Use the Loot

bee block roundup

2011-10-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

It's been so long, I think I've forgotten how to blog!

Yes, I made it back from New York, and the trip was a lot of fun. The 'Quilters Take Manhattan' event was interesting, and it was a hoot to watch Mark Lipinski and Jay McCarroll interact. I was too shy to actually speak to either one of them after the talk, much less get my picture taken with them!! But here's a crummy picture I took while they were doing the interview. That crazy outfit on the right was something Jay made in college, and it's what he submitted as his 'representative' piece to go along with his interview.

He also showed a bunch of patchwork clothes he had made, modeled by members of the Alliance. Beautiful!

Since that trip, I've been crazy busy - catching up on work, getting the kid started in kindergarten, finishing a big quilt (more on that later!), getting ready for quilt retreat (it was awesome! more on that later too!), and so much more. I've been keeping up with my do. Good Stitches bee blocks, and here's a round up of the ones I've made over the last few months:

Lollipops for Des. Here's the completed quilt. It's fantastic!!! I had so much fun making these blocks that I made like 3 times as many as I was supposed to. Maybe that's a sign I should make a quilt like this myself!

'Houndstooth' blocks for Lydia - these were fun to make! No finished quilt for this one yet...

'Citrus sails' for Lyanna. Looks like it's almost done!

Character blocks for Melissa. She's going all out to make 4 quilts for a family in need. Here's the first completed top.

Holly's purple/orange/gray blocks for last month...

The beast - a swoon block for Rachel. This block annoyed me in so many ways, from its size (24" square) to its complexity to the amount of fabric it required. The fabric requirements were very specific (big prints, in tomato red, slate grey, dark blue and light blue), and I had exactly one red fabric that I thought would fit. Problem was, I had only a 16x20" piece of it when the pattern called for a fat quarter!! Right. Switching out the normal flying geese for the no-waste method helped, and I just squeaked it out. But I was afraid the whole time of screwing it up... not fun! On the up side, I'm sure it will be a lovely quilt. Here's a collage of the other blocks so far.

I'm up for the Inspire circle for October. I chose this framed scrappy 16-patch block. It was so much fun to make (and I do love to use up scraps!) that I might just make another quilt like this for myself some day!

My plan is to make the quilt bigger (since Project Linus seems to always need more twin-size quilts for the older kids) by adding solid blocks of big colorful prints. I can't wait to put this one together!!

Okay, that's all the blocks. Yay! Next post, quilt retreat. I'm just waiting for Karen's post, so I can steal pictures. :-)

Rainbow quilt - done!

2011-08-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hot out of the dryer - the rainbow quilt in all its colorful glory!

Hey, the back is even centered pretty decently! :-)

I decided to go safe with the quilting - stippling with grey thread to match the background. I used my poor little mini quilt to test some options, and it is such a mess now. I tried stippling with the variegated thread (didn't like it), switched to grey thread and tried a sort of loopy linear thing (didn't love it), then tried pebbles (loved it, but it would have taken FOREVER). So, safe boring grey stippling won. And later, I will be spending several weekly conference calls picking out all that test quilting... I *will* have my mini quilt eventually!

I started off thinking of using some sort of rainbow stripe for the binding. But I couldn't find a fabric that was exactly right. So, I went with a scrappy binding made from a subset of the rainbow fabrics. Oh, I think it's awesome!!

How about some more glamor shots? I love how stippling always looks so much better after you wash the quilt - the imperfections just fade away...

Okay, just one more of that lovely binding (hand-stitched this time!) ....

I'm really thrilled to have this done. In two days, I will be flying to New York City for some work meetings, and I will be giving this quilt to Q, my dear friend and coworker. Q lives in Christchurch, NZ, which has been badly damaged by earthquakes in the past year. While Q and his family haven't been as severely affected as many others there, they've still had a lot of upheavals - Q is working from home full time because his office building was condemned (he hasn't even been able to retrieve anything from it since the earthquake!), several houses in his neighborhood are being torn down, etc. He mentioned in passing that his young son had been having some difficulties handling things, and when I saw Deb's post about the book You, Me & The Rainbow, it just clicked - I needed to buy that book, and make this quilt for them.

Actually, I bought two copies of the book - I hope to make another rainbow quilt for my daughter someday (perhaps not the exact same design). The message of the book is wonderful - it's all about using the colors to visualize comforting thoughts and loving feelings, and connections to the people you love, even if they are far away. Even as far away as New Zealand. :-)

Oh, and speaking of New York... when the dates were set for these work meetings, I was totally stoked to find out that there was a quilting event in the city the weekend before. I tried to convince my local buddies to come out there with me, but the price of airfare was just too crazy (boohoo!). So, I'll be dragging Q along with me to the afternoon event. Now you know what a great friend he really is, to agree to that! I'm really looking forward to it! It should be such a hoot to see Mark Lipinski interview Jay McCarroll! I love them both, and can't wait to see them in person.

top done and basted

2011-07-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for the feedback on the layout... I went with the last option (mostly because I really want a mini quilt to keep for myself!), and here it is just before I basted it. I love it!

I had a heck of a time choosing fabric for the back. The recipient is a 6 year old old boy, who loves the color red. I wanted something colorful and fun, but not too juvenile. I was really tempted by David Walker's collections, especially robots or boys will be boys, or the rocket-related prints in Sara Jane's children at play collection. But then I took one last look through my stash, and found this old (2003) Alexander Henry print of hot air balloons. I think it's almost perfect - colorful and fun, and playful but not too childish. The red borders are from a (new) IKEA sheet I had on hand. So it turns out that everything except the gray background fabric was from my stash!

And here's a lesson I learned from this quilt... I rarely press my seams open (because I'm lazy, mostly), but I did for this quilt - I didn't know what my final layout would be, so I didn't want to end up having to join a bunch of seams going in the same direction. But then I ended up having to match a crapload of open seams, which wasn't much better. I ended up with several places like this, where tiny gaps opened up at the intersections:

Ug! I went behind and sewed them up by hand before I basted the quilt, and hopefully everything will be okay once it's quilted. But next time, I'll be sure to use a thinner needle and a shorter stitch length - I think both of those would help. And no more pressing seams open for me, if I can help it!

Next up - the quilting. What would you do? I wish I had the nerve to try something fancy, but I'm pretty sure I'll just stipple it. It's quick and easy, and I know I can do an okay job with it. I picked up some variegated thread (another first for me), and I'm going to try it on the mini quilt to see how that looks...

the next quilt

2011-07-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

This quilt was inspired by a book mentioned in this post of Deb's over at Works in Progress. To begin, I went through my stash and picked out a bunch of fabrics that were bright and saturated, and mostly monochromatic, with not too much white. I spent WAY too much time narrowing down the prints, with helpful input from Robin, Quynh, Chara and Ahava. After much back and forth, I ended up with 18 prints, and a medium gray background.

The design was inspired by the Random Reflections quilt, though I did things a little different (trying to be more efficient, as always!). I already want to make another one, and Chara has asked for a writeup, so I'll try to do that next month.

But for now, I need to settle on the layout, and get this puppy done. I've got all the strips sewn into groups of 6, and here's the most basic layout - all the rainbows going in the same direction (let's call that A).

And here's B - pretty much the same thing, but with the middle column reversed in direction.

And here's C, with the rainbows in the same direction, but each column is staggered by one group.

Those layouts are all a little large - 66" x 95". I could change up the layout by removing one rainbow (and make myself a mini quilt with it!). This would give me 4 horizontal stripes instead of 3 vertical ones, with overall dimensions of 63" x 88". Here's D, where two rainbows go to the right, and two go to the left.

Or layout E, where they go the same direction, but each row is staggered by one group.

Any votes? Or any other layout ideas? I did consider chipping each block in half (through the "center" of the colored portions), and randomly recombining them so that the colored bits are all varied widths. But I'm afraid that might not look great, and I don't want to risk it - I'll try it on the next version instead. So, I think I'm leaning towards the last layout... It's a little smaller, but still a decent size. And I really like the idea of having a small version to keep for myself!

I asked Trudy, but she didn't have an opinion. But at least she stayed off the "design floor" while I was working on the layouts! :-)

back, with a finish

2011-07-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

I know! It's been forever! I have been doing a little bit of sewing this summer, and here's a recent 'big finish'.

I've been a member of the do. Good Stitches bee for the last 9 months or so, and have been having fun being a stitcher, making blocks for the Faith circle. A couple months ago, I also joined the Inspire circle (making quilts for my favorite charity - Project Linus), but this time as a quilter. Being a quilter means you get to choose a design, collect the blocks and assemble the quilt. My month was May, and I chose this beautiful quilt by Amy of Diary of a Quilter as my inspiration:

To make up for all the girly and toddler quilts I usually make for Project Linus, I wanted to make something for an older boy. I asked for blue and brown square-in-square blocks, with a touch or green and gray. They were to be either 12.5" or 6.5" square, or a mix of the two sizes. The members of my group made some really wonderful squares for me! To make it a larger quilt (those teen boys are big!), I made the equivalent of 7 more blocks (though most of them were 6.5" blocks, so let's say 2 big blocks, and 20 small ones). The final dimensions were about 54" by 72". It was pretty addictive to go through my scraps and stash, and to use fabrics I wouldn't normally pick out or put together. What a great stash-buster project!

As you can see, my layout is a lot more regular than Amy's was. I tried to do a random layout, but I just couldn't get it to look right! So, I gave up, and went for a more regular one. With all the variety in the blocks, it still looks pretty random! Many thanks go to Chara for helping me with the layout!

For the back, I used a large piece of this fantastic Katie Jump Rope fabric. I had picked it up at a Project Linus meeting, long before I planned this quilt. It was perfect! I bordered it with a medium gray - it doesn't quite match the lighter gray in the KJR fabric, but close enough!

I based the quilting on the diagonal print of the KJR print. After basting (using spray basting, as usual!) I took a kid's washable marker, and used a ruler to extend the diagonal lines into the border fabric. After that, I quilted it from behind. I've used this technique before, and I highly recommend it. It's super quick, and looks great from the front.

Sorry these photos kinda suck - I finished the quilt the morning of our monthly meeting, and was in a rush to get the photos taken so I could run off to donate it!

I wanted to do something special for the label, more than just the standard tag. The text reads "This quilt was stitched with lots of love, especially for you, by the members of the "Inspire" circle of the "do. Good Stitches" bee on Flickr.com, May 2011. We hope it keeps you cozy!"

I'm also pretty darn proud of myself for finishing it on time - the bee rules say you should finish the quilt within 30 days of receiving all the blocks. I think I got my last block in the middle of June, and the quilt was donated on July 10. Yay for me!!

finding my lost mojo

2011-04-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

Oh, my poor neglected blog!

It's been a whole month - I had a work trip, followed immediately by a visit from my mom and sister for Vada's birthday, and then I had to catch up on work... It was just one thing after another! For a few weeks, the only sewing I managed was this birthday outfit for Vada, just another appliqued t-shirt and circle skirt. (Yes, I am a one-trick pony!)

Isn't she a cutie, though? It's the only year I could give her a "V" shirt (V being the roman numeral for 5 - get it?). It doesn't take much to amuse me! I love how her outfit matches her new bike - not planned at all.

So, after life settled down a bit, I tried my usual trick for getting back into sewing. I took the old two-page list of UFOs and TODOs, and rewrote it.

Somehow it still ran over to two pages! Drat - I'd better get busy!

Still not motivated, I moved onto trick number 2 - an easy sewing task with a hard deadline. These are my blocks for the April "Faith" circle in the do. Good Stitches bee. I loved the rainbow theme, and I really loved the freedom to make blocks in whatever size we pleased. I was having so much fun, I made 3 blocks instead of 2. They are simple designs, but I guess that's just my style!

So, that's one thing to cross off the new list! Yay! Now I need to get cracking on blocks for the second circle I joined - the new "Inspire" circle for Project Linus quilts. Next month is my turn to be the quilter for that circle, so I get to pick the theme. I'm a little nervous about it, but I think I picked something fun and flexible, so hopefully it will go smoothly.

my new friend - FOE

2011-03-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever used FOE (fold over elastic)? I'd been mildly interested, but I don't really sew enough clothing to justify ordering any. Then I saw some at the sewing expo a few weeks ago, and was sorely tempted... and when I saw the "remnants - all you can stuff in a bag for $10" bin, I fell for it. I think I scored a great deal - I got at least 45 yards, of several different widths and colors. Plenty to play around with now!

My first attempt to use it was for this simple circle skirt for the kid. Happy St. Patrick's day! I followed the basics of the MADE tutorial (could not be any easier!). When it came time to do the waistband, I cut a length of FOE about the same length I would for normal elastic if I was using a casing. I pinned it at 4 places, and stretched the FOE as I sewed it down with a zigzag stitch. Super easy, super quick!

The only problem is that it somehow turned out WAY too big! I wasn't about to redo it (me? rip out zigzag stitching? not on your life!), so I just made two really ugly tucks on the sides. On the upside, it will be really easy to let those tucks out, so this skirt should last for *years*! So I guess the stitching makes it so that the elastic doesn't un-stretch all the way back once you've sewn it down. Is there some magic formula for how much shorter you should make it? I guess I can answer my own question - for about a 19" waist, I had to take up about 4 or 5". So, about 25% less. There you go.

I did look around youtube to see if there were any videos about how to use FOE. I found a few, but nothing about how to measure it to fit a waistband. I loved the Angry Chicken video, but even hers didn't say anything about it. Oh well, I'm okay with trial and error!

And speaking of other new things to try - what do you know about laminated cottons? I picked up a couple of these remnant pieces at the expo ($1.50 each, for two extra chubby fat quarters), but they curl up like crazy! I can't imagine trying to sew when the fabric is like this. Especially for a laminate - aren't you supposed to avoid using pins? Any hints for how to get them to lay flat? I tried to press them, but it just seemed to make it worse. Should I wash them, or throw them in the dryer? Any other advice? I'm not even sure what I'm going to make with them, maybe snack bags?

for Japan

2011-03-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

If you've been thinking about donating to relief efforts in Japan, let me twist your arm a little...

I had already planned to donate, and when I saw some wonderful bloggers offering up their lovely quilts to encourage donations, I decided to take what I'd normally donate, and spread the love around. It's not so much that I want to win a quilt, mind you. I just want these generous folks to know I appreciate their efforts, and that their quilt "earned" as much cash as possible! So, if you're able to donate, why not support these awesome quilters? And if I missed any others, please let me know!

Just click on the picture to go to their giveaway post.

From Elizabeth at Oh Fransson (ends today, so be quick!)

From Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio (ends today too!)

From Stephanie at Loft Creations (ends March 26)

From Mary at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash (ends March 31)

just a few more blocks

2011-03-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here are my two blocks for this month in the do. Good Stitches bee. I didn't love the construction, because we had to use paper templates (which seems like it could be error-prone). But I think the quilt will look awfully cute!

I'm pretty proud of my work - the centers are almost perfect! I used starch at every step, and I think that really helped.

And surely you've heard of Moda's Just One Star project by now. Of course I had to join in! But asking me to make just one of anything? Ha!! If I pull a fabric out of the stash, it's not going back in! I pulled out a couple blues, and made as many stars as I could - 20 to be exact!

As I was following the instructions they provided, I got really tired of all the trimming and waste that went along with making the star points. A light bulb finally went off when I realized that these are just flying geese. I hadn't made them before, but I had seen tutorials for no-waste methods. I found this one, figured out the new dimensions I'd need, and tried it with a red fabric (yes, just one star that time!). It worked great! So much faster, and no waste. So, if you are thinking of making these blocks and want to use an easier method for the star points, use both of the tutorials together, with these substitutions:

Four 2 3/8" (2.375") squares of red/blue fabric (instead of the eight 2" squares the Moda tutorial calls for)
One 4 1/4" (4.25") square of background fabric (instead of the four 2" x 3.5" rectangles the Moda tutorial calls for)

Hope that helps - go make some stars!

sweatshop mode

2011-03-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

No interesting sewing has been going on around here these last couple of weeks. I've been sweatshopping up a storm, though. My MIL asked for a few more reusable grocery bags (see my tutorial here), so I whipped up a couple using a vintage sheet. I love this print, but that dark gray doesn't really go with most other sheet prints, so it was perfect to use for a bigger project.

