Summer Pattern Testing

Over the summer, I was able to pattern test The Alice Quilt Pattern for Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting.  I was sooo behind on turning my notes in to her - I had been battling a headache and got started late and then spent the whole day sewing and still didn't manage to get done on top.  I felt so horrid about it.  I'm usually a last minute turner-iner, anyway, but this was completely past due.

Anyway, if I have the time and I like the pattern, I always say yes when Erica asks for testers.  Her patterns are always very well written.  I highly recommend them!

I made this quilt from a fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I had won quite a few years ago in a giveaway from Pink Castle fabrics (I think). The darker border fabric also came from my stash.  I had to buy the lighter background fabric and I also bought a fabric to be used for binding.

You should know that this quilt is still not finished.  I have to see if I have enough AMH fabric in my stash for the backing.  I've already purchased a pack of Quilter's Dream Cotton Request loft batting to use for it.  I want this to be a light quilt to be used for last spring/early summer napping.  I also think it would be less bulky if I want to drag it along on a road trip or something of that sort.

So (Sew) Much to Report

There has been so much happening around here, I'll see how much I can recreate.  I'm thinking I may need to make several posts.

I just decided to go poking back through my photos and start where I left off.  So this should be chronological, but may also be a bit random.


These first two photos are of the spot where the house I grew up in used to stand.  They pushed it in sometime in the spring, after my last post.  Obviously bittersweet.  This was the only house I lived in prior to going away to college and then moving to the area I live in now.  My grandparents lived across the back yard from this house and in fact one of my brothers now lives in that spot where my grandparents live.

We had a Chicago Sewing Social meet-up at Benzie Design.  Their shop is so gorgeous with all of the felt lined walls and bins of felt balls.  They also carry little kits.  These were needle felting kits that a couple of us bought and worked on.  I think mine is the one on the left.  I also bought some felt balls and made the necklace in the second photo.  It was super easy to make.  I'm looking forward to colder weather when it will be easier to wear a necklace made with wool balls.

This is a quilt that I made when pattern testing for Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting.  This is a version of The Linda Quilt.   I find Erica's patterns to be really well written and would certainly recommend any of them.  I ended up gifting this quilt to my cousin's baby girl.  I was sewing the top together on the day she was born and then the quilt decided it was just meant for her.

Hmmm... just realized that I am at the end of the photos that I loaded into this post, so I will end here for now.  It's late, so I'll try for more posts in the following days.

Struggling

I've been struggling to find my sew-jo since I last posted.  Those shopping bags are STILL not finished.

In the last week, I just decided to move along to something else and come back to the bags after I get going again.

I saw that Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k handmade had released a new pattern, the Nina Wristlet.  I really love look of the wristlet, so I bought the pattern and ordered the same little swivel snap hooks that she had used, too.  I chose this Kokka cotton/linen fabric that I had in my stash.  The wristlet turned out super cute, if I do say so myself.  The making of the wristlet was not without "problems," user created problems, that is.  I did not read through the entire directions before I started and had the card side of the interior all sewn before I realized that I was supposed to interface each of the pieces before sewing them together.  Well, I just modified and put interfacing behind the sewn piece.  It worked out okay, but the card slots could really use the extra stability, so don't make the same mistake I did.

Yesterday, I made up this baby blanket to send to my cousin and his wife.  They are expecting a new baby any day now.  It's been quite some time since they have had a little one (their two older children are 17 and 13-and this baby was planned), so I wanted to send them something to welcome their baby girl.  I bought some double gauze from Japan in the fall and as soon as I had it in my hands, I knew it wanted to be backed in a pink knit and become a baby blanket.  I just squared up the ends of the double gauze, cut off the selvage, rounded the corners and stitched and flipped it, then top stitched twice.  It's really soft and I kind-of wish that I had an adult sized version for myself.

Next up on my agenda is a pattern test of a baby-sized quilt.  I was picking fabrics tonight.  We'll see how well what I pulled looks in the light of day.  

Hodgepodge of Sewing

These last few days, I am feeling very accomplished!

I managed to finish a UFO, test a pattern, and go to a class at my LQS (and finish my project!).


