finally, a quilt for me

With a little bit of time off for the holidays, I got a lot of sewing accomplished. Here's the only quilt I started in 2009 that's definitely going to reside at the Sweat Shop:(Click to enlarge)
I love it, especially with the border. I quilted it in straight lines, in green thread, 1/4 of an inch outside each seam going one direction. I know that sounds confusing... so here's the back, with Cassidy:
I used green Kona cotton, I think the colour is celery (or at least, that's what I'm calling it).
One of the most thoughtful presents I got for my birthday was from Nicole, and she picked out 4 different yards of quilting cotton that are all very compatible with my stash, yet nothing I already had. I already used one of those fabrics for the binding in this quilt (and a second quilt-- pictures tomorrow). My brother-in-laws got me a pair of Gingher scissors, and I'm in love with them. They cut extra batting and fabric off of this quilt like it was no big deal.

Mr. and Mrs. K

Two Nicoles, one post.
The first Nicole is my brother's girlfriend. I decided to make her a tote bag for the upcoming holiday season out of some of my favorite fabric:The pattern is the Flourish Tote. The instructions were clear, it probably took me a total of 2.5- 3 hours, and I'm happy with the construction. I wouldn't recommend it as a first bag pattern for anyone, as there were some slightly advanced things like curved corners and sewing through so many layers. The only thing I need to add is some gray grosgrain ribbon going through the loops in the top. I used quilt batting instead of fusible fleece, and decided with all the heaviness not to put the darts in the bottom corners. Here's a shot of the inside, showing the six pockets (more Heather Ross stripes and dots):
The second Nicole is a friend of my husband's from law school, and she recently got married. Since she's a good friend, and warrants more than a blender, I made this for her and her new husband:
Click to enlarge-- also, it's really sunny outside here today!
All of these fabrics came from my stash except for the gray kona (I think it's called Charcoal). I took my original inspiration from Alissa's Sparks Baby Quilt but quickly deviated. Each of my center squares are 4", and I fussy cut birds:Then I added a rectangular border around each bird, and alternated the direction of the rectangles (vertical, like the one above, and horizontal). For the horizontal blocks, I added 2.5" of the gray to either the top or the bottom (half of each) and then sashed the blocks. The outer border is 6" on the top and bottom, and 3" wide on either side. I quilted 1/4" around each seam. I love the back, too:
(It's windy-- ignore my shoe at the bottom!)
I used the rest of my bird fabric (IKEA-- and the same fabric I used for my bedroom curtains) and more Lotus. Here's a closeup of the quilting, from the back:

I can't wait to put this in the mail and send it off to NYC! It feels so good to finish something, especially two things that make me proud.

fuzzy math

Here's the nearly finished quilt top, all for me:I'm going to add a big polka dotted border around it, but am still deciding on the width of it. All of the orange sashing and cornerstones are 3" before being sewn. That's about double the width of the block borders (all cut to 1 3/4"). Using this crude math, I think it'd look pleasing if I make the border double the sashing, or 6". I'm really very pleased with this; selfish quilting is fun! I'm still trying to decide on the backing, and also the quilting. Especially the quilting, and even the thread colour. Normally I quilt in the colour of the sashing, but I'm afraid the orange might be too vivid on the blocks (plus, the orange is really made of magenta and yellow warp and weft).
Here it is again, in the sun on my front yard:

sashing fun

Thanks for the sashing suggestions for my HR quilt. Here's what I've decided on, with Butch's obvious approval:I'm sashing in the orange, which I already adore. I was most concerned about the way it'd look next to the bright orange AB print (on the left) and the sherbert-y Flights of Fancy on the right. But I'm very pleased so far, since it makes the paler prints stand out more than I'm used to.
I'm using five fussy cut 3" squares for the corners. I've decided that the corner pieces will be the same all the way across, so the top row are the bikes, the second are the ice cream trucks, etc. I'm planning on a pretty wide polka dotted border (that plan could change). I'm also trying to think about something brilliant for the back. Maybe another solid?

a Heather Ross story

A while back, Ms. Heather Ross herself posted a great opportunity for a handful of lucky fabric junkies to buy some of her stash. Since I still haven't won a single giveaway, I count it as a true victory that I was able to purchase some Munki Munki love.
Ms. Ross picked out some good stuff: sushi, toadstools, bicycles, dogs, ice cream trucks... and she even included a white tank with a patch of farmer's market sewn on the front, which magically fits me.
Fast forward about a month later, and I was trolling the arts and crafts section on Craigslist. You may or may not remember that I got my amazing Singer 201 on Craigslist for next to nothing. There's of course plenty of junk listed, but then I came across a posting listed "highest quality Westminister fabric, $3 a yard". Yes, it read Westminister instead of Westminster, but I let it slide. I drove to a far suburb, and to my delight, a young mom who had a baby boutique selling baby slings decided to shift her focus, so she wanted to liquidate her HEATHER ROSS LIGHTNING BUGS fabric. For yes, three. dollars. a. yard. She had the orange and blue stripe, and the polka dots in a few colours. And I happily bought a ton. I decided that two Heather Ross encounters-- both serendipitous, to me at least-- warranted a quilt of my very own. So here's what I've started:I think this is the only time I'd consider sushi, mushrooms, dogs, campers, ice cream trucks and a ton of stripes and polka dots coordinating fabrics (click to enlarge).
But what to do about the setting? I'm thinking about sashing it in either this: or Joelle Hoverson's gorgeous peachy Net of Jewels, which is sort of like shot cotton:
Or, there's always white kona cotton. But I do that a lot. What do you think? Are the dots too busy? Or could it look as great as the cover of Material Obsession? (I kid, I kid-- there's no way it'll ever look half as amazing as that quilt. But I do love the polka dots...)

