrics I have for the quilt top:

I will be appliqueing stars on top, but don't have the fabric for it yet. I also need to figure out the back. Next post I will post scans of my sketches for the top and the back.

The other quilt I'll be making is Don't Call Me Betsy's kaleidoscope quilt. I just bought my fabrics today and will be using the purple colorway of 1001 Peeps. This one is all for me so I have to use my favorite color of course. :)

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the cutting for the zig zag quilt, as well as some mending I've been putting off.