Kaleidoscope QAL: Color Scheme

I am having a hard time figuring out what to do for my color scheme on this one. I found this sweet line yesterday,

 the colors scream out my sister. I think she would love them! But, I already decided that I wasn't going to buy any new fabric for this project since I have so much already and really need to dive into it.

I've been a little hesitant to dive into my stash, since I don't really know what I'm doing or what I want this quilt to look like in the end.

Looking in the flickr group for the QAL, I really liked the black and white block (bottom right corner) that alliestitch made (click on the pic to see it in flickr):

There is something about the drastic contrast that I really like.

I came up with a few ideas in my head of what I could do and finally decided to get out the drawing board and do some coloring. :) Here's what I came up with:

I picked 5 colors: pink, yellow, turquoise, blue and green. For the larger pinwheel pieces (I don't know what to call them), I'm going to use a variety of bold tone-on-tone prints in each of the colors, and for the small triangles I'll use lighter tone-on-white prints. I'm thinking that keeping the pieces in each block the same color I'll be able to keep that contrast that is in my inspiration block. And by using tone-on-white prints for the corners that join the different colors, it will help soften the transition between colors and add some good variety as well. I'll use a bright white for the background. 

I'm hoping this will work. Let me know if I'm missing something. :) Now I'm crossing my fingers that I have just the right colors in my stash. :D

50! ...and a Giveaway???

Nope, I'm not 50. I've still got a ways, thank goodness. ;) I just noticed that I have 50 followers on my blog! Sweet! ;) and THANKS!!!

I know some people don't think it's such a big deal, but I think it's pretty exciting! (Honestly, every time I get a new follower I always tell Neil, "Hey! I have x-amount of followers now!") It makes me want to make something to show my appreciation and give it away to one of you lovely people who have so kindly decided to follow along on my sporadic blogging journey. :)

Anyone up for a giveaway? What would you want? Share your ideas and if there is any interest, or any awesome project that would be fun to make I'll whip something up and we'll have a giveaway! Or, I do need to make up another camera pocket so I can take pictures of all the steps for making it, if your interested in me making it for you. Let me know. :)

Made It: FMQ (Free Motion Quilting)

A couple of weeks ago I made some HUGE progress on my picnic blanket. I went from like 6 to 16 blocks quilted. :) Did I mention that I returned my new sewing machine and got a better one? I am so glad that I did. It really wasn't so great, and I couldn't be happier with what I have now. I think that just might be why the sewing is going so much faster. Anyway, when it comes to FMQ you often hear that "it's like drawing on paper, except you move the paper instead of the pen." I realized that if that's the case, the possibilities for designs really are endless! I decided on some of my blocks to incorporate more of the designs in the fabric, and some of them I simply traced over. I really like how they are turning out! And let me tell you, it really is so much fun! :)

I took a bunch of pictures of fronts of backs a few weeks ago after I had done a bunch of them, and want to share them with you. :) Enjoy. :)

UPDATE: I actually wrote the above a while ago, and have just been waiting to upload the pictures. Last week I went from like 16 squares quilted to 27, so I have SO many pictures now. I decided to just upload them to flickr and not worry about posting them all here. You can see them by following this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbbydesign/sets/72157626915299122/

I tried to pair the pictures of the front with the picture of the back for each square, since the design is harder to see on some blocks.

I still want to share a few favorites and fun ones with you here:

Using some of the design elements in the quilting:

 

(the picture of the front is really hard to see on this one so I didn't post it here.) This one has some potential, I need to better plan where I'm going with it, but I like the squares.

Testing out some text! :)

Here are a few that I simply traced the design:

 

I like how these ones look on the back especially.

