wonky pinwheel blocks

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wonky pinwheel blocks

I’ve spent as much time as possible at my sewing machine since I’ve been back from vacation. It was a struggle to leave it for a week!

I’m trying to get all of my Seacoast MQG “homework” done for our meeting on Saturday, before I move back on to any “me” projects (or any projects due in mid-or-late May, like blocks for Quilts for Boston). At our May meeting, we plan to have a BOM raffle. Bring a buck per block, the more blocks/bucks you bring, the more entries you get, winner takes home blocks.

 

I’m on a washed-out pastel kick, so I pulled bright-ish pastels in pink and lavender. The other blocks I’ve seen made for this project are definitely brights, so I hope mine don’t wreck somebody’s finished quilt.

Here’s one of my blocks close-up. We used this tutorial from Greenleaf Goods, and I was thankful to Stephanie for pointing out that one should use the TOP picture of the finished block as a guide for block assembly.

This morning I realized I’ve been super-productive the past few days, but I’m not working towards anything for ME. I’m approaching the end of a second Holden Shawlette for a friend, finished these three blocks for the guild lottery, pulled fabrics for Boston blocks, have a quilt basted to quilt for a wedding gift, am itching to cast on for Shannon’s TTT KAL (I’m going to knit Lucy a Low Tide Cardigan in Primo Fingering-Frostbitten–wish me well), and I finished my To Boston With Love flags. (Another reminder that if you think you want to participate in this project, THIS WEEK would be a great time to get your flags mailed off to Amy). None of these projects are for me, yo!

Thinking I might be due for some selfish sewing pretty soon.

Linking up to the Let’s Get Acquainted Blog Hop, this week over at Gemini Stitches. Head on over and encourage some fellow bloggers!

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to Boston with love

Tags

love flags, to boston with love

If you’ve been on the quiltywebs lately, you’ve heard that the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is (oh, so kindly) organizing a project to send quilt love to a grieving Boston. Amy Friend of During Quiet Time is collecting the flags and negotiating a place to display them in the city.

One important piece of information that you MAY not have heard is that the flags now need to be with Amy in MA by May 21, not May 31. Subtract a week for the mail, and you’ve really got to have your flag in the mail by May 14. Like, right after Mother’s Day.

Amy is asking that we take some time and sew up our flags this weekend. Um, okay. Drop all my WIPs, drag out brightly-colored scraps, and sew up a little one-day project? TWIST MY ARM.

 

02120 was my zip code when I lived in Mission Hill a few years ago. My husband worked at the Longwood Campus, right down the hill; I worked in Back Bay, then South Boston (commute = a million ughs), and finally in Brookline Village. I have wonderful memories of walking down the big hill with my husband to work every morning. I’d then either get on the train or walk on to Brookline Village.

And the view from Mission Hill! My husband proposed to me in our apartment, which was terrible and rat-hole-y, but which had a million-dollar view of the skyline. We could see as far as Fenway, as far as the MIT Dome. One Fourth of July we invited friends over for hot dogs and whoopie pies and watched the downtown fireworks from the top of the hill.

Enough nostalgia. I pieced the numbers using Tonya Ricucci’s book Word Play Quilts, and they were super easy-peasy to do. NOT SCARY ONE BIT, like I thought they might be. The background fabrics are my Architextures stash, with a bit of the Madrona Road Memoir Print (must restash!). I was so happy to have my Lizzy House scraps for this project. I can’t imagine cheerier colors.

I love how the Memoir print somehow always says something perfectly effective wherever you’ve placed it.

So, DO FLAGS NOW. Send them to Amy (please see the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild’s blog for all shipping information, and a tutorial for flag construction). Feel a lot better.

a big mess (and, a little giveaway)

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giveaway

Sorry if I’ve been slow to respond to all of your lovely comments, or slow to comment on your lovely projects this week.

I was in the Berkshires, furiously hitting “reload” on my iPhone, trying desperately to get a signal. I managed to sneak in a few little comments, but some of them refused to go through.

I’m home now, though, and as if the mountain of laundry and scurf of plastic toddler toys don’t make for enough mess around here, I made a big mess of fabric.

It’s all for a good cause, though.

