more scraps

I'm making another scrap quilt, this time with blues, reds, creams, and some yellow. Oh and some natural linen scraps too. I'm just working on this as I do other projects, these are pieced at the ends of my chain stitching so I don't have lots of thread tails to cut off.


I also wanted to show the skirt and hoodie I made for my niece while she was here a while back.

Ottobre design, issue 6/2007.

Skirt is from Ottobre 4/04. I also made a pair of pink shorts for her to wear under the skirt, again from Otto 4/04.


This past week I also made a blanket and burp cloth for my cousin's sweet new little baby. I have no idea if she reads this blog, oh well. I love this tiny pirate print flannel. I bought the fabric way before I was even pregnant with her, because if I was going to have a 3rd boy he needed this fabric. I decided my girl baby needed a pirate blanket even though it's not "girly" fabric.

There are a couple other projects going on that I'm not ready to share yet. But I've been having fun and enjoying cool fabric.

Noah's Ark Quilt aka secret project #1

Well, it took more than a year from start to finish, but I finally got my niece's Noah's Ark baby quilt finished and sent to her.
Last year, my sister announced her pregnancy and soon after decided she would be having a Noah's Ark themed nursery. I've made baby quilts for all my nieces and nephews (well, except for two who came into the family as older kids) and I looked all over for Noah's Ark fabric but I couldn't find any. I got out my copy of A Quilter's Ark by Margaret Rolfe, and thought about using her paper piecing patterns to make a Noah's ark quilt. I talked to my mom about it and decided I would go for it. I changed the pattern in the book, which uses 4-inch square animal blocks, to a simpler one with 16 animals, all pieced in 6-inch blocks. I planned on making the ark block a bit smaller than the one in the book as well. So I got some striped and pink fabrics, and made my first couple pairs of animals (zebras and flamingos). Then I got pregnant with my baby and lost almost all the energy I had for sewing or anything besides resting a lot and barely getting by.

I ended up working on the quilt off and on a little bit during my pregnancy, and then bit by bit in these last months since my baby has arrived (she's 6 months old now!) (I better get going on a baby quilt for her!)

So, our other sister was coming out to see me this month for her spring break, and I decided I would finish up the quilt so she could take it back to Utah and give it to baby Natalie. I'm pretty sure I had it pin basted when Shelly got here. I started out with machine quilting the sashing.

I had thought I should probably hand quilt the animal blocks. But I didn't want to. I told my mom I thought they wanted to be hand quilted, and she thought it would be ok if I machine quilted them. But then... I didn't have quilting thread in all those colors, and, well I actually went ahead and started machine quilting one of the lions with an echo-quilting design. And I hated it. I picked it out (I've never unpicked quilting before, I don't think) and decided it was going to be hand quilted.

I worked on the handquilting, a lot, while Shelly was here visiting. I thought I would get it done. I had also promised to make some clothing items for Shelly's kids though. After a couple days, it became clear I wouldn't be able to send the quilt back to Utah with Shelly on the plane. So I went ahead and sewed up her daughter's pink camo skirt and pink-heart-shaped-leopard-print hoodie (pics of those another time). She went home (miss you!) and I finished the Noah's Ark quilt a few days after she was gone.

The animals are pieced mostly from scraps I had on hand, and some with new fabrics I bought specifically for the project. The sashing is JoAnn linen blend, scraps from maternity pants I made for myself when I was pregnant with Jacob, who's almost 5. Hand quilting was done with 2 strands of embroidery floss, various colors. This was my 4th quilt to have this rainbow binding fabric. It's officially all gone except scraps now. I got my first spool of Superior thread for the machine quilting, and I kind of like it. It's a very slightly variegated natural color and it's a bit heavier than regular sewing thread or the silk/cotton Mettler thread that I use sometimes for machine quilting.