First up, the UFO.  When it's just my husband and I, I like to have us use cloth napkins.  I made some on a whim a while ago and using them has just sort-of stuck.  A while ago (at least a year), I bought a long length of this fabric on a clearance pile.  I used part of it for a tote bag and then cut up a bunch for cloth napkins... and then never sewed the napkins.  Well, in a recent clean-up of the craft supplies, the cut fabric was un-earthed.   If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you should be able to see the pretty mitered corner on the napkin on the bottom.  I love the mitering and think it makes them look so much more polished.

Over the weekend, I was able to test this pattern for Samantha.  It is The Gentleman's Wallet.  Although, you can see from my photos that I made mine into a feminine version.  I must say that I am always delighted when I am able to test a pattern for Samantha.  I know before I ever look at the pattern that it's going to be well written.  I also know that I love her style of bag/pattern construction. This wallet sews up very quickly, too.  I think all of the testers (and Samantha) agreed that cutting, fusing and sewing can pretty much be done in 3 hours.  I would imagine that you could even get it down to a smaller amount of time once you've made a couple of them.

Just today, I took a class at my LQS to learn how to make these clothesline bowls.  I am completely tickled with how my bowl turned out!  I didn't quite finish it in class, but set up promptly when I got home and finished it right up.  One of our supplies was this book, "It's a Wrap."  

I was glad to have the live instruction on how to start and switch fabrics, and the ending, too.  In the book, the author recommends using a fabric glue stick to secure the fabric when you are transitioning from one to the other.  However, our teacher recommended Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue.  It only takes a very small dot of glue to secure the fabric long enough to be able to stitch it together.  I propped up my phone in the second photo to try to give you a little perspective.  When I measured, the diameter of the base of my bowl was about 5 inches and the diameter at the top was about 8 inches.  

Now, I just have to figure out what I want to use this bowl for :)  I can see that these would be nice to make as Christmas gifts, or even to make gift baskets (if you made the bowl just a bit bigger).

My Summer is in Sight!

Friends, summer is in sight!  I can see the light at the end of the 2014-2015 school year tunnel!  I have 3.5 official work days left.  After that, I have to run back in to pick up a couple pieces of equipment.  I'll spare you the details and just say it's because I'm thinking of the students' needs and leave it at that.

I have been slowly recovering my sewjo (directly related to the fact that I have summer in my sights) and have been doing a bit of sewing and some other stuff here:



My step-brother got married at the beginning of May, so we snapped a couple photos at the reception.

 I tested a quilt block for a quilt pattern.  Fox Face-Tumbling Foxes pattern available here.  I'm hoping to eventually turn this block into a quilt for my yet-to-be-born nephew (due in July).

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My niece graduated high school.  We don't get to see her too often (long story there) and I was really, really happy that I was able to celebrate this milestone of hers.

An Essential Wristlet that I made for my niece, with some money tucked inside, too.

I just made this blanket today.  It will be for the yet-to-be-born nephew already mentioned above.  I love the Charley Harper fabrics and I managed to catch these on sale.  The large print/owl side is a knit and the feather side is a voile.  It was a pretty simple make.  I also bought the matching quilting cotton with the owls to make a matching Noodlehead Divided Basket.

This year, I have a mile long sewing list that I would love to accomplish over the summer.  So, my current plan is to sew like the WIND!  I hope to be able to share it all here, too.

A Finish!

Whew!  I have been working on this quilt for quite a while.  Never mind, that it was a birthday gift for the past September, and when I missed that deadline, I wanted to have it finished in December.

It's done, now.  Measures approximately 69"x83".

This is a quilt for my 9 year old nephew.  I have been wanting to make him a quilt for quite some time, but just hadn't seemed to think of the right design idea for him.  Finally, it came to me: solid HST's and just let the pieces come together randomly.

After that, I asked him to list his top 4 favorite colors.  He wrote down orange, blue, red, green {Incidentally, I still have the note card where he wrote this info down.  I'm going to save it as a moment.}  Then, I went to my friends house and spent a lot of time staring at her Kona Color Card.

I ended up choosing 3 shades of orange, 3 blue, 2 red, and 2 green.  I think I started with 6 inch squares and sewed and cut them all into HST's.  However, apparently my cutting was a little off and I ended up having to trim the squares down smaller than I thought I would.  So, the quilt ended up being slightly smaller than I anticipated.  It's still a great size, though.  I've been tempted to cuddle up with it all week long.

