Wordless Wednesday

Thea’s Puzzle – A Quilt & Pillow for Deborah

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I have been horribly absent from blogging.  All of you who work outside the home, keep the home fires burning, sew, craft AND keep your blogs current – my hat’s off to you.  I have been quite busy sewing however.  Pictured here is a gift that’s been a long time in the making.  Let’s talk about  color.

Almost a year ago, my very dear friend Deborah requested that I make her a lap quilt, for her bedroom.  Looking through her room, I noticed a hydrangea print and a gray bedspread.  Purple was going to play a big role in the quilt.  I’m really not a purple person and figuring out the design was going to be a challenge for me.  I first started with squares – my favorite.  It didn’t seem organic enough.  I started again with some free-form piecing.  It seemed really wrong.

Third time’s the charm right?  I came upon this great pattern on Amy Butler’s website.  It’s a free pattern to download and I think the only time I’ve ever followed a pattern without changing it.  I am really happy how it worked up and I enjoyed all the different colors of lavender and dusty shades of lilac.  I only used 2 prints and the rest were my favorite solids, kona cotton.  Then some minimal zig zag quilting and a gray binding and I was finally able to give it to her.  I also made this little pillow…

Tied up with a vintage button – I finished the gift in just under a year after she asked for it.  ACK!  That’s not exactly fast, but better late than never, right???

I Heart My Girls

I needed a small break from all of the Hope Valley blocks I’ve been making.  However, finding time to sew and quilt is escaping me more and more.  I haven’t talked about it here, but I spend most days working here. I know!  How lucky am I!?  Gone is my life of large blocks of time for fabric play, but also less time with these two monkeys -

So, when I do find myself with a bit of time ( at 10 o’clock p.m. or so…) I make these two soft things for their red, pink and aqua room.  Lately, pillows and pillowcases.  Pictured above are pillows that will eventually match a quilt that will be made thanks to my girls over at the snip.sew.send quilting bee.  I’ve been hoarding saving up all sorts of girly fabrics such as the ones pictured above, namely some great Japanese fabrics like the kerchief girl, Kei polka dots and the one on the right, a sweet print from Megumi Sakakibara. These fabrics are mixed in with a few Nicey Jane prints from Heather Bailey and some Kona cotton solids.

I am loving the giant ric rac lately and used it here to edge the pillows.  Pay no attention to the unmade bed!

Also adorning the girls’ room and adding to the overall scheme of things is this little gem -

Isn’t it a beauty?  I was the lucky recipient of this curvalicious mini quilt from Sam who got my name for the fabulous DQS8 flickr swap.  She had taken inspiration from Jean Wells and learned curved piecing.  It translates beautifully here and I am so excited to add it to the girls’ room.  Thank you Sam!  We love it!

And lastly, I found this sheet of wrapping paper at our local bookshop.  I squealed quietly to myself while I snapped it up and brought it home.  I found a spare Ikea frame hanging around and in no time I had yet one more bit of red, pink and aqua…and it even looks like Japanese fabric.

And if that weren’t enough, I was inspired by the ever-creative and prolific Ashley from Film in the Fridge and her Pretty Quick Pillowcase Tutorial.  I wanted to make pillowcases for the girls out of some Heather Ross cottons because they are sooo incredibly soft.  With this tutorial, I had these made from cutting to on their bed in about an hour.

For a quilter, to have something made from start to finish in one sitting is incredibly satisfying.  I absolutely loved making all of these pillows and I’m planning more in the future.

Coincidence? Or, Divine Intervention…

So, it all started out innocently enough.  I was excited!   I made  the big executive decision to merge the girls’ things into one room.  Here’s why: they sleep together anyway and they hardly use the other as a playroom. 

I wickedly and swiftly had my own sewing room.  I cannot show you pictures yet because it is still quite messy and I wouldn’t want to confuse you all with imperfection.  (HA!)  So, after the machine had been moved in, and I figured out storage, and the like, it came time to decorate a bit.  I’d had this cheater print from Denyse Schmidt for awhile and didn’t have any grand plans for it and so this is what has become of it. I cut three squares and stretched them over a canvas frame from the art supply store.  I love them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I had a fair amount left over. I thought that the nice home dec weight of the canvas, and those lovely, wacky squares would turn into a nice bag or tote. So, I started to make one and here’s what we have so far….

I’m pretty excited about making a bag out of this.  I’m using Peltex fusible stabilizer so it will be extra boxy and have firm sides, which I like.  And, what’s the big deal about making a bag out of this?  Well, it’s not.  Except, a few mornings later, I opened up my Denyse Schmidt newsletter email to find this.

Hmmm.  Interesting.  County Fair fabrics are in the air I suppose.  Well, they were.  Literally. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fastforward a few days and what comes in the mail for me?  My DQS7 quilt from my partner.  It was her first step into the quilting world and I think she made a great, sweet quilt.  Uh…notice a theme here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And not only did she make this, but she sent leftover stash…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it.  Do things really happen in threes?  I say yes.

