Star Block Bee!! (EDIT, We’re full! Thanks everyone!)

I’ve been wanting to do a bee for a long time, but I haven’t joined one since most require you to send at least a FQ to all of the participants. I’m on a poverty-imposed fabric diet, so that’s not doable for me. That’s why I’m organizing my own.

Here’s what’s up.

12 spots. Ten, actually, one is taken, one is me.

Each participant will choose up to four colors. The blocks for that person will be in their chosen colors. Background, if necessary, should be white. Everyone has white, right?

The blocks can be most any size, from 6 inches to 24.

Along with each participants colors, they can specify no pastel, no batiks, preferred fabrics, etc. But don’t be too picky.

After we have all twelve quilters I’ll email everyone to get your colors, addresses, and I’ll assign your month.

We’ll start in November!

Am I missing anything? This is my first bee.

US only, please. Sorry.

Oh, and I’ll start a flickr group too.

Check out all of the Star possibilities on pinterest! http://pinterest.com/search/?q=star+block

I’m excited!

Riff-Raffle Quilt

I finished something! Well, a top at least. A top out of blocks that other people made… Shut up, I’m happy.

My traditional quilt guild has a block of the month raffle every meeting. Each month you buy instructions and background fabric for one block. Then you add your own fabric to complete it and the next month everyone who made a block is entered to win them all. Two months ago I won! I got about 36 blocks in all, enough for a twin sized quilt. AND I actually really liked the blocks. They were from a pattern by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle called Fabric Fusion. I received enough white fabric to finish the quilt and the full instructions for it.

From the start, I thought that adding slightly wider sashing and making the blocks square was what I wanted to do. Then I’d be able to flip the blocks 90 degrees instead of 180.

I intend to use the quilt for myself (my husband and I can’t share blankets, so a twin is fine for my side of the bed) so I need to add some borders. Given the scrappy nature of the quilt, and the fact that I didn’t pick out all but a few of the fabrics, I wasn’t too picky in picking border fabrics. I mostly picked fabrics I either used to like, or like but never had a use for. That’s where I got the name, I used the riff raff of my stash. (I don’t usually name quilts, but that just popped in my head)

So here it is! Along with my cute helpers, Josie and her best friend Abi. It was really windy and they were very excited about being on the Internet.

And just to give equal kid time, here’s a picture of what happens when you lay out blocks with a Henry on the loose.

For some reason, every time I put anything flat on the floor, he feels like it’s his duty to dance and roll around on it. Maybe it’s because there’s rarely enough room to do that unless I’ve cleared the floor to make room to lay something flat…

But at least he enjoys my hobby.

 

 

 

 

 

Farmer’s Wife Quilt, Blocks 1-5

I finally started my Farmer’s Wife quilt. I finally got all of the templates printed, cut out and organized into groups of 15 or so. And in little baggies. I got five blocks done in one day! I cut out most of another (number seven, because I’m washing the fabrics for number 6)

My piecing, as you’ll see, is looking a little off in spots. Cutting out the templates is way different than what I’m used to. And I wish I had a huge stash of the latest modern fabrics to choose from. Or even one whole line. That’d be awesome. Maybe one day. But for now, I’m using what I have. Here are my first five blocks.

This is my only piece of Lizzy House (poor me) and I’ve been hoarding it for a few months. I’m sure these hedgehogs will pop up again soon.

My Basket of Fish (minus the handle.)

I may have to re do this. :/

And last, but not least, the happy swastika.

I’m very much enjoying the Farmer’s Wife so far. I’ve decided to not say anything about it in my traditional guild until it’s done. Then I can whip it out and dazzle them all. Bwhahaha.

Let me know what you think! And I’d appreciate any tips or tricks you have!

Barrette Holder Tutorial

I’ve had this idea in my head for a bit. Slap some fabric onto a premade canvas (I bought mine at WalMart in a three pack), add ribbons and viola, no more barrettes all over the place.

I finally did it yesterday.

I took pictures.

All you need is:

A canvas panel

A piece of fabric one in larger on all sides than your canvas base

A piece of quilt batting the same size as your base (you could probably skip this, but I found that having a bit of squish helps when closing the barrettes on the ribbons)

Ribbon

A heavy duty stapler/staple gun

Scissors

See that stuff? That’s what you need.

Lay your fabric right side down, put the batting on top, then the canvas right side down on top of it. Fold the fabric, one side at a time and staple as you go. Fold the corners as you come to them so they don’t stick out past the edges.

Cut the ribbon to the length and amount desired. Staple to the back in whatever pattern you want, but weave them a bit so that barrettes won’t slide down.

Add a loop for headbands.

Add your barrettes and slap that sucker on the wall.

I probably should add that you’ll want to iron your fabric first. But I’m hoping that being next to the shower will steam those wrinkles out.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you do this and how it turns out.

My back! Oh, my back!

I have a quilting injury. Well, I have a bad back to begin with, but I also am 5 foot 10 and have to cut bent over my bed. So when I decided to cut some triangles (the ones that are the same on each side. I’m on vicodin, cut me some slack.) I had to do some interesting maneuvering. And I hurt myself. Then my daughter hug tackled me off of her bed and it got hurt some more. So today I got to tell a nurse that I hurt my back quilting.

Which really sucks, because I have a bunch of stuff I want to do.

So, that’s half the reason I haven’t been posting. The other is that I’m really bad at being consistent and that I have two kids are are consistently bugging me. Cause that’s what kids do. But the oldest goes to kindergarten this coming week! So all I have to contend with this the crazy, fearless, two year old boy. Yeah…

I don’t know what this post was about. Like I said, powerful painkillers. That’s my excuse.

Here’s a picture of something you can buy at my store.

