Long Time Coming

First: a huge thank you for all of your comments on the Emmy. You all are the best and It's nice to be able to share some of the non-quilting in my life.

Second: Last night I attended the first ever meeting of the LA Modern Quilt Guild. It was a great meeting full of amazing ladies and I'm so excited to meet like minded quilters in this area. If you live around here (or are willing to drive to LA) check out the guild. It looks to be a guild like no other, in a very good way!

Third: Remember this guy? Probably not because I started it two and a half years ago. The plan was to hand quilt circles all over this mother. I worked on it some, my hand-quilting sucked. It wasn't fun. So it was put away.

Well, two and a half years later I have resurrected this quilt from obscurity. I actually had to search for it when I decided to do this.

The hand-quilting was out. It's not my style and I'm just not interested. So I ripped it all out.

One of the reasons I didn't do this sooner is because I couldn't really think of a style of quilting that would work better than additional bubbles. Which is weird because once I came up with this straight lines idea, I liked it so much better! Maybe that's just my 2009 tastes compared to my 2007 tastes. Perhaps I'm less literal now.

So, if you weren't around back then and you want to read about this quilt's beginnings you can go right ahead!

Stacked Coins

This quilt was given to two friends who got married a couple of weeks ago. The pattern is certainly nothing new. Not that I know anything about the history of stacked coin quilts of course. They're Amish maybe? This one was inspired by the pattern in Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts though I didn't actually follow the pattern.

The book asks you to cut strips with scissors to get a "wonky" look to your coins. I'm all for irregularity but I'm not totally digging the wonkiness these days. So instead, I cut strips of different widths using a rotary cutter.

This is the first quilt I've made using 100% linen (the closest I've come is this one with a cotton/linen blend). I've got to say I absolutely love the way it turned out! It's so soft and drapes beautifully. It's a little trickier to use than 100% cotton because it shifts so easily. You could do a lot of pinning to combat this. I try to pin as little as possible though so instead I used spray starch when I ironed the prewashed fabric. This technique worked great.

I made my own spray by mixing 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 cup of water in a spray bottle. This mixture does leave a white residue on the fabric but it didn't matter to me since I would wash the quilt before giving it away. I've read that if you boil the ingredients together instead of just mixing this won't happen but I can't say whether that's true or not.

The colors of the quilt were inspired by the wedding invitations. I magically had everything I needed to make this quilt on hand. I don't think I have ever done that before! The two solid blue/green fabrics are what's left of my Kaffe Fassett shot cotton. In these colors at least. And I still have scraps. I just love it so much! I want all of this fabric to be mine!

And of course, there has to be a matching card.

Broken Lines

I haven't had much time to sew lately but I really wanted to make some sort of quilt for my friends Sarah and Olivier's baby shower. They are the couple that I made these table runners for last year. Now they are expecting their first baby, a boy.

This quilt was designed to be completed in the limited time I had available this week. It's super simple but my taste usually tends toward simple anyway.

I love the way this turned out. The colors are so pretty. As I'm writing this I kind of want to make a plus sized version for myself.

Two keys to getting this done in time:
1. The size of the quilting (bigger spacing than I would normally do).

2. The size of the quilt. I used the "craft size" batting, 36" x 44" I think. The last baby quilt I made was much bigger. Bigger is nice but in the end it seemed like overkill for a baby. This small size is much more conducive to blankie-fication which I would love to see happen with something I've made.

Sarah and Olivier picked out the backing fabric for the table runners for their wedding but it didn't come in time for me to use it. I'm glad I was able to put it to good use.

And of course, one must make a matching card from the scraps.

PS I've been wanting to attempt actual pattern writing, not just the half-assed variety I am wont to do. I thought I would start with some sort of free pdf and see what kind of interest is out there. Would you like to make this quilt? Drop me a note or a comment if so. I think this one would be a good start. Thanks!

First Quilt in a Long While

Fresh out of the wash, Oh Fransson!'s Mod Sampler quilt-along quilt.

It's a gift for the daughter of an old friend.

There's a WHOLE lot of pink in this baby. Much more than I would normally go for but when someone looks this great in pink, come on! I'm pretty sure I had no choice.

The blocks were made entirely from fabric I already had. That was great. These are all fabrics that I really like but I just don't find a lot of opportunities to use them.
I bought the backing and sashing fabrics. The sashing is linen which I've never used in a quilt before. It was a little trickier than cotton. It can be pretty wily. I do really like how it turned out though.
The label is a piece of the linen I used for the sashing. It's stamped with Jacquard textile ink.
Gracie's mom is allergic to cats so I tried really hard to keep this quilt cat free. Stabone is sulking because I won't let him lie on it.

Back to Bubbles

I recently played major catch up (though I'm still not quite caught up) on my Common Threads bee blocks. You can see the whole lot here.
This is the last one I finished.

It's for Jacquie who is making a quilt for her teenage son. The instructions were "minimal, modern and masculine." The inspiration for this design came partly from reading about Dale Fleming's technique for sewing pieced curves which I found here at Dioramarama.com. If you want to learn this technique you can visit either of these sites for thorough instructions but I thought I'd walk you through the basics of this block. It was a little different because of the multiple overlapping circles. If this all seems confusing you should visit one of the above links. Then it'll all make sense, I swear!

To cut out my circles from the freezer paper, I used this handy dandy tool. It works ok. Better on smaller circles than large ones. You could use scissors as well as long as you draw a perfect circle on the paper to cut out.
I started with the circle in the corner since it was on the "bottom" of all of the overlapping circles. I cut out the size of circle I wanted from freezer paper and ironed the shiny side to the wrong side of my background fabric like so, positioning the hole where I want the pieced circle to be.

The piece of colored dot fabric is what I'm going to piece to the background. It's about 1/2 in bigger all around than the fabric you see inside the circle.
Next, I cut away the BG fabric inside of the circle, leaving a roughly 1/2 in seam allowance.
Then I clipped the curve right up to the paper, all the way around.

Next, I took a glue stick and glued the clipped edge to the back of the freezer paper. This should make a nice smooth curve if you look from the other side.
When that glue was dry (which only takes a few seconds) I applied more glue to the back of the clipped fabric which I pressed the colored dot fabric to, thus allowing me to remove the freezer paper all together.