 

Then I just have some different simple designs, and a few other weird ones. It's so much fun! I really love all the creative freedom that comes with FMQ! :)

If you try out any of these designs, or come up with some of your own, I'd love to see them! You can share them in the from blank pages... flickr group.


p.s. All of you flickr users, what's the difference between collections and sets? I'm still figuring it all out, but am definitely loving it! It's so much easier to upload my pictures there and then post them in my blog posts! It's a million times faster! (I think it helps that I can do it so easily from iPhoto too). :)

W.i.P. Wednesday #7

Finished Projects:
 Last week I totally forgot about a couple of projects that I had finished up. It took a while to get back to the sewing machine after coming home from the hospital, but the first thing I started and finished were reusable nursing pads. :) No more buying boxes of cotton ones that stick, if you know what I mean. ;) I used this tutorial, but ended up cutting little wedges out of them so I could give them a little more shape, which I am really glad I did. I just used some old flannel fabric that I've literally had for 15 years+/- (it was supposed to be for a siblings Christmas present, but my mom didn't finish them in time so I never gave them away. Lol. :) The joys of being young and wanting to give home made gifts that I didn't know how to make myself.)

The second project that I finished up was a new car seat cover! I have one that is two layers of fleece that I made for my first son, but that would be death in the summer, so instead I went to Savers (the thrift store here) and bought a few old sheets and cut them up and sewed them. I really actually love how it turned out.  Plus, in the hot summer it won't be too hot to keep on, and the thin fabric will be very breathable. If it ever warms up here I'll be able to test out my "theory" of hoping it will keep her shaded and cool, but still protected. Until then we are enjoying it and getting a lot of use out of it.

 

Since last week I finished up the travel/take-along car mats for my boys. They love them. which I love. I decided after finishing the first one that it would have been nice to number the pockets, to help add an extra place in life to learn numbers and counting, but I didn't want to redo anything, so I made sure to put them on my younger sons mat. They told me the colors they wanted, and then I picked out the fabric from there. I think they're fun. The design of the yellow one reminds me of the jungle, I'm not sure why.

I also finished the top of Mabel's Quilt! You can read more about it here (I was going to post about it yesterday, but that didn't end up happening). Hopefully later today I'll get that done. Can I just say that this was probably the biggest improv project I've ever done. I messed up so many times right from the beginning, but I just kept going with it and it still worked. :) It's like they say, the only thing constant is change... and that is this quilt in a nutshell. :)

I love the pictures that everyone takes from the back of their quilts, aka showing all the seam allowances, so I had to give it a try. I think it looks better from the back then it does from the front. ;) At least I haven't quite figured out how to get a good picture of it that way.

Still in progress:

I'm still working on my picnic blanket! (click on the link for a few fun sample squares and for where to find the rest) And it's coming along nicely! I think I got about 10 more squares quilted since I posted last week (and that was all in one day.) I'm so excited to finish it! I didn't have enough safety pins when I first pinned it, so I need to lay it out again and pin the rest of the squares so I can finish them. It's been a fun creative process. There is only one square that I really think is ugly, but oh well. ;)

I still need to finish up my mug rugs, as well as Lola's Coin Quilt. Instead of the flowers that Quiltstory put on theirs I want to put a tree to match the fabric, but who knows when I'll end up making that. ;) I know how I want to do the back, so I think if I can just do it it will be done lickity split.

I also need to pick out my fabric for the Kaleidoscope QAL.  But after reading this post  by Jeni from In Color Order, on organizing your fabric stash by color, I really want to re-organize my fabric first. I already have it sorted by color, but I like the detail she goes into - which I think would make it easier to pick out fabric as she talks about here. (Actually there are lots of little posts about it, so just go here instead, and you can see the whole series.)

One more thing I want to finish up quick are my felt alphabet letters. They just get so tedious and boring... I mean, zigzagging around 26 letters isn't the most exciting project. ;) But they are fun to use and help Hunter with learning his letters and colors. I already have the numbers done.


New projects:
I've finally figured out what I want to do for my sewing machine cover! I want to do the back in diamonds like this quilt, and do the front a simple solid color with vertical wonky straight line stitching, with some different sized hexagons on the left side. We'll see if I can pull it off. Trying to figure out how to get the right sized diamonds is proving to be difficult. It will be fun to try something new though, so no promises that it will actually look good. ;) Though I am crossing my fingers. I found the tutorial for the quilt, and this tutorial to teach me how to do diamonds. I think on the latter you're actually supposed to cut your strips 1/2" narrower than the finished height that you want. At least with playing around that is the conclusion I am coming to. We'll see if I can figure it out. Any tips?!