A Wee Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This was a quick and sweet project for my swap partner who shall remain nameless until she receives it in the mail.   I wanted to make a graphic quilt that used bold color.  I have triangles on my mind lately and what better use of quarter sqare triangles than for a tiny quilt like this?  It measres 13×18 and I’m very happy to send this out in the mail all wrapped up in a hand-embellished tea towel.  Every tea towel should have pom poms.  Riight??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re interested in joining in on all the fun, there’s a doll quilt swap group at flickr.  Next round will most likely be after the holidays, but why not join now and see all the lovely quilts being shipped and swapped all over the world!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

May Giveaway Day! Sew Mama Sew!!

Comments are now closed.  The winner of the fat quarters and the book is #359 (picked by the random integer generator) So, Kelly Jo of knit. Frog. Repeat – you are the winner!

It’s pracitally a holiday.  Hundreds of blogs are participating in the fabulous Sew Mama Sew givewaway day and I’m in on the action too.  Up for grabs are three fat quarters from one of my favorite new lines, Wonderland as well as the lovely book Stitched In Time by Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy. 

The giveaway is open until the 31st, lots of time to enter.  It couldn’t be easier….leave me a comment and I’ll draw a winner at random.  Don’t rush off to enter somewhere else though. – tell me what you’re working on, what fabric you just bought or your favorite quilt pattern.  Something.  A friendly hello will do too   Good luck to everyone, and if this is your first visit here…welcome.

Swell Squares – finally done.

On the bed and all quilty and crinkley.

All my leftover fabrics went into the backing giving me two quilts in one.

A close-up of the quilting and binding. 

Work is piling up on my sewing table.  I have two blocks to make for this months designers in my quilting bee.  I have to make a backing for my ‘Any way you slice it’ quilt, which I completely made into a minimalist style.  Coming up, I have to make a quilt for Suzannah’s school auction, start a special quilt for someone dear to me and I really want to make a quilt like Erin’s, based on Amanda Jean’s Flea Market Fancy quilt. I really like how Erin used that dark grey with the white and those Amy Butler Fabrics.   Then, I need to decide what to do with this pattern… and what to do with this bundle of beauties.

A Wee Quilt

Oh, I couldn’t really resist the chance to join in, it’s such a fun group of talented crafters.  So…I joined.  I’m in a swap!  Lookie over there on the right at the DQS6 button.  It’s the 6th round of a doll quilt swap. 

After looking at my swap partner’s blog, and reading about what fabrics she loves, I dove into my ‘Darla’ stash and started in on my favorite part.  I quickly made a pillow out of ticking and then quickly followed with a pillowcase.   While I was making these little lovlies, I was thinking about what design I should make for the doll quilt.  I kept thinking of triangles.  I hadn’t attempted triangles until now and I knew this was just the project to do them.  Then, I remembered a recent purchase from my LQS, bought on impulse because someone in line in front of me was going on and on about them and how they make triangles so accurately, quickly and easily.   Sign me up!  They’re called ‘Thangles’.  Strips of printed half square triangles let you make 20 or so squares in about 10 minutes.  So, as I was doing my second round of Thangles squares, I thought I’d make a little tutorial for you, even though they are incredibly easy. 

Take two strips of fabric and put right sides together.  There are many sizes of widths of Thangles, the one I have is for 2 1/2 inch strips.  (Perfect for Jelly Rolls by the way…)

Then, sew along the dotted lines, on either side of the solid line, two per square.

Using your everyday crafting scissors (and not your best sewing shears since you are cutting through paper) cut on the solid line.

One side will already be without a dog ear, trim the other side so that it looks the same.

Next, tear away the paper.

Open up and there you have it! 

They are just as the woman told me – quick and accurate.  Now…go rock your own Thangles.

How About A Little Giveaway?

Edited to say that although I cannot figure out how to get a page capture from the random integer generator, number 38 is our winner!  So Nancy, from the blog Random, please send me an email so I can send these off to you.

Having gone through every single fabric in my sewing area, I came across these fabrics leftover from making this quilt.  I very much want to pass on what I have left to someone who wants them.  They are from Moda’s extensive Charisma fabrics.  This is a pretty hefty stack of four different prints and certainly enough for a lap quilt if you added in some sashing or solids.  To enter, leave a comment and tell me about a line of fabric that you are currently interested in.

Fun and Strange

This month, we are sewing squares with Emily the Strange fabrics.  March has two of our members taking their turns as designer.  Viv from Highway Cottage sent these fabrics along with full license to do with them what we pleased. How fun is that?? Here’s the square that I made, adding along with the fabrics she sent, the Japanese pear fabric that has French writing.

Here’s a close-up of Emily-

I put her on with fusible web, and I’m going to hand stitch around the edges, maybe in Red. Not sure…but I love how it turned out.

I think in a day or two, I’ll be getting Nettie’s frabrics. Woot!