The project was kind of discouraging at times, especially in the middle when it was taking so long. But finishing it up and seeing how it looked as I did that hand quilting was kind of fun. Kind of exciting. My fingers hurt really bad after all that hand work though. It feels really good to get a big project like this all done.







(You can see all the pictures at my flickr account, even super-enlarged, if you want. Link is in top-right corner.)

10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea

This review is part of the MotherTalk blog tour for Suzy Welch's new book 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea. I enjoyed the book--it was a fairly quick read, and the main concept of 10-10-10 makes sense to me and seems like a good way to be conscious and present when making decisions about life. In a nutshell, when faced with a decision, consider the effects of your choices in the next 10 minutes, in the next 10 months, and in the next 10 years.

You don't have to really be that literal about it though; 10-10-10 is a catchy way to remember to think through things and possible outcomes in the immediate future, in the foreseeable future, and quite a ways down the line. In her book, Welch discusses the basics of "10-10-10-ing" followed with examples and discussions applying the thought process to work, love, family, and friendships.

Reading 10-10-10 helped me consider some situations in my life a little more deliberately, maybe even more objectively. I don't think 10-10-10 will necessarily make difficult decisions become simple or easy (and it doesn't claim to), but it does provide structure for pausing, taking a little bit of time, and thinking things through completely while considering the right now, far in the future, and also, time along the way. I liked 10-10-10 and think it could be useful to anyone wanting guidance for living a more clearly and thoughtfully.

Finished Churn Dash Quilt

 

I finished up the Churn Dash quilt, oh a couple weeks ago, and washed and dried it. It came out really nice and crinkly and snuggly. It is quilted with swirly circles and a few stars. I did scrappy binding with mostly reds, and some chambray blue too.

 

I wanted to show my Paper Dolls fabric that arrived the other day. It is so gorgeous and I'm excited to make some dolls out of it for my sweet girl when she is a bit older. The dolls are about 8 inches tall, way bigger than I'd expected from seeing them online.

 

And look at all the clothes. Aren't they sweet?

 

These fabrics are by Sheryl Marquez, by Windham.

Quilt Festival

I was hoping to have secret project #1 ready to share for the Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy at Park City Girl is hosting. The good, great, wonderful news, is that I put the last stitches in it today, and I even labeled it. The bad news is that I'm not going to post photos of it until the recipient gets it. So... sometime next week.

Anyway this is a bit of a recent repeat, but my scrap quilt with the purple border is my festival quilt.



I made this at the beginning of this year, after a long year of not quilting much at all. I blogged about it here. Right now it is lying across the bottom of my bed, on top of our aqua and white bedspread. I'm liking the lavender and aqua together. I really like the border, and I think it's kind of funny that I had so many different purples that are so similar.

I really like the back, too.


In other sewing news... I found out about the FabShop Hop last month and went crazy hunting for bunnies at a bunch of online quilt shops. The grand prizes in March were 50 yards of fabric, a new sewing machine, and a really cool storage caddy. I didn't win the grand prize but I got a happy surprise this week in my email--I won a $10 gift certificate to Hidden Country Quilts. They have lots of great quilter's quality kids' fabrics, and I decided to get some sock monkey fabrics for the big quilt I'm going to be making for Jacob later in the summer or fall months. I'm working on finding bunnies for the April hop too, maybe I'll win again!

busy busy

I have been madly hand quilting for two days. I didn't think I was going to hand quilt but this project called out that it needed some handwork. Park City Girl is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival starting this Friday and I really hope to be ready to reveal secret project #1 as my quilt to share.

Today I also cut out some clothing items for my niece and nephew who are visiting. Pink camo, pink heart leopard print, and boy space and fire truck prints.

sewing basics--choosing a pattern

I've been thinking about doing a series of posts about sewing basics. I want to share some of the going-by-the-rules, "classical" sewing steps that I learned while I was growing up, as well as some of the internet resources that are really helpful to me now.

