Christmas gifts

I made just a couple gifts for Christmas this year; first is a set of potholders and dishtowels for my sister-in-law Amy C.

 

I was excited to use my Go! baby cutter to make this set after it had been stored away for a while. I think the tumblers are so cute and would like to make a bigger project with them sometime. For the dishtowels, I just used bar mop towels that I had on hand. I want to buy more flour sack dishtowels to pretty up, but I don't know if people (who I might give gifts to) would like them as much as I do.

And for Josh and Laura (my brother and his wife) I made this set:

 

I wasn't planning on including the aqua fabrics at first but they just sort of needed to be included. I like this color combination a lot. I put grommets in this set of potholders and had help from kids who were excited to help hammer. I am running low on the Katie Jump Rope red-orange fabrics and need to find a replacement!

And I got to open up this beauty on Christmas morning!

 

My mom made quilts for her grandkids the last two years (there are 15 with one more on the way!) and this year she made a quilt for each of us 6 kids. I asked for a fall quilt and I'm really happy with this one. :) I have a jelly roll of this same fabric line, I might make some pillows to go with it.

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p.s. I'm working on getting things ready for Focus on Free Motion Quilting, please come by next Tuesday (1/3) for the launch!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

Not a fan of the big guy. 

The kids at the beach on Christmas Eve. Seattle was so nice yesterday.

Dark pic of our tree last night.

 
 The quilt blocks I've been making the last couple weeks. These scrap blocks are 6 1/2" and I think I'll make a big quilt with about 80 of them. Tiny 9-patch for no reason, I just wanted to make it.

Finished Baby Quilt

A couple weeks ago I finished up my niece's baby quilt and sent it off to her in SLC:

 

I started this quilt in Kansas, with hopes that it would be finished and sent off quickly. Then we found out we were moving.  I finished the quilt top while we were living in our temporary apartment, and then quilted it right after we moved into our house in November.

Here's the back:

 

It's about 45" x 45". A little bigger than I usually make baby quilts, but that's ok. I had fun quilting it. The strips in each block were each quilted with one of three different designs:

 

I used loops, S-curves, and loopy zigzags, and just tried to make sure that adjacent strips were quilted with different designs. The roses in the centers of each block were quilted on the outlines of the roses and leaves. This was kind of similar to the quilting I did in my vintage sheet quilt, but in that quilt I did a different design in each strip of each block (designs were repeated in multiple blocks, though). Using only three designs made the quilt look more unified, I think, and there was less thinking/decision making along the way, too. 

So, overall I am pretty happy with this quilt, and I'm excited to make my next baby quilt for another niece who's expected in February. :)

Don't forget about Focus on Free Motion Quilting next month; we'll have how-to's and encouragement, along with a free motion quilting link up at the end of the month. Beginners and quilters with all levels of experience are welcome!
p.s. Feel free to get the button over on the sidebar. :)

Circle Quilt Top, and Giveaway Winner!

Hi everyone! Thanks to all who stopped by to enter my giveaway this past week. I really enjoyed reading about the projects you made this year. The winner, picked by random.org, is #161, Nancy Sue, who said,

"I crocheted a baby afghan for my newborn nephew in 2 days this past summer. I took yarn and a hook with me on a camping trip. Between 8+ hours in the car and time around a campfire and porch, I finished it. I could then enjoy the rest of the week camping without that deadline hanging over my head :)"

That's amazing to me, I have always been quite slow when I crochet.
I've emailed Nancy Sue and will be sending her the mini-quilt in a few days.

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I also finished up this not-mini quilt top yesterday, I'm excited to show you:

 

This is our back fence; the quilt has one more row of quarter-circles (half circles, I guess) hanging over the top of the fence. The quilt measures 60" x 80". This was fun to put together and it didn't take me too long. It will be a little while before I'm ready to quilt it but I have something fun in mind for the quilting.

My boys are out of school for winter break now, so we'll be trying to do some fun activities over the next couple weeks, and I'm going to work on fitting some sewing in as well. I hope you're having a good holiday season!

Giveaway Day!

***giveaway is closed now, check back soon for a winner!***

Hello friends! Today is the beginning of Giveaway Week at Sew, Mama, Sew, and I have a little Christmas mini quilt for one lucky commenter.

It's about 10" x 11" and the appliqued tree and presents and the binding are from Moda's Merry and Bright line from a few years ago. 

