Two things can happen when you invite friends over for a crafty day, 1.) You gossip and chit chat and realize that at the end of the day you've either severely messed up your WIP or have barely touched it all, or 2.) You get some gossip and chit chat in between furrow-browed concentration.

Today was a case of #2. (Actually, now that I think about it, #1 only happens when I invite or get invited to a crafty day OUT, like at a coffee shop or something. Every time I've had friends over, it's always been pretty darn productive.) Steph and two other friends came over today for some all day crafting. Not only did I sketch out a quilt, I cut and pieced, too. Boy am I pooped! Sad news is, I ran short of fabric and need more to make two more squares and to finish up the back. I guess this means another trip to the fabric store. That would make it three times in one month.

I've been a little smitten with quilting lately. I blame it all on flickr. I mean I could point the finger at someone, but that wouldn't be completely nice, would it (It's her. Click over. Trust me, you won't be sorry.)? I mean, she inspired this.

Hi, I'm not a Steelers fan. This was purely coincidence.

Cathedral windows, tutorial here. It's rather addicting. It's kind of a cross between origami and sewing. Anyways, this is just a swatch that I'll eventually just turn in to a pillowcase. But you can bet I've already got an idea for the real thing.

That's all for now. Apologies for lagging on the FO fashion show. Steph was supposed to help me take photos today and we got all caught up in crafting. Note to self, photo shoots precede craft time.

Hola. How's your week going? Mine? The title says it all. I've got two baby showers this weekend but unfortunately they're both on the same day and time and across the bay from each other. I'd love to sew something new to wear but I guess I should finish up the gifts.

My new best friend, Mr. Thimble. Yes, new manicure is much needed

babyM get's a Monkey quilt.

Curved safety pins are also my new best friend.

babyFree gets the "lotus" quilt.

More to come soon!

If I could wax poetic about how I'm starting to love free-motion quilting, I think I could go on forever, okay maybe for like 20 minutes at this point. But seriously, free-motion quilting will blow the creativity door wide open. What you could do is endless. ENDLESS. Granted I'm still no expert. Hell, I've only completed 4 free motion projects, but my head is bursting with ideas. Let's just put it this way, if you can draw it, you can most likely quilt it. But let me also say, just because you can draw it, doesn't mean you can quilt it right away. Practice, practice, practice. That being said, don't expect some crazy works of free-motion quilting art coming out of my doors. I still need to put a lot of work into maintaining a consistent stitch length. Before I play show and tell, let me put forth my one gripe with free-motion. This technique is a thread-eater. I almost went through TWO 800m spools of Gutermann thread for both these projects. But one disclaimer, my patterns are pretty dense. The denser your quilting pattern, the more thread it will eat up. But it does make for the rumple-iest quilts ever. And you all know How I feel about rumples.

Front

babyM's Monkey Quilt
Pattern: my own
Size: Approximately 45x45"

The biggest dilemma with this quilt is running out of fabric. The fabric store was out of the prints when I went back the following week so I had to hunt them down online. Fortunately I was able to find everything I needed. When I got to the back I started to freak out again because I wasn't going to have enough. My trusty friend was over crafting with me while I was trying to figure it out and she spotted the green that I used for the border of the Hydrangea Table set I made for B's mom last month. It coordinately perfectly. Thanks for saving me!

Back

I improvised this as I went and was really happy out it turned out. I originally made a few blocks out of leftover pieces to use for the back but it didn't work out. But I'm much happier with this.

I quilted this the same way I did the Hydrangea set, just a basic stipling pattern. I tend to think of it as making a huge puzzle piece.

Rumples, yes, very lovely! mama- and papaM love it and so of course that makes me happy!

Front

babyFree's Lotus Quilt
Pattern: my own
Size: Approximately 45x45"

I bought all these fabrics during the Archivist Tour of SF. I was inspired by this quilt at Stonemountain.

Back

I call this the Lotus quilt because of the color scheme. I decided to brighten up the greens with a pop of pink on the back and I love the way this turned out. Despite the chrysanthemum print on the light green fabric, I named it the Lotus quilt because greens and pinks just reminded me of lotus blossoms.

I'm in no way nearly skilled enough to attempt the quilting pattern from the inspiration quilt. I'm pretty convinced such perfection can only be accomplished with a machine. I improvised my own quilting pattern using squiggles and lotus blossoms. And in one marathon session, I was able to quilt this thing in an evening, from 6:30pm to midnight. Yah, you could say I was on a bit of a deadline.

I think you're my favorite blossom of the bunch

I had to send this gift off to be delivered to the baby shower with a friend. I'm hoping babyFree's parents love it just as much I hope she will.

Unfortunately this is not the end of the quiltmaking for this year. I've got two more baby quilts to punch out, still to be designed, possibly one surprise quilt, and then finally a simple one for me.