interpreting shapes

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started up on this baby again. I finished the straight lines a few months ago, and it has been lingering.

don't even know what i was afraid of

maybe that it's addicting? I may want to start hand quilting everything.

insomnia

I work nights. This means I don't really have to wake up before 2 p.m. on any given day. (I try to wake up before noon, though!) I get home from work around midnight, and I'm usually up until around 3 or 4 a.m. Lately, though, I've been unable to fall asleep until 6 a.m. or later.

I made this little birdie using the Sublime Stitching Kurt Halsey transfer and the floss Candi sent me. I think I'm going to add a few little details (maybe some of the stars from the pattern sheet?) and hang the hoop on the wall somewhere. I need to go to Jo-Ann's to get a bunch of cheap wooden hoops, so my walls can look like Heather's.

I'm planning to quilt this sucker today (or at least get the process started)

I keep going back and forth on whether to echo the diamond shapes (which would take longer and mean I have to go back and hide a million thread tails later), or just do organic, straight-line quilting (which I think would look awesome with the vertical print I'm using for the back). Thoughts?

the quilt that kept me away from the blog

This quilt was a lot of "firsts" for me.

First time using only solid fabrics (Kona's Poseidon bundle and Burgundy yardage for the back/binding).

First time sewing curved/wavy seams. (I used Kathy's tutorial and my Curve Master presser foot.)

First time overdoing the basting process. I spent more than three hours basting and less than an hour and a half quilting.

First time I couldn't blog my progress, 'cause this one was top secret.

First quilt for my little brother.

Garden Windows — completed!

I actually finished the Garden Windows quilt a few weeks ago, but there was a delay in uploading photos. So let's just get to it:

I followed this tutorial on the Burgundy Buttons blog. I used a layer cake of Glam Garden by Josephine Kimberling and yardage of Kona Hibiscus.

I really like the look of the purple sashing, but I wish I had gone a shade or two darker to make the prints pop a bit more.

For the back, I used the leftover layer cake pieces, placing them on point down the center:

The quilting is a little easier to see from the back. I just did straight lines down all of the sashing, extending the lines into the border. I got a few puckers, because (irony of ironies) I didn't get my walking foot until the weekend I had to have this completed. This quilt was a birthday gift for my mom, and we celebrated our birthdays in Austin the same weekend (since they're less than two weeks apart). I'll update later this week and show you some goodies I got for my birthday, and a few pictures and goodies from the Austin Quilt Show.

I may have forgotten to mention...

...that (after many struggles attaching the binding) I finished my hexagon quilt last week!

(Thanks to my lovely roommate for helping me take pictures!)

I quilted it with zig-zags following the horizontal rows of hexagons. I used a variegated thread that picked up all the bold, beautiful colors. I like the finished effect, but it was really hard to keep the tension consistent, especially around seams. I don't know if I'll be using variegated thread again any time soon...



I really like the back. I used some of my leftover hexagon pieces and solids to piece it. Now all I need to do is make a label! Where do you put the label when the quilt doesn't necessarily have a top or bottom?

Oh, and my inside corner binding tutorial is in the works for y'all. It should be up sometime tomorrow!

Back from my deathbed

OK, that's a little dramatic. I was by no means on the brink of death, but I was holed up in my apartment with chicken soup and water for days this week. I woke up Tuesday morning with a 101.5° fever! I chalked it up to a summer cold, called in to work, took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep. A few days later I broke down and went to the doctor, and I'm glad I did. It cost me an arm and a leg (oh health insurance, how I miss you...) but I got antibiotics, and I'm all better now!

And since I'm all better, I finally got to take the mystery wall-hanging to its new home! It's a housewarming gift for my friend Erika and her husband, who recently bought their first house. (Erika, you'll have to send me pictures when it's hung up!) Since the gift has been gifted, it is no longer a mystery:

I wanted a way to let the text prints shine (and be legible), so I made them the center of some star blocks. The windowpane border is a print from the Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope collection that I picked up at my LQS. I've been using it a lot lately (in my purse and some bee blocks), I need to see if I can pick up some more before its gone.

To keep the outer border of 4½" squares a little more interesting, I quilted stars echoing the shape of the stars in the center blocks. I used a programmed stitch on my machine in the center of each windowpane strip.

