The Crazy (married) Cat Lady Also Quilts.

The Reasons I've Stopped Sewing

2010-12-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

I am full of excuses.

*Large Labored Sigh*

I have no space to sew. My apartment is very small and while my husband is fine with my getting my sewing stuff set up, I feel awful and cluttered when my stuff is all over the living room.
I always feel discouraged. When I do set my machine up, I feel like I have to make something great, but nothing I have ever made has really lived up to my expectations of great. I start lamenting about projects unfinished and how messy my stash is and over all just become so upset that I put everything away again.
I had started a project I was really excited about, a quilt for someone who was really close to me, but that person and I have grown very far apart and I have a hard time looking at the project without getting depressed. I spent a lot of money on the fabric for the project and would like to finish it, but it's so unique that no one else would appreciate it and I just can't bring myself to make something for that person.

2010-10-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Patchwork Rainbow Quilt Bag

2010-01-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

About two years ago it became clear to me that I HATED cutting fabric for quilts. I think it was because I didn't have enough table space so I ended up on the floor (which caused back aches) and my rotary blade was kind of dull. Obviously, then, when I found out I could buy pre-cut fabric on ebay I went nuts.

I'm not great with things like this. When I saw a lot of 800 2"x2" squares for dirt cheap, I snatched it up. When it arrived, I realized 2"x2" is ridiculously small. I then shoved the squares in my desk drawer and did nothing with them.

I was cleaning out my desk when I discovered them again this weekend. I had no plans, but felt bad about wasting fabric. The next thing I knew, my very crafty friend had helped me come up with the idea to make a purse.

I adore it. I'm going to use it as a book bag for now, and hopefully a laptop bag when my life warrants me enough free money to buy something like that.

More WIPs

2010-01-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

Every time I finish a quilt top, I start another before I can finish the last quilt. I currently have:
-1 quilt that is quilted with binding sewn and waiting to be hand stitched
-1 quilt that is quilted and waiting for the binding to be cut/sewn/hand stitched
-1 finished quilt top waiting to be basted

and now I have what you see above, the first two blocks of yet another quilt. I love this one though and am going to hurry through this one. I don't know what is going to get finished next, but I really want them all finished by March.

Closing My Etsy

2010-01-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

I can't express the level of sad emoticon I need here, but I am going to (hopefully temporarily) close my etsy shop. I can't afford even the small listing fees, so when my listings expire on February 9, 2010 I will not renew any. In case anyone might be interested before these disappear from cyber-land, here they are again.

Quilts by Patty

Two Tops

2010-01-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

Above is the quilt top for my friend, M. It's made of recycled clothing, which has been super interesting. There's cotton, rayon, velvet, poly blends...it's been difficult and terrific because I hated putting it together (the stretch fabric gives such unreliable shapes) but I love the end product. It's kind of wonky and askew, but I think really cute. I'm going to stitch the ditch and do a stripped binding from the left over fabric. The back is going to be red minky.

Here is my first Autumn themed quilt. I have made half a dozen Halloween quilts, but never a Fall/Autumn one. Since I was blessed with Joann's gift cards for Christmas and Joann's happened to be having a major sale, I decided to try out AmandaJean's zig zag without triangles pattern. It totally works! I recommend it to anyone who hates triangles. I am going to piece the back with some of the incorporated fabrics and bind in brown. I'm not so sure about the quilting yet, but we'll see. Maybe I'll do swirls or something.

I hope to finish the top two projects soon (before the 25th-when the semester begins) and also have plans for another version of the zig zag quilt with blues and greens.

Nestie Quilting Bee Product

2009-12-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

This is what I worked on today. It's also pictured here on my flickr account with tags for who made what. It is the product of a very much failed Quilting Bee, but I'm still happy with it. I am nearly done quilting it and will take new pictures soon.

There was a tragic accident in my family over the weekend and I took the day off to veg and deal with it. Something inspired me though and I found myself slaving over this. Once it's done and off my mind I hope to work on some more pressing projects, like M's quilt.

