Roll Ups! (non-fruit variety)

I took a break from my quilt to work on some smaller projects.  I'm not great at sewing so I feel like I need to work my way up. I want to try making a makeup bag and tote bag combo, as well as an apron.  (I bought a ton of cute fabric this weekend).

But first!  I made crayon rollups.  how cute are these?

I also couldn't resist making myself a crochet hook rollup.  I kept meaning to buy a case for them all - but never did because the ones at the craft stores aren't cute.  (just functional)  So, they've been in my crochet tote gathered with a hair tie. Look at their new home!

I adore this fabric. 

I'm hoping to renovate my childhood dollhouse soon - and the floral fabric on this rollup is what I'm doing the parents' bedroom comforter and curtains out of.  LOVE.

I've Only Been Kind of Crafty

I've been pretty restless lately.  A couple weeks ago I started going to this fitness thing and I LOVED it and was ready to commit to doing it more regularly (severely cutting into my crafting time).  And then I had gum surgery, and then a got a cold...and I've been too lazy.  I have been crafting a little though - so here are the things I've been working on - nothing is really done though.  It's all a work in progress.

I made a bunch more quilt squares.  I had some issues with my seams so I ended up with 6" squares.  (Thanks to TN ladies who explained what "squaring off" meant.)  I made a few with 4" squares too since I wanted to try something different than the 2.5" squares.  I'm feeling like I can maybe tackle some other patterns even.  

These two are my favorite.  I love the white background with the green, coral, and yellow flowers.  I originally bought just a FQ for my quilt - but I am using most of it for a crochet hook rollup that I'm going to work on tomorrow.  

I started another baby blanket.  This is my favorite pattern that I've made so far.  It will have a double ruffle and it's pretty lacy.  The yarn is a Bernat baby yarn in Strawberry Jam.  <3

This is another baby blanket I've been working on.  I started it a long time ago and I really like the inside pattern with it's little picot stitches.  But, this is the second time I've tried this pattern and I can't get the border right.  GRRRR.  It basically has you make all those tabs and then you do two more "rows" around those tabs to make a thicker border.  But I never end up with the right number of tabs and then the pattern seems off anyway.  I'm hoping it's a pattern error and not operator error. :)

 I'm contemplating pulling all the tabs out and just doing a solid border around the edge (the blanket is a little small without a border of some sort).  But, the more I look at it the more I kind of like the little fingery tabs.  So I don't know what I'm going to do with it just yet. 

and as an added bonus, some pictures of my puppies.  Apparently they are ready for me to stop quilting/blogging, and come to bed already.  Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to show you my awesome new crochet hook roll-up. :)

More Squares!

The quilt-a-long is in full swing and I've been making tons of squares.  I had made twelve before we even started because I was excited. :)  Then last weekend Mark and I went to Joanns and they have their fabric quarters on sale for $1.29.  So now the quilt is going to be a super crazy quilt of randomness. 

Here are the other squares I've made so far.  Notice they were made by a beginner (read: croooooked). 

I will spare you the photo of my first rotary cutter injury.  You're welcome.

Quilt-A-Long; My first three blocks

I'm a little nervous about starting the quilt-a-long tomorrow.  I've been really anxious too - so I started working on putting together a block.  Of course, my sewing machine was NOT cooperating and I almost chucked it out the window.  But, we've had a little discussion (ie: I've re-read the manual) and we're on good terms again.  Here are my first three blocks:

 

And the close ups:

I think this is my favorite one

Only 160-something to go.  ::head hits keyboard::

Quilt-Along Prep

I'm so excited about doing this quilt-along.  I have always wanted to make a quilt out of smaller pieces of fabric.  I've made several quilts, but they were usually large squares or even larger pieces of fabric.  Being that I do not sew very often (or very well for that matter - but that's a whole other story) I didn't have scrap fabric that I could use for this project.  That makes it more expensive; but it also gives me a lot of opportunity to find something I really like.

I went and picked out fabric over the weekend.  Here is what I have so far.

I'm not sure how I'm going to put them together at this point.  I got the fabrics to go in pairs (as seen) but I'm thinking I may make all the blocks different by mixing and matching.  not to mention the fact that I will probably need to buy about 10 more quarters of fabric.  I need about 1,290 - 2.5" squares.  I think I've done about 70.  ha!

Here is my first vision of what the squares will look like

I'm thinking that I will probably swap out the center squares for another pattern or another "solid" (I use quotes because all of my more solid fabrics are actually patterns of a complimentary color on color).  I think that might bring all the mismatched squares together.  I'm all for the crazy quilt look; but I also like symmetry - so I'm really trying to embrace both of those things. 

I have a ton more cutting to do though; so I better get to it!

Who Is She?

Briefly - so we can get on with the craft. 

I'm Aimee.  I live in Northern California with my darling husband, a houseful of pets, and a mom.  My craft of choice is crochet.  And baking, which I'm not sure if you'd consider baking a craft, but I'm totally including it.  I'm really bad at chronicling my projects; and I'm hoping this blog will remind me to take photos of the stuff I've made.  I am going to be starting a quilt-along with other crafty ladies on TN - and I will be posting my status as I build my first "real" quilt.  I've made quilts before, but in large pieces - this one will be in tiny squares (2.5 inch ones!) so it's definitely a bigger project than I'm used to. 

Here are some of my previous projects. 
This is a blanket and hat that I made for my sister in law's baby shower.

and the diaper cake too.

Welcome to my blog.