Tips and Tidbits

    

       In the beginning of this blog I set out to share my successes along with my failures. I completely forgot about all the stuff in between.  Although I still consider myself a novice quilter, I have learned some things to be passed on to others beginning in this wonderfully addicting world of fabrics and patterns.
      When I started looking online at quilting video's for beginners the excitement lunged me into fabric and quilting frenzy.  All the fabrics, colors, patterns, and possibilities can be exciting and yet overwhelming all at the same time.  There were all these things that I thought that I must have to do it right which was not true. Then with me being the rule breaker that I am, there were things that were assumed to be okay to go around that wasn't okay.  So today I would like to share some of those tips and tidbits.

     NOTE: My camera is out for the count so that is why I have no actual pictures to go with some of these tips and tidbits. The plan is to add a Tips and Tidbit page and their will be pictures added to show with each as needed. Until then, google will be my source for example pictures. Please know that in no way do I think that I have invented something new. I'm well aware that tons of veteran quilters know these things. However, maybe by me putting it out front it will be a comfort for some beginners. So here we go:

Tip & Tidbit
1) Cheap thread should be avoided at all cost. When you are almost done with a project and don't want to wait to order the good stuff online or at your go to sewing/quilting shop, NO CHEAP THREAD.  It clogs your machine with fuse balls. Also the thread begins to thin out from the friction. Hold out for the 40w to 50w thread spolls.

2) "Quilting gloves" are not a necessity. However, some type of glove that helps you keep control of the quilt as you maneuver it through the machine is necessary. I didn't have money to order any "quilting gloves". Nor did my local quilt shop carry them. So I took a pair of gardening gloves that I used once and they worked perfectly. I still use them today.

3) Quilting clips are also something else that I was creative with. Again no budget or cash for binding clips.


I use hair clips and paper clips. This is what was already on hand and they both work just great.


     
These three are all I have time to share tonight.  Be sure that there are still tons of tricks of the trade for me to learn and share. These were a few that popped to mind today.

If there are any of you who would like to share some other Tips and Tidbits please feel free.

Back At It......

Back to caring for a new baby(5months), back to sewing and quilting, and back to life as normal.  Our Honey Bun arrived in mid October and we can't get enough of her. The boys are obsessed with her. However, she seem to be amazed and not so amazed at their endless tricks to entertain her.

I thought my machine was down but  

all it needed was a good cleaning. It has been a long time since any sewing happened around these parts. Now I'm up til all hours of the night.

These are some blocks for a quilt for my sister.

Along with two fresh baby quilt top.

Stay Tuned!!!!!

Out of sight, Not out of mind!!

It has been way to long and OH how I have missed you blogs of joy and inspiration. So to update you all on whats been happening with me. 



  We are pregnant with little Cecilia Renae. Although we have been very grateful for her incubation, it has been a very rough and tough journey that still has some weeks to go.  Just to give a little insight into how its been, I've lost 30lbs and because of another issue will it was suggested that we deliver at 37wks.
I am striving for a VBAC after 2ceserean sections and an induction would greatly increase my chances of another C-section that I do not want. So we have decided to wait it out until at least 39weeks and today marks 36wks 5days.
 

Also, the decision was made that if we were to have a girl, I would either get locks or cut off my hair.  Doing hair is not something I desire to spend my time doing. Let me tell you, my hair is very thick and course. To add another little girl that may have the same textured hair meant that one of us, if not both would look an awful hot mess most days.  So off with the hair we went. Don't have a full head shot of the new do but both sides and the back are gone.
 

Now to quilting.  I have not sewn in a very long time.  However, something must be made for Cecilia's arrival. A quick patchwork quilt and a scrappy granny square quilt is what I have in mind.  

 

Stay Tuned!!!:)

Oh! We are also looking to buy a house because we are completely out of space.

