Supernova Quilt

The bandwagon is a real thing, and it fuels the quilting industry. We all feel the pressure to make all the pretty things, in the latest must-have fabrics, which seem to come out at an ever-faster pace. I have a closet full of good intentions: fabrics I had to have, haphazardly organized by color with assorted stacks pulled out for future projects. At any moment, I have 3-5 quilt projects in my queue, which doesn't include the other projects I have planned, some with fabric purchased/selected, some waiting for just the right moment. My stash has finally reached the stage of burdensome, where it doesn't fit in my drawers any longer and it feels heavy--like I need to put a dent in it. Truthfully, I sew almost entirely from my stash. It's kind of awkward when a well-meaning, friendly employee asks what I'm making while she cuts my purchases. I rarely shy away from saying my stash, and I try to not feel badly about that because when it's time to make a quilt, I don't go to the shop to buy what I can find that hopefully will be perfect--I open my drawers and audition fabric I already have. It makes my quilts so personal, a reflection of my stash and my preferences.

Come Bind with Me (A machine binding tutorial)

I have made over 50 quilts over the past 15 years and I can hardly believe it! I was reflecting on that, and how much my binding skills have improved, as I finished the binding on my Picture Perfect Snap Happy quilt. My bindings still aren't perfect and I know I can see the flaws, but they're so much better and I'm really happy with them. I feel like I've found a good balance of secure and good enough. I choose to machine bind for a couple reasons. First, it's faster. By the time it comes to binding, I want to snuggle with my quilt, and not while I'm hand sewing on the binding. Second, I don't enjoy hand sewing. I have started English Paper Piecing, but that's really it. I loathe appliqué. I tolerate hand binding on mini quilts and really special quilts not meant to be used hard, and only if they don't have minky. And third, machine binding is more secure. My quilts are for loving, and with four girls they get loved. And occasionally used for forts. 

As I thought about it, I realized I've developed my own preferences for binding and that maybe it would help you if you're still figuring out what you like and how to get your binding to place where you're happy with it. If you're looking for show quilt binding tips, this is not it. But if you want to be happy with secure and even machine binding, keep on reading!

Picture Perfect (A Snap Happy pattern)

When I saw the Pen and Paper Snap Happy pattern release, I had to have it! I was so excited about it. I love photography and I felt like it would a great quilt to showcase some fun travel prints. Or, to use her tutorial to print some of my own travel photos onto fabric and have a real memory quilt. I was so excited I bought the pattern at Sewtopia in Milwaukee, even though I had no intention of sewing it during the trip.

I quickly decided on using Rifle Paper Co fabrics, because their Bon Voyage line had come out just about a year ago. I knew it would be perfect. I opted to fussy cut the feature prints and I also added in a few prints from other lines and I really love all of them. Because I was so excited about this pattern, I made it pretty quickly, for me, anyway! I didn't manage to participate in the sew along, but within a year of the release is still pretty quick for me. I'm usually pretty late to the party. 

I realize the camera colors look a lot like the colors she used for the cover quilt. And I did draw inspiration from them for sure, as much as I wish I could say it was all me. BUT, I color matched with the prints I chose. She provides exact Kona color matches in the pattern, and I didn't use that at all. 

The camera block was a lot harder than I expected, and while I tried to be precise, I definitely should have been a bit more careful. I'm glad it turned out as well as it did! It took several hours. I'm glad the polaroid blocks were so quick. I did opt to add another row to the bottom and the side to make it larger because I like big quilts. It increased the number of blocks by almost 50%, which was a lot, but it meant I had more space to use the prints I had, which I loved. 

This was the first Pen and Paper pattern I have made and I have to admit I didn't love her instructions. I found her cutting instructions to be frustrating. I felt they could have been written more clearly, but mostly I felt they were very inefficient. Which meant I spent a lot of time cutting, trying to get the pieces out of my fabric as economically as possible. Still, her patterns are adorable and I'll probably buy her Book Nook pattern soon, because it's really one of the cutest book quilts out there. And...I wouldn't be surprised at all if I made another Snap Happy. I really would like to try printing my own photos and using those. 

