Christmas Shimmer

Do you have any patterns you just make repeatedly? I have a few clothing patterns I do this with, but only a couple of quilt patterns I've made more than once. This is one of them. It's Shimmer by Cluck Cluck Sew and it's a really fun sew. I like how it comes together, and it's a style I really enjoy sewing and think looks good. It's not too quick, but it doesn't take a long time and it shows off fabric well. The piece sizes are a good fit for the type of fabrics I usually purchase.

And, if you want, you can fussy cut. This is the first one I've made with fussy cut centers but I picked the pattern for this quilt specifically because the centers were a good size for fussy cutting the fabric I had chosen. 

See, I picked up a cut of a super cute retro style Christmas print at Garden of Quilts in 2022. I just couldn't resist it, even though it's completely NOT my normal style. And then I supplemented it with a few other focal prints...and set out looking for a pattern that would enable me to really show them off. 

Shimmer has centers that are a great size for the scale of these prints. The center is large enough there's a good amount of space so the entire selection can usually fit, but not so large that there's a lot of extra space around it. 

This is decidedly unlike my other Christmas quilts.

But I don't care, I love how it turned out. And I have a bit more of the focal prints so maybe I'll be making another quilt sometime in the future so it has a buddy...hmm...

Starshine Quilt

A few years ago, I picked up a couple of florals by Rifle Paper Co. that I loved. One had a lovely burgundy background, but I didn't know how to use them. They sat in my drawers waiting for a project. Last fall, I worked on a fabric Friday pull using them and settled on this. Even though I didn't have anything to tie in the burgundy, I thought it was still okay. And I really liked the colors together. So I kept it aside and thought about patterns I could use it for.

And then I remembered a quilt pattern I was given for my birthday from my oldest daughter. She had picked it out when we were at a quilt shop after visiting a quilt show at a nearby museum and had my husband buy it for her. It's called Star Shine by Modernly Morgan and I really like it. It looks like a simple pattern, one I would not buy for myself because I would think I could figure it out on my own, but I'm glad she picked it. Unfortunately, my colors look an awful lot like the cover quilt. I don't like remaking quilts someone else made, I really prefer to put my own spin on it, so this is disappointing, but I do really love the colors and how it turned out, so I don't mind too much.

When I was ready to make it, I had to pick out fewer fabrics than I had in my pull. Some were easy to eliminate because I didn't have a big enough piece. But I made sure to use the two Rifle prints that started it all. I'm really happy with it, I think it's a pretty quilt!

I backed it with a Ruby Star Speckled I picked up on sale, and I bound it with a Ruby Star Sprinkle that I got on the same sale. They don't match together super well, so I'm sure not going to brag about how great the back looks, but they both work with the quilt so I'm happy.

Fabric Friday Week 41: November 17

I didn't think I was going to get a post up today. I went on a field trip with some of my girls to the zoo today and I hadn't gotten a post written yet. 

But I had about an hour after I got home before the girls would be home from school, and I decided to work on it. I went into my sewing room, and I just stared at my drawers of fabric. Nothing was sparking. I do have a fat quarter bundle I bought and I'm brainstorming ideas for it right now. I thought it kind of felt beachy, so I thought I'd pull a beach bundle. I saw a piece from a collection by Sheri and Chelsea called Seashore Drive and decided to start there. I think for a quick pull it's pretty decent. I don't know that I would use it necessarily, but it works. Maybe instead of the print, I would use the darker blue as a background color. Hmm...

Have a great weekend, and a great Thanksgiving!

Fabric Friday Week 40: November 10

I have finally recovered (mostly) from our most recent trip. We went to Northern Italy for my 40th birthday celebration! We did a Photo Workshop in the Dolomites for fall colors, and while we had more rain than we would have liked, it was still beautiful and amazing. I've never done group travel before but it was really fun.

This was sunrise at a lake we visited, and this one is from my cell phone, I haven't finished the pictures from my big camera. It was spectacular!

This week's bundle is one I pulled together randomly. It ended up being, oh, what is it called? Triadic complementary? Hmm...I remember reading about a color combination like this, where you have three analogous colors plus the complementary one. But I guess I also added in the pink so it's not exactly the same. *shrug*

In other news, I think I'm nearly there with a group for another hexibore quilt, I pulled one kona to go with mostly Moda bellas, and it might just do the trick. I need to figure out the layout I want, because I love the look of the mini baby quilt, but I'm a throw girl and don't like making quilts smaller than throws. 

