Strip quilt back process

Remember this?

I am super proud of my progress. I thought this quilt back might take forever to piece, but I'm nearly there. I stopped only because I had a piece of pie to eat, and because I have to work tomorrow. :D You may or may not be able to read the center text. But the fabric I bought for the back, I thought might be wide enough, and if it wasn't I was going to piece some of it together, somehow. But after doing a few calculations (very crude guesstimating: when I had the quilt top laying out on a table I placed the fabric for the back on it to see if it would work if I had the salvage end running along the top of the quilt) I realized I did not have enough. I did have, however, a lot of the fabric from the quilt top left over. So the next question I had was how to lay it out. I could do something like the quilt back shown here (scroll down to near the end of the post). Only my squares would be an equal 2 inches around to coordinate with the quilt tops equal 2" rows.

This, I decided would be a little bit more work, and as I said before, I would have to add some fabric to the sides of the bottom piece of fabric as I didn't have quite enough of the polka dot to reach from edge to edge.

So, I decided to make my life simpler. I would simply put the polka dot down the center of the back. Then I quickly decided to piece 2.5' strips of the fabric as I did on the front, then I would cut rectangles out of the fabric, and once that was done I would piece 4 of these rectangles (the 6" x 20" rectangles shown on the edges) together to make strips to go down the side of the quilt back.

This is where I stopped today. Next, all I need to do is piece the strips to either side of the salvage edge of my polka dot fabric, then trim it up. I'm thinking that I might add some bias tape to run down the seam between the strips on the edges and the center of the quilt; just to decrease clash. My mom has a bias tape maker, so I'll borrow hers to make the tape out of some of the sashing I used on the front. (Though for some reason this fabric is nowhere to be found, so I might have to buy some more from JoAnns.)

Finally, I get to quilt! :D (But to make this happen, I'll have to make a trip to Lowe's. Something I think I'll do on Sunday. :D)

But that, my friends, is something for another post. I hope this isn't too confusing. But I'm proud of my progress....

Kayleen, how is your quilt coming?

A work in progress.

In February (wow!) of this year I took a quilting class with a good friend of mine. I posted about it here and here. I finally pulled it out again. And all I've done thus far is add the teal polka dot fabric around the top. But that was all I needed to do to finish the quilt top. :D It is actually a bit bigger than I thought it would be, measuring about 50" by 72". So now, I'm working on the quilt back. Which is turning into a lot of math, calculations and planning. The fabric I bought for the backing I don't have enough of just by itself. So I think I'll have some of the fabrics from the front on the back. I just cut my strips, I'll begin piecing them later this week. I'll have to cut the stabilizer I bought, because it is about twice as big as I needed. But that's okay I can use the other half for a quilt about this size. :D

The quilt top draped over my couch.

A close-up of the corner.

The quilt top laying flat on the table outside.

Desires

Day 49/50.

A few things.

I've been thinking about taking classes lately. One day, I hope to return to school for nursing, but at this moment in my life, I, one, cannot afford it, and two, cannot fathom writing papers again.

I am still paying off college, and cannot imagine taking out more loans.

The classes I've been thinking about taking are more for fun.

1. Quilting
2. Cooking
3. Photography
4. Spanish

Quilting
I am already taking some quilting classes, one will be continued this week on Thursday, and another will be on March 14th, which is a table runner class.

I really am excited to quilt/sew. Though I don't think I really have any ambition to sew clothing. Since I have an embroidery machine, I have ambition to embroider, but not to actually piece together an outfit. Perhaps this will change in time. Perhaps a mini-me, might persuade me to sew a beautiful dress or Halloween costume. But at this time in my life, I feel it is simply easier to buy said dresses. Why, do I feel it is easier/better to quilt or sew my own quilts, table runners etc? I do not know. It makes absolutely no sense to me either. ;D

Cooking
I would love to take some cooking classes to learn some new techniques/recipes, and I think it is uber romantic to take said classes with someone you love. However, I do not think that my DH would ever take a cooking class with me. It (cooking) is not something he enjoys doing. He doesn't care what he eats. A bag of chips is okay in his book. Sandwiches everyday, that's fine. He likes most of the food I make, and I think is grateful that I make it, but if I didn't he would be fine with that too.

Growing up, my family had home cooked meals. We sat around the table, prayed before every dinner, and ate together. We asked "may I be excused" when we were done with dinner, and if we had successfully made a dent in our meal we would be allowed to scrape our plate and wash our hands. I have fond memories of dinnertime. It was family time. Every Saturday night, my extended family would have dinner at my Grandparent's house, the cousins and I would play, and then eat together, sometimes outside if it was nice out.

So for me, food is very comforting and reminds me of family, love, and friendship. But DH does not share these thoughts on food. If I spend all day cooking something special, he does not understand why I have done it. To him, food is simply a necessity. For me, sharing a meal is an extension of my love, and a way to bond and grow as a family. He knows how I feel about dinner time, and that once we have children things will be changing in our house. Currently we eat every dinner in front of the TV. This will not be okay for my children. I fought for a while to eat dinner at the table, but eventually he won, and we have the horrible habit of eating in front of the TV. I'm not proud of this. I'm terribly ashamed actually...

Photography
I want to learn some photography techniques so that I can take beautiful pictures of my crafty projects. Also, I am mesmerized by the talent of people who take abstract photographs that are beautiful enough to be framed and exhibited.

I hate posting photos of my cards or other projects when I feel that the photo doesn't capture the essence of my work. I want to be proud of my craft both online and in life.

Spanish
A language that I did well with in high school, and one that I encounter the most at work, has always been something I wanted to be fluent in, well since I started classes. I had to choose between choir and Spanish senior year of high school, and in order to be in the musical, I had to go with choir. My Spanish teacher was very upset with me for not continuing, as she knew that I grasped it well, and enjoyed the language. After that, I never went back. I wished I took some Spanish in college, but since my schedule was jam packed with multiple sciences pretty much every semester, I didn't have time for the studying involved with a second language.

I find myself understanding most of what my Spanish speaking patient's say. And one particular Spanish interpreter, can tell that my grasp of the language is pretty good for only having 2 years of high school Spanish under my belt. Patient's have told me that my pronunciation is pretty good as well, though sometimes they have to correct me as I once said something about a "bull", instead of whatever it was I was trying to say. ;) It would be incredibly helpful if I could speak with my Spanish speaking patients, at least at an elementary level if nothing else, so that I could determine their needs without an interpreter present. 


What fun classes, if any, would you like to take??

Sew Fun

Day 47/48.

Today my mom, aunt and I went to the Sew Expo at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. It was splendid. I spent a lot of money. (and could have spent way more) So, Happy Birthday to me!!

I don't feel that bad, because Jamaal spent about the same amount as I did on a video game seat and steering wheel for his birthday present.

I can't wait to play with my new toys. :D

Strip quilt progress.

I finished piecing my strips together. :D

Quilt class

Okay so one more post for the day. I know I've gone overboard today. But sometimes I just get a compulsion to post. When you're done here, go check out my other blog, I've posted a couple things there as well!

Tomorrow, my good friend Kayleen and I will be going to a quilting class. Yesterday I washed my fabrics, and today I pressed them.

I have no idea what the quilt will look like when I'm done, so it was kind of difficult to pick out the fabrics. (I have not seen the sample of the quilt we will be making.)

We needed 10 different fabrics for the main part of the quilt, which I picked out in pairs. The off white is for the sashing, and the blue polka dot is for the binding.

I'll let you know how it goes. The table runner I started last year, still hasn't been restarted again since I stopped....