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.

 

 

A Giant Open Wide Pouch

Man, I am missing my sewing machine right about now!!! But that’s a story for another day!

Today I thought I’d show off my Open Wide Pouch! This is from Noodlehead’s free pattern, but I changed it a bit. I made it gigantic! I was planning my son’s backpack and first I had planned on using this pattern, but enlarging it to backpack size. Then as I thought about it, I realized it might not work. So I decided to test it in the Giant size!

I thought I’d just use scraps, but then I figured if I’m making it, it should be cute right? These are all scraps, but I think they turned out nicely together! And the yellow zipper was on the only long one I had. It seems very preppy to me! Does it seem preppy to you?

And for finishing the zipper end I had a piece of pink webbing that seemed to tie it all together! The webbing and the zipper are the exact same width, so it’s not perfect. But it works!

I took a picture with some thread to give you a sense of the true hugeness of it! It’s such a quick and easy sew/tutorial. I’m so glad I tested it before making the backpack for two reasons. One, it totally was NOT what I needed for that project. And two, I got a perfect new bag! Yea!

I wonder if Anna from Noodlehead knew she’d be famous! I loved listening to all these people showing off their bags and pouches they had made and saying, ‘It’s a Noodlehead…’ And we all knew who each other was talking about!

Queen of Hearts by Cook Clean Craft

Today, my quest needs no real introduction because she’s one of the founding Sew Ready to Play participants! She’s Narelle from Cook Clean Craft. She’s always up for playing and has had fun games every year! One thing I love about blogging is getting to know people all over. I remember when her ‘Queen of Hearts’ was born! Crazy!! Narelle blogs about all sorts of things on her blog, hence the name! Ha! She’s got some of my favorite recipes and great sewing projects! One of my favorite tutorials she’s done recently is her stuffed snail. Totally cute!

Welcome Narelle!!!

Hi all, it’s Narelle here, from Cook Clean Craft, ready to have some fun playing along with Sew Ready to Play. I’ve had so much fun in past years, and always had a clear idea what I wanted to make. This time around, I was all out of inspiration. I’ve lost my sew-jo lately, and couldn’t even think of a game that inspired me. So I procrastinated.

And procrastinated.

Then finally inspiration hit. A simple deck of playing cards was my inspiration, and before I knew it, the Queen of Hearts dress was made:

As a redhead who blushes like a tomato, I’ve never been able to wear red, but my blonde kids look great in it. When I bought the fabric, I was worried that red and black are a bit grown up for a 4 year old. So I went with a simple dress with very cutesy hearts. I searched for fabric with red hearts and couldn’t find any (what?), but found some perfect iron on appliques at my local fabric store.

Queen of Hearts playing cards tend to have gold trim around the next. I found some sequin trim that was just perfect for my sparkly little girl.

It’s shirred in the back – much easier than buttons or a zip for an independent girl to dress herself!

My model wasn’t in the mood, so most of my photos turned out like this:

This Queen’s got attitude! But believe it or not, she loves the dress.

Here’s how I made it:

The fabric I used was poplin, basically because it’s cheap and I’m supposed to be on a fabric diet!

I started with a basic bodice pattern (this was from the 5 and 10 Designs eBook). I drew a line where I wanted the seam between the red and white sections and added seam allowances.

For the back bodice, I added a couple of extra inches to the back to allow for the shirring. I should have made it a bit bigger since it only just fits over her head – oops!

For the skirt, I cut out a rectangle of fabric for the red section and then cut off corners to create the angled look, and matched up the same for the white section, making the top the same width at the bottom of the bodice.

I also cut strips of 1 1/4” strips of black fabric for faux piping.

I sewed the bodice front centre panel to the skirt centre panel.

Then I sewed the side and shoulder seams of the bodice (I actually should have sewn the sleeves before I did the side seam, but no making things easy for myself here!

Then I gathered the red skirt section (I prefer to machine gather, by using a long stitch length and high tension):

Adjust the gathers to that the skirt width matches the bodice width, and sew, right sides together:

Fold the black strips in half, lengthwise and press. Pin to the right side of the front seams, lining up the raw edges, and sew a basting stitch inside the seam allowance:

With right sides together, sew the centre panel to the red section of the dress:

The black piping should create faux piping like this (press it to one side for a crisp look):

Sew the underarm seam of the sleeves, and then sew into the armhole:

To finish the neckline, sew bias tape right sides together to the neck hole:

Turn the bias tape to the inside, press and then stitch in place (don’t worry about the contrasting thread for the front panel – we’ll cover that with trim):

Press and sew a double-fold seam for the sleeve and bottom hems:

Draw two lines across the back bodice down from the shoulder with chalk or disappearing pen:

Sew shirring elastic across the back panel between the two lines (or you can shirr the whole back bodice, if you prefer:

I jumped across between the rows rather than stopping at each row end. I didn’t pull the elastic enough, so the shirring pulls up a bit at the back. It annoys me, but not enough to fix it!

Finally, I added some gold sequin trim across the neckline (covering the contrasting thread), and added iron on appliques to the bodice from panel.

I also added one heart to the skirt section and more sequin trim along the bottom hem stitching.

And there is my cute Queen of Hearts!

Come over to Cook Clean Craft for more fun sewing projects, plus family-friendly recipes, household cleaning and organization tips and other craft ideas. Thanks for having me again, Louise!