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......

Pacific Crest quilts

The two Pacific Crest (sort of) quilts for my in-laws.  Rows are now assembled, but not sewn together.  How much could I complete without needing to iron something....

And since I waited a few more days to post things, now both of the tops and backing are pieced, and one of the quilts is basted.  It's not getting quilted this weekend.  Do I have enough pins to risk starting to baste the second one?  hmm....

Bizzy Kid

Here's to blogging the already finished quilts.  Some time in January or February, I started making this Bizzy Kid quilt (pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew).  I've tried making this pattern once or twice before but I did not do a very good job of noticing values of fabrics.  The results were a jumbled mess because the fabrics did not contrast each other.  

When we got back from the visit to the shore in 2014, I wanted to make a quilt for the new beach house.  My idea of beach house decor and colors is different from my sister-in-law.  Green, blues, yellow, orange and gray (for the rocks and sand of Washington beaches).  I also really like Kate Spain's Sunnyside collection for the colors she chose, and used that palette to pull fabrics that I had.

The fabrics sat in a box for months, waiting to become something.  And finally, they did.  The fabrics are mostly ones that I had in the stash.  I did need to add a bit of aqua fabric to the stash to account for binding, and because I didn't have quite enough.   I can see Oval Elements, Pearl Bracelets, Simply Style, Secret Garden, Ty Pennington Impressions, Mingle, Central Park, Hope Valley, DS Quilts, and some other random fabrics that I do not know what they are.

 The backing is a Michael Miller flannel from Les Amis I believe.  This quilt makes me like the quality of Michael Miller flannel.  I quilted loops all over it and it is approximately 60x60".

I adopted this quilt as my own at first, but my second child wanted to have his own quilt for story times and has since adopted it for himself.  The color scheme might be seen again on another quilt soon as I cut 2.5" strips from the remaining fabric.  We'll see what "soon" means.

Kids' Clothes Week

The official Kids' Clothes Week was way back in June, the week of our cross country vacation.  It wasn't practical to tote sewing supplies on the plane or to set up at the beach house.  Although it was slightly amusing that the theme for this time around was traveling.  The goal is to sew 1 hour a day for 7 days.  Not so much.  Instead, this week I crammed as many hours of sewing as possible to try to get my to do list complete.  Without further ado, the fashion show.

All four of the shirts are short sleeve Oliver and S School Bus t-shirts, view A.

Green Stars from Lillestoff.  Size 5.  Length was as long as I could make it with the half meter of fabric I had.

Penguins, Size 5 cut with the size 6 length.  I turned the bottom hem up half the distance to the size 5 cut line.  The hem is tending to flip up rather than stay flat.  The Dino shirt with the larger hem seems to stay better.  Note to self for next time to make shirt longer and have a larger hem.

Machines.  Size 5 same as the Penguin shirt for the hem.

Dinosaurs.  Size 5 cut with size 6 length.  Bottom hem was about 3/4 inch.

I borrowed my sister's serger, but ended up doing most of the sewing on my own machine, including seam finishing.  The seam allowance is just 1/4", and although I reduced the stitch width on the serger, it would have been nice to make the serger stitch just a little narrower.  Chalking it up to inexperience and an unwillingness to experiment much with my sister's baby.  I did use the serger for the seam finishing on the woven fabrics.  That was wonderfully fast.

Roller Skate size 10.  Turned up the bottom hem just by 1/4" rather than the 1/2" in the pattern.  I should have added some length.  Matching pair of Sunny Day Shorts size 10.  Made with a lovely seersucker print from Chez Ami.

Sunny Day Shorts size 5.  Someone was complaining about the lack of clothes for him so I made a pair of shorts out of a green and white seersucker from Chez Ami.  He doesn't seem to like them much.

Sunny Day Shorts size 10.  No modifications.

Badminton Skort Gallery.  All size 10.  All are just a bit too big.  These really are a staple in her wardrobe.

Cosmos by Laura Gunn.  Made as pattern specified with scalloped hem.

Prince Charming by Tula Pink.  Straight hem.  1 inch added to skirt for half inch hem.  No facing.  Grosgrain ribbon attached at bottom hem.

Alexander Henry Luca.  Straight hem with facing attached.  Need to garnish with a ribbon when I find a matching one.

Corduroy Denyse Schmidt.  Straight hem.  1 inch added to skirt for half inch hem.  No facing.

Leila and Ben Sweet Little Dress, Anna Maria Horner Pastry Line voile.  Size 10 with a lot of length added as it is a nightgown.

