My summer vacation

Last month I spent a week at my sister's house in Walla Walla. I had the best time.  I wish I lived closer and was able to get there more often.   Whenever my sister and I get together, we work on 'projects'.  The sewing machine is going pretty much non-stop and  fabric is scattered everywhere.

The sewing fun started before I went.  I wanted to bring something for everyone ('cause it's fun for favorite Aunts to bring presents).  I made my niece A the small version of the cross-body purse.

 I made my niece K two 'wide open zipper pouches'. 

These are the quite possibly my favorite sewing project of all time.  They're quick, fun, easy to sew, and turn out fantastic.  Plus they really do open wide!

They're now being used as K's toy and diaper bags for church.
 
I wasn't sure what to make for C.  He's 6.  And has opinions. :)  My sister suggested a pencil case after seeing a tutorial on make it and love it.  I liked the idea, but C is into monsters.  So I made a monster zipper case - with the zipper as the 'mouth'.  I used duck cloth for the case and fleece for the monster parts - zig-zagging around each piece.  (At first, it looked a little like an angry bird.  The purple horns helped!)  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

 
 I had so much fun making K's 'wide open zipper pouch', that I also made two more for C.

For A (not to be left out!), I brought fabric and let her make her very own pouches.  She did a great job once I remembered to put some blue tape on the sewing machine to mark where the seam allowance should be.  She did everything on the bags except for the final top stitching around the zipper and the hand sewing.  Yup, she sewed in the zippers all by her self.   For almost 8, she's pretty good with the sewing machine (as she reminded me several time that she knew what she was doing.)

Now for the 'projects'.  Last year we made bags.  This year was all about pillows.  The first up was a double flying geese circle - called 'Windmill'.  I first found this on flicker and tracked it back to Lily's Quilts.  She had a tutorial up on her web site and then took it down because it was supposed to be coming out in a book.  I waited a while ... and then drew up the pattern (in publisher!) for a 12" square.  (It's now available in 'Modern Blocks'.)   

We sewed a 'test square' to make sure I had drafted the pattern right and then dived into the project.  This was my sister's first try at paper piecing and she did awesome.  Here's mine - complete with safety pins as it's waiting to be quilted.
 

The great thing about paper piecing is that if you take your time, your points come out awesome.  The hardest about this block (other than deciding what fabric to put where ... and I made my sister choose that) was the center point.  There are a lot of fabrics there and it's tough to get the point pretty.  It's a little bumpy in real life, but I like it.

Next up was 'lone starburst' or 'bordered star'.   I found it on pinterest and the paper piecing template is from the 'Quilting Climber'.  It turned out amazing.  The hardest part was deciding how to quilt it.  Here's mine:

I quilted about 1/16" away from all of the edges and then echo quilted the star out to the boarder. 

 

Last up was 'alphabet soup' inspired by this quilt pattern - Circular Reasoning by Carolina Patchworks.  Everyone looks at a quilt that is 75"x75" and decides that it would be really cute 12" square - right?  A trip to her local quilt store 'Stash' (perfect name for a quilt shop) and we had fabric and started tracing, ironing and then I cut them all out.

This is as far as we got.  The next step is to blanket stitch around all of the letters and then I think a boarder of dark brown around it will look nice.  I'd like to pebble quilt stitch it ... but since my free-motion quilt skills are non-existent, I'm not sure how I'll quilt it.

One night - I think it was Tuesday, a little boy prayed that I would have enough time to sew his pajamas.  So I spent the next day sewing monster pj short's.  I had just enough fabric to sew two pairs.  I used the left over fabric to sew shapes on two of his t-shirts - a circle and rectangle.  I think he likes them. :)

We also ran 3 mornings (I fell and skinned up my knees and hands really good the first time, but the rest were injury free).  We back-to school shopped for clothing for the kids, made a Costco run, watched a you-tube video and then cut A's hair (a bit scary, but it turned out cute!), celebrated my birthday, found and bought a mountain bike for C, practiced 'launching' and stopping on the new bike, sewed, visited parks, rode bikes, embarked on the 'great library book hunt' (they were found in the Candy Land game box), bought and played with legos, ate frozen yogurt, sewed, had 'Popsicles with the Principle, sorted school supplies and labeled everything, played on playgrounds, sewed, made sidewalk chalk paint and played with it, went to the library, read 'Ninjago: Jay, Ninja of Lightening' with C every morning (he read all but one chapter to me!), made cookies, made bread, made dinners, played with toys and kids, embroidered 'church' in C's new church pants (so he could tell them apart from his brown school pants), fixed the stuffed snake Slither, fixed a bag, and sewed, sewed, and sewed some more.  I had so much fun.  It was the very best part of my summer.