I also have big plans for a Christmas Wall Hanging, though knowing me it won't be ready until Valentine's Day.

The End of a Bee

2009-11-11T12:47:00.001-08:00

I am such a bad craft blogger. Whoops!

My sister with the Christmas Quilt I made her for her birthday.
The following are the last blocks for the Nest Quilting Bee. It was a really poorly planned bee that I should never have taken part in, but I did, and I am relieve it is over.

I have been terribly about updating. Things just keep happening that keep me away from crafts. My mom has been sick, then my father, I sprained my sewing ankle, midterms, and now the holidays are rapidly approaching!

I am still working on M's quilt. And by working on, I mean I have been cutting the fabric still. It's so freaking difficult to cut up rayon, I had totally forgotten. A lot of people don't realize that just because clothing is cotton doesn't mean it doesn't have other fibers mixed in there to make it stretch and flow and whatever else. Anyway, it's been rough. I may need some stabilizer, but considering how much fabric there is I am hoping to avoid that.

To-Craft List

2009-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

These are the crafts that have kept me so busy. My great niece was born on Oct. 3 and I had a lot of stuff to get ready for her baby shower the week before. It included 2 dresses, 1 quilt, 4 soft blocks, 4 soft shapes, and hosting the baby shower.

Now that that's over, I have a project list I need to get started on ASAP!

To Do Before The New Year

M's Quilt
LP2 Quilting Bee for Dorie
September Nestie QB that I forgot about (sorry! I will get it out asap!)
October block for Nestie QB
More dresses for my new niece, Grace
Goodies for Cassie's little unborn boy
Gracie's Christmas Quilt
Finish at least 1 other WIP

Going String Crazy

2009-09-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhhhhh

I need about 30 more squares before this is done and I feel like I could just throw up. My scrap bin is starting to look so bland to me.

M's Project (+another QB Block)

2009-09-05T15:45:00.001-07:00

This block was made for Sam at Live Piecefully 2. She sent out some really funky 70's inspired fabric and said to go crazy. I think I may have gone even a little too crazy, but oh well!

The next set of pictures are from M's project. As I mentioned, she has asked me to make a quilt out of old clothes. Since there is no time limit, I have been taking my time ripping the clothes up. It's very consuming figuring out how to make the most out of each piece.

1 QB block and a new project

2009-08-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is the block I finished for Amy in the LP2 Quilting Bee for August. Amy wanted us to do blocks surrounded by blocks. She has excellent taste in fabric, I love the red! I think this is going to be an awesome looking quilt because I love the idea of simple blocks being mixed up (since everyone is doing a different kind of layout) into a cool quilt.

The Nestie Quilting Bee didn't have anyone this month so this is the only block I got to work on. The lady assigned for this month is very behind in blocks and decided to have everyone get caught up instead of having them make her blocks. This was noble of her, but I am doubtful anyone is getting caught up. That bee has been a pain in the neck and I fear I will never see most of the fabric I sent out again. I have learned a lesson though--I won't be joining any more quilting bees unless I am confident they are going to be well organized and are filled with committed people.

In other news, I am working on a quilt for my friend, M. She has requested a 60x60 throw quilt in only black and white with a red back. She wants an inlaid block look, and all of the fabric comes from old black and white clothing of hers.

I'm excited about this project because 1.) M is awesome and 2.) I love the concept. I started cutting the clothing up last night and BOY did I forget how weird it can be. Turning a pair of cotton pants into strips of usable fabric is a mess, but it's fun. There's some crushed velvet I haven't felt like touching yet, but there's also some fat quarters to help contrast along. I can't wait to take pictures and share!

yawns

2009-08-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry!

It's hot in California. Seriously, it's over a 100 degrees every day and my apartment doesn't have an air conditioner. We're miserable and right now my iron is my mortal enemy.
So please excuse me for a bit longer while I try to figure out how I can possibly sew in this heat.

The beast is done!