So, here goes! There are free patterns and tutorials online for all kinds of projects, but I'm going to talk about making a project where you need to buy a pattern. What we used to do in the old days was go to the fabric store, sit down at the pattern books area, and thumb through the pattern book until I found a pattern I wanted to make. Then Mom and I would look for fabric, and buy the pattern, fabric, and notions and then go home and I'd start my project. Now, I don't live so close to the fabric store, and I have small people that don't love fabric shopping, so I search for patterns online. The "big 3" pattern companies, Butterick, McCall, and Vogue, are all found here. You can pick a pattern brand and then search their pattern catalogs by category. Simplicity and New Look pattern catalogs are also available online here, and you can find Burda patterns online as well. This pretty much covers the patterns you can buy at JoAnn or Hobby Lobby. We also have a Hancock fabrics near where I live and they sell KwikSew patterns there along with the others. So--find a pattern you like, or a few, and write down the brand and number. Next, you can go to Pattern Review and search for reviews of the patterns you like. Pattern Review is a great website where you can find out other people's experiences using the patterns you are interested in. You'll find out if the sizing was off, how the directions were, and what others have done for altering the pattern for better fit. You'll also get to see pictures of other people's finished products. Using the resources at Pattern Review, you can determine which pattern you want to buy.

The next step is going to the store to buy it. For big 3 patterns, I like to wait for a sale. You can sign up at JoAnn and Hancock's for mailers, and then get notification of all the sales. I don't buy patterns from these stores unless they are on sale. Usually when there is a pattern I want to buy, I only have to wait a few weeks before that particular brand is on sale, usually for a dollar or $1.50.

There are lots of other patterns in the world besides the big 3, and you can also read reviews of these patterns at Pattern Review. I use Ottobre Design patterns a lot for kids' sewing, and I've also used Jalie and Kwik Sew too. Here are Pattern Review's top patterns of 2008.

Coming soon--shopping for fabric. Fun!

Churn dash quilt progress. And a couple other things.

I finally got some time to post pictures. Here's the Ottobre dress I made for L. It's cute, and looks cute on her, but I don't love how wide it is. If I make another dress like this, I will probably go ahead and use the lap shoulder tee pattern with a narrower torso fit and improvise it a bit to make it into a dress. Also, I shortened the sleeves about 3/4 of an inch. Even though the dress looks so wide, it fits well through the shoulders and neck. I really like the Baby Lulu fabric this is made from, it is a ribknit with good body.


I got six of the March blocks done for the Twiddletails BOM. A lot of orange, and I thought I didn't have enough oranges. I have fabric picked out for 3 or 4 more. I'm out of solid white fabric except for some small scraps, so I'm going to use some white on white prints I have. I think they'll look good.


And I'm ABB (all done but binding) on the churn dash quilt. I'm almost halfway done with handsewing the binding to the back side. The picture of the front was taken by a 4-year-old. I had fun quilting swirly circles and occasional stars on this one.


I really like how the pieced back turned out. It was quick and fun to make, especially those strip stacks. I might have to be like all the cool kids and make a stacked coin quilt one of these times. This quilt is going to be sent to the Mountain Baby Blankets project.

The only thing bought recently for this quilt was the batting. It feels good to use up fabric I've had for a long time. Let me tell you about the blue bandanna fabric--it's from 1995 and it used to be a dress. It was really cute, but not quite the right fit for me, and definitely not the right style. (Empire waists aren't good on me.) I wore that dress at a sweet friend/roomie's wedding (we lived together for 3 school years) and maybe one or two other times. I like it much better in a quilt.