Curio Quilt

Every Christmas, our sewing gang has a favorite things gift exchange. There are only four of us, so we buy a favorite for everyone. Last year, Kat gave everyone charm packs of the Curio collection by Rifle Paper Co. I LOVE Rifle Paper, so I was really excited to get it and sew with it! Curio probably isn't my favorite Rifle collection, but those books are dreamy. I feel like Curio kinda had a bit of a retro vibe with the sunflower print; who wasn't obsessed with sunflowers in the nineties? They were everywhere! 

I don't use precuts often at all, but I really wanted to use this charm pack and show off the great prints. So I settled on recreating a quilt I had seen at Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point. It offset half square triangles so they were sprinkled all over the quilt, and it I felt like it was a really fun, modern way to show off prints. 

I opted to use Essex linen for the background and the backing and the binding. I wanted the texture to really add to it, since it was such a background-heavy quilt. I went for a yarn-dyed seafoam green, and I think it's perfect. 

Using an entire collection can be hard because they usually include low volume and/or prints with white backgrounds, which make it difficult to pick a background color that will adequately show the quilt design. This green I thought worked great. I pulled it from some of the prints, but it's different enough from all the backgrounds of the prints that you can see the design well. 

It went together pretty quickly and I really like it! I swapped out some charms that weren't my favorite and added in some extra book fabric, because, hello, books. :)

And I took pictures of it using tips from Matante Quilts, who recently hosted a mini webinar about quilt photography while she prepares for her next workshop on photography. I can't believe how much better they are!

Tiles Take Two

Right now, I don't actually have a leaders and enders project prepared, because I can't seem to pick one. I'm using my slow project (which has roughly 4 million curves) as leaders and enders, but I hope to get a new one picked soon. I got my last one bound, and it's making me feel even more pressure to get a new project picked already! :)

This quilt is my most recent leaders and enders, and I used the Sunset Tiles pattern by Jeni Baker in Scraps, Inc. Vol 1. I've made the pattern before but I messed up while assembling and some of the rows are sewn together incorrectly, which messed up the pattern and made it pretty out of square. I love that quilt, though, and I wanted to have another go to try and get it assembled correctly. It's set on point, and it was the first time I've done a quilt on point, so it's understandable I messed up, but still disappointing. 

Plus, the pattern is a great one for leaders and enders. It's simple to sew, the pieces are a great size to use up scraps, and color placement within blocks is a non-issue, making it pretty perfect for a leaders and enders.

I made this version a bit larger, and like my others, I backed it with denim to make it more durable for picnicking. I don't love the colors quite as much as the first one I made, but a friend on IG said it's cheerful, which I think is a great way to describe it. 

Fringe Dress

I want to like sewing clothes more than I do. I'm so tall it's hard to find things that fit properly, and it's nice to be able to make something you want instead of trying to find it. But, quilting really has my heart. Still, I sew clothes somewhat regularly, and this is my most recent make. 

I bought the Fringe dress pattern (finally hopping on that train, it's such a popular pattern!) during a sale at Chalk and Notch. I was specifically looking for a pattern to use for a cut of linen I was given by Harmony Fabric in Provo for winning a giveaway! I won 3 yards, and it's such a lovely light blue linen. Since I'm tall, I had to be careful about pattern selection, since I need to add so much length generally, I couldn't risk running out of fabric. The fringe dress was well within the fabric requirements, I think it specifies only 2-1/2 yards or so, so I felt like I'd have plenty. Plus, there are so many fringe dress pictures on the internet in all sorts of different fabric selections, and I felt confident it would look great in my linen. I snagged a paper copy during a sale they had, and eventually got around to sewing it. 

Honestly, I think this is among the quickest I've ever sewn up a planned project, haha. I got the fabric in April, and I sewed up the dress a few weeks ago, in August. I tend to stock up on fabric and/or patterns when they're on sale and then sew them when I'm feeling inspired or need it for a specific reason.

Maybe my reason just came up quicker than usual; I made it for family pictures, which we just did a few days ago. 