Budget or No Budget

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

This post is a question for all you fabric lovers. I am quite sure that for the group of quilters, sewers, etc whom profit from your quilting/sewing have a budget. However, for those who sew and quilt for the fun and love of it(not that profiteers don't enjoy it) do you have a budget for buy fabric and other supplies. I always want to by new fabrics but never seem to have the money at the time. But when the money is available, there are newer fabric that I want on top of the old fabric.  At that point, I am just overwhelmed.  So I want to know how those of you like me that maybe a one income family with kids, shop for fabric.  I have wanted to do a monthly stash building club but that isn't practical right now, nor is buying by project.  

Tell me what you do.

QUILTCON

     After all the post out there about QuiltCon, what else is there to say right? Especially from someone who didn't attend. Well, Wednesday was my birthday and the hubby stayed home and schooled the kids while I went to do whatever I wanted.

 I went to QuiltCon

by way of Craftsy.com. 

 Let me explain.  

While sitting inside Panera Bread and blog surfing, I stopped by My Go-Go Life and there it was, posted that Craftsy was offering the lectures from QuiltCon for free. 

WHAT!!!!  

I could not believe it. Nor did I expected the experience that I acquired from my Kindle. While I was excited 

about the ability to see these lectures, I think my intent was really just to skim through them and just get a quick peak at a few of them. 

Let me tell you, not only did I learn a lot. I was completely inspired and a creativity was unlocked that I have been trying to conjure up for a few months now.

When I was growing up I was not exposed to art nor was there a hint of a creative side to me. Not that I can remember any ways. Arts and crafts was not something that happened in my home. I'm sure it was a part of elementary school and I remember tie die at summer camp. However, that is as far as it went. It is not until the past 2years that I have begun to think creatively and have a passion for art of just about all kinds. So finding my own style and inspiration has been a little difficult. I love modern quilting but had not been able to enter that area of creativity that was not the mimicking of someone else work. But on Wednesday, after listening to Jacquie Gering on Honoring Tradition, something clicked.  She said that a lot of her work is largely the result of some type of influence from her two boys.  Suddenly I thought about my 2 boys. I am reading The Wizard of Oz at bedtime, and at that moment I saw a quilt of the yellow brick road.

 I did say that I did not draw when I was a kid. I have a lot of practice to do.  The vision in my head is much better than this drawing.  

I invision patterned yellow fabric along with some solids

Still searching for the right fabrics but these stood out to me the most so far. Who knows, it could become the green or blue brick road. Next came pattern.
For a while now I have been trying to sketch quilting designs and could not get it to look like anything. But Wednesday, things began to come together. 

My husband even looked at it and said, "your getting better, huh". Believe me when I say, that that is a lot coming from him.

OH My Gosh!
Some where on someone's post about the lecture's, they said that Mary  Fons was the most animated. She was awesome. She really spoke to me as a beginner and made me feel special for being a beginner.  Please look at the lectures if you were not able to attend.  The panel on fabric design was also very insightful.

I thought that my machine was broken therefore have not been sewing. I was finally able to get it to the shop on Wednesday and the only issue was that my bobbin was not aligned correctly. The lady at the shop seemed frustrated that I was back with yet another waste of her time.  Mary Fons responded to this type of attitude towards beginners and I really felt understood.

Well, I plain to get somethings accomplished this weekend and hopefully will have something to show.

Random Happenings

For an update on the Gator's quilt, a friend of mine who is very skilled at sewing looked at it and said that she can fix it. According to her, the background fabric is the problem.  Fabric that fray a lot should be surged on the ends after the seams have been sewn together.  To fix the quilt, a hook thingy that sews from the inside (I think) will fix the ripped seems. Next Tuesday, I am scheduled to go over to her place to have it fixed. I will take photo's and have all of the correct terms for posting. This news made me feel a million times better about the issue.

