Week-end update - Part 1

Well, it's happened. Labour Day week-end is upon us. In our little household (like a lot of others), Labour Day is the official end of summer. Himself begins a long season of fieldwork and I... gulp... head back into the classroom. Oh well. To everything there is a season, right?

I was very productive outside the studio in the last days of August and rewarded myself with hours upon hours of sew time. First, up the Double Irish Chain Redux. If you're unfamiliar with this old school goodie, check out this link. I made no excuses for the authors colour choices. To each her own.
For yesterday's session, I finished up the Block As. I only made one whilst quilting with Adrienne, which meant I had a pile of strips to cut into lovely little sections and sew back together. Sometimes, when I write things like that, this creative pass-time seems absurd.

Then I moved on to Block B... the one that goes together even faster! It always seems silly to me to sew strips of the same fabric together. But it does balance the seams in the completed block.

 Production line pressing... my favourite!

 Completed Block B. See what I mean about the seams?

And at this point in my day's sewing, I realized I had no where near enough fabric to make the large twin I had planned. The initial plan called for 32 Block As and 31 Block Bs. This, my friends, is what comes of buying fabric without a firm plan. And purchasing fabric in a land far away...

So there I was with only 16 Block As and 12 Block Bs. If I could just make a couple more Block Bs, the quilt could be 5 by 6 blocks... a respectable size, especially add borders. This is when having an unhealthy quantity of Kona in your stash is helpful. Enter Berry!

I managed 3 more Block Bs using Kona Berry in place of the plum dots. I'm going to say they add a little unexpected something... like in Ocean Waves by Denyse Schmidt (photo from Stitched in Colour) It harkens back to the days when you made quilts with what you had... not what you bought on-line. Right? Such quilt pretention! ☺

 
 Ah... a semi-completed quilt top. I'll save the full monty for when it's all quilted... here's a sneaky peaky!

 

On a deep subconscious level, I must really like the plum dot print in this quilt. I inadvertently selected it as the colour for Saturday's Back to S___ pedicure!

With this project as completed as it was going to get for the moment, I moved on to a "Just Because" project. Love 'em!

At the end of the school year, one of the lovely little creatures gave me a gift certificate to a certain big box bookstore. I treated myself to an impulse purchase...


So far, I've made two pillows from it... neither of which were destined to stay with me. But this time, it's for the newly made over spare room. It's not a large space, so it's tricky to photograph. In any case, it's soon going to have yet another quilty project on the bed. This room has so many it could be a post of it's own... hmmm.

The design wall got taped up again for this one... I couldn't see any other way to audition all those fabrics. I figure I'll leave it there until it falls down again! ☺ The bulk of these are Amy Butler scraps left over from the Qui-vet. Love, love, love! And that's Kona White acting as a buffer for that riot of colour.

 On to sewing.

Unfortunately, I ended up with a couple pieces that didn't seem to fit right. I went back and checked the pattern and remeasured, but never found the solution. I think the size of two pieces must have gotten switched and no one picked up the error pre-publishing. No worries...one got snipped and another got an unplanned for bit of sashing.

 Oooh... I do love Amy Butler prints. Too bad they don't always play well with others.

And here it is all together! I hate to think that my days of photographing with grassy backdrops may be drawing to a close!

 Random straight line quilting... why did I never think of this before. So easy and so effective.

And now for the big news! I've been tempted into the wide world of English Paper Piecing (EPP)... that's handstitching for those non-quilt obsessed readers out there. Try not to fall off your chairs. I like the idea of having a project (other than quilt binding) that I can stitch while watching TV. It seems like this technique is really portable... I'm picturing more productive quilt guild meetings and Bee sessions. This book from the library gave me a great overview with a modern perspective.

For my first project (and to see if I even like this silliness), I've decided on this little sewing kit. Useful if I get hooked, non?

I hit the scrap bin for these... you don't even have to cut hexagon shapes. Squares are just fine. Who knew?

I didn't really expect to baste all these hexies in one go, but it was fun once I got going. I'm particularly proud of those two grey hexies with the fussy cuts. Cute little thimble!

Tonight, I'm going to take on whipstitching them together. I'll let you know how it goes.

Off to be non-sewing productive and earn myself more hours in the studio!
And I am out of here!

J

Cosmo - Bringing two loves together...

So, we all know I have some issues with Kona solids...

When there's no more room in the cubby, does that mean I have to stop buying them?

What about the scrap bin... it's not truly full if I can still get the lid on.



