I'm DONE!

I'm still missing in action while I'm up north for Angie's wedding week, but I wanted to take a moment to say that 

I'M DONE!!!!  

I have now completed all of my coursework for my MA and I officially graduate on Saturday!  I'm so happy!!!

Hello from Apples!

I haven't been heard from in a few days for a good reason... I'm up in Big Bear on a scrapbooking retreat!

Things are coming along well for my scrapbook, I've already finished a large portion of our wedding scrapbook, the scrapbook I came up here with the intention of finishing.

And guess what?!? It's Snowing!!!

My First Machine Quilted Quilt!

Since my last post was so text heavy I thought I'd make this one picture heavy. I recently completed a baby quilt for two friends expecting their first baby boy and I thought that instead of my normal applique I'd do a piece involving embroidery.

I was inspired by the art of Kit Chase, specifically her paintings of children and animals enjoying books, for the image I made.  My friends have two beagles and so I thought I'd incorporate them into the embroidery design.

 

 I used a short and long stitch for the boy's hair.

The palate of fabrics I selected for the quilt was shades of orange, blue, and brown.

 

After making the quilt sandwich I machine quilted it using a loopy pattern.  It was quite fun, though naturally I made a few mistakes since it was my first time machine quilting a project. 

I then made binding tape out of the blue polka dot fabric and bound the quilt- this was also a first for me, I had never cut my own bias tape binding before. 

Using the nifty color chart I made with my new box of crayons I selected colors to color-tint my embroidery image, then I tinted it and heat set it with the iron to get the colors to set so that the blanket would be washable and still retain the colors I added.

Granite helped me take the photos during out outdoor photo shoot that we did yesterday morning.  It was windy so getting a good photo of the quilt was very difficult.  I think in the future I might try to come up with a system to weight the quilts by pinning something to the back of them, that way I'd be able to ensure that they hung straight for photos.

...And so you can get a real good look at it, here's a closeup of the finished panel, color tinted and all...

p.s. I'm liking up this post with the Clover and Violet Stash Project of the Month... the white center panel and blue polka dots were both fabrics from my stash!