2009-07-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I finally finished my beast of a free-motion quilted quilt. Ahhh! Hallelujah!
Please enjoy my shameless promoting by visiting the beauty here.

I'm calling it Butterfly Kisses. What do you think?
This quilt was a lot of firsts:
-First ever major attempt at free motion
-First pieced binding
-First extra-thick batting.

I just love it. I hope someone else wants to love it in their home, because it just doesn't match my living room.

July Bee Blocks

2009-07-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

This first block was for Andrea at the Nestie Quilting Bee. She sent everyone some solid pink fabric and some pieces of other random pinks. She is planning on making a pink quilt to be donated to a breast cancer charity auction. Isn't that amazing? I was honored to be a part of it. In the center, she is going to embroider our names and states, which I also think is fabulous.

This block was supposed to look like a flower, but it doesn't. Oh well. It's nice and funky just the same!
The second block was for Fabric Lover at the Live Piecefully 2 Quilting Bee. She requested we all make on-point flower basket blocks. This was challenging for me because I HATE triangles. I hate everything about working with triangles and try as I may, there was just no way to make this block without a ton of triangles. In the end, I think it turned out ok and followed the directions she asked of us. It's only the 5th of July, but I'm ready for next month's blocks!!

I am feeling a little annoyed about quilting bees right now, though. My month was June for the Nestie Quilting Bee and the deadline was Wednesday and I have only recieved blocks from 4 out of 11 girls. It really, really bothers me. It makes me feel like the women who agreed to be a part of the bee really don't care at all. They may think that's ok, but there are those of us that DO care. I am pretty certain that not a single person has recieved all of their blocks from their month. Every person is missing at least 2-3 blocks and this project started last fall.

Anyway, if I don't get the rest of my blocks in a few months I am going to be really angry and may have to quit that bee.

Ballet Quilt

2009-06-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

I hope someday I can start coming up with more creative names for quilts. Does anyone have a cute suggestion for this one?

As you can see, I quilted around all the little dresses. It was a ton of fun and I think it gives it that extra little POP! :)

Not to be a ho, but this is for sale in my etsy shop.

I have another one almost done, I'll be back with it in a couple days!

Give Away Winner!

2009-06-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, Greek Wife!
Please e-mail me at pattywolffe at gmail dot com so I can get your address so I can send this out!

Thanks to everyone for playing along with me! I feel very inspired with that fabric now and am definitely going to spend some time mulling over all these suggestions.
Stay tuned!

Holy Cow, you guys.

2009-06-20T23:35:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, you guys.
2.5 spools of thread down and this is what I have to show for it. Unfortunatley, I ran out of thread this morning so I have to go buy another spool so I can finish the 2 square inches left.

What do you think, honestly??
(Click to make bigger).

New Sewing Machine & Last Day for Give-Away!!

2009-06-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder: the give-away closes tomorrow! No comments posted after 11:59PM tomorrow night will be entered in the give-away.

In other news, I have been very busy with my new sewing machine. My mother gave me a Singer Inspiration for a graduation gift and not two weeks later, I was back at Joann's with my receipt for a return. That thing was a piece of junk! If you would like to know more about that, let me know and I can give a better review.

I took my $150 and went to Sears and purchased a Kenmore 18221/Drop in Bobbin. It's FANTASTIC. Not only is it better quality than the Singer, it has pink knobs! The pink knobs are not the best part, (the fact that it was $150 and I can free motion on it as well as piece to my hearts content is) but it is a perk.

Smells like a give-away!

2009-06-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Alright lovlies, I think it's a give-away!
It feels a little premature, since I don't have any actual quilts to give-away, but I did promise to do one on my 10th entry, so here we are!

Today I'm giving away some loot. On etsy they call it "de-stash" because I'm clearing out my stash by giving someone some of it! As you can see, I have a mound of 4x4 squares. They're also listed over on my etsy shop, but I'm thinking I don't actually need to make any money.