My Coffee Chart

My husband, bless his heart, can’t get my coffee right. It’s not hard. I like cream. Not too much, but not just a splash. I kept telling him that I was going to paint the walls in our kitchen the color that my coffee should be. But after seven years of marriage and apartment living, I came up with something else. Besides, I don’t want brown walls in the kitchen.

Behold, my coffee color chart:

If you can’t read it it says, top to bottom:

You’re kidding, right?

Take it back.

Acceptable

Ideal

Where’s the coffee?

This milk tastes funny.

 

It’s actually helped. Now my husband doesn’t just pour more coffee into my cup without adding more creamer. He checks the chart.

I’ve been busy!

I’ve been sewing up a storm lately. I’m trying to get my shop, Fabrications, stocked and going. I made a big collage of all of my WIPs to remind myself to, you know, finish them. Yesterday I whipped up a super cute purse for a two year old’s birthday. I’m working on a couple of minis (I love mini quilts). Oh, and I’m thinking about starting on my Christmas gifts. Oy. That’s a lot. Here’s some pictures!

Reversible purse. The inside is a Hello Kitty fabric I got at last year’s Paducah show. I made this without a pattern, but with the help of Lisa Lam’s Bag Making Bible. I love that book. I’m going to be sad to let it go, especially since I don’t have much more of those cupcakes.

Wonky Log Cabin pillow. I made the front a looooong time ago and finally finished it. It’s one of the first things I quilted on a machine. The back is a blue and green fabric from the Tufted Tweets collection.

Rainbow Wonky Log Cabin style pillow. I free motion quilted this in a swirly line pattern. I’m kind of in love with that.

Hand quilted Wonky Star. I made a wonky star block for a demo at my traditional quilt guild and have been thinking about doing some handwork, so I have something to do when the kids are in the yard. I had to throw it down and run after my two year old (I would gladly stomp on butterflies for a fence) quite a few times, but I really enjoyed doing it. I outlined the star and traced a few big raindrops and the little rain drop/lines in the middle. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

Pieced back for the wonky star pillow.

I didn’t have enough of any one fabric (well, that I was willing to part with. I have a bunch of the raindrops, but I really like that) so I used scraps of the fabrics I used on the front.

So, that’s a part of what I’ve been up to. All of the pillows are available in my shop, Fabrications on Storenvy.

Oh! And here’s the collage. I was spell checking and apparently that word does not compute, but it reminded me.

Scary, huh?

Pinspiration

I love pinterest. If I spent more time sewing and less time pinning I’d probably be able to do all of the things I’ve pinned.

I’ve done a few. One was S’mores cookies. I ate them all. Three other people in my house, and I ate all the cookies. I also did breakfast boats and butternut squash pasta. It’s a shame I’m not required to sew for my family every day. But I have done two things that I’ve pinned onto my ”Could be Quilts” board. The first was something from MOMA’s website.

And this is what I made:

Nevermind the bad cellphone picture. Or the husband behind it. Or the scorch mark from ironing. I still like it.

Next is something that I found on the website Fab.com. It’s one of those deal-a-day websites, but it’s all super cool design stuff. I would love to buy most of it, but I signed up just to get sewing ideas.

I have no idea who the artist is, since it didn’t say.

Aaaaand, here’s what I made

You see that seam down the middle? That’s why I love modern quilting. I messed up on one of the middle teal bits and so I just cut it out and sewed the two pieces together. Tee hee. I like it. I’m hoping it looks a bit less scrunchy once I wash it. I should’ve used my walking foot. But I really like the quilting I did. I just used gray polyester thread (a no-no) cause it’s what was on my machine.

So, there you go. I am doing stuff. I’m just not blogging.

I’m a terrible blogger.

I’ve tried this blogging thing three times now. Third time has not been a charm, but I’m trying to do better. I think a big part of the problem is that I have so little sewing time, and when I do sew, I forget to take pictures of what I’m doing. I AM doing things, though. Right now I’m working on a baby quilt for a friend, using Oh! Frannson’s Wonky square in a square pattern. At least, I think it’s from Oh Frannson… That’s another reason I suck. My computer is so slow that I can’t look it up right now and I can’t remember. I’d like to give credit where credit’s due, though.

Anyway, I’m also working on a bag made from my rainbow circle of geese block, finishing up the quilting on my son’s baby quilt and I have a billion little ideas and half started projects floating around.

I also did this on Christmas after I got my Olfa circle cutter:

I think it’s pretty cool.

And now reason number 2 why I’m a terrible blogger ( AKA Henry ) is pulling me away.

Oh, what a difference a shelf makes

I haven’t been sewing much lately. I’ve been overwhelmed by this:

This is where I sew. Since we live in a tiny two bedroom apartment, and have two kids and no dining room (which I understand is the traditional sewing room for people who don’t have  a sewing room) I set up this desk in my room, next to my bed.

The slab of countertop under the purple cutting mat is what I lay on the bed and then cut on top of.

It’s a mess.

I needed to do something about it.

I enlisted the help of my mother, a woman who garage sales into November. I asked her if she could keep her eyes open for a bookshelf for me. She told me she had just the thing, in the garage. Score!

I wish I had taken a before picture of the shelf. It was a bookshelf made by my dad out of old barn wood. Kind of like this but a little more splintery. And not 575 dollars.

Anyway, it needed some paint. I painted it, slapped a piece of fabric on the back, because, duh… And I got this:

 

And turned the above disaster area into this!

Aaaahhhh…. Doesn’t that make you feel better? Look! You can see all of my books! (The sewing books, up on my new shelf, that is) All of my batting is in one place! I found my sewing caddy! I can reach my scrap bag! And you can’t tell, but the laundry basket is what I keep my UFOs in, and I organized them by urgency. Yay!!