My Birthday Quilt: Birthday at the Lodge

In 2005, I participated in a birthday group from the newsgroup RCTQ. A group of us made one block for the others in the group and sent them out on their birth month. Well, mine is finally done. I opted for a lodge themed quilt.

The picture above is a closeup of the center. It turned out quite nicely. Now just to add a sleeve on the back so I can hang it in my living room.

February 12x12x12

My February 12x12x12 is done. My journey into color explores Orange this time. I opted to just randomly lay out pieces of orange fabric onto my batting and backing and machine quilt it down. I once again zigzag stitched the edges to give me some "room" when I go to put all of my 12x12x12's together at the end of the year.

Too long...sooo much homework...

Sheesh! I apologize for the time gap in postings!

I haven't been able to do much in the way of sewing, quilting or fabric painting/dyeing recently. I have been completely overwhelmed with work and course work for the college classes I am taking. Who would've thought that I would be writing so much for Biology...I kind of figured it with my Psychology class, but Biology?!? Oh well, it's well worth it in the grand scheme of things.

That's it for now. =)

January 12x12x12 Revealed: A Rainbow of Color: A Journey into color and technique

Well, I know some of you have been waiting patiently for this, so here it is. My January 12x12x12 challenge. It may not look like much, but I have a grand plan when all 12 of these are done.

This is the beginning of "The Journey into Red". Doesn't look like much, but boy did it take some time to pick the colors I was looking for.

Here all of the edges are turned under and in their final resting place.

I opted to quilt and embellish at the same time, so these are all machine basted together (back, batting, and top).That is the finished product. I used a Madeira metallic red thread for the embellishment on the seams. I opted to satin stitch the edges with the same metallic thread. I decided not to use a traditional binding to give me more options at the end of the challenge when I put all of my pieces together.This is a closeup of some of the stitching. I know it isn't a very good picture, but hey...I'm no photographer. I used all of those fancy stitches on my sewing machine to embellish the seams. This piece may call to me for further embellishment later on with beads and such...but as of now it hasn't...

A Quick Note

Just wanted to drop by and let everybody know that we had a fantastic time at Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend. Boy was everybody beat when we got home on Sunday.

I hadn't realized how much work it actually is to chase a 3 year old around a very large indoor waterpark. It turns out, Tyler has no fear...NONE...he ran right into the wave pool without even blinking. Water slides, no big deal. We had to have gone down the water slides at least 50 times before the weekend was over.

My 12x12x12 quilt is complete, just have to get some pictures taken....

Something New...

Today I spent the day with Aaron walking around the outlet mall in Williamsburg. I splurged on myself and bought a pair of running shoes to fit my running style. Who would've thought that I would buy myself specialized running shoes. This fitness things is for the birds.

We're spending the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge with the kiddos. I'm sure that they are going to have a blast and we'll all come home exhausted.

This evening, I decided to work on my 12x12x12 challenge. Boy is it neat to work in a manner that I haven't really worked before. I had no idea how exciting all of those stitches on my Bernina are. And, I found that Madeira Metallic thread is an absolute dream to work with. The only time my thread broke was if I was going way too fast. So, I just slowed down and didn't have any more frustrations.

No pictures today. I'll keep all of you in suspense until my quilt is finished.

Sandstones and Seashells

So, as promised, here is my latest batch of hand dyed fabric. These were dyed using a 30 step graduation kit.

This piece has a smattering of all 3 colors used to dye the fabrics above. One thing I learned this time...It is a good idea to place your baggies of fabric and dye (if using baggies to dye in) in a large bowl. Fortunately, I did. Otherwise I would have had blue and purple countertops...

I think they turned out great (at least relative to batch #2). Now, what to do with them...