A Bunny Embroidered Bag

And now for my third embroidery project!

This project is a combo of two projects from The Love magazines! Since I’m still learning this embroidery thing, I’m enjoying following the directions from the Love Embroidery Magazine instructions.

This pattern by Stacie Bloomfield aka Gingibear was featured in Issue 1 of the magazine, but it’s also online at Gathered. It was a pretty easy project, but the split stitch that I did to fill in the body took me forever! and it doesn’t have the same lovely texture as her project. Maybe I didn’t do it exactly right. Not sure!

For the bag I followed the tutorial in Love Quilting Magazine for the Stitch and Stroll bag by Sotak Handmade. I forget the issue number, but it looks like her pattern is in now in her etsy shop, here. It’s called the Denver Tote in her shop. It’s a great little drawstring tote bag pattern. I’ve made it a couple of times now and it goes together quickly! In hindsight, I wish the bunny was higher up on the bag…. Oh, well!

I choose to use some fun chicken fabric on the inside! I thought it was bright and fun and went well with the bunny!

I gave this as a Christmas present, but maybe it should have been an Easter present! 🙂 ha!

I’ve Got My Eyes on You – A MQG Fabric Challenge Quilt Part 2

I’ve Got My Eyes on You… The second quilt made from the fabric for the fabric challenge for Quiltcon, hosted by Windham Fabrics using their Artisan Cotton fabric line. I didn’t finish this one in time to submit, but I really like it! I like to think it may have had a better chance at making it into the show, but who knows!

In case you missed the first quilt, you can read all about it here.

Testing, the quilt I shared the other day, had A LOT of scraps. So much so that the front of this quilt is made out of about 98% scraps from the other quilt! I didn’t mind having so many scraps, because I loved the shapes that were being left over and I knew a second quilt was in the works from the beginning!

The blocks coming together.

Details! I just started sewing the circles on top of each other. All improv, no inset circles, no pins, no real planning. I just had fun. I made the basic oval shapes, then puzzled them together. After working on the previous quilt, tying to make something a little more precise, this was a fun exercise in just making for the pure joy of sewing things together to happy shapes!

The back is pile of scraps as well! The scraps from the front scraps became the back scraps! But I did eventually run out of scraps and I had to fill in with larger pieces of my fabric pile.

This is how the back started… Literally the last of the last scraps!

And this is how the back finished!

To me, I love the juxtaposition of these two quilts. I love how different they are. And I love that they are so different, yet both started from the exact same quilt block! Do you find that fascinating? Or is it just me?

I’m pretty excited about this one!

Crimbo the Red Nosed Reindeer

A little holiday sewing for me!

I have been loving this reindeer pattern from Unicornharts for a while, and decide I was going to make it for me!

This little cutie is paper pieced and came together quite easily!

I think my favorite part is this guys big red nose! His whole expression is priceless!

I used a solid piece on the back and an invisible zipper at the bottom.

Have you sewn anything for yourself this holiday season? I’m actually working on another little pillow for myself tonight between sewing gifts for the family!

Happy Holidays!

Be Kind- a SMQG BOM Quilt

Here’s a first! I started a Seattle Modern Quilt Guild BOM quilt and finished it in the same year! I have NEVER done that before!

This year the guild’s BOM quilt was titled ‘Salsa Medallion’. Each month they gave a theme for the medallion quilt border. Along with the theme came suggestions for different levels of involvement with the quilt. These levels were Spicy, Medium or Mild. You can find all the instruction here.

Of course, starting off I didn’t follow the directions. The first block I made was the center block even though it was technically one of the last pieces we made. I never really understood why you wouldn’t make the center first and build off to it, so I just didn’t think too hard and made my improv log cabin center block. It’s kinda big… Coming in at about 18″!

The next two borders were designated as stripes and triangles. For the stripes border I used leftovers from my Balanced Courthouse Steps quilt. I added in a little bit of other colors to make it blend a bit.

For the triangles, I decided to do improv flying geese. I’ve done a lot of improv and I’ve done a few flying geese in my day, but I’m not sure I’ve done improv flying geese before! I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!

The next border prompt was ‘Text message’. I was full on ready to skip this border. I waited for the next prompt. I was convinced I didn’t want to put words in it. time went on and I remembered a meme I had seen online somewhere. And I knew I needed to quilt it:

Be Kind to Others, to Earth, to Yourself. Be kind of weird.