I had so much fun that it was hard to leave and come home.  Now to start planning for next year's trip!

cross-body purse: sew serendipity

I checked out the book 'Sew Serendipity Bags' from the library and absolutely loved the book.  So many great bags ... it was tough to pick which one to make first.

Here's the 'cross-body purse'. 

They turned out really cute. I found the fabric at Hobby Lobby (yup, they have cute fabric!) and paired it with kona cotton charcoal.

 

The small bag is 9"x7.5", the large bags are 10"x9".  I swapped out the 'twist' lock and used magnetic snap closures ... since that's what I had. 

I adore the hardware on this bag.  I found the swivel clasps and d-rings at Hobby Lobby (1/2 off.  Yea!)  I finally found the double-loop slider (the cool piece of hardware that lets the strap be adjustable) on etsy.   I interfaced them with my favorite super thick and stiff interfacing peltex 71 and craft-fuse.

 

 

This bag was rated as 'intermediate' - and it definitely is.  I need a bit more practice sewing bias tape. It looks okay from the front, but it's not so pretty from the back.  And sewing the flap to the bag body didn't go smoothly.  It took several tries, 2 broken needles,  and I finally called it good enough.  No pictures of that seam, but trust me - it's icky.

I like them ... but they're just not as useable as I wanted them to be.  They'll hold a wallet, keys, a really small cell phone, and maybe a tube of chap stick.  But that's it. I don't think you could even squeeze in a pen or tissues.  The opening needs to be completely flat in order for the bag to close.   Other than that, they're adorable.  I'm just not sure what I'm going to use them for.

241 tote

I had a day off of work and I wanted to make a gift for a graduating senior. That means a trip to the fabric store to make a tote bag.

The flower print and blue dots are Denyse Schmidt's fabric at JoAnn's (no idea what line).  The green with white polk-a-dots is just a random fabric I found there.  Saturday night was spent cutting out fabric and interfacing.

I decided to use Anna's (Noodlehead) 421 tote bag pattern.  I've made it before, but after seeing Suzanne's (just another hang up) version I knew I needed to make it again.  I added 1" to the center of the bag and added fleece interfacing.  I adore how they turned out.

I interfaced the outside of this bag with Pellon's 'decor bond' and the lining with fusible fleece.  You can't see it, but the lining is the blue print and the handle is the flower fabric.



For this bag, I added 'decor bond' to both the outside and lining plus fusible fleece.  (I wanted to find out if it made any difference or not.)  This bag is a little more stiff ... but not by much.  It's lined in the green print and the strap is the flower print on the outside and green on the inside.  [It's hard to get pictures of the strap when it's hanging on the fence!]  Just for fun, I added the outside zipper pocket.  Thanks to my handy-dandy glue stick, it was a piece of cake to put in.  I think I'll like it for stashing my keys.  There really isn't anything worse than having to dump out your bag just to find your keys that are hiding in the bottom.

I hope my graduating senior friend loves her bag.

in progress: hst triangle quilt

It's time to pick a layout for my hst (half square triangle) quilt.  The fabric is Tula Pink's 'nest' fabric.  What's your favorite?

Option #1 - "Delightful" (pattern by Aneela Hoey)  Aren't the pinwheels fun?

Option #2 -  diamonds.  (The pattern of the original quilt that I saw in the Bloggers Quilt Festival and fell in love with.)

Option #3 - 'arrows'

Option #4 - stacked triangles (or rotate them 45 and let them be rows of triangles?)

Option #5 -lots of diamonds

Option #6 - windmill whimsy

Option #7 - triangles in formation (yes, I'm all out of names)

Option #8 - zig -zag (uh, with one square flipped wrong!)

So, sister of mine, what layout should it be?

quilt finish: postage stamp

It's finished!  My postage stamp quilt that I mentioned here is finished.  I absolutely love it.

I've been referring to this quilt as 'my experimental' quilt.  I ironed all of the seams open (first time ever!), I pinned very carefully, I used a cotton batting (another first), and I machine quilted it (second time).  As experiments goes, this one was a success.

It took me two tries at pin basting to get it just right.  Next time I'm going to make sure to make the back at least 2 inches bigger on all sides.  I pin based starting at the bottom - thinking I had enough fabric ... and was 1/4" short at the top.  I resisted the urge to stretch the fabric and unpinned the entire thing.  [I used this tutorial at Oh Fransson! to learn how to pin baste.]

