TGIFF - Strong

Welcome to TGIFF @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge! If you're new to the blog, I hope you'll take a few minutes to tour around and leave a comment or two. I read every one! If you're not so new to the blog, you might have noticed a wee blip last week where I was hosting TGIFF. Nope. I'll chalk it up to computer error! I just wanted to reassure you that you're not reading double!

Shockingly, I pulled off another finish for this week.... and not just a pile of pincushions. Something a little larger this go round!

Regular readers will know how strongly I feel about extra love being sewn in to handmade items. It's why, when the shit hits the fan, I tend to get sewing. I can't change the situation, but I can give someone a warm, soft place to curl up under or lay their head on. This week's finish? Well, it's to remind a friend of their strength. Pure, unadulterated strength. Strength that has gotten them through 100% of their crappiest days to date.

I had so little in the way of a plan for this pillow. I just started sewing low volume scraplings together. I mean, low volume works in everyone's decor, right? Once the scrap blobs got big enough, I cut them into 5 inch squares and slapped 'em on the design wall.

Once I was happy with the distribution, I sewed them up. The recipient had told me her favourite colour was red, so I did my best to get those wee red polka dot scraps well distributed.

Then on to the quilting. I know, I know. What is that hideous lavender doing there? I use cast off FQs as pillow innards. Don't judge me. And I know I've been FMQ spiraling a lot lately.... like on this pillow. But I like it. So there.

I know what you've been wondering since the beginning of this post. HOW DID SHE DO THOSE LETTERS? Heat and Bond Ultra, of course.

And my new little friend, a Cricut Explore Air 2 (which I purchased a mere two weeks before the hype for the Cricut Maker started. Let's not speak of it.)

I haven't made much so far. I'm sort of overwhelmed by the possibilities. But this seemed like a great place to start. I used the design software to write the work and spent three days choosing the right font. Okay, maybe it wasn't three days. But it was a long time!

 I got a little worried when I saw this... the frayed edge and the cutting blade didn't get along so well.

But my trusty dental pick got that letter off smoothly and I was able to trim and re-cut the small area that had gone cattywampus.

The letters came off the sticky mat with ease. Sometimes the Heat and Bond paper was left behind, but that was no big deal. I was taking it off anyway!

 And presto. Ironed in place.

 Those swirls look fab on that low volume scrappiness... if I do say so myself.

I wanted to get just a little more red into the pillow top, so I outlined the red Cotton+Steel XOXO letters with a heavy red stitch. Given enough time, I think I might have liked to hand stitch around it with perle cotton. Try to contain your shock. I also did three horizontal and three vertical lines of stitching... representing the recipients three kiddos.

Oddly, my stash is short on reds. Dena @ No Frickin Blog yet is horrified. Gasping for air even. But it's true. But red was needed here, so I used a chunk of a cute Lewis & Irene fox print that's been curled up in my stash for some time and a piece of Kona Cardinal for the other side of the envelope closure. With such a scrappy front, two fabrics on the back won't hurt anyone!

  And there it is. Strong. Hopefully it gives a little comfort and strength to it's new owner.

Now it's your turn. Link up those fabulous finishes here and don't forget to tour the other blogs and spread the comment love! Please include a link and/or button for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday! so your visitors know what this TGIFF thing is all about!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you'll come back soon! I've got more pincushions to show off and some back to school clothes in the works!

J

WIP Wednesday - Turning up the volume!

In my attempts to avoid napping when DT does (I've got to break that habit before I go back to school!), I've been spending the afternoons at the machine. It's given me lots of time to piece sixteen patch blocks for that massive low volume project I've got going. When you get 1450 2½ inch squares in the mail, even a basic project gets complicated!

I've started making two other kinds of blocks. A four patch in a square and a square in a square. I'm hoping to use lots of those 2½ inch squares from my Birthday Bonus Club haul, but I want to break things up a little too!

This one is really a pieced block! Don't look too closely at those 2½ inch strips that make up the outer square! This is what comes of not measuring (and being too lazy to take apart a block to redo it)!

45 of 132 done! I'm aiming for a queen size...

If that wasn't enough, I reached a major milestone with the assembly of Technicolor Galaxy (a.k.a the neverending BOM). After completing six of twelve spokes, I was sidelined by bias binding production. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't get the fancy version I used last time to work. Screw it. I just those strips on the 45 and sewed them up. I've built my skills. I need to finish this thing!

In the same vein, I decided to ditch the glue basting for this assembly session. It works, but it's fiddly and time consuming. I've proven to myself that I can do it. Now I'm breaking out the Wonderclips!

 Did the world end? Nope. And I cut my assembly time down to 10 minutes a spoke!

Et voilà! All twelve spokes are assembled! Next step is to make some straight grain binding to join the spokes. Can I get this done for the end of September and achieve one of my FAL 2016 Q3 goals? Fingers crossed!

I'm linking up today with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, as well as Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrications. Pop on over and see what others are working on this week!

J

Glamp Stitchalot - The fabric haul

I'd be lying if I said the fabric shopping wasn't a big part of Glamp Stitchalot for me. Pink Castle, the shop behind the Stitchalot events, has some AMAZING fabric. It's a damned good thing that it's a long way to Ann Arbor. It would be dangerous to have this spot as my LQS. Seriously. And their website? Just as deadly. It was nightly reading for weeks before I went.

Since we could place orders to be picked up at Glamp, I bought myself this lovely bundle. It's a custom bundle created by the owner of Pink Castle, Brenda. You can pop over to their site for the run down on all the FQs.

