Queen Size City Weekend

Woohoo!!!  Finally finished sewing the binding on the back side.  That took forever.  But I am so so so so very happy to sleep under a homemade (by me) quilt!!

 I way over estimated the size and didn't actually measure accurately, so this thing is seriously verging on being a king size!  I did a hack job quilting it.  Some of the lines have some super duper bad puckers.  I knew I just wanted this done and on the bed.  I have all my AMH voile cut and half sashed for a queen size quilt that I'm planning on free motion quilting.  I will definitely be taking my time on that one and quilting it with grace rather than speed.

I was planning on making some pillowcases to go with the quilt, but now that I can just hide the pillows, I'm not sure what I'll do with it.......

And I did get some of the City Weekend knit fabric.  I'm not sure what to do with it, and it is way softer than anything else I have, so I'm scared to cut it.   The white fabric came in my Heather Ross Studio Sale box, and is equally as precious and hard to cut into.  I am currently trying to swap for some more.  It is a sickness.

Also, I totally chopped all my hair off!  It was pretty crazy.  I do it every 3 years and donate it to Locks of Love.  I donated 12" and I'm pretty sure she chopped another 3" off.  Eeeek!  I feel so much lighter!

Also, this past Sunday, there was a Harvest Festival for the Santa Barbara Birth Center.  It was so fun!  It was the first fundraiser in the official location.  They signed the lease just a month ago.  I hosted a "quilting room."  Really I just painted kids hands and stamped them onto some PFD.  They stamped their names next to it.  It should turn out really cute when I sew them all together.  I think I'll mix in fabrics based on the colors of the rooms(to be determined). 

     I made a pillow for my mom out of my kids hand prints and have to make another one for my MIL for next week.  I will try to take pics of the process because it was insanely easy to make, and it would be a cute pillow for the holidays - especially if you are going along with Erin at House on Hill Road and making a pillow.

At the festival, I sold a quite a few things.  It was so exciting to have my things well received, and to make some money.  I donated 10% of my sales, and I met some insanely cool people.  All in all, a great day!

New Clothes for the Boy

This post could also be titled "What I Really Wanted To Do During KCWC"

Neck facing and collar - Nature Walk Tunic

I made this Nature Walk Tunic for my boy out of some Rocket ship fabric and some super soft shot cotton.  I made it for his 4th birthday, woke up at 3 am to finish it for that day.  He started crying that he hated it before he even had it on.  Yay for my happy warm feelings being squashed!  So much for the sensitivity of 4 year old boys.  He'll get more guilt from me as we all get older - I'm sure of it!

Next I made some shorts from the Sketchbook Shirt and shorts pattern.  Brown linen, maybe some rayon mixed in(Joann Remnant Bin) so I'm not sure :)   SO easy and soft and comfy and he LOVES them.   Waaay better reception than the tunic.  Warm happy feeling is back!

And then I made another pair of Sandbox pants with Echino pockets - my absolute favorite thing right now.  And the boy loves them as well.  They are really man-pri/ short pants.  I was going to cut these and make shorts since I was short some fabric lengthwise.  I waited until I finished them and hemmed them to see how long they really were, and they were long enough!  Sweet.  I love these a lot.  They are a total mish-mash.

I used an upholstery fabric that was bought years ago.  I used some ruler printed twill tape for a size tag.  I love it!  It was a scrap that had 4 on it, so I used it.    I think I will be making these pants until he hates them.  They are so easy to make, now that I've made a few.  Such a bummer this pattern is out of print.  If you can find it, get it.  I think I will try making a girly pair soon.
:)

Orange and Grey Snail Sampler (Sort of)

I've been working on this one for a bit and I'm so in love with it.  I'm fairly certain this will end up a twin size for my boy.  My main print fabric is the peach snail from Heather Ross' Far Far Away line.  The rest are a bunch of orange, peach, and grey Kona cottons.  I LOVE THIS QUILT!!!!

 I love learning more "things" with each quilt I make - ya know?  I love knowing how to do wonky stars.  Knowledge I never knew I needed!  I think I will add another border in coal, and then maybe another orange border and be done.  Not sure how to quilt it....  I just love how funky and weird the colors are, but I really feel like it's working.

If my Heather Ross Studio Sale box doesn't show up today, I think I will cry......   :(

:)
Raven

Um, fell of the planet for a while



Binding for queen size City Weekend quilt!



So, it has been an interesting few weeks round here.  I've been making a ton of stuff.  Both my son and husband had a birthday.  I tried out a craft show and sort of hated it.  I've been reconsidering the why's and how's of selling.   Really just a bunch of "how much is my time worth?"



     I have come to the conclusion that I like making stuff, but don't like any of the aspects of selling it.  Tags, photos, descriptions, pricing, displays - not a fan of that "stuff."   I will try again at another craft show in November.  I definitely learned a lot about what I did wrong, my display set-up, my location, all that jazz.  I will make the appropriate changes and try again.  I really really really want to not try again, but I've always been a quitter, so I'm going to try to not quit, and see if I get different results.

My other solution is to actually list some items in my etsy shop.  I have had it for years and never listed anything.  I just hate almost every picture I take.  I've had multiple people help me and read almost every online photo tip.  I don't know what it is - except that my fear of bad pics leads me to not take any.  Perhaps this is one of those practice makes perfect situations!

After finishing my son's twin quilt a few months back, I've fallen asleep under it many many nights and love sleeping underneath something I've made.  And so the decision to make a queen size quilt with my fave's from the new City Weekend line.  I added in some Kona Coral, Canary, and Azure, as well as some white sashing.  The City Weekend is so damn soft!!  I finished "straight" line quilting it yesterday - I did speedy rather than slow and nice. There are quite a few minor puckers, but it's for us, so I'm not being picky.  I am quite scared to sew the binding on, both machine and hand aspects.  That's a big ol' quilt!

Big girl and a big quilt!

The back!  She just went and sat down like that! :)

I really just cannot wait to have this finished so that we can start sleeping under it.   I am so excited to be getting this one done!  I must have at least 8 different quilts in progress.  I hope everyone has been well.

I am really looking forward to getting back on track with fall here!!

And spending more time with this little girl -who has given me such a run for it recently- she just gets better and better every day!!

:) Rave