Still on the side lines:
Bottled Rainbows QAL (so much for quilting along. I still have a little time to catch up though.) ;)

This weeks stats:
New Projects: 1
Completed Projects: 3
In progress: 6

I feel like I type so much in my WIP posts, but life seems busy, and I feel like this is the only time to blog about half these projects, so until I find more time to blog, I guess it will just be that way. ;)

Made It: Take-along car mats

IMG_2051, a photo by db By Design on Flickr.

Here are the take-along/travel car mats.  So far the boys love them! Hunter likes to drive on the roads and Jackson likes to put the car in and out of the pockets. I think as they get a little older they'll like them even more.

How to: 

CUT:

2 pieces of fabric and 1 piece of heavy weight interfacing 18" by 11"

1 piece of fabric 9" by 11", then fold in half hot dog style

one piece velcro 2" long

fabric or ribbon pieces for road:

  2 pieces: 1 1/4" by 14"

  3 pieces: 1 1/4" by 8 1/2"

Arrange the roads onto one of the main pieces of fabric. (On the yellow one I also sewed the roads to the interfacing at the same time.) I used a glue stick to hold the roads in place and then zigzagged all the way around them. The two longer roads will go an inch or sew under the pockets. I also did a straight stitch in yellow down the middle of all the roads to mimic the yellow line on real streets. 

Line up the pocket piece edges with the edges of the fabric that you just sewed your roads onto. Mark a line down the center, and a line on either side of it that is 2.5" away from the center line. Sew the pockets on over the drawn lines. (On the yellow one I free stitched numbers on the pockets BEFORE sewing it to the main fabric.) 

Next place the soft velcro piece next to the outer road (see picture). Again I used a glue stick to hold it in place until I sewed it. Sew it on. :)

Then sandwich everything together (your roads piece, interfacing, and the backing piece, all pieces right side out - how you want it to be finished. Then start to fold it up, turning the pockets in first. When you fold over the last fold, mark where the velcro is and glue the scratchy side of velcro where it meets the soft side so you know where to sew it on. Take that back piece off and sew the velcro on.

Now place the back piece on top of the roads piece, right sides together. If you haven't sewn the interfacing in yet, place it on top of the back piece, so it's on the outside of the sandwich. Now sew around the entire thing, leaving a 2" opening on one side, using a 1/2" seam allowance. Clip the corners and turn right side out.

Poke out the corners and flatten it nicely, sew around the entire mat close to the edges, sewing the opening closed. And you are finished! Enjoy!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email me. If you have a no-reply account, I'll answer your questions in the comments, so be sure to check back.

I'd love to see your pictures if you end up making this!! :) If you're on flickr, you can add your photos to my flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fromblankpages/

Sharing at Skip to my Lou and Quiltstory!

Photography: I need PRACTICE

Once upon a time I was a pretty good photographer. I LOVED taking pictures with my mom's super old Nikon. I wasn't a pro, but I could take some decent shots. I have a digital SLR now, and I love it, but boy do I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when I use that thing. I get lucky with some shots sometimes, and if I have good lighting, I can set the manual modes just right and get some nice pics, but otherwise I feel like my pictures are so mediocre at best. blah. It makes me sad. I realized the other day that I just need to practice. practice. practice... and maybe one day I'll feel good about my photos again.

So... how do you learn to take good pictures without going back to school? I'm bummed that I never did get into a photo class in college. Oh well.

The first thing I need is to learn the ins and outs of my camera, but the other thing is that I need to learn how to set up good compositions for taking photos, like when I take pictures of projects I'm working on or have finished. Part of the problem is that I don't really have anywhere in my house to take good pictures, but even if I did, I want to be able to take those amazing pictures of random things that you love to look at, even though the subject is such an ordinary, or uninteresting thing.

Anyone know where to find all this kind of advice?! What are some of your favorite tips or tricks that you've learned? or that help you take better pictures?