 

I am participating in the Virtual Quilting Bee hosted by Amy over at Diary of A Quilter. There are a lot of great sew-along's and bee's to join.  I've been a little overwhelmed with trying to decide if I would join in on the fun. This one will be the best fit for me I think.  We will be using Happy-Go-Luck fabric from Moda. Can't wait for the details on when and where to purchase it. 

Lastly, the sewing machine has to go to the shop today. We are having serious tension issues. Hopefully, Its an easy quick fix and I can have it back by the close of business. I plan to lock myself in the room and sew all night.  

Well thats all for now. The boys and I are off to the skate park.

And know, I will not be skating.

Tradgety Strikes

      You know that feeling you have when you come up with something great?  Something that you just know that the person to receive it, will absolutely love? From the initial idea, the picking of the fabric, the cutting and re-piecing, to the last of the binding. When its done, you are amazed at how much more beautiful the finished work is than the picture in your head. Well, that is not my story today.

      At around 12:45 am I closed the binding on the Gator's quilt and put it in the wash. After showering and getting into bed, I remembered that the machine was not set on gental cycle. Because it wasn't the first time that I had made this mistake and everything was fine, I turned over and went to sleep.  This morning, I rose with the excitement of pulling it out of the washer and my heart sanked into my chest.

                                  

                                  

                                  

The quilt had ripped at the seems in not one, not two or three, but several places.  I was shocked at the emotions that were stirring in response to this quilt. Someone please tell me that I am not the only one that this has happened to.:(

W.I.P

I didn't think it would happen today, but I've found some time to still away and share whats happening around the Mitchell house in the sewing department. I managed to finish quilting slanted lines in one direction on the vintage patchwork quilt. Not sure if I should quilt in the other direction or leave it as it  Nevertheless, the progress that has been made has me on target for goal for February.  

 

 The pictures below are of a project that is not on my list of To Do's for February, but I decided to go for it. My sister has asked me to make her a quilt for the longest time. She has always liked the Night Shade line by Tula Pink, so that's what we are going with.  Her pattern choice is granny squares with the request of a darker background than usual. So to use what I have, we are going with the leftovers of the Chambray black denim from the Gator's quilt.

Here are more picks of what I did today.

It looks as though I may be finish with the Gator's quilt by Sunday.

I will keep you posted on the happenings of The Quilting Diaries.

I Won

    

The pretty lady of Pretty Lady Baby honored The Quilting Diaries with the Versatile Blogger Award. I am  thankful for the honor. For some, these awards may seem pointless.   However, for us who are dedicated to making our little spot in blog land inviting and useful it is a great thing. First, because someone stopped by and decided that my blog is follow worthy. Secondly, they decided to share my blog with all of there followers in such a grand way.

With this Award comes rules to share the love with other bloggers:

1. Put the award on your post.
2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and share their link.
3. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the award.
4. Share 7 things about yourself.

Okay, so let’s get started!  Here are my nominations:

1. Fabric Mutt

2. Red Poppy Quilts

3. Capitol A Quilter

4. Fiber of All Sorts

5. A Labour of Love

6. Phone Home Designs by E.T.

7. Doodle Do Designs

7 Things About Me:

1. I homeschool my 2boys

2. I'm a Marine wife. (inactive)

3. I hate picking favorites because I love so many things.

4. I change my own tires. 

5. I laugh at myself a lot.

6. I am in need of Gods grace and mercy daily

7. I love to treat others on my birthday.

So head over to Pretty Lady Baby and check her out along with the my nominees.

There are a tons of other things I planned to post about today. But my time is up for now.

Have a Super Friday!!!

W.I.P

My morning started with  prayer at 6:00 am with the prayer and hopes of a graceful productive day today.  Well......,car troubles put hubby on Marta this morning and will send me in pursuit of a new battery (praying that's all it is). As I try and type this post my screen keeps jumping all over the place, but I will press onward.