Unfortunately, after I was done, I loved them so much that I didn't want to give them away! I had a duvet cover that I'd bought specifically to make bags (my favorite way to go, because the front and back fabrics coordinate), so I cut that one up and made 6 more. I'll probably give 3 to my MIL, and keep the other 3 for a future gift.

And why not go crazy? I had this other sheet that I loved, but it wasn't really vintage enough for other projects, so I backed it with a solid peach sheet and made 6 more bags!

While I was making these, I walked my friend Quynh through the process, and she made a few bags of her own. Then she put her own creative twist on it, and turned a bunch of vintage sheet charm squares (that I'd given her for xmas!) into patchwork bags. They are so awesome!! She let me pick my favorite one to keep, and I chose this beautiful blue one. How sweet is that? I think it might be my favorite bag ever!

And my latest sweatshop project - going through the sheet stash, and cutting out yardage to send to my best addict/customer, Amanda. We have such a great thing going - I get to keep collecting prints, but my bins no longer overflow quite so much, and Amanda gets a steady supply of raw materials for her shop. Perfect!

loot, and someone else's WIPs

2011-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

It started off innocently enough.... Another stash sale + a few free hours on a Saturday morning = me suckered in...

"Lucky" and "ecstatic" were overstating it a bit! There was the usual collection of "stuff" - some okay fabric, some crap fabric, some rulers, some bags of scraps, etc. I was chatting up the seller, and she said she had tried out quilting a few years back, and had taken a few classes, but never really got into it, so she was getting rid of everything. There were a couple quilt tops, and I suggested that if she wanted to donate them, I'd quilt them up and give them to Project Linus. She had never heard of the organization, but immediately said yes (I later learned she was a nurse, so no wonder!).

Then she asked if I knew anyone who could do some quilting for her, as she had one quilt top left that she loved and wanted to keep. I told her I could certainly ask around and find someone for her. She ran inside to get her card, and came back with the quilt. It had obviously been a while since she looked at it, because it turned out it had already been professionally quilted and trimmed up, and all it needed was binding. The words "Well, gosh - I can do that for ya!" were out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying! I was holding a little stack of fabric that I had picked out, and she asked if I wanted to swap that for the labor. Um..... Oh, what the heck! Sure. But then I was kicking myself all the way home. Was it really worth my time to bind a quilt for a few yards of fabric? Oh well, I would consider it a 'random act of kindness', and it would be all good.

And look how pretty her quilt was! After 5 years of WIP purgatory, it totally deserved to be out of that plastic bag and put to use!

It was about 72" square, and there was some of the border fabric in the bag with the quilt, so I just used that for the binding. Thankfully she was okay with having it machine stitched down in the back (no way I would have agreed to hand sewing - I'm not that crazy!), and it only took me about an hour and a half to get it finished. Yay for me! I should totally add this to my big list, just so I can cross it off! Finishing someone else's WIP should count! (Maybe double!) :-)

Later in the afternoon, I trundled back up to Woodinville to drop off the quilt. She was so pleased to have it back so soon, and she loved it! Yay!

You know that old saying 'no good deed goes unpunished"? With her garage sale over, she asked if I would like to take home all the remaining sewing stuff, to use or donate. And of course, I can't pass up an offer like that! It took me quite a while to sort through it all. But in the end, I ended up with several bags of non-cotton fabric to be donated or freecycled, plus all this loot:

A medium-sized cutting mat, some small rulers and a bunch of thread...

A small basted quilt (or table topper or wall hanging, maybe?), which I might donate to Project Linus (the colors aren't very child-friendly, so maybe not)...

A basted table runner. Not sure what the heck I'll do with this. At least the colors are more cheery. Maybe I can add some borders and turn it into a small quilt? There are some scraps of those fabrics left, but I'm not at all interested in making more of those blocks!

A mostly complete xmas-themed top (just needs some borders), about lap size. Definitely colorful enough for a PL quilt!

This flannel WIP, which I'll probably go ahead and finish up to donate. It has all the pieces, just needs a little more piecing. I do not love these colors, but it should be warm and snuggly anyway.

This WIP has a LOT of blocks, and only a few are sewn together. Again, I don't love the colors, but maybe it would be okay for an older boy. I'm not sure I want to spend the time it would take to finish this one up, so I might try to pass it off to someone else...

This project was either a kit, or only taken to the cutting stage. One block was finished, and one block was started, and that was it. I think it would be a piece of cake to turn this into a different design, like maybe a coin quilt. And it sure is colorful!

And lastly, some fabric. Some yardage of flannel...

And a bunch of fat quarters of flannel and a little homespun. There are multiples of each print, and I'm not sure they were meant to go together, so I'm not sure what to do with them.

Some coordinating FQ's...

And a pretty piece of silk.

Phew... Almost done. I'll spare you the photos of the stack of random fabrics and scraps, and show you just one more thing. There are 12 of these Trapunto blocks...

They are about 12" square, and each bird is outlined and stuffed. I think there are 2 each of 6 different scenes (or maybe 3 each of 4 scenes?).

I can't see these being used for a Project Linus quilt, and I won't use them myself. But I hate to think of all that work being wasted! So, if you want them, just leave me a comment! I'll even spring for the shipping (US only, please) to get them to a good home. :-) On the off chance that there's more than one taker, I'll draw a name in a couple days.

the winner, and another strippie

2011-02-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

The lucky winner of the pink charm squares is #40, and that's Sue of Sue's Quilting Haven. Looks like she's been having quite the winning streak lately! I was pleased to see the Project Linus badge on her blog - it's always nice to meet another 'blanketeer'!

And speaking of which (and just so I don't have a post without pictures!) here's my latest PL donation quilt, which I finished last month. It's the second 'baste as you go' quilt that I started back in July. I wish I had paid attention to the repeat on the focus fabric when I put it together, but it's hard to see the overall pattern until you step away from the quilt. Oh well! I'll know to keep an eye out for that next time.

This is the fifth Quick Strippie quilt I've made, and I have 4 more in the works (they're on the big list!). They are just so easy to make!

And of course, my usual big crazy patchwork backing. Also fun and easy to make, and a great use for random scraps of novelty fabrics!

hanging my minis

2011-02-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

I hate to admit, but I've never hung a quilt before. I was so thrilled with my new wall hangings, and really wanted to get them up. I had this idea in my head that involved covered buttons (shank removed, glued to thumbtacks), twine and clothespins. In my head, it looked adorable. In practice, not so much....

But then I remembered this wacky lady named Nan from Pots & Pins, who 'fessed up to stapling her quilts to the wall. If she could use staples, why not thumbtacks?? I just gently pushed the tacks through the quilt, and it worked great!

Here's a couple different styles for ya. We've got some kinda big buttons that match the binding...

And some small buttons that match the background, so that they are almost camouflaged...

And some fun and contrasty buttons (I was too lazy to run upstairs to get actual fabric from the quilt, and that red polka dot was at hand)....

For the long wall hanging, I thought I'd try a cleaner look. I had sewn little triangles into the backing (not knowing how I'd eventually hang it), and so I tried putting the buttons in there.

That worked okay, but was a little bulky (and why waste a pretty button where no one will see it?), so I pulled out the button-tack and just used a plain old tack instead. Works great!

I love it! So easy and so quick. I do realize that the tacks might eventually rust or pull the fabric or whatnot. But I'm cool with that. The instant gratification is worth it. :-)

valentine's day project #2

2011-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Another new project that wasn't on the list... When I saw this cute wall hanging over at Nostalgic Cafe, I knew I wanted to make one. I had some 5" squares left over from my pink triangle quilt, and thought they would be perfect! I cut them into 2.5" squares, and used one of each print to make this little cutie!

The only bad thing was that I now had 3 more squares of each print! Following my new "create no UFOs" rule would mean tossing the extra squares into the scrap box. I couldn't bring myself to do that, so I went ahead and whipped up 3 more hearts (they don't take as long as you would think!), and sashed them together to make another wall hanging... In this shot, I have it laid out on the cutting table while I mark the diagonal lines (using one of the kid's washable markers - works great!).

I love how they turned out! For the little one, I used stippling in the white areas (dense in the heart area, more loose around the edge), and just some simple diagonals around the heart. I think this one will end up in my sewing room!

For the long one, I did an all over cross-hatch design.

This one will be hung on the narrow wall in the hall by the guest room. Probably year-round, until I can make more wall hangings to swap it out with! It's not TOO valentines-y, right?

And guess what... I still have more 5" squares left! To celebrate the finish of this mini project, I'd love to give this 'charm pack' to one of you. There's one each of 30-ish prints (a couple more than I used to make the wall hangings). Of course you don't have to make the same project that I did - it would make a cute little patchwork quilt for a baby girl!

Just leave any old comment (and I'm happy to ship international). I'll pick a winner on Thursday night, so hopefully I can get it in the mail on Friday! Yay for finished projects!!!

Happy valentine's day!

2011-02-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've amended my "no new projects" resolution. I'm still working down my list, but I'm also making room for small diversions. Sometimes you just gotta have a little fun! So now my rule is "no new UFOs". If I want to start something, I have to commit to finishing it before I move on to anything else. This way, when the little missy asks for a new skirt for Valentine's day, I can say sure, why not!

It's just a simple gathered tiered skirt with an elastic waistband. I did the ruffles with the serger by increasing the differential. I first tried it with some el-cheap-o fabric, and set the differential to 2, which made it gather about 100% (42" wide strips gathered up to about 21"). For the test skirt, I used seven 6" strips to make a 3-tiered skirt - the top tier was one strip, the second tier was 2 strips, and the third tier was 4 strips long. It was really, really twirly! For the real skirt, I decided to start a little smaller so it wouldn't end up quite so voluminous (and because I only had a yard of fabric, so I only had 6 strips instead of 7). The top tier would be 3/4 of a strip, the middle tier would be 1.5 strips, and the bottom tier would be 3 strips, for a total of 5.25 strips, giving me a little fabric left over for a comfortable margin of error. But even though I set the differential to 2 again, it somehow gathered more loosely than the first time!! What the heck? Oh well - it somehow worked out perfectly so that I had enough to make 4 tiers instead of 3, with about 12" left over. It could be twirlier, but it's good enough. And it's a little long, but that just means she can wear it next year, right? :-)

I picked up the solid shirt at Target a long time ago, and was so pleased that the color happened to match perfectly. One big appliquéd heart later, and her outfit was complete (and total pink overload!!).

bee block round up

2011-02-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted my bee blocks in a long time! First up, here is the last round of blocks for the vintage sheet bee...

For November. This is going to make a such a pretty quilt! And the block was not as difficult as it looks. (Here's a link to the tutorial, if you want to try the block yourself!)

December - time-consuming, but kinda cool!

January - my first ever "representational" block! It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It takes a whole different way of thinking about putting things together!

And finally, for February. I love the look of these blocks, but honestly they were such a pain in the butt to make. And I felt like I was always trimming, trimming, trimming - more fabric got thrown away than was left in the block!

And here are my blocks for the do. Good Stitches bee... (i'm so petty - every time I have type that name out, the kreativ punctuation drives me batty!)

Anyway, here's the November block... You should click over and see the final quilt here. It's gorgeous!

And the December blocks. Nice and simple, yay!

The January block... I was glad that I already had experience with this block! I loved picking out the fabrics for this one.

Okay, I'm all caught up now, whew! :-)

Happy new year!

2011-01-31T17:19:00.000-08:00

Hi friends! My plan A (catch up on everyone else's blogs) didn't work, so I'm going with plan B (start fresh and hope y'all don't hold it against me!). I have no great excuse for not posting - just lots of little bumps in the road, like a new computer (my first Mac! and this old dog is not having fun learning new tricks!), minor illnesses, travels, internet outages, stressful work deadlines, you name it. But nothing serious - life is good here, and I'm so happy that the holidays are over and spring is on the way!

Before I start posting about my recent projects, I have one very overdue thank-you to take care of. Check out this fantastic apron that Amanda sent me!!! I just adore it. Every time I see it, I just want to blow off work and get all domestic in the kitchen! Thank you so much, Amanda! Oh, and go check out her shop - I bet if you asked nicely, she'd make an apron for you too!

Even though I've been neglecting this blog, I'm happy to report that I've been keeping myself busy with the thrifty/crafty stuff. My number one goal for 2011 is to finish up as many WIPs as I can, and to try like crazy not to start any new projects until I get the existing ones done. To keep myself on track, I started a list of all the projects I have in progress. Some are small (like individual bee blocks, or hanging up some miniquilts in my sewing room), but I'm writing down everything as I encounter it, and celebrating every item that I mark off. It's been very motivating for me!

I have a few holiday projects to show, but to heck with catching up chronologically. Instead, I'm going to start off with my most favorite project I've finished lately. You might remember some test blocks that I made last May, and this little table runner I whipped up:

I wasn't in love with it then. But now... I love, love, LOVE it. Behold!

It's going to live happily on my credenza (that's a 'fancy nancy' word for big filing cabinet). I love having something in my office that I made just for myself! And maybe it will help keep me from piling crap on top of there (um, not working at the moment, I have to confess!).

The back is just as pretty! I used one of my favorite vintage sheets, and the colors are perfect for the "tiffany" blue walls.

Now I just need to get busy on the actual bee quilt. I've received all my blocks from my bee partners, and I'm almost ready to start putting them together. It's on the big list! :-)

I have two other goals for 2011. My big list of projects includes a bunch of Project Linus quilts I've got cut out, and I'm hoping that I can use up all the polyester batting that's taking up WAY too much space in my closet. If I don't use it all by the end of the year, I'm going to donate the rest and be done with it.

My last big goal for the year is to blog regularly, and to reply to all the comments you wonderful friends leave for me. I do appreciate them, and I know I've sucked at this in the past. But I'm recommitting. Go ahead - try me! :-)

still here...

2010-12-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still here. Sorry for the incredibly long absence... I had a big work deadline this week, which slowly ramped up the pressure over the last month or so. On top of that, there were bouts of sickness, snow days, holidays, birthdays, feeble attempts to get ready for xmas... Blech. I know I should love this time of year, but I honestly don't.

And I know it doesn't take long to make a blog post, but... I'm also utterly behind on reading blogs. My reader had been pegged at 1000+ for weeks now!! I somehow feel wrong to post when I haven't caught up on all my friends' blogs (or even worse, emails). So, friends, please forgive me for not having my act together. I'm working on it. And if you soon get some comments on really old blog posts of yours, you'll know why!

Meanwhile, here's a little show and tell from last month. I finally finished the Project Linus quilt I started way back in July!

The standard crazy patchwork back...

I did all the quilting at the November PL meeting (killing two birds with one stone!), and it was pretty interesting to do the quilting in front of a room full of people. I was surprised that so many of them had never done free-motion quilting! I'm no expert, but I did my best to demonstrate, and answered lots of questions.

I did stippling in the large strips, and tried a couple new-to-me things in the narrower strips. The loopy quilting in the pink strip was fun, and I did okay on that. The wavy quilting in the green strip, on the other hand... not so great! I think I was getting tired and sloppy by the time I got to that. Oh well, it was good to try it out anyway!

Sorry again for dropping off for a while. I'll try to do better in the future. :-)

I'm so crafty, I make...

2010-11-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hair! Ha! I've been growing my hair out for a Locks of Love donation, and last week was the big day. So, in memory of Julie, and my aunt Georgeanna, and in honor of my friend Kelli and everybody else fighting cancer... I went from this:

to this! Big thanks to Hannah at Gretchen Scott Salon in Woodinville, WA, for a fantastic (and free!) haircut. I really love having shorter hair again.