I really tried to put this whole thing together randomly.  Once I cut the original squares, I put them in a shopping bag and pulled them out randomly to sew together.  Then, once they were cut and ironed open I threw them back in a bag and randomly pulled them out again to sew into strips.  I stacked the strips up and then sewed the strips together in that stacked up order.

As I was working on this quilt, I wasn't quite sure it I was going like it.  It's so bright and lurid.  However, now that it's together, I really like how it all came together.  I really hope my nephew likes it, too!

Some Makes…

 Just to catch up, various things that I have made since I last posted:


A pouch for my friend.  I used this free appliqué pattern, and then just made up the size of the pouch to go what looked good to my eyes.

This bag was a pattern test for Clover and Violet.  The Cecelia Bag.  I believe that the pattern release is today, so I think it's okay to show the photo, I know there were lots of photos on social media of the various testers' bags.  I've attempting to do a lot of using what I have, so I made the front and back pocket panels using scraps from my bin.  The rest of the fabric and supplies all came from my stash, too.  I was lucky to have all of the hardware that I needed without having to purchase anything.

Some reusable shopping bags that I am sending to my SIL in CA.  I made them following this tutorial.  These came together okay, but they ended up being smaller than I anticipated.  Next time I would make them a bit bigger, possibly and do the top edge just a bit differently.  They do roll up very nicely so that they can be carried in your purse.

I also made myself an ear warmer wrap.  I figured that if I was on my second day off of work, due to the cold, it might be a good idea to make something to keep my ears warm.  I used a combination of these two tutorials:  this one and this one.  Each tutorial has you sew a button on for closure, but I just used Velcro on mine.  It came out a bit wide… it looks like a hat in this photo, but it's not.  Next time, I think I would make it just a tiny bit narrower.  I plan to test it out this evening.

We Took a Vacation

In June, we took a trip.  I had a big "0" birthday and decided that I wanted to take a vacation trip to celebrate.

It just so happened that my SIL was traveling to Europe while we were on our vacation.  She wanted/needed a bag that she could carry cross body, having a zip at the top, and also having an outside zip pocket that she could stow her camera in.  I volunteered to make her a bag.  The bag I made is the Daytripper by Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk.  Erin doesn't pay me to promote her patterns, I just do because I like how they all turn out and find that they are really well written with tons of photos.  I have a lot of her patterns because I am always pleased with this one.  

Of course, I didn't really consider the cost of the materials when I told my SIL I would make it.  She told me she would pay for materials, but in my head I thought that I would already have most of them.  Nope, I ended up buying fabric and zippers and some interfacing, too.  The long and short of it is that this bag is not cheap to make ($50 in materials - unless you have some sort of wholesale connection or someone has gifted you with lots of fabrics and interfacing), but it has lots of room and comes together so nicely.  

Anyway, a pic of my SIL and her bag on vacation (which I put in the mail as I was driving out of town for my vacation… procrastinator, I am) :

My husband and I started our trip by heading to Lafayette, IN.  My uncle lives there and had been wanting us to visit.  So we visited for a bit and took him out to lunch.

Then, we headed to Indianapolis, IN.  We made a stop at Crimson Tate::Modern Quilter.  This shop is a.w.e.s.o.m.e!  There are no shops local to me that carry this much modern fabric.  I was in love from the moment I walked in.  If you're in that area and have the time, I highly recommend stopping.

We tried to go to another shop with car memorabilia, for my husband, but they have closed their doors since the last time that my husband was there.

Then it was on to Cincinnati, OH.  We stayed at a Hampton Inn, near the Cincinnati Zoo.  I wanted to mention it because the hotel was very nice!  Also, the employees seemed to just be so happy and like they truly enjoyed working there.  It struck me very positively.

We spent a day at the Cincinnati Zoo.  It was such a nice zoo.  Very pretty and nice to walk around.  We ended up at the giraffe area just as they were doing a thing… I don't know what they called it, but you could pay $1 and feed the selected giraffe a cracker.  We both did it, but didn't have the husband take a photo when I was feeding the giraffe.  It was fun and different.