And some of the fabric is for one of you! I bought two charm packs of Architextures from Tactile Fabrics to giveaway in celebration of my 100th blog post. My order came lickety-split, and was packaged beautifully. (I kept the packaging to send the charm packs on, it was that good.) And…I love it when fabric shops include a little fabric “treat,” though I am used to getting snippets. I got a huge 3”x20” scrap of TYPE. Yep. I kept it. 🙂

Please just comment on this, my 100th post, to have a chance to win the charm packs. One comment per person, please. I want to know…a good book you have read lately! (I am always trolling for recommendations.) I’ll close the comments mid-week next week and randomly select a winner.

Thanks, all, for making my blogging experience such a fun one. You-all are the BEST kind of community.

finished (for now): geranium dresses

Tags

geranium dress, toddler girl clothes

Sometimes I finish a project and think, WHY did it take me so long to do this?

In this case, the doing itself was quick, but I missed out on TWO WHOLE YEARS of dressing my kid in my favorite fabrics. I may not ever have another little girl to dress, you know?

In general, I believe children’s clothing (ESPECIALLY girls’ clothing) should be easy, comfortable, and age-appropriate. No doo-dads, not a lot of ruffles, NO IRONING. (So, you’ll please to pardon the wrinkles. These have already been worn and washed!) So I dragged my heels about making Lucy any clothes because I believed that “special” little girls clothes were inherently fussy. And if I had my say, I’d let her wear leggings and a knit tunic every day of her life, because we should all wear elastic-waisted pants as long as the world will let us.

But! But, enter Made By Rae’s Geranium Dress pattern. It’s an easy-sewing, easy-wearing, well-fitting little-girl version of that Washi Tunic I’m DYING to make for myself. I made all three of these in three naptimes, and I’ve only ever sewn a Tova and a pile of aprons, as garments go.

The best part about these is that they fit Lucy easy, but tailored enough, so she can layer them over a pair of leggings and a long-sleeve t-shirt, or under a cardi while the weather decides what it wants to be. So versatile! And seeing as how I’ve already washed milkshake out of the red one, and spaghetti sauce out of the Flea Market Fancy one, they are totally easy-care. A must for busy toddlers.

Finally, a shout-out to my Janome 3160, which has a buttonhole foot. It’s some kind of magic to be able to put a button in the little hole and have the thing automatically sew a perfect buttonhole. Feels like…cheating.

Pattern: Made By Rae’s Geranium Dress Pattern, for sale HERE

Fabric notes: blue is Flea Market Fancy Posie, lined with the Seedpod Stripe; red is two prints from Maya by Leah Duncan for Anthology (has anyone heard any rumblings about her new line? I thought it was due out this spring but haven’t found it anywhere, despite obsessive Googling); white texty is the text print from Thomas Knauer’s Asbury (Andover Fabrics), lined with Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets in Frosting.

Size notes: I waffled about what size to make. My kid’s a WEIRD size (confirmed by her pediatrician). She’s so tall that I sometimes have to buy 3T pants, but so skinny that 18-24 month tops sometimes look baggy around her neck and arms. I measured her chest and decided to make the 18-24 month size, with a smaller hem. Fits a charm. I may do a batch of 2T dresses for the fall!

(And a PS: this is post 99! A little giveaway in my next post, which will be after we return from vacation, the last week of April! Stay tuned.)

 

roy g. zig

Tags

roy g. zig, scrap attack string fever, string fever, string quilt

Minutes after I hit “publish” on my last post (“happy Marathon Monday”), my brother texted me from Tennessee: “please tell me you didn’t go to watch the marathon today. don’t freak out, but…”

While I have very little right to freak out about what we are apparently calling the “Boston bombing” (!!!! my city! in the name of an “x horrible situation”), I am shaken. We live 15 miles north of the Tobin Bridge, and Nate works in Ipswich, not in the city, so we are far out of any potential danger. But there’s something about seeing reporters broadcasting from streets I USED to walk every day when in I worked in publishing (on Berkeley St.), seeing destruction on the sidewalks in front of my former dentist’s office, the bar where I used to go with my fellow EA’s for cheap waffle fries, hear about the Atlantic Fish Co where I’ve eaten oysters and swilled sauv blanc…

and that’s not even the library, where I’ve also spent a good deal of time. If you’re not safe in front of the Boston Public Library, where ARE you safe?

I’ve never not felt safe in Boston. And really, I still feel like this is a very safe place to be. I’ve told lots of people that I feel like this city is filled with good people, people who won’t watch you struggle and fail to react. People who WILL help you lift your stroller onto the T. Or who will help you decide whether to get off at Park or Copley, even if you’re calling it “Cope-ly.”