Funny thing is, I hated (hated!) my red hair when I was growing up. If I had been given a chance to get a wig back then, I wonder if I would have said "hey, make mine blonde, please!". Oh well, I hope my donation helps make a kid happy, whether they already have red hair or just want to try it out for fun. :-)

October bee blocks

2010-11-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here are my bee blocks for the do. Good Stitches bee (nice and straightforward)...

and the vintage sheet bee.

I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by this block. With all those seams, I was worried about having it come out the wrong size. But the directions (and my 1/4" foot!) are spot-on. I only had to trim a tiny bit, and it was perfect. I think it's going to be a really cute quilt. Though if I was making this myself, I know I'd take the easy way out (just do a straight patchwork, and set it on point). :-)

loot!

2010-11-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

I had some great scores at the thrift store last weekend! Wouldn't these three sheets make a pretty something together? I think I can hear Amanda's sharp intake of breath - I know that one on the right is one of her favorites. :-)

And how about some more butterflies? I really debated about the one on the right - It's a Vera print, and I have it in purple (and love it, of course), but brown and orange aren't the most popular colors. Oh well, I always err on the side of buying!

I seriously almost squealed out loud when I saw these pillowcases! I love this print, and have it in orange and pink. It pained me a little to fork over $2 each for them, but wow, I just love them!

I also found a bag of new FQs from Joann, 7 of them for only $1! Very timely too - I just used the one on top for one of my bee blocks!

And last, but not least, some vintage fabric that had been sewn into a duvet cover. I love the orange and pink combination!

No thrifting for me this weekend - I'll be too busy sewing instead! Yay!

retreat - project #2

2010-11-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

After all those triangles, I was ready to slip back into my comfort zone! I was inspired by this quilt on Jeni's blog In Color Order (another vintage sheet fan!), and knew this would be a fun and simple retreat project. I went through my stack of pre-cut sheets (6" squares), and grabbed any that I liked that I had at least 5 of. I brought about 80 prints, when all I needed was about 30! Oh well, it gave me plenty to choose from at the retreat!

I really love the simplicity of it. I didn't think too hard about the layout - I just narrowed it down to my favorite prints (anything 'colorful'), and then I slapped them up on the design wall. I did some minimal rearranging as I went, but I really tried not to over-think it.

(I stole this picture from Karen's blog post). The purple square really jumps out, doesn't it? I probably won't get this quilted until next year. In the meantime, it will languish in 'quilt purgatory' (draped over the stair railing upstairs), where I'll get enjoy petting it whenever I walk by!

retreat - project #1

2010-10-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

The quilt retreat was awesome! I was fighting a stupid cold the whole time, but I was determined to not let it get the best of me. There were no super late nights this year, but when we weren't eating or sleeping, we were sewing! Here are my buddies Quynh and blogless Suzette (not great pictures, sorry! I hate my new camera.... grr....)

My biggest project by far was a half-square-triangle quilt. It's been on my wish-list since I saw this quilt last summer. Loved, loved, loved it! I started with 5" squares, with white for the background, and 32 prints from my stash (mostly "colonial" type reproductions), in all sorts of pink, peach and salmon-y colors. I came to the retreat with all the squares cut, and the white ones marked for sewing. It took me about 8 hours just to sew, cut and press all the HSTs! I made them in the standard fashion (sewing 1/4" on both sides of the diagonal), except that I trimmed the corners before I cut along the diagonal. I don't know where I read this tip, but if you fold the square along the diagonal and snip across the corner (perpendicular to the raw edges, not perpendicular to the fold), it makes a notch in the corner such that you don't have to do any trimming after you cut and press the HSTs. It works great - but only if you're very precise! My HSTs were pretty good, but not exactly perfect. I was torn - should I spend the time to square up all 256 of those blocks (ug!), or just throw caution to the wind and sew them all together (and maybe end up disappointed)? I had some (40) extra blocks, so I decided to make a test mini quilt to see just how far off my squares were. Turns out that they were fine! Or at least fine enough for me. :-)

And after 8 more hours of sewing, and I had 16 blocks of 16 HSTs! Yay!

I would have sewn them all together and called it done, except certain friends kept pestering me with suggestions... How about a different arrangement for the blocks? Like maybe this...

Or maybe all pointing out...

Or maybe all pointing in...

And how about sashing around each block? Or maybe just around the groups of 4 blocks? Would the sashing be the same white? Or maybe an orange or gray would look cool! Arg!!!! After 16 hours of working on it, I was in no frame of mind to make a decision! I gathered up the blocks, and moved on to a different project. I'm going to let it percolate for a while. If you have any opinions or brilliant ideas, let me know! :-)

back from vacation

2010-10-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

We've been back from Texas for a few days now, but I'm still not back to normal. I felt like I was fighting some sort of flu the whole time we were there, and now I'm left feeling exhausted and spacey all the time. I hope it clears up soon - the quilt retreat is next weekend, and I've still got lots of prep to do!!

Here's a sure sign I've been on vacation...

A new stack of craft magazines! It's one of the few times I let myself splurge on magazines - who needs them when you have the internet, right? But on vacation... if I can't *be* crafting or reading blogs, at least I can be looking at crafty p*rn!

I'm happy to report that my stepmom loved her new patriotic table topper! I lucked out, and it was the perfect size for her dining room table. And sorry I'm way late, but the winner of the mini quilt kit is Elaine from Soggy Bottom Flats. Yay!

In more somber news, my friend Julie (who I made my first pink quilt for) passed away last weekend. I'm so sad she's gone from the world, and for all that she and her husband had to go through, especially in those last months. I'm grateful that I was able to give a little comfort with that quilt - Brian said Julie used it all the time. I stole this picture from her blog....

quickie projects

2010-10-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

I'm almost embarrassed to post about these, because they're such quick and easy projects. But what the heck! Here's what you can do with 15 or 30 minutes of sewing time...

Cut a pretty pillowcase in half, sew a casing and add elastic at the top. There you go - a cute little skirt!

Take a couple of old (but dearly loved) dresses that have become too small up top...

Chop off the dress tops, chop off the bottom 3 or 4 inches from a new shirt, and sew the skirt to the shirt (I just used my serger). There you go - two new twirly dresses!

Take one crappy old canvas bag and cover the random logo with a patch of cute vintage fabric. There you go - a new bag for your budding ballerina to take to dance class. Sweet!!

[PS. I haven't forgotten about the giveaway - I neglected to mention a deadline, so I'll pick a winner on Thursday 10/14.]

Happy 4th of July!

2010-10-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

[First of all, thanks to all 3 of you who raised your hand for the flannel scraps giveaway! I was happy to have any takers at all! Congrats to #2, Pam of Warm Hugs Design! Send me your address and I'll get those scraps in the mail to you!]

And now, another finish!! I'm only a little late on this one... It's a table topper that I started way back in July - a birthday present for my stepmom, Claudia. I'm so happy to have it done in time to hand-deliver it when we visit my family in Texas later this week. Claudia loves to decorate for holidays, so I think she'll really like it. My dad is a former Army guy, so he should at least appreciate the theme!

I'm so proud! It's really my first traditional quilt project, with REAL blocks, and sashing and cornerstones and everything! And I kinda love it - all the fabrics came from my stash, but they came together so nicely. Every bit (except the star points) has stars - even the cream has a tiny star print! The design (such as it is - it's pretty simple!) is my own - I just made it up as I went.

I liked it so much, I made a tiny version to go with it!

I considered giving them both away together, but I'm going to be selfish and keep the little one. I want to start a wall of mini-quilts, and this will be my first one. Yay!

I love the stars... I was going to go wonky at first, but I'm glad I kept it traditional. Well, maybe they're slightly wonky anyway... :-)

The quilting is just a free-motion stippling. It's been a while since I did any of that, so it was fun to get back in the groove. And nice to only have to do these small sizes! The mini is about 20" square, and the big one is about 36" square.

I thought about trying to make it dual-purpose by putting something Christmas-like on the back. After much mental debate, I settled on this snowflake print that matched the color of the binding, and did a plain back. I added little pockets on the corners, in case they want to hang it on the wall instead of using it on the table. I'm not sure it will work (I've never tried to hang a quilt before!), but I'd read about it somewhere and figured it wouldn't hurt to try! Hopefully the corners are subtle enough that the quilt can still be used upside down on the table at Christmas time.

So, it's a finish, and you know what that means - another giveaway!

How about a kit to make a little mini quilt of your own? Everything you need (except for batting) is included, and it's all cut to size and ready to piece. I'm not including any instructions for how to put it together, because I'm sure you can figure it out (you can always email me with questions). Oh, heh - I was just about to say that international shipping is okay, but duh! Oh wait, maybe some ex-pat would like a little reminder of home? Anyway, everyone is welcome to enter, just let me know if you're interested in your comment!

up to my ears in flannel!

2010-10-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

When I go out thrifting, I always keep an eye out for flannel fabric. I'm happy to find either scraps (usually left over from someone's pajama project), or whole pieces (pajama projects that never happened!). But a few weeks ago, I went to a garage sale and got a HUGE box of flannel for something like $5 or $10. It was a crazy amount of fabric - about 40 yards in all! It's not the most exciting fabric in the world, but I knew I could give it a good home and put it to use right away...

I collect all my flannel in a big bin, and every once in a while I go through and process it. This huge addition pushed me over the edge, and I felt like I was working on nothing but flannel all last month!

As I've blogged about before, I love to make swaddling blankets (look, a tutorial!), or use flannel for the backs of "quiltlets". So I first took all the big pieces of printed fabric, and cut them into swaddling blanket size (about 42" long) or quiltlet size (about 60" long). Then I took all the printed scraps, and cut them into 7" (if possible) or 6" (if not) squares. Then I cut up enough solids into 6 or 7" squares, to match up with the prints, and made rag blanket squares. I tried to find a tutorial for exactly how I make these, but all the ones I could find showed how to use batting inside. I just use a third flannel square (same size as the outer two squares), and sew a big "X" from corner to corner, through all 3 layers. I was an X-sewing machine!!

After I had a bazillion squares, and it was time to sew them into blankets. Here's the first one, with all unique squares. It's a 9x12 grid (so 108 different prints!), with about 3/4" seams, so about 50" by 70" in size, I think. This first picture is after snipping the seams, but before washing.

That one had a lot of girlie prints, so I wanted to do another one for a boy. I didn't have nearly as many boy prints, but I did have multiples of the prints I did have, so I grouped them into 9-patches.

And here they both are, after a couple long washes and dries. You would not believe the amount of lint these things generate when you wash them! But they are so soft and fluffy. And heavy - I love that!

Unfortunately, these blankets can't be given to Project Linus (because the lint can get into wounds and equipment, etc.). So, I'll soon be taking them with me to Texas when we go for a family reunion. The highlight of the reunion is an auction of handmade goods, and the proceeds from the auction fund the reunion for the next year. I love that! Last year, I donated this quilt, which sold for $84. The year before that, I did another rag quilt (like the girlie one here, but with 6" squares), and it sold for $125! I'll surely be lowering the price by bringing two quilts this time, but whatever. It's for family. :-)

Even after making these two quilts, I still have enough squares left for at least three more. I know, it's crazy! AND, I have a huge pile of swaddling blankets just waiting to be sewn up! But, yay, all my flannel is processed, and all I have left is a crate full of scraps less than 6 or 7" in one or both dimensions. My plan is to someday turn those into coin quilts for Project Linus.

Speaking of which... remember my idea about always having a giveaway when I have a major finish? Well, is anyone out there up for a grab-bag of flannel scraps? You could whip up some cozy patchwork rice warming bags, or some smaller cold/hot packs for kids for Christmas gifts! If you're interested, just say so in your comment, and I'll draw a name on Monday. This one is for US folks only, because it will be a big chubby flat rate envelope... The next one will be international, I promise!

september bee blocks

2010-09-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here's my block for Colima, for the Vintage Sheet Quilting Bee. I love the "flower" blocks she requested! She asked us to use similar colors, and it was really hard to choose a set of prints! I finally settled on sort of "groovy green flowers". I like it! [I feel the need to point out that the block is actually square - I'm using a new camera, and it doesn't do closeups very well...]

And here are my two blocks for the do. Good Stitches bee. The fabrics are pretty random (from my very random stash!), but it looks like they will go good with the others. Can't wait to see how Jennifer will put them together!

back from vacation

2010-09-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Ack - almost a month since my last post. I really did not mean to disappear like that! We went on vacation, and when we got back I just could not get my act together! I feel like I'm finally (sort of) back on track. Just in time to go on another vacation in a couple of weeks. Yipe.

Anyway, let me start back with a huge shout out to Amanda, who made some wonderful new dresses for Vada. I tried to get a good picture of the beautiful rainbow dress, but Vada was not cooperating that day. But do go check out the pictures on Amanda's blog - it really is fantastic! I thought the rainbow twirler would be Vada's favorite, but no - she fell in love with this sweet apron dress instead. Must be all that pink!

I love the little apron detail!

And it definitely meets the "twirly" requirement!

Thanks, Amanda!! Your sewing ROCKS!

I'll be back soon with some crafty stuff of my own. I've been sewing like crazy, and I've got lots to report....

91 and counting!

2010-08-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

The sweatshop was a success! Quynh and Robin came over, and there was much sewing (with bonus baby snuggling!). We got a dozen pillowcases fully made, plus a bunch more in various stages of completion. I been continuing to work on them, and I'm now up to 91 completely done, and 9 more in progress! That's 100 pillowcases, soon to be off to ConnKerr Cancer!!

I'm so excited. It's such a worthy cause, and I'm loving the stash-busting. Each pillowcase is just a smidge over one yard of fabric, so that's over 100 yards of stash busted! Believe it or not, I still have a lot of fabric left. So, I'm continuing to cut out more, and plan to keep going (though at a slower pace for sure!). Here are a few of my favorites, from fabric I've blogged about...

From the coordinating prints that I picked up at the Purge Party in April...

From those coordinating bowling prints that I picked up at a stash sale a couple months ago...

From the vintage ballerina print I found last summer, and the great curtain fabric I found last fall...

And just a few from the epic cat lady estate sale. I'd say at least 2/3 of the pillowcases are from fabric I got at that sale. I'd like to think she would have approved of her kitty fabrics being used for this cause!

I realized a couple things as I was working on these. First, pillowcases are perfect for large prints that aren't easily used for quilting. It's nice to know that I can put them to good use. Second, I now have a greater appreciation for "blender" prints. It was fun to pick out prints for the borders and trims that coordinated with the main panels, but I couldn't always find a perfect match. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more fabrics like that in the future.

Lastly, this really showed me how much I dig sewing like this. I imagine most people would find it totally mind-numbing, but I find it meditative and downright addictive. I think it means I must really be a quilter at heart. :-)

my little sweatshop

2010-08-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

So... you all know how crazy my stash is... (this isn't even half of it!)

Yes, I am a fabric magnet, and I have no self control when it comes to bringing home orphans, especially novelty prints. I just can't help myself! Somebody needs to love the poor things, and make them into something useful! I've been making Project Linus quilts as fast as I can, but I am a slowwwww quilter, and I just can't keep up. It's been really weighing on me - should I stop looking? But I really enjoy it! Stop buying? Um, I can try, but not likely gonna happen! Donate it to Project Linus? Well, yeah, but that seems a little pointless (especially when they pretty much won't let you leave a meeting without taking a bag of fabric home with you!). What to do?

Well, have you seen the latest Craft Hope project? It's pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer ("giving sick kids a reason to smile... one pillowcase at a time"). I can't tell you how excited I was to see this project! I love to make pillowcases (see this post), and it's a perfect use for all those orphan novelty fabrics!

I started whipping some up, wondering just how many I could crank out in a month. I was making great progress, but I still have WAY more fabric than I can process. So I started wondering... how many could I make if I pulled in some friends? Maybe my sewing buddies would like to help out? And maybe there are some lurking local readers who would like to meet us and help too??

