How I Prepare Quilt Binding

Hey all, sorry for my absence the past couple of days..this week has kind of flown by. BUT guess what?!?! Almost hubby and I did get something fancy and awesome-- a brandy new camera. A Nikon D3100. Oh my gosh, it takes really awesome pictures and has amazing features that I never even dreamt of. haha. But really, all we've ever had were point and shoot cameras, so this is awesome. And we both have a lot to learn on it, but so far we love it. =).
Okay, so I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear that I finished quilting Chelsea's quilt, and tied off all the threads. Whew, thank goodness right? I prepped the binding today, and will (hopefully!) be actually binding the quilt tomorrow. I thought I'd show you how I like to prep the binding. Now, let me preface this by saying that I am obviously by no means an expert, that there might be (and probably are) better ways to do this, and I'm sure that I'm not the first to do it this way..but in case you're interested I'll show you anyway.
  Unless I am doing a curved edge I don't really think it's necessary for the strips to be cut on the bias. Again, I am not an expert =) For this quilt I'm doing mitered corners, and the fabric doesn't need to be stretchy for that. Now, normally I would cut long strips of fabric 2.5" wide. In this case, however, Chelsea's grandmother already had cut binding strips, they happen to be 2" wide. No biggie, we can definitely make it work, I just have to be more precise when binding the quilt.
Okay, so we have these strips of fabric. In order to make the binding long enough for your project you will probably have to join multiple strips together. Place the ends of two strips of fabric, right sides together forming the shape of an upside down and backwards L. Like this:

Next you need to sew the strips together using a straight stitch.

After that, trim the excess length off the edge for about a 1/4" seam allowance.Open it up and admire how easy it was.

 

Now we need to press the binding in half, wrong sides together. The great thing about joining the binding strips this way is that the seam kind lays itself out nicely without having to press it flat. 

 Finally, if you're like me and do things right before work, therefore you don't have enough time to finish things..find a little piece of cardboard and wrap your newly pressed binding to keep it safe. Leave it in a visible place so it jogs your memory to finish your project. If you aren't like me then go ahead and bind your quilt. If you want to see how I do it, I will post that tomorrow. Enjoy. 

being productive doesn't always mean interesting.

So I'm pretty sure you guys are all tired of hearing about crocheted hats and Chelsea's quilt by now. BUT I was so productive this weekend even though it was a work weekend for us. Look at the hats I made:



 They all already have people they are going to.. the black ones to Heather and Jen..and the green to my fabulous mother.

 Okay so let me show you the fabric I've been collecting.
Little man requested a quilt from me, so I've been trying to gather "cool" boy looking fabrics. I will not start another quilt project until Chelsea's quilt is done. (apparently I'm a really slow quilter person.. I see some people who bang out entire quilts in 2 days. yeah, not me) But look at this fabric isn't it cute!? My favorite is the robots, least favorites are the licensed character ones on the bottom (Transformers, Batman, and Spiderman). I'm not super happy about including those fabrics because I kind of want it to just be cute-sy boy..but they were by request. Meh, as long as he likes it, it doesn't matter. =).
I also made something else this weekend..but I'm not going to post it until Valentine's Day because I don't want to spoil the surprise.
And, an update about my non smoking... it's the fifth day today, and I'm still going strong. I actually bought nicotine gum to help me, and I haven't needed it, except a little for the first and second days. Plus it makes me feel a little nauseous. So yeah, I'm proud of myself. And I picked out the boots I'm going to buy. haha. I hope my calves fit in them with room to tuck pants or leggings into. If not, I'll return them and get "wide calf" boots. I think that my "wide" calves comes from years of competitive cheerleading. Oh well. But look at these boots.

source
I love them. Go look at them, Do the 360 degree view. Gahh. Drool. I love the zipper in the back.
Okay, well I hope you all have a great Monday. I'm going to go quilt some more.

Completely obsessed

Is anyone else as excited about this album coming out as I am? This song is beautiful. Gah. I've always loved sad songs, even when I'm happy. Is that strange?

Thrift Store Finds

Hey guys! I just wanted to do a quick little post showing you all my thrift store finds that I mentioned the other day. I actually just stuck to clothes this time, because I'm really trying to expand away from sweatpants/ jeans with a hoodie every.single.day. I did find a vintage metal brother sewing machine in a cute pink carrying case for 30 dollars..but I don't need it so I passed it by. =(. Alright, let's get on with it..

