Thrifty Finds....

One of the secrets to being a good patron of yard sales is to go to as many yard sales as you can. By doing this, you increase your chances of finding some great stuff and beating other people to it. The fabric in this first picture is one of those finds that I am SO happy to have found - and it was bought at a yard sale that I almost didn't get out of the car to go to. See, when you are in a rush - you sometimes do "drive-bys" because it's not really worth it to even get out of your car to look at someone's used candles, empty baby wipe cases, or empty CD cases..... Anyway, I bought these beauties for $1 - not pictured are all the other, more plain, cuts of fabric that came in the bundle. I absolutely adore the print on the left - so 70's! I also got a large stack of vintage children's patterns. These books were bought a few weeks ago from a lady who was a bit snobbish when I told her about modern quilting... but we'll forgive her because she sold me these great books (plus a few other great sewing notions). I love quilting books- but I have to restrain myself sometimes because I am running out of room for all of this sewing stuff. Anyway, I am most excited about the book on the far right - it's all about how to do massive rotary cutting of 200 different classic quilt blocks. Have you ever seen those drool-worthy quilt books that have pages and pages of different quilt blocks - but you have to put it down in dismay - when you realize that it is instructing you to make templates and cut out every little piece individually? Yuck! I will let you know how I like using it - as I have been constantly thinking about making traditional blocks out of modern fabrics.

Sneaky Peaky

Please pardon the corny title, I couldn't resist.

I spent Monday morning and evening quilting the doll quilt - something I had procrastinated for a while. Though I call myself a quilter, this is only the third project I have actually quilted myself. It's intimidating to work so hard on something and then attempt to sew all over it - positioning the layers, choosing the right thread, and attempting to be methodical about it - even though the urge is great to just rush right along.

This picture is of the back of the quilt - I followed the lead of Red Pepper Quilts in this post - and I have to say it was a fun method. I organized the New England Modern Quilt Guild doll quilt swap and in the guidelines, I told people a certain size to not exceed.... But mine is kind of huge. Can someone please tell me it's okay that this thing measures 21" x 28"??!!!

Summer Birthday....

Gregory has several "friends" close to his age. One of them, Sam, turned one today! How fast a year goes by. Of course, I had to make a few presents in his honor:
While I was at it, I went ahead and made Gregory a tie-onesie as well. As I went through my stash to make these, I realized I have maybe 4 stripes to choose from. I guess I usually gravitate towards polka dots and other geometric prints.

Here's Gregory today, demolishing a cupcake:

Happy Sewing!

Mini Tote

A good friend asked me to give her sewing lessons.... I get asked for this fairly frequently, but usually people really aren't very serious about it. But this person is determined and we had our first "lesson" on Tuesday. I was really impressed with how she dove right in - she was careful and methodical but not overly perfectionistic. She also was very eager to learn and not scared to do things by herself. I turned to one of my favorite books, Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol, to do our first project. In hindsight, it might have been better to do the "clutch" pictured on the cover of the book, but the "mini tote" was fine too. I only say this because the clutch is EXTREMELY simple and we could've finished it in 1 hour easily.

Just before I went to her house, I made my own mini tote, and here it is:

One handle is shorter than the other - which is a feature I thought I might omit - but I decided to go for it and I really like how it turned out. This project is so easy - only took me 1.5 hours and requires only 2 fat quarters. I love the outer print I used - a Kokka import that has little bikes and trees on it.

I am really thrilled that my sister is home for the summer. We are very close and she usually lives in CO - so her opportunities to see Gregory have been quite limited. Now that she is home for a few months - we are spending a lot of time together and she is helping me with occasional babysitting. I decided that I want to make her an extra nice graduation present (she has just completed her Master's in School Pyschology at BYU). Of course, I am going to make her a quilt. I made her a quilt for high school graduation and I wish I had a picture to post - displaying the many reasons why one should not use Wal-Mart/Joann fabrics and polyester batting (needless to say - it is falling apart and has lost a lot of its color.) I thought it would be fun to have her choose the fabrics - and it's a good thing that I did this. Before I let her go through my stash, I had visions of the loud and bright creations I could make with some of my Momo Freebird, Meadowsweet, Farmer's Market, or Amy Butler Love.... I was even willing to impart my treasured Flora and Fauna or do a toned down quilt with the ever popular (and overrated) Hope Valley.....