Part of the reason I dawdle is I dislike making muslins. I know it's so important and definitely not wasted time, but it feels like it. And, half the reason I like to make clothes is so they fit me, but what that means is often I don't fit in a straight size, so then I have to decide which size to start with, etc etc. And then tracing the pattern...I don't love prep work. 

Still, I persevered, and added the length I thought I'd need to check, and was pleasantly surprised it fit pretty well straight out of the envelope. So, I set about making it in the linen. 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it. I opted to straighten the hem out, and I made the v-neck with buttons and added the sleeve tabs. I love that I didn't have to adjust the neckline at all for good coverage (I'm not into showing off cleavage, sorry! I get cold, what can I say?), and I love the ties detail. I opted to add mine to the back darts because it seems like such an interesting detail. However, now that I've made it, I think I probably should have made it a size larger. I was really thrown off because the muslin (and the dress) genuinely look like the right size. It doesn't feel too snug when I wear it, except for perhaps across my arm, but that's easily explained by the drop sleeve construction. HOWEVER--because the buttons only extend to the waist, which is flatteringly situated just a bit above your true waist, the opening isn't *quite* big enough to comfortably put on and take off. I kinda feel like a gymnast every time I wear it, and I'm always worried I'm going to pull something (I am 40, after all...) or rip it. It might be my fault--I left in the basting stitches from gathering the skirt. But, I don't logically think it would do that. If I could take them out easily now and check, I would, but I serged the seam so it's nice and finished. I don't think those stitches are coming out, haha. Once I really struggled, I realized that most dresses take the opening down past the waist, so I feel like it's a slight design flaw and I'm surprised no one else has complained. 

The other disappointing thing about this dress is actually the fabric. When I got it, it was so soft, I was so excited to wear it. And it IS very soft. But, it is a deadstock linen and I'm learning that you just need to be careful with deadstocks. This one had some really thin spots where the weave was uneven and just thin. So I carefully cut around it as best I could. But it just seems like kinda shoddy fabric, which I find really disappointing. I'm really glad I won it in a giveaway and didn't purchase it, because I would have been upset at the quality. I don't know how long it will last with the quality of the fabric, but I really like the dress even still and will probably make another. It wasn't a difficult sew at all, and again I love the neckline and the ties detail. 

Birds of a Feather (a Glare quilt)

I've finally finished my quilt from Sewtopia! Latifah Saafir taught her Glare quilt pattern, and I was excited about it. Latifah's patterns are graphic and modern, and I already had several patterns and templates. When I decided on fabric for the project, I wanted to make sure I used a focal print that the large centers would really show off. I opted for Tula Pink's Daydreamers flamingos. And from there, it just kinda snowballed. I ended up using exclusively Daydreamers fabric for the quilt, and even used Tula Pink solids for the alternating blades and background. I don't think I've EVER made a quilt from exclusively one line. I always mix in other fabrics even if it is primarily from one fabric line. But I don't often use Tula Pink fabric. When my friends saw my quilt, they said how unlike me it was. I disagree, I think, but I can see where they are coming from. Even thought the Daydreamer line doesn't have the garish clashing colors that some of Tula's lines have, it is ALL BRIGHT, and my quilts tend to be at least a little tempered. 

I really love how it turned out, though, and my kids fight over it right now, even though I backed it with a Tula wide back instead of the usual minky. I love how the rounded corners give it a little extra something, and that it wasn't that hard to bind. 

This quit pattern was a fun one to sew and went together relatively quickly. The blocks are large. It does take some finessing, some getting used to the technique, and I did do some unpicking. It's interesting that on curves, the way you iron (whether toward the curve or away from the curve) can impact the puckering, and not every circle was the same. 

I would definitely make this pattern again. I loved how it turned out and would love to try out some different fabric choices. I used the background fabric as some blade fabric as well on a couple of the blocks and hoped it would blend into the background to make it appear more spiky, and I'd love to try that with all the blocks, to give it a feel like the suns we all used to draw in elementary school. I think that would be cool.