Want it, make it

Look what I made!

When I moved my sewing space from the dining room table to my Son's old room I used what I had and made little changes as I went along.

As I worked I made note of things I wanted, ALWAYS more storage, enlarged tables equal with my sewing table and more light.  This room has several large windows which I love, but sewing needs good light.

Fortunately between my husband and son, tools to make whatever I want is not an issue, together they are ACE hardware.  I purchased 3 bookcases from Office max and made the table I wanted from the same kind of white board as my bookshelves and Tiaras table.  A couple 2 x 4's, 1 x 1's, 2~White Premium Melamine boards, a ruler, cordless drill, table saw and screws.  I own my own safety glasses and yes they are pink.

I had 7' of space and decided I wanted it 4" out from the wall for 2 reasons. 

1) the bookcase I attached it to is 36", if I made the table 32" it will stay away from the wall.  This will not crush the curtains or need to be pulled more into the room taking away space to work in.

2) with the permanent gap I can access the wall plug easily (I don't crawl under tables any more)

The bookcases contain pull out boxes, baskets, books, my sketch book and binders of printed PDF patterns. I received 2 awesome Ottlite's  for my birthday increasing light when needed and a magnifier. Now I have light, table space to cut material and extra room around both the Viking and Tiara so no drag from the bigger quilts falling off the table to the floor.

I did it all including the cutting, now back to sewing :)

This quilt makes me happy

I purchased this fabric more than a year ago, I loved the colors.  The reason I put it away for so long was I didn't LOVE the example quilt the shop made.  It was cute but too gray, with so many beautiful colors in the " Flirt" fabric line I thought there have to be better options.

When I received my American Patchwork magazine I immediately thought of these fabrics.  I even envisioned how I wanted to change the corner applique to incorporate the birds.  I had already taken the Craftsy class Luminous Lone Star, I was excited to get started.  

I really enjoyed the piecing process and took my time quilting it.  If you look closely you will see a lot of what I like to call floating stitches.  This means there is a start and a stop on top of each other, not in a seam or continuous.  I like the back of the quilt as much as the front so every thread is knotted and buried within the batting.  I would quilt during the day and watch TV with the quilt on my lap at night pulling the threads to the back and locking them in.

Lots of technique in this quilt, inset quarter circles, turn applique, hand embroidery (and ruler work)

I will be using this pattern again using the same fabrics featured on the magazine cover, pink and blue- so fun.