Here is this weekends accomplishment! 3/12 of my quilt blocks finished!! I should tell you that my enitre body hurts. Between hunching over my sewing machine, squatting/kneeling on the floor to measure and cut, my muscles are screaming. (Perhaps this is a sign that I need to engage in more physical activities...like exercise....nah)

Wow blogger! Thanks for posting my photos in reverse order :|

Oh well guess I will blog in reverse order too. Maybe it will start a trend.

All done! Pretty wreath :D I didn't take any "during" photos. I mean the actual construction of the block took maybe and hour. Super easy.

OK so below is my stuff all measured and cut ready for sewing. So far the third block was by far the easiest. I said my photos were backward!

Block three fresh out of the envelope!

My little sewing buddy!

How to make a Christmas Quilt: PART 2

So here we are! All revved up from completing block one, ready to take on block two! Right out of the envelope block two is crazy. Pieces A-U!! You've got to be kidding! Oh well, to work!

Whew! Two hours later, cutting is complete. The new 6 inch wide quilting ruler I picked up at Michaels today is coming in SUPER handy. Money well spent for sure. But now it's time for a break....I should not take breaks. Or maybe I should stay away from the computer during my breaks. I am so pleased with my progress thus far that my ambition takes over my senses yet again and I order this:

http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?sid=60705141558346070&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=52376&Parent_Ids=

If anyone reading this is also feeling crazy ambitious feel free to quilt along! I couldn't help myself it's SO cute! Visions of Tessa's room done in pinks, yellows, and strawberries swim through my head and I am sold.

OK, back to work!

This little piece of the block takes me two FULL hours. Damn that was hard! I am feeling less

confident...I am however, so focused on not screwing it up that I forget to take more pictures.

Well there it is! It's a little wonky but I am still proud. Those little squares are as tiny as they look in the picture and they were super hard to keep square. I learned that taking the time to mark the seam allowance with a pencil before sewing makes a world of difference on the tiny stuff. Block three will have to wait till tomorrow. I am wiped! Here's hoping that I can get most of this one done before the new one stars showing up in the mail. I am determined to sew those blocks AS THEY COME!!

How to make a Christmas Quilt: PART 1

So the first step to making your very own Christmas quilt is to have massive delusions of grandeur, and an over confidence in your quilting abilities. It helps if you have never actually made and entire quilt before, well at least not one that was more in depth then squares. That's even better!

One I was searching the Internet for fabric to complete another project when I came across www.thefatquartershop.com. Darn them anyway! They had the most wonderful pictures of this AMAZING Christmas quilt that you could complete one block at a time over the course of the year. It even has a super cute name, The Block of the Month Club! The description promised that only a moderate degree of skill in quilting was required to complete the blocks! I could do that, I have moderate skill! Sold.

I waited and waited and 4-6 weeks later, the materials for the fist block arrived. I held the crisp white envelope in my hands bursting with excitement as I ran for my quilting supplies. (Recently purchased quilting supplies. Like I had that crap laying around before I got this into my head.) I tore open the envelope and squealed we glee at the CUTEST damn Christmas fabric you have ever seen. Plans for a coordinating Christmas tree skirt, which I would also quilt were already forming in my head. At this point Eric is rolling his eyes and sighing. I ignore him and open the instructions. Complicated instructions. Hmmmm I was sure the website had said "moderate degree of skill", oh well. We were packing up to move anyway, like I had time to quilt. I make a promise to myself that I will make this block as soon as we are settled in the new house. I should only have two blocks by then. Easy to catch up! One block per month for twelve months! Easy peasy!

Fast forward to yesterday. I brave the rain and run up to the mail box. Uh oh. There it is, the shiny white envelope containing my latest block of the month. Gingerly I open it and am shocked when I read that it contains block number eleven. Really? Eleven? I run upstairs to my closet and open the drawer where I have been stashing quilt stuff. Uh oh. It's true, I have eleven of the twelve blocks. Guess this means I should get started on number one! So I drag out my quiting ruler and cutting mat. My rotary cutter and my fabric pen. Let's do this! O.o Star Trek TnG marathon on ScyFy!! Yes please! And as Captain Pikard and Commander Riker bravely lead the crew of the SS Enterprise through uncharted space, I lead myself through uncharted quilting space.

First thing is first. Cut out the pieces. Easy! Well not really. If you have ever dodged kids and a dog and a cat while trying to cut out precise 1.5 inch squares with a razor sharp rotary cutter you know what I mean. Two successful missions in the final frontier later and the cutting is done!

In case you are not a Star Trek buff, I mean two hours later. And yes the pieces are labeled. A through freaking P!!!!!

Time to sew these bad boys together! I am less intimidated by this then I should be. Even the tiniest mistake will skew the block turning it into a much larger mistake later. But to my delight the first bit of sewing seems to go smoothly. The construction isn't really THAT hard. But at this point it is 11 o'clock and I am wiped out. Bed time for this trekky.

OK So I skipped a few pictures, but this blog post is getting really long. So here is on part of the block all put together. I don't know how long this took me there was no good TV on so I turned on some music. Thank God for Pandora radio on my iphone! And yes that is a coffee stain on my ironing board.

Almost done! To my great delight this really isn't as complicated as I feared. It is however REALLY hard to keep everything square and straight. REALLY, REALLY hard. So if anyone is reading this as has any great insight as to how to keep thing in line without wanting to punch something that would be awesome. I would like to add now that Eric has popped his head in several time to "check" on my progress. I think he is laughing at me in his man cave....

And there it is!!! OK so it's not perfect. It's uneven at the bottom which I am sure is going to come back and bite me in the ass. But for now I am pretty proud of my accomplishment.

Now on to block two........

opps!

Holy bananas!

I just realized how long it's been sense I posted :P

Well in my defense I have been busy! I got it into my head that I needed to sell Hood Scarves of all things. If you didn't already know you can check out my Esty site here:

www.estsy.com/shop/starringgreta

Not that it's an immediate success by any means. I fully admit to being just a little disappointed that I haven't sold even ONE scarf to someone who doesn't know me in some way. That is not to say that my friends and family haven't been supportive, (including some folks who took an impromptu road trip to boost my ego. Thanks guys!!) or that I don't TOTALLY appreciate all their help/love/support. I guess I just wish I had more to show for it. So for now I am still crocheting my fingers off and paying my etsy fees with hope.

"Spring" is here. Or at least what passes for spring here in Oregon. And with it come a whole slew of home related projects/responsibilities. I DO NOT enjoy yard work of any kind. I am super thankful we have a little yard. But even that little patch of grass seems determined to make us work for it. So far we have mowed twice, and I spread moss killer on the front yard. If you know Erica and I at all, you know this is a huge accomplishment. The back yard remains sadly neglected.......I wonder if I can hire someone....

I bought a small side table at the good will a week or so ago. I have been wrestling the old finish off it with the goal of being able to re-stain it. So far the table is winning. Ugh. Decorating my house is still a work in progress. I have a feeling it will be for a LONG time. At least I can say with some sincerity that I have embraced my kooky, eclectic style of interior design. I will no longer try to force myself to like a room decorated in only one style. I just like way too much stuff :P So I will focus on a color pallet and function. After that, pretty much anything goes!

Hmmmm, is this blog random enough? I think so.