So, how about it? This Friday afternoon (1-5pm), my place, a pillowcase making party! You don't even have to bring anything, or have any sewing skills, or stay the whole time. You can even bring the kids (I'm talking to you, Robin!). Don't be shy - I'd love to meet some more local folks, and now's our chance!

winner, and an overdue finish

2010-08-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Congrats to lucky #11 - that's Alexandra of Right-brain Release. She said she loves all colors, so I'll have fun putting together a multicolor set for her. And she's from Albuquerque - that's where my SIL lives! Thanks everyone for entering, and for all your nice comments about the pink quilt. It went off in the mail today (that card was such a hard one to write...).

I realized recently that I never shared pictures of my finished table quilt. You should have seen me standing on a chair, holding the camera over my head, trying to get a good action shot! This was the best I could manage...

The colors are so pretty!

It ended up being almost exactly the right size, even though I should have started with at least an extra 6 or 8" in both dimensions... Because I didn't have any extra width to trim, I ended up with a really wavy edge. Lesson learned!

I *love* the back! This print (also a sheet) is definitely one of my favorites. The large scale is not so great for piecing, but it makes an awesome back. I was so excited to find a couple more of these recently, and I can't wait to use them on future projects!

I wanted to say thank you once again to Mr. Monkeysuit (now blogging at Bread and Buttons) for the inspiration. Though to be honest, I have to admit that it's in storage for the moment. I didn't really think about how a table quilt would work with a pre-schooler who still likes to swirl yogurt around with her fingers, slurp her applesauce, etc. It pained me to see how quickly it got grungy. So, I'll just tuck it away for now and try it again in a few years. Meanwhile, maybe I should make a couple dozen matching placemats instead! :-)

pink quilt #2 done!

2010-08-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

It's officially finished... Now I just need to stop procrastinating, and get it in the mail!

I went with Psalm 91:4, which Amy suggested:

"He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

Thanks, Amy!

I ended up having to redo the label, and I was so bummed!! For my first few quilts, I used the Sharpies I had on hand (green and black), and had no problems with the label fading in the wash. So, I ordered a whole set of Sharpies in pretty colors. I made the label as usual, and washed and dried the quilt like normal, and this is what came out. The lighter the ink color, the more it faded!

Oh well. Looking on the bright side - I didn't really like the shape of the label anyway, so it gave me a chance to redo it. I went back to my trusty old Sharpies, and tried again. This time I washed and dried the label by itself before I attached it to the quilt (once bitten, twice shy - I hate ripping out stitching!). It looks so much better, with no fading at all. From now on, I'll just use the pretty colored pens for decoration and not for the actual text!

I was thinking it would be fun to start a tradition of having a little giveaway with each major quilt I finish. I love doing giveaways, and maybe it will help motivate me to finish what I start more quickly. I can only hope!

So, how about a charm pack of 70 6" vintage linen squares? You can add a "solid" (like the gingham I used here) and make a quilt just like this one! If you're interested, just leave a comment about what color(s) you'd like. If you choose a single color (pink, blue, green or yellow), I'll pick two each of 35 different prints. If you choose more than one color, I'll pick 70 different prints. International shipping is fine, and I'll pick a winner on Thursday evening.

Now I'm off to catch up on some bee blocks...

rainbow blocks

2010-07-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

Someone else's UFO - if you're a thrifting junkie like me, you're bound to come across one. I don't know why, but I always feel compelled to DO something with them. Like I'm their last chance, and if I don't do it, nobody else will, and all that work will be wasted!! Sometimes, it only takes a couple finishing steps, like this one. Sometimes, it's starting almost from scratch, like this one. (Okay, that last one is STILL a UFO, but at least I got as far as two quilts, almost basted! and I have plans to have them quilted by the end of summer!). And there are so many more in my shelves, patiently waiting for me to fulfill their destiny...

In one of the stash sales I just posted about, there was this little pile of castoffs. I'm not sure it's an official UFO, maybe it was just some leftovers from a completed quilt. There were some loose half square triangles, some strips, some squares...

Some HSTs sewn into rows, some squares sewn in rows...

When I saw them, I immediately thought of Anna Maria Horner's Rainbow Around The Block project, which requested monochromatic blocks. You can't get much more monochromatic than this! So, I spent a day trimming and sewing and came up with 10 blocks to send.

There were 8 of these...

And one each of these other two random blocks.

I think they are pretty "granny" looking, and certainly not as lovely as the many others that have been donated. But I like to think that sampler charity quilts are better when they have a couple "homely" blocks thrown in! Kinda like a reminder that everyone can contribute in life, no matter what your skill level is. And I also like to think that this little UFO has finally fulfilled its destiny!

craigslist loot report (or, why my stash continues to grow out of control)

2010-07-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I did a loot report! I've been trying to stick to a "sew more, loot less" plan, by which I limit myself to:

one weekly trip to my favorite Value Village (usually with Vada, as a mommy-daughter date).
Friday or Saturday morning garage saling, but only if I go with a friend. Sometimes I'll go with Vada, but only if it's a rummage sale, or a garage sale in our neighborhood.
Craigslist "stash sales", but again only if I go with a friend.

You wouldn't think there would be too many in that last category, but there have been at least 3 so far this summer. I took screenshots, so you can see what the temptation looks like, along with the loot I picked up.

I really tried to resist this one. I mailed the link to my friend Chara, because it was much closer to her house. But she somehow twisted my arm into going with her, and we somehow managed to fill up a 50-yard bin together. Of course, Chara only got a few yards (darn her!), and the rest was all mine. Here's a sampling - some Halloween prints...

a fun set of coordinating bowling fabric... (Do I bowl? No. Know someone who bowls? No. But it was cute! I'm sure I can turn it into a donation quilt or some pillowcases or something!)

And a bunch of pretty solids...

Then there was THIS sale. Again, I tried hard to resist. I really did! I mailed the link to Chara and my friend Quynh, hoping that one of them would buy it, so I wouldn't have to. Quynh took the bait, but then she brought the stash over to MY house to sort through. Very clever, that girl! Of course I somehow ended up with more than half!

Just look at those piles of fabric! There was a whole bag of scraps and strips and random leftovers too. So much fun to look through!

And one more... Quynh and I hit up this sale on Sunday. Funny enough, the seller was one of the gals from my Project Linus group!

For once, I was not the big spender! For $6, I brought home this stack...

I was so happy to find that cute kitty reproduction print. I have no plans for the piggies, but they were too adorable to pass up!

Ditto for this small vintage piece. Can you spot the nursery rhyme characters?

I also got a couple pretty mod vintage prints. These are lighter weight (probably poly blends of some sort), which I thought might make some nice skirts.

And for another 50 cents each, I picked up these...

I should have put something in the picture for scale - these are 6000 yard spools! They are A&E Perma Core thread, normally about $10 each. Nice deal!

If you're interested in checking out Craigslist for stash sales in your area, Ircabbit has a great post about 'how to pwn at Craigslist' (love that title!).

And if you're in the Redmond, WA area and want to sell your stash, whatever you do, please don't tell me about it!

where have I been?

2010-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on my blog, I know. Do you ever feel that you just have a limited number of things you can juggle at once, and in order to concentrate on something new, you just have to drop something else for a while until you get everything under control again? Well, I do! My new distraction isn't even anything of consequence, it's just... distracting. But, I will slowly catch back up!

First of all, a big THANK YOU to my bee partners for the blocks I've received in the last month or so. They are beautiful!

Clockwise from upper left - Bethany, Angela, Colima and Megan.

And while I have been slacking on the blog, I have not been slacking on the crafting! I'm happy to report that I have finished my second "Cancer sucks" quilt, which will soon be heading to my friend Kelli in Texas. Sending a quilt to someone in Texas, in August, sounds like the stupidest idea ever, huh?

Like the first one, this is all vintage sheets - two each of 35 pink prints, and the "solid" is a pink and white Pottery Barn gingham. The back is also a thrifted sheet, but it's a newer Ralph Lauren 100% cotton (and buttery soft too). The quilting is just a simple cross-hatch through the squares. The binding is not scrappy on this one, only because I'd recently picked up a nice pink print, and it was sitting too close to the cutting table when it came time to do the binding...

I tried a new place to hang a quilt to take some quick photos... Next time I'll haul out a stool to stand on. Vada will not be happy with me if I break her trampoline by greatly exceeding the weight limit!

I still have to add a label, and I'm on the hunt for a good inscription. My friend Kelli is deeply religious, but I'm not so much. Can anyone suggest a nice bible verse for me?

tutorial - super quick "baste as you go" charity quilt

2010-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Project Linus meeting was a sewing session, instead of the usual fabric sorting, label attaching, and kit making that we do. I took advantage of the large table space to try out an idea for a super quick project, combining my favorite Quick Strippie design with the baste as you go technique I learned from Des when I first started quilting. Des, I can't thank you enough for that post - I've never seen the technique mentioned anywhere else, and it's just so fantastic!!

Before the meeting, I prepped the fabric for two quilts. For this design, it's five 6.5" strips of focal fabric, six 3" strips of contrast, and ten 1.5" strips of accent. I also cut five 2.5" strips (of contrast or accent fabric, whichever I had enough of) for the binding. The backs were already made (using my weird backing technique, as explained in a previous post). After only four hours at the meeting, I had two completely pieced and basted quilts! Here's how it works:

First sew the accent strips to the contrast strips, aligning the ends on one side. The bottom and top pieces have the accent on only one side, as you see on the left. Press the seams however you like - I pressed mine towards the contrast because it was ~~easier~~ darker.

Lay out the backing, wrong side up, and smooth it out.

Lay the batting out over the backing, centered and smoothed down.

By the way, I do not AT ALL recommend using crappy fluffy poly batting, but I'm still working on the monster in my closet, so that's what I'm using. If you use nice batting, this technique will be SO much easier! I was especially cursing myself at this meeting, because they had a whole huge bolt of Warm and White sitting there (donated by the Warm company - thanks folks!), free for the taking. But no, I bought this crappy batting, and I'm determined to finish the bolt!

Anyway... After laying down the batting, place the first (top) strip across the top (short) side of the backing/batting. It should be right side up, centered (equal amounts of batting on each side), and as straight as possible.

Then, lay down the next strip, with the bottom edges even. The top strip will be upside down, so the right sides of the two strips are together. Pin the bottom edges, through all layers (the 2 strips, the batting and the backing). Put your pins pretty close together, about 3 or 4 inches apart.

For sewing down the strips, I used a walking foot. I'm not sure it's absolutely necessary, but I think it helps when you have this many layers (and that fluffy batting!). Because I wasn't using my 1/4" quilting foot, I got a wider seam (more like 3/8"). Keep that in mind during your planning - if exact dimensions are important, you'll want to add an extra 1/4" to each row. And you would not want to use this technique for designs which have corner points that would get cut off.

So, drag the whole thing over to your machine, and sew down the seam. It will feel backwards, since the raw edges of the seam will be on the left instead of the right. It helps to pull the fabric from the front and back as you sew, to keep everything taut and straight. When you're done, lay the quilt out again, and fold that second row down and press the seam. Smooth down the batting and backing, making sure they are still laying down straight and smooth.

Add the third row, sew it down, flip and press. Alternate the strips and repeat all the way down the quilt. If you're using directional prints (like I am with the kitty print here), be sure you check the direction before you sew each row!

As you work your way down, you can roll up the quilt on the right to fit under the arm of your sewing machine. When you get towards the middle/bottom of the quilt, you can turn the quilt around and sew from the other direction so you have less bulk under the arm.

After 10 seams, you have a finished top AND a basted quilt. Huzzah! I didn't take a picture of the kitty quilt I was working on above, but here's a picture of the second one I made - a cute froggy print.

Yay, two quilts ready to be quilted! I'll probably do some simple meandering across the focal print rows, and some simple wavy quilting across the accent/contrast rows. For now, these are going to the bottom of the "to be quilted" pile. And now I really need to get back to working on that pile!

tutorial - swaddling blanket

2010-07-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Okay y'all - here's a tutorial for the world's easiest and most useful baby gift - the flannel swaddling blanket! You can't have too many of these - we had at least 8, I think, and they were always in rotation.

To make one, you'll need 1.25 yards each of two prints of flannel (or 2.5 yards of a single print, though I think they are cuter when the front and back are different). It's important to use flannel (and not just regular quilting cotton), because it's "grippy", and will help keep the baby from wriggling out. Any flannel is fine, but I actually prefer the cheaper quality flannel (like from Joanns) because it is stretchier. I even used a thrifted flannel sheet to make a couple for my own kid, and that worked great too.

IMPORTANT - prewash your fabric! I know some of you quilters out there are hardcore non-prewashers, but you really need to prewash flannel, because it can shrink and change grain a lot. If you don't prewash, you're very likely to have edges that curl after that first wash.

Iron your fabrics, fold each one lengthwise (right sides out), and trim straight across one edge (just one!) on each piece.

Now line up the cut ends and stack the two pieces on top of each other. You'll often find that one print is slightly wider than the other. Put the wider fabric on the bottom and the narrower one on top. Measure the width of the narrower fabric, minus the selvage. Mine here is about 20.5" across (folded, of course).

You want the blanket to be square, so double that measurement (20.5 x 2 = 41" in my case), measure out that length of fabric, and trim across the ends of both pieces of fabric at once. Since you started with 1.25 yards (45") of fabric, this means you'll be trimming off about 2" or 3".

Finally, trim off the selvages.

The next step is to pin the two pieces together, with the right sides together. At this point, you have 4 layers of fabric on your cutting surface. The two inner layers should be one layer of each fabric, with the right sides facing each other. Grab just those two inner layers at the corners, pick them up, and let the top and bottom layers unfold on either side. Shake it out, line up the other two corners, and pin around all four sides. I don't use too many pins, just one in each corner and 3 more on each side.

Now we're going to sew all around the edge, leaving an opening for turning. I like to leave the opening on a side that was along the selvage (the length-wise grain of the fabric), because it's slightly less stretchy than the cross-wise grain sides. But any side will work. Start a few inches below the middle, back-stitch a bit, sew all around, stopping about 6 or 8 inches from where you started, and back-stitch again. Use a wide seam allowance (anywhere from 1/2" to 3/4") - I usually use about 5/8".

Before you turn it right side out, trim the corners to reduce bulk. I'm anal, and I always trim a tiny bit more than straight across.

Now, turn it right side out, and use a chopstick (or whatever) to poke the corners out. To get nice edges, it helps to first iron the seams out flat. To do this, grab one layer of fabric about 4" from the seam. Shake the blanket until the layers shift, and set the blanket down on your ironing board. From the outside, poke around until the seam allowance is all laying down one direction inside the blanket.

Then iron the seam flat. You should be able to see in this picture that my seam allowance is pressed toward the lighter fabric. Do this to all four sides, taking extra care on the side that has the opening. Then pick the blanket up by the seam, and shake it out again to get the layers realigned. Iron all the seams again, and you should have perfect edges!

Now, slip-stitch the opening closed (sorry I didn't take a picture of that, but I imagine you know how to do it!). Or, if you're being lazy and plan to edge-stitch close to the seam, you can skip that step. For gifts, I try to use some sort of decorative stitching, and maybe use contrasting thread. Since the swaddling blanket itself is pretty simple, this is one way you can dress it up. Just be sure to try out the stitch on some scraps before you start sewing on the blanket - you don't want to have to adjust the width or length after you start! And be aware that some decorative stitches use a LOT of thread, so make sure you have a full bobbin and spool.

And there you go - an easy peasy swaddling blanket!

A variation on this is a single layer blanket - these are great for warmer weather (hello, summer - so nice of you to finally visit Seattle!). Just cut a square of flannel as before, and sew a narrow hem all around, as shown here. This one has mitered corners (I didn't make it - it was a gift for my daughter), but just plain corners work fine too.

