Off she goes!

I've started sewing!!! The getting up, sitting down, ironing, pinning, cutting is a lot more exercise than knitting is. I realized how out of shape I really am when I was tired all of a sudden after 4 hours or so in this processes. Normally, with knitting, I can do it for hours. Of course, I hadn't slept in over 48 hrs due to studying for exams. That could have contributed to the tiredness.

I was proud of myself because I really didn't love the entire collection of Lizzy House's Outfoxed all together in one quilt. Some of the fabrics just didn't seem to go with the Kona Snow I wanted to use as the contrast fabric. I already started amassing a small little fabric stash. (Don't look at the dates of the previous posts. It's sad how impulsive all of this has been.) I was able to pick out 3 fabrics from my stash that I thought went just perfectly and were better choices. I already felt like such a little quilter--picking out my own fabrics. That part was really fun.

 The cutting has been slow and tedious. I want to make sure I get all of the cuts just perfect because that's where the foundation of precise piecing comes in. I decided I needed a little practice with my seams before starting on the big whopper though. I whipped up the cutest little clutch, based on a tutorial from Noodlehead! I love it. I learned quite a bit during the process (how to make gathered stitches, not to be so scared of zippers, how to sew a straight seam--though I "seem" to not be able to do so, etc.) It turned out adorable. I will post FO pictures sometime soon now that I am on Thanksgiving break.

I decided I just had to make some of these clutches for all of my friends, so today, when I came home after my neuro exam (woohoo!), I picked out some fabrics. I promptly fell into an unconscious coma for a couple of hours on top of some piles of papers, mechanical pencils that kept poking me, and the semblance of a bed with lots of stinky sheets. After I woke up, bathed and groomed, tidied up the tiniest bit (mainly to make space on my desk for my self-healing mat), I started hacking away at another clutch.

Until I got this:

There's a reason why the tutorial says "Topstitch a line straight across the zipper with a very small seam allowance being careful not to hit those metal parts!" Yeap, learned the hard way. Now I am off to socialize with some future doctors. If we all passed, hopefully, that is.

Major hobby distraction will be coming up

Exam week this week, and all I can think about is sewing!!! I want to make a quilt so badly. When I saw that JoAnn's had 40% off batting, guess what I ordered?

Oops.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I can't seem to get the cord for my cameras to work, and I shouldn't really be spending the time to fix them. In fact, I shouldn't really be on Joanns.com or on the quilting blogosphere. It's all way too addicting.

I'm learning so much though! Quarter inch seams. Flying geese. Stitching-in-the-ditch is not a la mode anymore. Kona solids (yum). Joel Dewberry. (All I used to know was Amy Butler, and I liked her stuff, but I used to think that was all that was out there. I was wrong.) Free-motion quilting (FMQ) vs. walking quilting stitch vs. hand quilting (want to try them all). ROTARY CUTTING. [I do NOT in any sort of sane world need a serger or a long-arm quilting machine, just an FYI to you out there and to myself. Mostly to myself.] Machine applique. Mug rugs. Mini quilts. Farmers quilts. Bias of fabric --> bias tape. Binding. Zippers. Ruffles. Quilting bees! (not brave to go there yet. Funny-I daydreamed about the serger and long-arm quilter before I did the bees) I barely know where to start.

I'm going to be ambitious, per usual, and start here I think.
Not quite the best beginner project because it isn't very fast. I just want to make use of a good portion of the batting I ordered. With this fabric. (I'm a cheater and probably going to use all the fabric from one collection.) I think I will hand quilt that baby, too. Yes ma'am. I am nuts. Who is this blanket for you say? The non-existant 6-year old boy in my life with a big boy double-sized bed. Yea. My future child? My brother's future child? More likely: my couch.

Now, I should really be learning about lymphomas.... Reed-Sternberg cells, anyone?

I don't even sew!

Yesterday, I went to a quick, yet leisurely dinner with one of my guy's mentors. I loved spending some time with their daughter, Jade, who was an adorable, vivacious 3-going-on-4 year old. We discussed our love of pink, watermelon, and chicken. Can you tell we were eating? Anyway, Jade's mother is an avid crafter. Everywhere we went, she was pointing out the gorgeous decorations or the stunning wallpaper. (I never though wallpaper could really be stunning, but there were definitely some stunning wallpapers in the new J.W. Marriott in Indianapolis.) Sam casually mentioned that I'm a knitter. (He called me the alpha-knitter of the knitters he knew, haha.) Well, she wanted to be brought to Hobby Lobby after dinner, while the men discussed the details of the conference we're all attending this weekend. A woman after my own heart!



All of the crafting discussion at the dinner table last night made me want to sew. (Oh alright--it was only an exchange of a few words, but that's all my mind thought about the rest of the night, so I may have a skewed perspective.) I don't even sew! I knit! Fine, I hem my pants. I sewed by hand several dresses and pajama bottoms for myself and my dolls until I was about 10. But I never really sewed. Aren't these fabrics beautiful, though? Want...