Some little things

My guild had a pillow swap.  I waited until the last minute to complete mine.  My partner liked bright colors like orange, yellow, blue and green as well as Tula Pink and Cotton and Steel.

 At the PNW MQG Epic Meet Up, I won a 12 pack of the larger spools of Aurifil from Island Quilter.  Island Quilter had a pop up shop in the hotel and I decided that perhaps I should purchase my pillow fabric at that time.

I have a hard time conforming to some trends.   I've bought some Cotton and Steel prints, but won't say that I love it all.  So....I went searching through the Tula and CS and found the flower Tula print that there are three of in the bottom row (oops).  The print didn't have orange in it, but there were lots of good coordinating prints that I liked a lot.  I thought they were bright or at least not pastel or muted.

The pattern is from Tula's 100 block sampler book.  Someone else posted a picture that I saw using this block and I changed my mind as to what design I chose for the pillow.  Less negative space than the original design.  It was small enough I should have remembered that I wanted to try spiral quilting.  It is bound with the red lazy stripe from her True Colors line.

 I have a bunch of 2.5 inch strips cut from the pillow fabric so I can sew the strips together and make a quilt from Jaybird's Hexagon Quilt-a-long on the Old Red Barn flickr group.  I've wanted to make one like her Neptune quilt since the original quilt-a-long and just haven't gotten around to it.  No excuses when I finish up the quilting of the two Pacific Crests.....

Last year I bought some Notting Hill Home Dec fabric to make a friend a bag.  I finally got around to it last week and made three Spice Market Totes.  I managed to use nearly all of the Notting Hill fabric that I had and did not have to buy anything for the bags.  The bag above is the small size and went as a gift for a friend.  The bags below are the larger size.  I wish I had enough to make a matching exterior on the second bag, but I'll just favor one side when I use it.  The other side of the bag is the poppy print that matches the straps like this first picture below.

The three bags also used the majority of the bolt of Shape Flex interfacing that I bought about 2 years ago intending to make more Spice Market Bags as gifts.  Yay for me that I finally used it.  It makes me happy, those little things like not needing to buy anything to make the bags that were planned at least a year ago......

Look! Pillowcases and pouches!

I've sewn since March.  I've finished things since March.  I just haven't shared anything since then.  Work was much busier and I spent a lot of time weeding and attempting to remove invasive plant species from the yard.

While on vacation, my mother in law requested pillowcases to match the quilt I made her many years ago.  The quilt was made with Eva by Basic Grey.

Luckily, a quilt shop nearby had some of the prints left.  Most of them were the dark purple prints but there was one green one.  She also requested two twin sized quilts sometime before next year when we see them again.  The colors should match artwork she has on the wall and be muted.  I can understand people's reluctance to take on commissioned quilts.

It was also difficult to distinguish the colors from the photo she sent of the artwork.  I recommended that she look at fat quarter bundles and see which ones strike her fancy so I may choose one.

Fearful that she would not like the purple band on the bottom quilt after her request for muted colors, I bought some green grunge fabric and used the leftovers to make the upper pillowcase.  They are now sent and she has two options to use, or she can purchase some off white pillowcases that would coordinate with the Kona Snow used on the quilt.  

And way back during Teacher Appreciation Week, I chose to make pouches for the kids' teachers and assistants.  I let the kids have limited choice for fabric selections that coordinated with the zippers I had on hand.  

I am looking forward to a year or two in which the kids don't have 3 or more teachers or assistants for each of them.  Or, I need to start now for next year.

Tree Pants!

During blog perusal this past month, I saw Monica Solorio-Snow's Tree Pants post.  Silly me decided to add another project to the list to finish before Christmas.  Or after.   Or before next Christmas.  With a selection of scrappy reds and greens, I made a set of pants for the tree following the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.  Instead of making bias binding, I purchased some.  I wish I would have just used all red but for some reason I decided to buy one of each at the store.  The green is mostly in the back of the tree.

 Perhaps now I will finish the other advent calendars for next December.

Lunch bags and Salt Water

Sewing has taken a back seat to yard work this week.  But in anticipation of going back to work and the school year starting, new lunch bags were in order.

Using Ayumi's tutorial, I made 5 lunch bags.  My mom took hers to her house before I took pictures.  Someone in this house might have watched The Incredibles this summer and has a bit of a super hero fascination.  The saga of Lightning Girl and Thunder Boy has been a common story this summer.  

Then I needed to make some sandwich and snack bags to go inside the lunch bags.  I have more of these cut out but haven't put them together yet.  I tried finding all the random cuts that were mixed in with my stash and use them for snack bags.  

And, for a green loving resident of this house, I cut into my Salt Water FQ and am making him a lap quilt using the Road to Tennessee block.  My Salt Water squares are 4.5" and the green squares are 2.5".  I like that proportion I think.  I did sew 1/2 inch away from the diagonal and am saving all the HST from that for some unknown project.  This one will probably be backed in minky so there is a minky quilt for each child and fighting over the Fruitcake one can stop.  

I'm not looking forward to drawing the double lines on each of the 400+ squares left.  But, I might be more excited about that than pressing and trimming the extra HST.  

Besides quilting, I've been sewing

lots of clothes for 2 six year olds.  

An Oliver and S. Family Reunion dress.  

 There are pintucks on the front which intimidated me for a long time.  They weren't as bad as I thought they would be.  I need to find different buttons for the front since they blend in so well that they aren't noticeable.  The fabric is a Timeless Treasures print bought last summer.

