Thankful for a New Year!

Happy New Year! May 2014 bring out the best in all!

Here’s what I was working on as the new year approached:

The Postage Stamp quilt! My first ever finished quilt! I didn’t use a pattern, just played around with what scraps I had and the dissapearing nine patch block (thanks to Blair over at Wise Craft) and some half square triangles (love those).  I started this in October with the intention of making it a gift. It’s not a full size quilt, more like a lap quilt. I played around with the sizing until I thought it was comfortable and chose to quilt it with simple vertical lines. Note to any beginners out there: I advise you not to make your quilting stitch length less than 3mm. Unless you are a real pro and know that you will never rip them out. Anything smaller will make you cross eyed! It has been gifted and it is loved so I’m happy. I’m working on a few more that I’ll share.

and, meet the newest members of my sewing family:

A walking foot – oh I learned the HARD way that you really do need this for quilting. Um yeah, spending a week ripping out horrible quilting stitches (and then getting help from my mom to complete the task when I wanted to give up and cry) taught me never to ignore the advice of more experienced quilters. There were no instructions on how to install this ginormous presser foot but this tutorial helped tremendously.

and…

MY SERGER! Oh happy day I am in love with this machine! It’s a Janome 8002d (such a fangirl) and after watching the instructional video three times I can safely say that I know how to thread it!

In 2014, I want to focus more on pattern manipulation and drafting (sloper I’m looking at you), cutting and sewing on the bias, and of course more quilting and serging. I also want to continue to expand my local circle of sewing friends – I love the energy and creativity when people get together to sew and help each other. And of course, I suppose I should say something about working primarily from my fabric stash before buying new fabric but we’ll see how that goes 🙂

May 2014 bring joy and contentment to all! And so much sewing too!

Sewing and Crafting Resolutions for 2012

Happy New Year!

Not much of a post today other than sharing  my ten sewing and craft related new years resolutions, so here goes:

1. Sew my first quilt via Amy Gibson’s free course on Craftsy, I’m all signed up and super excited about this. I plan on using up my two laundry hampers full of cotton and poly-cotton scraps…yikes!

2. Sewing with the Minoru Sew-Along via Tasia over at Sewaholic. I’ve been counting down the days for this one, I’ve got my fabric picked out and now it’s just a matter of making and fitting my muslin before I cut into my nice fabric. If all goes well this will be my first piece of hand made outerwear!

3. Sewing with my first vintage (or vintage repro) pattern. I found some amazing deals this past holiday season and have some lovely patterns from the 1930’s to 1960’s that I can’t wait to use!

4. More cutting/sewing on the bias, it scares me but its time to face my fears.

5. Stashbusting. Enough said.

6. I need to finish drafting my sloper, it’s just sitting around staring at me saying “finish me! finish me!”.

7. More sewing for the guys in my life. I made a sleek and practical  kindle case for father’s day (via Junie Moon) but after that I was out of ideas (tie silk isn’t always easily available in Canada, the only other idea I thought of).

8. I’ve had this gorgeous embroidery wall-art idea in my mind for a couple months now but it needs to be expressed otherwise I’ll just obsess about planning it, therefore more action and less planning when it comes to embroidery.

9. Knit and/or crochet at least one wearable item this year. Knitting is so therapeutic.

10. More blogging including publishing tutorials and inspiration that have been in draft mode for over a month now.

So that’s that! I thought about resolving to “not buy new fabric/patterns/yarn/craft-sewing books”  but the key to keeping your resolutions is being realistic about them, plus I’m waiting for Gertie’s book to be released so I’m actually looking forward to getting more supplies (yes, patterns are supplies :)).

I’m excited for 2012, lots of new things to learn, try and complete!