My next project will be finishing secret project #1. I will also be making more geese blocks. I will be starting secret project #3 (which isn't a quilt, and is actually 2 projects). I'll be making more dishtowels with my friends at church sewing group, and also probably cutting up a Martha Stewart tablecloth I got on clearance at Kmart... for another baby dress. This time I will check the width of the pattern before continuing with the project.

keeping busy

I haven't posted here lately but I have been sewing. For the last couple weeks I've been working on my two secret projects, I finished the top and bottom of the churn dash quilt, made some geese for the twiddletails BOM, and this past week I worked on a couple baby dresses and a pink camo t-shirt for me. I finished up L's dress today and it's cute but I'm a bit disappointed in the pattern. I'm making this dress. It is far too wide, at least in the size 62. I'll have to see how the 80 that I'm working on ends up. I also had issues with my &*(* coverstitcher skipping stitches and had to rip out a few things.... I'm redoing one of the binding pieces on A's matching dress. It is hemmed already, but I have to do the back bodice binding again, sew gathering stitches in the skirt, and put the whole thing together. I will work on getting photos taken and post them in the next few days. I'm ready to go back to some quilting work and then woven clothing for a little while before I get back to knits.

churn dash

I decided to start blogging about projects in process instead of only posting finished things. I'm working on this churn dash quilt for the Mountain Baby Blankets project. I sewed up the last 4 blocks for it yesterday and then decided to try the stars in the sashing last night while I was falling asleep. I like it! I was hoping to finish getting the top together today, but I have a baby, and I haven't slept all that well for the last 3 nights, and I have dishes and laundry to do and all that stuff. So it's not done yet. But it's getting there. I'm going to do some fun piecing for the back, too.

I started block 2 for the Geese in the Forest block of the month project. There are 27 of this month's block in the finished quilt. I have one done (orange!) and 2 more in process for now.

dishtowels

I made these on Monday. I think. For me. I really like them. I used squares from an Urban Couture charm pack I got at my LQS. I'm going to see if I can find the Martha Stewart Kmart towels I've read about online for my next dishtowel project. These ones were from Target and they are a little thin.


I made this shirt last Saturday for one of the neighbor girls. She's 5. Crazy that I remember meeting her as a very small baby. Pattern is from Ottobre Design 3/2004, this shirt was size 110.

I've also worked on secret project #1 this week, and plan on getting it done by early April and then I'll be able to show it.

And I worked on the set of 16 diapers for my baby girl, I didn't take a picture though.

She's crying and I've gotta go.

I knew sewing for a baby girl would be fun

Aren't these cute little pants? I made them from a sheet I got at Goodwill. I also bought a sweater there to refashion into a tiny sweater for my girl.

Sweater before:


And after (with the front of the pants):


The sweater pattern is from Ottobre 1/2007. I had to shorten the sleeves a bit, and then taper them a little more towards the wrists but I think it will work well for Lauren through the spring and summer. The binding on the sweater is from the blanket I used to make these shirts. I was glad it was a close enough match because I still don't have any solid pink knit fabric.

I also got my Geese in the Forest blocks for February done this week.
These were fun to put together and I'm looking forward to the next block pattern, it should be available next week. If there's anyone that wants to swap some scraps for this quilt, let me know. There are some colors I have lots of but I do have some holes in my little stash (I could use reds, oranges, aquas, and I could trade purples, greens, maybe some yellows, and more).

Finally, I wanted to show off the dishtowels I made for my sweet mother-in-law, for her birthday. Happy Birthday Terri!!

The dishtowels are from Target and I embellished them with 30's reproduction fabrics, and some vintage bias tape and rick rack my mom gave me a while back.

Scrappy Geese

Today I started the Geese in the Forest block of the month project by Anina at Twiddletails. I've got a yellow block and a lavender block done, and fabrics picked out for green, blue, and pink. I need to look through my reds and pick out some pieces for a red block, too.
I'll post another picture with better lighting soon.

I've been window shopping for quilt fabric online. Here are some of the ones I really like at the moment:
Hello Betty--I like the 30's colors and the modern ones too.
Neptune--I really like this one a lot. I love the kelp shapes in the "Pacific Paisley" print.
I like all the Basic Grey lines--Sultry has some prints that would be perfect for a baby girl's dress. And I just discovered the Christmas fabric sneak peeks--look at this Figgy Pudding fabric. I really like the trees, and the snowflakes. So gorgeous.