But did you know have a thing for Amy Butler prints? I've been trying really hard to use up my Amy stash. I covered my fabulous ironing board cover, whipped up a thread catcher for workshops, and made a queen size qui-vet (more to come on what exactly a qui-vet is!) With so many of my current projects hitting the unwieldy quilting stage, I thought it might be fun to switch it up a little.

 

Enter more Amy Butler... this time from her book, Style Stitches.I've been coveting the bag on the front cover ever since I first bought this book... we all know that would have been sometime in 2011! Here's where my two loves come together. I chose a floral print A.B print (Water Bouquet in midnight) and two Konas: Peapod for the exterior accent and Bahama Blue for the lining.

 After 2+ hours of cutting, I finally had all my pieces ready to go last night. I decided to save the iron on interfacing for this morning when my brain was a little fresher! A good plan, since it took me another hour to get them all fused!

Now, on to the fun bit - sewing! If you've never used an Amy Butler pattern, you should know that they are DETAILED. The Cosmo bag has 14 steps, each one broken down into anywhere from 6 to 11 sub-steps. And it's listed as being easy. God help me if I ever decide to make the difficult patterns!

Here's one of the early steps that I'm particularly proud of... pleats!

I called it a day at Step 6g. Honestly, I don't know what to do next and am in desperate need of my Q Squares to help me figure out Steps 6h to k!

But here she is so far... glamorous, non?

Hope the sun is shining where you are and that you're sewing up something fun these days!

J

She's back!

That would be my beloved machine! I've been stalled for the past couple weeks whilst my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 was in for repairs. I hereby decree that she shall now go for annual service to avoid unexpected quilting interruptions!

I learned a few things while she was gone. The major one being that this machine was worth the investment. When I set out to buy a machine a couple years ago, I was really looking for a machine that would take my free motion quilting to the next level. I also wanted a machine with a built-in walking foot feature. I found both of these in my current machine and they've improved my quilting/sewing a great deal!

But what I realize now is that the little features that I didn't even know I wanted are some of the things I love and miss most when I don't have them. Here are my top three:

1.  Automated thread cutter - I don't miss picking up scissors all the time or using the built in thread slicer...leaving 6 inches of thread tail! Q-A would be horrified at my reckless wastage of thread!

2. Automatic lowering of the presser foot when you start to sew - no big deal, right? But it's just so danged convenient! And keeps my hands free to position or guide fabric.

3. Mystery bit in the machine that keeps the needle from un-threading - I sew quickly. Okay, I'm a speed demon. And I am from the get-go. So having a machine with tension that's tight from the start is a huge plus. I can't say how many times I had to stop and re-thread during the past two weeks!

All that said, there is no question that you don't NEED a fancy machine to sew. I made a conscious decision to do some sewing this week. Sewing just makes me happy and I needed a little happiness. No serious quilt blocks or construction since I didn't want to worry about consistent stitching and seam allowances between the two machines.

Here's a little something for a friend's birthday. The origami bag from Amy Butler's Style Stiches book. I've made a couple of these now and the pattern is getting familiar enough to be comfortable. I also whipped up a matching lanyard from the tutorial in a previous post. I just love these fabrics! All three were purchased at a modern quilting shop in Philadelphia, Spool. I'm fairly certain that green is the first Kona solid I ever purchased - Cactus (if my colour card matching is correct!)

I'd love to open a Spool Halifax... maybe when I win the lottery!

I decided to fill the void left my my sewing machine with a little tech treat. I've wanted an iPad for so long that it's silly and himself kept telling me to just buy one. I finally did. It needed a little personality and a soft place to call home. I pinned a few cases, but this one from a tutorial over at  Fresh Lemons suited me best. It also gave me a chance to play with some fabric in the stash - Brrr! by Laurie Wishburn for Robert Kaufman. Mmm... red and aqua. Guess that would be one of those on-trend colour combinations!


Think I'll stop writing about quilting and do some!

Thanks for reading!

J

Utilitarian happiness...

Alas, back to school means not so much time and energy for quilting... so I've pulled these little gems out of the vault.

I know, I know... it's not a masterpiece and it's more than a little fifties' housewife to show off your ironing board, but every time I use it - even when it's not quilting related! - it makes me smile a little. Some days I just need that.

I made it from an on-line tutorial that I've since deleted from my Pinterest boards (foolish tidying up), but this one from Sweet Verbena is very similar. And it just happens to use Amy Butler fabric as well!

On the topic of everyday sewn objects that make me smile whenever I use them....

 These little creations are from last summer, Sadly, I have no tutorial to link to share. The purse is an adaptation of a pattern from a magazine and the matching zipper pouch is my own creation. If one can call something as simple as that a creation!

I'm looking forward to another Q-Squared session tomorrow... I love a day of sewing with the Squares!