My Quilt

September was National Sewing Month according to Joann's. I decided to partake and challenge myself to a quilt. Michelle posted a quilt she'd made for a niece and I loved the design/pattern. So I used her tutorial as well as the help of other bloggers and I now have a finished product.

First, I invested in the Olfa Deluxe Ergonomic rotary cutter plus the pinking blade, this tool alone made cutting all those squares so easy, and NO edges frayed.

I did a lot of math and bought enough fabric to make a double size quilt, then I cut squares, stitched, and cut again based on Michelle's instructions. Then I laid all the squares out in the pattern I desired for my quilt top and sewed them all together.

With the top put together, it was time to get some batting and back the quilt. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found this pin to Diary of A Quilter's Beginning Quilting Series. The Batting 101, Intro to Quilting 101, Machine Quilt Binding 101, and Bias Binding 101 were EXTREMELY helpful!

I laid out and taped the backing, placed the batting over it, and rolled the top out so that all layers were smooth. I then pinned them all together using dozens of long straight pins. I machine quilted using the above-mentioned tutorial and instructions in my sewing machine's manual. Quilting is tough, but with a lot of patience, it can be done!

Notice that I had help quilting.

For the binding, I purchased Wright's Double Fold Bias Tape: Quilt Binding. I then followed a combination of found tutorials. This tutorial was the simplest and most helpful, however I used tips from this one to join the bias tape at seams (also use it if you want rounded corners).

Happy quilting!

House Hunters

We have found a house that we love! Yay!

The neighborhood is perfect, all the houses are nicely maintained (except one...of course!), the road is quiet. The houses is in a cul-de-sac and on a large corner lot.

Isn't she purrrrty?! 

The current homeowner has been in it since construction and he had extra windows put into the house so it is extremely naturally well-lit. Which is perfect for my night-shift habit.

It has 3 beds, 3 baths, and an office. The kitchen and baths were all upgraded 2 years ago. And it's within our price range.

Why don't we own it yet??? Great question:

The back yard is a gulley. With water running through the middle of it from a storm drain. The "creek" is actually supposed to be within the back 15 feet of the property instead of the middle. 

We put in an offer with the contingency that the owner moves the run-off to where it's supposed to be. He declined, so today we had a landscape company come and bid out the work for us to have it moved. Depending on what the bid is, we may put in another offer on the house. We can work with the sloped yard, that doesn't bother us too much. Running water is a whole 'nother story.

Cross your fingers for us!