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Saturday, January 31, 2009

5 hours of uninterrupted sewing :)






Yes, that's right. Today I sewed for almost 5 hours without the phone, chores, errands, children or husband bugging me! I attended a workshop hosted by Quilts for Kids, a charity quilting organization. It was great to be able to sew (did I mention without any interruptions??) for so long for such a good cause. The quilts are donated to hospitalized children. Here are 2 tops I worked on today. One is ready for quilting and binding, the other is still in progress. I love the pattern that we were working on. Each workshop teaches a different one. The colors are great to work with!


In other fun news, when I got home and checked messages, I discovered that I am one of this month's winners of the about.com block lotto! Woo hoo! I'm going to be receiving bow tie blocks. Here is what I donated to the party:



The 2 blocks on the right were my first attempt at doing English paper piecing. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and I was so happy that I tried it. I'm actually planning a whole EPP project since I will be going to Italy in a month and want to have a take-along project with me. There was something very satisfying about hand piecing those units. Needless to say, I'm glad that I don't have to send them off to a different winner!

Posted by Kristin C. at 11:14 PM 0 comments  

10 years....



Yesterday was my 10-year wedding anniversary. We didn't have big plans, but there was a big present waiting for me....

Nothing bad can come in a package like this. For Christmas, DH got me a Bernina 640. I kind of wondered why he splurged on such a great machine, but didn't purchase the embroidery unit. Now I have my answer :)

Good job, honey! I loooove it! and you :)

Posted by Kristin C. at 4:25 PM 1 comments  

Thursday, January 29, 2009

New BOM project



Today I went to the local sewing store for their $5 quilt block of the month. For $5, you get a free block kit. If you bring it back completed the following month, the next block is free. They also offer a batik colorway option, but that is $5 each month. Of course I decided to do both! Here's a picture of the first block made with the basic color option and in the foreground are the batiks for the 2nd block option. The batiks are exactly my style!

If you look to the right in the background of the picture you can see my Double Delight quilt. It was Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery which started on 12/31/08. I am extremely proud of it, but I am waiting to post a picture until it's quilted and bound.

Did you notice my newly-decorated side bar? They are only pictures of the online activities that I am involved with, but I am sure that I will soon figure out how to post them as links to the actual projects. I just didn't do that today because I've been itching to flaunt some side-bar flair on my blog. After all, this is why I wanted to start blogging: because I'm proud of all the online sewing fun I've been having and it's these swaps, mysteries and groups that I have to thank for all the excitement. Hopefully they will be working links soon.....

Posted by Kristin C. at 11:47 PM 0 comments  

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Not much done for a snow day



School was canceled due to snow/ice today, so I was hoping that my morning step aerobics class that I teach would be canceled as well leaving me plenty of time to made headway on some projects. No luck. Still had to drag everyone to the gym. Nobody showed for class (surprise, surprise), so I got home and only had time to piece together the next step of a mystery that I'm working on. I found it on YouCanMakeThis.com's blog. It's a 'no-stress' fun quilt. I'm using a bunch of my favorite batiks. LOOOoooove batiks :)


In other exciting sewing news, three fun packages came in the mail today. It was so exciting to see the mailbox stuffed with my goodies from online shopping and swapping. First, I received a package of crazy quilting embellishments from an HGTV board member who I traded fabric with. She sent me tons of great threads, lace, buttons and charms. You can see how much fun my daughter is having exploring all the treasures! She wasn't as interested in the 8 FQ neutral pack that I got off Ebay (free shipping!), or the 66 (yes, 66!!) 10" squares of icy blue batiks that I got from a swap on about.com. However, they are very exciting to me!


Sofia loves to check in on my projects and, I have to say, she has a very good eye for color. I love to run things by her when I am trying to choose fabrics or design a top. I don't know if it's her childlike honesty or her artistic spirit that makes her opinion so valuable. Maybe a little of both!

Posted by Kristin C. at 9:01 PM 0 comments  

No plans = Play with scraps!

Today I made some crumb blocks and some pinwheel blocks. These plus a bunch of blue celestial fabric squares will somehow come together in another quilt. It will be the 3rd that I've made from this group of fabrics! The first went to my friend for her baby shower. Then I made one from those scraps, and now this is all that's left. I had to do something with it.







I also took care of swap business. 2 packages were mailed out today, and I prepared the fabric for 2 more: red nickels for one swap and 10 sets of 10 2.5" strips for another upcoming swap. Just have to bag, label, package and mail them! I love finishing off a swap. There's a great feeling of accomplishment...and then the anticipation of what you'll get in return!



Tomorrow might be a snow day. If we're forced to stay in, that means more sewing :) !!!

Posted by Kristin C. at 12:10 AM 0 comments  

Monday, January 26, 2009

Circle Fun




Today I took a great class at my local sewing machine/quilt shop. It used Cheryl Phillips' book Circle A Round and the accompanying ruler. We spent 4 hours playing with circles, and it was so much fun to discover all the possibilities with circles. I don't have anything finished to show, but here is what I was working on all day. We started with a basic circle, then layered another circle on that. We added stripes. We did a ring. We did a crescent. The crazy thing is that this is only a fraction of what we could brainstorm doing! I see many circles in my future.








And if all this wasn't exciting enough, I discovered a new tool for my machine. The Bernina circle stitching tool. It allows you to sew in a perfect circle! Regular and decorative stitches. Imagine the possibilities with it! Here's just a quick sampling. I didn't even get to finish the circle because time was up, but I used a purple + green variegated thread with some decorative stitches on a green batik. I am soooooo excited to have this new toy! It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but trust me, it was a worthy investment.



It was a great day spent learning something new.

Posted by Kristin C. at 8:26 PM 0 comments  

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I've broken down....

...and started a blog.




Starting a blog was not high on my list of things to do. In fact, it wasn't there at all. Last month I started a flickr account and figured that would suffice (www.flickr.com/photos/abxkris/). But I have stumbled upon some great swaps here in blogland and was not eligible to participate due to not having a blog. Recently, I joined a couple swaps for which a blog was optional. Now I feel like "the swapper without a blog". So, in an effort to be less invisible in the online quilting/sewing world, I am officially starting my blog.




So, I don't know where this will go, but I am excited about the fact that I will have a place to record my sewing experiences, and I hope that others will be interested enough to read for a bit before going on to other eye candy. Feel free to leave a comment. It's a bit sad, but I don't have any friends who sew!! Really. Not one. Just my aunt and she lives 1.5 hrs. away. So needless to say, I've become quickly addicted to the online sewing world. I check many (many!) fora, blogs and yahoo groups multiple times throughout the day. I'm a stay at home mom, so this is what I do for a break from the errands, chores and kids.




Speaking of which, I have 3 great kids: Sofia, Robert and Vincent, who are 9, 7 and 5 years old, respectively. Currently, my job is to take care of them, but Vincent is already in Kindergarten, so I just started taking accounting classes at the community college since I might have to get an actual paying job soon! If I could figure out a way to stay home all day and sew, then I would, but I don't think that's very realistic.




In closing, I leave you with a picture of what I did today. It's a crazy quilt block made from Christmas scraps. This is my first attempt at CQ. On Feb 25, I am taking an online CQ course and hope to learn a bit more about getting started and the basics of embellishing.




Posted by Kristin C. at 10:36 PM 1 comments  

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