Needless to say, we do not share the same taste.... Here is what she picked:

I got these fabrics at Marden's a while ago with her in mind and then forgot about them. I like them, but there is no pink, no birds, apples, trees, gnomes (I am kidding about the gnomes)..... This experience has got me thinking: I have a lot of fabric that is uniquely my taste - it may not necessarily match what other people prefer. I would say that 75% of my sewing is done for other people..... Kind of funny that I have a bit of a loud, wacky fabric selection - but those around me are a bit more subdued in their preferences.

Now I would like to declare publicly that I am on a fabric diet. Nick is on the job hunt and I need to actually sew with the fabric that I own. So I am hoping by making it to known to the universe out there that I am not buying fabric right now!!!! So far, I have stuck to it - but I am not going to deny that I have been tempted many times to cheat.

Upcoming Fabric Lines

I've said it before, and I am going to say it again: I love fabric more than I love to sew. I know I am crazy about fabric and I get made fun of (not in a mean way) for it sometimes. I just need to blog about some of the upcoming fabric lines that I am very excited about:

First, Urban Circus by Laurie Wisburn. Ok- now I am really about to hyperventilate. First Laurie posted some images on her blog- with 8 different prints (4 boyish, 4 girlish). I was SO excited about this! I was also naive enough to believe that I wouldn't go bankrupt because I could just get a yard of 3 of the boyish prints..... well in looking for the link to this collection - I have just learned that there are other designs and colorways in this collection! It is all so adorable, tasteful - and not too babyish! (I wish that I could post pictures instead of just providing the links - but I cannot do so without permission.)

Second, I receive the Hawthorne Threads newsletter through email every Monday. I was really thrilled when I saw a few prints from Urban Zoologie. I am not crazy for the owls at all, but it's the whale prints that keep me up at night! I absolutely have been obsessed with whales since a very young age. In third grade I wrote a very wild and imaginative story called "Annie and the Whale" - I still have it in my scrapbook right now. I consider the day Nick and I went on a whale watch out of Gloucester to be the fourth best day of my life (1st: wedding, 2nd: birth of Gregory, 3rd: playing with baby lion cubs at a farm in South Africa - in case you were wondering). To this day, I often have dreams about swimming with whales - and to be honest - it kind of freaks me out a little. Anyway, if you are still reading this blog post, hopefully you are not thinking about that horrible book (the first and last book I will read by Wally Lamb) - I do not identify with whales like that protagonist did!

May 28, 2009 Humpback Whale, Gloucester, MA

Moving on, I am also really excited about Moda Bliss. The best way to get a view of what this collection is like is to see this quilt top over at Comfort Stitching. I am not crazy about all of the prints, but I think the style and color palette would make a timeless Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

For all the Meadowsweet fans out there, you might be excited to know that Meadowsweet II is coming in July/August. I love the colors even better than the first version.

Finally, I think that the upcoming Dr. Seuss fabric is adorable. Apparently such fabric has been released before and is now going for a billion dollars on EBay.

There are a few fabric lines that just came out that I have been eyeing: Tufted Tweets, Castle Peeps, and Far Far Away II. A lot of online vendors sold out of these collections before they could even get the plastic wrap off of the bolts. I think that sewing for children is so much fun!

So with all of this amazing fabric available and coming soon, I have to wonder why people are still trying to pay $40+ per yard for Flea Market Fancy and older Heather Ross prints (these links are for fabrics priced at $180 per yard... that fabric better be made of gold!)

Thrifty finds....

Okay, when I go to garage sales - I cannot resist buying vintage buttons, thread, or florally vintage fabric. This lady had a huge box of vintage patterns too, but I restrined myself and bought only 2. I know I do not have a daughter, but I could not resist the illustrations on these pattern envelopes. I am embarrassed with how many vintage buttons I have... if you ever need any buttons - you know how to contact me!

Finished pillowcases and hexagons!

As hoped, I did finish those pillowcases on Tuesday night, and here they are:

This is the conversation I had with my husband when he saw the finished project.