Tada. Unfortunately I have no photo of the actual sewing. You press and sew along the nice little crease you've got there, all the way around your circle, or semi-circle in my case. Flip it over and voila.

To make an overlapping circle I just placed my next freezer paper stencil over the seam, doing everything the same, treating the pieced er, piece as a solid background.
This only got tricky when it came to gluing the seams down. Because there were multiple layers of fabric I had to do some creative trimming. Also, this background fabric was some thick-ass linen! Things got a little bulky which is why some of my circles aren't exactly perfect. I would not do this again with fabric like this. Cotton on cotton though would be much less of a hassle.
I did the last three circles all at once since they weren't overlapping each other at all. The smaller circles were harder to sew than the large ones.
And that's it! Again, this is no where near a comprehensive tutorial so if you really want to try this technique visit the links above.

Free-Motion Quilting Strikes Back

I bought myself a darning foot a darn long time ago. I tried free-motion quilting. It didn't work out so well. I abandoned the idea.
Then last summer a friend asked if I could turn her boyfriend's childhood Star Wars sheet into a quilt for his birthday in November. I said "Sure! I've got plenty of time!" Well, after freaking out a little in October and considering sending it to a shop to be quilted on a long arm machine I gave the free-motion thing another try. It was so simple. Here's a tip that I found especially helpful: lower the presser foot. Duh. That was my problem. I don't think you can blame me though, if the needles up the presser foot looks like it's up, even if it's down! Ack. Such a stupid mistake.
So, long story long, I figured it out in the nick of time and hauled ass on this baby over the course of an evening and a half. It was nuts. A crazy, wine-fueled, free-motion party for one.

It was really a lot of fun. I totally dig free-motion quilting. I will do it again soon.

Quilting a solid cloth quilt like this was also quite enjoyable. It allowed me to focus on the quilting. Plus, I think it's pretty bad-ass. And bonus, the birthday boy dug it too.

Here she be.

I here by vow to try my very derndest to get these babies out on time from now on. This is June's (oops) Common Threads quilt block for Melissa.

I used this stuff for the first time when pressing this.

It's a starch alternative that I got at JoAnn. I dig it. I think I'll be using it frequently. I don't know what you more experienced quilters think about this sort of thing but my seams need all the help they can get. They're not always what you call "straight."
So July was my month and I've received two awesome blocks so far. I can't wait for the rest to roll in!

Checking Stuff Off

I'm going back to work in a week and a half and there is much yet to be done. I have squandered my hiatus. I will admit it! But for the rest of my time off I'm going to make an effort to be better. I have a to-do list! And there are already things being crossed off of it. I even got my hair cut and went to the dentist this week. Not only that but I also finished my first Common Threads quilt square! Late, I know and for that I am truly sorry. Sorry Rebekah, I'll try to be better in the future!

Yesterday I decided to buckle down and do this thing. I drew up a little plan and here you go.

Kind of boring? Maybe. I was trying to keep it from being too busy because it is just one of twelve blocks in a quilt. I wanted it to blend in. This was kind of hard! Rebekah sent out red, black and white fabric but my bundle only had red and black. She didn't say anything about using additional fabrics so I stuck to the hand I was dealt. Definitely a little out of my element. When I finished I thought it was a little "ugh". But I reminded myself of my original intention. This is not a stand-alone piece, it's part of a much bigger whole and I think that it will blend in quite nicely. I hope Rebekah thinks the same!

What?

Wait, what's today's date? It is? Huh. Well I guess I blew that one. So my New Years posting mojo kind of petered on me. Don't worry, you won't get gypped out of my 2007 round up. Let's just tie up a couple of loose ends here.
First, a cart. It's from Ikea and I decoupaged pieces of wrapping paper from the Paper Source onto the drawer fronts, top and sides before assembling it.

I was planning on bringing this to work to keep my crap in and wheel from stage to stage but in the end I decided that the decoupage was a little too delicate for studio life. Instead it's staying home and holding different crap in my craft room.
As you can see, Stabone really digs it.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is my very last craft of 2007.

It is a baby quilt for the little boy that a friend from high school will be having this year. She had a shower on December 30 so I chose a project that I could complete after my Christmas gifts were done but could be finished before the shower with mostly hand work since we would be in Minnesota for the entire time with limited access to a sewing machine.

The idea to hand quilt around large motifs in the fabric came from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. The quilt in the book is very girly with large flowers. I had a hard time finding a fabric that would be suitable for a boy but still cool and not too cutesy. I don't like cutesy. I bought all three fabrics(front, back and binding) from Sew Mama Sew. You can find them here.

So, sorry for the long lag in updating, we've been very busy with work. Season 3 of Moral Orel is going to be incredible. People, this is a great show. You probably don't watch it but you should. The first 15 episodes are available on DVD and I know you have Netflix so you have no excuse. You can also see clips and some full episodes at the Adult Swim website but it's really best watched in sequential order so get to work on that DVD now so you can be ready when season 3 airs! AND! I just check iTunes and all of the episodes are there but not in the right order. There's an episode guide here if you're actually interested.
And if you want to see some more stop-motion goodness, Harv produced some animation for a Soulja Boy video recently. I laid low for much of the production (I was making Christmas gifts) but I did make the costumes for the puppets. I'm pretty clueless about what's happening in the rap world (I assume that you're hip to it though, right?) but apparently Soulja Boy is quite popular with the kids these days. So check that out too. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure you people don't have nearly enough stop-motion in your lives. It is by far the craftiest type of film making, in my opinion.

Baby Quilt

The aforementioned baby quilt is quilted, labeled and washed. Now to pack it up with the bibs and ship it off. That's the part where I usually drag my feet.

The quilt is 56" square. I used bamboo batting that I bought at Joanns. It's 50% organic cotton and 50 bamboo (which the package says is "naturally antibacterial", who knew?). This stuff is so silky soft, I wish it could be on the outside of the quilt. Also, the maximum quilting distance is 8" which I think is pretty cool compared to 100% cotton which is, what, 3 or 4 inches? Really, the reason I bought this was because the crib size is 60" square, not 60" by 45" like other cotton batting and I knew I would be making a square quilt. But I was also curious about this new product. It's made by the Poly-fil people, so I don't know how ecologically sound the rest of their business practices are but this stuff seems pretty great. You can read more about it at their website.