Fabric Friday Week 39: Oct 20

I took last week off, but I'm back with another attempt. This is very similar to the last group. I'm not going to give up. I don't think I'm there yet. This time, I tried Moda colors. Years ago, I bought a Moda Match Maker block of fabric swatches. I don't use it often enough, probably because the few times I've tried, I end up turning back to my Kona chips. But the Moda swatches are larger and they're nice to use. I think this group is nice, too. Maybe in the end, I'll end up with some Moda colors and some Konas. We'll see!

Naturally, after I uploaded this picture, I realized that I didn't line up the fabric swatches with the lines on the rug. I was hasty, and I was playing with these on the rug so I just quickly took a picture. Oops!

Fabric Friday Week 38: October 6

I'm still trying to nail down group of colors for a bright, floral Hexibore. This week, I worked on incorporating peach, wondering if I needed peach to work the coral angle. I'm not sure I'm there yet. But I'm not giving up!

Fabric Friday Week 37: September 29

September has been brutal in our house. It's still back to school time, with everyone getting back into rhythm with all the activities, and we have birthday week at our house, with 3 of our kids' birthdays plus mine. I turned 40 this month! Spoiler, it sucked. But it's okay, we will celebrate eventually with a trip to Italy, so I'll survive. 

Amid all the craziness, I got to go to Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point here in Utah with a friend. We went last year and really enjoyed it so we made sure to go again. Truthfully, I'm suffering from tendonitis in my hips right now, so the walking all over the gardens was pretty tiring. But there were loads of beautiful quilts, including a version of All the Good that I liked better than mine. It made me want to try it again! 

We ended our visit with a stop at the vendor marketplace and I didn't buy a lot, but I did buy a fat quarter bundle from a shop I discovered last year, the Cotton Bolt I think. She is so talented with color and creates stunning bundles! I bought one last year I still haven't used...whoops. And I had to buy another one this year. I also picked up some other remnants and fat quarters that she had discounted, and realized when I got home that they work super well with the bundle I picked, and then I pulled some additional prints from my stash, and well, I have a fabric friday bundle! I love it and want to cut into it if I could just figure out what to do. I thought about a clamshell quilt, but a few of the cuts aren't quite wide enough for my clammy ruler. So maybe an orange peel? Hmm...

Scrappy Chain

I got my Irish chain quilt bound a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to blogging about it. I did take a bit of time to decide what to bind it with; at first I thought I should use an aqua fabric, and so I decided to pick up a solid because I don't love using prints on bindings (it feels like a waste, same thing with backings...) but in the end, I went with a low volume. I really like the stripe as a binding, and I like that it doesn't stand out the same way a darker binding would. So often I treat them as focal frames, and I think sometimes a quilt doesn't need that. 

My binding is still a tad wavy and I'm getting frustrated by this. The backing is regular quilting cotton, a cut I received from a friend who was destashing. I thought the wavy borders might be due to the minky I typically go for, but this is not minky. It's also not quite as bad as normal...still, I'd like to figure out what I'm doing wrong. 

Fabric Friday Week 36: September 22

This week I have another color palette I'm considering for another Hexibore. I am such a sucker for blue that I couldn't resist trying one that focused more on blues. I am not sure this one works quite as well as the bright one from last week, so I will probably keep working on it. I saw one online that reminded me of a sego lily with a beautiful white/light gray blossom and I think that's kinda the feel I was going for, but I don't think it's quite successful for that. I do like the bundle and think it would make a great quilt, maybe I'll experiment instead with the oval shapes and see if I can come up with a different design to use these colors. 

First EPP finish

I have finally finished my English Paper Pieced Medallion quilt! I started this while pregnant with my twins, so 2016. I was too nauseous to sit at my sewing machine, and wanted to get baby quilts made before they arrived, but this project fizzled and I was able to get back at my machine in time to make them both quilts. I couldn't figure out how to get it squared off so it sat. I finally pulled it out when I was cleaning out some drawers and decided to just do it. I had enough of the red fabric to appliqué it on to the top and then added some borders to make it larger. It ended up REALLY large, but I think it worked out well. I do wish that I had trimmed the fabric from behind the EPP because the print shows through the low volume fabrics now that it's quilted. But I was worried about the messy back for the quilter, and figured it would help it be a bit more stable. 