Finally, if you're sewing these for yourself or a friend (in other words, not for charity), consider whipping up a couple "arm bindings" to go with them. I described these in an earlier post, (complete with a hilarious video of my husband demonstrating how to use them), so you can check them out there. If you want them to match the blanket you just made, start with an extra 1/4 yard of each fabric. After you cut out the blanket, use the leftover pieces to make the bindings.

Have fun making them - they are addictive! Oh, and if you make more than a few of these, be sure to clean out your sewing machine when you're done, because flannel sure does lint up your bobbin case in a hurry!

lucky me!

2010-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

I was so thrilled to win a giveaway on the Vintage Sheets blog for a copy of this pattern by Melissa at Under Construction. It was love at first sight when I saw this lovely ruffly confection:

As soon as I saw it, I thought of my overflowing bin of sheet hems. Ever since I started collecting vintage sheets, I've been cutting off the hems and saving them. I had no idea what I would make with them, but now I do! Thank you so much, Jen & Melissa!

And last week, I won this sweet package of Anna Maria Horner goodies from Scott at Blue Nickle Studios. I love the bits of fabric, and the notebook is awesome (I've been needing one to keep upstairs in my sewing room - perfect!). I'm totally jazzed about the bootie pattern, and I will definitely be making some of those for baby gifts. Thanks, Scott! (And Anna Maria!)

And even better, I found out that Scott is my neighbor! I knew he lived in WA, but for some reason I thought it was somewhere on the coast. But his day job is just down the road from me in Redmond. Small world! It was fun to meet a real quilt designer, who has actually been to the Quilt Market and all that! Almost like a real celebrity! :-)

bee blocks and the table quilt

2010-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

To my bee partners: I'm so sorry I haven't thanked you all individually for your blocks, and that it's taken me so long to post pics! Here are the ones I have received so far - aren't they awesome?? I absolutely love them!

Top row: Two from Leslie, (thank you for sending two blocks!), plus my sample block
Middle row: Jodie, Amanda, and Jane (and thank you Jane for the beautiful notecards!)
Bottom row: Two from Janice (thanks for sending two blocks!)

I've made a little more progress on my table quilt. I'm happy to report that the top is all quilted. Yay!

From the beginning, my plan was to have the final size of the quilt exactly match the size of the table. I made the top at least a few inches bigger in both dimensions, thinking I would trim it down to size just before I put the binding on. Of course the fabric is pre-washed (a zillion times over - ha!), but I didn't bother to pre-wash the batting. And I've never stopped to calculate how much shrinkage there is from the quilting itself. So... after serging the edges and giving it a wash and dry, I am dismayed to find that it's already slightly smaller than the table!! And I still need to straighten up the sides! Oh well, it's all good. It will still work okay, and I'll know better next time!

Check out the backing - isn't this an awesome print? It's another old sheet - it was in pretty bad shape, but there was just enough good fabric left for this quilt. I might even like this side better than the top!

a finish is a finish

2010-06-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

I am WAY behind in my blogging (reading and writing), so I'll be playing catch up for a little while...

Let me start with this little Project Linus quilt I finished last week. And when I say finished, that's all I did! My friend Ahava was moving, and gave me a TON of scraps and miscellaneous sewing stuffs (how awesome, right?). Among the bits and pieces was this whole-cloth quilt UFO. It was already quilted, and just needed to be trimmed up and bound.

I was really excited that I finally got to use this fun fabric for the binding. It's some that I got from the cat lady estate sale, and I always thought it would make an awesome binding, but I've never had a quilt that was right for it. But this one was PERFECT - the colors were almost an exact match. Serendipity!

So here it is, all washed and ready to go. The back is flannel - so snuggly!

I love being able to turn someone else's UFO into a donation quilt. It's like a double bonus - a project is rescued, and a kid in need gets a quilt! If you have an old UFO in your closet that you know you'll likely never finish, why not donate it to your charity of choice? It will be one less thing on your "to do" list!

quilting in progress

2010-06-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that my next post would be about finishing this project, but I guess I'll make do with some in-progress pictures!

I don't think I ever showed a picture of this quilt top. When I'm done, it will be a table quilt, like this one (we even have the exact same IKEA table!). It's a very simple design - I just took a bunch of 3" strips of vintage linens, and sewed them all into one very long strip using a mitered edge like I would for binding. Then I cut the strip into pieces that were a couple inches wider than the table, and sewed them up. I didn't pay much attention to the design, except to ensure that the same prints never touched.

When it came time to quilt, I decided to try my hand at straight-line quilting. After about 3 lines, I was regretting it. First of all, it just takes FOREVER. But then, the puckering started. After the first one or two, I lost the will to fight, and it quickly went from bad to worse. Just look at these!

I'm using a walking foot, and the back of the quilt looks great and doesn't have any puckers at all. So I think it must be that I did a poor basting job on the front. I used basting spray, which has always worked great for me before. But this was the third quilt I basted that day, and I was really exhausted at that point. Let this be a lesson for me - even though it's a pain to set things up to baste, don't try to do more than one or two quilts at a time!

Normally, I'm a very (ok, extremely) perfectionist person. But since this is just an experiment of sorts, and not a gift, it was easy for me to just say to heck with it and forge ahead. It's not going to be beautiful, but it will get finished, and it will cover the darn table. I might even try the straight-line quilting again some day, but it will be on a smaller quilt for sure!

leaning tower of swaddle

2010-06-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

13 Project Linus swaddling blankets, done! (I know, I said 15 before - either I miscounted initially, or I've lost 2 somewhere in the house - both possibilities are equally likely!) Here are twelve of them, very precariously stacked...

The 13th, in this incredibly adorable Valori Wells "Little Owl" flannel, was a gift for my friend Robin and her new little boy. Oh my, what a cutie pie! I even got to hold him while he slept, all snuggly wrapped in it - what a treat for me!

The Project Linus blankets were such a mix of fabrics - I just used whatever I had in my stash. My favorite was this Mexican food print. I hope the family that gets this has a sense of humor! I know I would have loved it, so I hope someone else will too!

One of those (many) UFOs in my stash is another swaddling blanket. I'm going to use that one to make a tutorial, and will post that when I'm done. (Not that the world needs yet another swaddling blanket tutorial, but whatever!) I'm not sure when that will be, because I've started my "clean slate" project and already have a few items in the queue:

A table quilt, sort of like this one, but in vintage linens.
A second pink quilt, for another friend fighting breast cancer.
The postcard quilt.

All of these are basted, so I've got some serious quilting ahead of me! I was tempted to list ALL the WIPs I've got, but I think it would just overwhelm me. So, I think I'll just try it three at a time, and not look too far ahead!

winners!

2010-05-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

Gosh darn you blogger - why do you make it so easy to publish a post by accident???? (I do user interface design for a living - I hate software that doesn't prevent stupid mistakes!)

Anyway, what I meant to say is... winners! Two of them! Here they are:

Those lucky folks are:

20. lori said...

I would love the FQs! Have a great weekend!

May 28, 2010 2:11 PM

1. leigh7911 said...

Oh! Look at all those lovely yellows. :)

Also, your room looks great. Am jealous!

And good on you for being productive in your procrastination. Your dedication to sewing for charity is inspiring.

And just so you'll have a pretty picture to look at, here's the latest on Vada's room.

I only have a couple more swirls to go, and it will be all done! It's definitely at the top of my list of WIPs I want to finish up. I've decided I'm going to do my "Clean Slate Club" (and thanks everyone for the encouragement!) - I'm compiling a list of all the projects I have in progress, and will list them here. You guys can feel free to give me crap if I don't report regular progress! I'm hoping to have the bulk of them done in the next couple months, so I can start thinking about the holidays. They are just around the corner, you know!

Another one high up on the list is those swaddling blankets. I got the hand sewing done over the weekend, and will hopefully get them all top-stitched and labeled this week, so that's progress! Oh, and there were a couple questions in the comments from the last post about exactly how I do the swaddling blankets, but they were from folks who don't have their settings set to show their return address, so I couldn't reply directly. However, I think the questions are answered in this post I did a while back, so you can look there. If that doesn't help, let me know and I'll do a tutorial.

productive procrastination

2010-05-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

My in-laws are visiting this weekend, and I needed to clean out my sewing room so that it can be used as a second spare bedroom. First step - the seriously overflowing bin of flannel. Instead of just putting the excess in a bag like any sane person would do, I decided to pull out all the large pieces and whip up some swaddling blankets....

Possibly not the best use of my time! But, now I have 15 swaddling blankets sewn, turned and pressed. And I'm happy that I'll be able to work on the hand sewing part (just blind stitching the openings) over the weekend - I hate the thought of three days without any sewing! I'll top stitch them next week, and then I'll be all set for the Project Linus meeting next Sunday. And that's about 40 yards of fabric out the door - whoop!

Check it out - wide open space in the sewing room! No, I didn't take a before shot - I'm not sure I would be brave enough to post it anyway.

There are so many unfinished projects tucked away in those shelves!! Cleaning everything up has motivated me to make a list and start working through it before I start anything else. Seriously. Don't laugh! I might even post my list here, so you guys can cheer me on!

Here's the other side of the room. That closet is packed with the rest of the stash - flannels, novelties, sheets, small cuts, etc. I know, it's a little crazy. But at least it's organized crazy now...

Speaking of too much fabric... I fully intended to do my usual "second chance" giveaway after the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day last week, but just never managed to get around to it.

But it just so happens that while I was cleaning up, I put together some flat rate envelopes of some leftover FQs from my stash sale.

One might be spoken for, but at least two of them are up for grabs, and I'm giving them away! Leave a comment here, and I'll draw at least two names on Monday whenever the in-laws leave. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

the big winner!

2010-05-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Is it weird that I actually get a little nervous before I pick a giveaway winner? Yes, yes it is. Oh well - I asked random.org, and it picked....

Lucky #307 is Meg - The Mad Quilting Librarian!

Meg said...: I've been wanting to make a vintage sheet quilt for the longest time, but I never seem to have any luck at my local thrift shops. This would be a great solution!

So happy to oblige, Meg! Hope you have fun working with them!

Thanks to everyone for entering!! And a great big welcome to those of you who took a look around and decided to subscribe/follow!

Here's what I've been working on lately - more string squares. It's all Rachel's fault - she picked string blocks for her bee month, and I got a little addicted. Yes, there's one missing - I didn't pay close attention to how many I was making, and ended up with an odd number!

I'm not sure if I'll go for a sort of traditional layout...

Or all one direction...

Or maybe I'll try a zigzag? Must go consult Flickr for some inspiration... I'll most likely add some sashing in there somehow, since the blocks I have right now would make a pretty small quilt all by themselves (and I'm quite sure I'm done making them, if you know what I mean)... It would help if I knew what I was making it for, I suppose! At least I'll have plenty of time to think about it while I pull all the paper off the back!!

Happy giveaway day!

2010-05-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

I love giveaway day! I hope everyone is having a blast visiting blogs all over blogville...

If you're new here, welcome! I'm a crafter who loves thrifting in all forms (garage sales, thrift stores, swapping, bartering, you name it!). My current obsession is quilting with old sheets (or vintage linens - that sounds a whole lot nicer!).

For my giveaway, I'm offering a set of about 140 6" vintage linen squares, all different prints.

With this set of squares, you could make a fun patchwork quilt like this...

Or add some squares of your own and make a couple quilts like this...

Or maybe half a dozen awesome table toppers like this one from Marit!

To enter, just leave a comment here. Any old comment will do, but if you're feeling chatty, tell me about what crafty project you did last - I love to hear what people are up to. International folks are welcome to enter.

I wish I could reply to everyone, but I tried that last time and it was a full-time job (and I already have one of those!). So, thanks in advance - I appreciate you stopping by and entering!!

And lastly, PLEASE make sure you have contact info. If you don't want to leave your email in every comment you write, please make sure your profile settings are correct so that people can find it there. If you're not sure, go here to learn how to change your settings. Even if you think your settings are correct - if you've never had a direct email response to one of your comments, GO CHECK them! Otherwise, your entries may just be a big fat waste of your time!!

Thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting the event!

The giveaway is closed now - going to draw a name! Thanks everyone!!

you never know!

2010-05-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

You know that rush you get when you're at a garage sale, and you find something really awesome that you've been looking for forever? I love that feeling! And you know what's even better than that - finding a treasure for someone else! It totally makes my day when I can do that....

You might remember last year, when I showed off this set of Topsy-Turvy books:

Beth (of Needles, Threads & Crafts) commented that she'd had a set of these when she was a kid, and that she'd love to have a set for her daughters. And guess what I found at a garage sale! I paid $20 for my set last year, and I got this one for about $3 - sweet!

I thought it was another complete set, but it turned out that it had two repeats - "Audubon's Animals/Audubon's Birds" and "The Tailor of Gloucester/How the Leopard Got His Spots". Oddly enough, I didn't have either of those two books in my original set - maybe they were from a 'bonus' set or something? Anyway, I'll be keeping the two extra ones to add to my set, and passing the rest on to Beth. Yay! I just love it when that happens!

So - what strange and rare object are you lusting after? Let me know, and I'll keep an eye out for you. You just never know!! :-)

my bee block idea

2010-05-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

June is my month in the Vintage Sheet Bee, and I'm working on my block idea. I started with 3" squares, and made up some slightly wonky courthouse stair blocks. I made sure the center square was straight (though not centered), and trimmed each block to 12.5" in one dimension, and squared up the other sides at whatever size fit best (varying from about 13" to 14"). Like so:

Then I chopped the blocks into 4 corners, with the center square in the middle of the cuts. I added a thin sashing in the middle of the blocks, and a larger sashing all around, to make it look like windows.

I don't totally love it yet, but flimsies never look as good as the finished quilts do! I'm sure I'll love it when it's all done. I had originally intended for it to be a table topper, but it turns out that it will almost exactly fit the top of the credenza (that's fancy for "big long filing cabinet") in my office. Maybe that will keep me from building up piles of crap on it?? Yeah, not likely!

Anyway, I like the basic block idea. It's a great way to use up scraps, and even if I decide not to do this window idea, or even chop them up at all, I think they'd still look nice on their own with some white sashing. So, unless I have some other brilliant idea in the next couple of weeks, I think this will be my bee block!

pink quilt #1 finished

2010-05-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

I've finished the quilt for my friend and coworker, Julie, who is battling breast cancer. I will be giving it to her this Saturday, when I join our company's team for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. If anyone reading this feels inclined, you can donate here. (I hope that link works - let me know if not!). No pressure - just thought I'd throw it out there!

I hope she likes the quilt - I know I sure do! It's all vintage linens, including the gingham (a Pottery Barn sheet) and the backing, and it's so amazingly soft and cozy. And I even hand-sewed the binding - ha! Check out the scrappy binding and those perfect corners!

It's made with 6" squares - two each of 35 different prints. The final dimensions are about 55" x 77".

The quilting is pretty simple, just straight "edge stitching" along the seams, and then diagonals one way through the prints and the other way through the gingham.

Of course I had to sneak in a picture with miss cutie pie!

I still haven't figured out the label, but I'm leaning towards a John Muir quote that I saw recently on Bloom:

"Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

I just love it, and I like that there's nothing too overtly "get well! chin up!" about it. Just a feeling of serenity, I hope. I hope...

I've already started on another one of these, for my high school friend Kelli, who is fighting too. Cancer sucks.

April and May bee blocks

2010-05-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness, I'm all caught up with my bee blocks!

These first two are for Jane, who requested any sort of pinweel, as long as it contained the light yellow background fabric she had sent. I have to tell you, I was terrified to cut into it! It was my first time sewing with someone else's bee fabric, and I only had a 15"x15" square, and I was so afraid I'd screw it up. And it was my first time making half-square triangles! I should have thought to try on some scrap fabric first, but I think they turned out fine. They aren't very fancy, but I didn't want to press my luck!

These next two are for Amanda, who requested any sort of cross. You might recognize the pink and green bits from the first pinwheel block above! These were fun to make, and I can see how they would be addictive!