Anyway, the quilt is made up of 81 4 inch multi colored squares separated by 2 inch strips of a neutral khaki solid. I love me some neutral background! I also love the pillowcase binding aka birthing method. It's kind of a non-binding. I liked the simple border of the neutral fabric and I thought that was frame enough for this quilt.

I quilted around each square and a quarter inch from the edge. And lo and behold, I actually made a label.

You may recall that I have been a bit grumbly about labels in the past. Of course, I understand the merits of a good label and I thought this quilt was especially deserving of one. I made the graphic in Photoshop, using brushes I downloaded here and here, found via Dooce. I printed it out on an inkjet fabric sheet and voi-la. Preserved for all time.

Sunday Up-D's

Christmas is fast approaching and the end of our hiatus is coming even faster. I have much that I hope to accomplish in the next week or so.
As of right now, our tree is up and looking fabulous, even more so than last year with the addition of some sweet little Martha Stewart ornaments bought at Macy's, including this tree topper. (Sorry for the teeny image...I guess you can no longer buy it online.)
I also have for the first time, my own little craft room tree.

Fake trees go against every little bit of Christmas spirit that resides in my soul, but a little baby bonus tree is a clear exception to that rule. I also don't have the heart to leave certain ornaments in a box in favor of stylish themed ornaments. But again, baby trees give a little creative outlet without forcing me to abandon Harv's extensive collection of Donald Ducks and Packer hat wearing mice (although we do prune those down, just a bit). Of course the only craft room tree theme that I have going on this inaugural year is "Box of ornaments I bought at Target four years ago." But they're so tiny and sweet! And if it weren't for them, this baby would probably be naked.

In addition to Christmas gifts, I'm nearing completion on this brand new quilt, made for a certain brand new baby.

And to go with the quilt, a trio of bibs, made from the pattern in Bend-the-Rules Sewing.

I did nothing to jazz these up at all. I was looking for some sort of mindless crafting that I could complete relatively quickly, thus making me feel better about myself one night, and these fit the bill. If you know a baby and you need a crafty pick-me-up, make one.

Long Time No Blog

There's no good reason for my recent lapse in posting so let's just pick up where we left off, ay?
At long long long long last I have finished this beast.

A Denyse Schmidt inspired queen sized quilt for my sister Lauren's birthday. Her birthday, in case you were wondering, is June 6. Guess what tomorrow is! It's her half-birthday! Yes, this gift is 6 months late. But it's such a special gift, surely that's okay!

So what took me so long? I don't know. It's not like there was anything particularly difficult about this. I think I just reached several plateaus of motivation and had a hard time working my way past them. But it is done.

Hey, here's something cool: because Lauren lives in Connecticut where a thin quilt doesn't cut it in the winter I turned this quilt into a duvet so she can use it year round. I quilted together the quilt top, batting and a queen sized sheet from Ikea. Then I bound that together with the actual quilt back, leaving a three foot opening at the bottom to stuff a comforter into. It's convertible! Clever, aye?

Of course you can't put a new quilt out anywhere without this happening:

If the quilt weren't going to my sister I wouldn't let the cats love all over it. But where this baby's going there will certainly be much more of the like.

PS Check me out: I've been nominated for a major award! I'm very excited and there's no mirror in here but I think I'm blushing as I write this. The ceremony isn't until February and in the meantime I must find something fabulous to wear. Wish me luck!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Quilt

Hello friends. Sorry to be gone so long. We made a quick trip to Atlanta this past weekend for my cousin's wedding and things were quite crazy leading up to our departure. On top of the regular packing and other traveling preparations we had a sick puss on our hands, had to find a puss sitter to give him medicine twice a day while we were gone, scrambled to put together our formal attire (Harv hadn't worn his suit in three years and we knew this because he found a chocolate favor and program from a friend's wedding in the pocket) PLUS I made the fastest quilt in the history of (my) quilts to give to the happy couple.
I finished the quilt the night before we left. Since we left for the airport before it was light out I didn't have a chance to take pictures of it before the trip (needing natural light and all). So before the wedding, Harv and I took this baby out on the streets of Atlanta and had a little photo shoot.

Actually, we took it to a park. Piedmont Park? Does that sound right? Well there was a beautiful lake, lots of sunshine and grass! Actual grass! Something that my backyard is sorely lacking.

I'm calling this design Audio 1. I was inspired by the random zig zags of audio waves. I see them everyday on the track sheets we use at work. The first time I remember seeing something like that as a kid was in Fantasia. I loved that movie.
It's called Audio 1 because I'm not sure that this is exactly what I was going for. I may try another version based on this idea. But we'll see.

I do like it a lot. I hope that the bride and groom do as well. I'm not totally sure of their tastes. The nice thing about making a little throw like this for people is they don't have to feel obligated to have it out on display if it doesn't exactly suit them. It's perfectly acceptable to store it in a closet and bring it out for a snuggle every once in a while.

(PS Stabone is on antibiotics and he should be better soon!)

Zipped Up

Ahhh...at long last, it's cooled off. This means my craft room is once again habitable. I'm so glad.
I finished this wedding gift for a friend who was married recently. The colors were inspired by the wedding colors.
I had the idea for this simple design a while ago. I came up with an easy little trick to make the colored panel. You're probably thinking, "Really Liz, it's not that complicated...trick schmick." But really! It was a nice simple little trick.
The only snag I hit was that I accidentally miscut the panel at one point and I ended having to make it narrower than I had initially planned. But I think it worked out.
This design actually came to me in a half-sleep half-drunk weird dream. I came up with it, thinking of a black and white quilt inspired by the teeth of a zipper and I thought it was such an amazing idea. Like really really incredible. Like I thought it was an ingenious idea. Then I woke up and thought "Huh, I guess it's not that great." And I was kind of bummed out. It was like one of those dreams where you're all of a sudden really rich and you're so psyched about it and then you wake up and you don't have very much money at all.
But as I thought about it once I was awake, I started to see how it could be cool after all. I came up with the random fabric choices which made it much more appealing to me.
I was going to call the design "Zipper" but I thought "Isn't there a quilt in this book called Zipper?" So I checked and yes there is. Not only that but there is a quilt called "Confetti" a name which I unwittingly pilfered for this doll quilt. Whoops. So this one is named "Zipped Up". I'm sorry if I'm taking that name from anyone else, I really don't mean to steal.