Overall I'm happy with it! I had this blue in my stash and just enough for the binding. I think I had an extra 24" of binding that I cut off. And I used every bit of the fabric I had, even a scrap that wasn't the full WOF. I backed it with a Ruby Star wide backing in sateen that I found on clearance at Backside Fabrics, the colors work well because it's an aqua background with a green and cream floral print. 

Fabric Friday Week 35: September 15

I fell in love with Papper Saxsten's Hexibore quilt when it popped in my feed and signed up for her online class since she doesn't sell the pattern as a standalone. But I had a terrible time deciding on which version to make! Luckily she included the original pattern with the updated pattern the class was on, and I knew I'd have to make multiple. First, I made a four petal version and my colors, sadly, ended up remarkably like Jenny's. It was unintentional, but I'm sure influenced by the images I'd seen. Now I want to make a six petal version, which was the original, and I'm trying to pick new colors. I've been influenced by the palettes other people have used, of course, but I've tried to be inspired and not copy. One was a very floral feel, and I loved that it used soft pastels. Without looking at the image to mimic it, I pulled color chips off my board and this is what I came up with. I believe, if I remember correctly, the original used the small baby size, so one less round of petals and a slightly different center shape, so mine is different, but I bet it's pretty close. It was so pretty, what can I say? I like that the colors I've pulled are light and bright but not too pastely. They're more style, slightly leaning into autumn color schemes. 

In my defense, I'm pretty sure I added the aqua and the green. I think the original used a great gray for the outside. This feels very candy colored to me, and reminds me a bit of Katrina Berg, a local artist. It seems like a color palette she would appreciate. 

A Second Library Dress

I had picked out some Kona colors for an upcoming project and chose to order them through Hawthorne Supply Co, and whenever I order fabric online, I always look through the sale pages as well. Especially this time, because I needed some new pajama pants and prefer to make pajama pants out of less expensive fabric...I found some good ones, and I found a print that I thought my second daughter would really love. It has horses on it, and she's a bit obsessed with horses. She takes horse lessons and just loves them. Wants to have some when she's older. So, I thought she'd like a dress out of this fabric, but I asked her first, because I have made clothes for them without checking and sometimes they don't get worn. I didn't want to invest my time and money in a project if she wasn't going to like it. Luckily she did, and I thought it would be cute in the Library dress pattern by Oliver and S. She was a tad hesitant because she wanted a maxi length dress, but I just don't see a quilting cotton working well in a longer style like that, and I didn't have any patterns that were longline that. I went with the Library dress, and found a scrap big enough for the waistband in my drawer that she also approved, and got to work. 

I opted to leave off the collar because the print feels busy, and I'm glad I did. It made it go a bit faster but it also gives it a cleaner look. I added 5" to the bottom and probably should have added more. But she'll grow out of it, unfortunately, before that becomes a real issue, even though she wishes it were a tad longer. I made a 12, she's just almost 11 years old, and by measurements it should be a good fit, but it's a tad snug across her shoulders. Not uncomfortably so, yet, but she is growing. I'm also glad that lining up the print worked pretty well. I got it well centered for the front skirt and the bodice worked out as a happy accident. I was careful to make sure it was straight, but otherwise, the way it lined up looks good by chance. No picture of the back, but I had just enough buttons in my jar that worked well. The top button is actually different, it's about the same size, and about the same color, close enough you wouldn't notice if you didn't know to look. And I think they work well. 

She loves it, and I'm so glad. I hope she feels loved--so often when I make things, everyone gets one/something. But this time around she's the only one that got a dress, and she didn't even have to ask for it. 

Fabric Friday Week 34: September 8

It has been a month since I posted and I can't believe it. We had the chaos of back to school and back to activities, and we've had some medical issues with one of our daughters that took a lot of attention and various doctor visits in various cities. It's nothing horribly serious but does require attention. Not to mention emotional investment on my end. 

Even with all that and my lack of blogging, I have been sewing... a bit. Not quite as much as I'd like, but I have been sewing and I'll post some of what I've worked on in the next little bit. Hopefully. :-)

I did pull a fabric bundle out a couple of weeks ago, and just didn't get around to posting. Sigh. Life. Medical stuff. School. Sigh.

