Blogger's Quilt Festival. I know I'm late, but there's still time ;)

So it's time for the forth Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side and I thought I might enter this year, since it's my first year quilting and I actually have something to share :)

My most important quilt to date has to be the first one I finished and felt really proud of.

It is a really recent quilt, I finished it in October 16th and it was for a dear friend's birthday. It was the longest I ever worked, and with the 17th deadline (her birthday) I was really stressed but didn't give up. Also my mom helped at some points which make it really special to me. I think it is really beautiful and not very similar to what I usually do, so I hope you enjoy it!

The finished top

The red binding

The Finished result

Bare with me...

I need to capture this moment properly, ok? I know I've never seen this much fuss over a sewing machine, but what can I say? I'm excited and have no way of trying it out for the next 5 hours or so...
I can't even open it, Because I'm afraid I wont be able to put it back properly and damage something while transporting it back home...

It's kind of heavy, about 10kg, but also huge, because it carries THIS inside (and the sewing machine, of course ;)):

Have I mentioned I have no idea what most of these parts are for? So the next hours will be for instruction manual reading. Oh yeah, and working, must not forget about the work....

And THEN I have all the bonus offers! Thanks you Sewing Machine Direct!

 

Look at all these colors! And they are much larger than I expected them to be. Also, they were so kind to include the plug adapter. I had one from when I bought my first sewing machine, but this is great, because this way my sister wont have to buy one. I have loads of bobins and needles, I've never seen so many sewing machine needles together. It was like an early Christmas, I an really giddy :)

My Silly Silly Sewing Machine :P

Arrived at last! But not before she decided to go get some coffee at Starbucks! Got a call from the Starbucks a couple of shops down the "road". The girl said she had a box with my name on it. I immediately knew what it was, but couldn't leave the shop to go get it. But fortunately, she called the carried guy back and he delivered it to me :D A huge box by the way :P

Lap quilt number three update

Regarding the third quilt, the quilting is done and I am now on to the binding. I wish I had more time to dedicate to it, I was really ahead but am loosing speed. I don't believe I'll be able to finish it today and I'm still 4 quilts short for christmas, not to mention dozens of other projects I would love to get done by Christmas...

I'm going with the lovely purple Ikea fabric (yes, the one that bled on the first quilt, the one from a pillow I fell in love with) It's a really colorfull quilt, I think it will look lovely. And as you might notice, the only quilting I did on this quilt are horizontal straight lines. Handquilted, as usual. Sometimes simple is best :)

Unveiling time!!

Hello!
Today I can present to you my second Christmas Twinkle Collection. It's for my sister's birthday, which is today. It is really diferent from the first and third ones, but my thoughts were, I know i wont be able to hide the lap quilts for long, because I can't really keep a secret when I'm excited, so I knew I would share pictures, etc. So my idea was to keep them guessing. At the birthday lunch I'll have two more future owners of these quilts, so my idea is to make them wonder which one will be theirs :)

This lap quilt is a bit wider than the first one, due to the squares, I guess. When I realised it, I couldn't bring myself to take any of the out, so i just left it as is. Also, this is a quilt to be shared by at least two people at a time, so it makes sense. (Not discriminating single girls, ladies, it just turned out that way!)

No cats were involved in the taking of this picture!!

The finished "pillow" look and the buttons, I HAVE to have buttons :)



So we have a 42"by 56" lap quilt (weird number I know!). The fabrics are as usual, some Amy Butler, some Moda, some solids and some Ikea fabrics. The backing is Ikea as usual  and the binding is a white solid cotton, a bit stronger than what I usualy use. There is no particular pattern to it, the only pieces I made sure were placed correctly were the christmas fabrics and what I call the Picnic fabric from Ikea, separating the two rows of christmas fabric. I only did this to make sure they were all over the quilt. Other than that, I just placed them as they came out of the bag. Regarding the quilting, it was hand quilting as you know, I've made the usual pattern just a bit wider than usual as I thought it would look too busy with the fabric squares. The batting is the same as the previous one, all fluffy and cuddly looking. Yes, these are scientific terms to describe a batting :)

Here is is, ready for delivery. Yes it is a Christmas gift wrap, but it is my favorite right now, received it this week and I am in love with it. Did you know it takes an entire sheet to wrap this baby up? It barely fits my largest bag! I'll let you know how the gifting went ;)

Tracking my precious...

So today I decided to use the tracking thingy they sent me when I placed my order for the new sewing machine. And out of all the places I expected it to be, resting confortably through the weekend, I did not expect it to be in Germany!!! Aschaffenburg to be more precise.

And now I'm curious. Why does my sewing machine needed to travel to Germany? It left Oswestry & Wrexham, UK,  on the 28th, the day I placed the order. And now it's gone to Germany? Oh, I wish I was a sewing machine... I hope she's taking pictures!

It's the last day, I'll miss it so much! [Blogtoberfest Day 31]

So a whole month has passed, time sure does fly when your having fun! I vow to be better next year. Also with my new sewing machine, I'll probably have a lot more projects to show.

One thing I like to do is mark a moment to remember later on. Like this one for example. Today I am here with this life of mine as it is. Next year by this time, how will my life be? I'll be 30 for one, and I'll be doing something completely diferent than what I'm doing today, profession wise. So what will I be doing? Will I miss the life I have today or will I be completely happy and gratefull as I usually am with the life I've been given?
And so I mark a present moment, to make sure that on October 31st 2011 I will stop at a given time, probably when I'm right here writing on my blog and will think wow, I remember perfeclty where I was one year ago, I marked the moment. Am I making sense?? :)

Where do you think you will be next year? Do you remember where you were a year ago?

[Blogtoberfest Day 30]

Hello!

So big preparations are under way, I've got loads of projects going on at the same time, some sewing related, others not so much...
And, as we move towards December, it can only get worse, me being, as i've mentioned, the proud owner of a gift shop.

I must say I'm a bit sad that Blogtoberfest is about to end, even tough I missed a couple of days, it really kept reminding me of blogging, which is always good.

Regarding the Christmas Twinkle Collection, more precisely it's third project, I am at the quilting phase, which is all by hand as you know (not really by choice but not as bad as I thought it would be).
I struggling because this time I did a very poor work and sandwich making. The glue didn't work, think I'm running out of it, so the fabric keeps shifting. Amazingly enough, this was suppsosed to be the most basic quilting I will do for this Collection, only horizontal qullting and yet it's been harder than the previous two...

I think I need to get ten times as much pins as i have right now to make this work properly and forget the spary glue all together as I think it gives me alergies... nice!

Oh, and by the way, by my estimates, my baby is arriving in 4 days!!!

Actually

Forget about my latest post, just a little why-can't-things-go-my-way rant. My baby is on it's way. She should arrive by next week,like Monday or Tuesday :)

AND a free thread pack (50 different colors) and Sewing Kit

AND a Walking foot

AND a 1/4" seam foot 

AND an Open toe craft foot 

AND a Free hand embroidery foot

AND an Extension table 9.5" x 18"

Guess I'll just have to learn what all of this stuff is for :)

[Blogtoberfest Day 28]

I can´t believe Blogtoberfest is almost over! It went by so fast!
So today was meant to be the day I would buy my new sewing machine. But as usual, nothing is that simple, so I really don't know how it will turnout. One of the many downsides of living in this country, if you want quality with a good price, you have to get it abroad!

Wish me luck!