No time to talk

Hello friends. Harv and I had quite a busy and tiring yet fun weekend, going to Minnesota and Wisconsin for the annual Harvatine Rendezvous. More on that later though. I am tired and busy planning for somebody's 30th birthday this Friday. I just wanted to say hello and give you another peek at my progress on the quilt I started last week.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

That's better.

The molds are poured. There is no work to be done on Harv's maquette but wait for the silicone to cure. I think you know what that means!
Despite having a couple of quilts in the works and several other projects I could be working on, I was too excited about a new idea I had to not dive right into yet another quilt.
I'm not very familiar with many piecing tricks or techniques. I came up with a fun and simple way to execute this new design but for all I know it could already be out there in the universe. I don't know. I do know that I snuck a half hour this morning before work and made a little more progress on this puppy. I sewed for 30 minutes then got ready to leave and Harv said "I need two more minutes" so I thought "Perfect! I can make a couple more cuts!" Silly. Trying to cut a 21 in wide piece into three parts, I lined the edge up at the one inch mark. "Cut at 8 inches!" I thought. Done. "Okay, two times eight is 16! Cut there!" Done. "Why are my pieces all different sizes?" Wah-wah. So, I messed up. But that's okay! I will adjust and adapt and forge ahead. And then I'll make another quilt with this new pattern because, I'll be honest, I was planning on doing that anyway! Practice makes perfect. Despite this set back, it feels oh so good to put the clay and other messy stuff away and restore my sewing machine to it's place of honor. Ah.

The Week in Quilting

My sister Lauren's quilt top is almost finished. The squares are all assembled and ready to be sewn together.
When I laid it out last night, Harv came in the room and asked "What does Lilly think of it?" On cue, she came sauntering in and went right for the center square. I think that means she likes it.
We don't get very good light in our house so this morning I opened up the front door to brighten things up a little and tried to take a better picture.
If there is one thing that cats are more interested in than a quilt it's an open front door.
I don't think Lauren ever ever reads this blog but I'll have to direct her here. This quilt is a belated birthday gift and I let her choose the pattern (it is Denyse Schmidt inspired) and the color palette but I'm still nervous that she won't like it. I guess I'm mostly nervous because the colors she asked for were blue and cream. I insisted on adding a little contrast with the yellows and browns. Oh well. I'm crossing my fingers!

At Long Last

Have no fear, swap partner, the quilt is going out at lunch today. Not too bad, right? I hope she will forgive me.
Here it is.
A plaid quilt. I came up with the idea shortly after signing up for the swap and then chose the palette and fabrics based on my partner's preferences. The pink '30's reproduction fabric was my jumping off point. I originally envisioned this design using only two colors but I really love how it worked with three. Besides, I think that my partner is more of a three color kind of gal.
I used the birthing method instead of adding a binding. I really like doing this. I think the borderless look is very clean and modern. The simplicity of it really suits my style. I will admit that the term "birthing" definitely creeps me out. I know that child birth is a beautiful thing but I've heard that it is also messy and quite painful. Those are two things that I don't like to associate with my quilts. Plus, the word "birthing" sounds very cold and utilitarian to me, as opposed to "giving birth". Of course what do I know about it...you've seen my children.
The back of the quilt. Notice anything missing? Don't worry, here it is.
Another admission: I was a little perturbed about the mandatory label rule this time around. It felt a little like an infringement on my creativity. I was very unsure about how to incorporate a label that would work with this design and not detract from the simplicity of the quilt. I came up with this disappearing label. In its restful state, it mimics the diagonal pattern on the quilt top, and you can't tell that it is a label.
If you want to read it, you flip it to the front. When you want to admire either side of the quilt in its unmarred simplicity, flip the label to the opposite side. Easy as pie. I am very happy with this solution.
Using scraps from the quilt, I made a little matching card and a cookie.
I hope they are all well received. The quilt looks so pretty on my new pink wall, I wish it could stay here! But I know it is going to a loving, crafty home.

So Sorry

I'm officially a jerk. Doll quilts everywhere are making their way through the postal system. Except for mine. It's sitting at home, waiting impatiently to be quilted, quite embarrassed about its tardiness. I keep telling it that it shouldn't be embarrassed. This is all my fault. But the good news is I should be sending the little darling on its way tomorrow. Only a day late...not too bad! This is so different than the first Doll Quilt Swap. I wasn't working when I did that one and I had never made a doll quilt so I just couldn't wait to make mine and sent it out very soon after recieving my partner's name. This time around there were so many more distractions and much less time for crafting.
The quilt top is done. Here is a little sneaky peek.
I am very happy with it and I can't wait to show you the whole thing. The quilting itself shouldn't take too long...as I said, I'm hoping to get it out tomorrow!
Congratulations to all of you wonderful people who are able to meet deadlines. I hope your diligence is rewarded with equally prompt swap partners!

Pirate Quilt for a Girl Pirate

My pirate loving friend Melissa is having a birthday this weekend, the perfect opportunity to make her a Jolly Roger-inspired doll quilt.
Just what she needs to do some serious swashbuckling.
I made the quilt using this awesome method, which I first saw here.
Then got myself some freezer paper. (Note to Southern Californians: I bought this at Vons, they didn't have any at Ralph's or Target)
I drew a skull and crossbones, cut it out with an exacto knife and ironed it onto the quilt. Then I dabbed on some white screen printing fabric paint.
In case you're wondering, yes I did quilt the entire quilt before doing the stencil and yes, that was not the best idea. The reason I did it was because I didn't have any freezer paper when I started the quilt and I was too excited to stop working on it. So the stencil isn't perfect but I'm okay with that. Pirates aren't perfect either.
The quilt is not actually a flag, I just basted on some temporary ties for a photo shoot. I tried to take pictures of it hanging in front of our house but our house just isn't very nice looking, especially around the little flag pole holder. So I had to recruit some pirate models.
The matching outfits are a coincidence.