This bundle feels back to school to me, in the school spirit sense, I guess. I picture Varsity jackets and football games. And it was inspired by this print, which I impulse purchased off of Hawthorne Threads when I bought fabric for a quilt project I'm just getting started on. 

These arches kind of have a retro vibe to me, so maybe that's why it feels very varsity/football season to me? Anyone else have that retro vibe with back to school/school spirit stuff?

You know what's kind of funny is that that has positive associations for me, even though I hated high school. I struggled so much socially, but athletics and football season have happy memories for me. Even though football season is very social...I dunno, I can't really explain it. I did play varsity volleyball throughout high school, so that was certainly a driving force in school spirit, and maybe football season is really an extended opening social for high school each year and each year I started out with optimism that maybe I'd fit in this year? Maybe things would work out and people would want to be my friend this time around? Who knows. I'm glad to be out of high school. Obviously. :-)

Fabric Friday Week 33: August 4

I'm still in the chaos that is back to school (everyone needs new shoes?! Really?! What have you been wearing on your feet for the past 3 months?) But after last week's calm bundle I wanted to try something brighter and more vibrant. A summery excitement bundle. So I pulled out some of my brightest fabrics and kept pulling until they looked cohesive. Sometimes, less is more. But when it comes to quilting, a lot of times, more is more. I could throw more in, but I think this was just enough to ge a taste for a potential bundle. 

I hope you're enjoying the last bits of summer!

Fabric Friday Week 32: July 28

Happy Friday! We're quickly approaching the new school year and I'm overburdened with scheduling appointments and reading assessments and final playdates for distant friends, so what I really wanted for this week's bundle was something calm and soothing. I started with some grays but I wanted to add in color too, so I went for muted cool colors. I'm surprised at how much I like it! It kind of reminds me of a calm beach day. The kind where you sit back and enjoy the sound of the crashing waves with an overcast sky that mutes all the bright blues to grays and steely blues. 

Happy weekend!

Little Women quilt

If you've seen very many of my quilts, you'll know I definitely don't stick to a single fabric line when selecting fabric. It's not my style. I like quilts to be unique, to be me. Sometimes, it doesn't work out. This time, I think it did.

Last fall, I went to Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point with a friend. It was great, I had a great day. There was a small vendor area, and a local shop had a booth. They had a sample quilt with a kit for sale and even though it's not my usual style, and I really don't tend to go for kits, I just couldn't help myself! It was an economy block quilt with Little Women fabric by Jill Howarth. 

I very quickly determined it make it larger and drove to the local shop, about 25 minutes from my house. I was delayed about a week because I got really sick, and by the time I got there, they didn't have much fabric from the collection left. I intended to purchase a bit more of the focal prints to help make it larger. I ended up ordering some from Hawthorne Supply Co, one my go-to online shops. And of course pulled a bunch of fabric from my stash. 

When it came time to cut, I decided to make the economy blocks a bit bigger than the kit pattern, and I used a tutorial by Diary of a Quilter for the math.

I think I didn't get the layout perfect, I have clumps of darker ones, and sometimes the blocks aren't spaced as evenly as I'd like. Overall, though, I'm pleased with it. I backed it with coral minky and I think it will become a fast favorite of my girls. I ended up with another wavy binding, even though I was careful and I'm beginning to think that maybe it happens mostly with minky backed quilts...if that's the case, I'll just have to suffer through wavy bindings because I love minky just too much. Consequently, I have four little girls myself and relate to the Little Women story, so this quilt feels special. 

Fabric Friday Week 31: July 21

I had hoped to get some fabric friday posts scheduled before our trip, but that did not happen. I was just too busy getting ready, and even things I had hoped to get done around my house didn't happen. It's okay. We got the important things taken care of, we had a great trip, and we made it home safe and sound. I try to be safe since this is a public blog, even though I don't think anyone is actually following along, and didn't post details about our trip before because that's just not safe. It's not good for strangers to know when your house will be empty or when and where you'll be...so, I was vague, and I did schedule posts of projects I finished up for while we were gone so it would look like we were still around, maybe...not that anyone really pays attention here, but still.

