Stuck In A Rut

Is anyone else stuck like me? I don't have any motivation to do any quilting. I even read through all my quilting magazines, TWICE!!!

Actually I'm reading a new book I bought called The Man Whisperer. It is a very eye opening book. I don't like nagging and this book shows you how to get what you want from your sweetie pie without nagging him. I love it.

Here's a funny I found about quilting...

Almost Forgot...

Hey all! I forgot to mention I changed some things. The Tools of The Trade series is now in the pages section not in the blog section. It would be easier for ya'll and if some didn't want to skip through the TOTT series to get to the actual blogging.

I found this online and it is a little scary how much this little joke about quilters already applies to me. Anyone else?

Rules for Quilting

1. Always buy fabric no matter how much you 

already have

2. Sew All Day and All Night absolutely no 

cooking allowed

3. Use a lot of spit for tiny droplets of blood, this 

always makes the quilt personal

4. Always start a new quilt before the last one is 

finished, this requires you to go back to step # 1

Finished A Goal!

Thanks to Amy's Creative Side, a popular blog I visit often, I was motivated to complete one of my goals for this month: Sew together one of the quilt tops that I will be giving as a Christmas present this year. I had so much trouble with this pattern. As a beginner, I have a really hard time understanding the directions and cutting. Well the pattern that I choose was so confusing that even the ladies at my local quilt shop, Judy's Quilting Center, was a little confused. The sad part is the pattern has "easy" right in the name. I don't want to mention the pattern or who it was by because I really don't want to bad mouth anyone.

That blue line is supposed to be my center mark. That is how messed up the cutting directions were and how a beginner should be able to handle something deemed as "easy."

Well here is the finished quilt top so we'll see how it all comes together. Plus I get to see how I probably royally messed this quilt up. 

Takin It Easy

Nothing like having a weekend off to relax and catch up on some quilt reading. I bought a few new magazines yesterday and today i spent the entire day curled up next to my sweetie pie. He watched TV and I read...perfect. He's a very hard worker and he needed a chillax break as much as I did. Nate is a very talented welder but our schedules conflict so much that we hardly get to see each other anymore. I was happy we got to spend this weekend together.

Two magazines I highly recommend for fall is:

Preview

I am excited to try out the snowman table runner.

Preview

This issue has me seriously considering how I can incorporate embellishments into my quilting. I am reading this magazine quite literally cover-to-cover. It is a wonderful issue.

If anyone has any good magazine selections or articles that you love please let me know :)

Sorry...

Hey all! I am terribly sorry that there wasn't a Tools Of The Trade post this past Sunday. I had a medical emergency and was in the hospital. There will be a post up this Sunday.

I am trying to get the motivation to work on my quilts for Christmas presents this year. I swear as soon as I put a deadline on a project I lose interest in making it or I put it off til the last minute. I want to get them done early but they have been sitting on my sewing table for too long.

I'm making my mother a barn yard lap quilt.

She adores cows and chickens so this fabric was a find!

Then I am also making my grandparents a Harley Davidson lap quilt. (Yes my grandparents are bikers, how many can say that?)

I have never ordered fabric online before. When I ordered the Hog fabric it came in only at 1/4 yard. I need 1 1/4 yard. So I haven't decided how I'm going to design this quilt yet. Both are to be a large square-on-point quilt. This is the pattern I am using.

Any suggestions for the Harley quilt? 

Creativity At Work

Yesterday was my god son Connor's first day of Kindergarten. He is growing up so fast. First day of school and he is already too cool for hugs and kisses. As soon as Connor saw the other kids sitting on the floor in the class he took off. I know Kindergarten teachers have aides but two people against 15 sugar high five year olds? It makes me wonder how big their liquor cabinet is at home...

I reread a quilting magazine from last year on my lunch break. There was an article about a woman who creates her own designs and shares her inspiration. I feel so bad because I went through probably five old magazines and now I can't find the article to give more details. She basically pulls her information from everything around her but she also has a million and one WIP. I swear with every few new quilting magazines I read I gain one more work in progress myself since I simply cannot wait to start.

The article got me thinking about the possibility of creating my own designs. I came up with a few ideas but drawing them will be difficult, especially when I have no graph paper.

Is there a software out there to help design quilts???

Newbe First

Every month, do you go to the grocery store and look at latest issues of quilting magazines? When you leap through the magazine, do you find a project you can not wait to make? Then you go to the quilt shop and say to yourself "I'm just looking around," and then coming home with an armful of fabric says otherwise!

A few days ago a hexagon table topper designed by Sherri K. Falls caught my eye in the Fall 2012 issue of Quilts and More. After what was supposed to be a research trip to Joanne Fabrics, I carried three colorful fat quarters out of the store for the project. The fabrics are cotton flower patterns in vibrant purple, blue, pink, and white. I am making this project all by hand, a newbe first for me.

When I read the pattern, it said to use paper piecing, something I have never done before. But wouldn't the paper rip when you try to sew it? It says to fabric glue it in so does that mean it is to stay in there? Wouldn't the paper make a funny scrunching noise when you move it around on your table? I should research paper piecing for my Sunday blog series, Tools Of The Trade.

Would anyone have some advice for me as to how to use paper piecing? I am lost...