Quilts, quilts, quilts

I am very happy to have several new quilts in the works.
First is a queen sized(my biggest yet!) Denyse Schmidt-ish quilt for my sister Lauren. As it is a belated birthday gift and she has given me a lot of input on the design and colors I feel free to post progress pictures here. I want to be sure that I am making something that she will like and use. There is nothing sadder than an unappreciated handmade gift, yet they are given all of the time! I hope that we can avoid that happening here with some early consultations.
The second new quilt is a miniature quilt I am making for a friend's upcoming birthday. This one will not be belated! Here's a little sneak peek:Once it is given I will share all of the details. I am having so much fun with this one that I am almost done with it, even though the birthday is not for a while!
And of course, we can't forget "Doll Quilt Swap II"! I have not yet started my quilt for the swap but I have an idea that I am very very very excited about. I can't wait to share! I am also excited that so many people signed up for the swap and glad that I signed up early. I am so sorry for all of you who wanted to participate but didn't make it before the early cut off. I am sure that there will be many more opportunities in the future.

Time to start drinking

I've finished the new project that I mentioned the other day:
Coasters! I am really happy with the way that these turned out. They are made out of cotton fabric and batting and silk screened with sweet little animal motifs on top. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now, silk screening over quilting. I was initially planning on quilting more than this but I really like the simplicity of this. They are for sale in my Etsy shop.

In other news, my sister Lauren's birthday is tomorrow and I told her I would make her a quilt for her new queen size bed. And I haven't started it yet. Yeeps.
I asked her in February if she would like one for her birthday. I didn't want to just surprise her with one. That would pretty much guarantee that she wouldn't like it. I have such difficulty making gifts that I know that people will like...I usually just make gifts that I really like. So she said that she wanted one and I thought "It's February! June is so far away!" June 6 seemed very very far away ever since then. But now it's tomorrow. Oops. This weekend I plan on getting that well underway. I am very excited because after showing her several options that I could make for her, she chose something like this or this. I love these quilts, I can't wait to make one!

In the True Spirit of Whiplash

I had an utterly amazing time participating in the doll quilt swap of late so I was thrilled to see this most recent challenge at Whiplash: miniature quilts! That's so great! Except that I didn't find out about it until two days ago and it must be posted by today! But did I let that dampen my creative spirits? Of course not! So, in the true spirit of the site, I have whipped up a small quilt as fast as I could and...voila!Let's call it "Confetti".

I wanted a quilt with a similar feel to this wip but with much less handwork. So I decided on small squares and rectangles instead of circles and a very random arrangement rather than the gentle dispersing look of the bubbles.
To start, I took a big old stack of fabric (all cotton), trying to have a balanced variety of color and brightness, favoring simple patterns and solids over anything too crazy.
Next, I cut one small square or rectangle out of each different fabric. The sides of the pieces were no smaller than 1", no larger than 2".
Then I used a rotary cutter to cut several strips of white fabric, 1" being the thinnest and 2" the thickest.
Now, to the sewing machine! I sewed each colored piece onto the long white strips, right sides together, adding each piece as I fed the strip through the machine. It doesn't matter how the pieces are oriented or to what width strip they are sewn. I wanted things to be as random as possible. When I was done sewing I had a nice little banner of flags like so:
Laying the strip white-side down on my ironing board, I pressed the colored flags back so that the seam allowances are all pressed towards the colored piece. Once everything is ironed, I snipped the pieces apart.
Now repeat the process of sewing the blocks to the white strips, being sure to sew one of the colored sides to the strip, not the side that is all white.
Iron again, snip apart again.
Now do the whole thing one more time so that all of your blocks have three sides that are solid white and one side with a bit of color.Next I took all of my pieces and treated them like a puzzle, trying to fit them together in rows so that all of the colored blocks are surrounded by white. I didn't try to make everything match up exactly.

*Update* For this part of the quilt you have to be a little creative. Your "puzzle pieces" won't fit together perfectly so trim as necessary. You may want to sew some smaller pieces together and press before piecing them in a row. Feel free to add bits of white to fill in empty spaces and don't be afraid to go back and make a few more colored blocks if you think that you need them. This is a real free form way of quilting. You have to do a little bit of thinking and figuring to get everything to fit together. Don't worry...that's normal!

After each row was sewn together I squared things up as necessary.
Once I was satisfied with my rows I sewed them all together then added a border of white.
I used the "birthing" method instead of binding the quilt. Once that was done I machine quilted around each colored piece.
Done.

Rainy day blues

As you may have guessed, most of my interests and activities take place indoors. I love to be outside but there is just so much sewing and crocheting and internetting to be done indoors. Living in Southern California we don't get many days that force us to stay inside. I don't like that! I need a little balance in my weather. I need days that tell me it's ok to sit inside watching a movie in my pajamas. Too much sunshine makes me feel like a bum, like I should be outside ALL day and I just don't do that!
I grew up in Connecticut where we have four very distinct seasons. I miss it so much! The seasons help you to measure time passing. They refresh and renew your spirit as well as nature. Spring can really only be fully appreciated after suffering through a cold and blustery winter. Rainy days give you the perfect excuse to snuggle up with someone soft and not feel like you're wasting your time. Too much sun makes me feel like a bad person for holing up in my craft room and watching Arrested Development.
I don't want you to think that I'm complaining. The weather here is great. I miss the snow and seasons of New England but I always say that if we're going to give all that up at least we're giving it up for beautiful year round sunshine.
The point is, I've been waiting for a rainy day. Today it is raining. There is nothing I want to do more than sit on the couch, watch DVDs and work on this all day.
But I have to go out! Outside! In the rain! Hiatus is slipping through my fingers like drops of rain on my bone dry lawn. Oh well, perhaps the rain will continue tomorrow. Sad.

The Circle is Unbroken

I got a very special treat in the mail yesterday...
My very own doll quilt from the doll quilt swap! Can you believe it?
Lynn made this for me and I can't tell you how much I love it! It's amazing! It totally suits my tastes but at the same time it's not something that I would ever come up with! Isn't that wonderful? How does that happen?
I think that she did some sort of machine appliqueing here. What is that? I certainly know nothing about no machine applique! I am intrigued.
Lynn also sent some sweet treats that I recognize from my (near-daily) trips to Trader Joe's, the grocery store closest to my heart. Thank you so much Lynn, you are the total best! So so talented and creative.

This was my very first ever swap and I am so thrilled! I can't imagine a better experience. It's so wonderful to share craftiness with such talented people. I love it.