So, we took our four girls on an adventure in France and London! We de-jetlagged in Paris for a few days before picking up a rental car in Rouen and driving to central Brittany where we did a week long moving on bike tour. It was hard and beautiful and lovely and I feel so accomplished. Hopefully the girls do too. After, we had a rental house in Brittany for a week, and then also briefly in Normandy before ending in London so we could see Wicked and Back to the Future (highly recommend!) and then arrived home again on Sunday. It was long, and I'm glad to be home, but there were some really great moments too.

So, a new bundle! I chose to start with a fabric I bought at Liberty in London from their sample sale. So, no selvage. It feels more like quilting cotton than their silky cotton lawn, which is just fine for my purposes, and after I asked for half a meter I instantly regretted it, but also reasoned that it really is plenty for me. It's the light blue with trees. I added in some other colors and I think it's a pretty decent combo. I also paired a similarly colored print from From-Frou in Paris, the one with lemons. It was fun to pick up some new prints in Europe and they feel extra special, especially the Frou-Frou ones because I can't buy them here. Odds are, I could probably find the Liberty prints, but the Frou-Frou are harder. 

Scrappy Sampler

I have returned from our long trip across the pond and am still sorting out jet lag, bah. I hate jet lag. This time has been especially rough, for some reason. Not sure why. We had a fantastic time, I got to do just a bit of sewy tourism when I stopped at Frou-frou in Paris and Liberty in London (and took in lots of inspiration in tile floors and colors, etc...) and I picked up a couple of UK sewing mags in the airport before our departure flight. Maybe I'll share more of that later, for now, I have a quilt I finished up a few days after we got home. 

I had picked up two quilts from my quilter a few days before we left, but didn't have time to bind them before our trip. I did have time to pick out binding fabrics, and I thought I needed to buy matching thread for one, but I ended up using some from my thread box luckily. 

The first one I finished is one I've blogged about before, here and here. I started making these sampler blocks way back in 2016, many of them from the Sampler Shuffle that was coordinated by Pat Sloan. I supplemented with some blocks from a Summer Sampler and some other traditional blocks, and then I had plans to try my hand at free motion quilting it on my domestic. I sashed it with a magenta from my stash that wasn't quite the best match but I didn't care because I knew it was a first go at FMQ and didn't expect much. I got the backing ready, and then it just sat. And sat. And sat. For years! I didn't really want to quilt it myself, and so I never made time for it. 

A few months ago, I was clearing out a drawer and found it and decided it was time to make a decision. Finish it or get rid of it. I opted to finish it, but it was really small because I was going to quilt it and wanted to start with a doable project. I'd say, crib size. I don't do crib size. So, I took it apart and then made another few blocks and made a bunch of hourglass blocks to set them with. That made it lap size, and I took it to my quilter, and here we are. The end! 

Haha okay, not really. What else about this quilt...well, I made it from scraps, in a narrow color scheme. I think most turned out pretty decent, some I really love. I'm happy to have this UFO done. I didn't realize it was as old as it is until I went looking for when I started it and realized it was 7 years old. I think I've been in a clean out mode, lately, I'm not sure why. But it's been really gratifying to use up fabrics I don't want anymore for scrappy backings, and to finish off spools of thread from my thread box, Which I did for the binding. And the backing on this quilt, consequently. I just didn't think of it initially because I did the backing months ago when I took it to my quilter. 

Scrap Pouf

I saw the free pattern on Closet Core for a scrap pouf and immediately wanted to make one. I've become somewhat self-conscious about my fabric waste over the past few years, and I've tried a few different things to mitigate all the waste. At first, I looked into recycling the scraps. I already try to be very judicious and save in my scrap bin anything usable, but that can get out of hand, and there's always something that gets cut off. Eventually, I learned that a local food pantry that takes donations also advertised that they could reuse or recycle textiles, so a few times, I dropped a bag of unusable scraps off, and included worn out kid socks and undies and things. But it was hard to verify that they actually recycled, and I felt a bit bad about that, saddling them with my trash. A friend told me about H&M's textile recycling program, but at the time its as paused for covid...and then I found this free pattern for the pouf and thought it would be a fun way to use up some scraps and upcycle unusable scraps. 

It came together pretty quickly, and the only changes I made were to fuse interfacing to the pieced center instead of interfacing individual pieces, and to make the side taller. I didn't think a short ottoman was what I wanted. I think interfacing pieces might have been smarter, but I don't think it turned out poorly. And, when I made it, I was at a sewing night with friends and had my serger out but not my domestic, so I only serged the seams. This turned out to be a bigger error, and I had to repair it. Which is why you're getting a blog post, honestly, since I actually made it a while ago. I reinforced the seam that burst, and did so with a shortened straight stitch and an additional pass with the serger, and then I also reinforced the top seam as well. 

