Some Progress

Hey all! Within the last couple of days, I've been quilting, sewing, and making ATCs. Like I was talking about in the last post, I've joined several quilt alongs, challenges, and a pledge related to quilting. The first thing I'd like to talk about is my hexagon quilt. It is a charm quilt, which means that every piece is different - each and every fabric used to make a hexagon or even a partial hexagon is going to be unique if I can possibly do so. Here is what I have sewn together so far:



A close up:



And here is a flower that I stitched together to add:



That's that... if ANYBODY wants to send me sewing scraps to add to this quilt, I would be very grateful - It's so hard to find enough scraps to finish this quilt!

The next project that I'd like to show you is my free motion quilt along top that I made. Here is the quilt before I trimmed it up:



And here it is after it was trimmed:



All I need to do now is to find a fabric to use for the backing and then make the quilt sandwich. I also have to buy the darning foot - it's 10 dollars, so I'm hoping I can find SOMEWAY to afford it, but I guess we'll just have to see.

The last thing I'd like to make you guys aware of is my improv quilt - I joined this challenge where for every mile you log into this government exercise site you earn one piece of fabric to use in your quilt. Here are all of the materials that I have chosen to use thus far with the miles I have logged.



The fabric with the leaves on it is the main fabric that inspired the whole quilt, and the one with the pumpkins on it is the second main fabric. With just those two simple prints, an entire idea for a quilt was born. I actually started working on some blocks yesterday and will continue to work on them throughout today. Tomorrow I will probably post my progress. See you guys later!

I'm Back...

But now I've turned to another page of my creative endeavours. I don't know what it is about the coming of fall, but whatever it is, I am always drawn away from my regular ways of scrapbooking and pulled towards the warmth and coziness of quilting and crocheting, knitting and cooking. I've joined several new groups and quilt - alongs, as you can plainly see in the sidebar of my blog, and a couple of them are starting in September. I also took a pledge - a process pledge. Here is the pledge:

I, Jordan, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them into words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.

And I'm going to do just that. I'm going to blog and I'm going to do it more often - about my works in progresses and the projects that I'm just not quite sure that I like. Even the ones that I hate during the process, I'm going to post; and I'm going to tell all of you what I'm feeling about that particular thing.

I have also joined a free motion quilting quilt-along... I've always been somewhat intimidated by free motion; I love the look, but I'm still scared of it. As I was browsing Flickr a couple of days ago I found this... and as I looked into it, I found that it wasn't as intimidating as it initially seemed. I'm still wondering, somewhat unsure of myself, but I know that everything you do and want to do needs practice, and that practice makes perfect - or at least somewhat better! I'm going to put together a simple top to practice my free motion on. The blog suggests using strips in a couple of different sizes to accomplish this, but I think I'm going to use some of my scraps - different sized squares, rectangles, triangles, and pehaps one or two strips to make a quilt the same size as they are using. I don't think I'm going to use a pattern - I might sketch a bit in my sketchbook this afternoon to see what I can come up with, but I know that it's not going to be something over the top. I'll probably use bigger scraps than I usually use so the top can come together at least fairly quickly - what do you guys think? Also another thing I've been considering is to piece the top too...