Increasing the Piecing

UFOs currently in progress

2011-07-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Have You Seen My Button?

2010-11-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hey yall! I have a button now! This is pretty exciting for me, mostly because I made it all on my own and I am NOT good with that kinda computer stuff. Put pick it up and put it on you page, just copy and paste the image above or below and add my URL. Share the love yall! If you pick up my button just let me know and I'll put yours on my page too. It is always so nice to help each other out. So do you like the button? Any critiques or tips on how to improve it in the future? I am always up for improvement.

Also I'll be posting soon about my WIPs/UFOs and my recent trip tp Boston. And pics of my new sewing room are due to be up before you know it!

Quilt Care Series Part One: Washing Your Quilt

2010-11-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

Quilts are a very delicate and loved heirloom that must be treated with care. Although you should wash your quilt as little as possible (once every six weeks is ideal if you can get away with it), there will come a time when that musty, dusty piece of artwork must be washed. Here is a simple guide to help you through the daunting and sometimes scary task.

I will share two options to wash your quilt, machine washing and hand washing. When choosing how to wash your quilt, make sure to pay careful attention to the details of the piece. Is it hand or machine sewn? Is it in relatively good condition or has time, use and wear made it more delicate than it was in its early years? Questions like these will help you decided if you feel it is safe to machine wash your quilt or if it needs the special care and time of hand washing. The following tips will be useful in either style of washing.

Washing Tips and Rules:

1. NEVER use bleach.

2. Use a gentle laundering soap that is fragrance free, color free, and if at all possible free of fabric softener.

3. Wash in warm, not too hot, not too cold water.

4. Never put non diluted laundering soap directly on your quilt.

5. NEVER use bleach.

6. Always double rinse your quilt with cold water to make sure all soap is washed out to prevent damage.

Image via Wikipedia

Machine Washing:

1. Fill the washing machine with warm water and recommended amount of laundering soap. Make sure soap has COMPLETELY dissolved.

2. Add Quilt to wash. Completely submerge into the water.

3. Choose a gentle, warm wash cycle and cold rinse.

4. Once quilt has finished its wash cycle start a new, cold rinse cycle to make sure the quilt has completely rinsed.

5. Dry. (Drying Part soon to come!)

Image by MyEyeSees via Flickr

Hand Washing:

1. Make sure the tub you are using is completely clean and rinsed of all cleaning agents.

2. You may use your bath tub or any washing tub of your liking.

3. Fill tube with warm water and laundering soap. Make sure soap has COMPLETELY dissolved .

4. Completely submerge quilt in the water.

5. Gently “swirl” the quilt with your hands under water and let sit for a few hours.

6. Drain water from the tub and refill with cold water with your quilt still in it. Let it soak for a few hours.

7. Drain.

8. Dry. (Drying Part soon to come!)

Too scary for you? Not quite ready to make the big jump into washing your quilt? Maybe it’s just not as dirty as you thought… Try vacuuming it. Put the vacuum on the gentlest suction you can. Using the dusting attachment, hold the vacuum an inch or two from the fabric and suck out all the dust and dirt you can. Whatever you do though, no matter how afraid of washing your quilt you maybe, NEVER use fabreeze or similar items to freshen up your quilt.

Any one have any other tip or tricks when it comes to washing your quilt? How do you keep them fresh and smelling good?

(Coming soon!)

1. Choosing a Detergent.

2. Drying Your Quilt.

3. Storing Your Quilt.

4. Shipping Your Quilt.

5. Repairing Your Quilt.

Anything else you would like to hear about? Just let me know. :)

Projector Give Away!

2010-10-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Check out Twice Lovely's blog to enter in her giveaway.

Good Luck everyone!

It's Been Too Long and I'm Gettin' the Itch...

2010-10-20T00:56:00.000-07:00

The Itch to Quilt that is!

Wow! It has been way too long since I have posted and since I have quilted. I recently made the HUGE move from Charleston SC to upstate NY near Albany. My husband and I packed up over 6,000 pounds of stuff our dog and three cats and headed north to his new station. Luck him he just had the dog in the truck with him, I was stuck with ALL three cats for almost 20 hours of travel.