And quickly, before you leave to go enter more giveaways, I wanted to let you know I will be hosting Focus on Free Motion Quilting next month! We will talk about getting started with free motion quilting (non-beginner quilters are welcome too!), and I have some great guest bloggers lined up to talk about their experiences with it as well. At the end of the month we'll have a link-up for participants to share projects with their new free motion quilting skills and there will be a few prizes as well. There's a button in the sidebar if you want to spread the word--and please check back on January 3 if you're interested in participating!

To enter to win the Christmas mini quilt, just leave a comment (one per person) telling me about your favorite thing you made this year. Make sure that you're *not* a no-reply blogger, or put your email address in the comment if you're not sure. The giveaway will be open until 12/16 (that's Friday) at 5 pm PST, and I'm willing to ship anywhere in the world this time. :)

Don't forget to head over to Sew, Mama, Sew for tons of other giveaways!

Bright colors

I got this pretty stack of fabric on my doorstep yesterday:

 

This pile is for making the back for this quilt. These colors match the flea market fancy fabric (and others) in the quilt top really nicely. From left to right, they are Kona charcoal, coal, melon, ice frappe, and lime. The binding's going to be lime, too. I'm still not sure how I will quilt it, but I'm excited to get going again on this quilt.

I've also been working on my knitting; I try to do a little bit every day so my cowl will be done soon.

 

My purling has improved a ton since I've been working on this project. Here's the link to the pattern if you want to know more. I cast on 10 fewer stitches than the pattern called for, to make it a little shorter. 

I am still working on some gifts and my circle quilt. I have the blocks for 5 rows (out of 8) completed now. I also found out the other day that my new home, the greater Seattle area, is home to the top 15 cities with the least sunlight in the US. So even though I'm now in a house with big windows and more light, this is the time of year when there's less and less light and I'm in one of the darkest parts of the country. So that's my excuse for all the dark pictures lately. I'm doing my best to learn a little bit more about photography and see how I can improve my photos. Please be patient. :)

Circle quilt progress

 

I got the blocks put together for the first two rows of my circle quilt. So far, I'm liking it! The first blocks on the left of each row have a little paper pinned on with the row number, to help me keep everything straight while I'm sewing. I haven't pressed any seams yet; I'm waiting until all the blocks are done and I can make sure I like the layout. Then I'll press the seams alternating "in" and "out" so the top will go together smoothly.

I have a couple of small projects I want to make for Christmas gifts and I think I'm going to work on one of those this afternoon. I might sew 6 more circle blocks together first though.

Also--I wanted to tell you about something I'm working on for January.

I'm going to host a free motion quilting challenge. My hope is that people who haven't tried free motion quilting will give it a try, and that those with a little (or a lot of) experience will maybe try something new with their free motion quilting. I'm planning on having a link-up at the end of the month for people to share projects with their new skills. Oh yeah, there will be prizes, too! I'm still working on the details, but for now if you have any questions or problems related to free motion quilting, let me know in the comments and I'll work on including answers next month, ok?

Christmas spirit

 I pulled out my favorite Christmas quilt the other day and have been enjoying snuggling up with it.

 

I love the colors; the figgy pudding fabric by Basic Grey is just perfect. I would love it if they reprinted this line, I'd totally buy more. The red and white would make a gorgeous little girl's skirt.

We also finally got our Christmas tree up after not having enough lights, and then buying the wrong lights (bright white and warm white *don't* go together) and then finally getting the right lights. I am not a very fancy person when it comes to my Christmas tree, but I love my tree and my ornaments. (I will try to get a good pic of the tree in the next couple days.)

I wanted to remind you of my scrappy stocking tutorial; it was posted last year over on the Sew We Quilt blog. These aren't difficult to make and I think they turn out pretty cute. I'd love to see a picture if you make one, ok?

 

Also, are you on Pinterest? I am trying to find (and pin) the cutest handmade ornament ideas and then I think I'll pick one or two to make a few of this year. You can follow my boards here if you want.

I've also been knitting and working on my circle quilt; more on that soon!

Starts and Finishes

I'll start with a finish:

9 year old (yes it's true, sadly) UFO, finally complete. I'm going to send this one to Bumble Beans Basics.
I've also finished some other projects that need to wait before they get their turn on the blog.

And I spent some time picking out fabrics for a new quilt. Because I want to.

 

(Wish I had better light! I might have to start taking more photos outside.)

I'm planning on making another circle quilt.

This one will be bigger, I'm thinking 60x80 inches. 48 quarter circle blocks that are 10" square finished. I had a wider assortment of colors picked out at first and decided to try out a primary color scheme this time. I don't have very many blue fabrics. I am going to make my templates for this one right away.