I'm also thinking about Mountain Baby Blankets. Rachel is collecting handmade baby blankets for teen mothers in Appalachian Kentucky. I think I'll work on a simple quilt for this, starting this week.

Lavender love and what's in progress

Lorilee gave me a cute blanket to make something for the baby and here's what I came up with:

It is the cross front tee from Ottobre 3/2004, the first issue I bought when I saw the awesome boy patterns they had. My oldest was only 4 at the time. The smallest size for this pattern is 62 and it's still pretty big on my girl but that's ok. The pants here are from Ottobre 4/2004, a great basics and costumes issue. I made size 56; baby's got short legs and these are still plenty big on her.

I had enough to make a shirt for Lorilee's girl too:


She's in size 80. I got a kick out of making those double layer sleeves. And the appliques, too.

I've been working on my secret quilt project, and am getting closer to being able to put it all together. I also cut out a pair of jeans for my oldest boy. (My 4 year old refuses to wear jeans. He wants me to make him a vest though. And arm warmers.)

I have been reading some Kaffe Fassett books from the library and getting some inspiration. I am thinking of using my stack of reds and blues to make some other types of blocks to go with the churn dashes I've finished and make some kind of sampler-y type quilt. I'm going to need more reds.

There are at least 3 springy baby dresses that I want to make. And I bought 3 Simplicity patterns at the sale yesterday for making skirts and tops for myself. Too bad I left my coupons at home. I'm still not used to all the prep and stress that goes into doing an outing with 3 kids.

What have you been working on?

Finished scrap quilt

I finished it! I am still probably going to take some more photos and post them but these are the finished pics so far. I really like how it turned out. There are lots of special or memory fabrics in this quilt--fabric from the dresses my mom made me and my sisters for Jim and Marilyn's wedding. When I was 10. We served and I remember they had hot cider for drinks and they used glass plates and little glass teacups. I think some of the younger girls may have dropped and broken a plate or two that night. We wore cute sheer aprons too.

And there is fabric from the shirt I made for 4-H when I was 12. This was the only 4-H outfit that I really liked out of 4 years of sewing for 4-H. I made an oversized button-up, collared shirt out of a lavender/aqua print, and matched it with lavender stirrup pants. 1986.

There is sky print quilting fabric that I used in one of my oldest son's baby quilts. The first quilt I did meandering quilting on.

Pink valentine print from the valentine pj pants I made myself 2 or 3 years ago. I'm wearing them right now.

Pink and white big plaid that mom bought for me to use when I made Shelly's girl's baby quilt. I think I used the tiny lavender gingham in that quilt too. I don't have a picture of that quilt, Shelly, can you send me one?

The purple fans, the yellow floral print, and the light green and white print are all left over from the queen size quilt I made about 7 years ago. It had big flying geese blocks with 4-patches in the flying geese and a smaller flying geese border. I'll have to post some pictures of that quilt. Unfortunately I don't really love it; I'd say that at least 3 of my really early quilts show that I had a poor understanding of color and value.

There is more pink and a small bit of burgundy fabric from a mystery quilt that I did on sewingmamas.com in 2006. I entered it in the county fair here, won 3rd place in my category, and got a $1 prize. I don't think I ever photographed that quilt either.

Oh yeah, there is also mint green fabric from Savahna's quilt, the first baby quilt I made. She's my oldest niece and just turned 11.

I'm pretty sure the light blue solid is from Shelly's boy's quilt. And the light green solid is from Jacob's baby quilt.

And, I found the leftovers from Clara's quilt after I'd already finished the quilt top but before adding the border, and was able to use part of the purple leftovers in the border of this quilt.



I wanted to do a pieced back but not get too wild and crazy. I'm really happy with how this came out. I haven't measured it yet but it is bigger than the baby quilts I am used to making. I think it is around 45x70 inches or so.

I will probably make another scrap quilt similar to this someday, but I will not do the randomly sized blocks again. It was a lot of thinking and work to get it to all go together. I'm glad I did it once though. Thanks to Jacquie for heading up Project Improv and encouraging improvisational quilting!

quilted

I finished up the quilting yesterday and am working on binding today. It's going to feel good to finish a big project like this.

scrap quilt progress

Tonight I put a lavender border on my scrap quilt. It's scrappy but most of the pieces are close to the same color and value. I started out putting some darker pieces in it but it didn't look right. Tomorrow I'll piece the back and hopefully get it basted too. I have no idea what I'll bind it with, I might need to buy fabric for that.

Watercolor quilt pattern information

Someone asked about the pattern for the watercolor quilt in my banner up there; I should have posted about it a while ago. The pattern was in the May 1999 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine--it is called Colourwash Checkerboard and was designed by Deirdre Amsden. If you go here it looks like they have back issues for sale. Have fun!

this week's sewing

I made some fun things this past week. Last week after finishing my scrap quilt top, I sewed up a sweatshirt for myself. I took a lovely self-portrait but the bathroom mirror was dirty so I'm not sharing it, sorry. It's a nice lightweight sweatshirt knit I got from fabric.com and I really like it. I was happy to make something that was finished so fast after working on that quilt top for so long.

Then I made this baby outfit that I had cut out and waiting:



I was trying to make the top into a dress but it's not a dress, just a cute long shirt. I like it anyway. The patterns are from Ottobre Design, 4/2004 for the pants, and 5/2006 for the top (but I changed it).

The Kansas City Star had the first Block of the Month pattern for 2009 in last Sunday's paper. I decided to sew it up in a non-traditional colorway.



If someone knows the trick for doing those tiny 9-patches without them ending up smaller than the other block components, let me know. All those seam allowances made it so the block didn't go together as well as I would have liked. It was fun to make.

I also made my donation block for Project Improv. This was a lot of fun to make; I think it came out looking pretty good and I have some more ideas for whenever I do this kind of block again.


These two blocks were both 12.5", way bigger than what I usually do.

Finally, here's a tiny glimpse of a secret project I'm working on. I need to get to the quilt shop to buy some more colors I need for this project.


Next up--I am making another pink fleece hat for my baby. She outgrew her old one. Other things on my list:
*more churn dash blocks
*maybe add a scrappy purple border to my scrap quilt, then baste and quilt it
*vintage baby dress--I got this pattern at JA when Simplicity patterns were 99 cents last week but missed out on some other patterns. Next time I need to go closer to the beginning of the sale instead of the end.
*finish knitting baby hat (I'm making the Marley hat shown here)
*Valentine's redwork stitchery--isn't that cute?
*work some more on the secret project

I looked through the patterns on the Simplicity site and found a few things I want to make for myself--I'm getting ready for the next pattern sale, whenever it is, and spring. I like the short sleeved button-up view of this top, and am hopeful that it will work out ok for me based on the reviews at patternreview.com. And they have a bunch of cute skirt patterns, too.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to share a couple of free block of the month projects I found recently. Here's a fun Noah's Ark project, and I really like the looks of this project, too. Who knows if I will get around to making them but I'll keep them in the back of my mind for now.

scrap top finished

I decided I needed to finish this quilt top before going to pick up the kids from school. It has lots of mistakes and problem areas and I learned a lot making it. Mostly I learned that I won't do it that way again! I'm going to get batting this weekend and will finish this up soon.

I also saw this on Shelly's Quilts and realized I don't think I ever posted a picture of my quilt like that. So here it is:


I think I made this in 2001 or 2002. It has fluffy poly batting and minimal quilting. The batting beards somewhat and the binding is undone in a few places. But we all love that quilt for snuggling.