Instead, you get a photo of me petting the tortoise!  We don't seem to get these closer encounters at the zoos in this area.

Once we left Cincinnati, we headed to Niagara Falls, ON.  (With an overnight stop on the way)

Niagara Falls was beautiful!!  If you have never been there, I would recommend adding it to your bucket list.  We took a tour that took us around to see some different sights and we did the boat tour where you get to go right up to the Falls (wearing the rain ponchos, of course).  Niagara Falls, ON has a great tourist bus system, too.  Make sure to take advantage of it if you travel to the Falls.  

When I came home, I sewed myself a bag.  This is the Snap Tote by bitterpurl, available to be purchased on Craftsy.  It didn't end up being as large as I imagined, based on the "tote" in the title, so I am carrying it as a purse.  (Granted, I should have payed attention to the measurements in the pattern before buying it… )  I made myself a little matching coin purse zippy wallet thing, too.

Since we've been home from vacation, not too much has been happening.  We had a bad storm last week, with a confirmed EF-1 tornado that touched down within miles of our home.  The bad part was, it was at 10-ish at night, so there was no real way to see what was coming… they set off the emergency sirens based on rotation viewed on the radar and it was only later that they were able to confirm a tornado, based on damage.  We ended up having no power for 40-ish hours (luckily, we have a generator that we used to run the refrigerator and deep freeze), and this puncture hole in the back of our garage.  We are so thankful that our home is in one piece and that we were able to stay safe. There were many trees around that that were just uprooted and tipped over, due in part to all of the rainy weather we had.

I'm hoping to be back to this space a little sooner the next time :)

Classic Meets Modern QAL: March - Drunkards Path Block

I did not realize just quite how long it has been since I have visited my own blog….  Not too much has been happening around here.  In mid March, I went off to quilt retreat with my guild mates at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  It is always great fun and there is the opportunity to get to know some other guild members.  

Since then, I haven't really done any sewing until the last couple days (I've mainly not been feeling well, otherwise I'm sure I would have sewn something…).  

I just sewed/finished my March blocks for the Classic Meets Modern QAL.  They turned out nicely, I think, never mind the blurry cell photos {and I'm feeling too lazy to go back and take better pics}.

I can't wait to get started on the April block!

Classic Meets Modern Quilt Along

Erin over at Sew at Home Mummy is have a year long quilt along, called Classic Meets Modern Quilt Along.  Erin is also a member of the same guild that I am.  I haven't gotten to know her very well yet, but I have started following her blog.  

Anyway, one of my goals this year has been to use up some of my scraps.  So, I decided to follow along with the quilt along and make the blocks out of scraps (minus the white background).  I also decided that I would make two of each block so that I would have 24 blocks at the end… the better to make a larger quilt.  I'm not sure how "modern" using up scraps is, but it is working for me to be able to use up the scraps.

The two photos above are January's block, the {Polar} Bear Block, and the photos below are February's block, the Amethyst Block.  The Amethyst Block involves some Y seams.  The didn't come out at perfect as I wanted, but they will be all right.  

Let's just hope that I manage to stick with this quilt along for the whole year!  

Most Recent Make

This is my most recent make.  It is called The Sling Bag.  It is a FREE pattern by Samantha from At Home with Mrs. H.  You can find it here, on Craftsy.  Also, if you head back to Samantha's blog, there are several posts with other testers' bags (and some pattern hacks, too).

I pretty much followed the pattern as it was written.  I did use denim for the exterior, which made the sewing of the handle tabs a bit tricky.  I ended up having to do some judicious cutting in order to get the tabs sewn on.  Thankfully, the judicious cutting is not noticeable now that it's all sewn together.  

Also, I sewed the tabs a little closer to the top edge of the bag.  I didn't so much want a flop over top. Anyway, I really like how the bag turned out.  I used all supplies that I had, with the exception of the magnet for the closure and the zip for the inside zip pocket. Oh, I forgot that I added a tap to the inside, too, with a little swivel clip so that I could clip my keys or whatever on it.

Oh, the Cuteness!