After mapping it all out, but before I started cutting, I made a tester block out of some charm squares that wouldn't make it into the top (front?) of the wall-hanging. After leaving it on my "design wall" for a few weeks, I decided it would make a perfect label (but evidently I didn't decide to take pictures of it!). The rest of the back is simple muslin. I made a sleeve and added loops with embroidery thread so they could decide how they wanted to hang it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even though I think I stretched the backing a bit when I basted it.

I was hoping to post some progress in the Hexagon Quilt Along, but I don't have any pictures to show yet. Before I got sick, I finished quilting it (I took the easy way out, but I still like the effect), and on Friday I sewed the binding to the front. I intended to hand-stitch the binding down last night, but those inside corners really threw me for a loop, so I put it away. I'm determined to finish it, as well as my August blocks for the Bee in my Bonnet, before I start cutting into this:

How are you motivating yourself to finish projects this week?

Crafty A.D.D.

I feel like I've had crafty A.D.D. lately. I get to a mid-point with a project and then just completely switch gears! Does this happen to you? I was so psyched about my hexagon QAL quilt, but I keep finding ways to put off basting and quilting it. Though I did finish one of my distraction-projects last night:

This started a week or so ago. I came home from work one night and thought "I finally want to do something with that cute robot fat quarter I won a while back." So I started putting together a haphazard log cabin block. (Side note, I think I'm liking "haphazard" better than "wonky." Thoughts?) I was planning to make a small wall hanging, but then I remembered I had a naked pillow form in my closet, and it just grew from there.

Here's a close-up of the quilting. It took a while, but I really like the effect. I just quilted straight lines within each "log." And since it's a pillowcase, I didn't have to hide the thread ends, I just pulled them to the back, tied them off and trimmed them. Gotta love that!

I was walking home from work last night and the craziest thought popped into my head: "I'm craving a jelly roll." For those non-quilters reading, no I was not craving a pastry. I was craving a lovely roll-up of 42 2½"x44" strips of beautiful fabric. I think a huge part of the reason is that I kept coming back to stare at this beautiful patchwork table covering that Aneela at Comfort Stitching made with just a jelly roll and some background fabric.

I ended up ordering a Fandango jelly roll from Piece N Quilt. Natalia is de-stashing and has a few bundles of 10 fat quarters that she's selling for only $15 (that's only $6/yard)! I had to pick up one of those, too, of course!

So no more shopping for me for a while, but at least I have a billion projects to work on in the mean time. I just need to work up the motivation to quilt some stuff that's already pieced. The quilting is definitely one of my least-favorite parts of the process. Encouragement in the comments is always greatly appreciated :) How do you power through your least favorite part of the process?

A purse — finally!

I came home from work the other night determined to cross something off my list that's been on there for months: a new purse. I've been carrying a ratty, not too pretty, purse that I got for my vacation last October only because it had a lot of pockets and an adjustable strap I could wear messenger-style (so much safer when traveling). It had seen better days. I found this too-cute pattern on the IS•LY blog, and decided to give it a shot. This is what I wound up with:

Let me first say, the pattern is mostly a set of templates. The instructions are definitely written for seasoned bag-makers. If you want to try making a purse for the first time, spend the money on a pattern with detailed instructions — Amy Butler has some good ones.

I decided to alter this pattern quite a bit by adding interfacing and batting. For the main outer shell, I layered the fabric, interfacing (Pellon 40 I think), batting, and more interfacing. That made the pleats a little tricky to sew together, and I'm still not 100% happy with how the bottom pleats turned out, but I think that's just in my head. I really like the look the quilting gives the bag. I was a little apprehensive and the only reason I actually went through with it is that I wanted something a bit sturdy. I went with straight-line, "organic" quilting, because I knew I wouldn't be able to get the lines all straight and evenly spaced. I eye-balled a line down the center of each piece, then went out from there.

Oh, and the inside, of course:

I think I may go back and add a button and some elastic across the top to keep it closed. Now that I have all my stuff in it, it keeps popping open. As cute as the lining is, I don't want everyone to see that far in my purse!

In other news, Amy over at Amy's Creative Side is motivating people to finish one thing in one week. The week for this challenge ends on Tuesday, July 27.



I'm aiming to finish the Pure wall-hanging. What do you want to have done in a week?

