Rainbows in Juneau

It's been over a year and half since I last blogged...yikes! I honestly have a good excuse - my family moved from Southaven, Mississippi to Juneau, Alaska in June 2013 so that I could take a job as the Executive Director of the Shrine of St. Therese (short version - I run a Catholic Shrine).

The first year in Juneau was good, but stressful: new town, new job for my husband, I went back to work, our son started preschool, we needed to make new friends, and many other things like being at least 3500 miles from family. All that adjusting to our new surroundings was worth it. We love it here, in fact, we love it so much we decided to buy a condo just around the time when our life was finding it's new rhythm. And now...I think (knock on wood) we have found the new rhythm.  

I managed to eek out a couple of small knitting projects in the last year: a new hat for my son and a matching one for me. I started several projects that all stalled due to not having the time to get them done. Now, if I spin that in a positive light, that means I could have several Finished Objects if I set my mind to it which brings me to the item of this post...

For several months I was working on a quilt for my son. I would plan to devote the weekend to it and then something would happen: getting sick, needing to work, or the sun decided to come out in this rainforest we call home which means we put on hiking boots and hit the trails! This past weekend I was done looking at my son's quilt heaped on my craft table, hogging most of the space, it was time to finish the darn thing.

It was my first queen size quilt and I did the whole thing on my regular sewing machine. As in the past, a Craftsy course really helped me through: Quilting BIG projects on a small machine.  I didn't get to quilt the layers quite as I had planned, but I improvised and it turned out great. Around 9:30 pm Saturday night I found myself thinking, "I am so done with this project! Why the heck did I choose this crazy fabric? This thing is ugly, how did I ever like it?" That's my typical internal response after working on a project for so long and I was hoping it would be gone come morning.

When I finally finished around 10:15 pm, I set the quilt over the couch, cleaned up my desk and went to bed. After a good night sleep, I walked into the living room and discovered that I didn't like the quilt - I loved it! My son is almost 5 years old and he loves bright colors which is hard to find for a boy. This week he especially loves the blocks of the quilt that have arrows, we'll see what next week brings. He was so excited to go to bed on Sunday night so he could snuggle with his new quilt. He even has plans for me to make a mini quilt with the scraps leftover for his stuffed animals.

Today was a typical fall day in Juneau; it rained most of the day. However, the rain was broken up by huge, distinct rainbows - kinda like the colors of this quilt.  

The Details:

Mixed Bag by Moda - 2 Layer Cakes 

and 1 yard of 5 other fabrics from Joann to make sure I had enough squares

Backed with fabric from Joann - two shades of blue (dark center with aqua border)

I used yellow variegated thread on top and blue variegated thread on bottom by Guterman.

I heart Craftsy!

I am in LOVE with Craftsy.com!

If you've never checked it out, then just click here! They've got a few free classes so that you can see what the learning platform is like. Craftsy has been key to helping improve my sewing. I've been knitting for about 15 years, but only learned to sew and quilt about a year and a half ago.

I took a couple sewing and quilting classes at a big box store, which were awesome since I was a newbie and had no idea what I was doing. It was nice to have a real person sit down beside me and say, "Oh, I see what the problem is."

The downside to the classes at the big box store was that I didn't feel confident tackling a pattern at home (sewing or quilting). For me the problem was the teachers taught too many "short cuts" when the focus should have been on the basics. It's hard to figure things out on your own when you don't understand the basics; sewing and quilting have their own language and an assumed base knowledge.

I figured I would need to mess around with a lot of patterns and waste a lot of money by experimenting to get a handle on the whole sewing/quilting thing. Then...Craftsy came along! The instructors on Craftsy are some of the best and once you pay for the class - you own it, forever!

   
 Ombre Ruffle Apron    

This apron is from Beginner Serging. I recently bought a serger and had absolutely no idea how to use it. I have wanted a silly, rufflely apron for several years. I've seen cute ones at Pier 1 and other stores, but the fabric was of poor quality. This class gave me the excuse to finally make a silly apron. I used quilt weight 100% cotton in Christmas prints and the fabric was 60% off when I got it. I think the total expense for the material was $5.00. 

   

                                                               Exposed Zipper Bag

The Exposed Zipper Bag is also from Beginning Serging and is one of the coolest things I have made so far. At one point you have two dimensional fabric and then a few inches of serging later you have a three dimensional object. It was so cool! I'm very proud of it and can't wait to make more. Fabric: pre-packaged quilt weight fat quarters and Pellon fusible fleece.  The total cost was about $5.00

Hoodie

This was my first project I made using knit fabric. I had heard that sewing with knits was horrible, but Meg McElwee's class Sewing with Knits takes away all the fear (and a walking foot for your machine works wonders, too!). Fabric: 2x2 Cotton Spandex Knit - and again, this was on sale - RED TAG SALE.  It was narrower than the suggested fabric width so I bought 4 yards for $10.00.  I have enough left to make a shirt for my son.

I'm working my way through other Craftsy classes and will post the results of my efforts. I've even signed up for a few knitting classes but I have to complete a few unfinished projects before I cast those on!