Facing my (feather) Fears

2014 is a year of finishes on the blog. I thought; what a better way to start the year than to end one of my quilting fears.

I'm not sure why I was so afraid of feathers. They're so pretty (and really easy, too), and I suppose intimidating. Yesterday I spent a ton of time sketching feathers and they were looking more and more horrible. Eventually I just figured I should try it on fabric and...

 Not too shabby for my first time!

I watched a ton of videos. Maddie K's Drag Queen Feathers just aren't for me, I don't think I'm fabulous enough for them. I adore Karen McTavish's Victorian Feathers, but I just can't whip it like she can. While you're on a youtube roll, you may as well watch this for good measure. So I just kind of went with the flow and did my own style of feather.

 Next time I'll be focusing more on the spine of the feather. I don't think that the spines are distinct enough. I could have gone over and thread painted them a bit but I think it would look even better if I created a gap in the center of the spine.

I also came up with a genius idea to move my sewing table out into the living room so I can marathon out Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 and quilt simultaneously. I watched almost two whole seasons and finished up my table runner.

I won't be posting the finish until the end of the month, as I'll be doing with all my finished projects this year. I will certainly be starting a few more projects this month though!!









What have you been working on this weekend?


Quilt on,
Hoppi

Pinwheels and Elephants; my January finish

For the month of January I am going to finish my Pinwheels and Elephants quilted table runner.

Today I finally finished the border, basted, and began quilting.

For Christmas Derrick's Grandmother got me 3 spools of aurifil 50wt cotton thread. I have never used Aurifil before so I was really eager and excited to try it...


LIKE BUTTA.

So smooth, so amazing. I never want to quilt with anything else. I did run into a few problems while quilting...

 I broke three, yes three, needles. Now it could be because my machine is dirty. So I will be cleaning it out and trying again tomorrow.

I'm just really hoping it's not the thread.

I am really happy with what I have done thus far though. I'm basically just stitching in the ditch along the pinwheels and outlining the elephants.

I chose a beige thread to match the background of the elephants on the front as well as the beige elements in the green fabric.



I'll be using the same color thread around the border, but I'm just not too sure what I will quilt there yet.

I was originally thinking feathers, but I can't even sketch them out. I guess I will continue to practice, but if anyone has any other ideas of what to do for the border I welcome them with open arms!

I'm going to start a few more projects this month and finish them through out the year, I'm really excited about this Lovely Year of Finishes!

Today I'm linking up with FMQ Friday and Can I get a Whoop Whoop.

Quilt on,
Hoppi

2014... Best year ever

I have so many goals for 2014, as I'm sure many of us do. I have quilting goals, crafting goals, work goals, and personal life goals.

I'll start with a few of my personal goals.

1) Get married in 2014!
      Hey, I need to reach one of my goals, right!?!?!

2) Lose some weight and put on muscle by the end of the year.
       I'd like to be around 18% body fat, currently I'm 31%. I've hired a personal trainer and am doing  it the right way! 

3)Organize my home and quilt space.
       This year I am doing the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge I will update you on my progress monthly.

4) Focus on family.
      This comes pretty easily to me, because I love the family that I have, and the family that I'm marrying in to! 

Quilting/Crafting Goals

1)

Start and finish my guest quilt for our wedding.

2)

Finish up my EYL quilt! I'd love to have this done by February, that would be exactly one year that I started it!

3)

Practice wood burning daily. Pyrography is one of my favorite crafts to do. I want to keep practicing so I can get much better at this, and possibly one day begin selling custom signs. That is obviously far into the future.

4)

Start and Finish one of the quilts in this book!

5)

Finish up the oldest UFO ever, I began this in mid November 2012. I also want to finish a few other UFO's I have lying around.

6) Attend a quilt guild meeting (or 12).

In order to finish up these goals I'm joining in on A Lovely Year of Finishes, where I will attempt to finish something quilt related each month throughout the year.


Work Goals

1) Work my butt off from 8-5 Monday through Friday, and leave the rest of the time I have for my personal life.
      This is going to be a bit tricky. Of course I will have mixers that I need to attend and early morning breakfast meetings every once in a while, but for the majority of the time I want to focus on my personal life outside of business hours.


I have so much to accomplish this year, and I am really looking forward to it. I truly believe that with the New Year comes new opportunity, and new beginnings.

I also look forward to sharing this year with all of you! The more projects I get done, the more I will blog about it!

I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and A Lovely Year of Finishes head on over and check out everyone's goals!

Quilt on,
Hoppi



 

Duces, 2013.

2013 was a bitch... a bipolar bitch.

I guess there were a few good moments... like the time Derrick and I got our first apartment together, all on our own with no roommates or parents.

