My First Quilt - Part 2

I know I haven't updated in a couple months, but it has been a busy couple months. We moved into our new place and that took up a lot more time then originally expected putting things away and going through everything. I've also had a few other projects, including designing a CD cover among others.

I just wanted to post up the second side of the quilt I started in the last post. I hope to get back to it soon and finish it up, it's really close to being complete and I'm getting excited about how it will come out looking.

I think it's looking really good and I will hopefully be able to update more often but I will definitely try to keep everyone updated on how things are going. Let me know what you think of it so far. Have a great day!

My First Quilt - Part 1

I've had an idea for a quilt for a long time and a few weeks ago I decided to finally just do it. So I created the pattern for the quilt and started figuring out measurements and then waited a week or two for a good sale at JoAnns came around (happens pretty frequently). When a good sale did come around, I went in and picked out the colors that I needed and then began the process.

I decided to do the quilt in flannel, which is one of my favorite fabrics to work with. So I washed it all and then ironed it out so I could start cutting it.

Then I started measuring it and cut it all into strips.

Next was taking all those strips and cutting them further into the squares that I would be working with to create the designs. It took a while, but I eventually had all my squares cut out.

Then I got out the sewing machine and started putting together my blocks. I decided the easiest way to do it would be to first put it into 3x3 blocks and then sew those together to create rows and then sew the rows together. Here's a couple of the first shots. Me and my wife are doing this one together and we've been getting pretty good at it, she will get the squares out and pass them to me and I will start to sew them together and while I'm doing that she takes what I have sewn already and irons it and pins it together with the next piece and sets it inline to be sewn together. It's worked pretty well.

Last Saturday we spent most of the day sewing and we finished the first side. Here is a picture of that.

 If you're not sure what this is yet, its Mario, in the Raccoon (or Tanooki) suit from Super Mario 3. The backside will be put together like this side and will feature the statue that Mario can turn into with this suit. It should be pretty awesome looking.

Soon we will begin on the second side and then all we have to do is finish up the borders and and then sew it all together. So far it has been a lot of fun and I might even try to do a few more quilts or even see if there is a want for quilts to be commissioned or something like that. We will have to see.

I'd love to hear what you all think of our progress so far. Have a fantastic day and I'll catch everyone next time.

January Update

I was hoping to get this out sooner but it kept getting pushed back. Oh well. Since I posted last (which was the end of December) I have graduated college and I'm not out again looking for a job. Super fun stuff...

I have a few things I'm going to post up quick so this shouldn't be a too long of post. First off, I finally competed the Scott Pilgrim cross stitch I started last year and got it in the frame. I shared the pattern a few posts back if you're interested in doing it.

 Next up is that I finished the painting I did for my wife for her birthday last summer. I did a few minor details and put it in a frame for her. I think it did quite a bit to make it look nicer.

The last thing I did was mainly for myself. This Christmas, Wizards of the Coast (Creators of Magic the Gathering) put out a Christmas gift box and they are really nice for storing cards so I got a few of them to put my cards in and I decided to make each one different from the others so I put this design on the top of one of them. It is a design that comes from a card in the latest set (Return to Ravnica) called Tablet of the Guilds. I mainly free handed it with pencil with the help of rulers and such and then did it in black paint markers and after it was dry put a clear spray coat over top so that it doesn't scratch off easily. It turned out really nice and I have a few more boxes to put designs on top of now.

Here is the top of the box in closer detail. If you don't know much about Ravnica, where the latest sets of magic cards are set, is a plane that is covered by a gigantic city where 10 different guilds have control over different parts of it. Each guild is a two color combination out of the 5 colors in magic (each pair representing a different guild). So each bubble below is the guilds symbol. It was my favorite set when it was first visited back in 2005, and it has been a blast revisiting it this last block so far. 

Beyond that I haven't done a whole lot art wise. I'm planning on starting to sketch more again, like I did earlier and trying to challenge myself to sketch everyday and work on my artwork more. I also plan on trying to update this more often, and I think it will be easier to get myself to update if I've got artwork to post. Anyway, we'll see how that all goes. Have a fantastic day and catch everyone next time.

~Ben