National Thrift Shop Day

Have you been thrift shopping lately?? It’s one of my favorite things to do! And I’m excited to show you my latest purchases to celebrate National Thrift Shop Day!

Recently I was contacted by Value Village about promoting thrift shopping on National Thrift Shopping Day and I jumped at the offer! Um, yes! I had it my mind that I was ONLY going to get crafty things, but of course there’s so much more to thrift than craft supplies!

My first stop at thrift shops is always the linen department! And when I saw these whales, I knew exactly what I wanted to make with them. I’m totally going to make pillows for our beach house and maybe even a quilt to go with them. I came straight home and ordered some Kona cotton to match, exactly! Can’t wait!

I usually don’t buy pattern books, but I saw this one and it had some cool things in it, so I added that to my pile! I also found this pattern in my size. It looks a little dated, but last winter I saw a woman wearing a coat that was so close to this pattern. So I’m hoping that with the right fabric and this pattern I can recreate that look I saw!

So this pattern is what sold me on this book! And how about these pillowcases? I think they will be perfect for this pattern. through in a contrasting solid and boom! Gonna be cool!!!

This one is a cool one too. It could use the pillowcase fabric and be really cool too!

The thing about thrifting that I love is giving everything a second chance. Ok, well, number one, the finding cool and unexpected things is probably my most favorite thing about thrift shops! Second giving everything a second chance and keeping all things out of landfills. And finding new uses for the things I find. Like this book, for instance. It’s full of very traditional patterns. But I totally want to take them and make them modern or even, wait for it, Improv! Like a piece of this block will be cool as improve in my 2016 BOM quilt. Actually most of the blocks in the book will make cool improv blocks!

I mentioned more than craft things… When you’re kiddo loves books, you want to foster that love of reading, right? Books can be expensive… Unless you buy used books! The kiddo found a nice large pile of books that he wanted. Dad found the stamps and I jumped at the Frog Juice game! We love this brand of games, so I know we’ll love this one, too! And yes, you heard me right! This thrift shopping thing is a family affair!

And lastly, I am loving these cross stitch tablecloths. I’ve been collecting a couple over the last year (to go with my lovely quilt collection… Since I need something else to collect!). So when I saw this one, I didn’t think twice as I through it in my basket. I want to do a whole cloth quilt out of one. I also saw my friend Blair, of Wise Craft Handmade, cut one up and use it in a quilt. It is really cool!

What do you look for when you go thrift shopping?

And I want to send a big thank you to Value Village and my new friend there for hosting my shopping trip! Shopping secondhand is a major benefit to your wallet with 96% of the retail items at Value Village being priced under $10. Go celebrate National Thrift Shopping Day!!! Every day is National Thrift Shop Day in my book!

 

Value Village provided me with a gift certificate for this thrifting experience. All opinions are my own, honest opinions!  

 

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The 1-Hour Dopp Kit

I love patterns that say 1 hour!

Ha! Whatever! Well, it takes me almost that long just to pick the fabric. And if you quilt it, right away the one hour is out the window! Right? And maybe once you’ve made it once it will only take an hour, but the first one never takes me just an hour. Maybe you are faster than I am!

For this one I used the 1-Hour Dopp Kit Tutorial from the Craftsy Sewing Blog. Even though I’m complaining about the one hour part, I like the pattern and would like to make another one. This one was a Christmas present for my husband, but the kiddo took it instead!

I love the little handle! You could do two, but I chose to do just one. You only carry it on one end, so why do you really need two handles?

Although the inside corners take some thought, the turned out great. This feature was one reason I headed to this tutorial over some of the others. (ignore the toothpaste spots. It’s proof that it is actually being used as a toiletry bag and not a bag to carry toys!)

And the bottom! Do those stripes look familiar? I used scraps from my 2016 SMQG BOM Medallion quilt!

So what do you think? Would you give it a try? Do you have a favorite Dopp Kit pattern? I’d try a different one next time. I kinda want to make a leather one… Have you?