While I was at it, I decided to try to restuff it. I've had problems with it not holding its shape and I worried this was because I used lighter weight material, although I think it wasn't forbidden in the pattern. I had already sewn up a sack for scraps using an old piece I no longer wanted, and I put that inside so that if I ever needed to wash it, or change out the scraps, they would be contained. But, there were also a whole slew of worn out kid socks I had just stuffed in there. I opted to remove the socks and old clothes and will take those to H&M to recycle next time I'm in the area, I'm still using that service for worn out clothes. I reserve the pouf space for fabric scraps. I'm saving up for my next pouf (and hopefully I'll have more luck on my second go!) but I also added a bunch today to fill it in. 

So, to help with the shape, I stuffed more scraps in, and tried to shake them down into the pouf. Then I pulled the excess fabric of the sack up as much as possible and instead of just knotting the end like I had, I took a long selvage and tied it around the base as tight as I could.

 SO, I hope that without much space to move in the sack, it will help the scraps keep their shape a bit better. So far, it looks promising. Fingers crossed! A word to the wise: a scrap stuffed pouf is HEAVY. Mine is all the heavier because it's taller, of course, but even still. Packed full of scraps, it's heavy. Just in case that wasn't obvious. :)

A New Two Zip Hipster

I wasn't planning on making any bags anytime soon. Bags aren't always my favorite thing to sew; any bag worth it's salt (well, most of them, anyway...) has a zipper and other hardware. I have a lot of zippers and hardware in my stash because I'm picky about them and buy extras whenever I need to buy some to maximize shipping and to make sure I can sew when I want without waiting for hardware. Plus, I tend to make the same patterns, or similar enough patterns, that I know what sizes of hardware I need. I buy my hardware on Etsy from Bag Maker Supply, who has a great selection, great quality, and good pricing. They have really professional looking stuff that makes bags shine. Anyway, the point is, sewing zippers and hardware aren't my favorite part. And, some parts of bags get awfully thick with layers of fabric and interfacing (also not my favorite...).

So, I wasn't planning on making any bags anytime soon. But, I switched out one day to my two zip hipster which I don't use very often because the linen I used is starting to wear on the top (grr...) and I remembered how much I love that size and style. And, then I saw an instagram post (can't remember who, sorry...) and they used a pair of worn out jeans to make a bag. But the real kicker was a few days later when my husband needed to discard a pair of dockers he'd worn holes in. We were rounding up bags of worn clothes to recycle at H&M, and I pulled them out, remembering the IG post. 

I still didn't have any intention of making a bag anytime soon, but then I found myself between projects. I'd finished my trip sewing, and I was waiting for an order of fabric before I washed a bunch for a quilt project. But I didn't want to just...not sew. So I decided a new two zip hipster from old, worn out dockers was just the ticket.

This is the leftover fabric after I harvested all the usable fabric...plus the zip and the buttons which I'll save for other potential projects.

And it was. I opted to use some of a hoarded Alison Glass panel for the front focal print, and then I used Alison Glass fabric I had for the interior as well. I had a hard time deciding on a lining fabric because I sort of wanted to use the pink floral that I used for the interior pocket for the whole interior, but I have already used it as a lining in a bag. The turquoise works great, too, and I really love how it turned out. I think the yellow zips are great, and I think overall, the bag turned out better than I expected. I'm really excited to start using it, and I hope it will be more durable than my beautiful linen one that I'm trying to not overuse. 

The two zip hipster pattern is by Dog Under My Desk and I absolutely love her patterns. They're more like tutorials with all the photos and detailed instructions, they're well-tested, functional, and she takes care to minimize bulk. I highly recommend her patterns. The only change I made was to NOT add as much interfacing. I did not interface the twill fabric, since it's pretty thick as it is (at least where it's not worn thin from years of wear...). I think that's it. I did use the sew in interfacing, because even though it's thick fabric, it's surprisingly flexible. Or whatever the right word is. I wanted just a bit more structure. I'm pleased with the end result, so I think I made the right call. I was really worried about the strap being too thick if I interfaced it, and I think it's just right. 