The Reviews Are In

I am a happy little camper! My Doll Quilt Swap partner Kristin recieved the package I sent, and it was well recieved. I am so excited! This swapping thing is great.
Since the puss is out of the bag, here are some pictures I took before sending off the quilt.
I am so happy with this experience. Isn't the internet awesome? Look who I'm asking...of course you're awesome! I heart you internet.
Now, this has gotten me super fired up to start some hand-quilting. I have a week and a half left of sweet sweet hiatus. Can I do it? Stay tuned.

Effervescing All Over the Place

I must type this real quick like because I am going to do some actual work today! At an actual workplace that is not my home! Yeeps! But don't worry, it is just for one day and I will be back in the craft room tomorrow.
Soooo...
My very bubbly quilt top is complete! I am so happy with it. All of the circles are appliqued and I made them using this handy trick as I mentioned before. I am going to hand quilt this baby with lots of little circles to add to the bubbliness. I am not sure what to use to draw the quilting circles on the top. I have had some bum luck in the past with certain pencils and chalk. Any tips?

A Suitable Swap

I couldn't help but jump right in to my doll quilting. I did a bit of snooping at my partner's blog and flickr page. I was very happy to find that we seem to share fairly similar tastes, at least I seem to like most everything that she likes. I guess I can't say that she necessarily likes the things that I do.
This is a great comfort to me. I was very worried that I would not be able to come up with a suitable swap that would leave both parties (myself and my swappee) happily satisfied with whatever I produced. This is a constant gift giving dilemma for me. Of course one always wants to give gifts that suit the recipient's tastes but in most cases we give what fits into our own interpretation of a giftee's tastes. We send their likes and dislikes through a filter of our own and whatever makes it through to the other side is an acceptable gift. I know that this is almost impossible to avoid yet it seems so silly when I think about how very very different my tastes are from those of some of the people I regularly exchange gifts with (I will name no names in so public a forum as this).
Maybe I have more of a conflict over this than others do. I hate to give people gifts from wish lists or things that they have specifically asked for. I love surprises and I love to surprise others. A gift is not something owed. I value the thought put into a gift so much more than the gift itself. I think perhaps I get a little carried away with this ideal of romantic gift giving and of course it has happened many times that I have made a mad dash for Amazon wish lists a week before Christmas because I have been unable to come up with anything else.
Am I rambling? It's ok, you can tell me if I am. Anyway, I've done it! I have finished my doll quilt swap doll quilt and will be sending it out tomorrow. I would like so much to post some pictures of it right now but I will resist. Well ok, I will leave you with this:
I love sweet little birds and I think that the person I am sending this to likes them as well. I hope so!
These little birds will be flying away to their new home and when they arrive I will share the pictures of the entire quilt.

Three Weeks and Counting

Well the weekend is over and it's time to face facts: summer vacation is coming to an end. Yes internet, three weeks from today Harv and I will be back to work. No more long lazy days of crafting and cooking and eating and Wii-ing. It's all coming to an end.
Of course a lot can be accomplished in three weeks. I'm not trying to set any real, definitive deadlines on myself here because I know how I am and when I have to do something I want to do it a lot less. There are some things, though, that will get done simply because I want to do them. First, Harv and I will be making and animating some puppets for a stop-motion film that a friend is making. It is a collaborative sort of thing and I know that most of you are probably not too interested in animation I think that the puppet building might make for some good craft blog fodder. We shall see.
Second (although I will probably work on this first) is...my very first ever swap! Yes, I have done it. I am participating in the Doll Quilt Swap organized by Lisa K. I have my swap partner and after a little reconnaissance work at her blog and flickr page I have settled on an idea of sorts. I will be using the following fabrics,

and I think that I may utilize the old paper piecing technique since I would like to have some fairly small pieces. I don't have a real pattern in mind. I am just going to wing it and see what happens. I will keep you posted.

A Quick Quickie

Feeling slightly pooped on this, a brilliant (I think) quilt design popped into my head.
I loved this brilliant little trickie and am putting it to use.
So I cut out some circles (note never-before-used 8 year-old circle cutter),
picked out some fabric,
got meself some foil
and voila! A quilt in the making!
This is not the decided upon layout, just a hint of what's to come. You know what else is to come? A lot of hand sewing. Yeeps!
Oh, and one last thing:
Has your heart not burst? Oh...you are a cold cold person.

Someday I'll finish posting Christmas gifts

Here at long last is the quilt I made for my mother for Christmas!
It is Denyse Schmidt's Flock of Triangles from "Denyse Schmidt Quilts". It has mistakes. A lot of them. I had a really hard time piecing the triangles so that their tips wouldn't get cut off when I sewed the rows together. I also (gulp) didn't use a walking foot when I quilted it. I know I know! You have to use a walking foot! Well, I thought I could get away with it. Well, I was wrong and this quilt proved it.I feel bad because my technique has improved since I made this quilt and if I were to make it today it would be far superior. I realised that my mom is the recipient of these types of handmade gifts more often than anyone else I give gifts to. Gifts I have made when I have just begun a new craft but haven't quite got the hang of it yet. I wish I had a picture of the enormous fuzzy socks I knit her in college. But I think the reason for this is that she is always the first person that I want to share my new craft with. Everyone else has to wait. Besides, at the rate I am going, I foresee many more quilts in my mom's future.
Using what I have learned from the triangle quilt, I am making this zigging and zagging quilt.
The triangles are bigger than the "Flock" triangles and the fabrics are arranged to give these lovely, stripey zig-zags. I had a "duh" moment in which I figured out how to line the triangles up properly so as to remain triangles and not become trapezoids. And yes, I do have a walking foot now. The next time I make a quilt for my mom it is going to seriously kick ass.

