Mario Update

I worked on the Mario block on Friday and today and it's still not quite done! I pieced together each row, and need to sew each row together now to create the block. Slowly but surely it will be done. And today it occurred to me that I could have tweaked the pattern to make fewer blocks that were larger. It wouldn't have been so tedious as what I'm doing, but I know the end result will look amazing. I dread the part about actually quilting the sandwiched parts! I'm a total novice at quilting and it seems that after spending so much time creating such an intricate quilt top, that the quilting should be awesome - like the Mario characters or just the word "Mario." Oh well. I'm a long ways off from having to deal with quilting.



Progress on August 22

Progress on August 23

Chain-piecing saves so much time!

Just showing how small each square is!!

I also worked on the Man Quilt a bit. Just sewed the two pieces of red flannel together for the backing. I didn't have much time to work on quilt projects today. I was so tired when I was working on the Mario Quilt, I made stupid mistakes and had to spend quality time ripping seams to redo. Oops. Maybe I'll get more done tomorrow. I had high hopes for the weekend: finish Mario, and sandwich two quilts.

Fabric!

I received the much anticipated shipment of fabric for the Mario Quilt. Somehow I ordered the wrong color. I need yellow and ordered this odd, kind of green, shade of yellow called Celery. Oh well. I'm sure I can use it for something. I saw a UPS driver early in the day stopped at my neighbor's house so I was excited to think I would also receive my package. But no such luck! The driver left and I waited another 5 hours to receive my package. I don't know if it was the same driver or a different one. I worked for FedEx for awhile and I know that if it had been delivered by a FedEx driver back in my day it would have been on the same truck. But what do I know?



Yes, I get a bit excited about fabric and quilting

Most of the fabric I need for the quilt blocks

TGIF

Why I'm happy it's Friday, I don't know. I'm currently unemployed so the days and time mean nothing to me. Oh well. I worked on the snowball block baby quilt yesterday and completed the quilt top. That was a fun project. I took my time and made sure the seams were all 1/4 inch. It looks great, but I realized the rows are out of order. The last row is missing a color so the pattern is off, but someone I put that row up where a correct row should have gone. Oops. I don't care enough to fix it. I started this project a long time ago and the blocks themselves were odd sizes, so I did the best with what I had. I'm not overly perfectionistic about my quilting at this point because I'm learning and experimenting.

Snowball Christmas baby quilt

It amused me to put so many pins in this tomato

It's been awhile

I didn't forget about this blog, I just stopped quilting for a long time. I got distracted by other things and by nothing, but now I'm back to quilting and thought I would resurrect this blog to chronicle my adventures.

The following is an update on my current quilting projects.

1st Finished Quilt Project:

In December 2013 I finished my first quilting project. I didn't like the Jeff Quilt I worked on years ago, so I used the blocks to create several baby quilts instead of the one queen size quilt. I figured that I probably should start with smaller projects, since I'm a noob, so I can actually complete the project without feeling so overwhelmed. So this is my first completed project:

 

 

I did very basic quilting with an old Singer I borrowed from my sister-in-law. It was a great experience and I appreciate her help in assembling the quilt sandwich and other helpful hints on quilting.

 

 

 

 

Another baby quilt I started working on with blocks from the Jeff Quilt:

 

 

I got distracted by life and even began another project that I found in McCall's Quick Quilts February/March 2012 issue. It was around the first of the year, so I decided to use some of my Christmas stash to create this snowball block quilt:

 Then I had other important life stuff to do and didn't work on quilts for awhile. Recently I decided to organize my life, starting with my house, so I cleaned and organized my quilting supplies. When I saw all the fabrics and started projects I was inspired to create once again.

So I have the quilting bug again, and I want to create! However, I also have enough free time on my hands to do other important house projects that have been on my To Do List forever, such as painting the kitchen. So I've been working on that for several days for several hours per day, until my shoulders and back are aching from stretching and reaching to paint the high cabinets. Today is a break from painting so I decided to update this blog and add current information before I work on a quilt project or two. I think having multiple projects is a good idea so I can switch from an intricate piecing project to something relatively simple such as the snowball baby quilt.

My current quilting binge began with an original pattern I designed and pieced together years ago before I lost interest. I decided it would be a "quick" project to finish it, making it into a Halloween wall hanging. It is almost done, except for the binding, which is pinned to the quilt and ready to do by hand. I distracted myself with painting and yet another new project so I haven't finished the binding, which would be done in an hour or two since I'm not a speed hand sewer!!

 

 

 

And finally, with my quilting mania in full swing, I decided to create a quilt for my friend. I asked which colors he likes, and he told me blues, silver, and greens, and after a moment, he asked if I could make him a Mario quilt. I did a quick Google search and found this Mario Bros. quilt pattern several places, but I like The Recipe Bunny blog so I added it to my favorites for future reference. It's a labor intense quilt with cutting 1 1/2 inch squares by the thousands, and then piecing together rows to create 16" blocks of different Mario Bros. characters. I like it, and so far it's been a challenge and an adventure. I bought the colors to finish one block, I chose Mario, and then I searched online for a good source for Kona solids by the yard at a decent price (local prices are high, even on sale). I found Fabric.com and ordered almost $60 of Kona solids to finish the Mario quilt. I've been cyber stalking the shipment via UPS since I was emailed the notification that my purchase shipped. I should have it by Friday, so now I'm feeling the need to work on my Mario block again!

 

 

William is still my helper when I quilt

 

More than enough squares to create Mario

 

I laid out the squares to see how they fit together

 

The three rows I completed last week
 

And finally, my kitten, Tabitha Tangerine passed away in 2012 of leukemia. She was an awesome kitten and she was greatly loved by me and my other critters. A few months after she passed away I was offered a kitten that a friend had adopted for her daughter, but it just wasn't working out to have a tiny kitten in a house with rough dogs, so I adopted him. I named him Dexter Kai Fluffybottom, and he's such a sweet kitten. He also fits into my little furry family perfectly, and he is just know getting familiar with my quilting hobby. He wasn't sure what to think at first, so he didn't want to jump onto the table to investigate. So he found the next best option:

That is where I'm at these days. I absolutely must quilt now. It's been days and that is not acceptable. Keeping busy keeps me sane.