Turns out when I’m mad and sad, starting a new project is pretty much the ticket to helping me feel just a little better. And a rainbow project! Well. Color always makes ME feel a little better about my world.

18 blocks done, out of 56. Using Rachel’s tutorial (so.fun.and.addicting.) How could I resist? Calling it Roy G. Zig. (“Big Zig” might also have worked?)

lotta things

Tags

celery cardi, low volume, moth cardi, string fever, sunday morning quilt

(That’s Lucy’s new “thing” to say: we make a verbal list, colors, animals, whatever, and she goes, “Lotta things!” Gotta love a two-year-old.)

My Sunday Morning quilt is in the floor, ready for smoothing and basting. Why, yes, I WILL write a blog post to put off the agony of smoothing-basting for just a few more minutes. Bound for more straight-line quilting. Cannot. let. it. go.

Sleeves on my Moth Celery cardi are…done-ish. They’re probably as as done as they’ll ever be. Yeah they’re rough. And also! Knitters! Do you see my egregious error!? If I finish this thing without trashing it I’ll own up to my horrifying/embarrassing mistake. I lost a whole night of sleep over this cardigan last weekend.

(And no, I’m NOT going to frog. The thing is MOHAIR. It won’t frog for crap. I’ll finish it and wear it as penance.)

Plucky yarn that is too nice for bad knitters, purchased in the triumphant post-cabling-shawl-knitting adrenaline rush of early March. Now I think I probably should be punished with some acrylic Joanns yarn.

Fabric pull for the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild’s first Block-of-the-Month raffle. (Bring a buck and a block, the more bucks-blocks you bring, the more entries you get, winner gets the blocks.) We’re making these!

You’re planning to kill your string stash with Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s Scrap Attack String Fever, right? I know I am. Hoping to use her tutorial for ziggy string blocks, but need to do a block or two first before I know for sure. And I think my Sunday Morning quilt technically qualifies, too!

Hope you have a “lotta things” on your Monday too. Happy Patriot’s Day/Marathon Monday!

finished: holden shawlette

Tags

holden shawlette, plucky feet

I finished my Holden Shawlette weeks ago, and haven’t posted about it–mainly because it is seriously difficult to photograph the back of oneself while artfully wearing a shawl. (And my helper husband gets a little weird about quilt photography, so the mortification of a shawl photography session…well, I didn’t even ask him.)

This was the first lace pattern I’ve ever knitted, and my first “shawl”. It was much less difficult than I thought it would be! I also thought the finished object might not be so useful. “Good practice,” I thought, and then I thought it would stay folded in a drawer. Not so!

I wear it all the time! It looks great over a tank top and bare shoulders (so I can only assume it’ll look great over a summery dress), but it also looks fantastic over a sweater and under my fitted cloth spring jacket, worn like a scarf.

I used The Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet in Edwardian (a colorway that has since been discontinued. I feel pretty lucky to have snagged a skein in time! The green-blue-grey color suits me perfectly). Because I used a true sock yarn, the shawl is really sturdy with great shape retention. (Though it may not have blocked out to the intended size, for the same reason.)

Finally, I’ll just mention that you can get this lovely pattern by Mindy Wilkes free on Ravelry. Try it! I think if you can knit and purl and kind of keep track of what row you are on, you can do it.

paper bag quilting

Tags

low volume, sunday morning quilt

Lately I feel like all the best quilts come out of paper bags.

I love the instructions from Cheryl Arkison in Sunday Morning Quilts: “Throw in all the…strips and mix them up well.” Trader Joe’s bag + pile of scraps = Scrappy TAL, and now also = my version of Cheryl Arkison’s Sunday Morning quilt.

Super-relaxing to sew. (You don’t even have to make sure the fabric lines up correctly; a little wonk is good!)

Super-easy to look at. I love that tulip print; it came in a scrap pack from Sew Fresh Fabrics (Peg has a new, non-Etsy website!) and it totally shines in these blocks.

It’s also going quickly, too. I reckon I can have a throw-sized top finished by Friday!

(And, a little brag: I’m one of the three finalists in Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s Shelburne Falls contest! I’m more than pleased to be picked. Stitched in Color is one of my favorite quilty “places” to spend time on the web, and it’s super-exciting to be featured there! Go look at the awesome Shelburne Falls projects and cast a vote!)