I'm on a half-square-triangle kick

I always like to pile teeny scraps like these on my cutting mat and fluff them up before they go in the sewing trash. They look so perky and pretty, it's a shame there's next to nothing to be done with them.

Those scraps are from trimming my HSTs for the wall hanging I'm working on. I've tried three methods of sewing triangles:

• cutting triangles out of fabric and piecing on the bias
• adding 7/8" onto the finished size and sewing either side of a diagonal line before cutting down the bias
• cutting squares a little big and trimming them down once they're sewed into half-square triangles

I have to say that this last method is by far my favorite. I don't know about you, but I struggle with sewing on the bias — heck sometimes I have a hard time sewing a straight seam on two squares! Perfect HSTs have such an amazing look once they're sewn together, it's worth the extra time to trim them down later.

Today, I spent hours cutting 2½" squares, tracing a diagonal line down the middle, chain-piecing them together (a technique that actually saves time and helps keep your thread from getting tangled!), and then cutting the finished squares down to 2". Yes, that's a lot of time to spend with the rotary cutter, and yes I know how to do the math so I don't have to trim down later, but wow does it have an impact. I can't tell you how many seams I've ripped or points I've lost using the add 7/8" method. After trimming, I have neat stacks of 2" HSTs sitting on my cutting table waiting to be made into potholders:

SO worth it! I know Father's Day was yesterday, but I just started making these for my dad today because I'm going to visit my parents later this week.

I quilted my wall hanging yesterday, but took a break from it today, because I'm not sure if I'm happy with the quilting...

I messed with the contrast some in the photo so I think the quilting is actually more visible there than in person. I used a high-loft batting that I had lying around the house, but the quilting isn't "popping" the way I wanted. A part of me wants to fill it in some more, but I can't really figure out where or how... The only part I really like is the middle:

I got some great advice on wall-hanging-sleeves and getting that crafty mojo back from my last post, so I really want to know what you guys think on this issue: Do you think it needs more quilting — different quilting? A part of me wants to rip out the quilting except for the very center and start over, but I hate ripping stitches! What would you do?

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Whirlygigs!

I'm back after a long (almost two weeks!) absence. I've been trucking away on my Whirlygigs. I finished the quilting during the Friday Night Sew-In but didn't post Saturday, because I wanted to show the finished product, so here it is!

This is my quilt for Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. This quilt is special to me because I made it just for me! It's the perfect sitting on the couch quilt, and it's a fun design I had been wanting to try out. I started this quilt about two months ago, and it sat on a shelf for a long time while I was distracted with other projects. One of the main reason this project was shelved for so long is that I was rather frustrated when I failed to include the seam allowance in the width of the strips I cut for the sashing. Rather than toss the strips and start over, I decided to run with it, and I'm so happy with how it turned out! I think "fudging it" is part of the beauty of quilting, you can break the so-called rules and still wind up with a fantastic finished product!

I especially like the back of this quilt. I used my few remaining charm squares to make some 4" square whirlygigs (the ones on the front are 8" square) and bordered them in ½" of the pink Minny Miu border print. All it needs now is a label...

I also learned that straight-line quilting is sooooo much quicker and less stressful! I used a programmed stitch on my machine through the center of the sashing. Then I just stitched straight lines a quarter inch away from the outlines of my whirlygigs to make them pop a little.

The biggest achievement for me, though, was the binding. I've been wanting to do a striped bias binding for a while, so I found some pretty yellow 100% seersucker at Jo-Ann. The achievement is that this is my first quilt with hand-stitched binding! I finally broke down and gave it a shot. I used Amy's fabulous tutorial, and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. My favorite part about hand-stitching the binding is that I can include some extra batting in there (I trimmed a half inch away from the stitching instead of a quarter), so the binding is nice and puffy, not flat.

I've really enjoyed reading the posts so far in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, and can't wait to read more. As I write this, there are more than 500 participants! Please click the button up top and check them out!

birthday presents and a question

I know I wasn't supposed to add anything to my plate, but I had to make a couple of quick Make Life birthday presents this past week. Now that they have each been gifted, I can show you all!

This is a reporter's notebook cover I made for my friend Patrick using a couple of the solid squares from my Make Life layer cake. It turned out a bit dorkier than it had looked in my head, but he still liked it. I'm pretty proud of myself for engineering the pockets and pen slot without following any instructions.

