sew & tell - june 2011

Hello sew & tellers!

First off, I would like to sincerely apologize for slacking last week and not getting the post up.  I'm hoping you'll forgive me and just link up your stuff you had planned (and maybe even posted already) today!

Do you remember the challenge I gave you in April? To find someone who needs a little encouragement to start sewing? Or a buddy to help motivate you? Someone you can bond with over fabric and creating with it? And then to get together with them and sew? I hope you took the opportunity to do that!

My friend (and luckily neighbor) Sara has been sewing most of her life. When she gets a project on the mind, she's very focused and super productive! I would have half my to-do list crossed off if I was 1/2 as efficient as her!

Anyway, she is having a baby in the next week or so and had some fabrics picked out with which she wanted to make an easy and quick baby quilt. She asked if I would help her figure out what to do and teach her how to put on a binding and stitch it down by hand.

This was the beautiful mess we made the day we got together. She was working on her quilt and I finally got my living room curtains started.

messes always look better in black and white.

We went for an easy strip quilt.  She just started cutting strips to sew together of different widths.  There is regular cotton, flannel and minky in there.  I think it turned out quite adorable!

front and back

She took it home and machine quilted (also a first! and without a walking foot - brave girl) about 1/4 inch on either side of each horizontal seam.  And was ready to bind it that same night!

close ups

I roughly showed her how to do the binding and she went home.  The next day I dropped off some thread for her to stitch down the binding.  When I talked to her the the day after that to see if she needed any help, she had already finished it! Barely 2 days from start to finish!  See what I mean? Focused.

extreme close-up!

and look at how even her stitches are! She did such a great job.

love a folded quilt.

So, it took me a while, but I did finally finish up 2 of my curtain panels last week.  I have 4 more to make, and only enough fabric for one more..... But I think I like them.

I'll take a picture of the whole room once I get the rest of them made.  If I spent as much time working on these as I've spent thinking about them, I'd be way ahead of myself!

Thanks Sara for coming over and making me work on these! I'm glad to be this much closer to this project being finished.  We had fun chatting and sewing together.  I can't wait to meet her new little baby and see her wrapped up in her quilt.

Who did you sew with? What's your story?  Did someone motivate you?  Did you have an challenge with a blogging friend to get something finished?  Tell us!!

PLEASE READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE NEW TO LINKING UP!  :)

NEW RULES FOR LINKING UP!  Please read carefully.  The delete monster will be eating non-compliant links.

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button.

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!