These pillows turned out so cute!  I can barely stand to think of giving them away, but I will.  They are a Christmas gift for a friend.  We had to postpone our get together because I was sick with the flu, so I haven't gifted them yet.

I hope she really likes them.  I know the combo of fabrics seems a bit odd, but I chose them based on the colors of the four kitties that she has had pass away (a couple of them passed away quite suddenly). All of the supplies for the pillows came from my stash, minus the pillow forms, so that was a big win, too.  Anyway, I can't wait to give them to her!

The cat pattern is from Oh, Fransson! Catvent Quilt Along - Basic Cat Block.  The little cats come together really quickly.  I spent more time quilting the fronts than sewing the pieces, but I LOVE how the quilting turned out.

Oh, I used this zipper tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew.  The zippers came out perfectly!  I will definitely do all of my pillow backs this way from now on.

Overboard....

I might probably have gone overboard on the pouch making:

My friend, Emily, was making a LOT of pouches for a garden walk faire and that put me in the mind to make some pouches, too.  Plus, earlier in the year, Emily was being totally generous to a few quick responding friends (she had put an offer on her FB page) and gave away a few pouches she had made. I was lucky enough to get one!  Anyway, it is such a nice size.  When I asked about fabric cutting sizes, she was nice enough to share with me.  I figured out/made up the rest on my own... pouches can be pretty standard once you have made a few.

So, on Thursday, I went on a cutting spree and cut out fabric for 10 pouches.  You might notice that there are only 9 in the photo... I ran out of time before I had to clean up for company and hadn't finished the 10th pouch yet.  Today, I sewed up the 10th pouch and cut out 8 more pouches, because that's all the interlining supplies I had on hand.  I had planned to finish them all today, but then I had a lazy day instead.  I'll finish them tomorrow.

Of course, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with all of them!  I did manage to sell one of them to my friend.  My dad's cousin said she wanted 6 for Christmas gifts, but I'm not really sure if she wants them now or closer to Christmas.  We'll see on that one.  If all else fails, my family will be getting lots of pouches as part of their Christmas gifts.

In other news, I manage to make three trips into Chicago in one week:  1) a Cubs game with my dad/step-mom, step-brother and his g-friend, and my husband  2) a fancy dinner and 30 minute cruise off of Navy Pier for my friend's birthday  3) a concert at Soldier Field

These are only photos from the fancy dinner and boat cruise, of course.  We were actually supposed to take a sunset cruise on Lake Michigan, but we missed our boat.  We were running a bit behind, but still okay on time... except that the boat company has like three different spots on the dock and we followed what we thought we understood based on the map, but that ended up being wrong.  We're all college educated adults, so I think that the map/tickets and the boat company booths could all have been more clearly labeled.  Something like, "Your boat leaves from spot A/B/C" and then have each booth labeled with an A/B/C.  This would make a lot of sense to me, anyway.  Luckily, though, the sunset cruise was not the last cruise for the night.  So, they let us just switch our tickets to the next boat and that ended up being pretty cool with the night skyline of the city.

{catchy title here}

These photos are of most of the things that I have made in the last few weeks:

A bib for my youngest nephew:

A shopping tote made from this pattern:

The bag was really quick to put together.  I pretty much followed the directions.  The only thing I did differently for this one was after boxing the corners, the instructions would have you just tack up the corners on the inside, instead of cutting off the excess fabric.  I just cut it off.  This bag has batting on the inside, but I think that next time I will forego the batting.  I can see if you wanted to carry this as a purse, you might want the batting.  I just want to use this a a shopping bag, so I think leaving the batting out would make the bag less bulky to carry.

Another project from the Patchwork, Please! book:

This is called the Diamond Patchwork Placemat.  I used foundation paper piecing to make the diamond panels on each side.  The middle fabric is linen and the prints are all Anna Maria Horner fabrics that came in a scrap bag that I ordered last week.  I didn't have a whole piece big enough for the back/binding, but I had two pieces of the same fabric that I was able to stitch together and use.

A ninja pouch for my oldest nephew:

I just love the ninja fabric!  I only bought a fat quarter and I think I've used most of it already.


Over the weekend, I also attended a workshop sponsored by the Chicago MQG and taught by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  Of course, that probably deserves its own post, so more on that one later.