Travel Pouches

I always think I can just whip up a pouch and it will be totally fine. And when I'm not careful, I'm inevitably disappointed. They are simple, but they do require a bit of care and finesse. Case in point, one of my twins wanted to make something for my sister, just randomly. I figured I'd made enough pouches to help her through it without re-reading instructions, and we just went for it, using the zipper length as a guide for how big to cut the fabric. 

I neglected to topstitch the fabric next to the zipper, though, so it tends to get stuck...

See, just a bit of care. 

The other day, I had an idea for a travel solution. I want to take a some loose silverware on our trip. We'll be doing some picnicking, I'm sure, since it'll be easier with kids, but also we'll be buying plenty of pastries and I'd love to enable sharing by taking a butter knife. I looked at travel sets, but the knives look pathetic, and I realized that they're just smaller utensils in a zippered pouch, often made of silicone or similar. I realized I could easily make a pouch, and I have some oilcloth, and then use some old silverware.

I couldn't find my old silverware, but I was able to buy some really inexpensive silverware from Wal-Mart. We're talking 3 knives for $1.25. Cheap.

But I was nervous about making the pouches because I needed them short and long. And I didn't have a pattern for it specifically...and oilcloth is trickier than quilting cotton...

I measured the knife, and then used Sotak's Essential Pouch for loose directions. I didn't make a contrasting bottom panel, and just went for it. 

The first one turned out okay, but not great. I used a metal zipper, which I think look so great generally, but it was obviously an exact length and I think would have been better 1/2" longer. The second one I used a regular wide purse zipper, and I also made the boxed corners just a tad smaller. I think it turned out better. And now we have two, one for gluten free silverware, and one for non-GF silverware. Obviously, utensils can be washed, but they'll go in the pouch unwashed after use, which would contaminate the pouch. So, two.

I also tried to make a small coin purse. I found a great yoga style security waistband that you wear under your clothing, and I thought it would be more secure to keep credit cards in a pouch that would be less likely to fall out. It's pretty secure, but I haven't used it yet, and I can just see a slim credit card getting pulled out by mistake and misplaced, which is the exact opposite point of the waistband. So I used a tutorial from Sotak Handmade for a small coin purse. I found some coordinating scraps and it went together really quickly.

The only hiccup was the very end when I turned it out and needed to sew the opening closed. She had you baste the inside panel all the way around and then add the exterior panel and leave an opening for turning. I didn't see any point in basting, so I just went for it, but that meant both the interior and exterior had holes  that needed to be closed. But what really didn't make sense to me in reflecting is that she had the hole to turn on the exterior. I think it would make more sense to have it on the interior. If I make another one, I'd try that.

It's also a tad small for a credit card...but it's nice that it's so small, I guess? I am undecided on whether I'll take it or not. Or make a slightly larger one. *shrug* I am very worried about pickpockets this trip; Europe is reportedly more crowded than ever before, and I'll have four children I'll be trying to keep track of and manage. I'll be pretty distracted, which makes for a prime pickpocket target. So I want to protect myself as much as I can. We'll see! 

Scrap Quilts: Irish Chain Edition

I have far too many scraps. And I'm not very good at using them, not really. My problem is that I save pieces that are far smaller than I should because I *might* use them. I do, on occasion, use excessively small pieces, but not super often. Another problem I have is hoarding those scraps. If I have a large-ish scrap and I need a smaller piece, I'm loathe to cut it down if I cut off a large but not large enough piece, because then that piece I'm cutting off is wasted.

Yes, I have a problem. 

So, as you can imagine, I have a lot of scraps. I wanted to do a scrap quilt just as a quilt instead of my usual leaders and enders project this year (I have a great one going right now that I think will turn out so good!), and I saw a simple Irish Chain quilt in a monochrome color way with low volume scraps on Instagram somewhere. They're not groundbreaking, of course, so it could have been anywhere, but I think it might have been on A Crafty Fox, she has a lot like that. And I think Diary of a Quilter has a tutorial...

Anyway, I decided to wing it, because I know how to sew nine patches. And  I did it in aqua. I opted to sew with what I had, so some got sewn as strips and then subcut, and others got sewn together as individual squares. 

Against my better judgement, I decided to alternate the nine patches with single squares of fabric. I should have sewn nine patches together with just low volumes for the alternate squares, but in my head I thought that might get too busy. However, I think the way I did it is too plain. It did make it quick, though! 