And I picked these out for a quick little secret (for now) project: 

 What are you working on? Do you have any secret (or not) holiday projects you're making this year? 

Potholders

One of the books I've found in my unpacking adventures is my copy of Natural Patchwork by Suzuko Koseki. I decided to try out the raw edge applique potholders. Even the binding is applied with raw edges, and I kind of thought that was a little bit wrong but wanted to try it out anyway. Also, I dropped one of my potholders in the oven the other day and it's a little melty-burned.

I used some of my moda twill tape, probably from a layer cake or other precut, for the hanging loops. Even though I never use hanging loops. They look cool though. Also I pieced together some batting scraps, two layers each, for these. It was fun to make something quick, and to use scraps too.

I found these rolls of binding scraps last night. I made the big roll when I was sorting through my fabric before the move, and I found the smaller one in my scrap bin last night. I think I need to make a super duper scrap quilt and use some of these scraps to bind it. Someday.

Today I'm working on a giant amount of laundry due to a certain 3 year old who's had crummies in her tummy. And also a couple of quilt bindings. One by hand, one will be done completely by machine. I hope it turns out ok!

I'm still here...

We moved into our house last Friday and are trying to get settled in. Things have been busy--the boys are going to new schools *again* (sigh) and they each had a sick day this week and I've been a bit under the weather myself. And I'm working on getting things somewhat organized in our new space.

I do have a cool new sewing area; I'm setting up in the dining area on the main floor:

The black hutch was in the kitchen at our old house and it doesn't fit in the kitchen here. I am going to use the main cabinet area for my small fat quarter bins. I have 5 of them, sorted by color. And somehow they all got packed into different random boxes. I've found four of them but am still missing the red/purple bin. I hope it shows up soon.

The door on the right is a little closet under the stairs, which is perfect for storing my big fabric bins. I will probably get a new, bigger, sewing table eventually, but this little gray table will work fine for now.

So, this past week I've spent a lot of time quilting. I finished quilting the baby quilt that's folded up on the floor in this picture (above), but can't show the whole thing yet. And I also quilted this old UFO:

This little quilt is from a few years ago when I was trying to decide if I wanted to make and sell quilts for a business. It's been pin-basted and waiting, for a long time. I don't want to sell quilts for a business. But I decided to finish this up and send it in to the Bumble Beans Basics quilt drive. A while ago I looked at my goals for the year and I had said I wanted to make two quilts to donate to charity this year. Victoria from Bumble Beans is asking for quilts that will be given to families in NYC who need them. More information here, if you're interested!

I am not sure how my time will be organized here yet. Things are good here, but a lot different. My boys each had about 6 more hours of school each week in Kansas, and their schedules are quite staggered here (one leaves at 7:10 and one leaves at 8:50) so that means I have more time with them one-on-one, and a bit less time for my own personal stuff. Which is fine, just different. I am going to have to get more organized and settle in a bit more before I will be able get into a good routine for blogging.

I did want to share one cool thing before I go--750 Words. Melissa, who is Living a Creative Life, shared this site a few days ago and I signed up that day. If you are familiar with the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron or morning pages, which are a part of the Artist's Way program, it is a website for doing morning pages-type writing online. It's not really the same as writing them out long hand with a pen and notebook, but it is a good substitute and takes less time. Which is good. I've written my 750 words for the last 10 days and it helps me dump my brain out, figure out what I need to be doing, what I want to do, and what is important to me. So go check it out!

I finished up this quilt top yesterday afternoon and made it outside with my oldest to take a couple pics in better light:

 

Overall I really like it. I bought this fabric because it reminded me of my Grandma Taylor, and these colors still make me think of her. (I think this is about a 2-year-old UFO.) That outer border was frustrating to make, and it has some mistakes, in part due to seam allowance consistency problems caused by the pinked edges of the precut fabric. I think if I make something with little fiddly squares again, I will trim the pinked edge off first.

If you want to make a quilt like this (or if I ever want to do it again), here are some of the specifications: 

*Hourglass blocks started as 6" squares and I'm not sure what they finished at.

*First border is 2" (cut measurement) strips of the more solid fabrics I had left over.

*2nd border is 1.5" strips cut, finished at 1" wide.

