Sweet Tote

I made this cute little tote bag as a gift for a birthday party my son went to.  The birthday girl was turning four years old and I thought a "Little Red Riding Hood" bag would be a fun gift to give.  I had a mini charm pack of "A Walk in the Woods" and I used it for both front and back patchwork panels for the bag.   I used the needle turn applique method to put the heart on the front and then I outlined the heart with an embroidery stitch.  

 

I used some batting scraps to give the bag some body and structure - I enjoyed not having to deal with interfacing. 

I only had one mini charm pack square left at the end of this project- it used most of them up quite efficiently.

I used stash fabrics to complete the bag.  It was a little more "grown up" present then I would've liked- I think my error was in making it too big.  Oh well.  Overall, I was happy with how it came out and I would make one again for sure!

Organizing

This post is a brief description of my recent organizing efforts - but first I had to share a funny anecdote on why it's important to have friends who sew - and even the importance of participating in a guild.  I love my husband and he helps support my sewing habit in many ways.  But I really had to have a good laugh when he asked me if the two main projects on my design wall were for the same quilt.  He also thought it was a "given" that the Boston blocks and Liberty X Plus blocks were definitely the same project because there are a few X Plus Boston blocks :)  I had a good laugh.  

 

Anyway- I spent some time this weekend dealing with the overflowing mess of my fabric stash.  It went from this:

to this.  It's still not as pristine as a lot of the beautiful sewing studios you see on many blogs - but at least it's not all about to fall on the floor.  As you can see, I have a lot of blue but I hardly ever use blue - I need to remedy that!

 

 

I also finally organized all of my DMC floss- I had SO much because I have picked up a lot at yard sales over the years.  I had so much in addition to what you see in this picture that I am giving 3 containers to my sister and I still have two big bags of extras (if you are local and want some - just let me know!)

 

Finally- if you haven't noticed yet - I finally organized my blog to look a little more crafty and not so plain.  I had been so intimidated by reading about lots of bloggers paying people to "beautify" their blogs - that I thought I wouldn't be able to figure out how to improve mine- as I am definitely not a computer expert.  So if you are seeing this in a reader- click on over and check out my swanky new banner and my links on the side.  The only thing I want to add is a tab for pictures of my finished quilts - if anyone knows how to do that - please let me know!

WIP Wednesday

I finally made the cute Star Wars cross-stitch my sister sent into a pillow for Gregory:

 

I have a whole lot of cutting going on for my X Plus quilt.  It was a little hard to cut into my most precious Liberty Lifestyle fabrics but I know it will be worth it!

I've made a few more blocks - these are so addicting!

 

It took a while, but I cut up my own stash-made layer cake into the triangular pieces needed to make a giant Crackle quilt.

 

 

This is the result when you sew all of the pieces together.  Isn't it striking?  I honestly think this pattern has the potential to catch on like a lot of the popular patterns out there - it's so fun and easy.

 

I scored some vintage fabric and completed tiny cross stitch pieces at a yard sale.  So sweet!

I've listed a few fabric bundles in my etsy shop.  I've fallen hard for Shelburne Falls- I ordered a half yard set and cut it in half - it's much cheaper than buying the pre-cut bundles released by Free Spirit.  I also finally splurged on some Little Folks - I missed out on the recent $6 yd. sales (darnit!) but figured I better buy some before it's all really gone.  I am trying to stick to just fat quarters lately - so I also listed a Little Folks FQ bundle too.

 

I am finally actually linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced- I feel more motivated to connect with other bloggers and I am excited to do this more regularly.

 

 

it's happening

I couldn't help but make another Boston block using the X Plus block pattern.  This morning I cut for maybe an hour and sewed the first block of my Liberty B&W quilt - I have been talking and thinking about this quilt for weeks - I figured I'd better utilize my excitement for the block/process and get going on it! 

It cheers me up a bit on this Monday morning.  My husband was gone most of the weekend with a Boy Scout campout and I didn't get much rest.  Add to several spots of poison ivy all over my body (including my face!) and I'm a woman wishing to take a "sick day" today....

Thanks for all of the love on the Hexie String quilt - I should probably quilt that thing before I start piecing something else - but you know how it goes!

Hexie Quilt Top Completed

It's finished!  I can hardly believe it.  This quilt was very close to becoming a long-standing UFO.  I got really tired of making the string blocks!  I always thought a string block must be easy and quick - but it has been very slow.  It doesn't help that this whole quilt takes a while with the hand-piecing of the hexagons and the fussiness of trying to line up the four corners of the inset red/pink square.  Not to mention cutting all of those strings - now I do have a fair amount of scraps but most weren't ready-to-use strings - so there was also a whole lot of cutting involved.

