Looking Forward!

A new year, a clean slate!  (I wish I could say clean sewing room!)

I don't have a round up of projects, or a review of last years goals. I did look back at them, and I am pretty satisfied with the results, but I would rather look forward!

This year,  I really want to set aside some time every day for sewing.  Even if I just sew two pieces of fabric together, I think sewing everyday will keep my momentum going.  

So far, I have finished a small quilt:

Crackle Quilt - 42" x 50"

   

The pattern is "Crackle" by Aneela Hoey.  I saw a friend's version in solids on Instagram and it really caught my eye.  Enough for me to buy a pattern, when I have many, many quilts in my mental queue!  It went pretty quickly and it was fun to see it come together. I turned it, instead of finishing with a binding which I think is a nice look for this pattern. I think I may try it a bit bigger for a Quilt of Valor. This one will  go to the Birthday Blessings Bee.

I also made a bee block:

It is a version of Elizabeth Dackson's bookshelf block.  This block is due at our next meeting and it has been really fun to see the other bee member's versions in our Facebook group.  Mine is pretty straightforward, but I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Today, I worked on a couple of zip bags that a niece requested, but my main project is this:

(front)

(back side)

(bottom)

I got the idea to embellish a small piece of luggage while I was visiting my sis in Colorado, over the holidays.  We went to a few flea markets and I saw something similar, but a much larger suitcase.  

I found a small suitcase at a different flea market during the same visit, and then found this case for $6 at an antique store at a place we stopped on the way home.  

This one was kind of my prototype to practice before tackling the larger (and more expensive)case, which I think will be the perfect size for carting projects to sewing days.  I have not used Mod-Podge before, so I wanted to get comfortable with how it works, first.

I really love the way it looks!  The next step is to try to make a lining for it.  The current interior is nothing awful, but I have a piece of fabric that I think will be a great complement to the outside.

I also plan to continue my effort to sew from my stash and minimize purchasing fabric.  I will be tracking how much fabric I use and how much I add.  Currently, I am in the "black", since I haven't bought anything yet and the quilt used 3.5 yards.  I hope this is not the last time I can say that, but our guild meeting is sponsored this week, so I will likely buy something there.  

If I am going to sew every day, I should be able to keep things under control.  I hope...

Happy New Year! 

Hello/Goodbye November

It's been a busy fall.  Okay, that's an excuse, but I don't have anything else, so imma go with it.

I started the month with 10 days on my own when The Mister went on a road trip to a big car event. I took the opportunity to take everything out of my sewing room and sort/purge/organize.  

One of the side effects of going to estate auctions is that you end up buying stuff you don't particularly want, along with the stuff you do want. And when it is fabric, it is hard to think that I will NEVER have a use for it. So, it builds up. Sometimes to the point where I am unable to use anything because there is so much 'stuff' in the way.

I was determined to reclaim my space! 

It took just about the whole 10 days and is still a bit of a work in progress because we had guests for the holiday.  Our guest accommodations are in the basement, which was my default landing place for stuff I decided not too put back in the sewing room, but did not go to charity, so that needed attention, too. 

I went through four packages of comic book boards and part way through a fifth package, to wrap anything a half yard to about 3 yards.   I have to say that while I would have rather spent the money on more fabric, the boards do make it more manageable to pull out fabric and be able to put it back in the same spot. 

I need some Billy Bookcases, though.  We will have an Ikea at some point next year and when they open, I will be ready!  For now, I am using some wire baskets on shelves. They are kind of heavy, but manageable.

Meanwhile, I got some sewing done away from home, during "The Great Upheaval".  

The KC Modern Quilt Guild had an all day retreat that allowed me to finish some string blocks for a Quilt of Valor.

This is the the top.  It has been sent away to be quilted!

A week later, we had another sew day due to a cancellation of a speaker/teacher who had an emergency and couldn't come to town.  Since we already had the room reserved, a few of us took the opportunity to sew. 

My project at the second sew day was a "Sew Together" bag.  The pattern was a souvenir of my visit to Dear Sis in October.  "Mama Said Sew", in Ft. Collins, had the pattern and a kit and I bought both. I decided to use other fabric and save the kit, thinking that my first bag might not be cute-Japanese-fabric-worthy.  

I can even put my 3.5" x 9" ruler in it with all my other supplies for sewing away from home!

The first bag turned out pretty well, but I am glad I saved the special fabric for the second bag. 

I did miss the tip about directional fabric, though, so the second bag has a front and a back. Also, I didn't put the pin cushion or needle landing in this bag and I used white muslin for the pocket linings instead of the dark chambray in the kit.  I think white makes it easier to find what I am looking for.  I have my embroidery supplies in this one, but I like to use a 5" hoop and it doesn't quite fit, so I may assign it other duties.

And then I made another!

 

This one I made with some fat eighths of Riley Blake fabric that I got for a Modern Quilt Guild challenge. We received six fat eighths of their basic fabrics and the only stipulation was that the finished item must be quilted. I made this bag two inches more narrow than the pattern, both because I was constrained by the size of the fabric and also because I have a huge supply of 7" zippers (estate sale bounty). I used almost every bit of the challenge fabric and again used white muslin for the pocket linings. 