Now I'm off to think about what I'm going to request for June, which is my month! I've got a log-cabin-ish idea I want to try out first...

potholders

2010-04-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm having one of those terribly unproductive days... I really should be working, and I have a big task for work that needs to be done. But the tree people, who were supposed to come next week (nicely timed for when I'd be out of town), decided to show up this morning. So instead of concentrating on coding, I've been doing chores and trying to not go crazy listening to chainsaws and wood chippers and leaf blowers (my least favorite sounds EVER). They finished up not too long ago, and I had about an hour of peace. And then the yard people showed up, with their lawn mowers and MORE leaf blowers. Seriously. Happy Earth Day, have some noise pollution! I know I shouldn't complain - we hired the folks after all! But this just wasn't the productive day I was envisioning this morning!

So, as long as I'm not getting any work done, let me show off a little potholder project I whipped up recently...

This here is a little pile of what I think of as "sheet selvages". They are the bottom hems that aren't really useful for much. I used to throw them away, but then I wondered if I might be able to use them for something. So, I started saving them. During my boring weekly meetings, I trim them by cutting right along the stitching. It's only somewhat quicker than seam-ripping, but a whole lot less messy!

I cut 9" squares of muslin and Insul-Brite, layered them, and then sewed strips on as if they were selvages - the folded edge goes on top, the cut edge gets covered up by the next strip, which is top-stitched down.

I made two like this, trimmed them up, put them back-to-back (rotated one by 90 degrees, not that it really matters), serged the edges and bound it like a quilt. Instead of starting in the middle of one side, I started at a corner, and then made a loop and tucked the binding in at end.

And there you go, one potholder! Cute!

And I'm happy to report that the yard people are done. Thank goodness! Now maybe I can get an hour of work done!

two vintage sheet giveaways...

2010-04-13T20:34:00.002-07:00

For all you vintage sheet fans - there are two fun giveaways you should check out.

Rachel at my tiny robot heart is giving away this huge envelope of scraps.

And Emily at Creative Chicks is giving away two sets of scraps.

Go and enter!

purge party

2010-04-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

First, a confession - I totally wimped out on the Fabric Stash Purge Party. I went as far as going through my stash of "old" fabrics (the non-quilting ones), and I culled out a whole bin of fabric to sell. But then I just ran out of time and energy, and could not see myself driving into Seattle three days in a row (Friday to drop off the stuff, Saturday to shop, Sunday to pick up anything that didn't sell). So, I'll just save the bin until October, and try again!

But I did go on Saturday, and dragged along my friend Ahava. Last time I only snapped a couple pics on my way out the door, but this time I asked and they were okay with pictures, so here's a full report...

First, there was one long row of all quilting cottons, everything from baggies of scraps to FQs to yards and more. The prices varied from about $1/yard to $4/yard. I didn't see much designer stuff, or any highly collectible fabrics, but I'm also not really an expert on that!

The other rows of fabrics were more cottons and vintage, then fashion fabrics (knits, woolens, synthetics, etc.). There were sections for holiday fabrics, fleece, flannel, home dec, batting, and bolts. At the very back were several sewing machines and sergers.

In the back, there were tables full of yarns, trims, beads, scrapbooking supplies...

and books, patterns, threads, and every other crafting product under the sun!

We were there at about 10:30, I think (they opened at 10), and it was not as busy as I thought it would be on the first day. I'd say the quilting cotton row was most popular, but it was not too crowded to shop, and everyone was well-behaved. ;-)

Here's my tiny bit of loot - $5 for 3 yards of pretty novelty prints. It was supposed to be 4 yards, as that top print was marked as 2 yards but was really only 1 (grrr....).

Oh, and I'm splitting this lovely piece of Kaffe Fassett with Ahava (6 yards for $18!). She posed with it to make it seem like that's the only purchase she made, but there were a few more items stacked at her feet! ;-)

what I've been working on...

2010-04-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am so behind in blogging (along with so many other things, unfortunately!). I have 5 posts in draft form, and what feels like a gazillion projects in process! Here's just a sampling of what I've been working this past week or so...

First of all, I'm happy to report that my stash sale was a huge success! I went from this...

down to this!

I sold about 22 sets (mostly singles, but a couple doubles, and one triple!), which is about 450 FQs, or at least 120 yards of fabric. I'm happy, and my husband is *really* happy!! Thank you so much to everyone who bought a set! And special thanks to Michelle at craftydill and Angie at Dear Spring Green, who took some pretty pictures of their loot and blogged about it - I love that!! I'm excited that this worked out, and actually look forward to rebuilding my stash and doing it all over again! :-)

A side effect of all that stash management was getting my stacks of 6" squares all organized too. I cut squares for all the new prints I'd recently acquired, and sorted them by color (greens, blues/purples, yellows, orange/browns, pinks, and multicolors). Pretty!

I had a private swap of squares to put together (more on that in a later post), and wanted to make sure I had one of each. Can you guess how many are in the stack??

I think it was somewhere around 220! Holy cow!

And speaking of 6" squares... I have also been spending some time working through my novelty stash with my friend Quynh. She wants to make an I-Spy quilt for her sister's kids, so she's trading me her slave labor (ironing and cutting) for a set of squares. It's making me really want to get back on some more Project Linus quilts, but I simply must finish up some of my current projects before I can start anything new. But when I'm ready, it will be so nice to go straight to my now ginormous stash of novelty squares! It's hard to tell from the photo, but this stack is like 8" high!

Finally, I'm making progress on this quilt that I started back in January. Sadly, I recently found out that another friend of mine has had her breast cancer return (again. ug.). I'll be seeing this friend in a couple weeks, so I'm going to try to finish this one up for her, and make a second version for the other friend I originally intended this one for.

The more I work on it, the more I love it. It's so buttery soft and cozy. I hope it brings my friend some comfort and pleasure. And while I'm thinking about it - does anyone have any suggestions for what to write on the label? I can always just wimp out and stick to the facts, but does anyone have any suggestions for a quote or saying? Something kind or comforting or hopeful, or about friendship?

"4" birthday shirt

2010-03-30T04:35:00.000-07:00

Last year, I made this "3" birthday shirt for Vada...

I guess it's a tradition now, because I made her a "4" shirt too!

She's grown so much! (Which reminds me - her toenail fell off last week, and all is well with that...)

This year, she even helped with the fabrics. I picked out a dozen or so, and she chose her 3 favorites. Here's the template I started from, just whipped up in PowerPoint, using clip art for the butterfly. (If anyone would like the PPT file or a PDF version, let me know - I can even change the number for you...)

And here it is fused down...

And a close up of the stitching. I was so excited to see that my machine has a "O" buttonhole stitch - it was perfect for the tip of the antennae!

I have to admit, the non-symmetrical-ness of the 4 kinda bugs me. But by the time she's 8, butterflies might be uncool! My math geek friend Mandy reminded me that next year, I can use "V" (the roman numeral for 5), which is also Vada's initial. Fun!!

keep those orders coming...

2010-03-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for the fabulous response to my 'share the loot' post! I'm a little slow (had my daughter's bday party yesterday - what a zoo!), but steadily working on getting things packed up and mailed. I thought you guys might like a look at what's on the way...

Here's a "groovy flowers" set...

And a "blues and greens" set (which has been quite popular!)...

And the four packages I sent on Friday - so stuffed!!

I still have PLENTY left, especially yellow/orange/pink, so feel free to order more!

Speaking of sheets, have you all seen Jen's new Vintage Sheets blog? It's going to be a fantastic resource! Jen also started up a flickr group for the blog. After you use your loot to make awesome projects, go add some pics there!

sharing the loot

2010-03-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Do you love to sew with vintage sheets? Have I got a sweet deal for you!

A while back, I posted about the Seattle Fabric Stash Purge Party, and my plans to put together some sets of vintage sheet FQs to sell there. The sale is coming up in just a couple weeks, and I've been diligently chopping up my stash and getting prepared to package them up. But then I had a thought - what if my wonderful blog readers would like a chance to buy these before the sale? I don't really want to make a load of cash - I just want to share the loot and decrease my stash. And then keep on buying more cool sheets! :-)

So, here's the deal: $15 for a flat rate envelope stuffed with FQs (that's including postage - what a deal!). My FQs are extra chubby, and I can fit about 18 of them in one envelope. You can pick a theme, like "pinks" or "blues and greens" or "multi-colored" or "stripes and geometrics" or "anything with flowers" or "anything except flowers" or "as little white as possible", etc. I'll try to match it as best as I can. At last count, I had about 80 different prints, so I'm sure I can come up with a set for pretty much any theme! Well, except purple - there's not much of that in vintage sheet land for some reason!

First come, first served, until I run out. Please comment here, or email me directly, and let me know what your theme is. I'll mail you back to confirm. As far as payment goes, I'm hoping we can just do direct PayPal payments. This will be my first time trying to do an online stash sale, and I don't really want to bother setting up a "shop". So, we'll see how this goes. If anyone has done something similar like this before and has any advice for me, let me know!

If you'd like a closer peek at what's in my stash, here are some images I grabbed from my past loot reports. Not all of these are available, but it's a good representation of what I've got.

If you're in the Seattle area, we can arrange a local pickup, and your set will be $10. If you're international, I think it will be $23 (assuming it doesn't weigh more than 4 pounds - I haven't checked!). And if you're totally nuts and want more than one set, we can talk about combined shipping!

done - Project Linus #12 and #13

2010-03-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

I finished up those two Project Linus quilts, huzzah! I really loved the quilting from the back - it was SO quick and easy!

I'm so happy with the fabric I used for the binding - it matches the striped fabric perfectly. I still have a lot of it left (and a lot of the polka dots too!), and I know there's still some of that stripe fabric in the PL stash... I might have to whip up a few more of these at the next meeting!

Speaking of Project Linus, if you're in the Seattle area, the Pacific Fabric stores are hosting a blanket bee on Sunday, April 25 from noon to 5pm. I'm sad that I'll be out of town that weekend, but if you're at all interested, you should check it out. They'll be sewing simple patchwork tops, sandwiching tops and backs (with all batting donated by The Warm Company - nice!), doing pillowcase-style binding, and tying ties. No experience is required, and you don't have to bring anything. Just show up!

on a roll

2010-03-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

I have a million other projects I could be (should be) working on, but for some reason I feel compelled to finish up the other two Project Linus quilts I have in progress. These patchwork tops were pieced in October and basted in December, and I'm on a tear to get them done. I got the first one quilted this weekend...

Check out that totally even diagonal quilting! Are you wondering how I managed that??

I tried something new to me - quilting from the back! The backing is an awesome huge polka dot, just perfect for it. It was even extra-wide, so no piecing was required. Sorry, I have no idea where it came from (it was a PL donation, and had no selvage info). I'm not sure I totally love the overall effect- it looks a little like a mass-produced bedspread to me. But still, it was super quick and easy to do, and I loved trying something new!

The other one is about 25% done, and with any luck I'll have them both finished this week!

project linus #11 (and #10)

2010-03-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the flower quilting for my Project Linus #11. The crayola washable marker washed right out (phew!), and the quilting doesn't look half bad now that it's all nice and crinkly!

Um, maybe a little TOO crinkly! (I left it in the dryer...)

I never blogged #10, which I finished up last month. Gee, it looks familiar! Same design, but with simpler quilting.

Yay, two finishes!

my first freehand quilting

2010-03-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

What a Monday I have had! It had been an exhausting weekend for me, and I was so looking forward to a quiet day back at work. And then my daughter dropped a little hand weight (only 2 pounds!) on her big toe just right - and pulled her toenail out from the nail bed. Oh my goodness! So, instead of a nice morning of drinking coffee in a quiet, empty house, I was rushing out the door (unshowered, no bra - perfect!) with a screaming kid (barefoot and in dirty jammies - even more perfect!). After spending the morning at various doctors' offices for exams, x-rays and consults, the consensus was no broken bones, and just keep it clean and wait for the nail to fall off. If you're in the mood for gory pictures, you can see one here. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Maybe Tuesday will be quiet? I'm knocking on wood! Meanwhile, onto happier subjects... I was hoping to be able to show this whole quilted quilt today, but I'll make do with the two blocks I finished over the weekend. I did the wavy line quilting a while back (and bound it already), and have been working up the courage to try some freehand flowers. I know they're so simple, and not perfect, but I'm still proud! I broke the ice!

I marked the first one with a quilting pencil, but it was hard to use (and hard to see). For the second one, I used one of my daughter's washable markers. I've never had a problem with them washing out of her clothes, so I'm hoping it will wash out of the quilt just as well.

And here's the back of that first block. A little wobbly, but cute!

2 down, 10 to go!

vintage sheet bee blocks

2010-03-01T08:45:00.000-08:00

I have signed up for my very first quilting bee - the Vintage Sheet Quilting Bee, hosted by Jen at Rosey Little Things. Rachel at my tiny robot heart has the first month, and requested scrappy string blocks. I was so excited, because it's been on my list of things to try forEVER. I was all over it this weekend.

Twenty 6.5" squares pieced....

And trimmed...

And waiting to have the paper removed - a PERFECT chore for my weekly team conference call tomorrow afternoon. :-)

I played with a few, just to get an idea of how they'll look together. So pretty!

I can understand why people say these are so addictive. I barely made a dent in my scrap pile, and I just want to keep making more and more and more!

a plethora of pillowcases

2010-02-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Vada was invited to a birthday party, and I wanted to make a gift for her to take. I've had personalized pillowcases on my list of projects to try for a long time, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity! Remember this fabric? Check out what a cute girly pillowcase it made! I tried out some of that nylon embroidery thread for the zigzag around the letters, and it worked quite nicely. It maybe wasn't the best color, but I gave away all but two spools of it, so I didn't have much to choose from!

While I was cutting this one out, I had the Million Pillowcase Challenge on my mind. I have SO MUCH novelty print fabric, and I'll never be able to turn it all into charity quilts. Pillowcases would be so quick and easy! On top of that, it's the perfect project to take over to Ahava's place for our Friday sewing afternoons. I did a quick pull of coordinating fabrics, and started cutting away.

I used this tutorial (a PDF file), which is amazingly easy. It takes 3/4 yard of the main print, 1/4 yard of the contrast print, and one 2.5" strip for the band.

After Emma's, I made 10 more... Huzzah! That's 11 yards of loot used!!

When I made Emma's, I used French seams. But my finicky sewing machine really hates the bulk, and it drove me crazy with skipped stitches. So, I figured it was time to dust off the old serger. The last time I used it, I was doing rolled hems for napkins. I was not looking forward to having to read the manual to figure out how to reconfigure and rethread it for the normal mode. But I managed to do it with only a minimum of cursing. I'm happy it's done - I had forgotten how much fun it was to sew with! It feels so.... industrial!

And to prove just how anal I am sometimes... I really hate that you can see the serged edge of the seam at the opening of the case, and I wanted to find a way to make that look neater. So I tucked in the corners on both sides at the end of the seam, and then did the serging. It's a tiny thing, but it doesn't take much more effort, and I like that it helps to hide that ugly seam end.

When I started on these, I had no idea where I would donate them. But in an amazing bit of serendipity, I got Anna Lena's newsletter yesterday, in which Karen was asking for pillowcases for Camp Victory, which serves girls from ages 5-18 who have suffered sexual abuse. I can't think of a more worthy cause. I shipped them off this morning, and I'm excited to get started on my next batch. The Million Pillowcase Challenge lasts all year, and they're only up to 29,200 right now. Won't you join me and make a few?

Painting Vada's room

2010-02-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

A long, long time ago, I saw this picture (no idea where!!), and thought that wall's painting scheme would be so cool for Vada's room. I saved it to my computer, and waited to work up the courage...

Finally, we got started. I taped up a sheet of paper from Vada's easel and free-handed some big curves (I wish I'd thought to take a picture of that - sorry!). I taped a second sheet over that, traced where the colors would meet, and cut it out along that line. We painted the bottom half, and then taped up the stencil.

