Friday, June 26, 2009

Awesome Block Design

I love being off from work! Just so relaxing not having any deadlines to meet or meetings to go to !! And I get to sew! All day, if I want! Life is good!! :-) Can't wait to retire!!
I finished cutting the block pieces for the "Gi Gi Girl" jelly roll quilt. I sewed up 2 blocks. A fun block to make and the design is so graphic! LOVE IT!



I even love the back of the blocks...every seam so straight and presses so flat!! Silly, huh?


My little Westie, Yogi, is glad to have me home ... he loves to snooze in his bed on my sewing table upstairs! When he's not sleeping there by the window overlooking the deck, he can watch out for those marauding squirrels who love to dig up my potted plants down there!


I will finish the blocks but can go no further on the quilt until I get my dark brown sashing fabric that was ordered online. I hope to get it by Monday!
This weekend my husband and I will be doing some yard work and mulching in the yard, so not sure how much time I'll have to sew on Saturday....but maybe on Sunday! TGIF!! :-)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Scrapology 2 !!

I took some Kaffe scraps from my stash, cut them into 5" squares and made a new laptop case for myself. I sewed them together similarly to how the big summer tote bag was done.




I fused 2 layers of fleece to the back and used my walking foot and a large curved zig zag stitch to quilt it by stitching across the sewn squares diagonally both ways and then also through the middle both ways. Very quick and easy! Here's the back so you can see the quiting.



Instead of a button or velcroed flap to close the top as it is for a laptop computer, I made flaps and sewed a separating zipper to both and inserted them into the top seam.



I made a large 6 patch pocket on one side of the lining and 2 other smaller pockets on the other side for my cell phone and cord.

When sewing the sides of the lining, I left a 5" space unsewn to turn the tote through after sewing the top seam.

Then I top-stitched around the top edge and sewed up the open lining side seam and VOILA, it's done!! On to the next project! :-)



My Za Za jelly roll arrived today in the mail. I started cutting it up for the Gi Gi Girl quilt. It will take a bit longer to cut this jelly roll quilt as the directions tell you to trim the edges of each piece down from 2 1/2" to 2 1/4".
So I started the cutting and got it half done. Here's my pile of cut off edges so far! Boy those pinked edges really make a mess of my cutting table...but better there than down inside the bobbin area of my machine! Right? The pattern designer explains that by trimming them down, you only need one jelly roll to make the quilt instead of leaving the strips at 2 1/2" you would need 2 jelly rolls! So I totally agree!! :-)
I'm off from work tomorrow, so maybe can get all the big blocks done, but must still wait for the dark brown fabric for the sashing, and the backing and binding, which I ordered but has still not arrived! I'm really loving this quirky fabric.
So, what are you working on??

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sooooo Excited!

I have always wanted to make a particular quilt from Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures' book called "Let the Good Times Roll". She makes the most delightful jelly roll patterns ever!


I love this particular quilt because the fabrics are so modern and edgy and the design has my favorite element - swirls!




I did not recognize the fabric collection used, so I emailed her on her website and within a few hours, I got the answer! The fabric is a Moda collection by Erin Michaels called "Za Za". So I started searching the Internet and couldn't find any Za Za jelly rolls, as it's been out quite a while. But, thank goodness for eBay!! Taadaa! Found one!! YESSSSSSSSSSS! It's winging it's way to me as I write!!

I just LOOVVVEEEE the Internet!! Don't you????