Chief in the truck on one of our breaks.

We stayed the night with my grandparents for a night in VA on the way up. It was great to see them and I inherited some wonderful peices from my Gran. I got her sewing table and dinner table. I could NOT have been more happy. The sewing table isn't anything spectacular but just the fact that it was my gran's thrills me! It is perfect in my new little sewing room.

A picture I took on the drive up here. I couldn't resist, it was so beautiful.

That brings me to another reason I haven't posted in so long, my new sewing room! It has taken me a while to get around to unpacking it and it is about one fourth of the size of my old one so I am having trouble making it just right for me. It is coming along nicely though and should be done soon. The freezing cold weather here (which I am NOT accustumed to being from FL and never traveling much norther than VA) Makes me want to do NOTHING but quilt. All I can think about is sitting down with a hot cup of tea and make beautiful quilts to keep me warm and to hang on my walls to help insulate my new house.

I have a couple of projects I have been working on recently as much as I can and I will keep you all updated as much as I can as I work on them.

Moving!!!

2010-08-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

My husband recently got orders to relocate. We just found out that we will be moving to upstate NY to finish his training. Although it is going to be a huge change and EXTREMELY different from what I am used to (I was raised in the south and went to highschool and college in FL) I have decided I am very excited for the change and adventure. The first thing I did went my husband told me the news was jump on the computer and look up quilt shops in the area. I was ecstatic when I found out there were so many shop nearby since here in Charleston there really aren't any quilt shops. With this big change I have decided to add some changes to my quilting life to make it more productive. We will only be in NY for about 8 months so I feel like that is the perfect time period to set some short term goals. My goals are roughly as follows:

GOALS:

Take at least one quilting class a month. Each class should be based on a new task I should be learning or perfecting.
Finish my Gran's quilt by Christmas.
Participate in a Quilting Bee.
Participate in a Siggy Quilt swap.
Make at least ONE Brown Bag quilt from the Stash Manicure Brown Bag Quilt Contest.
Make a "Baby Jane" Quilt top. Do a certain amount of squares per week until I get the whole Quilt top done.

Christmas Quilt 1

2010-07-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

So this post is a little late due to some personal issues I was having. But here it is :). I am doing the Christmas in July Blitz by Monkey Dog Quilts. I am making a quilt for my Grandmother (on my father's side) for Christmas this year. Since she has done so much for me over the years I figured it is the least I can do for her. It will be a signature quilt with a block for each of my cousins, aunts, uncles, father, and sister. My grandma is very proud of her Scottish heritage and immigrated to America when she was 19. I have decided to make the Quilt purple and green because those colors remind me of her home. These are four of the fabrics I have picked out. I still need to get two more that are green.

Below is a picture of inspiration. Although my quilt will be somewhat different it will still have the same type blocks.

I Have drawn this rough sketch to see if it is how I want the quilt but I am not quite sure yet. I think I really like it, what do you think?

Right after I picked the colors for this quilt a found this quilt being done for an ill mother. I plan on using my left over fabric to make squares for it. Maybe you could help too?

My Pledge

2010-07-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today I watched a documentary on Wal-Mart and have decided to boycott this store and start shopping locally. I am disgusted with how this corporation treats it's workers from both overseas and right here in America. I will do my best to by form local farmers and to buy as many things handmade and reuse as much as possible. Read here about what you can do to shop locally and why we should not be shopping at Wal Mart. The documentary can be rented from NetFlix and I highly recommend every one watch to have an understanding of we are participating in when we shop at the awful place.

History Lesson: Friendship Quilts

2010-07-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Friendship quilting started in the mid-1800s and was a huge fad of the time. These nifty quilts where also called signature quilts and album quilts. Friendship quilts were used to help remember friends and feel connected with them in a time before telephones and internet especially when so many families were up and moving out west and would never see their old friends again. They were also used to raise money or to donate to troops. A group of women would charge per signature per block and then raffle off the quilt or sell it at auction. Blocks would include either names, locations, bible verses, notes or any combination of these either written in ink or embroidered.

