Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Happy Holidays!

Yikes!  It's been almost 2 months since my last post on here.  But don't think that my lack of posts has meant I haven't been busy.  Right after I finished the last quilt I blogged about, I started to think and get supplies for my major endeavor--the surprise Christmas quilt. I've decided that everyone in my family will have a quilt made for them by me, so this one is for my Uncle.  I'll only show a brief picture, the finished quilt will be discussed around New Years, after it's given to him.  Think lots of embroidery and quilting.  This will be my first time using stencils for quilting and it's starting to be a challenge!





In-between working on this, I've also made a few things.  One, a quilt for sale at my Etsy shop, CozyCrafts.  'Sleepy time Blanket' is made from a nice printed jersey material backed with a soft fleece-like material.  Nice and cozy and lightly quilted.   Christmas has also come early this year for me--in the form of Black Friday Sales, at Accuquilt.  An Accuquilt GoBaby was just right and with some practical dyes on sale, BAM! Merry Christmas to me!  And you know what goes well with an Accuquilt GoBaby?  Why some Robert Kaufmann Kona solids from the Fat Quarter Shop!  *_*   An extremely happy quilter will probably not leave her workshop for quite some time.

The two square bundles are called Fat Quarters, and the round roll is a Jelly Roll, long strips of fabric that are pre-cut for quilting that uses strips in the design.   The more jewel tone bundle is called Berry, the larger pink tower is Pretty Peony and the Jelly Roll is new Dusty Pallette.  I'm already envisioning what quilts I'll be making with these lovelies--so many choices!  More updates to come once the Holidays wind down!  Happy Holidays to everyone!


P.S.  I've joined the Twitter revolution.  Check me out @CozyCrafts2684!

Friday, October 19, 2012

A Study in Binding...

Here's the latest quilt and this one is all mine. I purchased the kit and pattern at the Madison Quilt expo in September. It was a labor of love, even before the binding. It involves a variety of materials, which were a challenge to cut and clean up after--think fuz, lots and lots of fuz. After assembling the top and basting it, 1/2 way thru quilting my machine died. It was a sad day, yet kinda joyous! I used an $80 Singer for 3 years and made 16 quilts with it!

A new Singer, the Confidence Quilter, and I was back in business. Now for the labor of love--the binding. The pattern has triangles edging the quilt. Oh joy, time to practice my mitered corners, 40 times. And let's not forget how to finish the (what I call 'arm pits') of the triangles. And to finish that labor of love, learn to hand bind it too. Previously I was a machine-binding only girl. After this, I still am, except for I think smaller quilts, since it really did look nice, just took me 2 days and a whole season of Supernatural on Netflix to finish.
Aside from these new challenges, it's a beautiful quilt, and a perfect addition to my Fall.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Hoot!

Recently, I completed a quilt for a friend who asked for an activity blanket for her little boy.  After looking around at some examples on Pintrest and other blogs that I read frequently, this is what I came up with.  Inspired by the corduroy owl print, I had a great time choosing different types of fabric and ribbons; attempting to catch a kids interest without being too garish.  I've had great feedback from the few people I showed it to, so perhaps I'll make another one in the future!