Linking up at the Let’s Get Aquainted Blog Hop, this week over at Made in Home (another lovely knitty-quilty “place” to spend your time!)

finished: Denyse Schmidt low-vol HST pillow

Tags

DS HST pillow, low volume, shelburne falls contest

So, obvs, I’m not great at naming finished objects. Fabric/Designer + Pattern = Long Obnoxious Name Meaningless to Anyone Who Doesn’t Sew. Maybe this pillow does deserve a better name?

 

Because while it started as an exercise, an idea I wanted to try out, it turned out really pretty cute. It has exactly the kind of worn old vintage-y (kind of crappy homemade, even) look that I really, really love. I put it on my green Ikea chair with my white knitted throw (a gift! I wish I could take credit) and I love it there. It’ll probably never move.

 

I started out wanting to try my hand at Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s Shelburne Falls challenge. But when I went to buy fabric, the prints from Shelburne Falls that really begged to be bought were the low-volume prints. For example, I love, love this print and bought it in two colorways. And I want to buy like a ton more, of the Lilac especially. (Should we be telling people what fabrics we are planning on buying and hoarding…?)

I’m cranking through a PILE of scrap right now, trying to sort and start a couple of low-volume scrap quilts for wedding gifts. Low-volume seems sort of bridal to me, for some reason. I also dug through my stash and pulled everything that was remotely low-volume. I realized that Denyse Schmidt (isn’t she practically perfect in every way?) is a dab hand at low-volume prints with lots of movement and interest.

 

So I cut: my brand-new Shelburne Falls, my Flea Market Fancy Legacy, my Chicopee. I had a low-volume print from Joann’s that I love (that lime green flower-navy blue nut print in the bottom row of the above picture), and, as luck would have it, Pink Castle sent a Greenfield Hill print in their February blue Stash Stack. (It’s the light blue hash-mark print.) I itched for teeny tiny low-volume HSTs. There are 144 of them in this pillow top; I started with 2.5” squares. 144 HSTs, five beloved Denyse Schmidt fabric lines, one pillow top.

I am still practicing my FMQ, and chose Angela Walters’ flower pattern to quilt this pillow top. My husband was impressed with my practice swatch, so I promise, if you could see the quilting, I wouldn’t be all that embarrassed. But this pillow is decidedly not about the quilting.

This isn’t the coolest, sharpest, or best-sewn pillow I’ve ever made. It is perhaps the scrappiest, the most vintage, the most hand-made-looking. It’s made of a stash of fabrics I love and have held on to for too long–and some brand-new fabrics I’m glad I had a reason to buy!

Watch this space for LOTS more low-volume. 🙂

not the terrycloth’s fart

Tags

asbury challenge, DS HST pillow

So, this happened, to my Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild Asbury challenge project, due this coming Saturday 4/6 (eep).

And then also this.

Honestly, when I thought, “hey, I’ll sew a little Lucy-sized beach quilt and back it in terrycloth won’t it be CUTE”, I pretty much thought the worst that might happen was some warpage and some non-flatness.

AND THEN THE WHOLE DADBLASTED THING FELL APART ON ME.

It would have been cute, no?

I am totally smitten with the text print in this line. Anything summer-beachy-themed is a winner, and I love that this low-volume text print has lots of colors.

My original idea was to keep the piecing simple, to maximize washability (our beach stuff gets gross), back it in terrycloth, so that Lucy and I might save on some of the junk we have to haul in and out of Crane Beach this summer, and make it a quilt, so that I can save wear on our current outdoor quilt, which I realized last summer is the only quilt I own that was made by my great-grandmother.

I made it, it was cute, I washed it, it fell apart, and Saturday night, tired after a day of cleaning-sewing-running-around, I told my husband that I didn’t think I could blame this on the terrycloth, that it wasn’t “the terrycloth’s fart.” I think the Kona shrunk at a different rate than the prints, and there wasn’t any quilting to hold the layers together (terrycloth! maybe it was your fart!), so the piecing frayed at the Kona sashing.

So now I have some surgery to perform. I am scrapping the beach quilt idea. Throwing OUT the terrycloth in a rage. (remember poor ugly knitted sock?) I have exactly four sewing days to come up with a salvage project.

Challenge accepted.

(Also I am doing this, which is much cuter and is going much better.)