Baby Balloons

When I found out I was pregnant with Claire (Little Bug on the blog) I knew I wanted to make a baby quilt for her.

It was hard to decide what to do...I didn't want anything too cutesy, but I also didn't want anything too grown up.

I also planned to have a gender neutral nursery, so I wanted the quilt to be relatively gender neutral, too.

Enter: hot air balloons

After much scouring of Pinterest, I decided that indeed, a quilt with hot air balloons was the way to go. Next, I needed to decide how I wanted this thing to look.

I don't prefer to sew by hand, so complicated applique was out of the question.  Trying to stick with a more modern approach, I decided to keep the balloons as simple as possible.

I decided to machine applique circles as the balloons, and then machine applique brown trapezoids as the baskets underneath.  I used brown thread in straight lines as the ropes attaching the two.

I can't choose a favorite balloon!

For the finishing, I machine quilted around the balloons as a whole (don't look too closely...the outline isn't very even sometimes), as well as around the squares, and I free-motioned wavy lines on the outside borders.

I LOVE the border fabric, which I also used on the back. It's so playful, and I think it really ties all of the balloons together.

This is a small crib sized quilt, and is made with fabric from my stash. Most balloons were made from charm pack squares.

I've thought about writing up a pattern for this. Any interest?

Until next time,

~Kristen

The Hunt for a New Machine

For the last year or so I've been itching to get a new sewing machine.

Don't get me wrong: my Viking Daisy has served me well since I bought her in 2007, but the machine just wasn't cutting it for finishing quilts. I couldn't get the walking foot to work correctly, and there was no hope at all for free motion quilting.

This year, my wonderful Husband Zane suggested spending a portion of our tax return towards a new machine. I was thrilled!

Little did I realize how much shopping for a new machine is like shopping for a car. 0_o

Because most of the sewing I do is related to quilts, I knew the following features were important to me: needle down, walking foot, free motion quilting (feed dogs down)

I also knew, from reading others' blogs, that the top names for quilting seem to be Bernina and Janome.

I looked around online a bit, which was frustrating because there are SO MANY MACHINES. Also, there tend not to be any prices published, which makes it really difficult to determine what may or may not fit into your budget.

The first machine I tried was a Bernina 350PE. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed.  The salesperson kept touting how many stitches it is capable of, and how many alphabets it has (I don't care about alphabets!). Don't get me wrong, the machine sewed beautifully. The stitches were even, and the speed controls were nice.

What wasn't nice? The price! This was a used machine, and it was selling for 1200! That was a few hundred dollars more than I wanted to spend, and I didn't even think the machine was all that amazing. Not to mention, the throat was actually smaller than on my basic Viking.

So, back to the drawing board (aka Google) I went. I stumbled on a forum discussing machines at the same level or better than the Bernina 350PE.  A few people in the thread suggested the Janome 3160 QDC.

Curious, I headed to another local shop on Tuesday to try one out.  I was immediately impressed by how simple it is to use, as well as the fact that it *doesn't* have an overwhelming amount of stitches. The throat is the same size as my Viking, and the machine came with all the feet I wanted.

In addition, it has the needle down function, AND IT TIES KNOTS!!!! Can you tell I'm excited about this? 

So, without much convincing from the sales guy, I decided this was the machine for me.  To make the deal even sweeter, they had a used machine that was in seemingly perfect shape, for a very, very reasonable price.

I haven't taken a picture of my machine, but here's a stock photo. I'm in love!!

Until next time,

~Kristen

Work in Progress: Priory Square

Hello, readers!

I've been lazy about adding new posts, but I've been busily sewing when I can. (Little Bug sure does make it difficult!) In all honesty, this harsh, cold winter weather has driven my levels of motivation into the negatives, too.

So, what have I been working on?

Well, to start I put together this top from a fat quarter bundle I won from fabricworm a while back. The fabric is Priory Square by Katy Jones for Art Gallery Fabrics.  I was in this lovely shop here in GR a few weeks ago, Stitched Studio, and saw a quilt  made with this fabric, and fell in love!

The fabric isn't what I'd normally choose for myself, but hey, it was free for me. And, I'm LOVING the fabric now that I've incorporated it into a quilt top.

The quilt is crib-size, so it's good for a baby or as a small lap quilt.

The pattern is called "Yellow Brick Road" by Terry Atkinson. I bought it at Stitched Studio, but you can find it online here, among other places: Yellow Brick Road

I'm currently in the process of finishing it. I'm not very good at machine quilting, but the more I try the better I'll get, right? (one can only hope)

I'm using a variegated thread by Coats and Clark, which makes the quilting quite lovely on the back.

