A win and some Progress

First off, I have to say a big thank you to Kelly at IHAN. I was one of the winners in her Island Batik giveaway.  I got this LOVELY roll of batiks.

All rolled up

 Oh and check out Kelly's card --it is a magnet and now lives on my refrigerator!

Unrolled for your lusting pleasure

I have some ideas for them! Ooohh...my precioussssss....

 Remember that I promised I would show some  of the 'along the way' work on my latest handwork piece?  Well I almost forgot, but I have been doing other things so it isn't TOO far along.  So I decided to share a picture with you.

this detail lets you see that I really did do some handwork on it.

I have added more machine work as well as a little hand work.  Lots more to do on this though. (P.S. Love that Aurifil wool for hand work!)

And now a funny story.  Mom was with me when I opened the batiks from Kelly.  She commented "You sure have got a lot of fabric. What are you going to do with all of it?"  I could smell the fabric lust on her.  (is it contagious??)  I said, "I use it to make things.  Why do you want some for something?" (I know she doesn't sew.)  She said "I was just thinking that some of it would like nice on my headboard to make it look different."   Ha, I remember the headboard she had when I was living there. I can't imagine it.  We go to her place and look at the headboard. Ahhh! it is a brass headboard.  Now I get it! She wants it padded.  I didn't tell her, but I have a great idea for a quilted cover for it. The nice brass knobs on the posts will still show but the boring straight line headboard will be covered with quilty goodness.  Now I have to get it made and surprise her with it.  I should have measured....sigh..maybe I can sneak around and do that tomorrow evening when I visit.
Of course I wonder if she was just planning on draping some fabric over the top rail like bunting...you never know.

Detour - Creativity Ahead!

Sometimes we make mistakes.  Sometimes we get frustrated and toss those mistakes in the garbage can (or as the lovely English say - toss 'em into the dust bin!)
Perhaps we should laugh, Put them somewhere, but not too far away. Work on something else and sleep on it a night.  That is what I did.
You see, when I was cutting bias binding for the quilt I finished on Sept 1st, I goofed.  Somehow I forgot how I needed to fold the fabric - as demonstrated in my Cutting Bias Binding Video. I obviously folded NOT on the bias line.   I unfolded my strips to find these:

I seriously considered tossing them all in the dustbin. But I just couldn't.  So I piled them in a stack and left them.  I cut more binding - glad I had plenty of this fabric!  

After sleeping a couple of nights, I had an idea. I tried it - it didn't work!  Big deal, I did from "frogging" (rip it rip it) and thought a minute.  AH!

I took a  Creative Detour.  I love the idea of a creative detour from the plan.  I realized that I could work it another way.  I didn't have anything that I wanted to frame - darn, I didn't pack ALL my fabric for this long weekend.  So I decided to make something. "Hey!  I have the leftover batik with the fusible already on it. Why not cut a shape from it?"  LOL....little did I know that   Creative Detour was the word of the day.  When I pulled out the pre-fused fabric, I saw the "waste" where I had cut out the circles.  "hmmm, that looks interesting" I thought.  So I grabbed some slightly boring pastel pink scrap fabric and fused it down (Okay so I auditioned it first.) 

Here is the result of my   Creative Detour.  

The inset piece is sewn in wonky but I like it...and on a fun free pieced quilt, it will play very nicely and add some extra interest.
Some of you are probably wondering about the free piecing. I do it in little "chunks" like this:

Then play around until I can fit the chunks together.  Some of the chunks get trimmed, but I eventually get a piece somewhat like this.

Or if I use more orderly pieces and small pieces that I made as leaders and enders, I get something like this:

See that "rickrack plaid"?  I got that in a remnant assortment from Fabric.com.  Right now it is out of stock.  I got a great deal on about nine yards of quality fabric. Honestly I thought "this one is ugly, I may never use it"  but it works well in this type of quilt.   I will probably use some of it in rag quilts too. 

Have you considered taking a   Creative Detour?  I highly recommend it over getting frustrated.  I think my best ideas come that way.

Oh yes..I promised an "eye update."   My eyes are looking much better.  There is still some slight swelling and I am still putting the antibiotic ointment on the lids (hence the shine.)

Hmm... those eyebrows are a bit scary. 

Day Two of National Sewing Month

While I know I want get to sew as much as I want to, or blog every day, I am making an extra effort for this month as National Sewing Month.  True, every month is sewing month for me. But this is National.  So I am trying to do extra.
Everyone loved the "back" of my quilt yesterday.  I am now calling the scrappy side the front! Clearly the "unplanned scrappy" is my forte.   I decided for a clean up project to take lots of scraps and make cloth from it.
Here is my top so far.

Right now it is not square, but it has more to go yet.  I used some tumblers I already had cut (two sizes of them.)  I also used some small half square triangles that I had made as leaders and enders.  There are scraps in this from several different projects.   I think it is just fun!
Have you ever tried just sewing various pieces together and seeing what you come up with?  I highly suggest it.
I also used up some "spare parts" from making the Beginner's Quilt Along block 13.
I didn't really plan it, just started sewing.

I wasn't happy with Block 13 since the points were so bad. So - Wonder Under to the Rescue!   I added fusible to the back of some batik and cut circles from it. Then I fused them over the points - even the row joining points that did match!  I thought it helped to complete the design. 

Now, how fun is that?

A Finish to Start it Off

It is National Sewing Month - September 2012.

National Sewing Month

 So to start of this special month just right, I finished a UFO.  I had started this quilt (gasp!) last year.  I had it in two pieces that I joined using my favorite Quilt As You Go method.  Then I put on the binding.  It is now in the wash. But before it went in the wash, I started outside to take photos.  What?  The sun is shining, but it is raining!  Plan B is put into effect.
I took indoor photos.
First I draped it over a kitchen chair:

Then I coaxed Dave into holding it for me:

One side was made to be the front, the other was made to be the back.  Now I think I have changed my mind.  Which do you think should be the front?

Are  you planning to do anything special for National Sewing Month? (There is a contest you can enter at the link- I entered this quilt. )