Oliver and S Badminton Skorts.

 Two of the skorts have the scalloped hem and two do not.  I like the detail but since my daughter is living in these this summer, I didn't want her to wear exactly the same design every day of the week.  Starting from the top left and going clockwise, Hex Bee in Yellow from Briar Rose, Goodies from Alexander Henry, Felicity (perhaps?), and Boho.  I made one more skort but that is 60 miles away with the other 6 year old.  There is a wide variety in the feel of different quilting cottons.  The Alexander Henry print seems a lot more sturdy than Briar Rose.  We'll see how well it stands up to quality testing over the course of the next year or so.

Class Picnic Blouse from Oliver and S.

This was coveted by my own 6 year old which led to the skort above in the same print.  Goodies by Alexander Henry.

Now that the Family Reunion dress is done and the two skorts, I need to gather my guts and try to sew with knits.  No excuses.  No projects that have to be done right now to give my reasons to procrastinate sewing with knits.  And one more week before work starts again.

Scruffily pillow

Today, my daughter and I sewed a new pillow cover.  She chose the fabrics and ran the machine while I guided it and told her when to stop and start.  It was a nice and simple project to complete during the weekly grocery shopping trip.  

Using the Scruffily Pillow Tutorial by Rachel of P.S. I Quilt.  We just added a small heart and attached it with fusible web before sewing it down.

2 finished, 1 to go.... and some trees

I spent last weekend trying to make some trees with measurements that could be manageable for 5th graders to sew as part of an art project.  The artist who is helping them is trying to recreate Jinny Beyer's Enchanted Forest quilt.  Not being a big fan of sewing long rows myself and thinking that each student probably would like to have the satisfaction of making one tree, I suggested blocks instead of rows.  We quickly eliminated the tops of one tree being a part of the bottom of the next tree.  I sent measurements, directions and the sample blocks but am waiting to hear back from her as to whether or not she liked any of the tree sizes.  

 My Starburst quilt a long quilt is complete and sent to my SIL.  It reached her during the arctic front so hopefully she was able to curl up and look out at the cold from the comfort of her house.  I wasn't a big fan of the fabrics at first but I really like it.  Totally possible to complete this in a weekend if I were to ignore the other residents of my household which I did not do.

Fabrics: Moda Snow and Northcott Gold Leaf Metallic
Pattern: Starburst by Melissa Corry (the 32" block size)
Quilted by me with a smaller meandering stipple
Backing: Ivory flannel by Kaufman

Size: About 76 x 76"

Nephew #1's  quilt was also finished over the MLK holiday weekend.  My normal quilt holder fractured his foot so we had to trade roles for the picture.  First I present the back.....

 And then the front.

Pattern: Ring Toss by Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck, Sew

Finished size:  about 66 x 90"
Fabrics:  Nature and Oval Elements, Metro Living, Stof, Michael Miller Ikat,  Dear Stella (the red with white), Odyssea and Kaufman Spot On in Cardinal.  Backing is a Dear Stella print.
Quilted by: me with meandering loops

Even though this involved sewing the rows vertically, and I don't enjoy sewing long rows if I can help it, I would be more than willing to make this again.  It went together pretty quickly after the cutting and the directions were well written.  

Nephew #2 finally has a quilt top completed and the backing is pieced.  Hopefully I can get it basted tomorrow and then quilt it this week.  This is based on Round and Round but with modifications to make it larger and to use the 6.5" squares from the failed attempt at Bizzy Kid.

I separated each block into nine patches and then sewed them together rather than sew rows.  That's just my preference.  I think part of it has to do with having small helpers who like to pick up pieces.  This was not an easy one to put together with helpers around.  I was so close to having 3 finishes within the month of January!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day!

Staples, glue and sewing

 My quilt group at work had two baby quilts to make this fall.  The second one we decided would be Interlocking Stars/Sparkle Punch using Superstar by Riley Blake.  I am not assembling or quilting it.

 The first one used up some random fat quarters from Joann, Kona Sky and Animal Alphabet from Moda on the back.  The layout was decided by my 5 year old with a lovely monologue about the boy blocks and the girl blocks sitting at school.  I wish I would have recorded it to keep.

 

  A Broken Herringbone block for Joelle.

My first real experimentation with the glue gun, a fabric ornament from V. and Co. tutorial.  I learned that the low temp $3 glue gun is worthless and am waiting to try again with my mom's spiffier glue gun. I'm now thinking it might be time to invest in a glue gun.

The string pillow with the leftovers from the charm packs used for the ornaments.  

The staple gun was pulled out to finally attach some of the prints from Cosmos by Laura Gunn to a few canvases.  Hopefully it won't take me as many months to actually get them mounted on the wall.

And now back to the staple gun.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Sherbet Pips quilt top, another lunch bag, borders sewn on Quilt for a Smile (no picture yet and a bit wonky with bias edges), and maybe we should repaint that wall.

A bag

Same co-worker that I will help make a quilt for her daughter liked my lunch bag.  Since her birthday was not too long ago, I asked her daughter what her favorite color was and made her a lunch bag using this tutorial.  I'm not sure she'll use it as a lunch bag, but that's ok.  And now more people from work want to learn to quilt.  Should be fun.

And here are the first two blocks that I was going to use for Pat Bravo's Quilt for a Smile.  After cutting and pasting the images in Word, I decided that the yellow was a bit too much so I think I will take off the outer border of color and add Kona Snow instead.  And I think I'll make some blocks with just Snow instead of a color border.  I'll do more organization tomorrow.