And that’s the text message I made. And it took a long time….

The letters were all improv pieced. I didn’t follow a tutorial, I just made it up as I went along. I really, really like how they turned out!

Each letter with a curved part started with a small inset circle using the freezer paper and glue method that I always use for the inset circles. You can read all about it here.

The last two borders were circles and diamonds. Again, the improv versions for me!

And the back. This one is on the more simple side for me. Using leftover fabric from the front.

You can really see the quilting on the back! I started in the center and did an improv ‘square spiral’ all the way to the edges. Is a square spiral even a thing? I don’t really know if those two words work together, but I think it describes my quilting pattern just right! ha!

Token quilt label picture!

And that’s a wrap! Ok, not only did I start and finish this quilt in the same year, which is unheard of from me and our guild’s BOM quilts, but I also photographed and blogged about it in the same year! Woah!!!

More Pillowcases!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I love making pillowcases as Christmas presents… And since Christmas is coming up soon, I thought I’d share some I made last year.

I can’t post the pictures of gifts before Christmas then I forget to post them after, so here they are!

I just love this mix of fabrics! All Cotton and Steel. I even got to throw in some of my most favorite ‘sprinkles’!

I made these using the Burrito Method using The Seasoned Homemaker‘s tutorial. This is the same way I made the Harry Potter pillowcases a while back.

As I mentioned in that post, the burrito pillowcase tutorials don’t make their pillowcases using directional prints. Yet, once again, I chose a directional print. The burrito method uses one long piece of fabric for the edge of the pillow, one long piece for the trim and another piece for the main pillowcase. To use a directional print, you have to piece two pieces together to make the main fabric piece.

The tutorial I used uses a 27″ by 40″ piece for the main fabric. For directional fabric you need to cut (2) 27″ by 20 3/4″ pieces. Then sew these together using a French seam tutorial. I made mine with a 1/4 inch seam and then a 1/2″ seam. Then I have a 40″ long piece of fabric for the main fabric.

You can see that I now have penguins with their heads up on both sides of the pillow!

And they blend great with the kiddo’s sheets! These are a great way to use up large pieces of your stash. I found some fabric last night in my stash that I bought for pillowcases ages ago. This Christmas, it’s being used and removed from my stash!

What’s your favorite pillow case tutorial?

Fresh Linens- A Pillowcase Tutorial

I wrote this tutorial back in 2015! Way back! It’s been hanging out on the Go To Sew website all this time and I decided to bring it back. (hence the old branding, etc…)

I love making pillowcases for gifts! I’ve used two methods. One, my own method detailed below. And secondly, the burrito method by The Seasoned Homemaker. Both are good! Since I haven’t made this one in years, I kinda want to go back and try it again!

Have you ever made your own pillowcases? Did you know that it takes about a half hour for a new pair of fresh linens??? I was shocked! I had been thinking about making pillowcases for a week or so when I decided to give it a try. And I’m hooked!

I don’t have a serger, and I didn’t want any exposed seam allowances, so this pillowcase is chock full of French seams!

To start, gather your fabric. For the pillowcase you’ll need 1.5 yards of the main fabric, 1/2 yard of the hem fabric and a little bit of the accent color.

The first step is to cut your pieces. SO for the main fabric, you’ll need (2) 49×20.5 inch pieces. For the hem piece, you’ll need (2) 8.5×38.75 inch pieces. And for the little accent piece, you’ll need (2) 1.5×38.75 inch pieces.

First, sew the main piece of the pillowcase. Fold the fabric wrong sides together, stich a 1/4 seam allowance along the long sides. Then trim this seam allowance, but only by a hair! Then pull the case inside out and sew another 1/4 inch seam allowance along the long sides, covering the seam allowance from the last hem! Done with the main piece.

Now assemble the hem piece and the accent piece. Fold them both in half, the long way, and iron flat. Wrong sides to wrong sides. Then, at the ends open the fabric flat, right sides to right sides and  sew a 1/4 seam at the ends. Iron the seam open and then fold in half again and re-iron it flat. You will end up with two long circles that kinda look like the infinity scarves everyone loves!

Assemble! Here you need your main case right side out. Next to that the hem piece and in the very middle the accent piece. Align all the stitched edges. Pin the rest with edges aligned.