 

Sunset Dreamin’- April do.Good Stitches Quilt

I’m so excited to show off this one! I’m totally in love with it! And it’s going to Quiltcon!!!

This one is a bit long overdue… I designed the blocks back in April for the do.Good Stitches Nurture Circle to make. You can see the tutorial here. And honestly, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the blocks when I got them back! I knew I wanted a stripey quilt, but not necessarily a striped quilt…. Does that make sense?

I was so impressed how well the blocks went together! It’s hard to make each block match up when you’ve got 10 people making blocks. But I couldn’t have asked for better blocks.

But what was I thinking? And why did I photograph this one at the beach?

Well, did you wear those stripey OP shirts back in the 80’s? Like these? I did… And I had the shorts, too. I remember going to Target as a kid in Houston and being so excited for OP. I can still see the intersection of where Target was. Anyway… The beach was on my mind back in April!

But I got the blocks and was stumped. I really did not know what to do with them! So I thought about it for months. (sorry group! I’m not supposed to take that long to put the quilts together.) Then one day it came to me. Striped angles hitting into each other…

So that’s what I got! The stripes went together perfectly! Then I added the big blocks of white. And when you cut triangles out of fabric, they can distort a bit… I learned that on another quilt I made. So I had to work that center a bit. But it came together quite nicely!

And that’s also why I photographed it at the beach. Ideally it would have been a nice summery day with blue skies and surf boards… But alas, I live in Seattle and we don’t get that weather all that often in the winter…

I did have one block that didn’t quit fit, so it’s on the back and break up the sunset and the water colors.

And a huge thanks to all the lovely ladies that made this quilt come together! And this is the second Nurture Circle do.Good Stitches quilt to be shown at Quiltcon! Yea! I can’t wait to see it hanging with all the others! I don’t know if I’m going yet or not, but I know someone will snap a pic, if I don’t…

I’m in love with this one….

And it’s the one and only on my 4th Quarter Finish Along that I actually finished!

 

 

 

Angry Birds with Shaffer Sisters

Welcome back to another fun day of Sew Ready to Play! Today’s guest is another one of my favorite online friends, Al, from the Shaffer Sisters! Al has been awesome to also be a returning Sew Ready to Play guest for a few years now! I always love seeing what she sends over!

And this year it’s Angry Birds! Come On!! Let’s head over to the Shaffer Sisters blog and learn more about what she did to make these guys! I love it!

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!

A Memory Quilt Using the Complete Quilt Design Planner

Remember the Friendship Bracelet quilt that I finished not long ago? Well, originally I agreed to test Blair Stocker’s, AKA WiseCraft, pattern to make a memory quilt. Very quickly I realized that wasn’t going to work for that pattern.

Then she asked me to test another pattern, The Complete Quilt Design Planner Pattern. I was one, very intrigued by the name, but also knew it would work well with my memory quilt idea!

The pattern is really not a pattern at all, but step by step guide to designing your own one of a kind quilt! It has layouts for 6 different sized quilts. It was really fun! My son and I laid out all the fabric we were going to use, grabbed some colored pencils and we both started designing!

A friend of mine from way back… Like Middle School I think? I was actually best friends with her younger sister for a while… Anyway, she asked me to take her sons clothes to make into a quilt. I ended up separating the piles and using mostly wovens on the front and the knit t-shirts on the back.

I really loved this little center guy from a baby outfit! I also think it also tied together the colors from the other clothing pieces. Once I had it designed, I realized not all the pinks were the same, etc… So there was a bunch of laying out and picking up and laying out again to get it right!

And the back is a t-shirt quilt. These t-shirt quilts take a long time. I didn’t want just a bunch of regular squares, so it took a bit, I mean a lot, longer to layout than I thought it would! I also added in a few colored blocks to fill in the spaces in between.

This is a great pattern, especially for beginners. It also got me to try something new. I don’t think I’ve ever done a whole quilt out of the same size blocks before. It’s always fun to look at quilt design a little out of your design comfort zone and this is exactly was I experienced with this one.