"That's a lot of pink." (me)
"I know." (Nick)
"Now you can be like your idol."
"That's true."
Nick had a youth leader in church whom he really looked up to. This man has had a great career and is now living his dream of traveling the world and serving others - but a funny footnote to the whole story is that this man's wife LOVES pink. When Nick was a teenager, he helped his father (he is a residential remodeler) redo this man's bathroom - all remodeled to be pink. We're talking pink bathtub, pink toilet... Apparently, the family even owned a pink car. So I am glad that I can help Nick become more like this person that he has really looked up to :)

Here's a sneak peek at the doll quilt I finally started... I am following the blog-craze of paper piecing hexagons. It is as fun and addicting as everyone says it is. As I write this, I am about to put the whole quilt top together - I finished the hand piecing last night. I was so into it towards the finishing stretch, that I accidently sewed my project onto the jeans I was wearing! Thankfully it wasn't too hard to undo.

This is a very untraditional color scheme for me, but the reasoning will be explained soon. I am REALLY excited about it!

3 Hour Pillowcase

After the fun, busy-ness of the past 2 weeks, I was looking forward to getting back to doing some sewing for myself. Even though I really should've been working on the Doll Quilt Swap, the haggard off-white and light blue pillowcases on my bed were not complementing this gorgeous quilt very well..... At the last NEMQG meeting, I picked up some of the infamous Kona cotton solids at Fabric Corner. The modern quilting world is nuts for this stuff- and I think I can see why. It is affordable (@ $4 a yd online or on sale), each color is rich and deep, it has a nice texture, and it really helps showcase and often tone down the crazy fabrics us modern quilters often gravitate to.

So I figured last night, it wouldn't be too much to try and start making one of these at about 9 pm.... I didn't get into bed until midnight! What is wrong with me? I don't understand how I can make something like this, yet a simple pillowcase proved difficult and made me have to sit down with the seam ripper for quite a while! I even watched this You-Tube tutorial a few times till I finally got it right.

But here it is:
If anyone can tell me why there seems to be a "glowing" spot in this photo - I am all ears. I tried to edit it in photoshop - but obviously that didn't work.

As of this writing, I have completed one other pillowcase, 2 more to go. I plan to finish them today.

Bibs and a Block

Last Wednesday I just had that feeling that I needed to sew. There was no escaping it. I had lots of other things to do and was quite excited that my sister in law was flying in that afternoon- but I just HAD to sew something. I went ahead and made some bibs, using the tutorial from the Sew She Sews blog.

Here's my baby modeling the one he gets to wear. I also made another one for a very kind person I met on flickr. She found out I was looking for a particular fabric and bought it for me at her local quilt shop. I reimbursed her, of course, but I was so happy with her generosity and kindness- I wanted to make her something. She was 9 mos + pregnant, and just had a little boy- so she gets the one with the orange elephants. I don't think she reads this blog, so she will have a nice surprise at the mailbox quite soon!

The fabrics used include Teeny Tiny Zoo by Alexander Henry in chocolate, Attitude Girls dots in green, Amy Butler tangerine full moon dots, and the elephant prints are a Japanese fabric.

I have had a great time with all the family visiting these past few weeks. I was pretty excited that Melissa was able to attend a meeting of the NEMQG. We had a great time at the Arlington library with a show and tell and class on curved piecing and hexagons. I definitely learned a lot!

Here's a block I made at the meeting:

It wasn't hard at all and I really liked the result. The teacher of our class, Shelly, (also our NEMQG treasurer) was SO nice and patient with all of us and I was so impressed with her ability to run such a great class. The first time I met her was at our first meeting when she brought milk and cookies to share with everyone. Talk about welcoming!

Pink Sand Pattern Part VI - the Finale

Some may remember a previous post dedicated to my SIL and friend, Melissa. She was the last person in my family not to receive a purse in this pattern. Well here it is:

I love the colors and freshness/fall look of it. I used the orange flower one twice because it was needed to help tie in the fabric that was the side/base and handles. I can honestly say that I am TIRED of this pattern and you won't be seeing it again for a while.

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.