MRS. Crazy Crafting Cat Lady

Shortly after my last post, on Canada Day, Big D and I went to his mom's cabin.  He was on a reset from work so we decided to relax.  Little did I know that he was going to propose to me!  He didn't have a ring because he didn't want to mess it up.  He let me pick my own, so the next day we went and bought our rings together.

On the deck at the cabin just after he asked me! I look quite a bit 

on the awful side due to the heat, the few drinks 

we'd had and the half hour of crying after he asked me

My beautiful ring!

His ring, silver with black diamonds, and my engagement ring and wedding band set.

We quickly picked a date so that everything was said and done before we buy the house in the spring, and before the snow flies.  We have decided on October 5th of this year and the last 30 days have been jam packed of wedding planning and preparation.  Surprisingly, we are basically done aside from a few small items and loose ends!

The first pics were the venues to make sure they worked for our date.  My little country church is hardly ever booked for events and was very much available for that date.  We are having a small wine and cheese reception there for all the guests, then a buffet dinner for a few close family members.  We want to keep it small for budget and because neither Big D or I feel comfortable being in the spotlight in front of a huge crowd.

The little country church where it will all happen!

Next up were clothes for both of us.  Big D doesn't want to wear a tuxedo because he was very uncomfortable in the one he had to wear at one of his brother's wedding.  He decided to buy a suit because it was only a $50 difference from renting.  Even though he isn't wearing a tuxedo, he decided to get a vest in our wedding colours.  Yes, it's a mossy oak wedding!  Big D had mentioned it about a year ago, when friend's of ours were planning their wedding, that he wanted to have camo for ours.  After I said yes, and stopped crying, he asked if that was still what we were doing.

Big D in his suit with one of the groomsmen's ties.

His vest and tie combination that we ordered online.

Big D and his Dad ordered matching tie clips.

I was going to make my dress, but when I was trying on styles with JM and my mom, we found a very reasonably priced lace dress that needed NO alterations at all.  There was no way I could have made it for that price, so I bought it.  No pictures of it til after the wedding just in case Big D happens to stumble across it.

Getting my bouquets from a florist was just out of the question, not only for price, but I mean who wouldn't want to make them?!  My supervisor gave me the idea for broach bouquets which I was able to find on Pinterest.  My maid of honor, Leanne, and my bridesmaid, Becky and I weren't able to find enough broaches, so we mixed in some fake flowers in our colour scheme.  I think the result was pretty darn good!  We found their dresses and accessories this weekend at a department store.  They were regular price of $60 but ended up being half price when we went to buy them!  It was wonderful!

 L-R Top to bottom have all three together, Leanne's, Becky's and mine with the key on it.

Leanne and Becky in their dresses!  They are going to look so amazing!

My Aunt does lots of cake decorating and offered to make our wedding cake.  We found a cake topper on E-bay that we had seen at Cabela's a couple years ago.  This past weekend, with my Mom and Aunt, we found a cake my Aunt is going to try and replicate for me and Big D.

The cake topper!  We can change the flag to say "Just Married".

An idea for the cake.  We are going to add mossy oak ribbon/fabric 

on it  and hopefully covering most of the middle tier to add more of the theme!

Today I got fabric for a signature quilt we will be using as our guest book.  I cut it all into 5" squares and have them packed away.  Next is to construct blaze orange hankies for the Groom, Groomsmen and the Father's.  After that is matching clutches for me and my girls.

All we have to do now is sit back, relax and wait for October 5th and the reply cards to roll in.  OH! And get ready for Mississinewa which I will be leaving for 4 days after the wedding!

Quilting and Refashioning

I'm not going to type a whole lot because its getting late and tomorrow is my first day at my new job.  This have been getting quite slow at MTS, so I picked up a second job at Bison, where Big D is working!  Tomorrow is my first day and I want to be bright and fresh.  That being said, I made some new items for my wardrobe.  I took a rather plain black skirt, shortened it and added a ruffle over the kick pleat.  I also used some left over red wool melton from one of my costumes to make a new scarf.  Not all of my sewing has been clothing related.  I finally finished the nine patch quilt and it has been gifted to my friends who treated Big D and I to a lovely dinner on Saturday night!!

I'll leave you with pictures to enjoy, but not before sharing the inspiration for the scarf here and here, and the skirt ruffles here.  Yes, of course, all of these inspirations were pulled from Pinterest.  Would you not have figured that out by now?

Before.  You can see the pins where I had to close up the front slit.

Re-sized and shortened.

A close up of the ruffle over the kick pleat.

The red felt rose scarf.  I am in love with how it turned out!!

The finished product!

I used packaged binding because I hate making it myself!

The back of the quilt. I love how it turned out!!

Nine Patch Progress...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are down to the quilt sandwich!

That's right folks, I finished the nine patch quilt top for my friends daughter tonight and have it all sandwiched up for quilting!!  I'm very excited with how this is turning out, especially since it all started from Pinterest. (Yes, I have a problem! I'm fully aware of it and loving every minute of this addiction!)

And now, for the best part!  Pictures of the quilt top and the backing material I picked up on my visit to Fabricland a little while ago.

The quilt top finished, 41" square. I added the center purple block for a little something extra!

Quilt top pinned with the backing fabric.  I thought it was perfect, not only to match the top but for a sweet little girl!

More Nine Patch Progress!

Tea has always been a staple in my life. When I lived at home, I don't believe there was a day when a pot of tea was not made in the house. I make it all the time at work but usually forget to at home. Tonight I broke out the loose leaf tea, put on one of my audiobooks, and went to town on the nine patch quilt. It was the most enjoyable evening I've had in a while!

I finished off the blue squares, although they still need to be pressed. I also did one pink square as my guide for the rest. I'm super pleased with how these are turning out! I do need some more purple fabric as I only have 6 varieties instead of the 8 I need. Perhaps I'll pick up some on Saturday when my mom and I turn in our quilt block for the month.

Before the sewing went down, I made dinner and dessert for Big D and me. I used the apron my mom made me for Christmas. I took a shot in the bathroom mirror, a very unflattering one, but the apron is so darn cute! Retro fabric complete with ric rac, and it can be worn with the bib or folded down into a half apron. Best Christmas gift EVER!!

Nine Patch Progress

Rule number one of quilting: measure twice and count to make sure you have the right amount of pieces needed.

No, I have not wasted precious fabric, I have once again bitten off more than I can chew. Seeing as how the Pinterest quilt did not come with instructions, I improvised. Those of you who have known me personally for years can commence shaking your heads now! Either I got a little too cut happy with my new Olfa cutter, or I just wasn't thinking and I have cut enough squares for roughly 6 queen sized quilts. Oops.

Despite that, last night at the sewing night and an hour or so tonight has resulted in nearly 30 completed blocks! I decided to work one colour scheme at a time and speedily put together the rows for each block. I'm guessing about an hour of sewing and pressing tomorrow night will finish off the "blue" blocks. After that, I'm moving onto the pink. With all the surplus blocks, and some good company from an old friend last night, I believe her daughter is in for a treat! Here are a few pictures for you then it's off to bed!

Block a Month Quilt

My parents had a New Years Day shindig at their place today and all of our friends that are taking part in the Block a Month quilt a long were there.  We were instructed to bring our quilt squares so we could compare and I managed to snap some shots of the products so far.  Everyone picked a different colour scheme so it was really neat to see how everyone's are coming together.

Left to right the blocks belong to Diana, my mom, mine, Marcia and Krista.  I tried to do a few panoramic pictures but they didn't turn out too well.  This is the best one, despite everyone's hands in there.  Everyone was ogling the quilt squares, even the menfolk! It will be really neat to see how everyone decides to finish their quilt with sashing and borders.

I cut up the 15 fat quarters, some fabric from my stash, plus some of my fabric from my trip for the nine patch quilt I saw on Pinterest.  A few of the girls from MLHS are getting together for a sewing night.  I've already packed up my sewing machine to head on over and start assembling this bad boy.  I laid out three different colour combinations to hopefully try and recreate the picture.  Here's what I have so far.

I have a ton more squares than I thought I would, so I might see if I have enough for colour themed quilts.  We will see what happens during this creative process!

Happy 2013 to everyone and keep on crafting!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013

Well, we survived the end of the world yet again. I don't remember so much hype about a doomsday prophesy since the Y2K thing. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to wake up and NOT find zombies but I suppose life as we know it is a better option!