We also got thoroughly drunk on champagne the night we were accepted.

I threw an off the wall bomb diggity surprise 25th birthday party.

Oh yeah, and an itty bitty thing that happened this year.

he put a ring on it!

My best girlfriend had a baby! I spent a lot of valuable time with family. Derrick and I had an amazing vacation in Los Angeles.  I finished a couple beautiful quilts. I started some pretty amazing quilts. I began writing this blog and art quilting.

I also became unemployed on four, yes FOUR, separate occasions.  I gained a butt load of weight, most likely from sitting on the couch for all those times I was unemployed. I discovered that I have a health issue that has yet to be diagnosed. I went from being very very poor to very financially comfortable almost over night. I started my career, not just another job, but a career!
I'm finally figuring out the best way to keep my energy levels up so I can quilt/craft more!

In 2013 my highs were incredibly high and my lows were incredibly low.

2014 will be my best year yet. I'm getting married, Derrick is graduating college, aaannnddd I have  A LOT of new quilt projects in the works! I can't wait to share them all with you!


I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and quilty new year!


Quilt on,
Hoppi

FMQ/Finished Friday: Buttons Quilt is FINALLY done!

Can you believe it? I finally finished the buttons quilt. It only took me, what, 3 months??? Whatever, it's done, and I'm happy.

I'm not super proud of it. The FMQ is horrible. I need to practice more... much, much more.

I'm not super proud of the binding either, I attempted to hand stitch it, but it was taking too long, became too tedious, and I got too frustrated. I finally just said screw it and machine stitched it. It's not super even, and I should have taken my time on it, I was just so excited to get it done. Now I know for the next quilt to go slow, enjoy the process and make sure things are going a bit more smoothly.

Not to toot my own horn, but my piecing on this quilt is spot on. Every corner matches up. It looks awesome. This is the first time I've perfectly matched corners on a quilt!


Toot toot. 

I guess you can't be proud of every quilt you finish, but I intend on making this my [first and] last quilt that I am even a little unhappy about.

I also finished these super cute monogram totes! Yay!

Today I'm linking up with Leah Day and TGIFF and of course, Can I get a Whoop Whoop.

Off to practice some more.

Quilt on,
Hoppi

Wedding Wednesday

I know, it's Thursday, but someone *cough*Derrick*cough* was hogging the computer last night. My 2007 Macbook Pro has almost bitten the dust. Time to back that sucker up and move on to bigger and better things.


Things for the wedding are really shaping up. The caterer is booked and food picked, my full ensemble is bought, I'm going with two of my bridesmaids to pick out dresses next week, and save the dates have been sent. Things are really coming together!

One thing we will be decorating with are pieces of wood that I am burning. My newest hobby is pyrography and I'm so addicted.

A Christmas gift for my cousin

doodling!

I will be burning our menu, drink menu, and table numbers on wood. It will go very well with our rustic theme, I think.






Pyrography, like quilting, is very relaxing, but unlike quilting I feel like I almost go into a trance while burning. It's so relaxing I almost lose myself in the wood.The smell of wood burning, the warmth of the soldering iron, the blank canvas of wood bringing endless possibilities, it all sets a mood for relaxation and enjoyment.
Of course quilting is still my favorite creative outlet, but I must admit, pyrography is a very close second!


I have not started our guest quilt yet, but have an idea in mind. I just need to figure out how to transfer a photo to fabric and I'm good to go. Any suggestions on this would be very welcome!

Quilt on,
Hoppi

Remember Me?

I'm ashamed at how long it's been since I last posted... I could blame it on my health, on the new job, on the wedding, but really it's just because I've been super lazy.

Okay, I've been really, really, really busy too. My job is nuts and I really like it, but it keeps me super busy Monday through Friday.

I have, however, been quilting, among other things!

Rather than bore you with a million words, here's what I've been doing for the past 2 months in photographs:

working on commission stuff

pyrography: more on this to come

noob pyrography

very first try with the soldering  iron

lots of zentangles

cuddles with Ridley

:p

....wait a minute...

Salted Caramel Apple Pie. I made that. I ate that.

wedding quilt!

road trippin'

"where do you plan on putting a tree that big?" "bend over and I'll show ya"

geocaching

Here come the men in black, binding quilts forever!

Epic Catan battles

More Cuddles

More caching

friends

spending time with this adorable girl

wedding stuffs

I can't promise that I'll never go away like that again, but I will sure try not to. I'm starting to get the hang of this whole balanced life stuff... aka... adulthood. 

Quilt/pyrograph/knit/sew/geocache/bake/fun on,

Hoppi