New website!

In case there is anyone still getting updates: I've moved to http://flyingparrotquilts.com!

All my latest quilts are there, and I'm planning to start developing patterns soon, so please head on over and check it out.

New Sewing Room Furniture!

After having to go and return some parts because they were damaged, we finally got the new furniture for my sewing room assembled.

Bookshelves!

These ones are going to double as a bench--I will need to get a nice piece of foam and make a cushion for my new window seat!

These wire baskets are going to hold my fabric collection! I hope.

It looks a bit empty at the moment, but once my stuff comes from my place, I'm sure it won't!

I'm hoping to get back to sewing soon--I managed to chip bones on two of my fingers so have been out of commission, but I'm out of the splint and ready to see how it goes!

Sunday Stash Report

Still not much inspiration, but I got a drunkard's path template recently and started cutting up some batik scraps. It will take a lot more scraps before this is anywhere close to a quilt, though!

Also coming soon, pictures of the furniture that is now in my craft room (well, just as soon as we finish assembling it...)!

Used This Week: 0
Used Year To Date: 30.75
Added This Week: 0
Added Year To Date: 89.25
Net Used For 2011: -58.5

Sunday Stash Report

Fat quarter bundles were on sale last week at Joann's, and I couldn't help myself.

These two are so pretty together!

And these bird prints were just too cute to resist.

Out went 2 1/4 yards for my new purse; other than that I've been unsuccessfully attempting to test out my new hot fix crystal applicator on tulle and working on some other non-fabric related wedding stuff. I'm not feeling terribly fabric-inspired at the moment, so I might have to spend some time flipping through my books!

Used This Week: 2.25
Used Year To Date: 30.75
Added This Week: 3.25
Added Year To Date: 89.25
Net Used For 2011: -58.5


See how everyone else is doing.

A tale of orange thread and a new handbag

Back when I learned to sew at the age of 11 or so, my mom taught me that basting is best done with orange thread. Not only is it pretty easy to see in most instances, it--along with the spool of seafoam green thread which I still have--"is an ugly color"* that would never be used otherwise, so you might as well waste it when basting.

So, when I got a fancy new box of 24 Gütermann threads some time ago, I noted the orange thread with a sigh and hoped I'd have some major basting to do one of these days so that I could use the thread up and have some room for a prettier color. I used some here and there, then I found some lovely reddish-orange batik fabric that matched this spool quite well and made a skirt out of it--but unfortunately ran out of thread halfway through. So off to the store I went, thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm buying orange thread!" I finished the skirt with about half a spool of orange thread left.

This week, I started work on a new handbag with the fabrics I bought for the purpose a few weeks ago:

Look at that nice orangish red for the outside! And I had the perfect spool of thread for it without having to go out to the store! So I started sewing.

You can probably guess how the story ends. I ran out of thread three-quarters of the way through, and so today I went back out and bought... another spool of orange thread. I guess I should just resign myself to the fact that I'm never going to get rid of all my orange thread.

But my new handbag looks great!

I used the "Blossom Bag" pattern from the Amy Butler Style Stitches book. It was definitely a challenge, mainly because the extra-heavy stabilizer used to help the bag keep its shape makes it very hard to manipulate under the sewing machine. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I'm definitely ready for something easy for my next project!

*No offense intended to anyone whose favorite color is orange! I don't actually think it's ugly--I just don't have many orange things!

Sunday Stash Report

Although I haven't been lazy this week, I can't really count any fabric out, since I never counted it in in the first place!

I finished two shirts for my fiancé this week:

Fishy batik!

And dinosaur batik!

The latter still needs buttons--although we found some that look like rock strata that would fit nicely with this fabric, we're still holding out for coconut buttons (a joke between us involving alternative hypotheses of what T. Rex ate).

Used This Week: 0
Used Year To Date: 28.5
Added This Week: 0
Added Year To Date: 86
Net Used For 2011: -57.5


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Kraken

Here it is, the completed octopus quilt!

The quilting, which I'm quite happy with, shows up really well on the back.

The backing matches the narrow outer border on the front.

Here are a couple more closeups. Hooray for another quilt completed!

Did you know that the largest octopus on record weighed over 150 pounds? Octopi are very intelligent too, so this would probably be a good quilt to study under.