The squares are a mismash rainbow of colors and patterns and prints. They're great for making a rainbow quilt (like the one I have shown you previously) or any old patchwork. Add in some squares from your own stash and you can have something fabulous!
To enter the give-away, you just have to do one thing: Respond in a comment with what kind of quilt you think I should make with this fabric:
I have been totally stumped by the large pattern. Extra points for anyone who includes a link to a picture/tutorial/pattern/whatever.

For those non-quilters here, if you want to join in on the fun anyway, please do! If you win and don't want the fabric, I can mail you a box of cereal or something :)

This give-away will close June 20 or when I get 5 entries, whichever is later. :)

More Lessons & Free Motion Quilting

2009-06-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Today I went to my sister Jenna's house to sew. She has made pillows and blankets and clothing before, but never a quilt. Her hands shake a bit, so I was in charge of cutting while she did the sewing. She made a string X block, a log cabin, a railroad, 2 pinwheels, and 2 heart blocks. I think she did great!!

Here is my latest obsession. I've been getting serious with this free motion quilting business. Not quite stippling, but I love this look!

Shopping Monday

2009-06-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today my mother and I had a near lethal (to the bank account) trip to the fabric store. The lighting in my apartment is crummy, but I took pictures for you.
The above is actually a really light sky blue with those beautiful dark purple designs. That is going to be a quilt for me, not etsy! :)

I have no idea why I needed this fun pink fabric, but I was drawn to it and somehow ended up buying it.
This is my new set up in the apartment. I have a really old and wonderful Singer that is mounted into a desk that doesn't fit in the apartment. I love that machine, but I need space! So, Joann's happily supplied me with this less than cheap Singer that will get the job done until we have a bigger place. My mom actually bought it for me as a gift for graduating college on Friday.

I have been working on these cute little hearts off and on for a while. I've decided to just make them as I find big enough scraps and not worry too much about how they look together until I have at least 200 or so. Then they will all blend pretty easily I think.

I hope you all had a wonderful Monday. :)

Bee Blocks

2009-05-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

I am part of 2 quilting bees and today I knocked off 2 blocks, One for May in the Nestie Quilting Bee and one for June in the Live Piecefully 2 Bee.

Enjoy!

I'm on a holiday kick.

2009-05-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously, all I want to do right now is make holiday quilts. And not just any holiday--specifically Christmas and Halloween. They're my favorites :)

Yesterday I tested out my capabilities in this new and cramped apartment. This is what followed:

I am thinking it needs more green/red since it's mostly blue. I have a few more scraps of Christmas themed fabric I will cut up and add into the mix today. Opinions?

This is what it looks like when I try to quilt in the apartment. It's not THAT bad, it's just messy and requires a good 30 minutes worth of clean up.
Oh well.

Oh, also, I've joined a second quilting bee. I'm still part of the Nestie Quilting Bee (link in the blog roll) but now I am also a part of Live Piecefully 2 and you can see the link over to the right.

Have a good week everyone!

Lessons

2009-05-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

My husband and I moved into a new apartment a few months back and we are still in the process of making it our own. This has put a damper in my desire to quilt, since currently I am too fixated on painting the bathroom.

However, last weekend (or the weekend before??) I held an impromptu quilting class for my oldest and bestest friend, Michael. He's never even touch a sewing machine before, so after some lessons on threading and bobbins and sewing in a straight line, he made this:

Pretty awesome for a first timer, huh?! My first quilt square was a piece of the good old "rail road" pattern. Essentially, just three pieces of fabric sewn in columns.

Happy Halloween in May

2009-05-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last year after Halloween I bought up all the 70% off fabric I could and made this bad boy.
Just a simple patchwork with diagonal quilting. I LOVE it. I'm thinking about keeping it instead of selling it.

When Wedding Dresses Misbehave

2009-04-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

I actually have already blogged about this before, in my other blog, here, before I ever thought anyone would want to read a blog solely about quilting. Read the other entry if you wish, or this, or both. I'm going to get a little more detailed here.