I was going to use two layers of 'warm-n-natural' batting, but my sister convinced me to only use one.  I thought it would be more 'poofier' (just pretend that's a word) with two layers and show off the quilting better.   I'm glad I just used one.  It crinkled ever so nicely after a trip through the washer and dryer.  Plus, it's surprisingly warm!  (Yup, all of my other quilts have a polyester batting.)

For quilting, I stitched down 1/4" away from every seam.  It sounds like a lot of quilting, but it only took 4 evenings to get it all done.  The first night was the slowest with stopping every few seconds to remove the safety pins.

I did have to bend the metal on my 1/4" acufeed foot to keep the guide from catching on the seams.  I tried to just lift it up with some toothpicks wedged in there and then paper - but it worked best to just slightly bend it up.

I also purposely set the speed slow so that I could keep the seams as straight as possible.
 

sorry!   Taken at night with very crappy lighting ... but the quilting is pretty.

d just enough squares left over to put a stripe across the back.  I love it.  (And yes, I pinned every seam intersection with straight pins and safety pins to get the quilting straight across.)  I think the solid back shows off the quilting.

I didn't get a good picture of the crinkliness (yes, another made-up word), but trust me - it has the perfect amount of crinkle.  I can't think of anything I'd change about it.  It's just perfect in every way. 

drawstring bag

One day while browsing etsy, I saw some 'sock bags' to hold your knitting (or other crafts) - and loved the draw string. My knitting (or crocheting) won't fall out.  I (hopefully) won't loose my extra needles or hooks or rulers or all of the other stuff I keep in my knitting bags.  Here's my version, heavily inspired from 'the silver pumpkin'.

The big bag is 11.5" tall, 8.5" wide, and 4" deep.  The small bag is about 8" tall, 6" wide, and 4" deep.  1 yard of outside fabric, 1 yard of lining fabric and I now have 3 bags.  I love the stripes for the lining.


The big bag will hold a baby blanket or a sweater.  The small bag will work great for socks or crochet doilies or other little projects.

This was a quick project.  I drew the pattern in 'publisher' and printed it on the plotter at work.  Fabric was cut out one night while watching tv.  Two evenings of sewing and I had 3 really cool bags.

Aren't the bicycles cute! 

I couldn't decide which to use first.  So the baby blanket is in the pink animal bag and a sweater for me is in the bike bag. 

needle book

I keep my needles stuck in a piece of scrap batting. Every time I need a needle I end up searching through all of my sewing supplies to try and find it. Is it in the yarn basket? Is it in the other basket with yarn, scrap fabric, and a few patterns? Is it in the sewing supplies bin? Is it in the Ziploc bag of sewing machine needles? Or did I just drop them in my pin box when after I used it last time.  (It's always fun to search through the pin box for a needle!)  And when did I use a needle last? ... maybe it's still with that project.

It's always an adventure.

Last year when looking for new projects on blogs, I came across an entry on 'Twin Fibers" where she mentioned making a needle book with her daughter.  (She points you to a tutorial by "Sew She Sews" here.)  A book for needles.  With a pocket that could hold little scissors or thread.  This could be my solution to where are my needles.  Or at least a 'book' is bigger than a scrap of batting to look for.

I pulled out my scraps of 'Whimsy' while I was procrastinating working on taxes a few weekends ago  on a Saturday morning when I was in the mood to sew.  Lucky me, I had one square that wasn't used in the quilt, and it would be perfect for this project.  I cut it in half and had two 6" x 12" rectangles to make two needle books with.  Not quite the size mentioned in the tutorial, but it worked out just fine.

One book has the 'pink honeycomb' fabric for pockets, the other has the 'blue honeycomb'.   I really like the stripe the top of the pocket is bound in.

A couple hours of cutting, ironing, and sewing and I had two needle cases.  I hand sewed the bias binding.  (I have not mastered the 'machine binding' skill.)   I think it took longer to get the snaps on correctly than it did to hand sew it. (Note to self: a snap press would be a really groovy gift.)

Now to start searching for where my needles are.

3 more bags

Once upon a time I made a scripture tote bag as a birthday/baptism present.  I thought they were pretty handy (they fit a composition notebook, scriptures, and a few pencils very nicely).  I made one for a niece.  Then a nephew.  Then another niece.  Then 1 niece and 2 nephews. 