Sew another 1/4 inch seam. Trim the seam allowance, again, just a hair! Fold the pillowcase with the inside of the case out and the hem and accent inside the case. Iron the seam flat and sew another 1/4 inch seam. I’m all about the 1/4 inch seams here!

And finish! Pull the pillowcase right side out and iron the seam flat. Then topstitch along the last seam.

Lastly, insert pillow, snuggle up and take a nap! Did you know they are that easy? They are so quick and easy! I’m in love and thinking about some Christmas presents!

Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – a mini quilt

I had to post the last post before this one, becuase this mini quilt uses the scraps from the Weeping Willow in Black and White quilt!

Apparently I have a thing for improv quarter circle quilts! These are all minis that I’ve made using this technique!

This mini quilt was finished this year as part of the Quilt Improv Studio’s Black and White Challenge. The quilt had to use black and white fabric with the use of an accent color fabric. I just happened to have scraps from the Weeping Willow quilt hanging out waiting for something to do, so I started with that!

I also just happened to have a bunch of yellow scraps sitting on my desk for the my log cabin in pink, orange, yellow and red quilt that I’m slowly working, so I chose yellow as the accent color!

I did a little string piecing for my quarter circles!

And I ended up with this! And I LOVED it! Just like this! But this was only 10 inches or so square. The challenge only has two rules. Fabric choices are dictated and the size has to be a minimum of 24 inches square. So I had to decide… Finish to the right size? Or not play along with the challenge and keep it the way it is? I almost stopped at this! In the end, obviously, I decided to keep moving ahead. I had to break out some more black and white fabric, but the yellow stayed as scrap usage.

The larger pieces on the side also started as scraps from my Loons Here and There quilt. Only this time I cut them in curves rather than straight line flying geese or flying loon blocks.

The black is just a single piece of fabric. No piecing on the back on this one.

I quilted it using straight line curves, my favorite. I picked two of the side pieces and followed the curve of that shape to start my quilting.

In the end, I just barely made the 24″ requirement. The quilt sizes out as 24×24, barely! ha!

I have my To Do List to finish all my WIPS, but there are a few projects that I have allowed to sneak in between the WIPs. Those are Curated Quilts mini challenges and Quilt Improv Studio mini challenges.

Loons Here and There

This doesn’t happen often! A quilt that I started this year, finished this year, photographed this year and am blogging about this year!

This one I’m calling, Loons Here and There. If you are a fan of Maria Shell, you may recognize it as a play on one of her quilts.

I took Maria’s class, Improv Triangles: Perfectly Pointless, at Quiltcon From Home in February. I love a good improv triangle quilt and found the class very inspiring! I also have a bad habit of starting quilts at QuiltCon and never finishing them. (But thanks to the WIPs Be Gone Challenge, I’m going to change that soon!) But this class inspired me to get out of bed despite my broken leg and sew for a little while each day! I fell in love with Maria’s Break Up quilt and wanted to give it a go!

She recommended pulling 8 to 12 fabrics for the fabric pull. I pulled 17, plus I added in brown later. I didn’t think much about the pallet, actually. I pulled a bunch of leftover fabric. Fabric that I had about a fat quarter’s worth of or so. Then got to cutting the squares.

Once I had the squares, I cut them in stacks into triangles and then sewed them back together. The rule I made was that the sides of the triangles couldn’t be the same color. In keeping with improv, I only used the ruler to eyeball the size of my blocks. I did use it to get a straight cut on the triangles, but not to measure anything. Once I sewed all the pieces back together, I do trim the blocks, but just to give me straight edges, not a particular size. And I repeat this every time I sew blocks together.

Then I just laid them out and played with contrast to place the blocks.

I would sew them into smaller blocks and then added a few straight pieces as needed to get all the blocks to fit together. I love the quilting pattern I used. Again, using improv a bit. I laid out the diagonals first using a guide, but then went back in between adding the diamonds ‘freehand’ with the walking foot! I did have a little problem with the quilting and the fabric not staying put. I spray baste and I think it was a combo between the actual brand I was using and also with the the fact I sprayed and then it sat without being quilted. Anyway, once it washes, I think it will be just fine for a potential baby quilt for a friend.

I did piece this back. I love how the orange block is reflected in the rock formation behind the quilt! You may also recognize this backing fabric from a few other quilts… The Spark and Tic Tac TIgerlily and Scatterlilies. I still have more so you may see it again!

And my label shot. This also gives a nice view of the quilting pattern.

