A Busy Day...

Today was my son's birthday.  He got a reading lamp for his bed and his AWESOME quilt :)

 

See how cute he is all wrapped up in it. The weather even cooperated and was cold enough to need a blankie!

 For my sewing antics, I started on the messenger bag for one of my daughters.  She wants a messenger bag with a dresden plate on the front of the flap.  I took pictures of what I did :)

This is the AWESOME ruler that I use.

Here are the blades all cut and wanting to be sewn...

Them in a pile ;D

chain sewing the tops together

look, they make a pretty wheel.

Cool wheel, eh?

These are the tweezers that I use to get the blades turned and nice and pointy.

After turning and pressing.

Laying around wanting to be joined in a neat ring!

Sewing them up :)

These are quiltsmart circles.  I LOVE them!  Easy peasy!

After all of my blades are sewn together, I coax all of the threads toward the center then I lay a circle of wonder under on the back and press. ...but not the hole.... I avoid pressing the center until the center circle is on the front....

Now I press my center circle, then press the center back...  Is that as clear as mud?

Dessert time!  This is a rainbow chip cake with split layers that are filled with Marionberries.  The frosting is chocolate cream cheese frosting.  My 6 year old wanted the peeps :) My 17 year old decorated it :)

 

Just FYI, these are my first flying geese EVER!  I love them.  they are SO cute!!!
I also cut out the top for the February $29 quilt.  I am going to sew that bad boy tomorrow!

Linking up with http://freshlypieced.blogspot.com/

Ford's Quilt is FINISHED!!

The binding all piled on the floor waiting to be sewn on.

 My 14 year old held this up so I could snap a quick shot.  I LOVE it!  ...now I know that's a shock ;D  I am pretty sure that my son will love it too! 

 

 

Grey dimple minky for the back per my son's request.

 I decided to go with the walking foot this time.  I had fun with this one and it was pretty quick too.  It's finished size is 60x78.  Perfect for a growing boy!

Ford's Quilt Sandwich

Sorry these photos are so dark :(  Hopefully you can get the idea :)Here I have layed out the batting and the quilt top.  Smoothing it out with my hands. 

 

 

 Next, I roll it up into a nice burrito.  I learned how to do this by reading Elizabeth Hartman's book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.

 

 Now this is where my technique varies from hers.  I pin the quilt back to the carpet.  I do this for two reasons, #1, the carpet is softer to crawl around on and #2 my friend, Heidi, told me she does it this way, so I tried it.  I suppose there is a #3, there is more large area in my house that has carpet on it than wood floors. :)

 

 

 Next, you lay the quilt top roll onto one edge of the pinned quilt back.

 

 Next you smooth, smooth, smooth, from the center to the edges.

 

 Now it's time to PIN PIN PIN!  I use the curved safety pins.  I love them :)

  I am almost finished quilting it :)  I couldn't use my platform because it has not been varnished yet and the fabric stuck to the unfinished wood :p  I'll post the finished pictures tomorrow :)

Ford's Quilt is nearly finished:)

Here is Ford's quilt all laid out on the living room floor. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would to get it right. It's not perfect, but as several friends told me, "Don't think too much!" :)

To aide me in sewing and to keep things straight, I pin a label to each row.

Here is a shot of most of the rows.

Here is the top all sewn. The quilt was a little too short so I added a 5" border on the ends. I wasn't sure what to do. This 2.5 wide stripe border looks great! The colors are better in this lower picture. I have a blue minky backing for it, but I am not sure I like it. I'll think on it for a bit ;)

After the cropping...

I've got to remember to crop before I post :p