So after pinning the quilt I figured I would make sure that I had plenty of bobbins filled ready to replace when needed. The thread began to wind around the bottom of the bobbin on the machine. This happens to me quite often. The first thing that I noticed that may cause this problem is that at the start of winding, it does not evenly wind from top to bottom. The bottom is almost always fuller on the bottom instead of evenly distributed. Any tips on how to remedy this problem would be great.

 (I know this picture is awful:( 

 

Onward, I pressed and yet another issue arises. My plan for quilting was straight lines on the outside of each seam. I did a practice run to check my tension on both sides and everything was fine, so I thought.

Once I started my first line, I notice my stitches were way to tight. At this point I think I will do away with the  

straight lines. Oddly, I am much more comfortable with free motion.  Cathedral ceiling was something I was strongly considering any whoot so I gonna JUST DO IT.  

In spite of all of this, prayer still prevailed because, I have not become frustrated, inpatient, or upset.:)

Have a great Wednesday!!!

Feburary To Do's

Januray:

1. Backing and basting of the Vintage Patchwork quilt a friend

2. Backing and basting done for friends Florida Gators quilt

February To Do's

1. Quilt, bind, and deliver Florida Gators quilt

2. Quilt, bind, and deliver Vintage Patchwork 

3. Make two baby quilts

4. Use hexies to make a GA wall hanging

Just Do It

Last year I wanted very badly to try my hand at paper piecing. The hexagon cut outs were purchased, but there was always an excuse in my head of why I could not get started.  For some reason I was really intimidated with the process and thought that it would be very time consuming. HA, as if cutting, machine piecing, basting, and quilting isn't time consuming. So while listening to one of the boys read and write sentence, I decided to JUST DO IT.

There was nothing to be intimidated about. It was actually calming and relaxing. 

(Huh, who would have thunk  it.)

Not sure what I am going to do with them yet. I was thinking 

of a heart shape for a pillow or for the wall. It has been decided that

this will become a regular task. It will be a good idea to always have some on hand and ready for a small or even larger project.

If there is something that you have wanted to do but have not started for whatever reason, 

JUST DO IT!!

Leave a line with that thing that you have yet to start on.

Thanks:)

:)

So On & So On

I have been meaning to post since Monday and now its Friday. First I wanted to talk about my goals for the year which started out like this: 

January is in full swing and will be soon approaching it's end(much sooner now), and I have yet to set goals. As I read through blogs, it seems that everyone has set their goals. There are always tons of things that I aspire to accomplish that inevitably sometimes prove overly ambitious.  Vision casting is a strength of mine, where as accurately strategizing the steps to get there is my weakness.  So as an attempt to improve in this area, this year will be full of short term goals. As it relates to my quilting projects, education, spiritual, parenting, etc. one month at a time is my motto.  So my only goal at this point for January is to finish the top, back, and sandwich for the Florida quilt and to get the backing and basting done for my friends vintage patch work

 Last Friday I called Fat Quaker Shop back and they had more of the fabric I needed in stock. So this weekend gonna getter done (get the top and backing finished that is).

The vintage patch work quilt is basted, pinned, and ready to quilt.

Unfortunately, my patch work cross is a disappearing cross because of trying to piece 

while finishing school and a headache.

Well this post is done, now back to schooling the boys

HEELPPP!!!!!!!

I am horrible about keeping a surprise a surprise, so here goes. The project that I am working on that I have not showed, is a gift for a friend. She is a huge Florida Gators fan so I'm making her a Gators quilt.

 Here are most of the prints and the block design.

 

  My problem is that, I am out of the grey denim fabric and everywhere I checked is out. It is needed for the backing. 

The plan was to make one big block of the designs on the top with the same background. This completely puts a hold on my plan to have the top, backing, and sandwiched done by this weekend.

 

Any advice would be appreciated, OR....... if anyone has some black denim type fabric that they would like to bless me with would be awesome as well.

Wah Lah!!!!

I busted out two new scrappy patchy quilt tops over the weekend.  Aren't they gorgeous.

