Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My first experience with Quilting

Whoever knew quilting could be so fun? My first few weeks learning
the basics of quilting was fun! And since we got to use Jo's Viking Designer
sewing machine I totally felt like a spoiled beginner! Selecting our favorite
squares was quite chaotic because we ended up with a table runner
that looked way too floral and 'busy'. So we clipped some more solids--and
stole what we could of Phil's--so all in all we now have some pieces we love.
Can't wait to keep going and see how this turns out!
We are on week 2 of our quilting class with Jo. I now finally understand why quilters need so many rulers.... and thank God for the person who invented the rotary cutter! By the way I am a really bad rotary cutter (secretly I have been pawning the cutting off on the others! "Is that my phone? Jo can you finish that up." :) We have used our Pixie table and the top of the Dingo for all our cutting and spreading out. We have used Fiskars mats, Arrow mats and Fiskars scissors and rotary cutters. Sewing has taken place on our Gidget table. All great tools to have.
It certainly gives you an appreciation for all those ladies years ago cutting with regular scissors all the squares and triangles needed, not to mention hand sewing the whole thing together! I will cherish my grandmother's quilts more and stop letting the dogs sleep on them after this class that is for sure!
Lastly Alisha and I both learned not to be so greedy. I bought a layer cake from Moda for us to cut up and make our small table runner quilts. What is great about the layer cake is all the fabric coordinates, what is bad is Alisha and I loved every piece. We left poor Phil with all the solids and what we considered the uglier fabric, what man wants a quilt any way...right? Well in the end when we laid our quilts out before sewing, Phil's was awesome because he had far more contrast in fabric. Thus Alisha and I had to go back and cut more solid pieces to make ours not look so patterned. One could spend hours moving squares here and there, inside and out.

Long time no blog

Hey everyone its been a long time since our last blog, but man has it been busy for us. Kangaroo Kabinets are taking off faster each day. Our poor builders are working overtime to get them ready to ship. We have had some extra time to do a little crafty quilting project together however. Hether, Alisha and I are quilting our own table runners and they are really looking good... even mine :). Check these out! Between Hether, Alisha and Phil can you guess who is making which one? Guess correctly and we'll mail you an Arrow craft bag.