I have been absent for some time due to Christmas preparations and working with Big D and his new career move. He is going to be a long haul trucker! We got his Class 1 license, have him enrolled in school for the new year and even found him a job for when school is done. I think this is going to be the best career move for us both as we will be able to afford to buy me more fabric pay off debt and buy a house!

On the quilting side of things, I have done absolutely no more work on my museum quilt, including picking a winner for the name contest. I did, however, finish a quilt for my brothers girlfriend. She was the recipient of the Jump Rope quilt. Her condo is decorated with blue and she has a blue couch too so it seemed fortuitous. I snapped a picture of the two of them snuggling under it on Christmas morning!.

I also got some fabric from Tiny T and Big R. 15 fat quarters of quilting goodness!! Tiny T said she picked the packs at random but they actually work well together and with some of the fabric from my trip.  I even found a wonderful pattern on Pinterest.  The colours are similar to what I have so I thought it would be a neat idea.  Simple yet fun!  You can see a picture of what I hope to accomplish here.

Tiny T's mom got me a new Olfa rotary cutter which is super fancy shmancy! Most of my other Christmas stuff was history or quilting related. Mom and Dad even got me a new ironing board pad and cover so I no longer have to display my hideous one!! Yay!!

The old, ugly ironing board cover...blech!

TA DA!!! New pretty goodness!

My new super heavy duty iron!

The fabric from Big R and Tiny T

 

Same as above but with stash additions to make a new quilt

And now I'm off to work on the museum quilt while we still have the table out. Big D wanted to put it away after our Christmas party but I managed to convince him to leave it out for a while so I could do some sewing! Yay!!!

It's Blogathon Day!!

A warm welcome on this blustery November day to all of you visiting via the blogathon!  For all my returning readers, I am being featured, along with other quilting bloggers from my province, for Canadian Quilters Connect Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew SistersQuilt Shop.  Our host blogger, Heather of Church Avenue Quilts, has some amazing quilts.  Her work is beautiful and often features her four legged helpers.  You all know I have a soft spot for them. I am the Crazy Crafting CAT Lady after all!

For those just joining, here is a little bit about me.  you can view my post here talking about how I got into quilting and some of my inspirations.  Basically, my skills were taught to me by my mom and my grandma. Everything past that has been self taught from various sources.  Now I just run wild with different projects I find and create.

So, on to the projects and the quilting happenings of my life!! (A.K.A. the fun stuff!)

A week ago today, now that I think about it, I went out to Stonewall to turn in my quilt block for the block of the month quilt.  I didn’t get to see the quilt shop before because my mom’s friend signed us up and my mom turned in my first block for me while I was in Mississinewa.  This place was heaven!  I picked up some double sided interfacing for the un-named quilt and a cute little mini stocking quilt project.  Here are our blocks for month two!

 My block

 My Mom's block

The block for this month features even more HST’s but my mom and I are feeling more confident about them.  I am in love with how the second block turned out.  I like it a lot more than month one.  

Now, on to the un-named quilt!  I had a lot of fun playing with the iron on transfers and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I started some of the detail stitching, although I'm still not the greatest at it.  I was using all my lovely coloured threads I picked up at Joann's in the states.  I used an almost identical blue on the birds for the smaller blocks.  When Big D saw it, he said it was good but not very visible and seemed like a lot of work for nothing.  Seeing as how these are the border pieces, I left them as is.  I picked a darker blue for the center bird and here's what I have so far.

The tail on one of the smaller birdies

Detail on the wing.

Detail on the center bird.  I want to do some more stitching to him as he is the focal point.

The original inspiration for the quilt.

I still have to do the applique stitching on the greenery.  When I quilt the entire thing, I might do some more detail on the little birds, but I want to see how it comes together first.  With any luck, I'll get the last of the applique stitching done tonight.  I have the place to myself for 4 days because Big D went hunting with his dad again.  Hopefully he can get one more deer to fill his tag and we are set for meat for the winter!!

Seeing as how this quilt is still un-named, aside from my unofficial "Museum Quilt" title when referencing it to friends and here, I'm offering a contest.  Comment below with suggestions for names, and the winner will receive a free copy of the pattern once I have it finished.  This will be my first full sized design of my own making and I can't wait to have it up for sale in my shop.  So let the naming begin!!

Keep warm and cozy everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers!

