Twins Quilts Update

I am crazy busy at work these days and so my sewing time is limited and precious. I'm also on a self-inflicted deadline for these quilts - the baby shower is on Saturday and I'm a long way from finished.

I outlined all the full elephants - sorry, no pictures cause they don't show up - and that went okay. Now I'm stuck on the borders. I looked through my books and sketched out some possibilities but didn't love any of them.

I decided on interlocking circles, marked the quilt, and sewed away.

And, I'm not happy with my results: my circles are wobbly and uneven and look really sloppy and I don't like it. So, I ripped it all out. I think I'm going to do a rambling, purposefully uneven, bubble design. I want something quick and where I don't have to do too much marking.

Any other border suggestions? The border are 5" wide in total, but I only want about a 4" wide design.

My self-inflicted deadline likely won't be met at this point (since I'm not invited to the shower so have to be finished by work time Friday morning) so I may give up for this week. I'll have to see how tomorrow goes.

Expecting Twins...

...and thank goodness it's not me. The only thing I'm expecting is for June to finish and July and August to start!

A woman I work with is expecting twins and she doesn't know the gender. I picked up this little cutie on a recent outing. There are 2 of them but only one fits on the design board.

It's dark outside, so the picture looks a little faded. The elephants are grey and the border a light grey polka dot. Both tops will be the same but I got slightly different backings - both grey flannel but different shades and dots.

I'll post more closeups once I get started quilting - maybe tomorrow night!

I'm linking up to PatchworkTimes to see what everyone else is up to.

Cutie Crib Shoes and Dear Jane Update

Today was Dear Jane class for this month. I finished a total of 4 blocks - twice as many as I did last month, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

The class took a vote over email this past week and the results were released today. We are extending the class to June of 2014. That sounds really, really far away - but, it comes with a bonus! The number of blocks we have to complete per month is dropped considerably. Fantastic! Over the summer I'll catch up on what I'm behind in and will be able to sew other things too, since I'll only have to finish 5 blocks per month, rather than 10. I have to sew the first 4 rows together over the summer and need to do 12 blocks to get that done. Then I should only be behind by about 30 blocks.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Today I finished off some crib shoes for a colleague. The baby (a boy) was born in mid-April. This colleague and I share the same first name, so we've always had a bit of a connection.

They look kinda orange in this light, but really they are red, with mustard coloured monkeys on them. The inside is the same colour as the monkeys. They are cute as can be and man, babies have small feet! They are sized 3-6 months, so they should fit the little fella just fine. The pattern is by Sweat Pea Patterns  who had a sale on awhile ago and I bought a bunch of different varieties of crib shoes.

My  next projects are all practical ones: throw cushions and an ottoman cover for a friend and new drapes for me. I need to get my machine serviced soon too, so will have to plan that date out carefully - usually I do it when it coincides with a bunch of marking, when I don't have time to sew anyway.

Design Wall Monday

Today was a beautiful day! Especially since it's Victoria Day and I didn't have to go to work. I got some more gardening done and did some sewing.

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This block was kinda tricky, even though it doesn't look that bad. I'm going to lose my points on my HSTs when I sew it into the quilt - not sure how that happened.

This is what my design wall looks like:

May 20

And I'm linking up to Patchwork Times.

I'm also working on some very cute crib shoes, using a pattern I bought on Etsy. I've hit a snag with a confusing measurement so I emailed the pattern creator and am waiting to hear back. More on those another day.

C and L - this one if for you two!

Quilt Shop Hopping and Back to Dear Jane

Today was a beautiful day. My friends C and L and I designed ourselves a little shop hop tour. We went to Greenwood Quiltery and The Quilter's Nine Patch. (We also made a detour to the Farm Supply and Home Hardware in Elmira because I wanted some binder twine to use when gardening, but they didn't have any). We had a great day!

I bought a few things at Greenwood - I'll post them another day.

I finished another Dear Jane block tonight:

E5

I don't know if I'll get all my homework for this month finished but I will have more finished than last month.

An Interesting Day

I went to the Hamilton fabric district today to pick up fabric I'd ordered for new drapes for my house. (I love it! and will post photos when I get to sewing the drapes). I took along my friend M, who is male, not a sewer, but a good driver, shopper, and companion. And he wants me to make him some pillow covers and an ottoman cover so we were shopping for that for him.

In one of the drapery shops a customer got out this to show the clerk and I happened to be standing right there so I stuck my nose in to see:

It's a christening dress he made for his god-daughter's newborn daughter. That's right, I said he. The maker is a man. I nearly asked him to marry me - or out for lunch - but my shopping companion would not have been impressed. The maker had also knit a beautiful shawl to go with the dress. He was likely in his mid 50s and finds sewing and knitting relaxing - just like the rest of us. He owns his own business and is going to start making heirloom christening gowns on the side. He figures this one took about 50 hours; he learned by watching youtube and from some DVDs and books. The work is exquisite and the gown absolutely beautiful! I wish now I'd have gotten his business card to follow his progress in the business.

I finished another Dear Jane block. This one looked pretty tricky but turned out to be less scary than I thought.

D2

I hope to get a little more sewing done tomorrow. I am determined to have more than 2 blocks finished of my homework when we meet in 2 weeks again.