Posted on December 28, 2017 in sewing

Two Everyday Totes

Goodbye 2017 and thank you for the many lessons over the past year!

One of my goals is to be busier and I wanted to make something special for my Aunt, a person I admire greatly from her loving and proactive spirit. After puttering around their website, I found Purl Soho’s “Everyday Tote” pattern.

I made my own binding using Cotton + Steel’s “Fiskers” in lavender.

The pattern calls for some beautiful cotton webbing handles, but I decided to use some of the extra canvas to make handles. I also put binding on one tote’s handles, and really like the look.

The sewing took under an hour for each bag. I used a combo of Aurifil thread and Gutermann.

Cricket loves the camera.

The contrast between the gold corduroy and the blue canvas is one of my favorite parts of each tote.

I ran out of the Cotton + Steel binding and found some of this extra binding, and though why not? I’m pretty happy with the pop of color and how it adds more to the tote’s character.

I highly recommend this, and any pattern, from Purl Soho!

Thanks for stopping by all year. It has been a monumental year for Brambleton Threads. This year we not only became an LLC, had our first gallery showing, but also completed a successful Kickstarter. We are grateful for the continued support on the blogging communties, Twitter, and from Kickstarter.

For any new eyes stopping by, thank you and enjoy!

Have a calm and safe end of the year.

Posted on August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Crib Quilt

This crib size baby quilt is 54″ x 41″ and has a cotton batting. We aren’t sure if our friend’s baby is a boy or a girl, and not knowing that allowed for me to play a lot with color and some prints. I pieced together the top earlier this year, of course using Aurifil thread. The binding are batiks I had left over from another quilt.

This quilt reminds me of watching the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean, something I’ve been able to enjoy pretty often lately. The quilt backing fabrics are both Cotton + Steel. I love the pink’s lushness.

I used a deep gold thread to machine quilt this. In all spots that looked like a square I made an X and filled in the rest of the quilt with lines. The ocean often has pockets of smooth water on the surface and I thought of those spaces while I was making X’s.

A thank you to my husband for holding up the quilts!

I find machine quilting on cotton batting to be a lot smoother and quicker experience than with wool batting. The fibers in wool are much more like a bramble. Cotton typically settles down with itself. What do you like to use for batting?

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted on May 31, 2017May 31, 2017 in Household, sewing, Tutorial

Easy Pillow Covers

A few months ago a cousin and I made a trip to the fabric store and then by the Goodwill for some pillows. The Goodwill has great deals on pillows, especially for pillows that will receive a lot of good use. I referenced the blog Hey There, Home’s post on How to Make an Envelope Pillow Cover. I really enjoyed the clear instructions shown on Hey There, Home. My method was basically the same.

Here are the pillows pre-covering.

After measuring each pillow, I cut the fabric with a half inch seam added to the overall size.

The pinning.

I marked the corners before sewing and using the serger on the edges.

A covered pillow!

A long pillow covered.

A complete set.

This has been such an exciting month. A big thank you to all of those backers that helped fund our Kickstarter campaign–the support is stunning and I look forward to the stitching! We’ve been super busy with regular life. We are grateful for our good health.

Sending all our best to everyone!

Posted on April 17, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Quilt Completed

This quilt started last year as two separate pieces from an in-person class at Country Roads Quilt Shoppe and a Carolyn Friedlander paper piecing creativebug tutorial. After combining the two pieces into one I added a border to even out the prints and piecing.

From West Virginia to Las Vegas and then to Virginia, this quilt was snuggled under after becoming only a sandwich! It also had a lot of machine quilting removed and redone; I found this task trying, but necessary.

For the paper piecing I used the scrap stash, with many of the fabrics being from Moda.

Quilting free form lines mesmerizes me because of the movement given to the quilt.

Many of these fabrics are from projects I completed prior to making this blog. It’s wonderful to see those scraps from previous projects, efforts, and little things of love I sent off in the world.

The main border fabric is from “Honeymoon” by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel. It reminds me of James Wright.

Since I’m a Robert Kaufman and Carolyn Friedlander fan this wide backing was perfect. It adds a nice softness.

The sunlight gives the machine quilting great shadows. Aurifil thread was used on this quilt.

One quilt done and another one on the way.

Our Kickstarter is going amazingly well. Thank you to all the supporters and those that have enjoyed the work. We’re really excited to being working on a new series of embroidery projects, and to be expanding Brambleton Threads.

Posted on April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Flannel Baby Quilt

This flannel quilt is simple in its appearance and construction. I was thinking a baby’s close up view of the world, about the spaces between the meeting of matter, and how those meetings blur into lines.

The finished size is 57″ by 58″. Robert Kaufman flannel is the front fabric. Aurifil thread is used for the sewing and quilting.