Here's one more close-up:

I'll be sure to post more pictures when the quilt is finished! I'm contemplating trying to sell this one, so if you're interested, let me know.

Until next time!

~Kristen

My Inspiration: Old Quilt

As I said before, I always loved the old quilts at my aunt Carol's house.

Well, it turns out I've got a couple. Today I'm sharing this beauty:

Postage Stamp Quilt

Apparently this quilt was my father's baby quilt...it's over 50 years old! I wish I knew who made it.
I love the colors...neither feminine nor masculine...a quilt like this is perfect for any baby.

The quilt measures approximately 42" x 42". Because of its age, the quilt is showing signs of wear, as well as fading. Even so, the colors are still vibrant, and the patterns on the fabric still visible.

The back of the quilt is a flannel with dainty giraffes on it. The back is probably the most worn-looking part, besides the binding.

Flannel Backing

One of these days I intend to reproduce a quilt like this. It's just SO many tiny squares...it's a little intimidating!

Until next time,

~Kristen

Getting to Know Me: My Inspiration

I've enjoyed creating things for as long as I can remember.

One of my first memories of this is having "beautified" some of my toys with nail polish when I was very young...needless to say my mother took away the nail polish for a loooooong time.

Otherwise, I have many fond memories of spending time with aunts and great aunts who loved all things crafty.

I would often spend time with my mom's sister, Diane, who really should have been an artist. From drawing with her fancy colored pencils, to painting ceramics, to decorating terra cotta pots with fun decals, I was always creating something fun when spending time with her. She taught me how to decorate cakes and bake all kinds of fun things. She certainly influenced a part of my love for cooking and good food.

These days she's still crafting and decorating away, this time with my young cousins. I see projects they're working on and it brings back fun memories of spending weekends with her when I was young.

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My great aunt Carol was brave enough to let my cousins and me come stay with her for a week or two at a time during the summer.

Her house has two spare bedrooms, and I always loved getting the middle room because there was a beautiful patchwork quilt that hung on the wall.  I wish I had a picture of it!   The quilt is made of squares, most likely "recycled" fabric from old clothes. I remember many summer nights looking at the quilt and playing a matching game with the squares, since some were repeats.

Every summer she had a line-up of projects for us girls.  One summer, we went to a farm and gathered dried vines to make wreaths.  Another time, we made Christmas wreaths from packing peanuts. There are so many more: rag dolls, doll house rugs, salt dough ornaments, bread dough flowers...I wish I could remember them all.

It was at aunt Carol's house that I learned to sew, and where I learned the beauty of quilting.

She prefers to hand quilt, and she does amazing work.  Recently, she hand quilted one of my own creations, which I had put off finishing for ages because I don't like to hand quilt.

As you can see, her stitches are steady and small---oh to have the patience to do this! (A full post is n the works to show off the project.)

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Otherwise, most of my inspiration comes from the internet (Pinterest, other blogs, etc.) as well as books.

As CanterCrafts develops, I'll do my best to share what's inspired each project.

Until next time.

~Kristen

Coming Soon....I promise!

My lovely husband has been doing his very best to give me some sewing time every weekend.

This is a HUGE thing for me, because ever since Little Bug was born I haven't had much time for sewing, and going back to work made it even more difficult to find time to work on my projects.

So, here's what I've been working on:

• I finished a Christmas wall hanging
• I started sewing lined curtains for the kitchen
• I started a baby quilt for my niece-to-come in the ever-adorable Charley Harper prints by Birch Fabrics

And here's what I NEED to work on: I have to figure out a way to take decent looking photos of my projects for this blog!

And so, Coming Soon: pictures of my projects! I promise!

New Year, New Ambitions

I've often thought about blogging. It just always seems like it'll take up too much time that I don't really have.

This year, though, I'm going to do it! Or at least try.

I've decided that in order to make a decent attempt at being profitable from my love of fabric and quilting, I need exposure.  Assuming I have readers, I think a blog will be the easiest place to start.

My goal here is to show what I've done, what I'm capable of, and what I'm learning.

And even though my blog is called "Canter Sews," I'll probably share some other stuff, too. ;)

So, welcome. Please feel free to share with anyone you think might be interested to follow along. And if you like what you see, and think I'm slacking, please prod me for more posts!

~Kristen