Time for a real post!

Ok, it's probably going to take a while for me to hit my stride, so I'm going to jump right in! This is my blog for sewing and quilting projects. For over a year now I've been silently lurking in the shadows of a quilty blogging world; I have over 50 sewing blogs in my Google Reader and I rarely comment or do anything but admire the work of strangers all over the world. Now that I live in a new town, with lots of time on my hands to sew and plenty of great places to get fabric, I'm ready to share my own work.

The main challenge I'm facing right now is a complete lack or internet service at home, and it's highly unlikely that this will change. At the moment I'm hanging out in Starbucks; I also have a Blogger app on my phone for little updates. Hopefully I can keep up (or at least keep caffeinated).

So on to the sewing! I made my first quilt top the summer after college graduation, when I received my very first sewing machine as a graduation gift. In the following few years I started a few halfhearted projects, but didn't really get going until maybe a year or two ago, when I decided that handmade gifts were a great way to avoid the expense of holiday gift buying (little did I know...) Now I'm obsessed with quilting, and collecting my quilts, but mostly just collecting fabric! This last summer I had three whole months to sew to my heart's content, and finished five quilts:

Quilts of the summer

I'm planning on doing a future post on each one, so stay tuned!

Since we just moved into a new place, I've been working on decoration projects. Eugene has about a million (like, at least 15!) thrift stores, so I've been shopping around and collecting some awesome vintage sheets. The ostensible reason for this was curtains:

Vintage sheet curtains

These are my favorite- the sheets were still in the original package! I may have bought all 4 packages... but I'm thinking a sundress would be beautiful in this fabric, which would be a great opportunity to break into clothing sewing.

Another vintage sheet project is from this blog: http://incolororder.blogspot.com/2011/08/giant-vintage-star-quilt.html . I am totally inspired by the work here! I've collected the fabrics to make this quilt, and just have to get the right background fabric.

you can't keep a cat off a quilt project! (or anything...)

As for the hexagon project I kind of posted about, here is the finished result:

Brian's mug rug

This was meant to be a mug rug for my husband's office at school (sort of a glorified coaster/excuse to make a tiny mini quilt.) I say supposed to because he's afraid of spilling coffee on it, and thus uses it to rest books on, or something. Either way, I guess that means he likes it, and it's a success. Piecing the hexagons was a really fun project - it's all done entirely by hand, and I loved picking out the little Heather Ross images, especially that little goldfish.

Speaking of goldfish, meet Steve:

Steve Fish

He is our fish, and he does tricks. Check him out!

I'm going to have to end with Steve, because he's the best. Next time I hit a wifi hot spot, I will tell you all about my love for Tula Pink, and my quilts in progress using her Prince Charming and Parisville lines.