For the back fabric a plain blue Robert Kaufman quilting cotton. The print fabrics used in the backing and binding are from Abi Hall’s collection “Jurassic Jamboree” for Moda.

Here is the original concept. Creating one-off designs is one of the reasons I love to make quilts and embroidery pieces. Translating an idea from one form to the next presents a natural challenge for me.

We are launching a Kickstarter later today for a one-off embroidery series! Click here to check it out. Thanks for the support and kind words.

Posted on October 9, 2016October 7, 2016 in Household, Improv

Pincushion Progress

I made a pincushion with some of the scraps left over from the quilt tops I’ve been working on. The fabric is from Andover’s Natural History deisgned by Lizzy House and Robert Kaufman. Lavender is one of my favorite scents, so PlumEasy‘s pincushion filling was a natural fit. The finished size is 5″ x 6 1/2″ x 2″, and it holds a lot of pins!

What is your favorite pincushion?

Posted on July 29, 2016 in Appliqué, Quilting, Uncategorized

Around Applique

Eighty squarish circles later and I am feeling pleased to the max with the colors: I’m still in the sea.

The pattern is Carolyn Friedlander’s Aerial Grove from her book Savor Each Stitch. Check her work out, and you will be picking up some fabric quickly.

One of the strips was appliqued by my auntie during her visit and I completed the rest.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Posted on July 25, 2016 in Household, Quilting, sewing, Uncategorized

Colorful Quilt Top

This quilt is an amalgamation of cloth, time, patterns, and my brain. I started making this quilt for a class using T he Rabbit Factory’s Homespun Hill. The pieced blocks were fun and quick to put together. The color palette is dewy grass.

I modified this quilt top by adding Carolyn Friedlander‘s Creativebug Polk block. I’ve done some paper-piecing, and found this exercise to be helpful and inspiring. Paper-piecing is a great stash buster. Creativebug provides excellent instructions, visually and in print format (I’m big a fan!).

The quilt top has batiks, prints, solids, and paper-pieced blocks. The fabric on hand became this quilt; in the past year my taste, knowledge, and understanding of fabric has become more robust, and I’m happy to see some old fabrics being incorporated into a quilt and removed from the stash. Sarah Watts’ Honeymoon made it in and some batiks my auntie gifted to me. I’m partial to Sarah Watts round lines.

Honestly, sitting close to this quilt top since April, I don’t know if I’m ready to look at it as a whole. And really, it isn’t complete, because I have to add quilting, backing, and binding. Overall, I like the movement and the quilt top.

What did you make over the weekend?

Posted on July 9, 2016July 9, 2016 in Appliqué, Quilting, sewing

Applique Strips Basted

Basting after pinning applique pieces is one of my favorite parts of the craft and I like that the turned edges seem smoother when compared with my turning-on-the-line only applique. Basting may seem like it’ll away time from stitching, but trust me, it doesn’t, and I don’t worry about being stuck with needles. I love all parts of needle-turn applique.

Pattern Name & Author: Aerial Grove & Carolyn Friedlander

Right before I started this I stopped myself from working on a needle-turn applique project I wasn’t enjoying. The project and I did not mesh creatively and when I realized this it was an easy decision to move on. Now I’m stitching away happily.

I recently (today) had guests, and one was my sewing auntie; she helped applique one strip and I’m finishing up the second. When I first saw this quilt pattern I was excited to start working on it. The pattern is fun, graceful, and lends itself to great amounts of color play.

Have any projects you’ve moved on from?

Posted on March 25, 2016 in Appliqué, Free-Motion, Quilting, sewing

Arcs + Free Motion Quilting

The Free-Motion quilting bug caught me! Carolyn Friedlander’s awesome pattern Arcs waited patiently to be quilted and with the new Janome now here I was more than happy to start quilting. The sun came out strong yesterday, perfect to sit down and sew by.

Speed and stitch length are two of the things I am thinking about while quilting. It takes strong hands and arms to move the layers quickly under the needle. Sometimes I have a gap, but others I don’t move enough and the stitches are tiny. I am staying present! If my mind wands the needle wiggles! Quilting gloves may be helpful in this department by making sure for a more steady grip. Have you tried quilting gloves?

The design translated prettily from the front to the back. My husband said it looks like an ancient calendar, and it certainly does! The scale was an easy and the most fun shape for me to make, with a swoop-away-and-back towards me. The thread is gold Aurifil, and didn’t break at all. For the background fabric I used Sarah Watts’ Honeymoon. Earlier I mentioned the front of the piece felt like a sunrise to me and this background fabric felt like night and how light time feels around those hours.

The trees are blooming. Awhile ago I noticed this tree was shaped like a heart from growing around the powerlines and thought it would be magnificent in Spring. Here it is! The blooms aren’t in entirely, but this is a sneak peak.

What is blooming near you? Have a great weekend!

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Tag: aurifil