bizzare bundle

There was a lovely rumor circulating among the crafty bloggers that JoAnn Fabrics had some Heather Ross hiding in their fat quarter bundles. Not wanting to miss that opportunity (as nobody in my fairly large city carried HR), I ran over there after work yesterday. Sure enough, I found this:This was the only HR fabric I saw at this particular JoAnn's, and yes, I looked through every single bundle. The one sad thing about buying these at JoAnn's is that all of the selvedges are cut, and Heather Ross has some of the cutest selvedges around. The first three, obviously, are the wonderful Lightning Bugs fabrics. They were hidden behind the black and pint polka dots and the ugliest FQ I've ever bought (which happened to be the front one displayed). Look at this one up close:
I'm not even going to give it the dignity of being ironed-- those are glittery smiling dogs on a neon green background. Yikes. It's even uglier compared to the gorgeous HR fabric. Now I kind of want to do an ugly FQ show of my collection-- ones I've recieved from swaps, or unfortunate impulse purchases.

weekend sewing-- trapeze dress

This is my favorite completed item out of Weekend Sewing (the front):
It's the trapeze dress, made with Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks Filigree Meadow. I made the size small, but still had to take it in about 3 inches total around the bust. My favorite part, aside from this great fabric, is that I put in pockets for the first time (therefore justifying my weird pose). For a non-garment crafter, these were really very easy. The straps were crazy long, probably because I needed to make it in a petite, and I decided at the last minute to have a criss-cross back. It'd be easy to make it into a halter dress, too. I could see myself wearing this (and others like it) all summer. (The back:)It's not really that tight or wonky or anything-- I was having fun posing for pictures. I wanted to show off the pockets and the swinginess of it.
I have a really hard time picking out garment fabric-- I'm much more comfortable deciding on quilt fabric choices. I had some help at the shop picking this out, and I feel really comfortable in it. I'll admit that I also have 2 1/2 yards of this Amy Butler Lotus that was going to become this dress, but then I decided against it:What do you think? Could it work for this dress, or should I chop it up for a quilt?

yard sale wrap skirt

Here's my first completed project from "Weekend Sewing". OK, I'm counting it as completed, even though I haven't hand-sewn the hem. It's the yard sale wrap skirt, and it took much more fabric (2.5 yards) than I expected it to. Luckily, this time I didn't run out:It's modeled by Diana, which is the name of my mom's dress form (it had a sticker saying "Diana" on it, so that became her name). I seem to take all of my pictures at night, so I think that could be why my colours aren't the greatest. These are pale pink roses on a chocolate background. Once it's hemmed to mid-calf, I think it'll look cute with a cardigan or a white tee shirt.
As far as my "Weekend Sewing" shirt, I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to find more of the tree fabric. I went to a second JoAnn today and they were out. Either the shirt will be sleeveless, or I'll just have to wait until a new order comes in. The very nice sales lady said that Thursday is their shipment day.
For my next endeavor, I'll need your help. I bought some really crazy Alexander Henry fabric for another "Weekend Sewing" project-- the Trapeze Dress. (That's not me in the picture.) Now that I have it home, I'm unsure if it's going to turn into a mumu. Do you think I could make it into a cute sundress?

summer blouse, in progress

I got my hands on a copy of Heather Ross' "Weekend Sewing", courtesy of my local public library. I appreciated all of the vintage Singer sewing machines-- that's what I sew on, and it's the best. I love just about everything in the book, and while I really want to make the shirt dress, I decided to ease myself in with the summer blouse. Here it is, without sleeves:
I don't sew garments very often, and part of the reason is because they end up much too large (I'm between a size 0 and 2). This is much the same-- but it's not a really tailored look. The picture in the book has it over a tank top, and I could see it over a swimming suit at the beach. The sleeves are long; I'll probably make them 3/4 length. I know that the V neck looks really deep, and that's because I haven't decided how low to make the placket.

Now, you may be asking why I showed you something like this in progress. It's because I didn't buy enough fabric (it was the end of the bolt, and I decided to buy the rest) to cut the sleeves properly, and so I decided to make them too skinny for the armholes. Luckily, it's just JoAnn fabric, and I'll go to a different and bigger store tomorrow to buy some more for the sleeves.
I'm in love with this fabric, though-- I think it'd be cute in a quilt.

Coming soon: my grandpa's quilt quilted, bound, and washed!