 

Enough complaining!  I am very happy with how it came out and I plan to quilt it on my home machine soon.  In addition to lots of scraps, I also used a fat-eighth bundle of Little Apples that I swapped a Wonderland jelly roll for.  Honestly, I think F8 bundles are kind of a joke - I often think even fat quarters are too small for most projects - but the F8 thing worked okay for this quilt.

 

As soon as I laid this quilt top on the ground - Charlotte had to scoot over to it to sit on it.  She is at such a fun age right now.  I know I complained a lot during her first year - but honestly - once she hit 12-ish months - life has been awesome.  I love that nursing is over, that she is starting to play with her brother, her sleeping habits have improved, and her personality is really coming out and she really can be a lot of fun.  If I could skip the newborn stage- I hate to say it, but I probably would.  If babies came out behaving like they do at 1 year - I would probably have 10 more kids....  Just kidding.

Anyway, hopefully I will have this completed soon and can show it off here within the next week or so.  I will be linking this up with Stitched in Color's Scrap Attack - String Fever.  I've said this before, but this quilt is made from a pattern in the book by Tacha Bruecher, Hexa-Go-Go.

Quilts for Boston

 

 

Hopefully by now you have heard about BMQG's ongoing project to make quilts for those effected by the Boston bombings.  I didn't want to blog about it until I had actually made some blocks.  You can find all of the details on the guild blog here.

 

 

I decided to make several 12.5" square blocks - tutorials online for this size are readily available and it's kind of fun to search around for them.  I made two blocks from this tutorial - I thought the woven one was so fun - I decided to make two.  These blocks were part of the "Sew Happy Quilt Mixed Sampler Quilt Along."

The bottom left is a tutorial found here- part of the Blockapalooza quilt along.  The bottom right is the infamous X Plus block- the measurements to make a 12.5" (unfinished) block were found on Pinterest (sorry- I am having trouble with the link).  The top block was kind of improvisational- I wanted to showcase the large yellow floral.

The X-Plus block was my favorite one to make - I now finally get why they are so addicting.  I also have to say that it was a lot of fun to make all of these blocks from scraps rather than stash.  My stash is a total disaster area - so it proved much easier to go to my grey, yellow, and blue scrap bins to get materials for all of these.  I also love a "controlled" scrappy look - I don't really love sewing every color and bit together - but creating a cohesive color palette out of scraps really speaks to my taste.

Please consider making a block or two for this cause.  I am psyched for my guild to have dived into this so enthusiastically and the response so far has been generous.  Thanks for reading.

"Modern" Cross Stitch?

When I brought my cross-stitch project to work on during a Chelmsford Quilt Guild meeting last week, at least three people made the comment, "That's not very modern" or "That's very traditional."  Of course, this was the meeting following my presentation on modern quilting.  Well, I thought it would be fun to write a quick post about cross-stitch patterns that I have come across that may be more appealling to the "modern" sewer.

 

Shortly after returning from Uganda, I bought a cross-stitch kit and I made this piece when I was unemployed for 3 months, living in Boston.  Cross-stitching was very conducive to our studio apartment, as it is a hobby that doesn't require a lot of space!  Once we moved and I had my own sewing room - I quickly turned to doing a lot of sewing and quilting and didn't do anymore cross-stitching because the patterns I came across were unappealling - I had no interest in pouring hours and hours of time into pictures of kittens, fairies, or eagles - to name a few.

 

(sorry for the fuzzy picture!)

 

Anyway, I recently came across Ondori cross-stitch books from the 1970's and bought several for about $2 each off of half.com.  I understand Ondori to be a company of Japanese origin - and I have to say that a lot of their designs are fun and appealling to me. 

 

I took a few pictures of some of the pages within the books:

I have also recently discovered the UK-based Cross Stitcher magazine- purchased at Joann's.  The last two issues showcase two pillows I intend to make.  They also have a website where you can buy patterns - I have my eye on the dala horse (my husband spent 2 years in Sweden) and this sewing machine design.  You can use the code SPRING2013 for 50% off your next order - but it expires tomorrow- May 1. 

 

My sister continues to speedily sew lots of designs and she thankfully keeps sending them our way.  Gregory isn't allowed to watch Star Wars yet but he likes the look of these characters and I am overdue to make this into a pillow for him.  My sister gets lots of her patterns on etsy.  Redgatestitchery and Danceneedle are two of my many favorites.

 

Finally, just for the heck of it, I wanted to include this snapshot of some cross stitch included in the book Mastering the Art of Embroidery by Sophie Long.  Can you tell what "material" the artist used to sew stitches on?  It took me a minute.  Genious!

 

I can't forget to mention the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - their samplers are a lot of fun and the customer service I have received recently was very helpful.  I have now begun their Woodland Sampler.

I promise this isn't becoming a cross-stitching blog but it's just fun to diversify my sewing interests!