You can see more examples of this quilt here.

AND… It’s the one thing that I actually finished this quarter! oops…

 

 

Two in One Pouches

I’m so not following the blogging trends of when you blog about things! Ha!

I didn’t make too many Christmas presents, but I did make a few… And since it’s almost February, I thought I’d show them! Well, the Alabama Pillow was one… So, next up is the Two In One pouch by Sotak Handmade. I made them at the same time, assembly line style. One was gifted to the kiddo’s teacher, the other for me!

Years ago at one our SMQG retreats, we had a white elephant and I won one of these! Yay! Then it was stolen from me…. In honest white elephant style… But I will not forget the pain of it being ripped from my hands! Ha!! And now I have my very own, in awesome Cotton and Steel Fabric!

The pattern calls for fusible fleece and I feel like it’s makes it a little too puffy. If I had quilted it, it would probably be fine. So next time I’m thinking about either quilting it or ditching the fleece and just using a heavy interfacing.

I love the two pockets! But it opens…. And it just seems like wasted space! It needs pockets in here. Or a little mini note holder… Or to stitch together the two sides, so it becomes a middle pocket. So many options! Next time, I’m going to make it more user friendly in the middle.

It was a pretty quick sew, perfect for a teacher gift! And I’ve enjoyed Finally having my own! I’ll keep you posted on any adjustments I make on the next round!

The Making of a Nursery- Part 1

Last year a friend of mine was having a baby and asked me to help her personalize the nursery with some custom pieces. She picked out the fabric and together we grouped the fabrics to make curtains, a rag quilt, a ruffle bed skirt and a teething rail for the crib.

Today, let’s talk about the curtains and the rag quilt!

The curtains are yards and yards of fabric! They are almost 8′ long and lined with a black out fabric. Yep, long hems!

I love the purple flocked pattern. We wanted to use it in other pieces, but were concerned about the flocking comign off and into a baby’s sweet mouth. So the main use of this fabric is the curtains.

LIke I said, I lined the curtains with black out lining. I cut the lining a bit shorter and narrower than the curtain fabric and then folded the hems over on the lining to secure it place. So, for the width, I cut the lining 2 inches narrower than the curtain fabric to account for the 1/2″ hem on the sides.

Same thing for the bottom hem and the top hem.

And the rag quilt! This was the first rag quilt I have ever made!

A rag quilt is a perfect project for a beginner quilter. And it’s super soft! Stayed tuned this week and I’ll show you how I made it!

Stay tuned for more nursery fun!

American Made Brand Tiny Quilt Challenge

Did anyone else participate in the American Made Brand Tiny Quilt Challenge???

At first I wasn’t going to participate. You saw my fourth quarter goals right???? I have enough on my plate already! But… I love supporting local, so I’ve always loved Clothworks, the brand behind the American Made Brand. And who can’t love American Made fabric? One of the owners came to our guild and showed us the step by step process in making this brand and it’s quite amazing! And frustrating to see how much of our natural resources get exported for us to then buy back! But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post!

And at our Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild meetup, there was this adorable little mini charm pack in our swag bags. So I had to go for it! I had a different idea to start, more of a spiral, but it didn’t turn out…. So this is what I ended up with. Not truly original, and that probably has one thing to do with why it didn’t win anything….

I still didn’t have my own machine back yet and was using a machine that wasn’t real into the curved quilting. So it didn’t end up great there either… But I love the pattern! I wanted to contrast the squares and triangles with circles.

The back is pretty simple and used a couple of extra half square triangles! And I also won a giveaway of American Brand green solids that I put to use on the back.

Don’t look too closely, this one is not my usual quality of piecing or quilting, but…. I don’t have much wall space for mini quilts, so I like to use them for other things. I made this with two layers of batting to use for a hot pad. Even if I didn’t win, it was a fun little project!

Pikachu!

