Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I am feeling a little bit better...

Enough so that I ventured out into the art studio yesterday shortly after my chiropractor appointment and a simple lunch. {Smiles.} Unfortunately, it wasn't to create anything, however, I did gather up the fabric that I had purchased earlier this year, before I found myself attempting to make a dent in some of the creative chaos that it has become. LOL! I managed to clear off the top of my bookbinding station, approximately 75%, and put somethings away, in the short half hour I was there. Organizing it once again, is on my list of things to do! If only in short amounts of time spent here and there until I'm feeling back to my old self.

I returned to the house and began pre-washing the fabric and drying it before folding it back up. It is still in need of a good pressing before I'll be able to actual use it. If anyone remembers, I purchased this material in hopes of creating a quilt, so my day was spent researching all the "how to's" online, making a list of supplies that I will need to set me up a sewing area within our home. The good news is that I will have very little that I will actually need to purchase to create a sewing station or the quilt itself. I have an extra table and chair that I can set up here in the house and my Ott light can be brought in for additional "seeing what the heck I am doing" lighting. I am thinking I'll empty one of the 3 drawer organizers to maintain all the necessary supplies in that I'll need during this process.

I am not a "sewer"... in fact, I haven't touched a "real" sewing machine since I was in the 7th grade and was forced to create an apron in Home Economics class --- and at the time, I hated it! However, I have been won over after seeing some of the creative things that other bloggers are sewing and some beautiful quilts online. As I stated, I am completely a beginner, so some of the "beginner" patterns that I was discovering online... look far to complicated for me, LOL! I was successful of discovering a website: http://www.sewaquilt.com that had some amazing, easy to read, and understand basic tutorials; from which, I printed out an article on rotary cutting. I found myself laughing at myself... me printing an article on rotary cutting, LOL! I have some experience with rotary cutting; however, I am certain that there are some major differences between cutting paper and cutting fabrics --- so this will be another learning curve for me.

Next, I set out on a search for a simple basic free quilting pattern... one easy enough for a beginner! I won't even begin to describe what an ordeal that was --- let's just say that I was on at least 100 websites, LOL! before finally coming across
http://www.freespiritfabric.com and a downloadable pattern called Seasonal Magic that appears "do-able" to me. I do need to measure the fabric that I purchased to be certain that I have enough before I begin. Anyways, the finished quilt top is 53"x66" and uses a 13" block size... which instantly scares me. What if I discover this isn't for me? LOL!

Thinking quickly, I remembered that when we set up Alexxis' nursery, I had purchased a baby quilt with her crib bedding, I'm now thinking maybe a smaller quilt, using this pattern is the way to go. Of course, I will need to consult my mom on this before proceeding to do anything, as we will need to adapt the pattern to the size quilt I am desiring to create. To prepare for that, I measured every square inch of the purchased quilt, created a diagram with each measurement, and made notations of those measurements for the 1/4" seam allowances. I will be visiting with my mom today to discuss all of this and probably creating a new diagram to work with in actually getting it created. Hopefully, I'll have some progress made soon to show for all my effort! Also, the baby quilt won't be a waste of time or fabric since I chose the colors to work within Alexxis' nursery and her crib is a 4 in 1 that converts to a toddlers bed. I am even thinking that if enjoy this process, I can use the remaining fabrics to create her a pillow case and some decorative pillows to toss on her bed! I'll post more once I determine how all this is going to go..........

No comments: