Post #2 Liberty of London

Admittedly, this first picture has nothing to do with Liberty of London - but I couldn't resist. My hubby is done with law school and I am so happy for him. It probably means more sewing in my future due to less time spent with him (sad face) due to preparation for the bar as well as the time demands of the profession..... On to a sewing/fabric themed topic.....

I may or may not have bought this quilt a few days ago (hence the quest for that pillow- which was successful thanks to my awesome sister!).....

(I never, ever buy bedding for myself due to my constant quest to create my own, but I just couldn't resist this gorgeous print, especially at 50% off....)

I guess the reason why I did not blog about Liberty of London for Target sooner is because I wasn't very enthusiastic about buying lots of things at full price to cut up. But I happened to take a visit to the store the other day to return some things and noticed that all of the Liberty stuff was on sale- 50% off or better!

Here's a skirt that I bought for $3.24:

I found the time to seam-rip it recently when we drove to a friend's house. Definitely not my favorite activity and it did make me wonder about those people out there that are constantly taking Munki Munki pajamas apart just to sell or sew a pant or arm leg. Not my idea of fun.
Here's an extra large girl's dress with a version of my favorite Liberty print: Susanna.

Here's a close-up:

This is a close-up of a print I really liked:

I am hoping to convert this dress into a skirt for myself. If it doesn't work out, I will be happy to put the fabric into a quilt.

The easiest craftable item were the very large scarves- each one could easily back a baby quilt. I will definitely use the black and white one as backing because it wouldn't work as well cut into pieces.

Liberty of London fabric is super-expensive- ranging from $25 to $42 per yard. The major reason why it is pricey is probably due to it's very high thread count. The real fabric is super-soft and rich looking The Target version is definitely not as luxurious, but for a few dollars and some seam-ripping, I am definitely willing to go this route.

Good news: from what I can tell from the Target website, more Liberty stuff will be hitting the stores in June or July. I guess I will look for it in August/September!

Post #1: Give me Liberty or give me....

Liberty of London by Target..... How have I not blogged about this amazing addition to everyone's favorite mass retailer?! I will do a longer post later, but I needed to post this picture to ask my sister in Colorado Springs to take a look at her nearest Target to see if she can get me this pillow (or the similar matching pillow sham).... More to come soon about my recent acquistions on this topic.
Photo courtesy of target.com

Box Exchange 2010

Monday night was my last Chelmsford Quilt Guild meeting for the calendar year. I received back 9 blocks from the block exchange. Most everyone followed my instructions but I was disappointed with 4 blocks that will require some seam ripping - one of which requires a major overhaul and one is not even usable. Here are closeups of two of them:

I am debating whether to do this next year. I am not trying to sound ungrateful or like a snob - but participating in this activity is definitely a commitment I am questioning: I have to make a block every month for someone else, using a style of fabrics that I usually don't have. And then to get back my blocks with 4 different significant problems- it makes me feel like maybe I should've just made my own blocks every month. Plus, half the fun of such an activity is to see what kinds of personal fabrics someone might incorporate into my project - but I cannot do that in this guild where everyone's style is so different from my own. So I honestly kind of feel bad making everyone else be a "work-horse" rather than encouraging them to exercise some design/creativity- as the approach I had to take this year was providing my own fabrics and telling people to please not deviate by adding their own country/traditional stuff (some did not do so, hence some of the imminent seam-ripping).

The funny thing is that some people who received the blocks I made for them might be scratching their heads too- as there were a few blocks that I made that definitely had a more modern twist than they were probably expecting.

P.S. FYI- things will be a little quiet around here as we have my husband's graduation from law school this weekend and lots of family coming in and out of town.... I do have a post scheduled next week that will finally showcase the purse I made for my SIL however.

Baby Quilt Take 3

So last week was INSANE because I couldn't make up my mind on which baby quilt I wanted to give my friend.... So I ended up starting 3 different ones, as you may be able to tell from some of the previous posts. Kind of ironic that I recently lamented having "no time" to sew but soon after that was all I was doing.... The first quilt I attempted turned out to be too big, the second one didn't feel like it would fit the recipient's style.... So last Wednesday night, I made this:

A very simple disappearing nine-patch quilt out of some fat quarters I bought a while ago. The fabrics aren't my typical color pallette, but they are nice and cozy and were well liked by my friend.

Even though the pattern was so simple and I've done it before... this quilt introduced some new things to me: actually quilting the said quilt and having a pieced back. I was very proud of the results- especially the quilting- which I really just kind of "winged it" (I know that's not a real word). The binding turned out horrendous- but I was way too rushed and it was my fault for trying to hurry it so much.

Sewing for girls IS fun though! Of all of my fabrics, I have the most pink..... I used to make fun of my mom for liking and wearing pink so much - but now I guess I am a hypocrite.

Vintage fabric and a quilt show

Yard sale season has begun and it's been a lot of fun so far. My husband and I frequent yard sales for the primary purpose of buying books, CD's, and DVD's to sell online. It's a tiny little "business" that managed to pay all of our utilities or 3 months of rent last year. So while it's kind of a pain to surrender Saturday mornings, cherished space in our apartment, and a fair amount of time dealing with and sending the inventory - it's really been very worth it for our family especially as we've had only one income for the last few years.

Anyway, of course I often buy items besides half.com stuff, but I rarely see sewing stuff. But when I do, it's often pretty great. For example, last weekend, I was able to buy all of this vintage fabric for less than $5. It was in great condition, with most of it still having sales tags on it. One piece was labeled 1 and 5/8 yards for 80 cents. Can you imagine? I belong to two quilt guilds, New England Modern Quilt Guild and Chelmsford Quilt Guild. The latter had their quilt show on Saturday and our family went together. Most quilts on display were very traditional, but there were several that caught my eye.