So basically I was approached by a friend to take her wedding dress and make it into a quilt as a gift for her husband and their 2 year anniversary. I was scared, nervous, and a wreck through most of the process. But I did it, and I can only bring myself to blog about it because the friend was happy and not at all freaked out that she had asked me to chop her beautiful dress.

Here is what the dress looked like first:

After much assessment, I concluded the skirt of the dress was the only usable material, since the rest was intricate beading and mesh overlay.

Cutting it, and taking it from a beautiful dress to the looks of a bad idea, was the scariest part.

The friend had picked out 2 other fabrics for me to work with. She went with her wedding colors, which were purple, ivory, and silver. One fabric was a dark cotton, and the ivory and lavender were both crepe-backed satin.

If you want advice: never work with satin, crepe-backed or not. It was absolutley slippery and predisposed to runs. But it looked lovely.

Assembling the quilt top:
Here is a picture of the finished thing. I never actually got a picture of it all held up because it was just too big and I didn't want to risk spreading it out on my cat-hair covered floor.

The patchwork is made of white squares that come 100% from the dress' skirt, the lavender satin, and the purple cotton. A thin lavender satin border was added along with an ivory satin border. The back is totally ivory satin and the border is lavender satin.
I couldn't ignore the beading on the dress, so I made a pillow. It's slighly bust shaped because I had no idea how to make it not be.

What I learned:

I'll never do it again.
Satin sucks.
I'd like to stick to twin-size quilts at the biggest from now on.

What I'd do differently:

I'd re-do the binding to be much stronger. I really wasn't an expert binder and I think it should have had a better one than I gave it. So, I'd fix that.
Convinced her to use only cotton instead of satin.

Next time join me for some current projects :)

PS: I made a blog roll over on the side of other crafty people. Check them out!

Loving Your Craft

2009-04-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

After my brief adventures in making little boy baby quilts, as I showed you in the last post, I stumbled upon a pattern for "heart strings" and whipped out this bad boy. It's made using 100% left over scraps (even the binding and the backing!).
Then I made what is still today my pride and joy: The Rainbow quilt. I totally love this quilt. I actually sold it on Etsy within about an hour of it being posted, but the lady was psycho and returned and whatever I have it again and love love love it. It was made using a whole shitton of 4" blocks.

When I bought my first quilting magazine I found a pattern for this very simple but cute quilt. It's called "Strawberry Charm".

This princess quilt was just for fun. I loved the princess fabric and wanted to make something simple that emphasized the princesses so they didn't get lost in the mix of a busy design. A friend of mine, Rebekkah, bought this for her little princess. :)

All of the quilts above were my adventures in Etsy.com. I don't currently have anything for sale in my shop, but I will in the future and will post about that from time to time. Next time I will talk about the day I chopped up a wedding dress for the sake of quilting!

Once Upon a Time, Patty got a sewing machine.

2009-04-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my all new quilting blog!!
I was inspired to start this blog by my blogger friend, Cassie. She has a regular old awesome blog that gives me daily fixes of her sweet cheeked little boy, but she also has a fabulous cooking blog that fills me with good intentions and desires to fly to her house for dinner. So this is my hobby blog.

I'd like to have a give away. I'll be giving away, for free, one of my crib sized baby quilts on my 10th entry. So, stay tuned!

For now, I'd like to introduce you to my early days with a sewing machine.
This is the first quilt I ever made. My husband's grandmother taught me to both sew and quilt by helping me make this. It still sits draped over our couch.

Feeling cocky, I attempted a pin-wheel design next. I had no idea what I was doing, and if you look closely you can see that there are no 2 pinwheels the same shape or size. :)
Next, our dear friend Amanda had a baby boy and I slaved over this pint-size thing:

Then, I was invited to a random baby shower for some chick I didn't know but she didn't have any friends or something... anyway, I used it as practice and made this for her:

Next time join me for my adventures in the world of Etsy.com
<3<3