1. Dark brown corduroy Gap Blazer: $4.99 ( I actually paid the most for this item. It was my favorite. What happened was it didn't have a tag so when I got to the register to pay the cashier was all: "I can't sell this to you grumble grumble I'm an angry pants" (I'm paraphrasing of course)  and the much nicer lady behind her went and got it priced for me but it didn't get the half off price like the rest of the items...)

2. Grey striped BisouBisou blazer: $2





3. Black and White polka dot Talbots blazer: $3.50

4. Black velvet blazer: $2.50

5. I'm grouping the most casual items together here in the interest of brevity. Plain pink Croft and Barrow t-shirt: $1.50 Black athletic long sleeve shirt: $3 Both pairs of sweatpants: 50 cents each

6. The sweaters: Red cardigan with pearl buttons : $3.99 Black cardigan: $2 Green Merona cardigan: $1 Blue sweater: $2

7. Pretty blue ombre slip type thing Simply Vera Wang: $2.50 (if this doesn't fit me I don't even care I will make a pillow out of it =) )

8. Last but not least, a vintage wool skirt. A line, with pockets: $1.99 Sorry it's so wrinkly..it was like that in the store. meh.

<-- the ILGWU  tag. I dated it and the source said they changed to red white and blue in 1974..so the skirt could be as old as that. I don't know. =) But I really like it.





Okay, well that's it. I hope you enjoyed. If you want to see more posts like this, let me know. Especially in the summertime and warm months, almost hubby and I are yard sale masters. Thanks for stopping by!

sew FDNY

Hey guys! So, for those of who don't know, almost hubby is a fire chief. We had a very productive "FDNY" past couple of days...almost hubby received his new to him leather helmet in the mail and re painted it..and I re sized and fixed his Chief name tag for the back of his bunker gear. He helped though:

He was so kind and offered to do the most boring part: stitch ripping! What a sweet pea.

I used his other name tag as somewhat of a reference but ended up making the Chief name tag wider so that it would completely cover the velcro on the gear. It was a very simple project, but nerve wracking for me because I was terrified I would make a stupid mistake and mess it up. =). I didn't. It turned out just fine. See?  FDNY!
Yesterday I also crocheted another hat with a brim but used really chunky yarn and it ended up wayy to big. I absolutely did not account for the chunkiness of the yarn. But that's okay. It's really warm and if you fold it up a little it's still cute so I gave it to my sister's girlfriend Heather. =) AND almost hubby and I went to a Salvation Army about 20 minutes away from us, and wow what a gem! It was huge, organized, and the prices were so much better than the thrift stores closer to us, so I was absolutely thrilled. I got 4 blazers, 3 sweaters, a pretty slip, a t shirt, 2 pairs of comfy pants, a little ceramic sewing machine looking thing, a polo shirt for almost hubby, a CD, a vintage zipper, buttons, and yarn needles all for less than 35 dollars. -Sigh- I was so happy.
On a personal note, I'm trying to quit smoking. It's the first day today and of course it was quite rough. I know it will get easier, so at this point it's just mind over matter.. plus I decided that after every month of being smoke free I will reward myself in some way. Like, after the first month I'll buy myself a nice pair of boots that I've been coveting. Haha, as if the health and financial benefits aren't enough for me I have to bribe myself with shoes. Whatever works, I guess. So, wish me luck. I was definitely on edge today, and grumpy. I'm trying not to let it affect how I talk to other people, but I keep having to catch myself. Any advice or words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. I'll try anything to make it easier =) .

Follow my blog with bloglovin

okay, I'm attempting to figure out bloglovin...if I do then you could follow me on with that if you want...=) yeah.

impromptu crocheted hat

So last night I randomly decided to crochet a hat. I'd never crocheted a hat before, actually I've never even crocheted in the round before. I have read a few people recently saying that one has to be very careful with crocheted in the round, marking your first stitch, counting etc..so I was a little bit nervous.. I didn't happen to bring any scrap yard to mark stitches with, so I just made sure to count EVERYTHING. =) All in all it took me about 2 hours to complete. And I actually like it. YAY! I quickly watched this video on the lovely twj1963's youtube.com channel, wrote down the instructions, and then followed my written instructions from there.

The yarn is super soft and kind of a variegated purple color. I don't know the brand because I bought it from a yard sale, partially used, last summer for fifty cents or something like that. I do have to say, though, as pretty as the yarn is, it was a little difficult to see what I was doing because of the texture. I used a size N crochet hook.
Once I finished, after showing it off to almost hubby and our friend Geri ( I was quite proud of myself actually), I took a little goofy Iphone photo shoot. =) Sorry if I look tired...it was four thirty in the morning.

In case you haven't realized this by now, I'm a huge dork.