Here's one of my faves, this woman actually dyed a lot of these fabrics herself.

Now I know it's not very "modern" to like commercial character fabrics/quilts- but who can argue with Muppetts? I actually have the book that has this pattern but I don't know if I will ever get to it.... but the applique on this is impressive and the artist did a great job.

This photo is a little blurry, but you can still get ths effect of the gorgeous colors and scrappy effect.

And what's this? Here's one of the quilts I had entered into the show. It's my son's quilt - but he didn't miss it for the two days it was gone. No, of course, he has become mightily attached to a store-bought blanket a friend gave him.

Yep, there's my hubby holding our son. He is such a good sport about all of our visits to quilt shows and fabric shops. He actually insisted that he attend this show because I had quilts on display there- I really was fine with him skipping it.

Readers of this blog have already seen these two quilts. I tried to make life easy for myself by entering quilts that were finished rather than attempting to finish a quilt in time for the submission deadline.

Another girly quilt... the beginning or the end?

Thanks for the supportive comments on the last post. I've never been the kind of person who thinks that I can have it all and be it all.... There are seasons in life for everything.

So originally I was going to post about the weekend which included a quilt show and some great vintage fabric found at a yard sale. But I am too excited about what I worked on yesterday and today..... (when I should have been quilting the quilt pictured in the previous post), but anyway, I had fun pulling pinks, yellows, and oranges: to make this:

the whole process evolved..... I originally was going to do just one "princess and the pea" square, but I couldn't stop myself from continuing the process.

I used the "wonky log cabin" technique - and found myself really enjoying it. I took a very "improvisational" approach and just cut, sewed, and ironed as I went along with the project. There wasn't a lot of planning/design involved.

This quilt has a lot of my favorite fabrics in it: AB pink coriander, AB pink wallflower, Erin McMorris Park Slope birds, and Sandi Henderson orange apple dot. I counted 9 different fabrics in here that I have received from various online fabric swaps which I keep talking about.

Now, originally the plan was to make this for a future baby girl of a friend.... but I had so much fun doing this and have so many great fabrics to continue this process, I am thinking about continuing.... making it into more of a throw/lap/twin size quilt for myself? What do you think? Is it too juvenile? I just love it so much because it's a unique composition and truly speaks "modern" to me....

Awesome mail day and.... what happens when my kid takes a nice long nap and the house is already relatively clean.....

One night recently, when I couldn't sleep (I took too long of a nap that particular day: due to my son's latest nocturnal antics) I got on the computer and checked my fabric swap group. A woman from Australia had barely petitioned her fellow swappers to trade some Katie Jump Rope for her Paint-By-Number Birds. I had all 3 of the prints she was looking for and a few weeks later: 1.5 yds of the bird fabric arrived on my door! I am so thrilled! This stuff is so unique. I already have some paint by number deer, and there's a particular quilt on Flickr that has given me inspiration for what I can make with mine. Anyway- this package sent me over the top, as I was already in a great mood.... I had just managed to transform this:

into this quilt top.... in one afternoon!

It's so simple and goes fast thanks to chain piecing. I am going to quilt it soon, as it is due at a baby shower in just a week's time.

I have to confess I have been feeling a little down on myself lately because I have been comparing myself to other bloggers/sewers out there who whip out quilts and even patterns for quilts in a matter of days even as they're raising little ones. I know so many people out there think that stay at home mom's sit around and watch Oprah all day. My choice to quit my job and raise my son full time was met with some envy, a little skepticism, and a tinsy bit of derision by my coworkers. One guy asked if I was "bored all day" when I came to the office for a quick visit a few months ago..... I have honestly never been more busy in my life. I did MUCH more sewing and reading before Gregory was born..... I am not trying to complain but just vent a little. Many of you who know me understand that I waited a lot longer than I wanted to to have Gregory - so obviously I wouldn't change anything for the world!!!!! But I just have to say it feels really good to do something I love and enjoy once in a while.

I can see my pictures now!

Thank you to kanewoman for educating me on my mistake in navigating the posting in this blog! It is kind of embarrassing how simple it was to learn the mistake I had been making.... Now I will be back to more regular posting. I did just finish Missy's purse but will delay in showing a picture so that she can see it in person first (she's visiting in a few weeks and we can't wait!!!) Right now I am working on a baby girl quilt for an amazing friend from church who is finally expecting a little lady after 5 boys (her boys are so cute and well behaved- observing their family has really given me confidence when it comes to having a little son of my own).

And just for the heck of it, here's my score from my latest trip to Marden's. There is over 11 yards here for about $22.

Box Exchange

So when I am typing this post, the above picture is really just a scrambling of letters and symbolds, but when I "publish" the post, it's coming out as the intended picture.... I still don't know what's up.....

But anyway, this is a block I recently completed for my quilt guild block exchange. I had to add a dark blue fabric to the white print that was provided. I don't have a lot of dark blue fabric, so this polka dot print was the best that I could do. I really like this block- it was easy to do and I think would translate really well with modern fabrics.

Problems with Image Loading

Hi everyone-
It's been a while since I posted. The problem has mainly been that my son and I got awful colds at the same time and I could barely get out of my pajamas for a week.... Now I am trying to do a post and everytime I load a picture, it is just coming out as a bunch of words and symbols... any suggestions? I have tried other pictures and the same thing keeps happening.