Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Working on DQSX

Ok, so i'm not so handy with arranging pictures on here in the order that I want them! LOL!
So bear with me that they are a little backwards! :)
I've been working on my DQSX. (doll quilt swap 10)
I got the idea right away for my secret partner. And went to town getting it started! But had a comedy of errors happen one after another while working on it! LOL
And in the pledge to show process, I guess I'll be showing you some :)
I made a couple of little pouches last night, working on a few things to send with the little quiltie.
Here's one of them... it was the first. I think i'm keeping this one!
The second one, I will be sending to my partner. It's a little bigger, and a little more usable than the first one.
And I put umbrellas on the front :)
(dummy me... got it all done and realized i had wanted to put lines coming down the umbrellas to the points. erg.. hate it when you get working and forget things!)
Ok, sooooo my idea for the quilt was multi colored umbrellas. I posted two pics on flikr, asking which my partner liked best... grey background, or white background? She liked the white. (so thankful commented!) So I made two :) I figured I would keep the grey one, and send her the white one. Doing the grey first would let me fiddle around with my idea, and if i made any major mistakes it wouldn't be on hers! LOL
So... got it all fused, stitched and ready to quilt. Then there it sat.
I knew WHAT i wanted the quilting to look like - i just didn't know how to acheive it! So i doodled. And doodled some more - not lifting my pen from the paper - like on my sewing machine. Finally i figured I'd best get on with it or else my partner wasn't going to get her swap!
So... playing with the idea of rain drops.... i started quilting.
And it just wasnt going well. I thought the rain drops would hit the umbrellas and go down and around them - that's what umbrellas are for, right? LOL
Well it turned out HORRIBLE! HAHAHA!!
I think it looked more like a deluge of pouring rain, and all whimsy was gone!
Back to the drawing board! LOL
You can see in the upper left corner I started playing with a more open and "windy" look.
So I made a much smaller version and played with that idea.
You can see below that's what I ended up going with. Still not the look i was really going for... but... it worked. ;)
So... i went to get the final one done. Well... that's when my 10 year old iron decided to have a little hissy fit, and go out in a blazing hot fit of glory! LOL!
I SCORCHED IT!!
Literally
Two big honkin yellow iron marks on the white background!
FULL iron marks mind you. With holes and all.
I've NEVER scorched anything before while ironing!!!!! Oh my gosh! And I couldn't figure out why it happened! So... thinking since I was sick, i must have zoned out or something?? I started YET AGAIN!
Dude... refused and cut all those little umbrellas, for a fourth time!! arrghh
And in making the new ones, i realized my iron was hot enough to explode! LOL!
(thank goodness i didn't figure that out on the fourth background! hahaha!!!)
Went and got a new iron asap!!
Took about two weeks off at this point because i had the flu crud that was going around. I could just see myself screwing up yet another one! So.. thought it was just better to wait it out! ha!
How could such a simple idea (and simple execution) have gotten soo convoluted?
geez!
Ok, so new iron and I set off (carefully) to get going on the final product! :)
Ironing went off without a hitch.
Stitching went off without a hitch.
Quilting semi went off without a hitch.
Trimmed, and went to choose binding.
road block
grrrr
Nothing looked right. Tried everything i have in my stash. NOTHING worked.
Turned to medium grey, thinking it would make the white and the colors pop, and set it off nicely. Yah. Boring. lol
Then thought maybe this grey with fun sewing words on it would look neat, if i could get it stitched so only one row of wording showed around the entire edge. Cut a strip and pinned it on to get a visual. (that picture is down below)
I liked it actually.
But thought it added to the business of the quilt... and wasn't quite sure if my partner would like it.
So late last night... frustrated that I could not make a decision, and not knowing what she would like, I "re-stalked" her. Read her entire blog for the last two years. lol
And one thing was loud and clear.
She LOVES GREEN.
With a passion. And would put tons of green on everything if she could.
Ok then. Green it is!! I auditioned all my greens, and finally settled on tufted tweets chairs to bind with!
It brings out the rest of the green umbrellas (which number more than the others because i knew she loved it) And hopefully -crossing fingers- she'll like it with a green binding! LOL!
Now.. as long as I don't accidentally put a slice in this baby while binding it, i think i'm finally in the home stretch! God willing!!
LOL!!
And last but not least... all the little scraps I had left over from cutting out the umbrellas were just too cute to throw away! So I made a little mini quiltie using them as a frame/border.
yes... i know her "bear" looks alot more like a frog! hahaha!! They both still need eyes stitched on, and I need to bind this one too!
Calli fell in love with it, she likes the bear/frog. LOL So once finished it will hang in her room. :D
Now, I gotta go get these guys sewn!
xo
Bren

7 comments:

kelley said...

hey stranger...good to see you posting again...love Calli's little quilt!

Joanne said...

What a precious quilt for Calli - love it - So sorry you had that big oops with your iron -see I always knew irons were evil pieces of metal! So glad to "hear" from you again!

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

That sounds like a story that could happen to me! I would have been like a wild woman!! You're good and I LOVE the binding and the cute litte girl quilt ~ you made lemonade of of those lemons!!

primitivebettys said...

Oh those umbrellas just make me SMILE! So cute! :)

Unknown said...

OMG Bren! I wish that I had half of your energy girl! Love the umbrella quilt...it is so fresh looking, and the green is beautiful.

So nice to see you blogging again, I love reading about your adventures.

Hugs,
Trudy

Bethany Smith said...

I love the umbrellas! I just discovered your blog via flickr. Did you use fusible applique for the umbrellas? Did you freehand cut them? I totally want to make a quilt like this!

Rugs said...

i love the design of umbrellas too! Your blog is one of my favorites! :)