And painted the top half.

And here's the first swirl. I'm just free-handing it with a small 1" paintbrush. I'm terrified I'm going to screw it up. But I'm also thinking - it's just a preschooler's room, and she'll love it no matter how amateur it looks. And in a few short years, she'll be wanting to paint it black anyway! :-)

I'll post more pictures when it's all done!

Happy Valentine's day!

2010-02-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

Look who got all "becky home-ec-y" for Valentine's day!

I made these treats for Vada's daycare's party. They were a little time-consuming, but so cute and yummy! Yes, I'm one of those weird people who actually like jello...

And we whipped up these valentines for Vada to give to her classmates. So easy!

And here's our one bit of decoration around the house - a garland I made BB (before blogging) last year with Robin.

Each heart has three layers of fabric - prints for the front, white felt for "batting", and some old pink velveteen for the back. I used cookie cutters to trace heart shapes onto the printed fabrics, sandwiched the layers and cut them out about 1" bigger all the way around (just roughly). Then I placed a length (about 12") of narrow red ribbon across the middle between the layers, zigzag stitched around the heart shape, and trimmed the edges with pinking shears (being careful not to cut the ribbon). After making a zillion, I tied the ribbons between them to make the garlands.

I like that it's configurable. Not that I've changed it since I made it, but if I wanted to, I could! :-)

long time, no post...

2010-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long absence! Last weekend, we took a little vacation to visit the inlaws at their new place on the Southern Oregon coast, with stopovers in Portland each way. It was a long drive (about 8 or 9 hours each way), but the weather was mostly good and traffic was light, and spreading the driving out over 4 days (and 4 naps for Vada!) really helped. I'm happy to know that the trip isn't too bad, because I'm sure we'll be doing it fairly often.

If it was just me, I would have mapped out and hit every thrift store on the way. My husband is the exact opposite - he likes to get to his destination as quickly and directly as humanly possible. But if you have to stop for a break, and there just happens to be a Value Village nearby (thank you, iPhone!), why not stop and let the kid run around in there, right? I was so excited to find these pillowcases (two pink, one green), in one of my favorite prints! Score!

It actually feels like a different fabric than the sheets I already have (maybe all cotton, instead of a cotton/poly mix?), and the print is smaller and the colors are brighter. They don't have any labels inside, and seem to be hand sewn instead of mass produced. A little mysterious! I wonder if anyone has documented vintage linens? I wish I had made a record of the labels for the ones I've collected. Maybe I'll start doing that...

Anyway, here are the other 3 I have. I think these are all the colorways I've seen for this print. I just love it!

After we returned from vacation, I had the whole rest of the week off. I had planned to do nothing but sew, sew, sew. Ha! Let's see... I did taxes, sold the old toddler bed and moved Vada into a new "big girl" bed, and caught up on laundry. Then I spent two days decluttering and tidying the house, in preparation for the initial visit from the cleaners we finally hired. Then half a day of killing time away from the house while they cleaned. Yesterday, we got crazy and started painted Vada's bedroom (pink! and blue! with swirls!). It's only half done, but it's looking great! I'll share some pictures when it's complete. I managed to sneak in a little sewing this weekend, but I'll save that for another post too.

Phew! I admit it - I'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Vacation is exhausting!!

some P on the WIP

2010-01-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Remember this quilt I was working on at the retreat in November? I finally found it (my sewing room is such a mess!), and got back to work on it. I've got all the vertical sashing done, and just need to add the top and bottom strips. And then, you know, just baste and quilt the darn thing. It's the biggest top I've made so far, and will be 96" x 70" when it's done. Some day...

new WIP

2010-01-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

I swore I wasn't going to start any new projects until I'd finished all my existing WIPs, but Mandy has led me astray! She has hosted a sewing afternoon at her house the last two Fridays, and it's just easier to bring a new project to piece, you know? So, here is last week's project - another vintage linen patchwork quilt! I know, I'm so boring. But this one is different - it's pink! It will be for a friend of mine who is battling breast cancer. I'm actually a little torn about the pink thing - I can't help but wonder if people who are dealing with breast cancer don't get totally sick of pink, pink, pink....

The "solid" squares are actually gingham, from a Pottery Barn sheet. I love those PB gingham sheets! I snap them up whenever I see them. They are so fine, and there's just something about woven gingham (as opposed to the printed stuff) that I absolutely adore!!

Seattle area - Fabric stash purge party

2010-01-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

Last year, I went check out a Fabric Stash Purge Party in Seattle, to see if it might be something I'd like to participate in the next time it happened....

It sure was fun to look over all the random stuff, and I took home a few treasures! I thought it seemed well organized, and might be a good way for me to de-stash (and then probably turn right around and re-stash!). So, I signed up for the next event, which is the weekend of April 10-11. I think I'll put together some color-coordinated FQ bundles of vintage sheets. I have no idea if they will sell, but it's worth a shot!

If anyone else in the Seattle area wants to participate, give me a holler. There's a tiny referral bonus in it for me (the $10 consigner fee is waived if I get 5 other people to sign up), but mostly it would be fun to meet up there. Also, it would be great to carpool, as the parking was pretty scarce last time...

calling all vintage sheet addicts...

2010-01-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Just a little public service announcement... Jen over at Rosey Little Things is hosting her second Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Swap! I missed it the first time around, but I'm definitely going for it this time. Come join us!

better late than never thanks!

2010-01-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

I've got some catching up to do! Very late but very sincere thanks to sweet Marguerite of Adventures in Quilting and Sailing, who sent me this lovely little xmas package. It had some chocolate in it too, but between me and the kid, it didn't last long enough to take the picture!! I adore the dutch fabric, and can't wait to make something from it. I'm thinking something for my daughter.... And isn't that heart ornament wonderful?

Thanks again, Marguerite! And I hope you're feeling much better soon (poor girl is recovering from appendicitis surgery - ouch!).

Next up, I wanted to show off all the ornaments I got in the FreshlyBlended annual ornament swap on Swap-bot. I really love them all! It's hard to pick a favorite, but maybe it's the little felted seal at the bottom. And sadly, I think mine were pretty crummy in comparison. Next year I'll do better, I promise!

loot, swaps, and someone else's giveaway

2010-01-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

Just because it's been the holidays doesn't mean I haven't been hitting the thrift stores! Here are some of the pretty linens I've scored over the last few weeks...

Man, I'm really looking forward to garage sale season! If you're looking for a vintage linen fix, I've started several more Swap-bot swaps - one each for January, February and March. For each swap, you'll send (and receive) two packages containing 2 FQs each (for a total of 4 FQs). If you're new to Swap-bot and have any questions, let me know.

And speaking of vintage linens, you should hurry on over to Brown Paper Packages, to enter to win this lovely set of FQs. Better hurry - the giveaway ends sometime tomorrow!

happy new year!

2010-01-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

I wonder if January 1 is the most popular day for blog posting? It does seem right up there with writing down resolutions in a journal! I wasn't blogging last January, but if I had been, my goals for 2009 would have been:

Make an effort to reconnect with old friends
Teach myself how to quilt by making one Project Linus quilt each month

I did pretty good on the first goal. I took two trips (Nashville, TN and Ames, IA) with my daughter to visit two very dear old friends, and it was so wonderful. I'm hoping to continue with that this year. I'll definitely make the time to visit a couple friends in Texas when I'm back for the family reunion in October, and maybe a trip to visit another friend in Chicago. I'm really appreciating that it's getting easier to travel with my daughter as she gets older. Yay for potty training!

I did AWESOME on the second goal, if I do say so myself! I didn't technically complete it, but I'm still declaring victory in the form of:

9 completely finished Project Linus quilts...

6 swaddling blankets, and 2 "quiltlets" (everything but batting)...

4 more quilts basted and ready for quilting (just this past week - oh my aching back!)...

and 2 tops, 2 backs, and binding for Margaret's Hope Chest and 3 quilt tops for Give a Kid a Quilt...

Meanwhile, I did some quilting of my own! One doll quilt for my daughter, one quiltie for a swap, a quiltlet for my daughter, 5 thrifted/vintage linen quilts (3 given away!), and two quilt tops.

Add to that - starting a blog, doing some other crafty projects, a couple tutorials, a few fun giveaways, AND making some really awesome bloggy friends!! Whew - I'm glad I took the time to write that all up, because now I feel GREAT about all I accomplished last year. Sweet!!!

Here are my goals for next year:

Continue making Project Linus quilts, and attend as many monthly meetings as possible.
Lose the extra 15 (okay fine, 20!) pounds of "baby" weight I've been lugging around for the last 3 years. I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring since I was 6 months pregnant, and I miss it!!
Lose the frump. Working from home has made me so careless about my appearance. Time to update the wardrobe, get a haircut, get back to wearing a little makeup (at least on the weekends!).
Do better about replying to blog comments. I do appreciate every single one of them, I just generally suck at email!

Happy new year to everyone! Here's to a fabulous 2010!!

xmas crafts

2009-12-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

TGXIO! Thank goodness xmas is over! I'm looking forward to some non-stressful crafting, and getting a jump on NEXT year's gifts, because there were so many things I wanted to make and just didn't have time for. I'm also looking forward to seeing everyone else's "show and tells" about all the cool stuff they made, even though I'm sure it will make my project list even longer!!

Here's one project I'm so happy to cross off my list. I've been meaning to make some I-spy bags forEVER. I've been collecting little trinkets at garage sales for the last few years, and I think I even had all the other supplies last year, but I just never got around to making them. But this year was it - if I waited any longer, the kids would be too old to play with them!

This was one of those projects that didn't go very smoothly. I didn't follow a pattern, and I cut out the fabric for several bags all at once but messed up somehow and was short, hence the white strips (and what was I thinking to use white flannel for a non-washable kid's toy??). Then I sewed up the first one and realized it was way too big, so I had to trim the others, and probably would have had enough fabric if I'd only made them smaller to start with. Sigh. Anyway, I'm just glad it's done. Well, almost done. I made 3 (the wonky first one for my daughter, and two more for friends' kids), and have another one mostly done, and supplies to make 3 more. I'm planning to make up those other 3 in the next few days, before I have a chance to wimp out and let them sit for yet another year!

Here's my one other handmade gift - an apron for my grill-loving husband. I made this at the retreat in November. It's double-sided (with the yellow print on the back), with an extra layer of plain off-white cotton in the middle. I added the extra layer to make it even more sturdy, and to prevent the black from showing through on the lighter side. I'm happy to say he loved it!

8 bags completed!

2009-12-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like a deadline to keep me on track! I finished up my bags for the Sew Mama Sew Quilting For Peace Great Grocery Bag Sewoff, just in the nick of time. Yes, I know... they extended the deadline. But I just wanted to get these guys crossed off the list! And here they are. I even conquered my lazy nature and gave them pockets (one outside and one inside). The deal is still on - make some bags of your own (to give away or keep, either way!) using my tutorial, make a blog post about it, and I'll send you two of these. No deadline! :-)

swaddling blankets

2009-12-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

My stepsister had a baby girl a couple weeks ago, so I whipped up some swaddling blankets for her. They are definitely my favorite gift for a new baby - so easy to make, and so much more useful than the tiny receiving blankets that are sold in stores. I made one light one (single layer, with a narrow hem on all 4 sides), and one heavy one (double layer, just sewn and turned, with a slightly fancy top stitch). They're both about 40" (WOF) square.

On the right are what my husband and I call "arm bindings". I know it sounds a little barbaric, but if you have a baby that sleeps better swaddled but tends to wriggle out and wake themselves up, these things really help. We came up with them after our kid outgrew the one precious Miracle Blanket we owned (which I also highly recommend!). I loved our larger handmade swaddling blankets, but our little escape artist could wriggle out of even the tightest swaddle in no time! In desperation, I grabbed some scrap fabric and just cut out a rectangle, and placed it under her to function like the flaps of the miracle blanket had, and it worked! I quickly made some more, and we continued to use them for several more months. Ever since then, I've always made a couple to give along with swaddling blankets to our friends having babies. Last year, we sent this gift to some friends out of state, and since we couldn't demonstrate in person, my husband made this silly video to show them how it works. Please forgive the horrible fake Australian accent!

To make your own, cut a strip of fabric about 10" by 40", and finish on all four sides. You could even serge the edges instead of doing a normal hem. I always use flannel, but I'm sure other fabrics would work fine too (even jersey). If you're planning to use them right from birth, you might want to have some smaller ones too. They just need to be about 4 times as long as the baby is wide, and about as wide as the baby's arm.

Now if only there was something I could whip up to help a 3 year old sleep! Oh, I meant to mention - it's well past 10 days after her amoxycillin exposure, and she's totally fine. Phew! I'm so relieved! And my husband is so lucky! ;-)

tutorial: reusable grocery bags

2009-12-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

Hands-down, the favorite hand-made gift I've given to folks over the last few years has been reusable grocery bags. They are SO easy to make, and they're useful and good for the environment. And when I make them, they're also super frugal and doubly good for the environment, because I make them with (surprise!) thrifted linens! It's probably too late for last-minute gifts, but file this one away for next year, and start keeping your eye out for nice sheets (or my favorite - duvet covers with coordinating fabrics!).

Let me start off by saying this is not my original idea - I started with this tutorial on Craftster.org. But as I sweat-shopped DOZENS of these bags, I discovered several shortcuts that make things go faster. You know me, I'm an engineer at heart (aka: LAZY). If you're familiar with that tute, here's a summary of the changes I made:

I use a square "neck" and "armhole", to avoid clipping lots of curves (so tedious!)
I use a quick and dirty method to join the straps at the top
I do the side folds while the bag is inside out - so much easier! This means the french seam on the bottom is "backwards", but who cares.

So, to begin... To make 8 bags, find two sheets that are at least about 80" by 96" (or a duvet cover of that size). If you are using regular fabric, you'll need about 2/3 yard each of two fabrics (one for the outside, and one for the lining) for each bag. My cutting instructions will be for using sheets, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out for regular yardage too (you'll lay out the bag sideways instead of upright).

If you want to make your own pattern (instead of using my measurements), you'll also need an old plastic bag to cut open. I've heard that Target bags are slightly bigger than grocery bags, so that's what I used.

Use your bag template (adding seam allowances), or use the measurements I've provided below. Mine are slightly smaller than a Target bag, just because it fit better with the dimensions of the fabric I was using.

Like I said, I love to use duvet covers, because their fabric already coordinates! I got this one for about $7, and it will yield 8 bags. Sweet!

I cut the duvet cover apart, and then cut each "sheet" in half (just to make it easier to handle). Then I layered two coordinating half-sheets (right sides together) and then folded that in half length-wise.

Here's what it looks like before I start cutting the bags out. The fold is at the top, and there are 4 layers of fabric. The reason I arrange it like this before cutting is so that I don't have to pin anything when I start sewing (I'm lazy, remember?).

And here is a cutting diagram of how I cut four bags from each half:

Here is the bag all cut out. If you're careful when you're cutting out the inner section, you can save that to make pockets. Just sew up the sides (leaving some space to turn), turn it, and press. Don't sew the pockets on right away - we'll do that in another couple steps.

So, first step - sew all the "neck" and "arm hole" seams. As I mentioned, since I cut the fabric out already layered and right sides together, I don't worry about pinning. And if you're lazy like me, you can chain stitch all your bags at once - do all the necks, then all the left arm holes, then all the right arm holes. I chain stitch everything I can!

Then clip all the corners. If you want to add pockets, now is the time. You can add them to the outside or the inside (or both!). Just pin roughly in the middle (on the right side of the fabric!) and do a narrow top-stitch around three sides. For myself, I leave them off - I usually only use these for groceries, and those don't need pockets. But for gifts, you might want to add them.

Now, pay attention here. For each bag, turn ONE piece right-side out and press. Leave the other piece wrong-side out.

Take the piece that is wrong side out, and lift up the top layer of fabric.