We had a 2½ hour flight delay out of Toronto which messed with our plans to go to the hotel, then the Girl Scout shop and Pink Castle. Instead, we had our airport shuttle take us right to the fabric shop. We parked our suitcases in the corner and got to shopping. No one seemed to mind!

Given a large enough budget, I could have cleaned the place out, I kept myself to low volume prints. I have an idea to use my Birthday Bonus Club squares and want some more variety. I snagged pieces of Newport, Carolyn Friedlander's Ledger, and Alison Glass' Abacus Artifact.

I fell in love with these Alison Glass panels when Kitty @ Night Quilter used one for the cover of her Quilter's Planner. When I saw them in person, I just had to have them. What will I make? Who knows! But I have eight of them!

Dena @ No Frickin' Blog Yet and I got a little out of control and bought a half yard bundle of this Lizzy House Mini Pearl Bracelet goodness. 

We split it at Glamp so each of us went home with a FQ bundle. Delish.

I got so excited about the Mini Pearl Bracelet bundle that I forgot I had purchased some yardage to be picked up at Glamp. Lucky me... it's not in the bundle!

I had another awesome moment on Saturday night. It was giveaway time (8pm!) and there were a pile of Violet Craft's new (yet to be released) House of Hoppington fabric bundles to be given away. I literally turned to Julia @ Jada's Quilting Adventures and said "I want that so bad, I can taste it." And then they pulled my number. I should buy more lottery tickets.
The main motif in the grey fabric above featured on the shirt Violet designed for Glamp. You know, the one I bought! As if the fabric wasn't adorbs enough, there's the selvages! Squee!!!
And here are the perils of pre-washing. A mountain of ironing. ☺After a haul like this one, there's a lot to catch up on!

I'm linking up with the fabulous Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash. You know, because I love a link-up!

J

Friday Finish - A MMQG Reveal!

Man, it's tough having so many projects in the QPPP these days! But I'm pleased to say that one is finally out and about...

It's the quilt for my swap partner in our Maritime Modern Mini Quilt Swap. I finished it with 4 days to spare! And knocked off one of my three goals for September's ALYOF. Score!
I used variety of quilting patterns, though they're pretty much all straight line with a walking foot. I did think about pebbling all the low volume areas, but there are a lot of seams in this one! And my binding is teal with a pop of lime green and low volume thrown in for fun.

I went for a pieced back... you know, to make it modern!  You can also see the quilting much better from the back... pretty much like always. I opted to put hanging corners on all four sides so that it can be hung however the recipient pleases.

I love this Sun Print Text fabric from Alison Glass. I could use it in pretty much every.... if I had an unlimited supply and all the colours!
Since I wasn't able to blog about the process in real time (oh that pesky QPPP), here are a couple of my fav pics from along the way. Isn't it nice when you can see things coming together?

 Sunshine and scraps...

  I found myself a clever new way to cut a four template pieces at a time. Wonderclips for the win!

 Pins and curves go together like PB and J.

  I even remembered to sew on one of my quilt labels.
Too bad I didn't factor in the hanging corners.

The Deets

Title:  Low Volume Beauty

Size: 22 by 22 inches 
Pattern: NY Beauty Circle of Flying Geese (purchased from Craftsy)

Fabrics Used: exclusively from my scrap bins - lots of teals and low volumes
Quilting: Straight line with walking foot, at times in the ditch, done with Auriful 50 weight 2600 (light grey)
Binding: Teal with a pop of low volume and lime green, hand-stitched with Aurifil 2600
Backing: Pieced from scraps, predominately teal

Favourite Part(s): Challenging myself to make something that would make my partner's eyes light up! And it did!

And what did I get in exchange? Well, 'tis usually better to give than to receive, but maybe not in this case! Stay tuned for next week to see the loveliness that my partner made for me!

I'm linking up today with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, as well as TGIFF @ What a Hoot! Quilts.  Pop on over and see some fab finishes... because it's Friday and you deserve it. I can't share the brownies I made this morning (the logistics on baked goods in the mail are a pain), but I can encourage over consumption of quilt blogs!

J

Sunday De-Stash

So I had this little idea. You know those lovely little bits that are hanging out in your stash. The ones too good to part with that you know you're not going to use? What if you could sell 'em, swap 'em... in general, send them to a good home. Well, that's what we did this week at our monthly meeting of the MMQG.

Each seller laid out their wares on a table and left a jar for their cashola. Then we went on a shop hop from table to table! I can't say I didn't add anything to my stash... I mean, there was some good stuff there. Like this FQ pack from Nurse Marie (ret.). Anja @ Anja Quilts had the same one a while back from Sew Sisters and I fell hard and fast for those hamsters. Why? Your guess is as good as mine...

And Adrienne @ Chezzetcook Modern Quilts had a massive clean-out! I resisted a lot of her goodies, but this Amy Butler stripe had to come home with me. It had to. It can join the other piece I have of it... oh dear.

I ended up taking a lot of my "treasures" home, but it just made it easier for me to transfer them to the donation boxes I keep in the basement instead of having them come back in the studio. And I made a net profit of 2$! Score!

You can read all about our shenanigans from another perspective on our guild's blog. We're thinking of making it an annual thing! Mentioned in the post is our low volume swap. I was a little apprehensive... low volume can be a tricky, tricky concept to define. But it didn't go too badly... our Swap Master, Amanda, was on high alert!

I particularly like these teal prints... but you'd never have guessed that?

Somehow I ended up with a stack of this print. Hmmm.... I say tone on tone. Someone else says low volume. Thoughts?

 Mmm... fabric-y goodness.

Linking up today with Sunday Stash @ Molli "The Enabler" Sparkles.

Come on, Molli. De-stash. I dare you...

J