I love the idea of a friendship quilt! Once I have more readers I plan to do a friendship quilt group project/quilt along and I have some different ideas for them. Maybe one for followers and we can all make squares to send to each other and we could all make our own friendship quilts? And I totally love the idea of making one for our troops! Sending a quilt to someone fighting overseas would be a wonderful thing to do. I think I am going to make a christmas style friendship quilt for my Grandma's Christmas present with our families signatures and notes.

If anyone has anything they would like to add please leave a comment. I am always in the mood to learn more! :). Also, if you have done a friendship quilt I would love to hear about it.

Mary Ellen's

2010-07-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

So today I had to go to Hancock Fabrics to get some bobbins and I stumbled across a basket with 50% OFF in bright yellow across it. Of course this got me interested. (I am a sucker for a sale) I saw that this basket held Mary Ellen's Best Press. I have heard great things about it but could never bring myself to buy it until now. Again, I am a sucker for a sale. It is usually a bit pricey but at four dollars I just couldn't say no and boy am I happy I didn't. This stuff is AMAZING. I used it to press a binding strip and it made the fabric so crisp and creased yet still very soft. I began finding myself wanting to iron ALL my fabric to make it this nice. I washed and ironed the fabric I will be using to make a quilt tomorrow and then cut it into pieces a little after and it was so much easier to cut and measure perfect little squares and strips. If you have never used this product I recommend you go get, and quickly too while it is still on sale! I cannot belief it made my fabric so much easier to work with and still left it so soft. I hope y'all enjoy this product.
P.S. Oh! And I got some little storage containers for my studio! I am so excited to get my selves up and use my new boxes to organize.

Studio Plans

2010-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have started the daunting task of setting up an organizing my sewing studio. Up until now my sewing things have been scattered around my house and I sew where ever the mood strikes me. YIKES! Talk about messy, messy, messy, and not to mention terribly unorganized. I am creating my spare from room into my studio and have slowly getting furniture and such to go in it, mostly things my neighbors throw out when the Navy relocates them. Who wants to take that cheap bookshelf across country with them? Their trash, my treasure. I am spray painting and fixing up a lot of these things to make them coordinate. I am going to add some links of inspiration for y'all to look at. I want it to be like a mini boutique looking work space, a room style kind of like a nice booth in a craft fair so my completed work will display until it is sold.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehappyzombie/sets/72157594239808821/
I LOVE this one. She has to be one of my favorites ever! I love her use of color and organization.

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2007/02/the_studio.html

http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/search/label/sewing%20room

http://members.shaw.ca/shareski/sewingroom.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/typefiend/2210774031/

http://www.gloria.beuclers.com/

Also, tell me, what are your great ideas on organizing and decorating a sewing studio? What rooms inspire you? What does our room look like? Once my room is finished I will post a blog tour of it and showing my organization and decoration tips. I cannot wait to have my room finished!

First Post

2010-07-14T10:47:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

My husband and I

I wanted to use this first post to take the time to let you know a little bit about me and to layout my goals of this blog. I have been on the fence about getting a blog and have finally fallen into. I have so much fun reading everyone else's blogs why not make one myself?

I decided it was time to start a blog so that I could keep my favorite blogs organized and easy to find, it is MUCH easier to flow blogs when you have a blog of your own. I am getting more and more into my crafts and quilting hobbies and here I can organize my thoughts and let a little bit of my creative juices flow. I want my blog to be a place where I can bounce ideas off of people, teach some of the things I know, learn what others have to teach, and keep my goals and progress in this whole adventure organized.

Well, on about me. My name is Lia and I am a college student who is a new wife to a wonderful US Navy sailor. I have always wanted to open my own boutique (mostly for children and babies)but because of my husband's career we tend to move a lot, making opening up a shop a difficult goal for right now. So opening a shop is a long term goal. My short term goal is to start an Etsy shop online that can move with me everywhere I go. I enjoy learning about crafting and quilting and am always open to a challenge. I love animals, I have three cats and a dog. I love to laugh and make jokes, I am always finding the humor in things.

I looking forward to meeting people and I hope y'all enjoy my blog!