But not everyone had one.   To squash a minor bit of sibling rivalry, I needed to make one more for a birthday gift.  But if I was going to make one more, why not make 3 and be prepared!

Lucky for me, they're pretty easy to make.  The names take the longest time - choosing the font, tracing, cutting out, ironing them onto the bag just so, and then zig-zagging around each letter.  All fabric found at JoAnn's - I really like the orange paisley and the pink bird.

Hopefully everyone (when they finally get them) will be happy with their bag.

Lesson: if you make something for one niece/nephew, be prepared to make it for all of them.  Luckily, I love them, I'm a pushover  ... and this bag is fairly quick and easy project.

postage stamp in progress

My postage stamp quilt.  I got the inspiration idea for this quilt from p.s. i quilt's postage stamp quilt along.  I didn't want to do a twin size quilt (eek - big!), so I calculated how big I could make it from charm packs.

1 charm pack (42 squares) = 168, 2.5" squares

A quilt 44"x44" = 242 print squares and 242 white squares.  

1.5 charm packs = 252 squares 

Last April when my sister came to visit I split my Central Park (by Kate Spain) charm packs in half with her, cut some white kona cotton in 5" squares, and sent her home with a 'quilt kit'.  (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric?  I love the animals, the colors, the bricks, the flowers.  It's my favorite fabric.  And I shared it.)

I started sewing on it last summer by putting a charm square and white fabric square right sides together and sewed down both sides.  Cut down the center vertically and horizontally and I got a 1x2 squares.

They traveled with me to Walla Walla in August  (uh, why I though I'd get work done on them there, I have no idea.  I was way to busy having fun with my sister, her kids, and our projects.) where I mentioned to my sister I was considering ironing the seam allowances open as I read on "oh fransson!".  We tried a 2x2 square with seams pressed open and one with the seams pressed to the side.  Seams pressed open won and this became my 'experiment' quilt where I was going to try new things.   (While I was there I had my sister pick out the fabric for the back.  Kona cotton robin egg.)

Once home, I made it as random as my engineering brain would allow, dumping all of the 1x2's into a brown paper bag, shaking, and then pulling 2 at a time out and sewing them together.

It quickly was laid out on the floor where it was arranged, re-arranged, arranged again, and again, and again.  I sewed some 2x2's into 4x4 and then bigger squares ... but nothing ever worked out.  After walking around it (and on it) for about a 4 weeks in September/October, I picked it all up and put it in a plastic bin.  I had other projects that needed to be done - and I needed my floor back. 

January 2012 I had a few days at home before I could go back to work.  The postage stamp quilt was pulled out again.  (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric?  The aqua!  The orange!  The prints!) But I had learned the lesson of trimming after every seam from C's seeing squares quilt ... and I didn't like how my postage stamp quilt didn't look straight.   I sat down and took the entire quilt back to 2x2 squares, trimmed them all to 4.5"x4.5"- making sure they were as straight as possible - and started sewing them together.  (uh, I told my sister about taking it apart after it was almost back together!)

This time I sewed them in strips ... using pins on every seam intersection.  It took time, but the corners look great!  (Lesson learned: use pins!  Even when you think you can just line up the seams when sewing.)

I really liked it ... but I wanted it bigger.  I grabbed another charm pack and kept sewing.

I love it.  Here's a picture of the wrong side.

Now to finish a couple more projects so I can quilt this.  Size: 52" x 60". (390 patterned squares)

front pack carrier & randomness

I made this today for my niece K.   The pattern is from Oliver + S "Little Things To Sew"  She likes to carry her 'baby doll' with her, so this should give her some hands free ability.  Now that I've sewn a pattern from Oliver + S, I understand the hype.  It was well written, had great tips (I learned some new tricks!), and it was easy to whip out.  Two short hours of sewing today, with the obligatory 30 minutes to get the button holes right, and Buttercup the bear was modeling on the fence.   Hopefully K. will love it.  It's currently my favorite project.

I also tried out my bias tape maker.

The instructions sounded too good to be true.  I was prepared to fight with it and force the fabric through ... but the fabric just flowed through it like a dream.  Now to buy some bigger sizes.  It's time to conquer my fear of bias tape!

And this picture is included because looking in my cupboard this morning put a smile on my face.

Fiesta Dinnerware!  scarlet, paprika, tangerine, marigold, sunflower, lemongrass, shamrock, turquoise, peacock, cobalt, and plum.  They're a complete splurge and indulgence ... but I really love them.