Copycat

Here is the quilt that I made for my friend's newborn baby boy. Lilly is helping.
I am really really happy with this quilt. I wish that I had come up with the design myself but alas, I did not. I was first inspired by this quilt, made by Stardust Shoes, who was inspired by 6.5 Stitches, the designer of the original. I loved this design the second I saw it.
I used a lot of flannel for this quilt. Soft for the baby. The light blue is very thin corduroy and the back is a solid piece of green flannel. I used fabric paint and my magnetic alphabet stamps to print the baby's name on cotton tape. That took many many tries. I bought extra tape and I certainly used it.
After I had settled on this design and bought all of my fabric, I noticed this post on 6.5 Sts' blog. She is a little up in arms because some unnamed blogger has been copying many of her designs without giving her credit. Hmmm... Now this did not deter me from moving forward with my plan. I had always intended to give credit where credit was due. It did kind of muddy my happy inspiration though. It also made me feel a tad foolish for making this quilt.
This is certainly something that I have thought of in the past. It is easy to feel like I should only be creating original work, that it is a waste of my time to make things from patterns or based on other people's designs. Sometimes I even think that I need to shelter myself from even looking at other people's work so that I have no choice but to be unique.
I think these are naughty feelings. I have come to realise that any creative process needs inspiration and motivation and there is such a wealth of both to be found on this wide, wide world of web. The trick is to be open to it. It is so easy to look at other people's work and have feelings of jealousy, wishing that you had come up with a certain idea or intimidation, feeling dejected because you can't imagine ever being as creative or as skilled as someone else is. Everytime I read someone else's blog, flip through pictures on flickr or talk to another crafter, I work so hard to take everything in in a positive way. I don't feel overwhelmed or jealous but inspired and energized to create something of my own. This isn't always easy but I realise how much I can gain from being positive and how much of a deterrent a negative attitude can be on a happy, productive life.
Another important thing that I have come to see is that it doesn't matter if I am not always being totally unique and original. I make what I am inspired to make. It is so preferable to be creating a loving imitation of someone else's genius than it is to sit around waiting to come up with genius of my own, creating nothing. Making things makes me happy and there is nothing better than looking up from the inspiration on my computer screen at all of the inspirational things around me, things that I have made with my own two little hands, if not all with my own little brain.
So, what am I working on now? Another copycat project!
Interestingly enough, this one is also a secondhand inspiration. I first fell in love with this blanket, made by Alicia Paulson who was inspired by Jane who made this blanket! But the inspiration train does not end here. A whole group of happy hookers and naughty knitters have formed a Ripple-Along! So you see, be like these ladies (and gents?): just make what makes you happy and be happy that you have the power to do so!
This blanket is definitely a kind of bonus project, perfect for lounging and tv watching, not necessarily my main objective. It takes a long time to churn this baby out! I will keep you updated on my slow progress though, don't you worry!

Seriously Striking Back

Ta-da! Harv's Valentine's day gift, an Empire Strikes Back quilt, made from a bed sheet we bought at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.You can see more pictures, including some close-ups here.
And of course I can't let you go without a picture of the lucky recipient:
Is this too nerdy? Absolutely. But let's be honest, if you own a light saber, it doesn't really make sense to have an "Empire Strikes Back" quilt photo shoot without it. That's just silly. I will let the internet know that this was my idea, Harv is an innocent victim of my picture taking.
So now what? Another two months of hiatus = let's start another quilt! This next one is going to be really fast and simple. I bought these fabrics today to make a baby quilt for a friend's new little boy. I really really love this quilt which was inspired by this quilt (also love) and both have inspired what I am planning to do here.
I had a lot of fun picking out these fabrics. I got a lot of flannel and the blue is corduroy so it will all be nice and fun for baby to touch.

Some Good Things

1. Finished listening to my first book at Librivox, "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen. Very funny and sweet. I highly recommend Librivox. It is such a wonderful site!
2. Made vomacka for dinner last night. I believe it is pronounced voh-MACH-ka. Ate this soup at a restaurant in Minnesota that we always go to when we visit Harv's best friend and his wife. I think it is the only restaurant in their very small farm town. A lot of the people there are of Czech descent and this is a Czech recipe. I have been thinking about this soup ever since I first tried it over a year ago and finally made it last night. It is a creamy vegetable soup, flavored with dill. SO GOOD!
3. Rediscovered this Denyse Schmidt quilt along group on flickr that I joined a while ago but forgot about. *sigh* I just love Denyse Schmidt, a lot.
4. Finished the Empire Strikes Back quilt! Happy Valentine's Day Harv! Tomorrow being March, I finished just in time. It's handy not working. Putting the quilt in the washing machine right now. I will put a picture up soon!
   

Progress

We don't have cable. Which means we don't have Tivo and we don't get HBO and we've never seen an episode of "Project Runway". These are all things that I know I would enjoy if I had access to them but I don't. It is my personal belief that, although I love it, tv sucks my life away. I simply cannpt resist things like "30 Minute Meals" and crappy MTV documentaries like "Made" (is that still on?). There is just too much I want to be doing with my time to waste it channel surfing all day. Watching too much tv makes me sick to my stomach and a little depressed.
So we decided a couple of years ago that we weren't going to pay to hae our lives sucked and we went off the cable. We're a rabbit ears family now. Rather than slobbing on the couch flipping through 100 channels for an hour, switching between three different shows that we are only aguely interested in, we have a handful of shows that we make a point to watch each week, things that we really want to see. Other than that there are some throw away shows that are entertaining while I'm crafting but don't take my attention away from the task at hand. The great thing about only having 7 or 8 channels (in English, there are about 12 more in Spanish and I think Japanese) is your done channel surfing in about 30 seconds. Then you're either watching something you like or the tv's off.
Now, all of this being said, I really do like to be entertained while I am crafting. While we're working and I only have the weekends to make stuff I listen to NPR non-stop. But now we're on hiatus and I have a lot of time to be entertained while I'm sewing. So, we've put our pinky toes into the pool of 21st century entertainment and joined Netflix! I spent a wonderful Sunday watching "Anne of Green Gables" (sigh) and working on this:
Harv's very very belated Valentine's gift. It's an Empire Strikes Back quilt, made out of a vintage sheet that we bought at the Rose Bowl flea market a couple of weeks ago.
So along with this discovery I made at this lovely blog, I am going to be up to my eyeballs in craft inducive entertainment. Perhaps this quilt could even be finished before March!