And the cutest quilt holder…

And that’s a wrap for this one! In case you’re wondering where this awesome ‘quilts in the wild’ photoshoot took place, I’ll tell ya! It was at Steamboat Rock State park in Eastern Washington. One of my most favorite places in WA!!! If you haven’t been, you should go!

Firefly Tote

I have a to do list to finish all my half done projects this year. This project was NOT on my list, but I did it anyway…

The tote is the Firefly Tote by Noodlehead. It’s one of her new patterns and she just hosted a sew along. I really liked it, and knew I wanted to try out my waxed canvas on it, so I joined in. Even if it wasn’t on my To Do List! The pattern has two sizes, a smaller ‘Project’ size and the larger ‘Tote’ size. I made the Tote.

I was able to pull all the fabrics from my stash! I’ve had a few of these for a while and was excited to finally use them.

The pattern directions say to shop local. So I did! There is this leather store, MacPherson Leather Company, about 5 minutes from my house and I’ve driven by it saying I’m going to go for about 15 years. I took this opportunity to finally go and get my materials. I took my kid and his friend, which was not the best idea… I left with way more than I went in for….

The first piece was the pocket. I didn’t have much of this fabric, and I didn’t pay attention when I cut the fabric in order to get the pieces above and below the zipper to align! If you make it, keep that in mind when cutting! I love the bright pop of color in the zipper!

Then we put the exterior together and left it right sides together while we moved on to make the interior pieces.

I was intrigued with the drawstring topper on the lining. I think I like it!

I decided to go with a black leather tie for the drawstring closure.

I really wanted to use this stripe fabric for the drawstring top, but I didn’t have enough. so I wasted a LOT of time hemming and hawing about it… What other fabric to use???? I just couldn’t make a decision. Finally I complained to my buddy Debbie and she is brilliant and recommended using some of the lining fabric to make the drawstring the correct size. Genius! I think it worked perfectly!

(check out how well the lining and the drawstring fabric lined up on this side!)

I used the ‘kite’ fabric for the lining of the outside zipper and also for the interior pocket. I think the pocket in the Tote is a little too deep. When I make it again, I’m going to make mine smaller. It probably works great for something like knitting needles, but otherwise, it’s too deep for pens and pencils. IMO, anyway…

The other thing about this project is how the hardware makes the bag look really professional! I just happened to have the rivets already, so that was nice.

The back is nothing exciting, except for those fancy rivets!

I like it! One thing I did realize about the waxed canvas is that dog hair has a tendency to kinda stick to it… So if you have a large white dog that’s fluffy and sheds a lot, this fabric in black may not be the wisest choice… Just sayin’! Otherwise, I love it! The pattern is great. She also has the pattern all in YouTube videos so you don’t even have to read the instructions! Love!

Red and White Quilt

It’s almost perfect for this holiday weekend! It’s just missing that Blue part….

This one was started way back in 2018 and finished last year. It is a paper pieced pattern that I did with my do.Good Stitches group back in the day.

My group was usually not fans of my paper piecing obsession! But they played along nicely anyway. Well, some of them did. I bowed out of the group not long after designing this one and presenting it to the group. A few members never sent me their blocks… Oh, well..

There are actually 3 different blocks in the quilt and I had assigned different blocks to different people. The original quilt design was intended to be a little larger, but I think the size it ended up is just right.

One thing I do love about bee quilts is the variation in colors of fabric. I love how this is a red and white quilt, but when you look closely each block is just a little different.

And the back. I had a few blocks that were a little smaller than the rest so they went to the back. That is a typical problem when doing paper piecing. Be sure to always print your pattern with no scaling. If you don’t, different programs treat PDF’s differently and some scale up or down the image.

Anyway, they ended up being perfect for the back, so it all worked out in the end.

The little triangles in the top corners are not part of the quilt. I basted them on to make it easier to hold for photographs! And it seemed to help.

I just really love this one! I did have a little trouble quilting it due to the bulk in the corners. I need to figure that out before I attempt this one again.

I’m also considering publishing the pattern one day soon. Yes, no?

And my quilt holder fighting with the wind. You can see how he used the corners. Not my idea. I got the idea from my friend Debbie, aquilterstable, who got the idea from Zak Foster Quilts.

It’s quite Red, White and Blue for the holiday weekend, but it’s as close as I could get! I hope everyone in the US has a great 4th of July weekend and stay safe!