I don't love this top. (It is fully sewn together, now, I just didn't get a pic of it while it was daylight before I folded it up and delivered it to the quilter...so you'll have to wait until it comes back!) AND, somehow I still manage to get blocks mixed up as I sew rows together. I ended up with a couple of background squares way too close together even though I did lay it out before I started...weird. I mean, weird that I clearly haven't figured out my method for getting rows to my sewing machine in order, even though I totally think I have, and I've been sewing quilts for a lot of years by now. Oh well, that's what seam rippers are for, eh?

I exclusively used scraps for this top, and I decided to use a piece of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I was given for the backing. It's a turquoise and it doesn't really match my aqua tones super well, though there are some that are a fair enough match, and it has yellow and red and pink and citrine flowers in sort of stripes. I didn't think about lining up the stripes before cutting and luckily I was able to flip one piece around and have it work out well enough...sigh. But, the backing was FREE, and I'm all about that for a scrappy project, lol

Fabric Friday Week 30: June 9

Summer is in full swing around here and my days are simultaneously so fast and also glacially slow. Why is that? I've never quite understood how that aspect of the time continuum works. My kids are keeping mostly busy, and mostly not fighting, which is always nice. And we're eating plenty of creamies and snow cones. 

Today's fabric bundle came from these nice blues. Two of them are from Jill Howarth's Little Women line, and of course I added in the green that matches perfectly, but then added in some other fabrics to round it out and make it mine. Because that's what I always do. I rarely use strictly one line, I find it too matchy, and not individual enough. I mean, the lines are great, and quilts made from single lines are beautiful, but they're not really me. And I like to express my creativity through quilts. Or at least, that's what I tell myself...

I find it interesting that it looks much different than I remember my economy block quilt looking. It's off being quilted right now, but it had lots of Little Women fabric in it, but lots of others as well. I don't think I pulled teal for that one, and it had some awesome butter yellows, but this one just feels different. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, who knows? 

I hope you're enjoying the summer! 

Sewing lanyards

Later this summer, we're heading to Europe with the girls. I'm really excited, we have some really fun things planned! We will be spending a few days in both London and Paris, though, and I know they are going to be PACKED. Europe is packed right now, and it's only going to get worse as the summer goes on. We've got reservations made for dinners in London and we've already purchased tickets and a few other reservations, so I'm not too worried about getting into what we're interested in doing, but I am a tad worried about walking around in busy crowds with our four kids. 

SO, we decided to use airtags to keep track of them. I was looking around for necklace holders, and couldn't find any that were simple but secure (some look awfully breakable...) and then it occurred to me: simple lanyards. We could attach the airtags to keychain holders, and then use keyrings on the lanyards. I let my girls each pick pretty much any fabric from my stash, since it would require so little fabric, and I whipped them up a few days ago.

I did some googling for basic measurements, but didn't end up using them. I cut strips 2-1/2" wide by WOF, and then I pressed them in half lengthwise and then pressed the ends into the middle. I stitched down both long sides and then kinda held it up and measured around my own neck, figuring if I could get over my head it would be more than plenty for the girls. I settled on cutting the strips 30-1/2". 

Once I cut them, I serged the two ends together so they wouldn't fray, fed the keyring on, and then did two lines of stitches across the ends, one close to the edge and one 1/4" closer to the keyring, with a short stitch length. And that's it! Super fast.

All the Good quilt

I'm finally posting this quilt because I finally bound it! I got it back from the quilter over a month ago, but I've been busy sewing t-shirts, and this just wasn't a priority. Also, I needed matching thread for my binding.

I bought this pattern at Quiltcon in Phoenix and loved the improv style. It took a while to piece because of trimming all those flying geese and half square triangles, and then layout took a while (and two go's if you read that blog post) and then I had to pick a binding...this just took a lot longer than a standard quilt, and that's okay. It's finished now.

I love it. I wish it were a bit bigger, and I'm sad that I've got another wavy binding, but I really like it. I love a lot of the prints I used, and the colors, and the radiating center, and the navy binding...I think it turned out great. The pattern is by Jittery Wings. I didn't love the format of her pattern, but I love how it turned out so I don't not recommend it. And I didn't make any mistakes, so it was not a bad pattern by any means.