I must say I really like this size. My plan is to use it for manicure tool/supplies, but I haven't filled it yet since our reveal is at our December meeting. I think the size will be perfect for that. I am not certain it would be big enough for sewing retreat tools, but the proportions are really cute!

The pattern is by Sew Demented and is challenging, but not really hard.  Before the spate of bag making, I believe I have put in maybe 3 or 4 zippers.  Now I have put in a dozen more and I am much more confident with the process.

I have a plan to sew a bit this weekend and get some Christmas packages sent off. I might have done a bit of Black Friday Internet fabric shopping yesterday, so I need to get busy and make some room for it!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Hold onto your hats, because Christmas is just about here!

A Finish! - Mirror Ball Dot Challenge

 Last week at guild, we had the reveal of our latest fabric challenge. The Michael Miller Company sponsored a challenge proposed by our fabulous swap committee!  

The company provided four fat quarters to each participant - two fq's of Mark Hordyszynski Mirror Ball Dot fabric, and two fq's of coordinating cotton couture solids.  The rules of the swap were to make a quilt, inspired by an architectural element on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. 

I went to Google Images for my inspiration and found a photo of the tiled steps leading up to McCormick and Schmick's restaurant. Since the tiles were the same colors as my fabrics it seemed a natural choice. 

There are many, many talented quilters and artists in the KCMQG and swaps are a bit intimidating for that reason, so I decided to fore go the artistic approach and use a literal interpretation.  I converted the photo through the "Stitch Sketch" app on my iPad to a cross stitch pattern, which I then used to make a pixel quilt. 

This is the photo:

And this is the quilt: 

And the back.

I added some other fabric from a Gees Bend quilt kit in blues and grays.  I think the gray tone in the GB fabric sets off the mirror ball shine. 

I wasn't sure about the color fastness of the GB fabric as it is hand dyed and every time I washed the fabrics, the color catcher came out dark blue.  I washed the quilt after the reveal, though and it came out fine. I plan to donate it to the Blessings Bee next month. I didn't want to donate a quilt that had special washing instructions, so I was relieved at it came out with all the same colors at it went in with!

See all the challenge quilts here in the guild Flickr stream.  The original inspiration photos are there too.  Prepare to be amazed!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Doll Quilt

Here we are, almost to the end of May!  The last couple of weeks have just slipped through my fingers!

There has been lots of busy-ness, but not much in the creative department, so I decided to join in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time.  I have enjoyed past festivals (hosted by Amy's Creative Side), but always as a spectator. Since I don't have anything new to talk about, I decided to show you a little quilt that I made about this time last year.

I wish I had a better photo - this was snapped with the phone just before they arrived!

I made two of these little doll quilts to take to some great nieces last summer when I visited them.  I am never sure how hand made gifts will be received, or any gifts for that matter,  as I don't see them often enough to be in-tune with their current interests/development.

I needn't have worried.  They were a hit!  Throughout the visit, requests to play "blanket" were repeated often!

The pattern is by Aneela Hoey  from  "Pretty in Patchwork - Doll Quilts". I used Aneela's Little Apples fabric, mostly.  The solid is a Kona and the doll and bunny are from a Suzy Ultman panel.  I embroidered the clouds with glow-in-the-dark floss, instead of applique.

The dimensions are 12" x 14" (the dolly quilt is three inches by three and a half and the bunny's quilt is two inches square!)

Check out the other gorgeous quilts entered in the festival!  It's not too late to enter!

WIP Wednesday - Precuts Save the Day!

I am a little ambivalent about pre-cuts. I like a bargain and precuts rarely seem like a bargain. 

A couple jelly rolls, layer cakes and a handful of charm packs have come home with me over the years when they were a screaming deal, as well as a couple of fat eighth bundles and one fat quarter stack.  I used up most of the bundles in two quilts with minimal leftovers, so I felt good about that. As for the rest- they kind of sit there, getting 'less current' by the day. 

Today may have been turning point!

I was hoping to finish another donation quilt to take to guild this week.  I looked through the stack of juvenile panels and fabrics that I pulled a few weeks ago, but nothing really spoke to me.  I didn't want to take the time to dig through fabric to find coordinating solids etc., and make a plan. 

Then I remembered that I had an alphabet panel of Punctuation by American Jane for Moda and a coordinating Jelly roll that I bought in a deeply discounted kit.  I cut the letter blocks apart and sashed them with some of the strips. The blocks are rectangles, so 'squaring' them up was a bit of a challenge especially since panel blocks do not usually print exactly on the grain. I hope to get them sewn together tomorrow, but the quilting will probably have to wait a few weeks.

(Please excuse crappy phone photo...)

I only used about two thirds of the strips, but I think there are enough left that I can whip them into a great scrappy trip quilt.  

It was nice to be able to jump into a project with minimal cutting and make some blocks quickly.   