The Beginnings of Romance

Our bedroom has always been the most awful room in any house we've lived in. I have a feeling that we're not alone in this. No one ever sees your bedroom so it's easy to put all of your efforts and moolah into the rest of your house. Ours has always been a dumping ground...not only for messes that we need to quickly hide before company arrives but also for furniture that has no other home. In Connecticut we had a fairly large bedroom with room for a large couch, an arm chair and an entertainment center with no TV, in addition to our regular bedroom furniture. We called it "the place that furniture goes to die."
I've wanted for some time now to whip our bedroom into shape but I had no really plan to motivate me into action. Then I stumbled upon the blog of Alicia Paulson, Posie Gets Cozy. She has so many wonderful pictures of her house, all so sweet and colorful with a feeling of romance throughout. As I was browsing through her archives, it dawned on me: "This should be our bedroom!"
I am very excited about this idea. I don't have a fully formed vision of the room but I think that the nature of this style allows for a sort of piecemeal gathering of items. I'm in no hurry, I'm just excited to be on the right path to a beautiful new room. I also really believe that it's better to slowly fill your home with things that you really love rather than rushing out to fill every possible space with coordinating, soulless knick-knacks.
So with romance in mind we found a few small items at the Rose Bowl flea market last Sunday.
Number one: this amazing vintage hand sewn quilt! I love love love it. I'm not always crazy about traditional quilt patterns but whoever chose these fabrics was some kind of old timey genius! I just love the colors in this quilt. The deeper pinks and reds give it so much vibrancy and life. Very gutsy choices, I think. Plus there are so many great fabrics in there. I wish that I had them to work with. I don't quite know what we'll do with this quilt. It won't be on the bed, don't worry. We need some sort of open quilt storage for this and for the quilts Harv's mom made us (also in perfect romantic colors).
Number two: This sweet pink glass lamp. It doesn't have a shade. I'm thinking of embellishing one with Victorian images of birds or something. I bought two cds of Victorian ephemera on EBay awhile ago that have hundreds of great images.
And last, not from the flea market, two flowered sheets that I bought at an estate sale. From an idea in "Mason-Dixon Knitting" I ripped each sheet into one loooong 1 inch strip and wound them into balls. I am knitting two striped rugs to go on either side of our bed. The book suggests using size 15 needles but I'm using size 19. It's very satisfying. The rugs are all stockinette stitch and they are very squashy. I can't wait to sink my tootsies into one every morning.
I wanted to do a random stripe pattern but I have learned through experience that it is often better to plan out a pattern that looks random than to just wing it and actually be random. I don't think that the human brain can ever be totally random. At least mine can't. It's very difficult to shake all of that logic out. So what I am using randomly generated stripes from this little gadget. If you've never used this try it! It's amazing how fun it is! You can make as many random stripe patterns as you want until you see something that you like! It seems so simple but making different color combinations can be truly mesmerizing.

Apron and Mitt

Well, I've accidentally made something for myself.
I intended to make this apron and oven mitt for a friend but decided after they were finished that these colors just don't suit said friend. I was inspired by these orange pom-poms that I had. In hindsight, I don't really think my friend is such an orange person, nor a pom-pom person. So, I'm keeping them for myself and making another set in more fitting colors.
The patterns are from "Denyse Schmidt Quilts", my A-#1 favorite quilt book. I love the way they look. I cook a lot but I have never worn an apron. I must admit that I feel totally cool when I cook in this. It's like a time to cook uniform.
Unfortunately the oven mitt is not quite as functional as it should be. The pattern just calls for one layer of batting and I used two but it is still isn't quite thick enough. And it was really difficult to sew through all of the layers plus the pom-poms. Since the next one I'm making won't have pom-poms I should be able to add another layer of batting. I don't want to burn any hands!

Done and done.

Hooray! It is done:
A quilt for someone. I can't say who just yet. It has actually been done for almost a week but I didn't take pictures of it until today. Now I need to get myself to FedEx and ship this baby off.
As I mentioned before, this quilt was inspired by this design on the Denyse Schmidt website. The design takes full advantage of the two things I love most about DSQ: #1, irregularity and the appearance of randomness in shapes and placement and #2, the use of a neutral color as a background as opposed to an all over design. And now that I'm on the subject I've thought of another: #3, choosing a very high percentage of solid fabrics over patterned ones. I really love the clean, modern look that you can achieve this way. It makes the design really prominent and also makes the few patterns that you do use really stand out. For this quilt I used all solids except for one plaid for some of the stripes and a flowered vintage-looking print for the backing.
The design isn't totally random. I tried to work out how many stripes of each color I would need and in which widths and lengths to keep it somewhat balanced. I used the same number of each on either side and simply laid them out randomly on the floor along with white strips of different widths. I rearranged one or two stripes but was quite happy with my initial "random" layouts.

Yesterday was my last day of work until Robot Chicken Season 3 starts up in 2 months and I plan to be sewing like crazy! I also hope to be more diligent about blogging all of my crafty endeavors. Next up: another Denyse Schmidt something for another secret someone!

Denyse Schmidt Wannabe

I'm making a quilt for a secret someone using this fabric.I was looking at patterns, hoping for inspiration and I found this quilt on the Denyse Schmidt website. So that's what I'm doing. It's working out pretty well so far. I really hurt my brain trying to plan out how many of which color strips at what width and what length. That sort of thing gets really jumbled up in my head but I'm glad I did it. That way I only cut the fabric that I needed and it was much simpler to lay out the final pattern without having to worry about using too much or too little of any one fabric.
Here is my center panel. I have sewn on the two side panels and spray basted everything together so maybe this weekend I will be able to quilt it up!

In No Particular Order

Strips of fabric for my Christmas tree skirt. I cut a bunch of strips of different widths and whatever length the fabric I was using would allow. I've started to sew them together into 4 foot long strips. I thought that I would be able to arrange them randomly but I think it's going to require more planning than that. So I am going to make enough strips and then rearrange to my heart's content on my little felt wall here. I think I need more solids.

Second Anniversary

Harv and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary almost a month ago and I just now took pictures of the gift I gave him, my third quilt! When I first heard that the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton I thought I would knit Harv something out of cotton yarn. But that was before my new obsession with quilting had really taken hold.

I came up with the design for this quilt while trying to think of math themed quilts. (Math is my former love and I sometimes feel bad for abandoning it) The idea of using an infinity motif didn't really push the limits of my mathematical knowledge but it occured to me that the symbol could be very meaningful on a quilt for Harv, what with the infintie nature of our love and all.

The quilt is made up of 20 12 inch squares of blue stripes. I sewed all of the squares together first, then cut apart six of them to inset the infinity pieces. I had a little bit of trouble sewing the curves at first but I figured out a few things and was really quite surprised and pleased with the way it turned out. Afterwards, I embroidered a message next to the infinity symbol. It's a teensy bit hard to read but the overall message is "Infinity + 2 = years I will love you".