August 30, 2013

One more week til "Mayhem in Paradise" ~ A sewing retreat

Wooooooo hoooooooooooo....... a week from yesterday our sewing retreat will begin in Paradise, PA and I couldn't be more excited!!

Sewing, shop hopping, friends, and lots of fun... what more can I ask for? Ok, cookies, let's work some cookies into that equation lol.

Stay tuned for lots of project updates from the past few months I've had to keep secret as well as pictures and posts about the retreat :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

August 19, 2013

Paper Piecing - My first block!

Even tho I took a class in paper piecing at the Sewing Summit last year, I never even finished a block, just a couple sections of the block I was supposed to be making. We ran out of time, I messed up one block when I was at home... long story short, it is on the WIP pile and may even be lost, who knows lol.

Recently tho, I saw a really cute star block on Pinterest from Sew Crafty Jess and used her templates to try paper piecing again. There are no step by step instructions for constructing the blocks, paper piecing, etc. but she does reference a good tutorial to get you started, or in my case, refresh my memory.

For my first attempt at this block, even tho it isn't perfect, it isn't too shabby and I'm happy enough with it:

First paper pieced block!

I was going to use it for a present for a friend, but it bothers me that the bottom left text is going in a weird direction. It isn't quite upside down, it just isn't angled correctly in sync with the other ones. 
Plus the center doesn't line up 100% ... so we'll see. I'll probably end up keeping it and make her something else but all in all, I'm happy with my first try and glad to have raided the scrap bin!

Felt good to sew today even tho this block took me 3 hours to make and now I have a headache, am super tired, and a little cranky haha. Perfect time to go to bed! Hope everyone is having a good week!

August 10, 2013

MIA ~ but I'm here, I'm here!

Hi all! Wow it has been a long time since I've blogged! We have had a really crazy summer so far which hasn't left me much time for fun things like sewing. I finally started unpacking my sewing room today, after being in our new apartment for over 3 weeks, and am wishing I had time to sew too! All in due time I suppose...

Before my little packing/moving/unpacking hiatus, I was working on a new project that I want to share. This is a mockup using a smaller section I pieced ~ I wanted to brainstorm a little and see what could be created out of it.

The first picture is 4 sections rotated together ~ love it!


This second picture is 4 of the above, so 16 of the original sections, pieced together. A little dizzying, but I really like the effect the waves of color make over a bigger space. 


I would love to make one of these into a larger quilt but just one section used 36 drunkard's path blocks - So 144 would be needed for the first option, and that would only end up being about 30 x 30 when finished. Insane ~ I know! 576 drunkard's path blocks would be needed to make the bottom version, and that would only be 60 x 60 ... not quite worth all that cutting and curved sewing for a throw that isn't even long enough for my giraffe legs!

If I had the larger Go! cutter and could cut the larger drunkard's path blocks, I might consider it... but for now, I'll enjoy the images and brainstorm for the future. Maybe I'll get snowed in for a month and those 576 blocks won't seem so crazy then hahaha.

Once I get sewing and blogging again, expect to hear from me a lot! I have a lot of projects underway as well as the "Mayhem in Paradise" quilt retreat coming up in September! Lots of good things on the horizon, just need to get organized and get going again first!

Happy sewing everyone!