Monday, February 14, 2011

I'm feeling inadequate!

The last few weeks have found me perusing the blog world again. I'm the first to admit that I go through phases, I've never found the one thing I want to do when I grow up, you know besides writing and gardening. So I'm always looking, I just like so many different things and I never have time to do all of them or perfect them, then I'm on to the next best thing. Case in point, I was knitting, then quilting, beading and now I'm looking at crafty things to do. I organized myself small crafting area in the corner of my bedroom.

So I've been reading crafting blogs. My friend Cyndi over at The Quilting Gourmet has a bunch of links off her page and I just followed one one day and found so many more just by link hopping. The ones I'm really liking right now are the quilters like PS I QUILT, Jaybird Quilts, The Drawing Board and Red Pepper Quilts. There are just so many inspiring bloggers out there and I've stumbled upon some very unique bloggers that I enjoy reading immensely.

So anyway, a few weeks ago I started feeling the need to create and looking at what I could create besides scrapbooking. I started knitting and quickly found myself over my head. Since this is what I do, I take something simple and want grand results quickly. Same with quilting. I managed to do a simple quilt for Mickey for Christmas, I can only imagine how it would have turned out had I actually quilted it instead of attaching it to some fleece. The next quilt I worked on was Kale's and I made have to take it apart and add more too it and square it off because apparently I didn't do it right plus I wasn't one for ironing, it was a total fly by the seat of my pants kind of quilt and really, quilts aren't like that. They take a lot of work and you just can't skip steps as I have done.

Kale says the quilt it too small and I told him to use to use his old blanket but he wants to use the one I made but it basically just needs to be redone and I'm not sure if it's possible. I'll see what I have for fabric to add to the sides because it's just not wide enough. I should have tacked it but I tried quilting around some of the blocks to attach it and that just made the fabric bunch up, so I know it's not fitting right. Lessons learned for sure. Measure properly and iron and learn to square off blocks.

I found two patterns that I want to do. There's this flipside quilt pattern at PSIQuilt that I ordered, I'm not sure how long it will take to get here but I'm waiting patiently. I ordered some jelly rolls to try that one out. Yesterday I found a free pattern for Roman Square block pattern. It can be known as a rail fence but I'm using two coordinating jelly rolls I found at Walmart around Christmas that I really want to use for myself. I need my own quilt, so I'm going to make it. I just need to stock up on batting. Anyone know of a good place to order batting from?

Reading: Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
Watching: Smallville Season 8
Listening: Pink

5 comments:

Cyndi said...

Okay first of all, don't stress out so much! I have been quilting for about 17 years and the little baby quilt I just made is crooked, has crooked quilting lines, and the corners on the binding are atrocious...so bad that I have to go see my aunts and get some help. But that's the most important step in quilting: help!!!!

Second, it's true, ironing is key. I am still not the best but it is really important. You should maybe try crazy quilting. It is super fun but crazy at the same time!!! It's my favourite quilt to make. Other than the rail fence - good choice btw - it's an awesome quilt! I would make a rail fence everytime!

Third, you should check out quiltuniversity.com - they offer great courses that are online, short (4 weeks I think) and you aren't required to do anything! I have taken a few (including a crazy quilt one) and it was amazing. I did 3 of the 4 projects. The 4th one just didn't fit my schedule that week and no one cared.

Fourth, you are just plain awesome! So back to number 1, you really don't need to stress so much about it. You will find your way and you will learn so much from everything you do!

Donna @ Snowbound said...

Awww! Thanks Cyndi. The ladies from craft night are quilting on Saturday, they picked this breaking waves pattern for jelly rolls but it was just to advanced for me, so I picked this roman square I found. It looks super easy.
I'm still not sure what to do about Kale's quilt though, I think it should be pretty easy to seam rip the quilting and just doing tacking, I think that's what it's called but he does need something bigger, this kid is growing way to fast!!
Thanks for the encouragement. I was checking out the quilt university I'll go look again for beginner stuff.
Thanks. You're awesome too!

Brenda said...

You are doing great. Just keep working at quilting. I never have finished my first quilt. I didn't really know what I was doing and it's is so crooked. When I worked at Walmart in the fabric department, I had a lot of ladies who gave me so much help. I learned a lot from them.
I also like the rail fence pattern but I tend to stay to 4 or 6 inch blocks that I put into patterns. Easy to do and line up. Trip around the world is my favorite way to lay them out http://www.quiltville.com/tatw.shtml but I also do other patterns with them.
Just enjoy it!

Brenda said...

oh and you might also look at I Spy Patterns or 4 patch. Both fun patterns.

Donna @ Snowbound said...

Thanks Brenda. The fabric I used for Kale's started out as a Trip Around the World. The border, if you saw the pics on face book show the start of that but i changed it and still have fabric left.