Oh how I wish this were true and that I could take the credit for these beauties but I can not.  A friend of mine brought them to church and is trusting me to finish them for her. I was very honored that she asked me. 

 

The one stretched out on the floor is a twin sized

I think that this one below will finish at a full sized with maybe 2 more columns. This one needs a little fixing as you can see, but very simple. Not sure yet if I will have to take that whole row off to fix it.

I just had to point out the fact that she hand pieced both of these tops. Sorry about the quality of that picture.

(A new camera should be arriving in a few)

Not sure at all what type of quilting will be done on these.  However, with the project that I am currently working on and these 2 tops, along with the plus quilt top, there should be a lot to show you.

Oh! school has resumed, so we will see how much I get done each week.

Mini Mi

Happy New Year 

to every one.

  There hasn't been a post in a few weeks but rest assured that I've been sewing. I decided to start making some mini quilts as samples of my work and quilted wall art. Also, there is something bigger in the making. However, no viewing of that yet.  So.....here is a look at one of the projects that I just finished.

This first block was my first of the 1st mini quilts

Block's #1 & #2

All 6 blocks and the top is sandwiched.

Lastly, is the backing.  I haven't decided on the binding fabric yet.

Stay tuned for the finished work. There is also a tutorial of a twin sized version of this pattern in the works.  

Thanks for stopping buy:).

Home Alone:)

 

 

It has been............I don't remember when the last time I have been completely alone. Ecstatic is an understatement for my state right now.

 

This week around Tuesday I felt that I was reaching a breaking point and that something had to happen. I was short and impatient with the kids, crying, and simply exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I love being home with the kids, but sometimes I need a break. Which this happens every so often. However, the remedy is a day to myself and it has been a while since I made that happen for myself.  So this morning, I packed a lunch for the boys and Daddy is taking them to breakfast and they will be gone the rest of the day. My mom will be gone too.  I think I just might explode with excitement.

New Finish

This is my newest creation for a new baby girl named Eliza. She is the newest member of The Advent children.  I had so many grand plans for this quilt. It did not turn out the way that I planned. However, it will still be a great gift. 

  My first thought was to start from the center of the quilt with a spiral, then that changed to various different free motion quilting in each square. This was also my chance to try burying my threads. 

So in this first one just a doddle of a design. No name for it.

This one was an attempt at vines of some sort. Which is completely impromptu but turned out to my liking.

A zigzag was the idea here. Not sure if that was really accomplished. It looks more like lines:/.

I did stippling in some of the squares also. The plan was to leave the last square for her name in the center of an expanding heart.  My machine did not like the thread I wanted to use, which was a 

royal blue of I think a 40w thread.

In the end I have concluded that my free motion quilting needs much work and for now I'll be happy with the character that my imperfections add to my quilts.

OH! the burying the thread did not go to well either, but just something else to work on.

I almost forgot the spiral pic for you guys. Very pleased with my first time attempting it. I've wanted to do it for so long but was scared.

Waiting on Him

It is Advent Season again and I enjoy it more and more every year. Even though Christ has already been born into this world and has had a tremendous impact, to await his birth may seem pointless. Yet, there is more to come. It is His continual showing of Himself in us individually and corporately that we await.  At His arrival things happen and change. There is more to be done in us and through us.  

This Saturday some ladies and myself from The Advent(then name of our church) are going to a monetary for some time of reflection and prayer. Even though I am sure to fall asleep at least once in the silence, a great time is expected. 

So the tree is our Jessie Tree and we are on day 4 of walking through the Old Testament leading up to the birth of Christ. Every day the kids and I make the ornament for the day.  After dinner, daddy  reads the scriptures before dressing the tree with it.  You can see the apple from Adam & Eve and the Ark. I just wanted to share a snid bit of what was going on beside quilting. 

My faith is the main layer of this life of mine. How dare, I keep it to myself.