pickles & bacon: April 2011

April 27, 2011

fabric shopping is wonderful!

It's a REAL good thing I'm not doing the stash report!

I tried getting all the Denyse Schmidt prints from Joann's but was only successful in getting 3 yards of the pink dots and a yard and a half of one of the blues so I bought a FQ bundle on Etsy:

It was only $55 for all 21 prints which works out to $2.62 per FQ, which was worth it for me, I didn't have to hunt down Joann's to go find it all, I checked 3 stores and only found 3 bolts of the stuff total.

Next, I got some cute fabric to make potholders and such from my LQS, I've been eying it for a while so I went ahead and 3 FQs and a 1/2 yard of the toasters:

Fabric is from Robert Kaufmann and is from the Metro Cafe line. It's all super cute! I plan on pairing it with some red and aqua solids from my stash.

This little gem came straight from the Basic Grey website itself. I want to think it was mis-priced because it was only $6.80 and most of the honey buns on their site are around $16.

This is a Sultry honey bun and this line is no longer available. Thinking of doing Mini Jelly Filled from Thimbleblossoms. We shall see!

And I got a yard of Bliss tulips in the red colorway for my bee quilt. My LQS still has some yardage available so I pounced before it's gone forever, it seems to be nowhere online.

This will be the binding. I was going to go lighter on the binding but it seemed to need something strong to box it all in.

So if my math is right just over 13.5 yards in! Stash busting time MUST begin yesterday! The only thing I'm going to allow myself to buy is backing for my bee quilt. I don't have large enough quantities to do the back for that.

changes are good, right??

I've decided to change things up round these parts just a teensy smidge. It's a little name change, not for the blog, but for patterns. I realize I only have one created thus far so maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse but I have a bunch more in progress, part of the reason I'm not around much. So, now I'm introducing:

It's just got a more professional feel than pickles & bacon and seems more timeless. Why seventeen-ten? It's the date of each of my kiddos births. My daughter being born on the 17th of the month and my son the 10th. Not sure if I'm going to do a separate website or blog just yet, I'm going to hold off on that until I get more out there.

April 23, 2011

Its hard...

To hate your job when this is the view from your 'office'. Just sayin!

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April 17, 2011

such a klutz!

Wish I could've been doing more sewing. I REALLY need to get my March bee blocks out and haven't had much time to work on it. Now I have April bee blocks to do too!

Sadly, I won't get much sewing time in. Why? My dingleberry klutzy self managed to sprain my ankle closing a door. I was standing at the back of my ambulance, just loaded the stretcher into the back went to step to the left to grab the door to close it, stepped wrong and twisted my ankle and felt a bunch of popping. I hobbled back to the passenger seat (it was my partners turn to drive) and I could already feel my ankle swelling in my boot. I had my partner grab me an ice pack and when I went to take off my boot it was just intense pain over the top of my ankle. I hemmed and hawed over going to the ER, yanno, because us medical field types HATE being the patient, we really suck at it. After about 15 mins my partner told me we were going so we called up our supervisor and went out of service. Three hours in the ER later, no breaks just a sprain.

My ankle didn't turn any pretty colors or swell too awful much later on and I think that has a lot to do with the fact I put ice on it right away, plus, I'm not an easy bruiser, it takes a LOT to get me to bruise. Apparently the new treatment for sprains is to resume normal activity ASAP so I got sent back to work, didn't run any calls after it happened but I did yesterday and it was challenging, my ankle is still a little tender and even with the air cast they gave me. I have two days off lets hope I can recuperate some more before having to go back!

April 8, 2011

10 quilting habits

As I've evolved as a quilter I've noticed things about my 'style'. How I choose fabrics, how I do my backs, how I shop, etc. So, here is what I've learned about my creative process:

1. I love pre-cuts, hands down these are my go to items. Charm packs, jelly rolls, honey buns, layer cakes, Oh My! They make things SO much easier in the cutting department.

2. I prefer Kona solids over Bella solids. I find Kona tends to be softer and sturdier than Bella solids. I still adore Moda print fabrics though.

3. I tend to stick to fabrics from all one line. I love that it's all matched and color coordinated for me. Takes a lot of the matchy matchy work out of it.

4. I'm not a fan of traditional blocks or all over repeat patterns. Basket blocks? No thanks. Some blocks, however, can be made with modern fabrics and look AMAZING!

5. Applique is beginning to intrigue me but only because I'd love to make a Dear Jane quilt, not too sure that it's something I'd like to tackle had I not seen that quilt.

6. Most of the time I piece my backs. Usually by the time I get around to using a certain fabric line yardage is becoming scarce for backing options. Typically I won't piece a back if I can easily fit a quilt on a single piece of yardage. Or I buy it all at one time and miscalculate how much yardage I'll need especially if I make up the pattern as I go along.

7. I make my binding strips at 2 1/4" wide. I love how tightly it hugs the edges of the quilt. I also tend to do my bindings on the straight grain, me and bias edges are NOT good friends.

8. I hate cutting, see #1.

9. I buy yardage because I like it. That stuff doesn't get used readily.

10. I have a quilt I've been working on for almost a year now. I love the fabric, hate the process of making this quilt. It's tedious and I hate the technique.

What are some of your habits??