Sew, Mamma, Sew!!

As mentioned in a previous post, I finally got my Christmas quilt from last year done. (yay!) But, I have set a rule and no close-ups are allowed. That's how many mistakes and uglies are in there.

I need to learn how to cut fabric properly, I think. Although, I just discovered last night that my ruler is crooked. By almost 1/16 of an inch. When quilting, that's huge! Thankfully only one edge is crooked so I can still use the other one fine. Hopefully this will help correct the issues I've been having with lining up the seams. I also got this one together, I am making this one for my mom since her house is always so nice and cold in the winter and the furnace is never on.

but I am pulling it apart since if you look on the left side of the quilt, the rows are very uneven. I am going to blame this on my ruler. :D. The one thing that gets me is that when I purchase fabric from a fabric store, it is almost always cut crooked, so I end up wasting a bit of fabric trying to straighten it up a bit.

I recently started another quilt for Camia since she will be going in a toddler bed in the not so near future (and it will take me that long to finish it) and I am excited about it. I measured and cut carefully so that each piece was the same size. And then I sewed. My seams didn't line up.

Grr!!! I had vowed that if this quilt wasn't going to work, I would quit. Throw in the towel. Be done. Thankfully this time it was only because I pinned it wrong. So I ripped it out and sewed again. Almost there this time, but not what I want:

So, out it came again. Yes, it's all about perfection. It's so disappointing when something doesn't turn out like you imagine it should. See? The seam ripper got it's use, I got my patience worn thinner and my sewing machine got a few more stitches tacked onto it's life span. But, in the end? THIS!! Victory achieved!!!!

One block of 77 done!

I thought it would be fin to take a photo of my itty bitty squares all in a pile:

And all pinned up:

Chain sewn (such a great idea, wastes way less thread):

And in a heap, waiting to be separated and ironed.

Since we will be heading to Smithers on Thursday, I have been trying to think of ways to keep Camia busy while flying. So, after visiting blog land for a while, this is what I came up with.

A crayon holder! She loves to colour, and this is the perfect size for my carry on bag. Later on it will be great in the car as well.

And, a while back, my mom gave me this terribly ugly thing that she found on the ground at work and wanted me to duplicate it. It's finally done!!! (I think it only took about a year.) I drew a picture of it so I could remember how it was done, and then seam ripped it apart. Since it was in the dirt and exposed to all sorts of weather conditions, the fabric was very fragile and almost fell apart in my fingers. But, after a little monkey-ing around with it, this is what I came up with:

I don't have a photo of the original, unfortunately. This is a clothespin holder for my mom to hang on the line when she hangs her laundry out.

And, just to keep all things real and in perspective, this is what my house looked like while all this was going on:

I know. A mess. A huge, gross mess. I need a bigger kitchen. And, yes. So I can work around the current messes :P. Just kidding.

And it is possible to get even messier. This past Saturday it looked as though a hurricane had gone through my house. All because of canning.