A landscape of inspiration

I think it's ok to admit how horrible I've been at keeping up these past couple of months.  It has to do something with 3 young kids, summer vacation, a new school year, a new machine and travel! Eventually one day I'll get back into my routine but until then, I have a little to share.

After several weeks with my new machine, I can officially say it is a work horse of a machine. Would I recommend it? Absolutely.  I love that I am able to see a lot of the inside of the machine so I can clean the nooks and crannies that like to clutter up with fabric fuzz. I was very hesitant about the side bobbin but it's amazing.  Love the knee presser foot lift, so much so that my knee does this really awkward jerk when I go back to my Singer machine.

I'm happy to confess that despite being busy with the kids I have managed to give Juki baby a run for her money.  Most recently I have been excited about recreating landscapes of beautiful Oahu, all done on fabric.  My most favorite part of it all though, is the 2nd to final step, the free motion quilting.  First few tries my hands were very shaky but as I get used to it, build up my confidence, and practice I notice a steadier hand and more of a fluid movement to my designs.

I've gone in to a couple of local galleries to see if they will carry my work.  I will pursue this more once we get back from our trip, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will all pan out.  I'm gradually growing my inventory in hopes of joining a gallery in the near future.

So we are heading out on a trip for the grand event of our family! My younger brother is getting married.  And with only 2 weeks to spare my bridesmaid dress arrived and to my dismay, it didn't fit.  In a true panic, I took a few deep breathes, whispered to my seam ripper "don't let me down"  and together we worked at tearing seams apart, reworking them and finally, getting the dress to fit without having to pay a seamstress to alter it.  Another check in my book of things to learn. I'm thankful it worked out.  I'll share pictures of the dress after the event.

I've been practicing my "smokey" eye makeup.  So far, I've tried green, gray and black.  I'll find the links to the good tutorials I have been using to learn how to do this.  I love the reaction my girls give me when they see a new shade of smokey eye.

Despite being gone from the blogging world, I hope you have all stayed creative and inspired!  Until next time,

                                              Mokulua Islands off of Lanikai Beach

                                                The many shades of Kailua Beach

                                                          Mt. Olomana from Kailua

                                                              Plumerias at Pyramid Rock

Chevron Quilt, Part II

As promised, Chevron Quilt Part II.  I am officially obsessed. I have in my mind this grand plan to make everyone in my family some sort of quilted item! By Christmas!! LOL.  That probably wont happen but I'll still believe that I can.

With the help of an amazing tutorial found here on how to piece a chevron quilt together, I garnered up enough courage to make my first ever quilt.  I machine and hand stitched the binding.  I'm very proud of this quilt and I have already started cutting squares for a matching sham to go with it.  Looking back, a few things I would do differently:

• I did enjoy watching the rows of chevron come together but I think I would wait until I have all the squares cut out before piecing this together OR pay better attention to my seam allowance as all the squares did not match up perfectly.  The chevrons definitely matched up but for some reason, the squares did not.
• I would machine sew the binding on the back side and hand stitch it on the design side.  I like the way the hand stitched binding looks over the machine stitch.  This quilt I attached the binding with my machine on the design side. Though it does look nice, I prefer the look of the binding on the back side.
• I would definitely make sure to have extra back fabric over ALL sides.  This quilt, I lacked extra fabric on the right side of the quilt and once I stitched the chevron design through all 3 layers, I actually had to trim down the sides because there was not enough back fabric all the way to the edge.
• Finally, I would pin even more than I did before "quilting" because on my very last row there are 2 small areas where the back fabric puckered (ugh!)

                                                                                  -----

hand stitching the binding took a while but it was very much a zen like process

All in all, this experience helped build my confidence in quilting.  I just want to make more and more! It was very much a "zen" like process.  It took patience to complete.  It took some strength to pull myself away when I realized I had been working too many hours and was starting to notice imperfections.  Sometimes walking away from the project for the night is a good thing.  And it would be nice to start again after a refreshing night of sleep, a few hours at the beach, and some play time with the kids.

Thank you Nicole, for putting your tutorial out there for everyone to enjoy! And thank you for helping me build the courage to finish something I have long wanted to accomplish :)

                                                                                     ♡ ąlexąnʠяą