The still untitled quilt

Welcome back everyone!

A little while back, I talked about a painting I had seen on a wall in one of our local museums.  I found fabric on my trip to make a quilt inspired by this and I have finally come up with a design.  Right now its just a sketch on graph paper and a few squares of fabric sewn together, but in my head it is AMAZING!!

 The design.  The blocks are plain except for the few that are applique.  I want the fabric to be the focus in this quilt, and any detail put in to the quilting.and applique

The quilt so far.  I have the middle applique block, border around it and side panels. Also, my edges are not that wonky, the iPhone jumps a bit when taking panoramic pictures

I want to applique the birds and leaves onto the quilt, which will require some super awesome iron on interfacing.  I didn’t use any with “Home at Last” and some of the houses are coming away from the quilt.  I’ve heard great things about a product called Steam a Seam and I really want to try some.  If any of you Manitoba quilters know where it can be purchased locally, or a similar product, I would love to hear from you. 

My brain subconsciously altered the design with a miscalculation in number of pieces I had cut, so the border around the center design changed just slightly.  I’m not sad at all about this change.  Nothing was set in stone, I had lots of fabric to play with and I like the outcome anyway!

I’m hoping I can get the two top rows done tonight, and maybe even cut out the birds and leaves.  I want to pin them in place and get a feel for the whole thing.

Our snow storm from this past weekend seems to be that brought the snow that’s going to stay.  I’m not entirely sad, it’s perfect sewing weather!!  It will be cold this weekend though when Big D and I head back out to the farm for riffle season.  He still needs to fill his tag, and is determined to get a bigger buck than last time.  I think his feelings and bragging rights took a bit of a hit with that deer.

Keep warm and have fun with your winter craft projects!

Canadian Quilters Connect: Blogathon Canada

I have some exciting news to share with all of you!  I'm going to be featured, along with other quilt/craft bloggers from my province, in a Blogathon hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop who are based out of Toronto, Ontario.  On Thursday November 22, another quilt blogger from my area, Heather of Church Avenue Quilts, will be posting all about her craft, linking to other blogs (including mine) from our province and hosting a few give a ways from the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop.

If you're interested in free crafting stuff, check out all the host blogs each day from November 19 until November 24.  There will be two give a ways a day and the last day will have three give a ways!  Even if you don't win, connecting with other crafters from across the country and seeing their work may inspire you to finish what you've got or start something new an amazing.  I'm very excited to read about everyone and how we all came to be in the same place.

Also, check out the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop and Blog! Click on the picture below to check our their site.  Hope to see you all on November 22nd! (if not sooner of course)

While poking around at a few different quilting blogs, I found this.  Quilting Blogger's, another site I am featured on, is doing a quilt block drive for those affected by hurricane Sandy.  If you are a quilter, or know a quilter who can help, please take the time to make a few blocks and send them off.  Click on the picture below to link up to the quilt block drive.  We're getting close to the holiday season, so lets start giving!!

Keep well everyone and have a great day!!  I will post progress pictures of my spencer jacket tonight or tomorrow.

Working on my PhD

I have been SUPER busy in the last couple of days getting some quilt tops done.  I saw a picture on my Mom's Facebook page that really made me think, I had better get some sewing done before I start any more quilts.

With that being said, I cracked down and not only finished the Jump Rope quilt, but I have made a ton of progress on the Gryffindor quilt I've been designing.

I found this pin on Pinterest which gave me the inspiration to pick up the Gryffindor quilt again.  For those of you new to my blog, I drafted this pattern from a knitting project I did.  I turned each stitch into a 1" square of fabric.  The end result was 600+ tiny squares I need to assemble for the centre crest on the quilt.  I was doing them one at a time, block by block and I was really dreading my decision to make this quilt.  Not only was I pleased with the ease of assembling the centre crest now, but it makes the piecing more even.  Check out this section I re-did after seeing the results from the iron on interfacing.

I'm a little ashamed of my piecing, but I think you can see how much better the result is.  If you are ever considering doing a quilt with this many small pieces, I 100% recommend this method for constructing it!

On that note, I've been up far too late sewing and I need to get some sleep.  I have to be up early to hem my day dress if I want to wear it to work for Halloween tomorrow.  Some people go in store bought or scary costumes, history nerds go in period costume. :D