This is a quick Make Life makeup bag, using only two layer cake pieces, some batting, and a zipper. I just made it up as I went, and I could only find a 7" zipper, so the edges on either side of the zipper are a little funky.

I'm gonna toot my own horn here and brag on my free-motion quilting. I'm getting more confident with it, but only on small projects. I basted it with Wonder Under, since it was pretty small, and it was so much easier to quilt without having pins in the way, and it didn't shift one little bit.

Oh, yes, I have a very important question for you guys... I'm going to finish quilting Happy Campers today, and hopefully be able to get the binding at least half-way done. I was planning to appliqué the words "HAPPY CAMPERS" on the back after I quilted it, and hand-stitch the edges down so that you can't see the stitching through the front of the quilt. However, I'm getting a bit worried about time. I have to have this thing completely done, washed, wrapped up and ready to go see my dad on Friday. I also have to put a label together. So I'm considering getting some no-sew fusible and just using that for the appliqué. I would love to hear y'all's experiences with different fusibles, specifically with no-sew and how they look as time wears on. Any and all advice, experience and/or tips are immensely appreciated!

Exciting day

Fridays are awesome. Fridays are the only day of the week that I have no obligations. I usually spend my Fridays in my pajamas (all day) sitting at my sewing machine.

Last night, I finished the shell of the tote bag for my mom (yay!):

The materials for the lining and handles are all cut and ready to go, but I wanted to get started on this, which needs to be completed a few weeks before the tote:

(bad picture, but you get the idea)

I just finished marking guides for quilting the Happy Campers quilt! I had to take a break to eat, so I thought I'd post this little update. It took longer than I thought to get the tape on there right, but I developed a system after a bit and it started to speed up. I've used painters tape to mark once before, on the hanging organizer I made last week. It worked really well. The best part is that you don't have to actually mark on the quilt! The tape is made with a very gentle adhesive, so it comes off easily when you're done, and it doesn't leave any icky residue on the fabric. Oh, and you can re-use it a few times before it completely loses its tackiness. I'm hoping I won't have to make any more tape-squares; I can just move these from row to row as I go.

And now I am in need of advice from all you lovely seamsters and seamstresses out there. I have little to no experience sewing clothing. My boyfriend came home from work today and showed me this ...

... a huge rip in the only pair of pants he has to wear to work. I have today and tomorrow to fix it. I assume I'll need a patch of some type. I am in dire need of recommendations and tips. Seriously, explain it to me like I'm five years old. I have to have these fixed in about 24 hours :/

Free-motion quilting, a tool to avoid and another to buy ASAP

Well there you have it. My first efforts in free-motion quilting. It for a tote bag I'm making for my mom for Mother's Day, based on this Sew, Mama, Sew tutorial. The quilting is far from perfect, but I'm actually pretty happy with it. It's turning out better than I thought it would. A lot of it will be covered by pockets, and my mom won't mind the imperfections since I made it for her. The colors are a little less Spring-y than I wanted, but I saw this fabric (thumbnail at right), and it was just perfect for the lining and pockets! The tutorial recommended using a home-dec. weight fabric for the outer shell of the bag, to give it a little more strength. I got this gold stripe on sale 40% off at Jo-Ann. The colors actually match my mom's living room decor, oddly enough, so I know she'll like them. Since I'm putting together the bag, my brother is going to help me fill it with gardening stuff as the rest of her gift.

Can you see how the gold fabric is kind of shiny? This means it is slippery! I had gotten these quilters finger grips on a whim at Jo-Ann a while back and decided to try them out. I didn't even get through quilting one flower motif before I gave up on them. They were slippery on the inside and didn't quite fit my fingers (especially my thumb), so the grip would sort-of stick to the fabric while my finger slid around inside. Not good. I'm curious to know what (if anything) you guys use to hold your fabric while quilting.

But on to one of my most favorite notions:

I don't remember where I read about the Kwik Klip, but it is an absolute lifesaver when pin-basting — or perhaps I should say finger saver :) After I basted my Happy Campers quilt (which, with y'all as my witnesses, I will start quilting this weekend), my legs and back were sore from crawling on the floor hunched over the quilt sandwich, but my fingers were prick-free and not the least bit sore!

What are your favorite tools?