I should feel good that most items in the older one's closet are made by me, or they are plain t-shirts (that are purchased and I'm ok with that).  I don't feel that it is necessary to make everything for her and am perfectly willing to buy leggings, tights and coordinating t-shirts.

I think I have two or three more items to make, but I am waiting until I finish the Composition Book Cover for the swap at the PNWMQG meetup this week.  Procrastination.... (which is now finished as it took a day to take and post the pictures for the clothes.)

Adorla for the shore

My husband's family goes to the New Jersey shore every year.  As a thank you, I am making or have made  quilts for the house.  After seeing the Pacific Crest quilt in the room, I wish I would have made it with a whiter background color.  The chamois color is too yellow in the room although there is that shade in their decor as well.  It just isn't the dominant color.

The decor for the downstairs was more problematic in my mind.  The left was what was sent to me and the right is a pillow from Pottery Barn that reminds me a little of the color scheme, but would need to be a little less color and a little more of the neutral to fit in to the room.  (And wow, I did not realize how much a pillow costs from Pottery Barn.)



Now my color choices are not perfect for the room, but I decided that Carolyn Friedlander's fabrics might be a good starting point because they are fairly neutral heavy.  I didn't feel like I should make anything that outshines the ottoman or stands out in the room.  The curves on the print for the ottoman made me want to use curves on the quilt, but I didn't want to over-commit myself to difficult sewing that might take forever this summer.  I hadn't really sewn curves with precision (improv curves don't count).

Angela at Cut to Pieces, released her free pattern on the Robert Kaufmann website shortly before we left on vacation.  While we were there, I kept thinking about it.  Lots of negative space, not super busy pattern, shouldn't stand out too much in the decor.

So, after clearing an unfinished project or two off the plate, I started the quilt yesterday and finished today.  I did not have to use the seam ripper either.

 Directions for the pattern were pretty easy to follow.  I made templates as I do not have an Accuquilt.  I either did not cut my long strips accurately or had some other problem as I had to piece about an inch or so to both of the long strips to make them match the pieced part.  The colors of the crosshatch were chosen by the eldest child with symbolism narration included.  "This represents the color of the grasses.. the moon...the water...sand......" for each and every selection.  Each had it's own complete sentence said in a melodramatic tone.

  This is the background fabric from Doe.  Still not easy to tell which print it is.  The quilting choice was the mundane meandering stipple, but I really like it.  I should remove the negative value judgement that I am being lazy when I choose that for quilting.

No pictures of the back as it is simply some Kona Butter that I had on hand and more of the Doe fabric from the front.  Binding is also in the Doe fabric so it doesn't stand out.  The quilt is approximately 50x60" and I did not come up with a plan to make it any bigger than the pattern.

This was a fun and easy finish and now I should go back to completing some WIP quilts.

Arts Walk Quilt finished three months after the fact

Back in early March or late February, I finished this quilt top with the intention of finishing the whole quilt in time for the guild exhibit at the local Arts Walk in April.  The Coral pattern was a free download by Angela Walters.

But it sat, unfinished and untouched while I debated how to quilt it.  It seemed to need spiffy quilting and I just wasn't up for spiffy quilting.  And the deadline for the exhibit passed and I still didn't touch it.  Last month I finally basted it and then thought about how to quilt it.  Yesterday, I finally committed the time to quilt it.  Today it is machine bound and washed.

My quilting is only somewhat spiffy in my mind, just five wavy lines that follow the pattern of each block.  They are not so straight, but flow, like water.... It is a step above loops or meandering stipple.

The quilt came together relatively quickly and painlessly. The guild rules stated that we could add solids but only use the given Anna Maria Horner print.  I pulled coordinating solids from the print using Pink Chalk's What Goes with What feature and Hawthorne Thread's Field Study page.  I believe the main background is Kona Indigo.  FS Cosmic Blue, Purple and Cotton Candy, AG Crystal Pink and Parisian Blue, Kona Alegria and Lupine, Michael Miller Mint, Starfruit and Venus.    There might be one or two others but I am unsure at this point and my record keeping was not so good.

I deviated from the pattern just a bit by making it bigger.  I'm not sure if it is a problem that I have in wanting to make quilts large enough for beds and not just lap quilts.  This is approximately 64 x 88 I think.  Perhaps it also has to do with the size of most people in the family.  A 70 inch quilt really doesn't cover one's toes extremely well when one is 69.5 inches.  By then, it is close enough to being twin size, may as well make it a little bigger.

 The back is an American Made Brand solid, maybe dark aqua, paired with a print from Denyse Schmidt's Shelbourne Falls in Lilac.

I will keep working on sharing the backlog or projects that were completed between March and now.  Definitely not as many finishes as in the previous year.  It will get better.  

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.