I might be a convert!

Catching Up The Week

I having been stitching away, this week, on the samples for Penguin and Fish.  I am half way through number 7 (a super cute giraffe) and then I will just have the monkey left. I hope to get them in the mail by Monday.  The designs are simple, but with the sweetest details that really make them sing!  I am having a lot of fun working on them, albeit with a bit of pressure to do my very best work.  (I will admit to taking stitches out to re-do them when I might have said "good enough" if I were stitching for my own project!)

This is the cutest little hedgie!

Before I received the sample materials, I did finish up two more quilts for donation to the birthday program. 

The nursery pastel scrappy trip-a-long:

The snow is all gone, after today's rain!

I am using up some puffy poly batting that I got at an estate sale some months back. It is quite different from low loft cotton batting.  A little challenging, but it does show off the quilting really well!   I did an orange peel design since I had a built-in grid in the squares. (You have to look closely to see that I changed direction a time or two.  The high loft camouflages errors nicely!)   I used the same stripe as the binding for the backing and it ended up about 36" x 48".

This is number two, this week.

When Ms A was little she had some tiny Kitty Cucumber paper dolls. They were so small they fit into a little matchbox!   

I came across these coordinating KC fabrics at a Goodwill last summer. I outlined the blocks with quilting and stitched around the motifs in the focus blocks and around the smaller kitties in the alternating block, along with some "bubbles" around the tossed flowers.    I did not use a different bobbin thread to coordinate with the dark blue backing. I don't mind that the quilting shows, but I wish the binding stitches were tidier.  Having a binding that is an equal width on both the front and the back is still an area of opportunity for improvement for me.  

This one ended up about 40" square.

I hope wherever these little quilts end up, they will keep a little one cozy!

WIP Wednesday - Beatrix Potter's Alphabet...

...part of it anyway!

I started this quilt from a panel that I got at an estate sale.  It was originally designed to make a soft book, but the instructions suggested that the blocks could also be used to make a quilt.  I found some solid green that looked nice with it, so I dug in and cut out the blocks last night.

I pressed them and put them on the design wall and as I was putting them in 'alphabetical order', I noticed that there was something missing.

Two somethings - Y and Z!

There had been something cut off the top of the panel which I had though possibly was a decorative border or something, since the part with the blocks was intact.  After reading the instructions, I am guessing it was the front and back covers and Y and Z must have been on the back.

This quilt is going to be donated to the birthday party program and I don't want to send a 'defective' quilt, so I am thinking about quilting the missing letters into the border, or maybe repeating them in the quilting all over.  Or, maybe quilt them in the middle and echo out to the edges.

Anybody have any other ideas?

Linking with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Trippy Baby Finish!

I put the brakes on the scrappy trip-a-long after 6 blocks when I started to think about cutting into some yardage to make more 'scaps'. It would be one thing if I had planned out a color scheme and layout etc, but since it was meant to be a scrap busting diversion, I decided to stop.  

Look!  A quilt on a fence instead of the laundry room door!

I am glad I did, because now it is a perfect size for a toddler, about 36" square. 

I quilted it with a combination of Leah Day's giant sunflower and a variation of Elizabeth Hartman's orange peel .  

And, I sewed the binding by machine. 

And, it turned out okay!  

I spent about two hours reading and watching videos about all the different techniques to make a machine applied binding look nice.  I selected a wide stitch pattern almost down the center of the binding, maybe just a bit toward the inside.  I have to say, it does not look bad!

A print from my stash for the back camouflaged any imperfections in the binding and quilting (especially after it came out of the dryer!)

I have added this one to the charity stack which now totals three. 

I looked through the stash to see what I have that will go with the juvenile panels I pulled out the other day and matched up a few.

My goal is to finish at least one a week. 

I better get cracking!

Friday Finish - Autograph Quilt!

It's a little late in the day, but here is my Friday finish.

I changed up the layout of this quilt over the course of making it - first, to keep it small and second, so the focus is on the autographed strips.  I narrowed the border pieces and turned it into kind of a stacked coin (dollars?) layout.  

I quilted  the vertical strips with loopy scallops - some of them look like I did them in italics, but I got a lot better by the end!

 

In the other sections I practiced several other motifs. 

I machine stitched the border, since this will only be a wall hanging. I have seen machine sewn bindings that look nice enough to be "seen", but mine do not, unfortunately. 

Last night at guild meeting, a member asked for donations of toddler quilts for a program that gives birthday parties/gifts to children in low income families.

I have a lot of estate sale/thrift store fabric and quite a few juvenile panels that I think I could make into some cute quilts.  I am pretty confident that my free motion quilting skills are at the point that I could do them pretty quickly, but I would like to be able to machine stitch the bindings so they will be sturdier and also, quicker to finish. 

If you have a favorite machine binding tutorials to recommend, I would appreciate any tips!

I would love to have 5 or 6 quilts to deliver to our next meeting!

Go here and here for more Friday Finishes and Free Motion Quilting!