*Outer border started as 2" squares. Actually I did a little bit of strip piecing, just to get the fabrics for that border into pairs, then I sewed 4-patches and then added another pair to make 3x2 units. And then I didn't have enough squares so I cut a few more strips and added a few 1x3 segments in as I was piecing together the 2 long borders. Also, I didn't do the math to make the squares in this border fit on the quilt exactly right.

*The solid is a quilter's only solid from JA, can't remember the name right now.

*Finished measurements of the top are about 43"x47".

my big boy :)

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In other news, we are ready for the next big step in our relocating adventure. Tomorrow morning, the moving truck is bringing all our things (that we said goodbye to on September 15) to the home we are renting. We are looking forward to having more light, more space, and a shorter walk from parking to the front door. And of course we are excited to have all our things back too. I am looking forward to seeing my colorful dishes, my kitchenaid, and my fabric/sewing machines. I'm most looking forward to settling down and hopefully feeling like we are home after all these months of the upheaval that comes with moving.

Halloween 2011

We had a fun Halloween this year. Here are the kids in their costumes before we headed out to the trunk-or-treat:

 

This is the only picture I have of #2 wearing his ski mask. He was a robber; I convinced him he needed the getaway bag with a dollar sign so people would know what he was up to. 

  

 

Another shot of all three of them. Kid #1 is "a guy with a mustache" and he made that mustache out of duct tape. And #3 is Rapunzel, of course. Here's another picture of me and her; this time she has her Rapunzel hair on too:

 

I love how the dress turned out, it was a lot of work but I'm happy with it in the end. (A lot of work like my sewing machine doesn't have a zipper foot and I was going to just sew it in without one but then there was the extra layer of the overskirt and well... I just handsewed the thing. The lace didn't stay in place either so it's all handsewn --tacked really-- down.) Anyway, my little girl loves it, and that helps. I'm glad it fit her right, because I didn't check out the pattern on patternreview.com or measure it beforehand. 

I'm happy that Halloween is over and looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and moving out of our apartment, next week!

Blogger's Quilt Festival--Matching Quilt

Hi everyone! I wish I had been able to finish a new quilt for this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival, but with our recent move and the fact that we are living in temporary housing (just for 2 more weeks!), that just hasn't been possible.

So for my entry, I ended up deciding on a quilt I made for my oldest son back in 2004. I had just had my second baby and wanted to make him a baby quilt, and I also decided my then 4-year-old needed a bigger quilt as well. There weren't really sewing blogs back then, but I found an online quilting message board where I participated in a 4.5" I-spy charm swap. The fabrics were swapped in pairs, and I made my boys each a "matching quilt." So each square has a match and it's kind of fun to try to find the matching pairs of kitty, or cow, or ghost, or whatever fabric.

 

I decided to sash this one with 1" strips of black fabric, and I love how it turned out. It's quilted with variegated brightly colored thread, but I don't have any other pictures of this quilt at the moment.

Don't miss out on the rest of Blogger's Quilt Festival! Check out all the great quilts at Amy's Creative Side.

Three years old

Today I have a 3-year-old girl for the first time! I'm so happy that she's been a part of our family.
She was born over 6 weeks premature--it was quite the dramatic fall season that year. I love this picture of her; she was 2 days old.

 

Here she is around her first birthday:

(If you want to make a charm pack dress like this one, I have a free tutorial here.)

And age 2:

And last night, while she was opening presents:

And just to keep this a little bit sewing related, here's the progress on this year's Halloween costume, so far:

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Progress (& my take on copyright)

I fixed my daughter's skirt, what do you think?

 

A couple of people suggested that I just add to the length or let her wear leggings underneath...and that could have worked, but it was so short it didn't really cover her tushie very well anyway, (it did but it flipped up very easily) and also when I was putting the elastic in the first time it was clear how short that yoke section was going to be and I stitched really close to the edge of the casing fabric when I was putting the elastic in (I sew the elastic into a circle first and then sew the fabric down around it. No threading the elastic through here!) Anyway I was worried that it might not last through being washed. So. I cut the new yoke 6" wide and made sure I sewed a good 1/4" from the edge when I put the casing in this time. The skirt looks really good on my girl and will be less likely to flip up and show her bum (which will be wearing tights or leggings, but still). 

I've also made good progress on my hexagon project this week.

 

I am pretty much copying the layout from Alex's solids hexagon pillow. It won't take too much time to finish sewing this together, and then I'll need to decide if I need to make some partial flowers to go on the ends of the shorter rows. 