I’m not much up on the whole Pokemon thing. The kiddo isn’t into that whole thing yet. But…

One of his buddies up the street is! And she just had a Pokemon birthday party. So of course I needed a birthday present. I know our friend loves stuffies. I know she loves Pokemon and her favorite character is Pikachu. And I’ve been following along with ikat bag‘s Menagerie Stuffie Pattern.…

Have you seen it? I was waiting everyday to see what she would come up with next! Using the same basic pattern she came up with a frog, a dragon, a shark, and my favorite, the squid! And many more! 17 actually. Fantastic! It’s so cool. The pattern is not out yet, but she did participate in Sew Mama Sew’s 6 Weeks of Love for Softies and gave us a sneak peek at the pattern with the Raccoon Pattern.

So I jumped! Stuffie + Pikachu + Menagerie Raccoon Pattern = AWESOME Birthday Present! The pattern was perfect for my project! It’s so simple!

I got to use two new materials that I have never used before! The plastic eyes and the stuffing beads. I ordered the beads not long ago to use in the lap desk, but the bag ended up being tiny. These are like little beads of plastic, not the tiny polyfill microbeads that fly around. I was going ot return them, but it cost more ot return them so I figured I’d use them sooner or later. Yep!! Good call!

The obvious changes from the raccoon are the ears and the tail. I did add heavy interfacing in the ears to help them stay straight. I also deleted the nose and instead hand embroidered it.

Image via Polygon

I debated adding the open pink mouth.  After I started all the pieces, I was sewing on the cheeks and was about to sew on the open mouth when I saw this picture. Totally inspired the closed mouth. So sweet looking!

And I moved the stripes from the tail to the back! For the cheeks and the back I used high quality wool felt, instead of a fleece. But for the tail I did use a little bit of brown fleece. It was much easier to pull through the tail than the felt would have been. I think if I made it again, I would add one piece across the back instead of 4 little pieces. You can download the pieces I added here. There are no seam allowances included in my pieces.

I think it turned out freakin’ adorable! I’m in love with it! And I know the birthday girl was pretty happy with him too! There are such cute critters in the whole Pokemon thing, that  I almost want to try to make a whole series of them! What would you make with her pattern?

The Mini Messenger Bag

I got to test a pattern for Katy of The Littlest Thistle! I’ve seen her make some fun bags so I was excited ot try this one.

This one is the Mini Messenger Bag. I’ve made messenger bags before, but I was interested in seeing what made her’s different from the others. One is the size. It’s mini! It is exactly the right size for a kiddo, for sure.

I wanted to make it for my son, but he didn’t want one. At least not until he saw mine…. The picture on the cover is a little girlie and I think he was blinded by the floral fabric. Because when he saw mine in person, even though it’s a little girlie though, he wanted mine! But I said no! And I used it the other day and it’s great!

The second piece about it that was new to me was the insides! The pattern calls for some fusible interfacing that I had never actually used before. A woven interfacing, which I also learned is fantastic for clothing. And a fusible fleece. I’ve seen this before, but typically skip it since it isn’t in my sewing room… This time I bought it and the two interfacings really do give the bag a big sturdy shape!

Lastly, for new ot me sewing, I have never done an adjustable strap! It seems like I would have with all the hundreds of purses I’ve made in my time (I used to sell purses…). But no! Super easy!

I love a purse with an inside pocket! And it has one included in the pattern! Next time I might put one on each side.

The outside pocket is perfect for my phone! I made it the contrasting color, but in hindsight, I think I’d stick with either the same color or at least not as contrasting because part of the pocket shows under the flap. which I didn’t realize in the process!

And its’ a great size for a stuffie! I couldn’t resist, since this guy looked so cute in it! I actually didn’t carry Mt. Doodles around in it. I used it for carrying books and I really loved how the strap felt on my shoulder. I have a problem with bags falling off my shoulder, but this one didn’t!

Now to get your own pattern! You can purchase the pattern here at Katy’s shop. To celebrate the launch of her new pattern she’s offering 25% off ALL the patterns in her shop! Hurry over, the discount is available until April 10th with the code HOPPYEASTER15.