Say it with Quilting

Everything I want to say goes into this. The fabric itself holds kisses and tears, hugs from a hoop, and months of neglect, because how can I give these things a sense of completion?

Preparations for a Wedding

Erin and Andrew's wedding is just around the corner now, and it's keeping the crafting hands busy. First thing when I got back to Waterloo was the wedding shower! There was a food and drinks table with jumbo straws that I wish I had stolen every time I have an avocado smoothie (a new favourite).

And a Bronwyn Snyder cake which, despite worries, was delicious. But the sudden realization dawns that I never got a strawberry... 

Some BORING punch. Actually it was delicious AND there were mimosas outside.

But all I really did was provide transport and show up, basically. Oh, and tack up some flowers in doorways.

Hannah, on the other hand, cross-stitched badges for everyone.

AND made adorable cupcakes! So it's almost like you were there now, isn't it? Hm?

In other news, I've been helping out some since then. I got my sewing machine all oiled up! I am way more excited about this than most things. That sewing machine is a good reference point for me in life.

In any case, I brought it over to Erin's for some quilting madness!!!!!!!!

We got all of the rows done so it shouldn't take too much more time to finish, because of Erin's sensible choice of quilting method: knots!

And, during downtimes, putting together giant paper flowers has taken over all other duties. These are amazing. Instructions available here and I highly recommend making a bunch of these without having any purpose in mind. They're fun.

Quilting Detail

 I figured maybe instead of just throwing pictures up of all my projects (because doing that every week would be really boring), maybe I'll show you HOW I make each one of them. Starting with the quilt, since a couple of people have been curious about that. Usually I sit on my bed, throw on some Netflix, and hoop up the next square I'm going to quilt. In this case, it'll be that boring grey square in the middle. These squares are very simple to do, just straight lines to make a smaller square inside.

 Next step is to measure half an inch inside whichever line you want to start with. Of course, you always want to start your quilting in the middle, so it's always better to start with whatever part of the square is closest to the middle. in this case it's the top left corner, so I'll be going from left to right.

 Mark the line with a piece of masking tape so you know you'll be making a straight line.

 Mark your start and end points.

 Clearly I've used the same piece of tape several times, so I have to start getting creative to keep track of what I'm doing. It gets messy quickly.

 Then take your needle and make even running stitches along the line. This is my favourite needle because it's bent in the most convenient way. I don't what I'll do if I ever lose it. Before you begin you want to make a small knot in the in the thread, which you'll pull through the top layer of the quilt only, so it sits nicely inside and keeps everything in place.

And that's finished!

Progress as promised

 Apparently the girl whose room I took over made great cushion covers, but then took them with her when she left. So Diane and I whipped these up to some reality TV one night. By HAND!

 But mostly what I'm working on is this. I realized when I stepped out of the house one morning that not only had I forgotten my favourite cowl, I'd forgotten to bring ANY of them. So I'm making a new one from scratch. And of course I'm doing it in my version of a waffle texture, because I loves me some waffles.

 And yay my bed frame finally came! I'm going to be very upset to part with it now. Special bonus: what better way to keep a quilt-in-progress laid out nicely? Why, on the bed of course!

 I hardly thought this project would stay interesting to the internet at this stage, but I figure I might as well let you know it's going. This part here? That's done. You'll notice some faint lines in the points of the stars.

 A close-up of the centre, where you can actually see the stitching

 And another star, which is unfinished.

This bit probably shows it best. The right half is finished, you can see some basting stitches in the middle, and the left side has yet to be dealt with.