On a different note, this week Angela wrote a couple of blog posts about copyright as it pertains to quilt/craft designers. Very interesting. What she's saying, and I agree, is that pattern/tutorial writers don't have any legal right to dictate what can be done with finished products made from their patterns or tutorials. This is something that has been covered a lot on Sewing Mamas (where I used to spend a lot of my sewing-related internet time :) ) over the years, and the general consensus there (admittedly referring mainly to clothing designs) is that selling a pattern tracing or copy of a pattern is illegal, and selling items made from someone else's pattern is not against copyright law in the U.S.

Anyway, it's a big topic that can be expanded into the shady practice of cottage licensing, digitizing licensed characters, the use of licensed fabrics, and more. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Skirt for my girl

 

I made this little skirt for my girl over the weekend. Sadly, I think it's a little too short and I'm going to need to unpick the yoke, cut out the elastic, and add length by making the yoke a couple inches longer. The worst part? Well, besides black thread + black fabric? I topstitched the yoke. Oh well, I will be much happier with the project if I redo it, even though it won't be the most fun.

It has been a little chilly here lately and from what the locals say, it's going to be this way until March (at least). So I decided to make a scarf and found some cute patterns over on ravelry. I am trying to hold myself back from going and buying yarn to make this or this, at least until I make a little more progress on my hexagons or finish up the skirt re-do.

We are coming really close to making a decision on where we will live for the next year. (We're going to rent for a year while we get to know the area better, and then buy a house.) Looking forward to hopefully having a place with more light! Here's a picture of the view out our living room window:

 

It's pretty, but also makes things quite dark inside. Even when it's sunny out. We have a similar view from all of the windows here, by the way. (Also, they have been replacing/repairing the wooden deck railing out there and it's not painted yet, if you were wondering.)

So this week my project goals are to work some more on my hexagons, redo the skirt, and finish a quilt back. What are you going to make?

Sewing Pretty

My new little backup sewing machine arrived on Friday. I decided to get the Janome Hello Kitty machine, and so far it's working great. It's a very basic machine, and I can't use my quarter inch foot from my other Janome on it, but I think I'll be able to figure out a solution to that.

I also wanted to share a little sneak peek of what I've been working on. I'm probably not going to share the whole thing until it's been given to its owner.

In moving news, we are working on getting adjusted to our new place and climate. My little girl keeps asking if various friends from back in Kansas are moving, too. It is a little sad to have to keep telling her that no, they are not moving too. We are working on adjusting everyone's wardrobes to fit the wet and cool climate--I am still looking for a rain jacket for myself; it needs to be cute. We are looking for a home to rent for a year and hoping our Kansas house will sell soon. I don't have a great internet connection or as much time to sew...I can't wait until I can sew more and share about it here on the old blogge. :) 

Easing back in (with hexagons!)

Well, we are in our temporary digs here in Seattle—the boys are in school and happily riding their respective buses, my husband has figured out the park and ride and our cars arrived yesterday so I don’t have to drive anyone to their destinations any more. I'm happy to have my very own car back too; it was so weird driving a different (rental) one. We moved here with what we were able to pack into suitcases and bring on the airplane, so that means no sewing machine. For a little while. (Hopefully there will be an update on that very soon!) I brought some bits of my favorite fabrics and have been working on some hexagons.

We are in a dark-ish, halfway underground apartment for these first two months, and taking photos is going to be challenging.

Back in July I went to a blogger meetup that I then failed to blog about. One of the cool people there was Leigh, who blogs at leedle deedle quilts. I LOVE this project of hers (she brought it for sew-n-tell that night), and thought I might maybe start a hexagon quilt. I'm not all the way decided on that, but I am thinking making a pillow, or maybe two, might be more realistic for me.

I wanted to share a couple of things quickly (we have kind of crummy internet here, sigh)--Amy from the cute life started making some Dear Jane blocks; I love them. Some of them are the same ones I made for my Kona challenge No Prints Allowed/Jane Stickle 9-Patch.


And I heard from Jessica at Favequilts.com, and my crooked pumpkin quilt block tutorial was included in a round up of twelve pumpkin quilt block patterns. Check it out if you need some fall sewing inspiration!



Hopefully I'll be able to start posting here more regularly--I've missed sewing, and sharing about it here too. I have some other sewing projects I'm planning on working on in the next few weeks too. I hope you have all been doing well!

All packed up

Today's the big day, well one of them. Yesterday everything got packed up. Our suitcases are packed for the next 2 months in corporate housing, everything else is going on a truck today and then into storage. The house goes on the market tomorrow, fingers crossed that it'll sell quickly!