Take the second piece (the one that is right side out and pressed), and stuff its straps inside the straps on the first piece.

When you do this, make sure the outer fabrics are facing each other, and the inner fabrics are facing each other.

Pull the straps all the way up until the edges are even. Hold the bag up by the straps and give it a little shake to get everything in place. Pin the ends of the straps.

Sew straight across both straps (chain stitch again!). After stitching, clip the corners a little bit to reduce the bulk.

Don't pull the straps out just yet. Just sort of unfold the sides to match up the outer fabrics and the inner fabrics. Start pinning at the center, in case your ends are uneven (like mine!). Sew along the sides with about a 1/4" seam (chain stitch!).

Press the side seams open, and then (finally!) turn everything right side out. The straps will be connected like magic! Yay! So easy, right? Press the remaining neck and arm hole edges. When you're done, the lining fabric should be on the outside. Lay the bag out, and trim the ends if they need it. Then fold one edge over about 3" (just eyeball it), and pin. I usually do this at the ironing board, and I give it a quick little press too.

Flip the whole bag over, and fold the other side down about the same amount. Press (if you want) and pin.

This is what it should look like from the bottom. Folding to opposite sides eliminates the bulk that would build up in the middle if you were to fold them both to the same side.

Then, just sew across the bottom with a 1/4" seam (if you already trimmed the edge). Or, sew across with a 1/2" seam, and trim it down to 1/4". Chain stitch! :-)

Turn the bag right side out, and press the bottom (or not, if you're lazy like me). Then sew again about 1/2" away (yes, chain stitch!), creating your french seam. You're almost done!

Now, do a narrow top-stitch around all the neck holes and arm holes. Yes, I chain stitch these too - do all the necks, then all the left arms, then all the right arms. If you're pressed for time, you can ignore the arm holes - they'll be inside the side folds anyway, so you won't see them much.

Finally, fold the straps in half, and stitch across "in the ditch" (as close to the seam as you can).

Give the bag a little final press, and you're all done! Yippee!!!

Whew! Writing tutorials is hard work!! It is way past my bedtime now. I hope that all is clear. If not, please let me know!

And finally... Did you see that Sew Mama Sew is having a Grocery Bag Sew Off? I've signed up, and I'm hopefully going to finish up at least these 8 bags, and maybe more. Sadly, I've already given bags to every friend and family member I have! So, how about this - if you use this tute to make some bags, and blog about it, let me know, and I'll send you two of these bags. How cool is that - make some for gifts, and get some free ones for yourself! It's kind of like a grocery bag "pay it forward" scheme! The offer stands as long as I've got bags to give away, so get sewing!

good news, bad news...

2009-12-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

First the good news - my second winner is #23 - Beth of Needles, Threads and Crafts, who requested squares. Yay! I was curious about what was more popular, so I tallied the votes - it was 18 for FQs and 15 for Squares (and a few with no preference). So there you go! I'm excited about setting up some swaps, and will be following up with the folks who said they'd be interested after the holidays.

Now the bad news.... all those wonderful awesomeness points my husband earned with that fantastic cake last week? Totally wiped out by his failure to remember that our daughter is allergic to penicillin when asked by the doctor! It wasn't caught by the doctor, who prescribed Amoxycillin for an ear infection, or the pharmacist who dispensed it, or the mama who gave her two doses of it (even celebrating that she was SOOOOO crafty about using pink food color to trick her into taking the "yucky" medicine) before she actually read the label. Luckily, her allergy is not the anaphylactic type, but a serum sickness type of reaction - just a delayed but really nasty rash (that last link is to some photos of her last episode - poor girlie!). She's fine right now, but the previous reactions she had to Amoxycillin only started a full 10 days after taking it, so we'll wait and see.... Ug.

Anyway, on to happier subjects.... I whipped up a little paper garland for the tree this week. Here's a link to a tutorial that's similar. I used three different punches - a 2" scalloped circle, and 1.5" and 1" plain circles. I think I used about 14 sheets of 12" scrapbooking paper, and it made a pretty long garland. My paper was only single-sided, so I paired up the pieces (just using a dab of glue stick, letting it dry overnight) before chaining them together with the sewing machine. Super quick and easy! And cute on the tree!

I went to my Project Linus meeting last Sunday, and volunteered to bring home a couple quilts that needed binding. This scottie dog one has a wavy edge, and I thought I might be able to use the extra binding I had made from that challenge fabric, which has lycra in it. But the stretch is cross-wise instead of length-wise, so I don't think it would work very well. The chapter coordinator suggested I just trim it straight, and I think that's what I'll do.

I love the simple design on this next one. I think I'll jot down the measurements and try it myself someday!

dessert! (and... how about another chance to win?)

2009-12-08T17:08:00.000-08:00

Now that all the dust has settled from the SMS giveaway day, I'd like to reward all you awesome peeps who are still hanging around. So, how about another chance for the same loot? Just leave me another comment saying "squares!" or "FQs!". I'll make this one quick, and pick a number on Thursday evening, so I can hopefully get it in the mail on Friday.

And I just wanted to say, in case anyone else is wondering but hasn't asked, I'm definitely up for swapping (or selling, I suppose) if you don't win and are just dying to get your hands on some of these vintage linens. I have way more than I'll ever sew up, and would love to share them. It would make me AND my husband feel better. :-)

Speaking of my husband, check out the awesome cake he made me for my birthday! It's the triple chocolate mousse cake from last month's Cook's Illustrated. Absolutely decadent!!

I hate to admit it, but he's such a better cook than me. I think it's because he actually follows the instructions. Me, I just wing it. Take my latest loaf of pumpkin bread - I couldn't find my normal recipe, so I just used a banana bread recipe and swapped pumpkin for bananas, and threw in some cinnamon. Um, yeah. It's edible, but requires a liberal application of honey!

winner!

2009-12-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here's my favorite part of giveaway day! My lucky winner is #97, sb, of the blog that might be called Bigg Knits, or Random McRandompants, or [insert title here]. Hard to tell. :-) She wrote:

97. sb said...

I love FQs - they give so many options! In particular, those of the green/blue colorways. :)

December 2, 2009 10:39 AM

And this is what she'll be getting:

That's 11 FQs of pure vintage loveliness - one of every purely blue/green print that I have!

And wow, what a week! 521 entries! I'm excited that there are so many other crafty folks out there who like to work with vintage linens too. I replied to every reply-able comment I received (411!). Even after my nagging, there were still 110 of the dreaded "noreply-comment" folks. But I did have quite a few who mentioned that they changed their settings, so that's progress. :-)

Thanks again everyone for entering, and for all the other folks having giveaways!

Happy giveaway day!

2009-12-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

It's time to celebrate - I'm pretty much over the flu, yesterday was my birthday, and today is the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day! Yay!

So, what's up for grabs over here? Well, I love to quilt with vintage linens, and boy do I have more than enough to share! I'm giving away your choice - either a set of FQs (however many I can cram into a flat rate envelope, and you can even suggest a color scheme)....

OR... a set of 140 or so 6" squares, all different.

So, you just have to ask yourself - do you feel like making a fun patchwork?

Or do you feel like making something more fancy with a set of FQs? What's your pleasure? Just leave me a comment, and let me know! International folks are welcome. I'll pick a winner randomly on the morning of Dec. 7.

[Edited to add - I already have SO many comments from people with no contact info! Please, people, I'm begging you - go here to learn how to change your settings. Even if you think your settings are correct - if you've never had an email response to one of your comments, GO CHECK them! Otherwise, ALL your entries are just a big fat waste of your time!!]

Thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting the event - have fun checking out all the other giveaways!

I-Spy swap

2009-11-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

Karen from Sew Many Ways hosted an I-Spy swap a while back, and I was so excited to get my bundle of squares in the mail. They're all so great, and will make a wonderful I-Spy quilt!

Not only did Karen host an excellent swap, she also sent a little gift in each swapper's return package. I have no idea where she found the time, but it was such a delightful surprise! I recognized the I-bolt sewing necklace from one of the many clever ideas from her Tool Time Tuesday posts, which I always look forward to reading. Thank you so much, Karen!

Are you guys all getting excited about the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day on Wednesday? I sure am. I may or may not be giving away some vintage linens - you'll just have to come back to find out. I just wish I could take the day off from work to visit all the other blogs to sign up for all the other giveaways!

Oh, and I almost forgot about the notebook cover giveaway! The lucky winner is #1 - Leslie of Fluff & Nonsense!! Yay! She already posted her awesome SMS giveaway - a layer cake of Wonderland by Momo. Go enter!

In other, less pleasant, news... I seem to have caught the flu. I don't know if it's THAT flu, because I don't feel that bad. Just off-and-on chills, aches, low fever and fatigue. You know, not horrible, but enough to keep me from doing anything productive, which sucks extra bad on a holiday weekend. All that free time - wasted!! Still, I'm counting my blessings that I don't feel worse - maybe all my years of getting flu shots have helped some. (Except for this year, due to the short supply - how ironic!) Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed (and my hands washed) that my husband and daughter don't catch it... At least they both had their shots this year (the seasonal one anyway). Knock on wood and all that.

Christmas ornaments

2009-11-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

And now, on to the Christmas crafts! On a whim, I signed up for the FreshlyBlended annual ornament swap on Swap-bot. We have to send an ornament to 10 different people around the world. My partners are mostly in the states, but I did get 3 internationals - South Africa, England and Canada. Cool!

I was inspired by this ribbon ornament tutorial from 7 Layer Studio, and I knew I had all the basic supplies on hand (tons of ribbon - check! tons of scrapbooking paper - check!). I wanted to use something a little more fancy for the center, and I remembered these little organza flowers I had bought for my wedding (and never used - ha!). I sewed the velvet ribbons together by hand, but used the glue gun for the rest of the assembly.

They went together very quickly, but I still thought they looked a little blah.

So, I added some inking around the edges of the circles (just rubbing them with a small ink pad), and tiny dots of iridescent glitter in the scallops. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's there. :-)

Now I've just got to get busy packaging them up. That will take me as long as making the ornaments!

paper leaves swag

2009-11-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a little Thanksgiving paper craft I did with my daughter last week...

I searched online for coloring pages of leaves and an acorn, and printed out some simple ones of similar scale. I taped them to some chipboard (just old cereal boxes), and cut around the pictures to make templates.

I picked out some fall-themed scrapbooking paper, and used the templates to trace the shapes onto the back, and cut them out.

Then the fun and messy part! I outlined the leaf shapes with a thin line of glue, and let Vada apply the glitter. It was a huge mess, and the house was sparkly for days!

Once the glitter was dry, I used an exacto knife to cut two small slits on the back of each shape. I used a tapestry needle to thread the shapes onto some narrow ribbon, which I had cut to the approximate length I wanted.

I made three separate pieces - one to go across, and two to hang down on the sides. I tried loops on the ends, and hung them from stocking holders on the fireplace. Voila!

When I put it up again next year, I might add some ribbons to the top part, to fill in the bare spots between the leaves.

felted sweater tree decorations

2009-11-27T05:43:00.000-08:00

I haven't been getting too much sewing done, but I've been keeping my hands busing doing some crafty decorating. First up - remember this teeny tiny felted sweater?

It did indeed supply enough material to try this project. The trees were strangely addictive! I made the biggest two first, and then just kept at it until I had absolutely nothing left but a pile of tiny scraps. I didn't have any beads, so I used pompoms for the tops. I think they turned out pretty cute! They range in size from 7" to 2" high.

notebook covers - done!

2009-11-25T18:02:00.000-08:00

I've been busily crafting all week, but it's a bunch of small projects all being done in parallel, so no grand finishes. I did finish up all my notebook covers a few days ago, after getting my order of pens in the mail (these Zebra Sasara gel pens are my favorite). Now they're all labeled for their intended recipients, and ready to be wrapped. Yay!

Of course, right after I finished hand-stitching all the openings, I saw this Moda Bakeshop tutorial. Their instructions made me realize that a small modification would have enabled me to eliminate the opening for turning, so no hand-sewing would be needed. Grrrrr... the engineer in me is annoyed! I'm thinking about revising my tutorial post to include the easier way of doing it.

Anyway... Remember my attempt #2 journal cover? I finally sewed the button on it. :-)

And it's up for grabs. Anybody want it? Yes, the journal is included! Leave me a comment - if there's more than one, I'll pick a number on Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

bag dispenser - yet another tutorial

2009-11-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'm probably the last person in blogland to make a grocery bag dispenser. Actually, mine will be used to hold old newspaper bags (re-used for walking the dog), but same diff. I've had this on my list of things to do forever, and I finally whipped one up last night. It took me an hour, max. It's nothing fancy, but it'll be tucked away in a closet, so who cares. I loosely based this on the Make It and Love It tutorial, but added lining and made it more quick-and-dirty (just how I like my projects!). Here's how I did it:

Materials:

Two pieces of fabric, about 20" x 25". (It turned out pretty big, so I bet even two FQs would work fine).
Two pieces of 1/4" wide elastic, one about 12", one about 7".
One piece of 1" wide ribbon.

I used a vintage bee fabric, which is a little heavier weight than normal quilting cotton. For the lining, I used some random light pink oxford cloth I had in my "yucky fabric" bin. :-)

Put right sides together and sew both short sides with a 1/4 " seam.

Turn it right side out, and iron the seam.

On both edges, edge stitch close to the seam, and then again about 3/8" away from the edge-stitching, to make a casing for the elastic. On each end, insert the elastic into the casing, and sew down the elastic at both openings. If you have directional fabric, the longer piece of elastic goes at the top, and the shorter piece goes at the bottom.

Next I did a french seam for the sides. Pin the side edges together, right sides out, and stitch a 1/4" seam.

If I was smart, I would have trimmed the loose threads hanging off the edges before I did the next step. But no, I was lazy, as usual. Turn the thing inside-out, finger press the seam, and sew again about 1/2" away from the edge to make your french seam.

Turn right side out. Since was lazy, I had a bunch of loose threads caught in the seam that I had to clip away. Oh well.

Fold over the edges of the ribbon by about 1/2", and stitch to the side of the bag near the top (where the larger piece of elastic is).

And there you go! Stuff with bags and hang in the closet. Enjoy a ever-so-slightly more organized house!

Give three kids a quilt

2009-11-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Rachel recently put out a call for quilts, and you know what a sucker I am for a good cause! This one is especially up my alley because the donation area is my old 'hood (Washington County, Oregon), and it's for young kids (and I happen to have a ton of novelty fabric). And most importantly, Rachel is happy to receive just tops and will quilt them up herself. Perfect!

I went back to my old favorite the Quick Strippie, and made three identical tops. It was a perfect pattern for these coordinating fabrics, because I had exactly enough of both prints, with just a bit left over. I also love that it's pretty gender-neutral.

Did you notice that it's another cat fabric? Yep, 5 yards down, and only about {mumble mumble couple hundred} left to go....

I suppose now is a good time to finally tell my "Best Estate Sale Ever" story.... So, last year, there was a Craigslist ad for a "quilter's dream estate sale", and it really was (for me, anyway - for other folks, it might be more like a nightmare!). I'm pretty sure the owner was one of those stereotypical crazy cat ladies - the proceeds for the sale were going to an animal shelter, all the carpet in the house was ripped out, and there were boxes upon boxes of brand new items (clothing, books and fabric) everywhere. I'm talking unopened boxes from Hancocks of Paducah! All the fabric was $1 per cut (ANY length!). I wound up buying about 300 yards of fabric for about $150. Before you get all jealous, you should know that this was mostly novelty fabrics, and mostly cat fabrics. I didn't get to the sale until nearly the end of the first day, and I still wonder about what I missed (greedy, I know!). Still, for me, it was perfect - I love to sew charity quilts, and this fabric will keep me supplied for a long, long, LONG time. And I hope the previous owner would appreciate that it's going to a good cause. Maybe not directly to the animals, but hopefully to the next generation of animal lovers.