trippy quilt

so as you know i'm in this quilting class.  it's really great and the teacher's awesome, although i'm not crazy about the pattern for the quilt.  she suggested i make a mini project since i'm just starting.  so i've been working on it for weeks and here is the result (so far...)

that took a lot of guts to share on the world wide web. because, well, it's not the most beautiful quilt in the world.
actually, it makes me dizzy.
ben was complimentary of it, but we agreed that it's kinda trippy.
at the same time, i'm super proud of it... because it took FOREVER to cut all those tiny little pieces and put them all together and it's kinda cool how it comes together.
speaking of coming together, the colors/fabrics did not come together like i thought.  i figured picking out the fabrics would be the easy part, but apparently it's not.  it's hard to know what they'll look like all chopped up into various shapes and sizes and pieced together.

(oh, that one's not quite done... still need to add a border, the back and all the stuff that actually makes it a quilt.)

in other quilting news, i cut 175 5-inch squares during a downtown abbey marathon last night (thank you, netflix) for my next quilt project.  this whole process is very addicting.  you think, okay just 10 more squares. but then why not 20. or 100!
the project is a large patchwork quilt - pieced together at random.  mostly red with pops of turquoise and a couple other colors. saw this idea in a book. we'll see if it turns like it is in my head.

Here's some of the fabric (there's a couple more colors yet to be cut!)

back to cutting... did i mention it's addicting? ;)

next quilt...

i usually arrange my schedule so that my entire friday is free to substitute.  but if i don't get called, or it's a holiday break, i have the entire day free.  it's a fun time to do some sewing, which i am slow at and need LOTS of time to accomplish small amount of progress.

i'm going to finish up the quilting project for the class i'm in now, but i'd love to make a patchwork quilt next.  looks simple enough, right...?

so i'm thinking maybe one like this

source

 or this!

source

or this

source

Learning to Sew

I mentioned here about my new goal of learning to sew.

Well, the first project I tackled was this tote bag tutorial.  Let's just say, it's pretty bold of me to share my finished project here on the world wide bag.  I call my accomplishment - the world's smallest tote bag.

Though basically useless and pretty embarassing in real life, it was pretty fun to make and isnpired me to keep trying.  Perhaps in my next tote bag, there will be lining on the inside and less threads hanging off the straps.  In the mean time, I'll hide it in my closet so you don't have to experience the fashion faux pas that is my tote.