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 16, 2016 in Free-Motion, Quilting, sewing

Scraps Tote

This tote first started coming together in April, but was set aside for other projects. It caught my eye the other day. I scoped out the previous work, and found I was at the final steps of construction. The instructions are from The School of Sewing.

Free motion quilting is the best, and I love working on improving my skills.

Most of the scraps came from a baby quilt I finished in March.

The fabric scraps are mostly from Lizzy House’s line Natural History. A great line with playful fabrics that I love.

What have you been working on? Thanks for stopping by.

Posted on May 1, 2016May 1, 2016 in Improv, Quilting, sewing

Scrappy Quilt Top

This improvisational quilt top happened a few weeks ago when I was staring deeply into the ever growing stack of quilt scraps crowding different areas of the house. I felt a bit overwhelmed. What should I do? I just sat down, started trying out fabrics, and boom: quilt top started. I was cutting and pressing and sewing away for a couple of days. Then I folded it up and put it away (except to snap thess photos so quickly I didn’t even press the fabric smooth!).

Improving is a skill I come to naturally in quilting; the first four quilts I made never saw a ruler or felt pins, and I thought those quilts were the best. The ruler is my friend now, and I use it unsparingly, but what I learned is that I’m a person that likes to explore a craft and all the different approaches.

The quilt top’s colors and lines are playful. Watching the sunrise from the window is such a great way to start off the day, and this quilt top turned in to a compilation of a few different sunrises. For the borders I would like to push my boundaries and go for a big lush floral print, because the clouds here are often large and crowded.

On my travels I was able to stop by the beach a few times. Growing up coastal, I always feel grounded when I’m near the ocean.

What have you been improvising lately?

Posted on April 24, 2016 in Pattern, sewing, Tutorial

Easy Passport Cover

I always travel with a passport, but I never found the perfect case. I first wrote and made this easy passport pattern last Fall to solve my passport case woes. I’ve made a few demos in the process of pattern writing and I love the final product. Later this week I’ll share the pattern and tutorial!

I was traveling this early part of April and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

Posted on February 8, 2016 in Appliqué, Hand Sewing, sewing

Applique Today

This is my first time using one of Lori Smith’s applique patterns. The directions are simple and well numbered. I was introduced to her work through the applique class I’m taking at the LQS. It is a great pattern to learn many of the skills needed in applique…as I’m finding out!

The pattern encourages scrap usage and to date I haven’t used any new fabric. We used bias bars to make the stems and these helped make the stems bendy, easier to apply on. Glue was recommended to keep the stems in place, but since I am on the go and recently learned the joys of basting, I decided to baste the stems on. I’m saving most of my pennies, and glue feels like something I could run to pick up if I was screaming for it, but am glad not to buy right now!

To make circles close to perfect (mine aren’t perfect!) we utilized Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Circles. The O-ring to hold all the circles is included, and I love that! Not only are my circles better than anticipated, but each one looks like a sweet little flower while awaiting application.

I worked on Carolyn Friedlander’s Arcs all week. What I appreciate about this pattern is how dynamic the arcs are despite being a simple shape. I learned a lot about tucking under and securing corners.

This is all scrap fabric I had from other projects. The raspberry fabric in the middle row almost had me cutting out new arcs, but I decided to roll with it. This project still has a lot more to be added, and the colors can be balanced. Thread color is going to be crucial.

Other exciting things have been going on here too. I’ve been drawing a lot and am thinking about ordering some supplies to make printed fabric by hand. Any tips? Has any one worked on making fabric?

What are you working on?

Posted on January 30, 2016 in Appliqué, Hand Sewing, sewing

Applique Away

After a week of figuring out some technology–hello, YouTube!–the computer is free for roaming. The snow has been beautiful. Everything is quiet and the cars move slowly along. The sunrise colors are delicate here.

Post Card Party Swap is a fantastic way to share small quilted pieces with other knitters and totally hits all my favorite categories: mail, pen-pals, quilting, and applique. The LQS offers classes with postcard ideas and this was a class I joined that used wool. It was my first time doing wool applique, and I love how textured and sturdy wool is to work with. When the snow began to fall, I decided to hand quilt circles as the background, enjoying it so much I worked on it until I finished. Hand-stitching is calming, centering, and adds a beautiful finish to this little postcard!

Practice makes for more experience and so out came the scrap bag and the rotary cutter, and I cut out six more hearts to applique. The squares are sevens inches by seven inches and the heart is a basic template. Since I’ll always have scraps about this size I plan on collecting at least one heart from each piece of fabric from here on out. When there are enough of appliqued I will make a quilt. Right now eleven appliqued hearts exist.

Savor Each Stitch arrived and it is a wonderfully written book with clear explanations. The first project is cut and ready to be basted. Basting, I’ve just learned after pinning ten hearts, is much easier to work with when doing needle-turn applique. What I particularly liked about basting is how smoothly the round edges turned under. It was a revelation to me, because the pinning seemed to cause distortion overall, but the basting kept all in place! Looking forward to moving ahead with this project.

Everyone is posting such lovely work! Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog.

Posted on January 4, 2016 in Hand Sewing, Tutorial

Greeting Card Tutorial: Upcycling Scraps & Notecards

I needed a card yesterday. The store’s cards were okay & nice, but lacked a personal touch. After assessing materials in house, I decided to use 5″ x 7″ lined notecards & scraps from the just finished half-squre triangle quilt to make a greeting card.

Materials: